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The Natural Environment White Paper represents the most important conservation policy shift in the United Kingdom (UK) in twenty years. It formalises the ecosystem approach within national policy objectives and emphasises the economic value of ecosystem services. By analysing the use of various evidence sources, the involvement of science entrepreneurs, and the development of policy narratives, our goal was to understand factors that influenced adoption of an ecosystem service framework in the UK. We interviewed 48 policy actors and found that centrally-sponsored synthesis reports with entrepreneurial authors provided the most influential expert-based knowledge in the development of the White Paper. More recently published reports had greater influence, yet the window of opportunity for scientific evidence having policy impact was greater in the problem-setting stages of policy development. The interaction between teams preparing syntheses and expert entrepreneurs helped influence the construction of strategic policy narratives. Those narratives increased the impact of scientific evidence by communicating and framing key policy-salient messages, and brokering between broad ecosystem-based and environmental economics narratives. The combination of ecological and economics evidence was particularly salient in the UK case due to the context of continued biodiversity loss and the acceptability of valuation narratives within central government. Our findings suggest that evidence impact varies at different stages of the policy process, and that this is driven by the interplay of contextual factors like policy timing, personal influence, and the competition between different sets of actors and narratives.

The policy word “collaboration” is a political buzzword omnipresent within human service organisations in Sweden and other countries. Collaboration stands for services working together toward a common goal. It is understood as the solution for a multitude of problems, putting the client at the centre and involving the services needed for making them financially self-sufficient. Public service collaboration assumes gaps between entities, whether they are organisations or professionals holding a particular kind of knowledge or available resources. Gaps are seen as omissions and pitfalls in activities which should be removed. My thesis is that putting the gap at the centre reveals not only the disjuncture of the gaps but also the productiveness of the gap in collaborative projects between organisations. The article demonstrates how documents and meetings work both as makers and blenders of gaps between social services and jobcentres. If gaps are productive spaces, what does it denote for collaboration between organisations? The article is placed ethnographically in documents and meetings set to enable collaboration between social workers and job coaches. I will focus on the gap, the space between documents and organisations, as productive spaces in collaborative projects.

The success of a scientist depends on their production of scientific papers and the impact factor of the journal in which they publish. Because most major scientific journals are published in English, success is related to publishing in this language. Currently, 98% of publications in science are written in English, including researchers from English as a Foreign Language (EFL) countries. Colombia is among the countries with the lowest English proficiency in the world. Thus, understanding the disadvantages that Colombians face in publishing is crucial to reducing global inequality in science. This paper quantifies the disadvantages that result from the language hegemony in scientific publishing by examining the additional costs that communicating in English creates in the production of articles. It was identified that more than 90% of the scientific articles published by Colombian researchers are in English, and that publishing in a second language creates additional financial costs to Colombian doctoral students and results in problems with reading comprehension, writing ease and time, and anxiety. Rejection or revision of their articles because of the English grammar was reported by 43.5% of the doctoral students, and 33% elected not to attend international conferences and meetings due to the mandatory use of English in oral presentations. Finally, among the translation/editing services reviewed, the cost per article is between one-quarter and one-half of a doctoral monthly salary in Colombia. Of particular note, we identified a positive correlation between English proficiency and higher socioeconomic origin of the researcher. Overall, this study exhibits the negative consequences of hegemony of English that preserves the global gap in science. Although having a common language is important for science communication, generating multilinguistic alternatives would promote diversity while conserving a communication channel. Such an effort should come from different actors and should not fall solely on EFL researchers.

We analyze the drivers of audience size and the number of questions asked in parallel sessions at the annual conference of the German Economics Association. We find that the location of the presentation is at least as important for the number of academics attending a talk as the combined effect of the person presenting and the paper presented. Being a presenter in a late morning session on the second day of a conference, close to the place where coffee is served, significantly increases the size of the audience. When it comes to asking questions, location becomes less important, but smaller rooms lead to more questions being asked. Younger researchers and very senior researchers attract more questions and comments. There are also interesting gender effects. Women attend research sessions more diligently than men, but seem to ask fewer questions than men. Men are less likely to attend presentations on health, education, welfare and development economics than women. Our findings suggest that strategic scheduling of sessions could ensure better participation at conferences. Moreover, different behaviors of men and women at conferences might also contribute to the lack of women in senior scientist positions.

