David P. Jacobs, John C. Peck and J. Steve Davis
Performance of an automated storage and retrieval system such as a carousel depends upon the way it is loaded. Commonly a carousel will be loaded with cases of items that will be…
Abstract
Performance of an automated storage and retrieval system such as a carousel depends upon the way it is loaded. Commonly a carousel will be loaded with cases of items that will be removed in groups. A group is a specified number of items of each type. For example, a group might constitute the collection of parts needed to manufacture one garment. Typically the storage system operator wants to retrieve as many groups as possible without running out of items of any type. We present a fast algorithm that prescribes how many cases of each item type should be loaded, yielding a maximal number of groups.
Details
Keywords
All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.
This paper explores the value of financial statement auditing in the public sector. The study applies theory about auditing from the private sector as well as the public sector to…
Abstract
This paper explores the value of financial statement auditing in the public sector. The study applies theory about auditing from the private sector as well as the public sector to explore ways in which public sector auditing can be expected to be valuable. It shows that there are a number of complementary explanations that can be applied to examine the value of public audit, including agency, signaling, insurance, management control, governance and confirmation explanations. The evidence from research and history is generally consistent with the agency and management control explanations. There is some support for the signaling and insurance explanations, while research evidence suggests that governance has differing impact in the public sector compared to the private. The confirmation hypothesis is also potentially relevant. Reviewing the history of the development of public sector auditing functions shows that at least some developments were consistent with explanations such as agency theory and management control. Auditing in the public sector is an area where more research is valuable. The paper concludes with a discussion of issues for further investigation.
Details
Keywords
According to Ludwig Von Mises (1949/1963), economics studies the causes and consequences of goal-directed action. Each of us seeks to improve our situations as we see it. But just…
Abstract
According to Ludwig Von Mises (1949/1963), economics studies the causes and consequences of goal-directed action. Each of us seeks to improve our situations as we see it. But just how each of us perceives our situation, and what alternative ends and means we believe are available to us, depends crucially on the context.2 Action is never without context but is instead undertaken by someone for something at a certain time and a certain place (Hayek, 1945).
Rosetta A. Morris Morant and David C. Jacobs
The purpose of this paper is to trace the historical foundation of the efficiency wage theory and examine its conceptual framework against other wage theories, in relation to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to trace the historical foundation of the efficiency wage theory and examine its conceptual framework against other wage theories, in relation to conventional practices in human resource management.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a description of various wage theories, a conceptual analysis maps the evolutionary process of efficiency wage theory.
Findings
The concept of efficiency being applied to wages appears to evolve from Smith. The difference between the classical and the institutionalists’ perspectives appears to be the meaning ascribed to efficiency. Clark seemed to be the first one to examine the relationship between labor and productivity. Webb expanded the meaning of efficiency and demonstrated the relationship with productivity. Institutional and behavioral theorists further developed and advocated for efficiency wages. A synthesis of recent empirical studies provides support for the theory, which challenges conventional human resource management wage practices.
Practical implications
The findings solidify the usefulness of efficiency wage theory not only as a motivational management tool but also as a source for social and economic well-being.
Originality/value
The contribution of this historical account is that it synthesizes the root and development of efficiency wages theory. It also highlights the social context of the theory and provides an interface between economic and management perspectives.
Details
Keywords
This paper poses the question of whether the mainstream feminist movement in the United States, in concentrating its efforts on achieving gender parity in the existing workplace…
Abstract
This paper poses the question of whether the mainstream feminist movement in the United States, in concentrating its efforts on achieving gender parity in the existing workplace, is selling women short. In it, I argue that contemporary U.S. feminism has not adequately theorized the problems with the relatively unregulated market system in the United States. That failure has contributed to a situation in which women’s participation in the labor market is mistakenly equated with liberation, and in which other far-ranging effects of the market system on women’s lives inside and outside of work – many of them negative – are overlooked. To theorize the effects of the market system on women’s lives in a more nuanced manner, I borrow from the insights of earlier Marxist and socialist feminists. I then use this more nuanced perspective to outline an agenda for feminism, which I call “market-cautious feminism,” that seeks to regulate the market to serve women’s interests.
