bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fair value accounting and intangible assets
Authors: Lhaopadchan Suntharee
Published: May 2010

Purpose

Advocates of greater intangible asset reporting frequently make the criticism that the published financial statements of companies do not adequately reflect the value of intangible assets and hence provide potentially misleading information to the users of the financial statements. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether since the introduction of “fair value accounting,” particularly in respect of the treatment of acquired “goodwill” shown on consolidated balance sheets, these criticisms retain any validity. The paper investigates the extent to which it can be confidently asserted that the recognition of acquired goodwill and the post‐acquisition rules for recognizing any goodwill “impairment” has materially improved the information available to the users of financial statements and/or whether these developments have resulted largely in providing self‐interested managers with greater opportunities to engage in earnings and balance sheet manipulations that are of doubtful value to users.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper critically reviews the rules and the intentions of accounting policy makers in relation to fair value acquisition accounting and evaluates the empirical evidence relating to corporate behavior in this area.

Findings

Despite the presumed benefits associated with fair value accounting, it is shown that in practice managerial self‐interests and earnings management concerns appear to motivate many goodwill impairment decisions. However, as investors and analysts have always had the option to adjust, or indeed totally ignore, reported accounting numbers it is far less certain whether this reporting behavior actually misleads users or significantly reduces the information content (reliability and relevance) of the financial statements.

Originality/value

The paper provides an overview of the accounting treatment and reporting consequences associated with the introduction of fair value accounting in respect of acquired goodwill.
Solvency II and XBRL: new rules and technologies in insurance supervision
Authors: Bonsón Enrique , Cortijo Virginia , Escobar Tomas , Flores Francisco , Monreal Sergio
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the way in which the insurance industry is facing the renewal of its regulatory framework with respect to the levels of solvency that insurance entities should maintain. This paper also addresses how technological initiatives in general, and the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), in particular, are making a key contribution to the process of adaptation to the new regulation.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses the particular advantages that the application of the XBRL standard can offer in this process, and highlight new lines for further research.

Findings

After analysing the current situation of the insurance industry, the paper concludes that technological systems, such as XBRL, are necessary to support the consolidation of financial information, and to ensure the digital transparency of the insurer organisations that are engaged in this new regulatory challenge.

Practical implications

XBRL is a key resource in the European Common Reporting Project whose objective is the implementation of Basel II in the European Union. The implementation of Solvency II can benefit from this previous experience. Therefore, it suggest a proposal for action.

Originality/value

The affiliation of the authors to the insurance sector, the academia and the XBRL community contributes to create a complete view of the possibilities of this breaking project.
The dual role of the government: securities market regulation in China 1980‐2007
Authors: Ma Jingyun , Song Fengming , Yang Zhishu
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of China's securities market regulation from 1980 to 2007 and the dual role of the government in this process.

Design/methodology/approach

When the government is simultaneously the owner and regulator of the securities market, the evolution of securities market regulation follows a path of compulsory institutional change. China's Government authorities have played a dual role in this process by acting both as the securities market regulator and the controlling owner of the stock exchanges. The paper uses the evolution of China's securities market regulation from 1980 to 2007 to illustrate this theoretical framework.

Findings

Using the case of China, this paper provides unique evidence of how securities regulation evolves in response to government direction and supervision if the government is both the owner and the regulator of the securities market.

Originality/value

The paper offers insight into issues of securities market regulation in China and other emerging markets.
High Court considers Icelandic bank's challenge to HM Treasury's use of emergency powers during 2008
Authors: Gray Joanna
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report and comment on the High Court ruling on Icelandic bank's challenge to HM Treasury's use of emergency powers during 2008.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper outlines the facts surrounding the case and comments on the decision.

Findings

The High Court disagreed that the claimant's view of events accorded with the way the treasury in fact acted.

Originality/value

This appeal shows how two very differently motivated, yet equally well‐intentioned, regulatory regimes can come into conflict.
The impact of learning culture on worker response to new technology
Authors: Reardon Robert F.
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to provide a framework to measure the response of blue‐collar workers to new technology in manufacturing and to establish the relationship between learning culture and that response.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected with a survey questionnaire from 12 manufacturing sites that were implementing a number of diverse new technologies. The dimensions of worker response were identified with exploratory factor analysis and the relationship between these factors and learning culture was established with path analysis.

