bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Issues in Australian Foreign Policy January to June 2001
Authors: Lyon Rod
Published: March 2003

The first half of 2001 saw traditional issues dominating the foreign policy agenda, with both Australia’s relationship with the United States and the policy of Asian engagement still holding centre stage. But those old issues generated fresh anxieties. In the United States, the incoming Bush administration displayed a genuine radicalism in its approach to foreign policy, and that raised concerns in many Western capitals — including Canberra — about a new mood of unilateralism in Washington. At the same time, the emergence of the thesis that Australia was becoming a “branch office economy”, where key decisions were taken in the capital markets of New York and London, made the government noticeably more cautious and selective in its endorsement of globalisation. Further, the issue of Asian engagement grew steadily more complex: Australian policy‐makers searched unsuccessfully for a new focus for the policy of Asian engagement, as Japan’s economy wallowed and Indonesia’s democratic government tottered.
The Public Service: Independence, Responsibility and Responsiveness
Authors: Keating AC Michael
Published: March 2003

In recent years there has been controversy surrounding the issues of the independence, responsibility and responsiveness of our public services. Critics come from two opposing directions: (i) there have been charges of politicisation of the public service, with the implication that it has lost its independence and become dominated by the government; (ii) Pusey (1991) has accused ‘economic rationalists’ in the public service of pursuing their own neo‐classical agenda and dominating government policy. Both criticisms reveal a misunderstanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of ministers and public servants and the proper relations between them. In our system of democratic government, it is the prerogative of ministers to decide and the role of departments to propose and advise and then implement the decisions of ministers. This contribution begins by considering the respective responsibilities of ministers and officials, before canvassing the charges of politicisation and what should be expected from public servants in contributing to policy development. Finally there is consideration of the ethical values of public servants and what responsibility they might have for the ‘public interest’.
New Public Management and Management Education: Foundations of Successful Management Reform
Authors: Koch Rainer
Published: March 2003

International experience shows that the main objective of New Public Management (NPM) reform has predominantly been to overcome the current crisis in funding and public service delivery. The achieving this objective has involved adopting a philosophy of ‘more for less’ or, in other words, by enhancing ‘value for money’ in public service delivery. To this end,NPM reforms have generally aimed at replacing the inherited or traditional bureaucratic structure of management with a market – or at least a competition‐based – contract arrangement. As is the case in any contested market setting, the main concern of state and public administration is no longer merely to ensure a legally correct application of laws, but also to use scarce resources as ‘efficiently’ as possible in the pursuit of the desired ends of increased productivity and ‘more for less’.
Partnership for Good Governance in the 21st Century
Authors: Lyon Patricia
Published: March 2003

The government of Australia adopted governance as a priority area for its aid program in 1997. Activities are focused in four strategic areas that are interrelated: economic and financial management; public sector management; law and justice and civil society. This paper provides a brief description of the conceptual basis underpinning these areas, together with a practical project example for each. The paper concludes with some comments on Australia's approach and experiences in promoting good governance with partner governments and agencies.
The State of Citizenship
Authors: Chesterman John
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

Luc, Rouban (ed.) Citizens and the New Governance: Beyond New Public Management

Wayne, Hudson and John, Kane (eds) Rethinking Australian Citizenship

Birte, Siim Gender and Citizenship: Politics and Agency in France, Britain and Denmark
Can Government Cope?
Authors: Keating Michael
Published: March 2003

This article was originally presented as a paper to the National Conference of the Institute of Public Administration Australia on 1 December 2000. It considers why governments have adopted a more market‐oriented approach to governance, concluding that this change in means has generally helped them to achieve their preferred courses of action. However, the principal threats to government capacity are political not technical, and the article also discusses the limitations of market‐based policies in this respect.
Genes, Embryos, and Future People
Authors: Glannon Walter
Published: March 2003

Testing embryonic cells for genetic abnormalities gives us the capacity to predict whether and to what extent people will exist with disease and disability. Moreover, the freezing of embryos for long periods of time enables us to alter the length of a normal human lifespan. After highlighting the shortcomings of somatic‐cell gene therapy and germ‐line genetic alteration, I argue that the testing and selective termination of genetically defective embryos is the only medically and morally defensible way to prevent the existence of people with severe disability, pain and suffering that make their lives not worth living for them on the whole. In addition, I consider the possible harmful effects on children born from frozen embryos after the deaths of their biological parents, or when their parents are at an advanced age. I also explore whether embryos have moral status and whether the prospects for disease‐preventing genetic alteration can justify long‐term cryopreservation of embryos.
Foundations, Frameworks, Lenses: The Role of Theories in Bioethics
Authors: Sherman Susan
Published: March 2003