PurposeIn December 2010, the Ministry of Justice published Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders, the Government's Green Paper on criminal justice reform. This paper seeks to discuss the implications of this Green Paper on housing for offenders.Design/methodology/approachThis paper examines the proposals set out in the Green Paper, and in particular the intention to deliver rehabilitative services on a payment‐by‐results basis, and discusses its implications for housing for offenders.FindingsThe paper argues that the Green Paper is primarily focused on improving rehabilitation and reducing re‐offending, and that improved access for offenders to housing is essential if this is to be successful. However, it demonstrates that there are significant barriers to be overcome in achieving this and argues that criminal justice service providers and housing providers will need to work together to ensure that these issues are addressed.Originality/valueThe government's proposals to reform the criminal justice system, contained in the Green Paper Breaking the Cycle, are focused primarily on rehabilitation. Improved access for offenders to appropriate and sustainable housing is essential if this is to be successful, as the Green Paper recognises, and a combination of some specific measures and a general move to payment‐by‐results for rehabilitation services is intended to deliver this. However, there are significant barriers to overcome in achieving this and further challenges are presented by cuts in services and changes to housing and welfare policy.

International audience; The use of scholarly publications that have not been formally published in e.g. journals is widespread in some fields. In the past they have been disseminated through various channels of informal communication. However, the Internet has enabled dissemination of these unpublished and often unrefereed publications to a much wider audience. This is particularly interesting seen in relation to the highly disputed open access advantage as the potential advantage for low visibility publications has not been given much attention in the literature. The present study examines the role of working papers in economics during a ten-year period (1996 to 2005). It shows that working papers are increasingly becoming visible in the field specific databases. The impact of working papers is relatively low; however, high impact working paper series have citation rate levels similar to the low impact journals in the field. There is no tendency to an increase in impact during the ten years which is the case for the high impact journals. Consequently, the result of this study does not provide evidence of an open access advantage for working papers in economics.

Practitioners routinely note that new staff lack documentation skills, communication skills, and strong Excel skills. Further, new staff report critical-thinking, written and oral communication, teamwork, and project management skills deserve greater emphasis in Master of Accountancy programs. The AICPA's (2014) Model Tax Curriculum suggests that active learning approaches be used to enable students to build communication, critical-thinking, and interpersonal skills. This case uses a realistic corporate tax return preparation experience to address these criticisms by focusing on four main areas: time management, communication, research, and technical skills. The case is divided into two phases. In Phase 1, students review client information, generate requests from the client for missing information, keep a log of hours spent on the project, research ambiguous issues, meet with the project “senior” to obtain guidance, and prepare electronic work papers. In Phase 2, students incorporate feedback from the senior's review of their work papers to make corrections, prepare a corporate tax return, and create a client letter. Student feedback about the project is positive.

Outlines key areas of the Government White Paper Fairness at Work. Identifies the training implications in the proposed changes in collective law and in the improvements in the individual rights of employees. Concludes that the most important training needs are likely to arise in the extension of unfair dismissal protection and the right for employees to have trade union representation in disciplinary and grievance hearings. Also examines the training needs arising out of the arbitration option in unfair dismissal proceedings and those arising out of the establishment of a National Minimum Wage and other legislative developments, including the Working Time Regulations. Examines also the issue of collective bargaining about training. This is an issue that the Government is considering, as opposed to proposing.

The study analyzes the processes of autonomous regulation of the risk concerning the production of paper in a first line company in Uruguay. The dominant culture of security in this business is based on the knowledge of the trade, composed by a set of implicit rules governing the formation and transmission of knowledge. This culture of trade implies that the standards of protection of the workers from occupational hazards are neither imposed by management nor by the headquarters, but constructed in the daily interaction among the workers. In the context of the difficulties met in order to build a joint regulation of security between the management of the company and the Union, the knowledge and experience of the workers appear as the source of more effective safety regulation. However, this autonomous management is crossed by inter-generational and sectors tensions and contradictions, preventing the construction of a labor reflectivity on this theme. In this enclave, the Union loses capacity for action in terms of demands aimed at preventive and reactive security since it is focused on negotiating the impacts of new policies of labor and employment on the company management. There is also a low level of reflectivity from the workers in relation to the components of their culture of trade. Although it actually operates, it is not stated by the collective, and even less recognized as such in the framework of tension and competition between sectors and work teams.