Findings

Factor analysis identified seven dimensions of worker response: disgruntlement, job‐security concerns, accommodation, informal learning, resistance, discussion, and formal learning. Learning culture had a large, statistically significant relationship with disgruntlement and medium, statistically significant relationships with job‐security concerns, accommodation, informal learning, and formal learning.

Research limitations/implications

The sample was limited to manufacturing locations in the southeastern USA and the respondents were almost all male and either White or African‐American.

Practical implications

These findings establish a strong positive relationship between learning culture and behavioral, affective and cognitive responses of workers to new technology. This is key for supporting learning culture in organizations that naturally are inclined to worker isolation and independence.

Originality/value

Empirical work of this nature is limited in manufacturing facilities. These organizations tend to be closed to research because of concerns regarding the security of proprietary information or the personal safety of the researcher.
Examining beginning teachers' perceptions of workplace support
Authors: Fox Alison , Deaney Rosemary , Wilson Elaine
Published: May 2010

Purpose

This paper, taking a participatory perspective of learning, seeks to look at the interaction between individuals and their workplace, focusing on the perceptions of workplaces and self by beginning teachers in terms of support for their learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The study presents an analysis of 37 interviews from 17 beginning teachers across 18 workplaces. Analysis used an adapted version of Evans and colleagues' expansive‐restrictive framework for evaluating workplaces, focusing on relational aspects. A matrix of congruence between individuals and their workplace is presented, highlighting the significance of personal networking.

Findings

Although beginning teachers concluded that their workplaces were largely expansive, they also identified concerns regarding perceptions of support availability. Formal and informal support was recognized and the significance of outside school support, such as through the University Faculty, was noted even for teachers in post. Good “matches”, differential engagement with the same workplace and similar agency in different workplaces were identified.

Practical implications

The matrix of congruence is offered as a tool to researchers and teacher educators interested in understanding how support is experienced by novice professionals. The study highlights the utility of taking a personal network perspective to conceiving workplaces as not necessarily bounded by locality or normative practices. This could offer opportunities for discourse leading to greater engagement by professionals in their own learning.

Originality/value

The paper responds to calls that personal‐social processes in the workplace need further attention. The consideration of network perspectives, attending to informal aspects of social engagement, offers new understandings.
Effects of leadership style on team learning
Authors: Bucic Tania , Robinson Linda , Ramburuth Prem
Published: May 2010

Purpose

This paper seeks to explore the effect of leadership style of a team leader on team‐member learning in organizations, to conceptually extend an initial model of leadership and to empirically examine the new model of ambidextrous leadership in a team context.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative research utilizing the case study method is used for empirical validation.

Findings

The leadership style (transformational, transactional, or ambidextrous) adopted by the team leader has an operational effect on the development of learning as a strategic resource within the team, and the organization.

Research limitations/implications

Case studies can be criticized for potential lack of rigour. However, we have used multiple cases following replication logic and triangulation to offset this. Further, cases by nature are generalizable to propositions only, not populations. Thus, a valuable springboard is provided for further quantitative investigations.

Practical implications

The leadership style adopted by the team leader affects team cohesion, perceptions of learning, and learning‐related performance within the team. The findings provide a rationale for greater emphasis on the role, behavior and leading style that are adopted by the leader in order to produce desired team‐level outcomes.

Originality/value

The paper provides much needed extension and empirical validation of the initial model of ambidextrous leadership. The results show that the leader does have an effect on the team, and also that the leader's leadership style is critical to team level learning and related performance. This is valuable knowledge for trainers, recruiters, teams and leaders.
The reality of human resource management in Central and Eastern Europe
Authors: Brewster Chris , Morley Michael , Bučiūnienė Ilona
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and contextualize this special issue of theBaltic Journal of Managementand provide a route map for the reader through the various contributions.