I explore the implications of the foundation metaphor for understanding the role of moral theories in ethics and bioethics and argue that its disadvantages outweigh its advantages. I then consider two other metaphors that might be used instead, those of frameworks and lenses. I propose that the metaphor of lenses is most promising in providing methodological guidance for drawing on moral theories when deliberating about bioethical problems.
Cross‐cultural Issues in European Bioethics
Authors: Dickenson Donna L.
Published: March 2003

European biomedical ethics is often contrasted to American autonomy‐based approaches, and both are usually distinguished as ‘Western’. But at least three ‘different voices’ within European bioethics can be identified:

The deontological codes of southern Europe (and Ireland), in which the patient has a positive duty to maximise his or her own health and to follow the doctor’s instructions, whilst the physician is constrained more by professional norms than by patient rights

The liberal, rights‐based models of Western Europe, in which the patient retains the negative right to override medical opinion, even if his or her mental capacity is in doubt

The social welfarist models of the Nordic countries, which concentrate on positive rights and entitlements to universal healthcare provision and entrust dispute resolution to non‐elected administrative officials
The Question of Virginity Testing in Turkey
Authors: Þahinoðlu Pelin Sarap
Published: March 2003

Pre‐marital sex for a woman is regarded as wrong in my country. As a result, it is socially forbidden for a woman to engage in this act. In order to present a woman as a virgin on her marriage day, she is subjected to pressure, and put under control both by her family and societal norms. However, a man is free and never made to suffer any of the above. A woman found to be a virgin on her first night of marriage is seen as a normal person while one suspected to have lost her virginity is made to undergo a series of medical examinations to bring clarity to her situation.
Thinking about Possible People: A Comment on Tooley and Rachels
Authors: McKie Jon
Published: March 2003

Most people believe it would be wrong to bring a child into the world if in all likelihood its life would be miserable. But if pain and suffering count against bringing someone into existence, why do pleasure and happiness not count in favour of bringing them into existence? Recently in this journal Michael Tooley has re‐affirmed his rights‐based explanation for this asymmetry. In a nutshell: to create an individual whose life is not worth living would be to wrong that individual – to create an obligation that cannot be fulfilled – but it is not possible to wrong an individual who is not brought into existence. In the same issue of this journal, in an article covering a range of arguments for and against the claim that it would be good for additional people to exist, Stuart Rachels objects to Tooley’s account on the ground that it has counterintuitive implications. His most interesting argument involves a Parfit‐style counterexample: a woman is about to take a fertility pill that will result in twins, one of whom will be healthy and the other of whom will not. Does it make a difference, morally speaking, if the woman knows which of the twins will be healthy and which will not? In this paper I argue that both Rachels’ criticism of Tooley’s rights‐based account, and Tooley’s own defence of it, are unsuccessful due to their failure to come to grips with the semantics of names for possible individuals. Both of them implicitly assume that it is possible to have a potential person in mind, in a way that misleads them about the fairness of actions that involve possible people. The significance of this extends to other areas such as abortion, population policy, and embryo experimentation, where examples involving possible people are common.
Human Death – A View from the Beginning of Life
Authors: Persson Ingmar
Published: March 2003

This paper presents a simple argument against definitions of the death of a human being in terms of death, or the cessation of functioning, of its brain: a human being is alive, and so is capable of dying, before it acquires a brain. Although a more accurate definition is sketched, it is stressed that it should not be taken for granted that it is ethically urgent to work out such a definition. What morally matters more than the death of a human being may be something for which its death is sufficient, but not necessary, namely the irreversible loss of its capacity for consciousness. It is when we lose this capacity that we lose our moral standing, as subjects who can be benefited and harmed, and who can have rights. But, as is also suggested, the loss of this capacity is ill suited to be what the death of a human being definitionally consists of.
Indentity, Prudential Concern, and Extended Lives
Authors: Glannon Walter
Published: March 2003

Recent advances in human genetics suggest that it may become possible to genetically manipulate telomerase and embryonic stem cells to alter the mechanisms of aging and extend the human life span. But a life span significantly longer than the present norm would be undesirable because it would severely weaken the connections between past‐ and future‐oriented mental states and in turn the psychological grounds for personal identity and prudential concern for our future selves. In addition, the collective effects of longer lives might lower the quality of life for all people. These two problems provide reasons against genetic manipulation of cells to alter the length of the human life span.
Values, Rights and Dilemmas
Authors: Lindsay Geoff
Published: March 2003

