bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Research Section: ‘A Quiet Place’ Project: an of Early Therapeutic Intervention within Mainstream Schools
Authors: Renwick Fran , Spalding Bob
Published: March 2003

This paper discusses the nature of the therapeutic intervention provided by A Quiet Place project, outlining its aims, objectives, philosophy and intervention protocol. In line with the requirements of the action research paradigm according to which the project was established, this article evaluates the changes and developments that have occurred since its inception. Noting the strengths and weaknesses of the pilot study, the present study reports on the internal and external monitoring procedures, extending the latter via the development of observation scales specific to the nature of the intervention. Participants (N=54) were matched with a non–participant control group on variables of gender, age and background. Data were collected before and after the six week intervention period, producing an index of change on a bipolar scale of positive and negative behaviours. An independent samples t–test revealed that the overall change observed was statistically significant (p<0.001), while analysis by behaviour category, gender, age and reason for referral provided greater detail for the meaningful interpretation of results. Fran Renwick, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool Department of Education, and Bob Spalding, senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool Department of Education, conclude that these overwhelmingly positive results need to be treated with cautious optimism, pending longer–term follow–up data to determine the degree to which gains are maintained over time.
Equal Opportunities – For Whom?
Authors: Mittler Peter
Published: March 2003

Peter Mittler, Visiting Professor of Special Needs Education, The University of Manchester, discusses the implications of recent evidence on the connections between social and economic deprivation and special educational needs.
Research Section: Educating children with Down’s syndrome in the United Arab Emirates
Authors: El. Naggar Gaad Eman
Published: March 2003

It is always instructive to hear about the experiences of those seeking to promote inclusion in a range of cultures and countries around the world. In this article Dr Gaad, Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of the United Arab Emirates, reports on her Government‐funded research into the education of children with Down’s syndrome in her country. As an Arabic speaker, Dr Gaad was able to gather the views of parents, professionals and policy makers in some depth. As an educator, she brought a critical level of analysis to the lessons she observed.

In the following pages, Dr Gaad reflects on the attitudes, values and beliefs that impact upon the education of children with Down’s syndrome in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). She discusses the educational services that are currently provided for these children and gives focused consideration to the issue of inclusion. The article closes with Dr Gaad’s recommendations for future practice.
Culturally responsive technology use: developing an on‐line community of learners
Authors: McLoughlin Catherine
Published: March 2003

In tertiary contexts, Web‐based instruction often appears to be tailored to the needs of a particular cultural group, recognising the specific learning needs, preferences and styles of a single, perhaps homogeneous, group of learners. However, in designing instruction, there is typically a tension between the need to ensure flexibility and access to learners of “multiple cultures”, while at the same time taking into account the need for localisation and a requirement to accommodate a particular set of learners' cognitive styles and preferences (Collis and Remmers, 1997; Damarin, 1998). Considering both the micro‐ and macro‐cultural levels of design is therefore essential if culturally appropriate design is to be achieved in Web‐based instruction.

One of the limitations that has been recognised in striving towards culturally appropriate design is that current instructional design models do not fully contextualise the learning experience, and are themselves the product of a particular culture (Henderson, 1996). A proposed solution is the adoption of a multiple cultures model of design, which is not culturally exclusive. This paper traces the development of an on‐line unit for Indigenous Australian learners, and accounts for the cultural issues that impacted on the design of learning tasks and the associated avenues for communication provided to learners. In this context, culturally responsive design was ensured by the adoption of an epistemology and pedagogy based on Lave's (1991) community of practice model. Adapting the model to on‐line delivery required incorporation of culture specific values, styles of learning and cognitive preferences, and tasks that were designed to go beyond surface level comprehension to achieve deep learning. The micro cultural level of the virtual community is considered in relation to participatory structures, task design, goal orientation and development of communicative processes that were intended to support the learning needs of a much wider group of Indigenous Australian students.
Model‐based training of situated skills
Authors: Khan Tariq M , Brown Keith
Published: March 2003

Situated knowledge includes contextualised action and decontextualised description of knowledge. This is a significant distinction for developers of intelligent computer‐aided learning (ICAL) applications. Most work in ICAL has attempted to decontextualise skills through descriptions such as rules and procedures because these are better understood and more suited to presentation through existing technology than the skills themselves. Here we discuss skills that are resistant to being decontextualised, and examine how techniques (model‐based training) developed to teach decontextualised descriptions of knowledge can be used for training in communication and metacognitive skills. To support this approach to learning an ICAL needs a way to describe models of a problem in many different ways, and a way to explore models to learn about their underlying assumptions and their relationships to the problem context. A vocabulary for describing models, which serves as a cognitive tool for practising situated skills, and a model‐based training system that supports this approach to learning are described.
Concertational and Free‐Market Paths to Successful Territorial Economic Adjustment: Labour Unions and Adjustment in the 1990s
Authors: Contarino Michael
Published: March 2003