Design/methodology/approach

This overarching paper contextualizes the theme and introduces the selected papers.

Findings

The findings call attention to the unique practice and research environment that is Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and highlight the varying trajectories of these economies during the post‐socialist transition.

Research limitations/implications

The evidence points to a dearth of research on contemporary management practice in CEE and suggests this research context to be an important test bed for the spread and institutionalisation of international practice.

Originality/value

Combined the papers explore aspects of the landscape of human resource management in contemporary CEE and showcase international theoretical and empirical work focused on this region.
The extended business case for childcare and leave arrangements in Western and Eastern Europe
Authors: den Dulk Laura , Peters Pascale , Poutsma Erik , Ligthart Paul E.M.
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose an “extended conceptualization of the business case” including both organizational characteristics and institutional conditions to analyse employer involvement in extra statutory childcare and leave arrangements. Special attention is given to Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Design/methodology/approach

The (multi‐level) multinomial regression analyses included company‐level data on human‐resource practices of 2,865 firms nested in 19 countries, representing all European welfare state regimes.

Findings

The extended business case appeared fruitful in order to explain variations in employer involvement. Particularly, state support was found to be negatively related to employer involvement. In the liberal regime, employer involvement was high, but variations across organizations were significant. In CEE‐countries, employer involvement was lowest, and did not vary by organizational business‐case factors.

Research limitations/implications

The paper used data from a cross‐sectional survey. To capture the long‐term trends, dynamics and nuances in employer involvement within and across various institutional contexts, a longitudinal in depth study is needed.

Practical implications

While state support in many CEE countries is declining, the analyses showed that employers will not automatically step in by providing additional work‐family arrangements. Social partners could use institutional pressure to stimulate a balance between state support and employer involvement.

Originality/value

The extended business‐case perspective contributes to the theory on the institutional embeddedness of decision making of employers. Moreover, it adds to the knowledge on employer involvement in institutional contexts which have hardly been studied before.
Building organizational trust in a low‐trust societal context
Authors: Pučėtaitė Raminta , Lämsä Anna‐Maija , Novelskaitė Aurelija
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to explore the interrelations between organizational trust and ethics management tools as well as ethical organizational practices in a post‐socialist context.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual framework of the interrelations among organizational trust, ethics management tools and ethical organizational practices is reasoned and the interrelations among the variables are explored using quantitative methods of data analysis. The method of data gathering is a questionnaire survey that was carried out in Lithuania which is taken as an example of a post‐socialist society where trust is rather low. In total, answers from 519 respondents were collected.

Findings

The empirical findings confirm the interdependence of the variables. A significant dependence of organizational trust on ethical organizational practices has been established.

Research limitations/implications

The research findings imply that ethics management tools just weakly predict emergence of organizational trust in the organizations operating in a post‐socialist context. Rather, organizational practices which integrate ethical principles are considerably more important to building organizational trust. This is a peculiarity of a post‐socialist context where people were used to the relativity of the declared values and ideas, therefore, tend to search for evidence of value realization in practice. However, since post‐socialist societies differ in their socio‐historical past, this claim is not a generalization.

Practical implications

The paper provides managerial implications how to advance organizational trust in a post‐socialist context.

Originality/value

The research paper provides empirical evidence on the interrelations among organizational trust, ethics management tools and ethical organizational practices, which is scarce in the existing literature on organizational trust. In particular, neither the interrelation between ethics management tools and organizational trust nor a combined effect of ethics management tools and ethical organizational practices on organizational trust has been empirically tested. Thus, the paper fills in this gap in the related literature.
HR function developments in Lithuania
Authors: Kazlauskaitė Rūta , Bučiūnienė Ilona
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of past and current developments in human resource (HR) function in Lithuania.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper discusses the antecedents of HR function developments in Lithuania through an analysis of the country's demographic, economic, legal and cultural environments and historical human resource management (HRM) developments. Current HR function status is shown through findings of an HR manager/specialist survey conducted at 119 medium‐ and large‐sized organisations, which was part of the 2008‐2009 Cranet survey.

