Kamran Ahmed, A. John Goodwin and Kim R. Sawyer
This study examines the value relevance of recognised and disclosed revaluations of land and buildings for a large sample of Australian firms from 1993 through 1997. In contrast…
Abstract
This study examines the value relevance of recognised and disclosed revaluations of land and buildings for a large sample of Australian firms from 1993 through 1997. In contrast to prior research, we control for risk and cyclical effects and find no difference between recognised and disclosed revaluations, using yearly‐cross‐sectional and pooled regressions and using both market and non‐market dependent variables. We also find only weak evidence that revaluations of recognised and disclosed land and buildings are value relevant.
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John Goodwin and Henrietta O’Connor
The transition from school to work is a crucial component in a young person’s transition to adulthood. Recently data have emerged from one of the very first projects on school to…
Abstract
The transition from school to work is a crucial component in a young person’s transition to adulthood. Recently data have emerged from one of the very first projects on school to work transitions. This research was undertaken in the early 1960s by researchers at the University of Leicester, and led by Norbert Elias. Nearly 900 interview schedules from the project “Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles” have been discovered, which provide a significant insight into the school to work transitions of the 1960s. This paper aims to present some of this data for the first time. In particular the discussion will focus on the respondents’ reflections on education, their expectations of paid employment and their perceptions of a “good job”. The paper concludes by reflecting on the value of using such historical data and considers its implications for current debates on transitions and the expectations of school leavers.
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John Goodwin, Henrietta O’Connor and Martin Quinn
– The purpose of this paper is report on findings from a survey of Vietnamese employers in 2008 highlighting key tends in training and future labour needs.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is report on findings from a survey of Vietnamese employers in 2008 highlighting key tends in training and future labour needs.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses data collected from a survey of Vietnamese employers during 2008. The survey was design by the authors and the fieldwork undertaken by representatives of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) with support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Findings
The survey shows that Vietnamese organisations understand the importance of training for their young workers but require more support from government and the VCCI to ensure effective training.
Practical implications
The paper contains a number of practical implications for Vietnamese employers and the VCCI.
Originality/value
Despite some opening of trade between Vietnam and the west, relatively little is still known about work, employment and training in Vietnam and there a few opportunities to undertake research of this nature. The main contribution of this paper is to report on current training practices and labour needs in Vietnam.
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John Newell, An-Yen Hu and Bradley Weber
To explain a series of no-action letters recently released by the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance that help to clarify the circumstances in which a company may exclude…
Abstract
Purpose
To explain a series of no-action letters recently released by the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance that help to clarify the circumstances in which a company may exclude shareholder proposals involving proxy access bylaw provisions from the company’s proxy statement.
Design/methodology/approach
Explains the background of competing proxy access bylaw provisions adopted or proposed by companies and proposed by shareholders, the “directly conflicts” test explained in SEC Staff Legal Bulletin 14H, and the “substantially implemented” guidelines implied in a series of no-action letters in February and March 2016. Explains the status of shareholder proxy access proposals as of Spring 2016.
Findings
Taken together with an earlier series of no-action letters released in February 2016 and Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14H, published in October 2015, companies considering the adoption of a proxy access bylaw provision now have a clearer understanding of when the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance is likely to conclude that a company may appropriately exclude a proxy access shareholder proposal in favor of a proxy access provision adopted or proposed by a company.
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Corporate financial communications concern public and private disclosure (Holland, 2005). This paper aims to explain how banks developed financial communications and how problems…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate financial communications concern public and private disclosure (Holland, 2005). This paper aims to explain how banks developed financial communications and how problems emerged in the global financial crisis. It explores policy responses.
Design/methodology/approach
Bank cases reveal construction and destruction of the social, knowledge and economic world of financial communications over two periods.