A growing body of recent research suggests that successful industrial adjustment at the local level today reflects the capacities of unions and management to identify problems and pursue solutions co‐operatively through processes of micro‐concertation which enlist the work‐force substantially in the adjustment process at the firm level. The presence of such capacities to engage in micro‐concertation has in turn been linked by some studies to a variety of local‐level political and social realities which facilitate worker skill formation (including the ability to identify and solve problems), while encouraging communication and the development of trust between workers and management. Strong unions able to legitimize managerial decisions and to enlist the acquiescence and support of the work‐force are seen as key to the success of such micro‐concertational systems. This recent research on micro‐concertation would seem to conflict with the liberal–conservative view that successful industrial adjustment occurs not when unions are strong, but when they are too weak to impede managerial choices.

This paper examines successful processes of industrial adjustment in several textile–clothing–footwear centres of northern and central Italy. The paper observes that both strong‐labour ‘micro‐concertational’ and weak‐labour ‘free‐market’ models of successful adjustment exist, and that they prevail, respectively, in different geographical areas. The paper argues that successful micro‐concertational adjustment is most likely where unions are strong, united and encompassing, and that successful free‐market adjustment is most likely where unions are weak, divided and non‐encompassing. This observation parallels the insights of Alvarez et al. (1991) on successful national‐level macroeconomic performance, and suggests that the political‐economic logic observed by Alvarez et al. at the national level obtains also at the local level. The paper observes further that the existence of both models suggests that successful adjustment may be linked to capacity of either micro‐concertation or union weakness to remove impediments to labour market flexibility.
Counterpoising Collectivism: Performance‐related Pay and Industrial Relations in Greenfield Sites
Authors: Gunnigle Patrick , Turner Thomas , D’Art Daryl
Published: March 2003

This paper addresses some of the industrial relations ramifications of performance‐related pay (PRP) using empirical data from both new and longer established firms in the Republic of Ireland. Particular emphasis is placed on the adoption of PRP systems based on performance appraisal and the implications of such systems for collectivism in industrial relations. The paper concludes that the diffusion of such systems is indicative of increasing employer attempts to individualize the employment relationship and exclude union penetration. It is further argued that such PRP systems, irrespective of the motivation for their establishment, undermine the essence of collectivism and solidarity in industrial relations.
Organizing the Militants: the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions, 1966–1979
Authors: McIlroy John , Campbell Alan
Published: March 2003

The Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions has been largely ignored in conventional accounts of the campaigns against restrictive union legislation in the 1960s and 1970s. This article discusses the origins of the LCDTU, provides an account of its activities centred on the union struggles against state intervention, and briefly explores some of the issues concerning rank‐and‐file movements. It concludes by suggesting that, although the LCDTU merits recognition for the key role it played in defeating the legislation, it can best be characterized as a front organization of the Communist Party rather than as an independent rank‐and‐file.
‘Vanguard’ Subsidiaries and the Diffusion of New Practices: A Case Study of German Multinationals
Authors: Ferner Anthony , Varul Matthias
Published: March 2003

German companies, used to operating in their distinctive domestic business environment, have had to learn new ‘rules of the game’ as they have internationalized. There are signs that they are adopting some of the characteristics of more mature international companies, particularly those from an ‘Anglo‐Saxon’ tradition. This ‘Anglo‐Saxonization’ is seen in international HR policy, in areas such as training and development and performance management. Drawing on research into German multinationals, this paper explores the role of ‘vanguard’ subsidiaries in spreading ‘Anglo‐Saxon’ practices to German companies. It also analyses the impact of such innovations on pre‐existing patterns of behaviour.
A ‘Copernican Revolution’ in French Industrial Relations: Are the Times a’ Changing?
Authors: Jefferys Stephen
Published: March 2003

In 1998 and 1999 France passed the sixth and seventh laws in seventeen years affecting working time. They offered financial incentives to firms signing collective agreements that created or protected jobs and cut the legal working week from 39 to 35 hours from 1 January 2000. Early evidence suggests that while their direct job creation effect is limited they are moderating wage settlements and leading to more flexible working patterns. In this paper I situate the new hour laws within the long historical tradition of state political intervention over working time and argue that this remains a key element in reforming French industrial relations.
Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: Lessons from Three Rounds of Negotiations
Authors: Erickson Christopher L. , Fisk Catherine L. , Milkman Ruth , Mitchell Daniel J. B. , Wong Kent
Published: March 2003