Findings

The majority of organisations have HRM departments and an HR strategy, and in about half HR is represented on the board and is involved to some extent in business strategy development. HR responsibility is shared by line management and HR function. About 90 per cent of organisations have a mission statement and a business strategy. Trade union power is currently low due to historic and political reasons; however, findings show that it is gaining more status. About half of the organisations have developed corporate social responsibility policies, though few offer non‐statutory social welfare schemes. Reward individualisation is higher among private‐sector employers. Downward communication is used to a considerable extent by both private and public organisations, while upward communication is more extensively practised by private‐sector organisations.

Practical implications

The paper discloses current HR function developments in Lithuania based on its historical heritage, antecedents in macro/micro environments and empirical data, which provide valuable insights for local organisations and foreign investors into current HRM status.

Originality/value

The paper discloses the influences on HR function developments and their current status in Lithuania, which are still under‐researched in the country, and contributes to HRM research in the Central and East Europe region.
Public sector HRM: the case of no central human resource strategy
Authors: Järvalt Jane , Randma‐Liiv Tiina
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to outline and analyse the limitations and opportunities of decentralised human resource management (HRM) in the public sector.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on a case study of the Estonian Central Government.

Findings

It is demonstrated that the absence of a central human resource strategy, combined with fragmentation, insufficient coordination and a lack of common values throughout the public service as well as with other limitations related to the country's post‐communist legacy has hindered a systematic approach to public service HRM. However, the paper also reveals that a decentralised setup of HRM has enabled Estonia to flexibly conduct major reforms on the organisational level during the transition of the 1990s and in the following Europeanisation period.

Research limitations/implications

Although the case study method limits the extent to which findings of the study may be generalised to other countries and settings, there are still several lessons to be learned from the Estonian case of no central HR strategy.

Practical implications

The practical recommendations are related to the applicability of the strategic HRM model, path dependency of the development of HRM and the strategic fit between a country's HRM model and the wider context in which it is applied.

Originality/value

The paper provides a new look to the macro‐level HR policies and to the institutional setup of central HR coordination in the context of fast reforms.
Enhancing informal learning to improve job satisfaction
Authors: Alonderienė Raimonda
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The paper aims to analyze the relationship between managers' informal learning and their job satisfaction in Lithuanian small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology of the survey has been developed in respect to the ideas on informal learning and job satisfaction. The questionnaire on informal learning factors was developed by the author. Also, the adapted Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire was used. A representative sample of 173 SMEs managers in Lithuania was surveyed.

Findings

The paper reveals the relationship between managers' informal learning and their job satisfaction in Lithuanian SMEs. Informal learning factors not only correlate with but also have an impact on job satisfaction. The survey findings correspond to similar surveys carried out in other countries.

Research limitations/implications

The research could be replicated in large organizations as well as in other countries to confirm or deny the relations established in this survey.

Practical implications

Understanding and managing informal learning factors can help improve job satisfaction in Lithuanian SMEs.

Originality/value

The clarified concept of informal learning is presented. Also, the systematized set of informal learning factors is introduced and tested empirically.
Managerial narratives: a critical dialogical approach to managerial identity
Authors: McKenna Steve
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of a dialogical approach, associated with the Russian literary critic and philosopher Bakhtin, in understanding the portrayal of managerial identity in management narratives. In particular, it applies these ideas critically to understand how managers' identities are partly shaped by the dominant discourse or idea about what a manager should “be.”

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on three written narratives of managers. It applies a dialogical approach to consider how they position themselves interactionally in the narratives in such a way as to highlight a managerial identity based on being “enterprising” and “for change,” while simultaneously voicing alternative identities negatively. The use of the written narratives of managers and the application of a dialogical approach is an important contribution to the literature.

Findings

The findings suggest that managers, when reflecting on organizational events through narrative, assume a managerial identity that reflects current dominant discourse about what a manager should “be.” In doing so they reject other possible discourses that offer alternatives, not only to managerial “being,” but also to what management and organizations might reflect and represent. The paper also, however, recognizes that some managers reject this identity and its implications for organizational activity.