Findings
In the 1990s, learning about financial communications by a “dominant coalition” (Cyert, March, 1963) in bank top management was stimulated by gradual change. The management learnt how to accumulate social and cultural capital and developed “habitus” for disclosure (Bourdieu, 1986). From 2000, rapid change and secrecy factors accelerated bank internalisation of shareholder wealth maximising values, turning “habitus” in “market for information” (MFI) (Barker, 1998) into a “psychic prison” (Morgan,1986), creating riskier bank cultures (Schein, 2004) and constraining learning.
Research limitations/implications
The paper introduces sociological concepts to banking research and financial disclosures to increase the understanding about financial information and bank culture and about how regulation can avoid crises. Limitations reflect the small number of banks and range of qualitative data.
Practical implications
Regulators will have to make visible the change processes, new contexts and knowledge and connections to bank risk and performance through improved regulator action and bank public disclosure.
Social Implications
“Masking” and rituals (Andon and Free, 2012) restricted bank disclosure and weakened governance and market pressures on banks. These factors mediated bank failure and survival in 2008, as “psychic prisons” “fell apart”. Bank and MFI agents experienced a “cosmology episode” (Weick, 1988). Financial communications structures failed but were reconstructed by regulators.
Originality/value
The paper shows how citizens require transparency and contested accountability to democratise finance capitalism. Otherwise, problems will recur.
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John Goodwin, Laura Behan, Mohamad M. Saab, Niamh O’Brien, Aine O’Donovan, Andrew Hawkins, Lloyd F. Philpott, Alicia Connolly, Ryan Goulding, Fiona Clark, Deirdre O’Reilly and Corina Naughton
Adolescent mental health is a global concern. There is an urgent need for creative, multimedia interventions reflecting adolescent culture to promote mental health literacy and…
Abstract
Purpose
Adolescent mental health is a global concern. There is an urgent need for creative, multimedia interventions reflecting adolescent culture to promote mental health literacy and well-being. This study aims to assess the impact of a film-based intervention on adolescent mental health literacy, well-being and resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
A pretest-posttest intervention with a multi-methods evaluation was used. A convenience sample of ten schools facilitated students aged 15–17 years to engage in an online intervention (film, post-film discussion, well-being Webinar). Participants completed surveys on well-being, resilience, stigma, mental health knowledge and help-seeking. Five teachers who facilitated the intervention participated in post-implementation interviews or provided a written submission. Analysis included paired-t-test and effect size calculation and thematic analysis.
Findings
Matched pretest-posttest data were available on 101 participants. There were significant increases in well-being, personal resilience and help-seeking attitudes for personal/emotional problems, and suicidal ideation. Participants’ free-text comments suggested the intervention was well-received, encouraging them to speak more openly about mental health. Teachers similarly endorsed the intervention, especially the focus on resilience.
Originality/value
Intinn shows promise in improving adolescents’ mental health literacy and well-being. Film-based interventions may encourage adolescents to seek professional help for their mental health, thus facilitating early intervention.
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John Newell, Arthur McGivern and David Roberts
To explain SEC Division of Corporation Finance Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14H (SLB 14H), which provides interpretive advice on how the Staff will treat shareholder proposals under…
Abstract
Purpose
To explain SEC Division of Corporation Finance Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14H (SLB 14H), which provides interpretive advice on how the Staff will treat shareholder proposals under the “directly conflicts” and “ordinary business” exclusions under Rule 14a-8.
Design/methodology/approach
Explains Rule 14-8 concerning the inclusion of shareholder proposals in a company’s proxy materials, Rule 14a-8(i)(9) on substantive bases for exclusion of shareholder proposals, guidance from SLB 14H on shareholder proposals that do and do not directly conflict with company proposals, Staff guidance prior to SLB 14H, the “ordinary business” exclusion under Rule 14a-8(i)(7), and how SEC staff guidance differs from the majority opinion in Trinity Wall Street v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on the ordinary business exclusion.
Findings
The SEC Staff’s new standard for conflicting proposals is likely to make it more difficult for companies to exclude a shareholder proposal that is different from a management proposal if the two proposals are not “mutually exclusive”. Staff guidance also states that companies may not exclude proposals focusing on a significant policy issue under the ordinary business exclusion if “the proposals would transcend the day-to-day business matters and raise policy issues so significant that it would be appropriate for a shareholder vote”.