The White Paper signals a clear, strong and comprehensive commitment by the British government to use its aid and influence to help poor people. It spells out a range of specific aims to benefit and empower the poor and especially women. It endorses a new powerful concept of partnership with its own commitments to partners and it specifies the implications of any lack of commitment by them to poverty reduction. Unfortunately there is no systematic exposition of the changes in policies required to achieve pro-poor growth; there are ambiguities about targeting and no lessons are drawn about what has worked well in its own past interventions. DFID appears to want to ‘go it alone’ with little indication of the collective efforts (including other donors) required to achieve these ambitious goals. Nevertheless, the agency has organizational strengths to achieve its new strategy which gives confidence that more precise operational strategies will be devised and pursued with conviction in the coming years. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The paper that follows is the last of a four-part series deciphering what should constitute ‘right governance’ over mergers and acquisitions, by boards of the acquiring company. By ‘right governance’, we don’t mean necessarily leading practice, best practice or even common practice – but rather the right blend for the unique circumstances of each transaction, company and board. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are critical mechanisms for corporate growth and potentially for increased shareholder returns. The reality, however, often does not live up to the promise, as is borne out by empirical data on the high incidence rates of M&A under-performance. At present in Australia, directors and executive management, particularly of the acquiring company, have considerable latitude to put at-risk shareholder value via M&A without any meaningful pre-event restraints or post-event sanctions (and with the benefit of the Business Judgment Rule defence). The old adage caveat emptor (‘let the buyer beware’) still holds true for buyers, but when it comes to ensuring that their shareholders’ interests and capital are properly protected, there are few formally imposed ‘checks and balances’. Additionally, in terms of voluntary controls, there is little clarity on what are the acceptable, key activities and behaviours of the directors of the acquiring company, that represent responsible standards of conduct. The initial question to be considered is whether there is a discernible set of ‘right practices’ that provide a reference set of benchmarks for non-executive directors to know whether they are exercising the necessary care, diligence and skill in selecting and overseeing transactions. Looking from the ‘outside in’, the corollary is ‘How do shareholders in the acquiring company have some visibility and assurance that their executive management team and board are exercising (or have exercised) sufficient due diligence (in the broadest sense of the word) over transactions?’ The challenge thus arises as to how to describe the ‘right practice’ stewardship that should be exercised by ‘reasonable directors’ of the acquiring entity to manage the risks and performance of transactions – before, during and after acquisition. This paper is the fourth in a series of four that focus on identifying and describing ‘right governance’ i.e. the required level and mix of actions and responsibilities of directors of the acquiring company, necessary for protecting the interests of their shareholders. To carry out this research, the opinions and experiences have been elicited from a cross-section of non-executive directors and Chairmen, via targeted interviews (‘grounded research’) to capture their views on good board oversight of M&A practice. (This has been described in shorthand form as the d-ought for ‘directors’ ought’). What has emerged as the board-level themes from seasoned directors have been compared to the extant literature (the t-ought, shorthand for the ‘theoretical ought’ of right practice), to examine how these align and whether there are any key gaps or contradictions. In most cases, there is alignment, although the interviewed directors’ views have crystallised what in the literature could best be described as ‘un-consolidated ideas’ based on ‘an extrapolation of managerial practices’, as the body of documented knowledge is generally not targeted at board members. From these comparisons, has arisen an emergent theory regarding ‘right practice’, outlined in Paper 3B. The emergent theory points to six key themes that those directors interviewed believe make a difference to deal performance: (1) the Board’s degree of strategic thinking (‘Clear strategy upfront’); (2) planning and preparation (‘Early preparation and planning’); (3) the extent of board members’ cultural due-diligence (‘Proper understanding of culture’); (4) robust business-case scrutiny and investment assessment (‘Rigorous testing of the investment business case and funding strategy’); (5) their focus on tracking the delivery of the targeted benefits (‘Effective monitoring post transaction’); and (6) the quality of their mutual challenge and critical debate (‘Well-chaired board with constructive challenge’). This process of comparison of ‘t-ought’ versus ‘d-ought’ has indicated that these initial findings have merit and should be regarded as an emergent theory. The key conclusions drawn below are that these themes can be grouped under three key messages: be prepared, be disciplined and be challenging, which encapsulate the behavioural implications of the six themes emerging from the research. • In terms of the board assuring that management are prepared, well before and during the event, there is a range of practical activities and interventions that the board can adopt – such as planning and having experienced staff at executive and board levels, etc. These activities flow from practices already documented in literature and from gathered-up experienced directors’ wisdom. • The be disciplined messaging, relates to actions during and after the acquisition event, whether that means following due process, enforcing stage-gates assurance and review checkpoints, or tracking synergies achieved. • The be challenging dimension in particular goes to the heart of what chairmen and board members ought to do to ensure debate and vigilance. Research sources indicate a broader malaise at board level around debate and challenge. Whilst internal and external assistance – such as by enlisting the involvement of Internal Audit and Compliance functions and external deal advisers – can help a board to be better prepared and more disciplined, only the board itself can attend to the be challenging dimension. Whilst the views of those directors interviewed are not yet a conclusively proven ‘recipe’ for board success – given the sample size and the Grounded Theory research approach selected – they do provide a solid foundation for further testing and exploration. The emergent theory nonetheless offers important guidance for those boards who want to adopt what may be sensible, prudent actions, even if the efficacy of these steps has not (as yet) been empirically proven.