Professor Geoff Lindsay, Director of the Special Needs Research Unit at The University of Warwick, is the fourth of the new professors to contribute to the debate on the future of Special Education.
‘Good for Them, or What?’ The Arts and Pupils with SEN
Authors: Peter Melanie
Published: March 2003

Melanie Peter, Advisory Teacher with Norfolk Local Education Authority, explores the value of arts experiences for pupils with special educational needs (SEN), and places the arts firmly in the current educational context. She believes that the arts are ‘therapeutic’ as distinct from ‘therapy’ and recognises their unique contribution to the curriculum.
Well‐meant, but Failing on Almost all Counts: the Case Against Statementing
Authors: Williams Hugh , Maloney Sheelagh
Published: March 2003

This article (written before the publication of the recent Green Paper) by Hugh Williams and Sheelagh Maloney, Senior Educational Psychologists: Birmingham Education Department, is timely as it provides practical solutions to the problems of ‘Statementing’. Their suggestions are not only within the spirit of the Paper, but go even further in suggesting practical solutions to the ending of ‘Statementing’. The approach proposed is based on extending the ideas behind the SEN Code of Practice, and they describe how children’s and parent’s rights, and their involvement, could be advanced through a fluent process: reduced bureaucracy; shorter time‐scales; and the greater involvement of schools in ensuring appropriate resources. Further, the proposed system would enhance the prospects of encouraging increasingly inclusive practices, and would remove a major conceptual barrier to all children being educated in mainstream schools.
Intensive Interaction and autism: a useful approach?
Authors: Nind Melanie
Published: March 2003

The very challenging nature of many individuals with autism has meant, for some, a focus on ‘special’, as opposed to ‘naturalistic’, intervention processes. There has been much recent media interest in parental campaigns, Melanie Nind, senior lecturer in the School of Education, Oxford Brookes University, addresses the potential usefulness of Intensive Interaction for pupils whose learning difficulties are compounded by autism. She considers empirical case‐study evidence together with questionnaire and interview data from teachers using the approach.
Educational Inclusion and Raising Standards
Authors: Farrell Michael
Published: March 2003

Michael Farrell, Education Inspector with the London Borough of Hillingdon Education Services, suggests that the term ‘mainstream inclusion’ should be replaced by ‘educational inclusion’ in order to avoid the implication that venues other than mainstream schools are inferior. He argues that the placement of pupils with SEN in mainstream schools should be informed by a consideration of the effectiveness of the venue in raising academic and personal and social standards.
Current issues in special needs: Special education in the last twenty years: have things really got better?
Authors: Farrell Peter
Published: March 2003

Peter Farrell, Professor of Special Needs and Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Education, University of Manchester, addresses three key themes related to the education of pupils with special educational needs: the role of categories in special education; the impact of legislation on assessment procedures; and developments in inclusive education. His considered view is that progress towards more inclusive practice and an enhanced role for parents have brought about positive developments. He is more cautious about the impact of the revised Code of Practice, which, he suggests, perpetuates some of the procedural and bureaucratic burdens associated with the past.
The effectiveness of Nurture Groups: preliminary research findings
Authors: Cooper Paul , Arnold Ray , Boyd Eve
Published: March 2003

Interest in Nurture Groups continues to grow. As Rebecca Doyle’s article in the previous issue of this journal demonstrated, practitioners are enthusiastically exploring nurture‐based practice as one approach to the inclusion of pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. In this article, Paul Cooper, Professor of Education at the University of Leicester, Ray Arnold and Eve Boyd, both researchers with the Nurture Groups project, provide a report on their research to date. This interim report raises some important questions for policy makers and practitioners as well as indicating ways forward into further enquiry.
Methodological Constants in Courseware Design
Authors: Persico Donatella
Published: March 2003

The author draws on her practical experience in courseware development as well as her research experience in the development of authoring systems to suggest that, in spite of the significant changes currently taking place in this field, some of the old models proposed for courseware development maintain their validity from a methodological point of view. The paper analyses the common denominator among several models for courseware development (the methodological constants) and discusses in detail both the design and the validation phases.
Flexible learning and design of instruction
Authors: Nikolova Iliana , Collis Betty
Published: March 2003

The paper deals with the problem of designing flexible learning and instruction. Flexibility is considered both from the learner's and the designer's perspective. The potential of telematics in the design, development and implementation of flexible and distance learning is discussed. A Method for flexible instructional modules development is presented which aims at assisting the educational designers in the development of flexible instructional modules, ie, modules, which are easily adaptable to different learner's needs, allow learner's choices and different delivery platforms, including distance delivery. Examples of Method applications and current development of a software system to facilitate the Method's implementation are reported.
Implications of educational theory for the design of instructional multimedia
Authors: Wild Martyn , Quinn Clark
Published: March 2003

