The manager in today's competitive and industrial society is continually finding himself in a constant struggle between the commitments he has to his wife and family and the…
Abstract
The manager in today's competitive and industrial society is continually finding himself in a constant struggle between the commitments he has to his wife and family and the commitments he has to his job and company. His search to reach a balance between these two commitments are in the forefront of his mind and daily activities.
Richard K. Fleischman, David Oldroyd and Thomas N. Tyson
The aim of this paper is to focus on the transition from slavery to wage workers in the American South and British West Indies, and the corresponding nature of the reporting and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to focus on the transition from slavery to wage workers in the American South and British West Indies, and the corresponding nature of the reporting and control procedures that were established in both venues, in order to create a disciplined workforce, and establish regular relations between employees and employers. It seeks to explain the differences in labour control practices between the two regions and to discuss the impact on these practices of accounting and other quantitative techniques c.1760-1870. In particular, it aims to consider the central role played by government in the process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study forms part of an archival research project, in which the authors have consulted archives in four Southern States (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina), three Caribbean island nations, formerly British colonies (Antigua, Barbados, and Jamaica), and record repositories the length and breadth of Great Britain. The records of the Freedmen ' s Bureau (FB), located in the National Archives, Washington, DC, have been likewise visited. These primary sources have been supported by the extensive secondary literature on slavery and its aftermath.
Findings
In the USA, accounting for labour in the transition from slavery was typically ad hoc and inconsistent, whereas in the BWI it was more organised, detailed, and displayed greater uniformity – both within and across colonies. The role of the British Colonial Office (BCO) was crucial here. A range of economic and political factors are advanced to explain the differences between the two locations. The paper highlights the limitations of accounting controls and economic incentives in disciplining labour without the presence of physical coercion in situations where there is a refusal on the part of the workers to cooperate.
Originality/value
There is a relatively small volume of secondary literature comparing US and BWI slavery and its legacy. Likewise, the accounting implications of labour-control practices, during the transition from slavery to freedom, are largely understudied. The research also points to a need to assess the decision-influencing capabilities of management accounting systems in other transitional labour settings.
Details
Keywords
Carolina Gómez and J. Gualberto Cremades
The purpose of this study was to investigate the goal commitment and satisfaction of participants from two different cultures when given a compliance goal versus no goal. Using a…
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the goal commitment and satisfaction of participants from two different cultures when given a compliance goal versus no goal. Using a sample of 104 Mexican and U.S. participants, we found significant differences in uncertainty avoidance but not power distance between the participants of the two cultures. In addition, uncertainty avoidance had a significant effect on both goal commitment and satisfaction regardless of the goal condition. Finally, there was a significant goal by country interaction, which shows that Mexican participants, rather than U.S. participants, were more committed and marginally more satisfied with a compliance goal than no goal. Despite differences between the cultures in uncertainty avoidance and a direct effect of uncertainty avoidance on individual reactions to goals, the interaction was not explained by uncertainty avoidance.
Details
Keywords
Martin Freedman, Bikki Jaggi and A.J. Stagliano
This study examines whether the 38 electric utility firms owning the 110 plants targeted by the 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) made adequate pollution disclosures to inform the…
Abstract
This study examines whether the 38 electric utility firms owning the 110 plants targeted by the 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) made adequate pollution disclosures to inform the stakeholders whether they met the pollution emission requirements of the Act by the start of its first phase. First, it evaluates pollution emissions of the targeted plans at the start of the first phase of the Act, i.e. 1995. Then, it evaluates whether pollution disclosures of these firms improved leading up to the first phase of the Act. This evaluation is done by comparing pollution disclosures for the start of the first phase, i.e. 1995, with the year the CAA was enacted, i.e. 1990. Pollution emission data are obtained from the Department of Energy and from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and pollution disclosure data for 1989, 1990 and 1995 are obtained from the annual reports and 10Ks. A specifically designed content analysis technique is used to categorize pollution disclosures.