Close relationships between university scientists and research sponsors or other commercial interests increase the probability that research bias or conflict of interest (COI) will arise in the research process. University researchers can limit the chances that obvious or subtle forms of bias or COI will occur by (1) carefully managing relationships with sponsors and external parties; (2) using research practices that ensure unbiased management of data and publications; and (3) appreciating that bias and COI also occur when researchers begin to assume roles as experts in both public and sponsored venues. Specific good management practices to avoid COI or bias include (1) following institutional polices; (2) frequent self-evaluation; (3) seeking independent program assessment; and (4) reporting potential COI in publications. Drawing on examples from sales and marketing of specialized feed technologies, areas where the industry should increase its focus on training and mentoring to minimize opportunities for ethical conflicts include (1) emphasizing the importance of the quality and relevance of supporting data used for promoting product sales; (2) strengthening supplier training on products and technologies in the context of fair and ethical positioning, so that opportunities for both ethical lapses and misunderstandings are decreased; (3) reinforcing the importance of confidentiality in maintaining customer trust in suppliers; and (4) increasing recognition of COI as it can occur between consultants and their clients for recommendations of technologies in which the consultant has undisclosed financial interest.

1. Pressure on land in Kenya: T. S. Jayne and Milu Myanga draw attention to the sharp decline in productivity in Kenya when populations rise above 600–650 persons per km. They suggest that there is scope for promoting equitable access to arable land that is still unutilized through investment in infrastructure (pp. 399–421). 2. Soil fertility and persistent food insecurity: Emma Stephens and associates draw attention to the poverty trap engendered by low soil fertility and consequent low productivity and food insecurity (pp. 423–439). 3. Socio-economic and political factors in relation to drought vulnerability: Elisabeth Simelton and associates show that rice, wheat and maize production in middle income countries are particularly vulnerable to drought. Moreover, vulnerability was greater in authoritarian regimes and flawed democracies than hybrid regimes and full democracies (pp. 163–179). 4. Land and water availability in India: M. Dinesh Kumar and co-authors point out that there is a mismatch between the availability of arable land and water. They suggest as correctives, the judicious investment in surface water projects which encourage direct irrigation, replenishment of over-exploited aquifers, better use of green water and a shift to low water consuming crops (pp. 539–556). 5. Rainfall variability: Mintewab Bezabih and Salvatore Di Falco found that the uncertainty of rainfall prevented farmers from choosing high risk—high return crops and suggest that this could be mitigated by weather insurance policies and crop diversification (pp. 557–567).

The quest for ‘Better Regulation’ has been a major preoccupation of the European Commission in recent years. The campaign possesses its own website, which helpfully collects relevant documentation and reveals three priorities (which do not concern the Commission alone): promoting simplification, reduction of administrative burdens and impact assessment as tools of better regulation, working more closely with Member States to ensure that principles of better regulation are applied consistently throughout the EU, and reinforcing dialogue between stakeholders and regulators at EU and national level.

In the aftermath of Dr. John Virgo’s unfortunate and untimely death, many of us who knew him have paused to reflect on the many contributions he has made to economics. Most people probably know of his work founding the International Atlantic Economic Society, the first and most significant organization to bring economists together from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In so doing, he was hugely successful, as the society has had significant participation every year since its founding in 1973. With two annual conferences, one on each side of the Atlantic, and with two refereed publications, he more than accomplished his goal of “increasing global communication among economists across continents.”What most people don’t know, however, is the impact that John had on a generation of much younger and, we hope, future economists. It all started in an IAES executive committee meeting during the fall of 2004 when we were discussing things we could do to make the economics profession attractive to undergraduate students. After some debate, there was agreement that a competition featuring undergraduate authored papers would be possible, but there were several major obstacles that had to be overcome. First, the competition had to feature a decent cash reward to make it attractive to students. So, it was decided that an annual $500 award, along with commemorative plaques to the winner and the runners-up, would be sufficient. While seemingly the most difficult problem, it was also the easiest to solve, as the owner of the www.EconSources.com website offered a modest endowment to the Society to cover the expenses for a period of approximately ten years. It was also decided that the competition would feature a presentation of the very best papers to a panel of judges who would make the overall best undergraduate paper selection. When we talked about the problem of what to do with the winning paper, John Virgo graciously offered to publish it in the Atlantic Economic Journal at no Atl Econ J (2013) 41:343–348 DOI 10.1007/s11293-013-9368-0