Research limitations/implications

The paper suggests that managerial identity is partly a product of a dominant discursive/ideological formation rather than individual choice. Although managers may reject this interpellation creating an alternative is constrained by the regime of truth that prevails about what management is at any given time. The approach might be considered overly deterministic in its view of managerial identity.

Originality/value

The paper extends the understanding of managerial identity and how it is portrayed through narrative by using a dialogical approach to interpretation.
The diary project: revealing the gendered organisation
Authors: Plowman Penelope J.
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show how an application of the qualitative diary method reveals the gendered organisation.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on the author's experience of her own design and implementation of the diary method, using qualitative diaries, dialogues and interviews. The application is known as the “diary project” and is carried out in a case‐study organisation in which the researcher is addressing wider questions about gender, change and organisation.

Findings

The outcomes show how the diary project methodology is effective for learning about gender norms and practices embedded in organisational culture. Reflections on the interface between the personal and the professional, the formal and the informal, emotion, sexuality and power, hierarchies and difference, draw out significant organisational phenomena which shape advantage and disadvantage and unequal access and control.

Research limitations/implications

The diary project methodology is about the organisation in the present. To study gender embedded in the organisation requires the organisational researcher to also work with other research methods, to achieve a deep understanding.

Practical implications

The experience of the diary project is that it offers organisational researchers and change practitioners a methodology for study and intervention.

Originality/value

The paper is of use to readers looking for a participatory organisational research methodology to examine the gendered organisation. Findings highlight the value of the diary project methodology for a deep analysis of organisation.
Reflexivity: recursion and relationality in organizational research processes
Authors: Hibbert Paul , Coupland Christine , MacIntosh Robert
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The paper seeks to support a better understanding of the types (or processes) of reflexivity which may be involved in the practice of organizational research, and the implications of reflexive practice for organizational researchers.

Design/methodology/approach

A characterization of reflexivity as a process is developed from extant research, in four steps. First, the principal dimensions of reflexivity – reflection and recursion – are identified and delineated. Second, recursion is shown to have two modes, active and passive. Third, reflection is shown to have both closed, self‐guided and open, relational modes. Fourth, through integrating the detailed characterizations of each of the dimensions, different types of reflexivity are identified and defined.

Findings

The paper shows how different types of reflexivity may be experienced sequentially, as a progressive process, by organizational researchers. Implications for research practice are derived from a consideration of this process.

Originality/value

The paper develops a novel conceptualization of reflexivity as a process with individual and relational aspects. This conceptualization supports important insights for the conduct and legitimation of reflexive research.
Exploring inner landscapes through psychophenomenology
Authors: Tosey Paul , Mathison Jane
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore a contemporary European development in research into first person accounts of experience, called psychophenomenology, that offers enhancements to phenomenological interviewing. It is a form of guided introspection that seeks to develop finely grained first‐person accounts by using distinctions in language, internal sensory representations and imagery that have been incorporated from neuro‐linguistic programming (NLP). It is also a participative, relational and developmental form of interviewing, in the sense that the interviewee can gain significant insight into their experience; the process is not concerned purely with data gathering.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors review the theoretical assumptions on which psychophenomenology is based, then describe the principal method used in psychophenomenology, the “explicitation interview”. The interview protocol is illustrated with transcript data, through which they identify specific aspects of NLP that have been incorporated into psychophenomenology.

Findings

Psychophenomenology offers refinements to the precision of phenomenological methods found in organizational research, such as interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Research limitations/implications

The epistemological claims and implications of psychophenomenology are reviewed.

Practical implications

These developments may provide a basis for reconsidering the research value of introspection, which has often been dismissed as non‐rigorous.

Originality/value

The paper introduces psychophenomenology to the field of organizational research. It also describes how psychophenomenology has innovated by drawing from NLP, an approach to personal development that is found in organizational practices such as executive coaching, in order to enhance the precision and rigour of both interviews and transcript analysis.
The hospital safety coordinator as “practical author”
Authors: Lentz Paula , Lauver Kristy , Johs‐Artisensi Jennifer
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how one hospital safety coordinator socially constructs a complete environment of care. Specifically, it applies Shotter's “practical author” framework to examine the author‐response interaction between the safety coordinator and other mid‐level supervisors.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative methodology is employed to examine this authorship. Data include printed materials employees receive upon hire, an observation of an environment of care orientation presentation, and semi‐structured interviews with the safety coordinator and mid‐level supervisors.