We examine an important recent organizing success of the US labour movement: the ‘Justice for Janitors’ campaign in Los Angeles. This campaign has spanned a complete business cycle and shows the union’s capacity for growth over time. It illustrates the potential for unions to overcome pro–employer bias of labour laws, as well as their efficacy in appealing to the wider public. It exposes the importance of building coalitions, as well as the value of union analysis of legal, industrial, and political conditions. Our analysis suggests conditions under which unions might survive and thrive in the service sector in the twenty–first century.
You Can't Expect Rationality from Pregnant Men: Reflections on Multi‐disciplinarity in Management Research
Authors: Brown Reva Berman
Published: March 2003

The paper attempts to debate and answer two questions: (1) Does multi‐disciplinary research in management constitute a distinctive approach? To which the brief answer is `no', because multi‐disciplinary research is not one approach among all those others which can also be applied when researching management. Multi‐disciplinary research into management is, as it were, the only game in town. (2) Can we rationally choose multi‐disciplinary research into management as such at all? To which the response is also `no', because management research and multi‐disciplinarity are inseparable, by reason of the fact that management is, in its very essence, multi‐disciplinary, rather than mono‐disciplinary, in nature.
The Expertise of Finance and Accountancy: an Interdisciplinary Study
Authors: Birts Anthony , McAulay Laurie , Pitt Martyn , Saren Mike , Sims David
Published: March 2003

We present the story of a research exercise which encompassed the disciplines of finance, accountancy, marketing, organizational behaviour and strategy. The research developed through phases of multi‐disciplinary and interdisciplinary enquiry and our intention is to contribute to an understanding of these by telling the story of our difficulties and achievements. The subject of our enquiry, the expertise of finance and accountancy, came to be explained in a number of different ways, including finance and accountancy as multi‐disciplinary analysis and finance and accountancy as research. We therefore wish to encourage broader views of finance and accountancy than those sometimes proposed and discussed. The research exercise took protocol analysis as its starting point and we wish to encourage interpretative approaches to the transcripts which result from protocol analysis exercises. In reflecting back on our experiences, we suggest that the biggest challenge of multi‐disciplinary and interdisciplinary enquiry is the challenge of convergence in the face of diversity.
The Contribution of Clinical Directors to the Strategic Capability of the Organization
Authors: Harrison Rosemary , Miller Susan
Published: March 2003

This paper attempts to define the role of the clinical director (CD) with reference to the strategic contribution they can make to health service organizations. Drawing on reflections and evidence gained from developing, running and evaluating a three‐year, regionally based, management development programme for CDs, three ways of potentially enhancing strategic capability are identified. These are to do with promoting knowledge connectivity, challenging the dominant managerial logic and acting as a link‐pin in inter‐ and intra‐organizational learning networks. Ways in which planned managerial learning and development can help promote this capability are explored.
The Myth of Restructuring, ‘Competent’ Managers and the Transition to a Market Economy: a Romanian Tale
Authors: Kelemen Mihaela
Published: March 2003

A great deal of rhetoric surrounds the transformation from socialism to free‐market capitalism. This paper explores to what extent the restructuring of Romanian companies has been an attempt to pay lip‐service to prevailing rhetoric and to what extent it has been premised upon economic rationality. To restructure along structural, technological, financial but primarily managerial fronts has become a cultural value which is applauded, praised and heralded as the only way forward by the Romanian institutions of the transition. The companies under the study subscribe to such rhetoric only when they regard it as being embedded in economic rationality, as is the case with structural, financial and technological restructuring. Managerial restructuring, on the other hand, is not regarded as a technical necessity, given the view held by existing senior managers that skills and qualities acquired in the socialist regime are still appropriate to run a business successfully in the free‐market economy.
Can Target Costing and Whole Life Costing be Applied in the Construction Industry?: Evidence from Two Case Studies
Authors: Nicolini Davide , Tomkins Cyril , Holti Richard , Oldman Alf , Smalley Mark
Published: March 2003

Building on the results of a far‐reaching action research project we discuss an attempt to introduce target costing in the UK construction industry. After examining some of the issues facing the UK construction industry, we examine the case for using target costing as a way of supporting supply‐chain integration in view of an improvement of the level of profitability and quality of the industry. After presenting evidence from two pilot projects we propose some considerations on target costing and its applicability to the UK construction sector and derive directions for future research.
Labour Market Flexibility, Human Resource Management and Corporate Performance
Authors: Michie Jonathan , Sheehan‐Quinn Maura
Published: March 2003