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are critical mechanisms for corporate growth and potentially for increased shareholder returns. The reality, however, often does not live up to the promise, as is borne out by empirical data on the high incidence rates of M&A under-performance. At present in Australia, directors and executive management, particularly of the acquiring company, have considerable latitude to put at-risk shareholder value via M&A without any meaningful pre-event restraints or post-event sanctions (and with the benefit of the Business Judgment Rule defence). The old adage caveat emptor (‘let the buyer beware’) still holds true for buyers, but when it comes to ensuring that their own shareholders’ interests and capital are properly protected, there are few formally imposed ‘checks and balances’. Additionally, in terms of voluntary controls, there is little clarity on what are the acceptable, key activities and behaviours of the directors of the acquiring company, that represent responsible standards of conduct. The initial question to be considered is whether there is a discernible set of ‘right practices’ that provide a reference set of benchmarks for non-executive directors to know whether they are exercising the necessary care, diligence and skill in selecting and overseeing transactions. Looking from the ‘outside in’, the corollary is ‘How do shareholders in the acquiring company have some visibility and assurance that their executive management team and board are exercising (or have exercised) sufficient due diligence (in the broadest sense of the word)?’ The challenge thus arises as to how to describe the ‘right practice’ stewardship that should be exercised by ‘reasonable directors’ of the acquiring entity to manage the risks and performance of transactions – before, during and after acquisition. This article is the first of a series of four that focus on identifying and describing ‘right governance’ i.e. the required level and mix of actions and responsibilities of directors of the acquiring company, necessary for protecting the interests of their shareholders. To carry out this research, and to shed light on these gaps in knowledge and required practices, the extant commercial, governance and legal literature relating to M&A practice has been studied to understand what level of clarity it provides to non-executive directors. (This has been described in shorthand form as the t-ought for ‘theoretical ought’). Subsequently, opinions and experiences have been elicited from a cross-section of non-executive directors and Chairmen, via targeted interviews (‘grounded research’) to capture their views on good board oversight of M&A practice. (This has been described in shorthand form as the d-ought for ‘directors’ ought’). What has emerged as the board-level themes from seasoned directors have been compared to the extant literature to examine how these align and whether there are any key gaps or contradictions. In most cases, there is alignment, although the interviewed directors’ views have crystallised what in the literature could best be described as ‘un-consolidated ideas’ based on ‘an extrapolation of managerial practices’, as the body of documented knowledge is generally not targeted at board members. From these comparison has arisen an emergent theory regarding ‘right practice’. The emergent theory points to six key themes that those directors interviewed believe make a difference to deal performance: (1) the Board’s degree of strategic thinking (‘Clear strategy upfront’); (2) planning and preparation (‘Early preparation and planning’); (3) the extent of board members’ cultural due-diligence (‘Proper understanding of culture’); (4) robust business-case scrutiny and investment assessment (‘Rigorous testing of the investment business case and funding strategy’); (5) their focus on tracking the delivery of the targeted benefits (‘Effective monitoring post transaction’); and (6) the quality of their mutual challenge and critical debate (‘Well-chaired board with constructive challenge’). This process of comparison of ‘t-ought’ versus ‘d-ought’ has indicated that these initial findings have merit and should be regarded as an emergent theory. The paper that follows is the first of a four-part series: • Paper 1 covers the commercial or practitioner M&A literature to seek what guidance this provides directors involved in transactions and to uncover any material gaps • Paper 2 in similar fashion covers governance literature, again to seek guidance and to uncover any material gaps • Paper 3 covers the findings of director interviews flowing from PhD research, regarding right M&A governance • Paper 4 covers conclusions. Paper 2 available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=2880427

Choosing Health’ a Public Health White Paper was published in November 2004 with its Implementation Paper expected in Spring 2005. Sexual and reproductive health plays an important role in this White Paper which heralds the Government’s desire to move from a disease-orientated medical approach to a clinical style of supporting people to make better choices more in line with traditional community family planning and reproductive health services. This represents an opportunity to raise community contraceptive and sexual health service profiles develop new sexual health approaches and secure funding to implement service development. However to make the most of these opportunities traditional community contraceptive services need to demonstrate that they are already delivering health-promoting clinical services with potential to do more. (excerpt)

This paper responds to 3 discussion questions asked of participants in the Research Conference.1) How do you define "money," and how does that definition inform your work?2) Does your definition lead you to prioritize certain institutions as objects of study? Why? How does your institutional focus relate the conceptualization of money and its practices? What do you hope to accomplish by your institutional focus? 3) How does your approach to money and its institutions illuminate the travel of value across borders? How do you conceptualize the international (or now global) dimensions of the monetary system given the domestic character of many of its elements?

Some US regulators perceive that there are problems with the risk management process currently practised in the country. They are concerned that it is inherently legalistic, economically inefficient, and time-consuming (eg Kagan, 1991). These issues have been exacerbated by increasing public distrust toward policy makers and other opinion formers. Negotiated rule-making has been proposed by some academics and regulators as a possible way of resolving these problems of the regulatory process. This paper examines a case study of the negotiated rule-making approach utilised by the International Paper Company in re-licensing four hydropower dams in Maine. Although the approach in this instance was time-consuming, it was not adversarial and it led to increased public and stakeholder trust toward the company.

Public sector reform will be at the heart of Labour's third term of office. The changes under way or planned in children's services and adult social care services in England are prototypes of the pursuit of services that are person‐centred, seamless and proactive, with a focus on positive outcomes and well‐being. This article examines the similarities in approach between the two sets of changes, and warns that implementation will be a difficult task.

Government documents such as welfare applications or accounting records are often considered mundane artifacts that signify shared practice and routine. In this paper we examine cases where these "everyday documents" are sites of creation and contestation of the dominant information order. We argue that the circulation of everyday government documents opens up the possibility for a population to gaze back and "see" the state. In three cases, we show how the materiality of everyday documents in welfare schemes takes center-stage in mediating public participation in India and in the US.