Interactive multimedia provides a useful vehicle to reconsider the place of educational theories in the design of interactive learning environments. This paper serves to address a number of such theories, especially those centred on student learning, and in particular, attempts to draw out the implications they present for designing effective instructional multimedia. It is argued that we need to develop coherency rather than divergency, in our theoretical perspectives so that we might optimise the development of new technologies in teaching and learning. This rationale is then used to advance one such perspective, based on the role of dynamic modelling tools.
Video Conferencing: a Solution to the Multi‐campus Large Classes Problem?
Authors: Freeman Mark
Published: March 2003

Whether due to amalgamation or export education strategies, many universities now face a problem of delivering subjects, programs and courses across more than one campus. There are significant costs to students, staff and faculty of this teaching and administrative duplication. Information and communication technologies offer potential to achieve economies of scale but the effects on other things like student learning are not so clear. The objective of this paper is to report the outcomes of a video conferencing trial in an undergraduate mass lecture context. The effects on students and staff, and support issues are highlighted through a formative and summative evaluation. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, video recordings, exam results and reflective diaries provided data for the evaluations. The results will be useful both for decision‐makers considering a video conferencing solution to duplication, as well as for staff potentially involved in using the video conferencing in a mass lecture context.
Psychological developments in high technology teaching and learning environments
Authors: Morgan Konrad , Morgan Madeleine , Hall John
Published: March 2003

The authors discuss some of the psychological effects associated with the increasing capabilities of new technology with a particular emphasis on issues involved with multi‐media teaching systems and the development of the self on emotional, intellectual and social levels. It includes a review of technology attitudes and individual differences in relation to the voluntary use of technology and contrasts that with the psychological measures associated with the rejection of technology. Consideration is given to which psychological measures are typically cited by the literature as being associated with emotional, intellectual and social “success” and compares them with those measures that appear to predict successful technology adoption. These different measures and outcomes are compared to see if they are compatible. The authors then summarise the likely effects of the latest trends in technology on the mental world in which a developing self operates. The paper concludes with a discussion of other issues and factors that determine effective design solutions within the paradigm of increasing design spaces and diverse user populations.
Computer‐assisted reading intervention in a secondary school: an evaluation study
Authors: Lynch Lisa , Fawcett Angela J , Nicolson Roderick I
Published: March 2003

There is widespread concern over literacy standards in UK schools and growing evidence that problems become increasingly intractable as children grow older. Computer‐based reading instruction may provide a ‘fresh start’ that helps a child to rediscover the path to literacy. Recent controlled studies demonstrated that infant and junior school children could be given very cost‐effective support using RITA, a computer‐based literacy support system that assists, rather than replaces, the teacher in providing support tailored to each child's profile of reading attainments. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of RITA in secondary school with 8 children (mean age 11.7 years) who were initially very seriously disadvantaged in terms of literacy skills (mean reading age 7.3 years). The RITA intervention over a 10 week period led to effective and cost‐effective literacy gains. Significant overall improvements were made in the skills targeted, including reading standard scores, and reading speed, accuracy and comprehension. All children reacted positively to the RITA lessons, and most made good progress towards their Individual Education Plans. It is suggested that computer‐assisted reading support can be effective in supporting the majority of children with reading failure, even in secondary school.
Pupil‐centred learning, ICT, and teacher behaviour: observations in educational practice
Authors: Smeets Ed , Mooij Ton
Published: March 2003

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is believed to contribute to innovative, pupil‐centred learning environments. In these environments, curriculum characteristics fit pupil characteristics better and teachers act as coaches instead of lecturers. This article presents results from a study of teaching–learning characteristics and the role of the teacher in ICT learning environments. Observations were carried out in classrooms of 25 technology‐rich primary and secondary schools in five European countries.

Qualitative and quantitative results show that in many cases ICT is used to facilitate traditional ways of teaching. Some examples of promising ICT teaching–learning situations are presented. In addition, quantitative results indicate that learning environments are more pupil‐centred when there is a higher degree of curriculum differentiation and when teachers act as coaches. However, even if teachers act as coaches, they tend to stay firmly in control of the learning environment.
Wages and the Labour Market
Authors: Rubery Jill
Published: March 2003