Findings

The paper reveals how the safety coordinator uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to balance the tensions between mandating compliance with environment of care requirements and facilitating buy‐in to the idea of compliance as a moral and ethical imperative. This creates an ethos among the employees where they feel authorized to go beyond the requirements and act on their own to construct a safer culture.

Research limitations/implications

The paper has multiple practical and theoretical implications that may be useful to health care and other organizations when examining the broader need for a complete, supportive environment where employees not only comply with but actually live and believe in the values of their organizations' cultures. A limitation is that employee perspective and behavior are primarily inferred based on supervisor reports.

Originality/value

The paper extends theory on communication and developing organizational environments and provides practical application possibilities for organizations.
Banking supervision and nonperforming loans: a cross‐country analysis
Authors: Boudriga Abdelkader , Boulila Taktak Neila , Jellouli Sana
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse the cross‐countries determinants of nonperforming loans (NPLs), the potential impact of supervisory devices, and institutional environment on credit risk exposure.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper employs aggregate banking, financial, economic, and legal environment data for a panel of 59 countries over the period 2002‐2006. It develops a comprehensive model to explain differences in the level of NPLs between countries. To assess the role of regulatory supervision on credit risk, the paper uses several interactions between institutional features and regulatory devices.

Findings

The empirical results indicate that higher capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and prudent provisioning policy seems to reduce the level of problem loans. The paper also reports a desirable impact of private ownership, foreign participation, and bank concentration. However, the findings do not support the view that market discipline leads to better economic outcomes. All regulatory devices do not significantly reduce problem loans for countries with weak institutions, corrupt environment, and little democracy. Finally, the paper shows that the effective way to reduce bad loans is through strengthening the legal system and increasing transparency and democracy, rather than focusing on regulatory and supervisory issues.

Practical implications

First, higher CARs results in less credit exposures. Second, international regulators should continue their efforts to enhance financial development. The results suggest that foreign participation plays an important role in reducing credit exposure of financial institutions. However, in developed countries, foreign entry led to more problem loans. Finally, to reduce credit risk exposure in countries with weak institutions, the effective way to do it is through enhancing the legal system, strengthening institutions, and increasing transparency and democracy.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature on banking regulation and supervision. It examines aggregated data which best reflect the level of NPL of the banks in a country as opposed to individual data included in databases that suffer from the problem of representativeness. It considers the impact of regulatory variables after controlling for bank industry factors that alter primarily problem loans. Finally, the paper examines the effectiveness of regulation through the inclusion of institutional factors.
The Fed and the ECB: why such an apparent difference in reactivity?
Authors: Penot Alexis , Levieuge Grégory
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to try to understand the reasons for the differences in amplitude of monetary policy (MP) rate cycles in the USA and the euro area. Among the different candidates, the paper aims to test the role of economic structures, macroeconomic shocks, and MP behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper starts by estimating vector autoregressive models both for the USA and the euro area to identify the economic structures, the MP rules, and the macroeconomics shocks of both areas. Then, it runs counterfactual simulations (by injecting European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary rule in the US model for example) to examine which factors had the most significant impact on differences in MP activism (measured by the variance of interest rates).

Findings

The paper finds that differences implied by MP rules alone cannot explain the dissimilarity of interest rates paths. In the same way, while cyclical shocks are different in each area, they do not suffice to explain the factual divergences. Finally, it is the structural dissimilarities which essentially explain the difference in interest rate variances.