As academics we write in scholarly and professional journals (what we hope are) reasoned analyses of the actualities and potentialities of accounting practices. We read the similarly crafted endeavours of our colleagues, published in the same medium. There is a considerable temptation to forget that most people neither read this literature nor do they attend academic conferences, much less are they privy to discussions in the council chambers of the profession. For many people their understanding of who accountants are; of what they do; and of what they should do is much more likely to be shaped and indeed modified by more common means and through more informal interaction. Our particular interest is in the popular press as one such conduit for the everyday articulation and dissemination of representations of the roles and responsibilities of accountants. Our purpose is to suggest how and why everyday perceptions of the accountant and their connections to society might proceed along very different lines o...

Wherever computers are used to carry out a function, records are being generated either electronically or as hardcopy output. Records are a subset of the wider information universe. Their unique quality is that they are the sources of information that provide the evidence base for accountability. This makes the maintenance of good record keeping systems of particular significance to public sector reform. Computers are rapidly being introduced in every area of public administration to enhance control of key resources, notably finance and personnel, and to improve efficiency. National and donor governments alike have come to view computers as the solution to the management of the information required to deliver effective public services. If public sector reform is to be a reality, this thinking needs to be modified. Too often, managers regard technology as a panacea for the shortcomings of the existing record systems, procedures and communications infrastructure. Of course, computerised systems off...

This study examines employee involvement programs in the unionized paper and pulp industry in North America. The data gathered from local union officers describe the economic and bargaining environment in which management established these programs. Additionally, the survey elicits each local union's description of and attitude toward its program once started. The analyses suggest that the manner in which programs are set up and subsequently administered correlates with the level of union support. The study concludes that the viability of employee involvement is contingent on the degree of autonomy afforded the local union.

Should nonprofit organizations adopt the business corporation model of governance? This article examines the differences between business and nonprofit corporations and argues that adopting the corporate model would be a dangerous error for nonprofit organizations. Nonprofits need a governance structure that reflects their unique aspects: the complexities of defining corporate mission; lack of a universal measure of success; dominance of community members rather than corporate insiders on the board; accountability for the public trust; responsibilities to many constituencies; and board responsibility for fundraising. While acknowledging that many nonprofit boards need to solve problems of inefficiency and unclear understandings of board responsibilities, the author argues that adopting the corporate model is the wrong prescription.

The Australian government's commitment to equal employment opportunity has resulted in the enactment of anti-discrimination and affirmative action legislation at both the federal and state level and the development of a number of labour market, training and social policies specifically designed to remove impediments to women's employment. The Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act is pivotal to the removal of discrimination in organisations, but its effectiveness has been hindered by the restructuring of organisations on a divisional basis, a lack of understanding of the nature of equal employment opportunity and the role of affirmative action programs among some employers and employees, and the choices women make about their employment and training. A number of innovative policies have been developed by large organisations to deal with these barriers to the effectiveness of affirmative action programs and the creation of EEO and they provide useful models for other organisations.

The move towards greater public sector efficiency has meant considerable changes in resource allocation to higher education. An efficient and equitable restructuring of the sector will be greatly assisted by the sensible use of appropriate performance indicators. This article extends previous work, which looked at the quantity of refereed publications, by developing research performance indicators based on citations, research grants and peer review. Whilst there is a moderately strong positive relationship between the quantity of publications and citations indicators, rcscarch funding seems to be of quite limited importance to economics departments, and peer reviews need to be checked against more objective measures.

By stressing results, or program outcomes, evaluation research has turned against itself. And by posing the same question that evaluation has traditionally put to Intervention programs onto evaluation’s own “results”, we tend to receive the same “no demonstrable effect” answer. This chapter focuses not on what decision-makers do with evaluation data, but on what evaluation does to them, and why. Decision-makers do not always show indifference toward social research; occasionally what evaluation says or might say does seem to matter. By gauging the power of evaluation through looking at the energy devoted to influencing its findings, or to curtailing its potential influence, we get a more balanced picture than by concentrating on the “uses” of evaluation alone. The question then is: Howcome it is that (certain) evaluation data matter? Discussing the evaluation of Project Renewal (and, in brief, the evaluation of primary education in Israel) as an example of an evaluation that mattered, my attempt will be to explain its “power” with the help of papermoney as a metaphor.

