Gerry Yemen and Martin N. Davidson
David Walker, a senior attorney in a busy white-shoe law practice is involved in an in-office dispute between his administrative assistant and a respected colleague. He had spent…
Abstract
David Walker, a senior attorney in a busy white-shoe law practice is involved in an in-office dispute between his administrative assistant and a respected colleague. He had spent numerous hours listening to both sides tell their stories and has no answers. How was he ever going to help two people he valued greatly work out a compromise between their extremely polar positions? The case provides opportunities to explore the sources of interpersonal conflict, causes of escalation, and ways of diffusing and resolving it.
Haiyan Qian and Allan David Walker
The purpose of this paper is threefold: to sketch the current policy context that frames the education of migrant children in Shanghai; to explore the work lives of school leaders…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is threefold: to sketch the current policy context that frames the education of migrant children in Shanghai; to explore the work lives of school leaders in the privately owned but government-supported schools; and to understand the socio-cultural and educational factors that shape the leadership practices in these schools.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper drew from publicly accessible policy papers and interview data with four principals leading migrant children’s schools in Shanghai.
Findings
Migrant children’s schools have received increasing policy recognition and attention. Principals of these schools have strived to adopt various leadership strategies to enhance the quality of education as received by migrant children. However, due to the institutional barriers such as hukou, multiple challenges continue to face migrant children and leaders leading migrant schools.
Originality/value
This is one of the first few papers that collected data from principals leading migrant children’s schools. The paper contributes to further understandings about leadership in high-needs school context and about education quality and equity in relation to programme for international student assessment success in Shanghai.
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David A. Walker and Kathryn I. Smith
In total, 14 credit unions have acquired 16 banks and savings institutions since 2012; 7 additional acquisitions are in progress and are expected to close before year-end 2019…
Abstract
Purpose
In total, 14 credit unions have acquired 16 banks and savings institutions since 2012; 7 additional acquisitions are in progress and are expected to close before year-end 2019. The analysis of the population of these acquisitions spans the paths of annual differences in CAMEL ratios. Most acquirers have a somewhat revised capital structure and are often benefiting from economies of scope, as well as economies of scale. Since their acquisitions, the acquiring credit unions have become less risky, measured by simulated CAMEL ratios, and they are lending a larger share of their deposits. There is no apparent financial reason to discourage credit unions from acquiring additional banks and savings institutions. The National Credit Union Administration does not need to be particularly hesitant to allow credit unions to acquire banks and thrifts.
Design/methodology/approach
Financial analysis is done via simulated CAMEL ratios.
Findings
After acquiring banks, credit unions are less risky and lend a greater share of their deposits.
Research limitations/implications
The study analyzes the population of the credit unions that have acquired banks since 2012, but the population consists of 14 banks acquiring 16 credit unions.
Practical implications
Credit unions should not be prohibited from further acquisitions of banks and thrifts.
Social implications
Credit union members are better served after a credit union acquires a bank.
Originality/value
No previous study has explored the effects of credit unions acquiring banks and thrifts, which began in 2012.
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The Stewardship Code, the first of its kind for the Financial Reporting Council, seeks to encourage better dialogue between shareholders and company boards. Given the UK market's…
Abstract
Purpose
The Stewardship Code, the first of its kind for the Financial Reporting Council, seeks to encourage better dialogue between shareholders and company boards. Given the UK market's role as a governance paragon, the code principles will be critical to practices of good stewardship taking root globally. But this new Code raises concerns, for example, as to how to treat non‐UK investors who collectively now hold upwards of 40 percent of the country's equity market. Would they voluntarily adhere to the code, and, if not, how relevant or effective would the code be? The purpose of this paper is to shed light on these topical questions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper focuses on stewardship as an important criterion for assessing the performance of larger shareholders (i.e. institutional shareholders). Section 2 explains the concept of “stewardship”. It also outlines its growing importance. Section 3 introduces the Stewardship Code, tracks back its genesis, focusing, in particular, on the underlying themes and the major principles and guidance in the Code. Section 5 then critically assess the Code, looking in particular at major possible obstacles. Finally, implications from the preceding discussion are drawn in Section 6.
