bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A fuzzy safety control framework for oil platforms
Authors: Oke S.A. , Charles‐Owaba O.E. , Johnson A.O. , Omogoroye O.O. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThis paper aims at developing a methodology capable of controlling accidents and failures in oil and gas production activities.Design/methodology/approachFuzzy analysis that is based on fuzzy linguistics, rule matrix, rule structures, and system operating rules is utilised. Fuzzy methodology is applied to develop a safety control model for the prevention of accidents and failures in oil and gas production activity offshore platforms.FindingsThe model is demonstrated with a case study, thereby suggesting the feasibility of the applied approach in practical cases.Practical implicationsPrimarily, the study aims to guarantee safety. Also uncertainties and imprecision that commonly characterize safety measurement systems are tracked. The time‐consuming activity in measurement and the requirement of lots of specific information about the process is avoided.Originality/valueThe results from the study provide valuable baseline information for future research investigating how safety of oil platforms is affected by some factors.
A comparative study on cultural differences and quality practices – Korea, USA, Mexico, and Taiwan
Authors: Kyoon Yoo Dong , Subba Rao S. , Hong Paul 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThis paper seeks to present an international comparative study on cultural differences and quality practices of four countries – Korea, USA, Mexico, and Taiwan. The paper aims to present a model, which depicts the relationships among cultures (i.e. power distance and collectivism), employee empowerment, and quality results (i.e. internal and external quality results).Design/methodology/approachAn analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a discriminant analysis were employed to test hypotheses following the research model. Using reliable and valid instruments, data from four countries were collected on employee empowerment, and internal and external quality results to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results suggest that collectivistic cultures, not power distance cultures, make a significant difference in employee empowerment, employee empowerment plays an important role in enhancing quality results in the four countries, and successful employee empowerment practices are not uniform across countries.Originality/valueThis paper makes a contribution to revealing the relationships among cultures, employee empowerment, and quality practices at the international level of study and to evoking managerial insights to multinational firms.
The importance of self‐ and shared leadership in team based knowledge work
Authors: Bligh Michelle C. , Pearce Craig L. , Kohles Jeffrey C. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeTo address the increasing need for novel approaches to leadership that deal with the challenges organizations face as they flatten, diversify, and confront increasingly complex problems.Design/methodology/approachA meso‐level theoretical model is developed that outlines the relationship between self‐ and shared leadership, focusing on the intermediary processes of trust, potency, and commitment that may lead to the development of shared leadership and ultimately more innovative knowledge creation.FindingsNine propositions are developed, addressing the relationships between self‐ and shared leadership, concluding with some of the theoretical and practical implications of the model and specific recommendations for future empirical work in this area.Research limitations/implicationsAn important boundary condition of the model is that it assumes team and organizational incentives are in place to encourage team building and the facilitation of team over individual achievements.Practical implicationsConceptualizing leadership in this way leads to numerous unanswered questions regarding how team dynamics influence, and are influenced by, various forms of leadership (including lateral, upward, and downward influence attempts). Greater dialogue between the team dynamics literature and the leadership literature may lead to new insights into how shared leadership is influenced by a variety of team characteristics, including team ability, size, member maturity, familiarity, likeability, cohesion, etc., all of which are potential areas for future research.Originality/valueImportant research questions that stem from consideration of these two theories in concert will prove critical in understanding the complex interrelationships among self‐leadership, shared leadership, and the creation of new knowledge in today's complex and dynamic organizations.
An investigation of TBL report assurance statements: UK and European evidence
Authors: Deegan Craig , Cooper Barry J. , Shelly Marita 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to document a study of European and UK triple bottom line (TBL) report assurance statements.Design/methodology/approachIn undertaking the research, an international database was constructed from which all known European and UK third‐party assurance statements that accompanied the release of TBL reports were selected for review.FindingsThe results of the analysis indicate that there is much variability and ambiguity inherent within the contents of the third‐party statements.Research limitations/implicationsThe UK and European reports included within the database compiled by the researchers provide the basis of the information used to develop this paper. In selecting assurance statements to include within the database, the latest TBL report from each reporting organization was obtained (and it should be appreciated that many organizations do not produce TBL reports on an annual basis). Of the 170 reports available internationally at the time the research was undertaken, 8 are from 2000, 86 from 2001, 65 from 2002, and 11 from 2003. Whilst the database is the most extensive one of its type, given the finite nature of resources available, it is stressed that the database is not exhaustive.Practical implicationsTaken together, the results of this analysis lead us to question the value that such assurance statements provide to the TBL reporting process.Originality/valueAssesses the ambiguity and questions the value of assurance work on TBL statements as currently being undertaken.