Labour market flexibility is often portrayed as a key to the competitive success of the UK and US economies. We surveyed several hundred firms in the UK, and using the resulting data (on over 200 manufacturing firms) this paper investigates the relationships between firms’ use of flexible work practices, human resource systems and industrial relations on the one hand, and corporate performance on the other hand. The results suggest that ‘low‐road’ practices – short‐term contracts, a lack of employer commitment to job security, low levels of training and low levels of human resource sophistication – are negatively correlated with corporate performance. In contrast, it is found that ‘high‐road’ work practices –‘high commitment’ organizations or ‘transformed’ workplaces – are positively correlated with good corporate performance. It is also found that human resource management practices are more likely to contribute to competitive success where they are introduced as a comprehensive package, or ‘bundle’ of practices. Significant interaction effects between human resource systems, trade unions and flexible work practices add further support to the bundling hypothesis.
How Much do CEOs and Top Managers Matter in Strategic Decision‐Making?
Authors: Papadakis V. M. , Barwise P.
Published: March 2003

This research note explores the influence of both CEO and top‐management team (TMT) characteristics on the process of making strategic decisions (SDs). Empirical testing is based on a sample of 70 SDs in industrial enterprises operating in Greece, using a combination of interviews, questionnaires and archival data. The results suggest that (a) the characteristics of both the TMT and the CEO influenced the strategic decision‐making process, but the former had more influence, (b) the TMT and CEO influenced different dimensions of the process, and (c) the broader context of SDs is more influential than either the CEO or the TMT. Among the most important factors was the TMT’s ‘aggressiveness’ (commitment to beating the competition, attitude to innovation, willingness to take risks). The results lend support to the ‘upper echelons’ perspective, but suggest that in studying strategic decision‐making processes both CEO and TMT characteristics should be considered, in conjunction with the broader context. Such an approach should provide a more reliable view of strategic processes and their evolving dynamics.
Political Exhortation, Patient Expectation and Professional Execution: Perspectives on the Consumerization of Health Care
Authors: Laing Angus , Hogg Gillian
Published: March 2003

A central theme underpinning the reform of public‐sector services in western economies since the 1980s has been the emphasis on reorienting service provision around the user. Public‐sector organizations have been forced to reappraise the design of the service delivery process, in particular the service encounter, to take account of the resultant changes in service users’ expectations. Such focus on the service user has fundamental implications for public‐sector professionals, specifically challenging the dominance of service professionals in the design and delivery of services. Based on a survey of patient attitudes towards service provision in the National Health Service in Scotland (NHSiS) and in‐depth interviews with senior hospital clinicians and managers, the paper critically examines the reaction of both patients and professionals to politically driven initiatives to reorientate the delivery of health‐care services. Specifically the paper explores the emerging perspectives of both patients and professionals towards the consumerization of health care and the changing nature of the relationship between patients and professionals within a publicly funded health‐care system.
National Differences in the Diffusion and Design of Technological Innovation: The Role of Inter‐Organizational Networks
Authors: Swan Jacky , Newell Sue , Robertson Maxine
Published: March 2003

This paper reports results from a study of the design and diffusion of computer‐aided production management (CAPM) technologies across four European countries (UK, France, The Netherlands and Sweden). The study combined surveys of members of professional operations management associations in each of these four countries and interviews with operations managers and technology suppliers (software suppliers and consultants). The findings revealed significant differences across countries in the design and diffusion of CAPM. For example, in the UK and France highly objectified ‘best practice’ technologies, supported by standardized software, had diffused more widely than in Sweden and The Netherlands, where solutions tended to be developed in‐house and customized to the local context. This paper explains these findings in terms of differences in the structure and operation of these four professional association networks. These differences in inter‐organizational networking encouraged different types of knowledge‐sharing related to the design of CAPM in the four countries.
The War of the Woods: Facilitators and Impediments of Organizational Learning Processes
Authors: Zietsma Charlene , Winn Monika , Branzei Oana , Vertinsky Ilan
Published: March 2003