Findings
Section 4 reveals a hidden truth (the “stewardship spectrum”), i.e. in practice, companies operate in an ever‐changing business world, a more rapidly changing business practice with more pressures and complexity and with more diverse “players” and conflicting interests at play. It is submitted that this hidden truth effectively poses a challenge to the success of the Code.
Originality/value
This paper is geared towards providing the reader with critical tools to assess the likely impact of the Code.
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The Government published its long awaited Food Bill in November1989, which “establishes a number of offences in relation to thesafety of food and the protection of the consumer…
Abstract
The Government published its long awaited Food Bill in November 1989, which “establishes a number of offences in relation to the safety of food and the protection of the consumer interest”. Some of the issues raised are commented on, concentrating in purely general terms on those proposals which have aroused most interest – the statutory defences, administration and enforcement.
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Poland has made rapid economic advancement since introducing its shock therapy program January 1,1990. Inflation is now below 22 percent and real growth exceeds 5.1 percent…
Abstract
Poland has made rapid economic advancement since introducing its shock therapy program January 1,1990. Inflation is now below 22 percent and real growth exceeds 5.1 percent. Poland's future will be highly dependent on the development of its financial institutions. The commercial banks that had been branches of the National Bank of Poland and several other major banks are leading the privatization process. Five banks have been privatized and others will follow shortly. Cooperative — twinning — arrangements are being developed to provide international banking expertise and financial support for Poland's commercial banks. The profit maximizing financial institutions will be the primary vehicles to fund the development of Poland's market‐based economy. The privatized institutions will support the planned initial public offerings and joint business arrangements that are developing with western companies.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the contexts for new product market visioning of small enterprises in the Central Technology Belt, West Midlands, England.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the contexts for new product market visioning of small enterprises in the Central Technology Belt, West Midlands, England.
Design/methodology/approach
Seven items, which are postulated to contribute to a better understanding of the contexts encouraging or discouraging new product market visioning, were developed and incorporated in a questionnaire. Validity and reliability checks were made. A population survey on all the 3,000 firms in the Central Technology Belt was conducted in January and February 2004.
Findings
Compared to the larger firms, small firms have been rated lower in the ability in and efforts on a number of possible indicators of the ripeness of the contexts for new product market visioning.
Research limitations/implications
The survey results drawn from a population survey in the Central Technology Belt may not be very representative of the whole country.
Practical implications
There is much room for improvement among small firms to nurture the contexts for new product market visioning. If small firms can devote greater energy for nurturing these contexts, they are hopeful to achieve a more impressive rate of conversion from opportunity product concepts to successful product concepts.
Originality/value
Previous studies on new products have centred on their development processes and after‐launch performance. New product market visioning, which is at the very front end along the continuum of new product development and launch, has received much less research attention. This study is the first one to carry out large scale investigation into the construct of new product market visioning and develop an initial pool of items to measure the construct.