In contrast to the traditions of social science, the argument made here is that wage structures are not to be explained by reference to an underlying economic or social rationale through which they contribute to the efficient or smooth functioning of an economy or society. Theories of wages have overstressed coherence and functionality and underplayed conflict and contradictions and the scope for discretionary, random or opportunistic decisions. Wage structures have been held partially in check in the past by institutional and social processes which linked wages across the labour market. Many of these processes, from industry‐level pay bargaining to concepts of fair wages, ‘going rates’ or the family wage, have disintegrated in the 1980s and 1990s. More attention needs to be paid to the role of wages in the redistribution of resources and to the need to re‐regulate the labour market.
Peering into the Black Hole: The Downside of the New Employment Relations in the UK
Authors: Guest David , Conway Neil
Published: March 2003

Using a national sample of 1,000 employees, this paper examines the proposition that those working in so‐called ‘black hole’ organizations (i.e. where there is neither a set of progressive HRM practices nor a recognized trade union) will report more negative attitudes and work experiences than those in settings where there is either HRM, a trade union presence or both. The results lend some support to this hypothesis with respect to job satisfaction and organizational commitment and in judgements about experiences of fairness of treatment and trust in management. However, the most negative views about employment relations are reported by those who belong to a union in workplaces with little HRM. The findings indicate that it is HRM practices rather than trade union membership that have the major impact on attitudes and experiences. Even in black hole organizations some employees report satisfaction. This can be largely explained by a positive psychological contract between individual and organization. The implications for the role of trade unions in the promotion of fairness at work are discussed.
The Flexible–Rigid Paradox of Employment Relations at Royal Mail (UK)
Authors: Lucio Miguel , Noon Mike , Jenkins 2 Sarah
Published: March 2003

This article examines how flexibility and rigidity equally pose a dilemma for management and trade unions. It explores the issue by examining a range of features within the employment relationship at the Royal Mail in the UK. It seeks to demonstrate how, in practice, both management and trade unions can require, pursue and argue for different and competing combinations of flexibility and rigidity. It concludes that it is analytically more useful to examine the content and form of the ‘flexible–rigid mix’ and explore how this is mediated by political, social and operational/technical processes.
The Economics of Teams among Technicians
Authors: Batt Rosemary
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the economic logic of organizing field technicians into self‐managed teams, an approach to work organization that shifts the division of labour from a hierarchical to horizontal one. Economic efficiencies arise through the integration of direct and indirect labour tasks and the alignment of'the organizational structure with the occupational logic of communities of practice among technicians. Self‐managed teams absorb the monitoring and co‐ordination tasks of supervisors, substantially reducing indirect labour costs but without adversely affecting objective measures of quality and labour productivity. For technicians, team membership means longer work hours, but higher wages through overtime pay.
It’s Been A Hard Day’s Night: The Concentration and Intensification of Work in Late Twentieth‐Century Britain
Authors: Green Francis
Published: March 2003

This paper presents evidence on trends in work pressure in late twentieth‐century Britain. The main findings are: (1) Average hours of work levelled off at the start of the 1980s, following a long historic fall, but have not increased since. However, the dispersion of hours has increased, and working hours have been concentrated into fewer households. (2) Work effort has been intensified since 1981. Intensification was greatest in manufacturing during the 1980s, and in the public sector during the 1990s. (3) Between 1986 and 1997 there have been substantial increases in the number of sources of pressure inducing hard work from employees.
A New Voice or a Waste of Time? Wage Premiums from Using Computers for Communication in the UK Workplace
Authors: Hildreth Andrew K. G.
Published: March 2003

The paper uses the Workplace Employee Relations Survey data on workers to investigate the wage premium from using e‐mail in the workplace against other more traditional forms of communication. I try to discern whether the existence of a premium from using e‐mail is the product of the workplace encouraging worker productivity through voice, or represents unobserved worker skills in using new technology. Results indicate that any observed premium from using e‐mail is likely to arise from unobserved worker skills, and that any premium associated with voice in the workplace is likely to result from management choosing to reward such worker involvement.
Privatization, Markets and Industrial Relations in China
Authors: Taylor Bill
Published: March 2003

Within a context of gradual privatization and rapid marketization in China, this paper draws on detailed research of the perceived impact these have had on the work, status and attitudes of different industrial relations ‘actors’ within seven enterprises in Guangdong and Shanghai in 1998–9. It will be shown that the main pressure for tightening control over the workplace has come from the development of markets and that privatization has had important but limited catalytic effect in this process. Considerable internal and external constraints restrict the impact of privatization, which stem from China’s continued ambivalence towards capitalist market relations.
Determinants of Israeli Judicial Discretion in Issuing Injunctions against Strikers
Authors: Mundlak Guy , Harpaz Itzhak
Published: March 2003