Originality/value

The paper brings new informations on a controversial issue and it tends to reject the official explanations given by ECB's governor who points out differences in shocks.
Optimal monetary policy under heterogeneity in currency trade
Authors: Bask Mikael
Published: May 2010

Purpose

Questionnaire surveys made at currency markets around the world reveal that currency trade to a large extent not only is determined by an economy's performance or expected performance. Indeed, a fraction is guided by technical trading, which means that past exchange rates are assumed to provide information about future exchange rate movements. The purpose of this paper is to ask how a successful monetary policy should be designed when technical trading in the form of trend following is used in currency trading.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper embeds an optimal policy rule into Galí and Monacelli's dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model for a small open economy, which is augmented with trend following in currency trading, to examine the prerequisites for a successful monetary policy. Specifically, the conditions for a determinate rational expectations equilibrium (REE) that also is stable under least squares learning are in focus. The paper also computes impulse‐response functions for key variables to study how the economy returns to steady state after being hit by a shock.

Findings

The paper finds that a determinate REE that also is stable under least squares learning often is the outcome when there is a limited amount of trend following in currency trading, but that a more flexible inflation rate targeting in monetary policy sometimes cause an indeterminate REE in the economy. Thus, strict, or almost strict, inflation rate targeting in monetary policy is recommended also when there is technical trading in currency trading and not only when all currency trading is guided by fundamental analysis (in the form of rational expectations). This result is a new result in the literature.

Originality/value

There are already models in the literature on monetary policy design that incorporate technical trading in currency trading into an otherwise standard DSGE model. There is also a huge amount of DSGE models in the literature in which monetary policy is optimal. However, the model in this paper is the first model, to the best of the author's knowledge, where technical trading in currency trading and optimal monetary policy are combined in the same DSGE model.
Corporations and the third sector: responsible marriages at last?
Authors: Baraka Dwayne
Published: May 2010

Purpose

Corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) and its themes have taken root across the globe in the last 25 years. Corporations have generally responded by either embracing CSR as an important tool for productivity and value‐creation or by adapting to the changed and changing business environment caused by CSR. The third sector has a complex set of relationships with CSR, at times exhibiting tension about the changing role of corporations as a result of CSR. This paper seeks to show how conceptions of the value of CSR by corporations and third sector (CTS) organisations affect the nature and outcome of interactions between them.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides a framework to assist in explicating the standpoint of an entity and its likely engagement with others in relation to CSR. The framework is used to compared CSR motivations across CTS organisations in order to show where those motivations and orientations are compatible or in conflict.

Findings

The paper finds that CTS organisations may be able to better predict the likelihood of success before engaging with a partner.

Research limitations/implications

The frameworks identified will provide a basis for further research in relation to the pre‐engagement phase of corporate and third sector organisations partners.

Practical implications

The paper will help practitioners and corporations engaging in CSR and those in the third sector seeking engagement to find mutually beneficial grounds for a sustainable relationship.

Originality/value

There is growing concern among those who need to manage the relationship to find better terms of engagement. However, ground is largely unexplored.
Globally fit leadership: four steps forward
Authors: Smith Jonathan , Rayment John
Published: May 2010

Purpose

Businesses operate in a world facing a range of urgent global issues (UGIs). Unless an effective response is made in the near future, extremely damaging consequences are forecast. The purpose of this paper is to offer assistance to business leaders in balancing the short‐term local pressures with the long‐term global demands from these urgent issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper offers proposals for four initial steps that can be considered by leaders for responding effectively to this global crisis.

Findings

Four initial steps are proposed, and these steps are interconnected. The proposal includes a new conceptualisation of fitness and highlights the need for leadership fitness to responding effectively to this global crisis.

Practical implications

The paper offers powerful reasons why business leaders have to engage more fully with global issues and proposes four pragmatic initial steps that will enable them to do this effectively.

Social implications

The paper will encourage business leaders to engage more with resolving UGIs, which may ultimately save our planet.

Originality/value

The paper provides an original and valuable contribution through the combination of the four initial steps that are proposed for moving towards a resolution of these UGIs.
A Chomskyan approach to responsible critical management education
Authors: Rabasso Carlos A. , Rabasso Javier
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to tackle some of the concepts and ideas that the intellectual and business community can learn from Chomsky's thinking in relation with a new global responsible management education environment. The first part of the work will present some of the key elements about Chomsky and education that the authors would like to emphasize. These are relating management education, critical thinking, and systems theory in the twenty‐first century business milieu.