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Richard Bell, Henry A Walker and David Willer
Classical and contemporary theorists are at odds over the structure of power relations in organizations and the relationship between power differences and the distribution of…
Abstract
Classical and contemporary theorists are at odds over the structure of power relations in organizations and the relationship between power differences and the distribution of control and benefits. The classical arguments of Marx and Weber describe steep hierarchical structures in which those at the top exercise substantial control over subordinates and gain a disproportionate share of the organization's benefits. Contemporary theories are divided on two counts. Some imply that power is organized hierarchically—although not to the extent claimed by classical scholars—while others claim that power is diffuse. Similarly, the early exchange arguments separated benefit from control, and claimed that power is directly related to the distribution of control but inversely related to the distribution of benefits. Contemporary exchange theorists connect power to the distribution of control and benefit but most imply that power differences weaken, that is, power relations become less hierarchical, with power use.This paper offers the first simultaneous application of Elementary Theory, Status Characteristics Theory, and Legitimacy Theory to the study of organizational dynamics. Each theory describes the process through which differences on a single factor, e.g., power, influence, or organizations. We claim that most organizational analysts either focus on power processes to the exclusion of influence and legitimacy processes or conflate the three ideas and treat their confluence as power. In either case, the result is misspecification of the distribution of power in organizations and/or an underestimation of its effects on the distribution of control and benefit.We untangle the three ideas and use the three arguments to develop new understandings of the distribution of benefits and control in organizations. All three theories describe processes that connect behavior to structural conditions. Elementary Theory infers power differences from exchange structures that permit competitive mobility while Status Characteristic Theory infers influence from status orders. The three theories do not exhaust coverage of power, influence, and legitimacy processes under all conditions. However, when they are applied concurrently, the three describe greater concentrations of power than those implied by conventional organizational theories.Our joint application of Elementary Theory and Status Characteristics Theory offers a new explanation for the commonly described relationship between differences in expertise and the exercise of power. We also explain the relationship between uncertainty and the distribution of benefit and control. As uncertainty increases, the door is opened for subordinates to exercise greater and greater influence over superordinate actors. Our analysis also offers insights into the phenomena of power-at-a-distance and the relation between mobility in hierarchies and domination and obedience. Conditions that block mobility promote power decentralization. Finally, we show how legitimacy processes enhance and/or constrain power and influence processes. The complex interplay of power, influence, and legitimation processes can produce somewhat flatter distributions of benefit and control than separate analyses of the three processes might imply. We end with a cautionary note: some but not all of our applications of the three theories are supported by experimental studies. Especially in that regard, this work is quite preliminary. Our application of structural social psychological theories—and that of our predecessors—to the study of organizational dynamics leaves much work undone.
Prosecutions under Criminal Law, associated in the minds of most people with “criminal offences” of a serious nature—“crime” in the traditional sense—and undertaken by the police…
Abstract
Prosecutions under Criminal Law, associated in the minds of most people with “criminal offences” of a serious nature—“crime” in the traditional sense—and undertaken by the police authorities, constitute a very large and rather untidy body of public law. It includes a large and constantly growing number of offences in respect of which prosecutions are undertaken by various corporate bodies who, as in the case of local authorities, have a duty albeit with a power of discretion, to prosecute. There would appear to be little in common between such offences, as smoking in the presence of open food or failing to provide soap, nail‐brushes, etc, for food handlers, and the villainy and violence of the criminal, but their misdeeds are all criminal offences and subject to the same law. Other countries, such as France, have definite Criminal Codes and these offences against statutes and statutory instruments which in English Law are dealt with in the broad field of Criminal Law, are subject to special administrative procedure. It has obvious advantages. Although in England and Wales, prosecutions are undertaken by police authorities, local authorities, public corporations, even professional bodies and private individuals, with a few statutory exceptions for which the Attorney‐General's fiat or consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions is necessary, may instigate a prosecution against anyone if he can provide prima facie evidence to support it. In Scotland, prosecutions are instituted at the instigation of the various authorities by an officer, the Procurator‐Fiscal. Many advocate such a system for England and Wales, despite the enormous difference in the volume of litigation. Supervision of prosecutions on a much smaller scale is by the Director of Public Prosecutions, an office created in 1879, with power to institute and carry on criminal proceedings—this is the less significant of his duties, the number of such prosecutions usually being only several thousands per year—the most important being to advise and assist chief officers of police, clerks to the magistrates and any others concerned with criminal proceedings Regulations govern the cases in which DPP may act, mainly cases of public interest. The enormous growth of summary jurisdiction over the years, especially that arising from so‐called secondary legislation, is largely outside his sphere.