This study examines unfolding organizational learning processes at MacMillan Bloedel, a company which, after years of resisting stakeholder pressures for change, disengaged from the field’s dominant paradigm and developed a new solution. We elaborate the Crossan, Lane and White multi–level framework of organizational learning processes, finding support for the four feedforward learning processes they identified (intuiting, interpreting, integrating and institutionalizing), and adding two action–based learning processes: ‘attending’ and ‘experimenting’. We introduce the concept of a ‘legitimacy trap’ to describe an organization’s over–reliance on institutionalized knowledge when external challenges arise. The trapped organization rejects external challenges of its legitimacy when it perceives the sources of those challenges to be illegitimate. Feedforward learning is blocked as the organization escalates its commitment to its institutionalized interpretations and actions. Taking a grounded theory approach, we discuss how individuals attend to new stimuli and engage in intuiting about them, how groups interpret, experiment with and integrate new solutions, and how the firm validates and institutionalizes the successful solution. Facilitators and impediments of each of these learning processes are identified. Our additions to the model recognize the importance of context in organizational learning processes, and suggest how power may impact organizational learning.
New Thinking on International Society
Authors: Dunne Tim
Published: March 2003

International society refers to the dominant diplomatic and normative discourse in the practice of world politics. At a minimum, its rules and institutions regulate interactions by sovereign communities, prescribing permissible forms of behaviour. There is also a deeper sense of society in which members share values about the ‘ends' that communities ought to try and achieve. While this diplomatic and normative discourse is thought to have existed for several centuries, it is only in the last four decades or so that it has become a central concept in academic International Relations. The article begins by re-stating the research agenda for the study of international society as conceived of by writers belonging to the classical English School. It then considers in detail the way in which recent publications have sought to carry these debates forward. Three clusters of issues are dealt with here: system and society; rules and institutions; and the issue of normative change. The article concludes with an evaluation of the state of the English School within the study of International Relations.
Democratic Theory with Critical Intent: Reply to Newey
Authors: O'Neill Shane
Published: March 2003

My critical assessment of competing views on the marching controversy at Drumcree is found wanting by Glen Newey for at least three reasons. The Habermasian approach I adopt is alleged to be motivationally deficient, politically ineffectual and blind to its own decisionistic partiality. Here I indicate that the force of Newey's critique is neutralised once one attends to the important differences between Habermas' moral theory and his discourse theory of law and democracy. I argue, furthermore, that Newey's critique is insufficiently attuned to the institutional context of my argument, and that his line of reasoning has troubling political implications.
Together Again: Reuniting Political Theory and International Relations Theory
Authors: Schmidt Brian C.
Published: March 2003

This state of the discipline article discusses a body of recent literature that seeks to reunite political theory and international relations theory. It briefly explores some of the factors and explanations that led to a divorce between the sub-fields of PT and IR. The article proceeds to review work that seeks to bridge the dichotomy that came to define the relationship between these two academic fields of study. By examining literature in the area of normative theory, democratic theory and that falling under the rubric of identity and difference, the article attempts to demonstrate that an effort is under way to reunite political theory and international relations theory.
From Demand Equations to Two Regimes: The Theoretical Development of Export Models
Authors: King Alan
Published: March 2003

Over the last fifty years or so, a great deal of attention has been paid to the estimation of time‐series models of foreign trade flows – especially those relating to the volume of trade in imperfectly substitutable goods between one country and the rest of the world. In this time, the models employed have evolved from relatively simple demand equations through to more complex simultaneous‐equation and two‐regime approaches. The aim of this paper is to survey the developments that have been made and suggest some directions for future research by highlighting the weaknesses of the approaches currently available.
The Gini‐index as a Measure of the Goodness of Prediction
Authors: Riese Martin
Published: March 2003

Predicting the mean life of a cohort while its survival process is still ongoing requires that the mean residual life at the prediction date be estimated. Under reasonable assumptions about these estimates, it is shown that the mean prediction error over the whole process is intimately related to the Gini‐index of lives in the cohort.
Union–Firm Interaction and the Right to Manage
Authors: Dobson Paul W.
Published: March 2003

In the context of price‐setting oligopoly, this paper shows that there may be consensus in union–employer bargaining for limiting the scope of bargaining to determining wage levels and allowing the employer to act unilaterally when competing in the product market. A strategic commitment by each union–firm pair to a right‐to‐manage framework, rather than a participatory approach, may benefit the bargaining parties since this entails higher negotiated wage rates which, by dampening competition in the product market, may allow for an increase in the amount of surplus generated by the parties.
Real Wages, Demand and Employment in the UK 1921–1938: A Disaggregated Analysis
Authors: Turner Paul , Bowden Sue
Published: March 2003

This paper uses the Layard and Nickell model of the labour market to examine the determinants of employment at a sectoral level for the interwar UK economy. Sectoral level data permits examination of the differing responses to changes in the determinants of employment. Estimation of employment functions indicates significant elasticities with respect to aggregate demand variables across a wide range of sectors but less support for a negative real wage effect, particularly in those industries responsible for major losses in employment. The evidence is therefore more consistent with the low‐aggregate‐demand explanation of labour market behaviour than it is with the high‐real‐wage hypothesis.
Long‐Term Financial Contracts and Technological Choice
Authors: Bougheas Spiros
Published: March 2003