Design/methodology/approach

An insight on post‐colonial theory and education will, afterwards, incorporate the hermeneutical tradition into the mainframe of critical thinking theory. The paper incorporates a decentred approach to education questioning presuppositions and moral values from “fundamentalist market theory.” Cultural studies and non‐western thinkers in this field are another important contribution to back up Chomsky's ideas on business and education.

Findings

When the paper relates social and economic performance concepts to critical thinking business education some questions arise about how to improve the responsible perception and understanding of the global environments and how the authors have to rethink education in a competitive profit‐oriented business community. The ideas of Chomsky can help them to deal with these issues departing from his political vision and his thinking on university education.

Research limitations/implications

Critical management has been questioning in the last years different management models to put forward a responsible paradigm for business organizations and educational institutions. Post‐colonial theory has been another important intellectual ground for critical thinking in the business educational environment, opening up the debate about how to reconcile performance and responsible practices.

Practical implications

Chomsky's committed political views open up the way for many educational institutions and business organizations to become responsible in a technological business environment severely damaged by greed and personal interest. Management schools will have learned from his contributions and the actions of many international organizations engaged in changing for the better attitudes and material values in favour of management for globally responsible practices and the construction of new learning objectives.

Originality/value

In business studies, comparative, critical, cross‐cultural, and diversity management many scholars have been dealing with some of the subjects of serious concern by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology leftist professor presented in this study. The paper has to take into consideration a transversal approach of business education in relation to the concept of cross‐cultural performance, already developed in the work on cross‐cultural and diversity management.
Political advocacy or electronic advocacy?
Authors: Laratta Rosario
Published: May 2010

Purpose

The purpose of this exploratory paper is to examine how affiliates of a Japanese Social Welfare Corporation, a national nonprofit organization (NPO) which provides services for social improvement, have utilized electronic techniques for advocacy purposes and explores the factors that identify those organizations which are likely to be most successful at adopting this resource.

Design/methodology/approach

The total number of affiliates investigated was 320, representing the entire country. For these affiliates, advocacy was part of their mission statement. A survey was conducted among representatives of these affiliates.

Findings

Three crucial explanatory factors in differentiating those affiliates that adopt new techniques from those that do not were identified. These are: “perceived time spent on government accountability demands,” “use of professionals,” and “perceived effectiveness.” Furthermore, by showing that time spent by nonprofit affiliates on government accountability demands reduces the time available to them for learning how to implement electronic techniques for advocacy purposes, the empirical results suggest that Japanese NPOs are put under pressure by statutory accountability demands and, consequently, their advocacy practice (as one of the most important mission‐based activities within the nonprofit sector) is being jeopardized.

Practical implications

This research will help state and local government policy makers towards a better understanding of their nonprofits so that statutory accountability demands do not longer obstacle nonprofits to enhance their advocacy functions.

Originality/value

The originality of this study lies primarily in the fact that it was the first time that this type of research has been conducted on Japanese nonprofits.
Transformative learning: UAE, women, and higher education
Authors: Madsen Susan R. , Cook Bradley J.
Published: May 2010

Purpose

Research on education for women in the Arab world is just beginning to unfold. In some countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, higher education for women has only been encouraged for the last few decades. Research that explores the perceptions of women in college learning environments is important to discover better ways of educating Emirati women for lifelong learning. This paper aims to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

An online quantitative survey (English and Arabic) was used to explore these perceptions, and 294 students participated.

Findings

The paper uses transformative learning theory to investigate potential influences or factors on the transformation of female Emirati students during their college years.

Originality/value

This and other research does support the assumption that transformative experiences for individual students within higher education can result in interest, intention, and action toward varying degrees of social transformation. Higher education, while having no explicit political or activist agenda, has resulted in some degree (among these respondents at least) of a redefinition of the role of work for women and their broader role in Emirati society, and in some ways have challenged prevailing social constructs based on male‐female stratification.