In the past few weeks, the world witnessed how epidemic outbreaks of COVID-19 turned into a pandemic. To synchronize the research efforts and to identify the research gaps in cutting edge priority areas, WHO (World Health Organization) has come up with a research blueprint with a substantial timeline and roadmap. To understand the background and progress of this roadmap, a comprehensive analysis of published researches on COVID-19 has become essential. With this motivation, this paper analyzes all the available literature from the Scopus database to discover the trend and unleash the pattern and nature of the studies. This study applies thematic mapping to find relationship among research topics, importance, and relevance. Keywords analysis and co-word analysis are used to build a semantic and scientific field map and Lotka’s Law to measure the productivity patterns. This study also employs Citation analysis, H-Index, and Co-author analysis to find out the top authors, their affiliations, quality, quantity, and impact of the research done. The study reveals that there is a significant surge in publications in recent times. In 2020 alone, there are 479 publications (as of March 26, 2020) indexed in Scopus. A total of 1,277 keywords have been used. Alongside COVID-19 related keywords, researchers also investigated SARS, SARS CoV 2, MERS CoV, and other diseases. The Lancet, Virology, Journal of Medical Virology and Antiviral Research are found to be among the top journals. Countrywise, China, USA, and Germany are the top publishing countries, while the universities in China, specifically in Wuhan, are leading the research by numbers. The largest share of scientific outputs during the analysis period is in the form of ‘Journal Articles’ (60.65%) and multiple-authored publications dominate (79.31%) over single-authored publications (20.69%). A lack of preventive studies and multidisciplinary social science is observed. The impacts are not properly documented through scientific publications, as evidenced by our analysis. Researchers may consider these less-studied areas in their future scientific endeavors to fulfill the gaps.

International research-based pharmaceutical companies are increasingly selling their products in less economically developed countries, commonly referred to as “emerging economies” or “emerging markets.” While the introduction of new drugs in these settings has the potential to bring significant health benefits for individuals and populations, it also raises a host of difficult ethical questions. For example, in countries without universal health insurance systems, is it ethically acceptable for companies to sell their products only to the relatively small segment of the population that can afford private insurance coverage or to pay for medications out of pocket? Are there certain drugs that companies should be expected to sell in emerging markets even if they are unable to do so profitably? What ethical responsibilities do companies have in settings where, because of lax regulatory controls, individuals are able to purchase virtually any medication they want without a prescription? This white paper is designed to help companies identify and respond to these and related ethical challenges. Developed with input from an international group of experts and stakeholders, the white paper begins by considering the sources of companies’ ethical responsibilities within emerging markets, as distinct from the responsibilities of national governments or the broader international community. It then provides guidance for thinking through specific ethical challenges that arise when making decisions about whether, and on what terms, to introduce a new drug into a particular setting.

Starting in 2002, the UK Labour Government of 1997–2010 introduced a series of changes to the National Health Service (NHS) in England designed to increase patients’ choices of the place of elective hospital care and encourage competition among public and private providers of elective hospital services for NHS-funded patients. In 2006, the Department of Health initiated the Health Reform Evaluation Programme (HREP) to assess the impact of the changes. In June 2008, the White Paper, High quality care for all, was published. It represented the government’s desire to focus the next phase of health care system reform in England as much on the quality of care as on improving its responsiveness and efficiency. The 2008 White Paper led to the commissioning of a further wave of evaluative research under the auspices of HREP, as follows: an evaluation of the implementation and outcomes of care planning for people with long-term conditions; an evaluation of the personal health budget pilots; an evaluation of the implementation and outcomes of the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) framework; and an evaluation of cultural and behavioural change in the NHS focused on ensuring high quality care for all. This Supplement includes papers from each project. The evaluations present a mixed picture of the impact and success of the 2008 reforms. All the studies identify some limitations of the policies in the White Paper. The introduction of personal health budgets appears to have been the least problematic and, depending on assumptions, likely to be cost-effective for the sorts of patients involved in the pilot. For the rest of the changes, impacts ranged from little or none (CQUIN and care planning for people with chronic conditions) to patchy and highly variable (instilling a culture of quality in acute hospitals) in the three years following the publication of the White Paper. On the other hand, each of the studies identifies important insights relevant to modifying and improving the policies. These findings have continuing relevance since both the 2008 White Paper’s policies, and the issues they were focused on remedying, remain central to the current Coalition Government’s reform agenda.