Crime and punishment in the marketplace
Authors: Reinstein Alan , Moehrle Stephen R. , Reynolds‐Moehrle Jennifer 
Published: July 2006

PurposeTo develop theoretical frameworks to discuss high profile scandals, where responsible accountants and other executives could have saved themselves, many investors and others severe personal and financial loss by considering the costs of improper or immoral behavior. These cases emphasize the importance of ethics driving accountants' decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses these ethical lapses in light of applying Kohlberg's models, biblical examples from the Old and New Testaments and the Koran, and other ethical systems.FindingsThe paper shows that this concept is not new. Throughout history, people have taken actions that cost them their freedom, their money and most importantly, their good names. Upon reflection, many of these people are astounded at the seriousness of their action given what little they had to gain from continued involvement. In reinforcing lessons that should be learned from cases of business malfeasance and highlighting many well‐known accounting and other scandals, we develop recurrent themes in the nature of business scandals and show that many people are responsible for or complicit in the malfeasance. These individuals could have prevented the fraud or minimized any adverse impact if they had considered their behavior ex ante. We show that the employees portrayed demonstrated very low‐levels of ethical development and seemed to underestimate the probability of getting caught and the resulting punishment. We also elicit many reasons from several viewpoints for not becoming involved in fraud.Research limitations/implicationsIt is hoped that the next generation of business leaders and middle level staff alike will consider the results/messages of this paper when faced with ethical dilemmas.Practical implicationsThe paper concludes that the best internal control in a business structure remains the hiring and training of morally upstanding employees and managers who recognize the values of their good names before temptations arise. Incentive plans can encourage ethical behavior.Originality/valuePractitioners must consider fully the potential consequences of their actions no matter how small the perceived probability of a bad outcome.
The impact of audit risk, materiality and severity on ethical decision making
Authors: Marshall Rex , Smith Malcolm , Armstrong Robert 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of the tax agent as a preparer of tax returns and provider of professional tax advice under a system based on self‐assessment principles. It recognises the competing pressures under which tax agents attempt to discharge their professional responsibilities, and examines the implications for potentially unethical behaviour.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a mail survey of tax professionals in Western Australia. Respondents are presented with realistic tax return scenarios, in which the demands of the client are varied according to the risk of audit, the severity of tax law and the materiality of dollar amounts involved.FindingsThe findings suggest that the severity of tax law violation is an important factor in ethical decision‐making, but that audit risk and the amounts involved are not.Research limitations/implicationsThe lack of support for audit risk as an influential variable is an important outcome, because policy makers have traditionally proceeded on the basis that increases in audit probabilities will reduce the likelihood of taxpayers adopting aggressive tax reporting positions. However, since the findings are based on an Australian sample, care must be taken in generalizing these findings elsewhere.Practical implicationsThe implications are important in that alternative enforcement and compliance strategies must be considered by tax administrators.Originality/valueThe paper extends empirical research into taxpayer attitudes to those of the preparers of tax returns. The findings will be of relevance both to tax agents and to tax administrators.
Are Spanish auditors skeptical in going concern evaluations?
Authors: Guiral Andrés , Esteo Francisco 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThis study is an attempt to explore Spanish auditors' sensitivity towards financial evidence and the implications of the so‐called “recency effect” in a context of an ambiguous standard.Design/methodology/approachUsing Hogarth and Einhorn's belief revision model, we designed a lab experiment to examine how presentation order affects the going concern judgments and the audit decisions of auditors, and the level of skepticism showed by auditors towards the signs of evidence. Two important factors, which may affect the decision‐making process and auditors' attitude to the evidence were also manipulated: the hypothesis frame and audit experience. The sample of subjects participating in this study comprises 81 Spanish auditors and 104 auditing postgraduate students.FindingsIt was found an order effect, whereby those auditors who received favorable evidence at the end of a series showed greater confidence in their client's continuity and thus issued less severe audit reports than in the case of when negative evidence was processed last. Further, it was did not found that experience or framing reduced the recency bias. Moreover, the estimation of auditor sensitivity to the evidence suggests a lack of professional skepticism in the evaluation of the client's going concern status.Practical implicationsFirst, the structure of auditing standards might contribute to auditors' reluctance to issue qualified audit reports. Second, the absence of skepticism might be contributing to the profound debate and notable feeling of distrust regarding the social function that the auditor profession should fulfill.Originality/valueRecent major financial scandals give us a reason to question whether auditors are skeptical in the going concern task. This study expands previous research of Bamber et al. by investigating the auditors' attitude towards the evidence in the going concern evaluation.