The study examines all cases (1990–7) in Israel in which employers petitioned the labour court to issue an injunction against striking workers, and identifies how judges use their discretion in deciding the petition. The findings indicate that, judicial rhetoric to the contrary, the labour court limits its considerations almost solely to the parties’ formal compliance with the legal rule. The implications of these findings for the relationship of the legal and industrial relations systems are discussed, particularly with reference to the dual task of labour law: to govern the industrial relations system, and to facilitate its autonomy.
Culture and Organization: The Case of Transmanche‐Link
Authors: Winch Graham , Millar Carla , Clifton Naomi
Published: March 2003

The relationship between culture and organization has often been discussed, but rarely explored directly. This paper implements a cultural values instrument taken from Hofstede together with a behavioural instrument derived from Van de Ven to matched samples of British and French managers working on the Channel Tunnel project. The results largely replicate the findings of Hofstede regarding cultural values, but do not support the predicted implications for behaviour. In essence, the British were found to be more bureaucratic and more team‐oriented than their French counterparts, who tended to be more fonceur and competitive. This indicates that the relationship between culture and behaviour might be more complicated than research to date suggests.
Towards Integrating Emotions into Strategic Management Research: Trait Affect and Perceptions of the Strategic Environment
Authors: Daniels Kevin
Published: March 2003

This paper describes an empirical investigation of the associations between trait negative affect and perceptions of the strategic environment. Data were collected from two samples of managers undertaking a distance learning MBA course (n = 59, n = 272). In the smaller sample, significant correlations were found between negative affectivity and perceptions of poor organizational performance and industry complexity. These results were replicated in the larger sample, after controlling for other variables. Additionally, negative affectivity was found to be related to perceived industry growth, and marginally related to perceived industry competitiveness.
An Empirical Evaluation of Conflict in the Franchise System
Authors: Spinelli Steve , Birley Sue
Published: March 2003

This paper articulates the theoretical rationale for conflict in franchising, operationalizes conflict through the measurement of franchisee satisfaction and labels empirically supported stratified satisfaction levels. Two propositions are advanced in relation to the drivers of conflict in franchise systems. The first proposition is underpinned by relational exchange theory, which postulates that franchisee–franchisor goal congruence is important to the fulfilment of the alliance efficiencies which motivate inter‐organizational forms. Cooperation, communication, coordination and commitment, as perceived by the franchisees, are used in the context of a survey instrument to operationalize goal congruence.

The second proposition involves franchisor‐provided services. Transaction‐cost analysis suggests that long‐term contractual relationships must be flexibly interpreted and governed if the relationship is to be maintained over a series of transactions. We propose that the transactional intersection of the franchise system is in franchisor‐provided services. The perceived importance and subsequent adequacy of delivery of these services established a tolerance zone within which transactions support and/or enhance the relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee.

The empirical objectives of the study are accomplished utilizing a questionnaire sent to nine franchise systems, to which 621 franchisees responded. Three clear clusters of franchisee conflict emerged in near equal proportions. The propositions are supported and illustrated empirically and in CHAID tree diagram form.
Propaganda, Persuasion and Symmetry: Local and Central Government Perspectives on Communicating with the Citizen
Authors: Harrison Shirley
Published: March 2003

The paper gives a brief resumé of the major public relations models and relates these to central and local government communication with the public. It gives central government's perspective on the Citizen's Charter and shows how this translates into a construct of reality based on four perceptions. Next, these four perceptions are subjected to scrutiny from the local government perspective, drawing on the results of a research project undertaken during 1995 on the publication of performance indicators (PIs). The paper concludes by questioning central government's wisdom in trying to prescribe a communications model which does not fit local circumstances.
Great Expectations?: The Dubious Financial Legacy of Quality Audits
Authors: Swift Tracey A. , Humphrey Christopher , Gor Vishal
Published: March 2003

In recent years there appears to have been a veritable boom in the provision of ‘quality audits’– that is, audits of organizations' production processes and management systems. Despite the rising significance of this international audit movement affecting hundreds of thousands of organizations world‐wide, there has been limited interest in, or critique of, the practice of quality audit by academic auditing researchers. This paper traces the history of quality assurance standards and auditing and finds that quality auditing is not simply an outgrowth of an engineering inspection function. Rather, for several decades, quality auditors have consciously modelled their practice on that of the statutory financial audit, which in turn, exposes them to similar issues with regard to the long standing ‘expectations gap’ debate. Yet, despite what the authors argue are critical links with the financial audit, there has not been any notable involvement on the part of the accounting profession with quality auditing. The growing demand for ‘added‐value’ audits poses considerable questions for the future development and organizational significance of quality auditing. Current developments in both quality and financial audit services suggest that these two influential audit movements are now competing against each other to promote business excellence and contribute to business strategy.
Narratives of Success and Failure in Systems Development
Authors: Fincham Robin
Published: March 2003