The paper establishes a theoretical link between financial innovation and economic development. In an economic environment where product development takes place, it is shown that the gains from long‐term financial contracting go beyond the minimization of costs associated with frictions in the capital markets. They can also result in the adoption of more efficient technologies by the production sector. Furthermore, the model suggests that financial innovation is also a byproduct of economic development, providing a possible explanation for the lack of long‐term financial markets in less‐developed economies.
Nonlinear Modelling Using the Generalized Exponential Family of Distributions
Authors: Creedy John , Martin Vance L.
Published: March 2003

This paper introduces an approach to nonlinear modelling which is based on the use of the generalized exponential family of distributions. The flexibility of the approach is illustrated using hypothetical data based on an economic model which exhibits multiple equilibria for certain periods of time and a unique equilibrium for other periods. The distributional analogue of multiple equilibria is multimodality. An advantage of this framework is that discrete jumps can be modelled without the need for identifying the timing of jumps ex post. The framework also has the advantage of explaining how smooth changes in market fundamentals can give rise to large and sudden changes in prices. The introduction of economic assumptions into nonlinear models is explained, and it is shown how an explicit form for the distribution of the dependent variable can be derived. It is suggested that the approach has considerable potential in a wide variety of economic contexts.
A Note on Aggregation and the Lucas Critique
Authors: Reiter Michael
Published: March 2003

The paper investigates the effects of aggregation on different macroeconomic modelling strategies. This is done within the framework of a small example economy, where all households solve the same intertemporal consumption problem, but with different parameters of the utility functions and different exogenous income processes. Three models are fitted to the aggregate data: a representative agent rational expectations model, a simple version of the permanent income hypothesis, and a time series model. If the economic environment is kept stable, the three approaches perform similarly well. However, the representative agent model stands up to the Lucas critique better than its competitors, despite the aggregation error. Unlike the other models, it never gives completely wrong forecasts even after an exogenous change in income processes.
Contract Responsibility Systems and Productive Efficiency: A Case Study on State‐Owned Enterprises in China
Authors: Mo Pak‐hung , Sung‐ko
Published: March 2003

In late 1994, it became known that around two‐thirds of the state‐owned enterprises in China were running at a loss or yielding no profit. For more than a decade, China has been searching for a management system for state‐owned enterprises to improve their efficiency. Various ‘contract responsibility systems’ have been tried. This paper studies the productive efficiency of enterprises and the impact of various types of management system on productive efficiency. A better understanding of past experiences should enable management reform to move ahead on solid ground. This study is particularly meaningful in view of the present bleak future of state‐owned enterprises.
Outsourcing and Low‐skilled Workers in the UK
Authors: Anderton Bob , Brenton Paul
Published: March 2003

Outsourcing is proxied by constructing import penetration terms for groups of countries (distinguishing between imports from industrialized countries and imports from low‐wage countries) for each four‐digit industry within the broader categories of textiles and non‐electrical machinery. The results show that imports from low‐wage countries have made a significant contribution to the decline in the wage‐bill share and relative employment of the less‐skilled in the UK. The degree of outsourcing may differ between industries, and large currency appreciations may have a disproportionately large impact on the economic fortunes of the less‐skilled.
Fiscal Policy and Welfare in a Small Open Economy with Imperfect Competition
Authors: Santoni Michele
Published: March 2003

This paper considers the effects of fiscal policy in a two‐sector small open economy, with unionized labour markets, and heterogeneous types of imperfect competition in the product markets. By making the marginal propensity to import endogenous, the paper shows that there is no robust or general relationship between the balanced‐budget multiplier and the degree of imperfect competition. The fiscal multiplier with distortionary taxes can be positive or negative, depending on the size of the importables sector and the foreign firm’s market share. The normative rule for fiscal policy depends on the size of the fiscal multiplier. An increase in economic activity is insufficient by itself to induce the government to over‐supply public goods relative to the Walrasian case.
Price‐Matching Policies and Entry
Authors: Casado‐Izaga F. Javier
Published: March 2003

A price‐matching policy is a commonly observed pricing practice in retailing markets. When firms use this policy they are publicly committing themselves to match the prices of their competitors. The aim of this analysis is to show that, in a spatial free‐entry model, the effects of a price‐matching policy are an increase in the number of sellers, an increase in prices and a decrease in consumer surplus and social welfare. Moreover, there is the striking result that in a price‐matching equilibrium an increase in the number of firms entering the market raises prices.
Price Rigidities, Inflationary Finance and Long‐run Growth*
Authors: Tsoukis Christopher
Published: March 2003