Perceptions of auditor independence in Barbados
Authors: Alvin Alleyne Philmore , Devonish Dwayne , Alleyne Peter 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe study investigates the perceptions of auditor independence (PAI) between auditors and users in Barbados.Design/methodology/approachA self‐administered questionnaire was adapted and modified from Beattieet al.'s study in the UK the sample included 66 auditors and 148 users. Factors relating to the size and closeness of Barbadian society, lengthy tenure and being a sole audit practitioner, small audit firm, provision of non‐audit services (NAS) among others, were investigated.FindingsEconomic dependence of auditor on the client, the provision of NAS, high competition, small firm size, being a sole practitioner, lengthy tenure and the size and closeness of Barbadian society were found to negatively affect PAI. Auditor independence was perceived to be enhanced by the existence of audit committees, rotation of audit partners, risks to auditor arising from poor quality, regulatory rights and requirements surrounding auditor change and an auditor's right to attend and be heard at the company's annual general meetings.Research limitations/implicationsOwing to the relatively small sample size and small emerging market, these findings should be interpreted with caution.Practical implicationsThis research serves to inform audit related policies and regulation on the potential threats to auditor independence.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the limited body of research on auditor independence in small developing countries.
Public diplomacy practitioners: a changing cast of characters
Authors: Snow Crocker 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to illuminate the role of multiple non‐governmental players in the practice of public diplomacy.Design/methodology/approachPublic diplomacy has become a crowded and competitive field in the US in terms of who speaks for the country and who in fact has the most impact and influence on overseas public perceptions of it. Reviewing the history of public diplomacy as primarily the practice of government agencies leads on to the new reality of multiple non‐governmental players in the field today, including mainly media, business and NGO's. This new reality parallels the fact that America no longer has the field of public diplomacy largely to itself; many governments have their own public diplomacy activities with mixed influence and effect.FindingsWhile governments initiated the official practice of public diplomacy during the cold war, there are a host of new unofficial players in the field today – in the US and other countries – with competing national and international interests.Originality/valueThis article highlights the particular role played by media, multinational corporations, and NGO's in public diplomacy today, in the context of the contemporary history of the field.
The shifting subtleties of “special”: differences in US and UK approaches to public diplomacy in business
Authors: Holmes Alison 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to compare the American and British approaches to public diplomacy and the impact that has on the role of business.Design/methodology/approachSince the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, both the UK and US governments have been examining their public diplomacy activities with a view to a more effective use of their resources as well as the involvement of other parties. Given the strength of the economic relationship between these two countries, it is instructive to compare their resulting definitions of public diplomacy to attitudes found in the transatlantic business community. To that end, their current definitions of public diplomacy will be examined in light of data gathered from business survey of transatlantic companies conducted by UK Trade and Investment and BritishAmerican Business Inc. as well as views from those working in public diplomacy.FindingsThe US has increasingly taken a view of public diplomacy that conflates its political diplomatic agenda concerned with national interest and security with its general outreach in terms of information and dialogue. This makes it more difficult for business to effectively support broader public diplomacy objectives.Originality/valueThis paper provides a different view of US public diplomacy activities that may be a useful guide in revising their approach so as to make it more similar to the UK version which values more of a separation between political and public diplomacy.
