The main issues arising from the considerations on latent defectsliability in the Latham Committee consultation paper pertain to: jointand several liability; limitation periods…
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The main issues arising from the considerations on latent defects liability in the Latham Committee consultation paper pertain to: joint and several liability; limitation periods and prescription of actions; and transfer of clients′ rights. The Government is reluctant to bring about compulsory insurance and this is considered justifiable. Discusses the reasons. It is considered that an improved voluntary system is the only and better way forward. Positive steps should be taken by the Government to put in place equitable conditions under which a voluntary and improved building users′ insurance against latent defects cover can emerge.
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The discipline of management is, among other things, the skill of translating accounting information into behaviour. Where the knowledge and skills of employees are the principal…
Abstract
The discipline of management is, among other things, the skill of translating accounting information into behaviour. Where the knowledge and skills of employees are the principal asset of an organisation, current key performance indicators rarely provide appropriate or relevant information and indeed may be misleading to management. Because managing the knowledge and skills of employees is the current organisational challenge (Handy, 1996), it is time that serious consideration is given to the development of measures that meet this challenge. Management accounting provides an attractive concept, namely, the balanced scorecard, to assist management in the assessment of organisational performance. Its usefulness is often questioned because of a lack of relevant measures in the fourth quadrant. This paper considers, in relation to the human element of an organisation, how it may be possible to strengthen the innovation and learning perspective of the balanced scorecard. The aim is to provide information that allows managements to monitor the performance of their human resources and also enables others to assess managements' ability to nurture and to augment the talent and accumulated knowledge of their organisations' human resources. This model may well be considered the beginning of Puxty's (1993) long road in search of a planning, control and performance measurement system that accounts for the human element of an organisation's intellectual assets.
Geoffrey Turner, Petros Vourvachis and Thérèse Woodward
In the past decade much has been written on the need to develop social, ethical and environmentally responsible performance reporting frameworks that engage with all…
Abstract
In the past decade much has been written on the need to develop social, ethical and environmentally responsible performance reporting frameworks that engage with all organisational stakeholders. The theoretical development of these frameworks has spanned nearly a century culminating in the release in 2000 of voluntary guidelines developed by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies and the United Nations Environment Programme through the offices of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The release of the sustainability reporting guidelines perhaps could not have been more inopportune insofar as it coincided with a concerted effort on the part of the accounting regulators toward global harmonisation of financial reporting standards. This paper reports the findings of a survey of Company Secretaries and company provided information examining the extent to which these guidelines have been adopted by the leading public companies in the United Kingdom. The findings suggest limited acceptance and in the resource‐constrained environment of the twenty‐first century business implementation of mandatory requirements are given priority. Further research needs to be conducted to determine whether the GRI has a role to play in future stakeholder engagement.
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The author's experience of low-income self-help housing in South Africa provides some cautionary lessons on the difficulties likely to be encountered in attempting to implement…
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The author's experience of low-income self-help housing in South Africa provides some cautionary lessons on the difficulties likely to be encountered in attempting to implement Community Asset Management. Where communities have seen the State co-opt them into accepting responsibility for those services and support for which the State has been traditionally responsible, the result has typically been resistance by the community and ultimately the failure of otherwise finely conceived policies. Only where the community hold the freedom to choose how to shape their lives in terms of those issues which form the basic stuff of life will it be possible to engage the energy, enthusiasm, imagination and commitment of local people to take charge of their own lives. Further examination suggests that blockages exist that will need to be taken into account if Community Asset Management is to be taken forward; these include: a mismatch between the expectations of funding agencies and the needs of local community groups; competing systems of delivery; the idealisation of the capacity of local communities to both manage and maintain community facilities over extended periods of time; unrealistic expectations of communities; the failure of development professionals to both understand and act on behalf of divided and competing interest groups; the inability to design for rapidly changing social, economic and political environments both locally, regionally and nationally; and a mismatch between noble intentions and end products.
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IT is difficult to imagine the world of Work Study without the urbane ubiquity of Russell Currie, whose death on 28 August we deeply regret to record. Although he had been…
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IT is difficult to imagine the world of Work Study without the urbane ubiquity of Russell Currie, whose death on 28 August we deeply regret to record. Although he had been officially in retirement for a year or two his presence was immanent in any important gathering of those who had so long looked to him for the leadership that was always forthcoming. We can fittingly borrow an epigram he coined at the London Congress in 1963 as apt at this time. ‘The sun shone to greet your arrival; the skies weep for your departure.’
IT is rarely possible to place on record expressions of appreciation concerning Municipal Libraries. More often than not remarks are heard about these institutions being an…
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IT is rarely possible to place on record expressions of appreciation concerning Municipal Libraries. More often than not remarks are heard about these institutions being an incubus and a burden on the rates, merely the haunts of loungers, and so forth. A public‐spirited citizen has, however, come forward at Halifax, and in a most interesting leader in the local paper has paid a splendid tribute to the library service of that town. Speaking of the public libraries, he says: “But in one respect we really do lead, and strangely enough it is the one thing that our local patriots rarely mention, perhaps because the subject is outside their sphere. I refer to our Municipal Libraries, which I believe are the finest, or certainly among the finest, in the country; and as I like to be patriotic when I can, and would rather speak well than ill of anything or anybody, I propose to pay a little tribute to these institutions. But just let me say that if we have finer libraries in Halifax than many much larger places possess, we owe it almost entirely to our Chief Librarian and those who work under him.”
DURING some comments on the brain drain last month it was remarked that work study technologists stood on the periphery. Suddenly they have been moved right to the centre as the…
Abstract
DURING some comments on the brain drain last month it was remarked that work study technologists stood on the periphery. Suddenly they have been moved right to the centre as the result of a communication from Dr. Robert N. Lehrer. He is among the six American work study experts best known to the profession in this country, ranking with Barnes and Mundel as having contributed much to a right appreciation of the subject's value and its techniques.
Petros Vourvachis, Thérèse Woodward, David G. Woodward and Dennis M Patten
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature investigating disclosure reactions to legitimacy threats by analyzing the corporate social responsibility (CSR…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature investigating disclosure reactions to legitimacy threats by analyzing the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure reactions to catastrophic accidents suffered by major airlines.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use content analysis to examine changes in annual report disclosure in response to four separate airline disasters. The authors adopt two classification schemes and two measurement approaches to explore these changes.
Findings
The authors find that for three events the organizations appear to have responded with considerable increases in CSR disclosure that are consistent with attempts of legitimation. For one of the events examined, the authors find no disclosure response and suggest that this could be due to the company’s unwillingness to accept responsibility.
Research limitations/implications
The study’s focus on major airlines that have suffered an accident with available annual reports in English meant that other companies had to be excluded from the analysis.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate the use of the annual report as a legitimation tool and further highlight the need for greater transparency and comparability across publications.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the scarce literature examining corporate disclosure reactions following threats to their social legitimacy.