Details
Keywords
The essays by Sauer and Cassidy have argued that significant questions can be raised philosophically and historically about the guiding assumptions of economic behaviour. One can…
Abstract
The essays by Sauer and Cassidy have argued that significant questions can be raised philosophically and historically about the guiding assumptions of economic behaviour. One can also argue that these assumptions offer a partial view of human being with an accompanying loss of the sense of the whole person. Economics tends to reduce the multiform and rich notion of person to simply a datum of economic activity. In this essay, I will argue that there is a need to re‐examine basic assumptions about what it means to be fully human. I will do this from the perspective of developmental psychology, because developmental psychology has empirically based theories that produce expectations about humanity and the future that are very different from those ascribed by economics. This essay will examine developmental theory, particularly that of Robert Kegan, to show its relevance to providing a direction for economics.
The purpose of this paper is to delve into three themes about democratic enterprises.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to delve into three themes about democratic enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
(1) The first theme is the question of capital structure where labor-managed firms (LMFs) are often pictured as having “horizon problem.” Yet this is only a minor technical problem which is solved by the system of internal capital accounts as in the Mondragon cooperatives.
(2) The second theme concerns the attempt to implement participative management and the related ideas of active learning in educational theory in the workplace. The point is that the democratic firm is the natural setting to implement these ideas, not the conventional firm where the staff have the legal role of “employees” rented by the company.
(3) The third theme is the old canard the cooperatives are incompatible with entrepreneurship. My rethinking of the issue was inspired by the analysis of the late Jane Jacobs who emphasized that the primary means of growing economic “biomass” is through economic offspring (e.g., spin-offs) – in analogy with the biological principle of plentitude. Yet the conventional form of ownership operates as a fetter on this process since the ownership and management wants to expand its empire and maintain “ownership” of any potential offspring. But that constraint against spin-offs is absent in democratic firms, and the Mondragon complex has indeed illustrated how to catalyze this process of growth through offspring.
Social implications
A public policy to encourage all companies to grow by affiliated and perhaps democratic spin-offs would create more jobs (through filling extra niches) and more stability (through the agility of separate companies).
Details
Keywords
Reva Berman Brown and Sean McCartney
Recounts how medieval English Jewry began when Jews were invited to immigrate by William I and ended with their expulsion by Edward I in 1290. The Jewish community was important…
Abstract
Recounts how medieval English Jewry began when Jews were invited to immigrate by William I and ended with their expulsion by Edward I in 1290. The Jewish community was important and for most of its existence it was prosperous, owing to its particular social function – being the bankers, moneylenders and financiers of the time. Concentrates on a relatively little known aspect of the medieval Jewish community: the role played by its women. Jewish women played a significant part in business, not just as the wives or widows of businessmen, but as entrepreneurs on their own account. This was in sharp contrast to the position of women in wider English society. Using contemporary documents, the article examines the scale and nature of the business activities of Jewish women in medieval England, sketches the activities of some of these female entrepreneurs, and attempts to investigate the factors which enabled them to play such a prominent role.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to explore how an accounting association and its key members define, control, and claim their knowledge; adopt a closure and/or openness policy to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how an accounting association and its key members define, control, and claim their knowledge; adopt a closure and/or openness policy to enhance their status/influence; and respond to structural/institutional forces from international organisations and/or the state in a particular historical context, such as a globalised/neo-liberalised setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical tools (field, capital, habitus, and doxa) to understand how public sector accrual accounting was defined, and how the Korean Association for Government Accounting was formed and represented as a group with public sector accounting expertise. The research context was the implementation of accrual accounting in South Korea between 1997/1998, when the Asian financial crisis broke out, and 2006/2007, when accrual accounting was enforced by legislation. The authors interviewed social actors recognised as public sector accounting experts, in addition to examining related documents such as articles in academic journals, newsletters, invitations, membership forms, newspaper articles, and curricula vitae.
Findings
The authors found that the key founders of KAGA included some public administration professors, who advocated public sector accrual accounting via civil society groups immediately after Korea applied to the International Monetary Fund for bailout loans and a new government was formed in 1997/1998. In conjunction with public servants, they defined and designed public sector accrual accounting as a measure of public sector reform and as a part of the broader government budget process, rather than as an accounting initiative. They also co-opted accounting professors and CPA-qualified accountants through their personal connections, based on shared educational backgrounds, to represent the association as a public sector accounting experts’ group.
Originality/value
These findings suggest that the study of the accounting profession cannot be restricted to a focus on professional accounting associations and that accounting knowledge can be acquired by non-accountants. Therefore, the authors argue that the relationship between accounting knowledge, institutional forms, and key actors’ strategies is rich and multifaceted.