Businesses for Middle East peace‐building: a framework for engagement
Authors: Kidder Rushworth M. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThis paper outlines a framework for engaging international business in the Palestinian‐Israeli peace process, based not on traditional profit models but on corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approachA crucial ingredient to Middle East peace is an economic development process providing jobs, stability, and growth in the West Bank and Gaza. This paper reports on a 26 member consultation at Windsor Castle, England, convened by the Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) in September 2002 to bring together Palestinians and Israelis from the region with business leaders and professionals from Europe, the US, and Canada. The consultation was preceded by an IGE research paper and followed by a published report.FindingsA discussion of the arguments for CSR engagement in the Middle East, along with two key documents agreed by the participants, are reported here. A “statement of principles” identifies six traits of successful CSR activities in the region. The second, listing 21 “practical steps for promoting economic development,” identifies potential business interventions listed in descending order of risk, complexity, cost, and long‐term commitment, including such items as “create micro‐enterprise opportunities for local entrepreneurs, and commit to purchasing their outputs,” and “help create management and/or skills training programs within the region.” The participants strongly agreed that the global business community, acting within a CSR framework, could significantly advance the prospects for Middle East peace.Originality/valueThis paper will interest business executives, CSR proponents, diplomats and economists, and leaders within the region seeking ways to jump‐start the currently stalled peace process.
Knowledge‐based organizations in context
Authors: Calabrese Francesco A. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThis article seeks to discuss a balanced and effective holistic knowledge management (KM) framework, which consists of four key domains postulated and validated in the late 1990s and 2000 as The George Washington University (GWU) four‐pillar KM framework: leadership, organization, technology, and learning.Design/methodology/approachThe two conceptual organizational models of an “adaptive enterprise” and “agile enterprise” are briefly described, their utility challenged and a request launched for empirical findings documenting the organizational implementations and linkages to leadership, technology and learning with attendant performance results.FindingsThe twenty‐first century has surfaced the need for more flexible and responsive knowledge‐based organizational entities capable of rapidly adjusting to the increasing rate of change and demands in both products and services.Originality/valueProvides an insight into the George Washington University four‐pillar KM framework.
The transformation of business knowledge into intangible assets
Authors: Green Annie 
Published: July 2006

PurposeProposes that one should take a few steps back to engineer and understand one's knowledge blueprint, so that one can understand better and have more certainty in one's outcome of knowledge valuation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper discusses knowledge valuation.FindingsBusinesses are chasing “knowledge” and implementing “knowledge” solutions, with not a clue as to whether the knowledge they are chasing or using to solve business problems is achieving the outcome towards which they are driving. In other words, there is no clear starting‐point (baseline measures) that can be monitored and tracked over time to ensure that the goal is being achieved, to encourage abandonment if the results are not favorable, or to revise the goal if the outcome is favorable. Notwithstanding, there are success stories in leveraging knowledge, but have businesses in the knowledge era truly institutionalized the identification, capture and leveraging of knowledge to adequately manage and control the intangible assets that contribute 70 percent of the value of a business?Originality/valueContains useful information on knowledge valuation.
Knowledge management needs security too
Authors: Ryan Julie J.C.H. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThis paper proposes that research should be conducted in how to manage the tension between the conflicts of interest between knowledge sharing and knowledge protection.Design/methodology/approachThis paper gives an overview of the security needs of knowledge management.FindingsA particularly interesting challenge is the conflict of interest between individuals (including enterprises) and communities of practice. Innovation spurred through common interest can be dangerous for individuals in the short term, while beneficial to the community as a whole. Greater understanding of these tensions can assist managers in understanding how and when to apply protections in knowledge management.Originality/valueContains useful information on the security needs of knowledge management.
A research agenda for the enterprise of the future
Authors: Murray Arthur J. , Greenes Kent A. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to summarize the results of the first enterprise of the future industry roundtable. The purpose of the roundtable was to identify the major areas of research needed to help organizations transform themselves in order to achieve sustainable performance in a flat world.Design/methodology/approachThe agenda consisted of individual presentations by thought leaders, followed by a roundtable discussion.FindingsThe group concluded that in order to help organizations transform themselves, a focused research effort was required in the following four areas; transformation through the co‐creation of new business ecosystems and strategies; new, non‐hierarchical organizational designs; creating ideal environments for attracting, retaining, and growing talent; integrating a myriad of technology components into a unified infrastructure.Originality/valueEnterprise transformation is an expensive and risky undertaking. These findings provide an initial set of the most critical research areas needed for successful transformation. Decision makers can use these results as a guide for planning their future research agenda.
Using the internet to communicate during a crisis
Authors: Jefferson Theresa L. 
Published: July 2006

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss how the internet is influencing and changing communication practices utilized during a crisis.Design/methodology/approachProvides an overview of communication practices during recent disasters.FindingsDiscusses the need for disaster management responses to change in order to capitalize on the technology.Originality/valueThis paper is a useful source of information about now the internet is influencing and charging communication practices.