This paper explores a narrative perspective on ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in computer systems development. Organizational narratives can be seen as sense‐making devices and as having a purposive aspect in the ways in which they evolve and change and influence behaviour. Narratives like success and failure in particular can be seen as persuasive rhetorics used in legitimizing particular courses of action. The narrative approach challenges more accepted notions, particularly rationalist views that see computer success/failure as outcomes brought about by simple causation. It also reveals the limitations of process models of IT success/failure, though these stress a more complex form of decision making around IT. In the paper, these issues are explored in contrasting projects in financial services firms. In two case studies, computer success and failure emerge not as discrete conditions, but as interacting themes employed by organizational members in response to the circumstances they confront. The corporate capacity to build success out of failure, and to distance the new from the old, discriminated between successful and unsuccessful projects.
Regulating Shareholder Value: A Case Study of the Introduction of Value–based Measures in a Water Company
Authors: Francis G. , Minchington C.
Published: March 2003

The implementation of a value–based measurement system within a privatized UK regional water company is examined by means of a longitudinal case study. Evidence is presented of how the system was developed within the context of a regulatory environment, which presented special considerations to the company in designing and implementing an appropriate system. In particular the paper considers the implementation issues surrounding the management of the introduction of the value–based measures at the operational level. The authors describe the drivers behind the introduction of the new system and the technical, political and cultural challenges raised by its implementation.
Performance in Food Retailing: A Cross‐national Consideration and Comparison of Retail Margins
Authors: Burt Steve , Sparks Leigh
Published: March 2003

The leading United Kingdom food retailers have recently come under considerable scrutiny in respect of their reported profits, margins and accounting policies. Journalists and analysts as well as academics have focused on comparisons with continental European retailers. This paper argues that a number of factors are pertinent to the debate on performance in food retailing. The classification introduced (accountancy practices, cost structures, management structures and control and the environmental context), is illustrated using UK and French company data. The conclusion is drawn that it is not just simple differences but also the operational dimensions of company practices relating to these factors which are important determinants of performance. Simplistic headline comparisons are too inaccurate to be meaningful.
Gapping the Relevance Bridge: Fashions Meet Fundamentals in Management Research
Authors: Weick Karl E.
Published: March 2003

The much lamented ‘relevance gap’ is as much a product of practitioners wedded to gurus and fads as it is of academics wedded to abstractions and fundamentals. The gap persists because practitioners forget that ‘the’ real world is actually ‘a’ world that is idiosyncratic, egocentric and unique to each person complaining about relevance. Greater attention to the conceptual underpinnings of fads and egocentric perception suggest the existence of more fundamental barriers to effectiveness such as ceilings on improvement, weak situations, ambiguous signals, non‐obvious adaptive forms and preoccupation with vision. Joint practitioner‐academic effort devoted to questions of how events come to be seen as ‘real’ could re‐bridge a gap whose nature has been misidentified.
British Voters and Their Criteria for Evaluating Electoral Systems
Authors: Farrell David M. , Gallagher Michael
Published: March 2003

The problem with measuring voter attitudes towards electoral systems is that few either know or care much about them. Earlier quantitative research on attitudes in Britain by Dunleavy and his colleagues shows that there are pockets of support for electoral reform; however, there are doubts over just how much the respondents truly understood the merits of the different systems they were being asked about. This article uses qualitative, focus group techniques to explore underlying British voter attitudes towards the issue of electoral reform with regard to four alternative systems. Once the basics of the different systems have been clarified, there is clear evidence of support for change, though little agreement over the preferred system. The research reveals a certain ambivalence over the importance attached to constituency representation.
Studying Contemporary Europe
Authors: Wallace Helen
Published: March 2003

The study of contemporary Europe has attracted growing attention in mainstream political science and international relations. Both studies of the European Union and cross-country comparisons of various political phenomena in different European countries are beginning to enrich our understanding of the process and limitations of integration. This growth of interest has also been stimulated by the opening up of central and eastern Europe which has encouraged scholars to address the issues of transformation using the tools of comparative politics. In addition, studies of Europeanisation are now being more systematically related to broader international developments and to the process of globalisation. British scholars, and British-based scholars, are making important contributions to the debates in political science and international relations. This review article traces some of the strands of this development.
Some Aggregate Effects of Heterogeneity in Information Processing
Authors: Possen Uri M. , Puhakka Mikko
Published: March 2003