The pollution emissions results indicate that 1995 emissions are significantly lower than 1990 emissions. On an individual plant basis, the results, however, indicated that some plants reduced emissions while others used the permit system. The pollution disclosures results indicate that the 1995 pollution disclosure are comparatively lower than 1990 disclosures. The reason for high disclosures for 1990 could have been to protect the firms against potential legal cases if the requirements were not met. Once the fears of legal actions subsided, pollution disclosures were probably reduced. Lack of consistency and adequacy in pollution disclosures, however, make it difficult for stakeholders to properly evaluate their future risks.
Brian Thomas‐Peter and Jason Jones
The PCL‐R has been heralded as the ‘unparalleled’ (Salekin et al, 1996) risk assessment tool for assessing risk of violent and non‐violent recidivism. In the UK, the PCL‐R looks…
Abstract
The PCL‐R has been heralded as the ‘unparalleled’ (Salekin et al, 1996) risk assessment tool for assessing risk of violent and non‐violent recidivism. In the UK, the PCL‐R looks likely to become an industry standard assessment in psychological evaluation of individuals thought to have a dangerous and severe personality disorder. However, current knowledge about the PCL‐R is unsatisfactory, and a number of issues need to be addressed before clinicians can be confident in the use of this measure. This paper highlights these issues from the perspective of the practising clinician. Questions are raised about the theoretical, methodological and treatment implications of the use of the PCL‐R. Future research needs are established in this context of caution over the use of the measure in routine clinical and academic assessment.
Networks as a tangible prospect are matched by resource sharing as a topic of current interest in librarianship. Organisational developments have emerged and attention has been…
Abstract
Networks as a tangible prospect are matched by resource sharing as a topic of current interest in librarianship. Organisational developments have emerged and attention has been paid to these over several years. In North America the debate has been serious and systematic as outlined in representative papers at the Aslib Conference of September 1977. The development and aims of the UNISIST and NATIS programmes of Unesco indicate considerable international commitment to the two “imagos” of progress. The two concepts are not independent and are particularly intertwined when automation is drawn in for synthesis. Other technologies—microforms, photocopying, near‐print processes, AV equipment, compact shelving and telex—are also playing a part in modern developments in librarianship and some have roles in network activities. The computer however, introduces a particularly dynamic inducement to large‐scale changes in the way of comprehensive and co‐ordinated information policy. Stevens points this up with a definition of a library network as “a formal organization of three or more autonomous organizations inter‐connected to achieve their common purposes through the joint use of communications and computer technology”. Of the common purposes which individual libraries and consortia alike aim to pursue access to information and materials is crucial and automation of bibliographic services should be the means of achieving it most directly.
Can we broaden the boundaries of the history of economic thought to include positionalities articulated by grassroots movements? Following Keynes’s famous remark from General…
Abstract
Can we broaden the boundaries of the history of economic thought to include positionalities articulated by grassroots movements? Following Keynes’s famous remark from General Theory that ‘practical men […] are usually the slaves of some defunct economist,’ we might be wont to dismiss such a push from below. While it is sometimes true that grassroots movements channel preexisting economic thought, I wish to argue that grassroots economic thought can also precede developments subsequently elaborated by economists. This paper considers such a case: by women at the intersection of the women’s liberation movement and the claimants’ unions movement in 1970s Britain. Oral historical and archival work on these working-class women and on achievements such as their succeeding to establish unconditional basic income as an official demand of the British Women’s Liberation Movement forms the springboard for my reconstruction of the grassroots feminist economic thought underpinning the women’s basic income demand. I hope to demonstrate, firstly, how this was a prefiguration of ideas later developed by feminist economists and philosophers; secondly, how unique it was for its time and a consequence of the intersectionality of class, gender, race, and dis/ability. Thirdly, I should like to suggest that bringing into the fold this particular grassroots feminist economic thought on basic income would widen the mainstream understanding and historiography of the idea of basic income. Lastly, I hope to make the point that, within the history of economic thought, grassroots economic thought ought to be heeded far more than it currently is.
Details
Keywords
Bath University Comparative Catalogue Study. Final report; J. H. Lamble, project head; Philip Bryant, project leader; Angela Needham, research officer. Bath University Library…
Abstract
Bath University Comparative Catalogue Study. Final report; J. H. Lamble, project head; Philip Bryant, project leader; Angela Needham, research officer. Bath University Library, 1975. 9 vols. BL‐R & D Report Nos. 5240/9