Originality/value
Expert guidance from experienced securities and financial services lawyers.
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People who experience mental illness often demonstrate limited help-seeking behaviours. There is evidence to suggest that media content can influence negative attitudes towards…
Abstract
Purpose
People who experience mental illness often demonstrate limited help-seeking behaviours. There is evidence to suggest that media content can influence negative attitudes towards mental illness; less is known about how media impacts help-seeking behaviours. The purpose of this study is to identify if media plays a role in people’s decisions to seek help for their mental health.
Design/methodology/approach
The databases Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycInfo, Social Sciences Full Text [H.W. Wilson] and Soc Index were systemically searched for papers in the English language that investigated the link between media and help-seeking for mental illness.
Findings
Sixteen studies met eligibility criteria. There was some evidence to suggest that various forms of media – including video and online resources – can positively influence help-seeking for mental health. Print media had some limited effect on help-seeking behaviours but was weaker in comparison to other forms of media. There was no evidence to suggest that media discourages people from seeking help.
Originality/value
This review identified that, given the heterogeneity of the included papers, and the limited evidence available, there is a need for more focused research to determine how media impacts mental health-related help-seeking behaviours.
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This chapter zooms in on how bodily gestures allow negotiations on upcoming works in an underground construction project, to transition into subsequent stages without leaving a…
Abstract
This chapter zooms in on how bodily gestures allow negotiations on upcoming works in an underground construction project, to transition into subsequent stages without leaving a trace. The gestures were observed during joint meetings of contractors/project managers in their work at an infrastructure mega project located in an international airport. These gestures conveyed meaning through acts of pointing, circling, shielding and bracketing in front of a digitally screened technical drawing. While these gestures entail no significant engineering skills or training, upon closer analysis, they reveal a refined craftsmanship. The gestures clarify, augment and suggest – but leave no visible, formal trace. The gestures convey meaning ambiguously compared to drawing or sketching – and leave no mark. As such, the meaning revealed through gesture remains tacit craftsman’s knowledge. Enveloped within past events, it turns those present in the meeting into gatekeepers: only they have accessed local, tacit knowledge required to interpret the technical drawings correctly and make decisions on upcoming works that can progress infrastructure projects underground on time and within budget. Following the role of gestures therefore gives an account of the informal ways in which engineers negotiate progress in construction work.
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Şeyda Deniz Tarım and Amy Kyratzis
Purpose – Disputes provide a way for children to negotiate how they stand in relationship to one another in the local peer group interaction (Goodwin, 1990, 2006). This study…
Abstract
Purpose – Disputes provide a way for children to negotiate how they stand in relationship to one another in the local peer group interaction (Goodwin, 1990, 2006). This study follows the everyday peer disputes and classroom negotiations of a peer group of 8-year-old to 12-year-old Turkish–English speaking (and Meskhetian Turkish–English–Russian speaking) children attending a Turkish Saturday School in the United States, where a monolingual Turkish norm is projected by the teachers, to see how these institutional language norms are used as a resource for the peers to conduct their everyday interactions.
Methodology/approach – This study combines methods of ethnography (data are drawn from a year-long ethnography which followed children's everyday language practices in two school settings) and talk-in-interaction, specifically Membership Categorization Analysis (Sacks, 1972, 1992).
Findings – Children draw upon the monolingual school norm of using Turkish only, and speaking Turkish correctly, by way of positioning themselves moment-to-moment during disputes with one another. Through repeated appeals to their teachers to relax the Turkish-only rule, they also collaboratively index “speaking English” as a positive category-bound activity (Cekaite & Evaldsson, 2008; Evaldsson, 2007), influencing the local moral order of the peer group.
Social implications/originality/value of chapter – The study provides a view of how children living in a transnational society orient to wider societal structures and “build the phenomenal and social worlds they inhabit” (Goodwin & Kyratzis, 2012) as part of their everyday disputes and negotiations with one another.