This paper analyzes the equilibrium of an economy where economic agents differ with respect to their information gathering and processing abilities. Our results depend on the magnitude of the relative risk aversion. We show that the unsophisticated (with respect to their information processing abilities) agents are disproportionately important in the cases of both large and small risk aversion. In the case of the relative risk aversion measure being greater than unity volatility of aggregate consumption is reduced. This supports the view that observed consumption in many countries fluctuates less than predicted by models with fully rational agents only.
A Note on Auction Quotas with a Foreign Duopoly*
Authors: Tan Ling Hui
Published: March 2003

A country importing a good from foreign duopolists may improve its welfare by imposing a quota on the good at the free trade quantity and giving a fraction of the quota licences to the duopolists while auctioning off the rest.
Quality Bargaining and Intermediate Goods Protection*
Authors: Campbell Neil
Published: March 2003

This paper offers an explanation for the proposition that removing protection from a firm can induce an improvement in product quality. In a vertically separated industry the quality of the final good is dependent on the quality of the intermediate goods used in its production. This model is used to consider removal of protection from the upstream firm (the supplier) which gives the downstream firm (the assembler) greater bargaining power since the option of turning to a foreign supplier becomes more attractive.
Imperfect Tax Compliance and the Optimal Provision of Public Goods
Authors: Balestrino Alessandro , Galmarini Umberto
Published: March 2003

Our aim in this paper is to investigate whether the presence of imperfect income tax compliance affects the optimal provision of public goods within a framework in which public expenditure is financed by a general income tax that also accomplishes redistributive goals. We first derive the income tax structure, and then a generalized Samuelson rule. We argue that, under imperfect income tax compliance, it is desirable to distort public–good supply downwards, in the sense that the sum of marginal rates of substitution between public and private consumption must exceed their marginal rate of transformation.
A Note on the High–quality Advantage in Vertical Differentiation Models
Authors: Wang X. Henry
Published: March 2003

It is well established in vertical product differentiation models that the high–quality firm reaps a larger profit in a two–stage quality–price game as long as the cost of quality improvement is zero or is borne as fixed cost in the first stage quality choice. This note shows that the high–quality advantage may fail to hold if there is variable cost of production that is dependent on quality.
The Ethics of Pressure Groups
Authors: Whawell Peter
Published: March 2003

Are the strategies and tactics that pressure groups use against businesses ethically defensible?
Editorial Adieu: Cultivating Moral Courage in Business
Authors: Mahoney Jack
Published: March 2003

Leaving an editorial chair provides an opportunity for the departing incumbent to deliver a final message to his readers. Seven years after founding Business Ethics. A European Review the editor can offer no better valedictory than to explore the role of moral courage in the ethical conduct of business. Not only does this provide an excellent illustration of the recent recovery of the subject of “virtue” ethics in moral philosophy in general, as well as in the application of morality to business. It also serves to highlight the important difference between ‘business ethics’ as a term applied to the study of right and wrong behaviour in business, and ‘ethical business’, which is business actually conducted on ethical lines. For the difference between behaving rightly and wrongly in any area of human activity, including that of business, is not simply a matter of knowledge, or of finding the “correct” answer. There is a crucial psychological gap between knowing what one ought to do and then actually doing it; as Ovid ruefully observed, we see and approve the better things, yet we follow the worse. This is where courage comes in, for the gap between ethical perception and ethical performance is bridged by moral courage, as the following article suggests. More colloquially, the author is accustomed to conclude his classroom teaching on business ethics by observing that it is one thing to work out, often laboriously and hesitantly, what is the correct line of behaviour to follow; it is quite another thing to have the guts to follow it. An early version of this paper was delivered in Gresham College, London, while a more developed account dates from the First World Congress of the International Society of Business, Economics and Ethics, held in Tokyo in 1996. The following is reprinted from International Business Ethics: Challenges and Approaches , edited by George Enderle earlier this year and published by the University of Notre Dame Press and Hong Kong University Press.
Ethical Stances: the Perceptions of Accountancy and HR Specialists of Ethical Conundrums at Work
Authors: Fisher Colin
Published: March 2003

This paper explores how managers and professionals from two functional areas, finance and accountancy and human resource management, perceive, think about and act upon ethical conundrums at work. The study is based on 43 interviews in which respondents were asked to report on ethical issues and incidents they had experienced at work. A conceptual framework is presented which is used to analyse the critical incidents.
Ethical issues in contemporary human resource development
Authors: Woodall Jean , Douglas Danielle
Published: March 2003

Training and development activities are perhaps the aspects of HRM that are least likely to come under ethical scrutiny. However, despite an espousal of ethical humanism, and various attempts to develop professional standards, training and development activities can be vulnerable to unethical practice.