The paper considers a monopolistically competitive intertemporally optimizing monetary economy featuring long‐term growth. Inflation is generated through sluggish price‐setting and contributes to budgetary finance through seignorage. This setup permits exploration of the interaction between inflation and growth in a tractable way. Superneutrality holds in the long but not the short run. The budget deficit fuels inflation with a hysteresis. Growth and inflation are negatively correlated in the long run, with causality running from the former to the latter, and positively correlated in the short run regardless of the origin of shocks. Price flexibility precipitates adjustment but appears also to destabilize output.
The Hold‐Up Problem and Incomplete Contracts: A Survey of Recent Topics in Contract Theory
Authors: Schmitz Patrick W.
Published: March 2003

This article provides a nontechnical survey on recent topics in the theory of contracts. The hold‐up problem is presented and the incomplete contracts approach is discussed. Emphasis is put on conceptual problems and open questions that await further research.
A Stackelberg Oligopoly with Nonidentical Firms
Authors: Pal Debashis , Sarkar Jyotirmoy
Published: March 2003

This paper extends the Stackelberg model to include any number of nonidentical firms and demonstrates significant counterintuitive results. For example, entry of an additional firm may increase the quantities and/or profits of some existing firms; it may also increase the total industry profit.
Regulatory Enforcement with Discretionary Fining and Litigation
Authors: Rodríguez–Ibeas Roberto
Published: March 2003

In this paper, we focus on the determination of the optimal fine set by a regulator when a firm can litigate to avoid paying the fine and the monitoring agency has discretionary power to negotiate with the firm the size of the fine. The regulator needs to balance the positive effect of the fine’s size on the degree of non–compliance and the possibility of litigation if the fine is too high. We find that the optimal fine is not necessarily set at its maximum level.
Wage Bargaining Versus Efficiency Wages: A Synthesis
Authors: Strand Jon
Published: March 2003

We construct a model integrating the efficiency wage model of Shapiro–Stiglitz (1984) (SS), with an individual wage bargaining model in the Diamond–Mortensen–Pissarides (DMP) tradition where firms and workers form pairwise matches. We show that when workers may threaten to shirk on the job and there is individual wage bargaining, the wage is always higher and employment lower than in either the SS model, or the (appropriately modified) DMP model. When firms determine workers’ efforts unilaterally, efforts are set inefficiently low in the SS model. In the bargaining model, effort is higher, and is first best when the worker non–shirking constraint does not bind. The overall equilibrium allocation may then be more or less efficient than in the SS model, but is always less efficient than in a pure bargaining model with no moral hazard.
Working Ethically in Russia
Authors: Woolley Pamela J.
Published: March 2003

In spite of the seemingly omnipresent corruption and Mafia activity plaguing modern Russia it is nevertheless possible, and desirable, to conduct business ethically there, as the author testifies. Pamela Woolley has recently completed a full time MBA at London Business School, prior to which her career was in international telecommunications. She has long been interested in Russia and worked in Moscow during the summer between her two years of study. The experience has prompted her to seek a more permanent position in the region and was the impetus behind writing this article. She also wishes to thank Dr Jan Dauman of InterMatrix Group for his interest and contribution to the information gathered in the preparation of this article.
‘Protecting the Public, Securing the Profession’: Enforcing Ethical Standards among Software Engineers
Authors: Wilkes John
Published: March 2003

The public interest should be a central ethical concern of members of the computer profession, and this would also result in the social status and power of software engineers being augmented. One attractive means to encourage and enforce ethical standards on the part of engineers and employers would be a system of licensing by internationally recognised professional bodies whose legitimacy stems from their capacity to act in the public interest. The author is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, School of Applied Sciences, Anglia Polytechnic University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT, England; email jwilkes@bridge.anglia.ac.uk or 10016.3425@compuserve.com
Conflicting Concern over the Privacy of Electronic Medical Records in the NHSnet
Authors: Pouloudi Athanasia
Published: March 2003

The privacy and security of computerised medical data have become a major concern in Britain since the launch of the national electronic network for the National Health Service (NHSnet). A stakeholder analysis approach helps identify the wide range of the concerns which are involved, and this contributes to understanding the broader context within which technological developments take place and ethical concerns arise. The author is a member of the Information Systems Department of London School of Economics and Political Science [LSE], Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, England; email A.Pouloudi@lse.ac.uk
Ethical Outsourcing in UK Financial Services: Employee Rights
Authors: Henderson Mike J.
Published: March 2003

Outsourcing is becoming a major option in British business, including the financial services industry, and it raises a number of ethical considerations. The author of this major ethical study contends that “Outsourcing seems to present a particular threat to employees ... because of the factors which have led to outsourcing and the way in which it tends to work.” Mike Henderson is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and Senior Lecturer in Financial Services in the School of Financial Studies and Law of Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Pond Street, Sheffield S1 1WB, England.
In Defence Of Mutuality
Authors: Clarke Thomas
Published: March 2003

“There was something a little unseemly about how the building societies intending to demutualise did so by encouraging their members to vote in favour with the inducement of significant payments in shares”. Should one have no regard for the intentions of those who produced the present capital accumulation, or for the idea of holding reserves in trust for future members? The author is DBM Professor of Corporate Governance at Leeds Business School, Leeds Metropolitan University, Calverley Street, Leeds LS1 3HE.
The meanings of ethics in and of advertising
Authors: Hackley Christopher
Published: March 2003

Advertising presents special difficulties for business ethicists. Ads are trivial entertainments, yet advertising culture has been held up as a metaphor for a general moral degradation in the post‐modern epoch. Ads confuse us since they are a new and unfamiliar form of communicative discourse which we find difficult to place in an ethical category. This, mainly conceptual, paper attempts to explore how ethics in and of advertising may be subject to examination within a broadly social constructionist perspective. The paper sketches out a view of social constructionism which draws significantly on the ‘turn to language’ in psychology. It then attempts to discuss how ads might work, or rather, as the paper suggests, how ads mean. The social constructionist view point entails a rejection of cognitivist schemes of advertising psychology in favour of a mutualist framework within which ads and consumers jointly construct meanings which are essentially indeterminate. This ontological perspective has implications for ethical treatments of the field. The notion of meaning making as a psychological principle leads the discussion into an initial consideration of how normative approaches to advertising ethics might be framed. The self regulatory system obtaining in the UK is offered as an appropriate example. An underlying theme of the paper is that discussions of ethics in relation to advertising cannot rest upon a simplistic cognitivist notion of how ads ‘work’ upon consumers’ minds. The paper tries to show that a broadly social constructionist approach may offer a richer scheme for examining advertising ethics in its local, mediated, indeterminate and socially constructed character.
A cross‐cultural comparison of British and Turkish managers in terms of Protestant work ethic characteristics
Authors: Arslan Mahmut
Published: March 2003

This paper presents a cross‐cultural comparison of Protestant work ethic characteristics of practising Protestant British and practising Muslim Turkish managers using Mirels and Garrett’s Protestant work ethic scale. Max Weber’s Protestant work ethic thesis is used as the conceptual framework in this study. The nature of the Protestant work ethic thesis and its relationship with organisation culture is discussed. Multivariate and univariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. The results suggest that there is a significant difference between practising Muslim Turkish managers and practising Protestant British managers: the Turkish group showed relatively higher Protestant work ethic scores than their Protestant counterparts. Possible reasons for the difference between British and Turkish groups are advanced in the light of Turkish economic, social and political developments. It is argued that representative Islamic sources also support the results of this research by pointing to the important role of a work ethic in Islam.
The legitimacy of accountants’ participation in social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting
Authors: O’Dwyer Brendan
Published: March 2003

This paper discusses the legitimacy of accountants’ recent involvement in social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting (SEAAR). Support for accountants’ legitimacy is proposed by highlighting some of the technical skills they offer to the SEAAR process as conceived in AA1000. It is argued that the relevance of these skills is strengthened within a conception of SEAAR which principally perceives it as a risk/stakeholder management process focused primarily on the concerns of corporate management as opposed to those of the wider society. However, the paper moves on to maintain that if we wish to promote a conception of SEAAR primarily focused on accountability to stakeholders (denoted as ‘true accountability’) as opposed to risk/stakeholder management, then, particularly in the domain of external social audit, the legitimacy of accountants’ participation may be disputed. The paper therefore concludes by cautioning against facilitating the unquestioned entry of accountants into the realm of SEAAR.
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a corporate code of conduct
Authors: Frankental Peter
Published: March 2003

Peter Frankental, Head of Business Networks, Amnesty International, explores the role of The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a corporate code of conduct. Frankental observes a changing business context, which overall increases the risk to business of dealing with other parties, including countries, subcontractors, joint venture partners and their stockholders. The paper proceeds to examine the barriers to integration of human rights, and identifies dilemmas that firms need to resolve. While in the author’s view ethical behaviour does not confer competitive advantages in the short run, companies that base their codes of conduct on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights are likely to find themselves in the stronger position to protect their reputation, brands and assets in the longer term.