Research Question/Issue: This paper will examine the role of reputation regarding corporate governance in terms of performance, risk control and the possible role of legislature or behaviors in this field (in particular with regards to the recent Green Paper “Companies in the EU: a management of governance”, COM (2011) 164 final, of the 5th April 2011, of the European Commission). Research Findings/Insights: Image, reputation, positive or negative opinion, notoriety of the companies and their managers are regarded as an element of their performance. It is accepted that public opinion, inherently linked to the reputation risk is an essential element of corporate governance. Regarding the need of a long term matter, particularly after the financial crisis, a short period of time is enough to transform a positive public opinion into a negative one. In addition, the assessment of public opinion is complex. Everyone can freely form an “opinion”. The opinion may be private and public. Public opinion refers to society, to citizens and to the people. Its classic means of expression are freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This question is particularly crucial regarding the role of the companies to the “society” as recently defined by the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the committee of the Regions, A renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility, the European Commission and the European Parliament (Brussels, 25.10.2011) COM (2011) 681 final). Theoretical/Academic Implications: How to manage good corporate governance reputation ?As from 1979, the Anglo-Saxon doctrine has acutely highlighted the role of reputation risk regarding corporate governance but what is the situation within the EU? Has legislature, in Europe (and for example, in France), sufficiently acknowledged the concept of reputation risk control? – A long term period seems necessary for efficient corporate governance. Yet, CSR has given an additional power to social and environmental information which may, because it affects a more important spectrum (stakeholders…), cause a more important prejudice, whereas CRS is an "integral part" of corporate governance. Thus, in France, as pointed out in recital 10 of the policy 2006/46/CE but above all, as pointed out in article 53 of the said Grenelle 1 law (n° 2009-967 of the 3rd August 2009), “the quality of information regarding the way in which companies consider the social and environmental consequences of their activity and the access to this information constitutes essential conditions of good corporate governance”. The SRI funds also attempt to control the factors of reputation risk. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The multiple vehicles of public opinion regarding corporate governance : in fact, CSR, largely consisting in the “reporting” of social and environmental values therefore on “societal communication”, which potentially contains so many possible public opinions to be expressed, may be “additions” to individual opinions. CSR rests on a true discourse which seems, to certain authors, removed from reality: “the reports on corporate social responsibility, summary document between the “say” and “do”, appear as a support of speech which, removed from the real situation, tends first and foremost, to show the “good faith” of organisations. Societal corporate e-governance with the aid of the internet further weakens the concept of societal reputation.

PurposeThe research is unequivocal: when it comes to return on equity, revenue growth, profitability and employee turnover, performance management can deliver remarkable results for next to no investment. However, in most companies, performance management has a poor reputation. It takes up valuable time and resources, yet delivers little return. The reason is simple: managers focus on forms, systems and processes. What they need to focus on is the quality of their conversations. This paper, which is a concise version of the authors' in‐depth white paper, aims to highlight the five key ingredients that lead to dynamic performance conversations.Design/methodology/approachOver 50 independent academic studies were analysed, and leaders in a dozen leading businesses were consulted. The authors also draw lessons from The Mind Gym's ten years of work with 40 per cent of FTSE 100 companies.FindingsFive vital ingredients for dynamic performance conversations are: stretching goals with fortnightly feedback; consistent differentiation; commercial coaching; job crafting; and employees taking responsibility.Practical implicationsThe authors share a “ready reckoner”, developed for organisations to discover how they fare at the five ingredients. The authors explore simple yet powerful ways that managers and individuals can put these five ingredients into practice.Originality/valueThe paper gives individuals, line managers and HR professionals clear, practical advice on where to focus their effort so that they realise the full personal and commercial benefits of dynamic performance management.

While states have agreed to substantial reduction of emissions in the Paris Agreement, the success of the Agreement strongly depends on the cooperation of large Multinational Corporations. Short of legal obligations, we discuss the effectiveness and moral legitimacy of voluntary approaches based on naming and shaming. We argue that effectiveness and legitimacy are closely tied together; as voluntary approaches are the only alternative to legally imposed duties, they are most morally defensible particularly if they would be the most effective in reducing the harmful greenhouse gases. Shaming could be made effective if states could prompt more corporations to accept voluntary cuts with high gains—such as public acknowledgements—and high losses, such as reporting on noncompliance and public exposure (naming), along with some kind of condemnation (shaming). An important challenge of such voluntary approaches is how to ensure compliance with the agreed upon commitments, while avoiding greenwashing or selective disclosure. Certain institutional arrangements are inevitable, including an independent measurement, monitoring and verification mechanism. In this paper, we discuss the potentials and ethical pitfalls of shaming as a strategy when corporations have a direct relationship with consumers, but also when they are in a relationship with governments and other corporations.

The Corporate Social Responsibility is traditionally viewed not as a productive investment, but like an expense of defensive character, destined to consume resources without producing new value. However, in the actual context, the public interest cannot be an objective only for the Public Administration; each enterprise should integrate in the management choices a CSR strategy (Borgonovi & Rusconi, 2008).The CSR is, primarily, intended as the ability to follow those lines of action which are desirable in relation to the aims and values of our society (Bowen, 1953). The development of studies on CSR has produced subsequently further definition, which tend to emphasize the importance of expectations of the community and the resulting social role played by itself in increasing weal (Frederick, 1960); to the definition of corporate social responsibility contained in the EU Green Paper, which identifies CSR as those behaviours oriented to the integration between economic, social and environmental variables in the management company (EU, 2001).This work aims to investigate the potential of investment in CSR in terms of creating new value as part of a new definition of sustainable business performance based on the joint and balanced maximization of economic, social and environmental objectives (Elkington, 1997). The objective of this research is to verify the impact on business performance due to the implementation of a specific design of CSR, named Contact, in a local public transport company of medium/big size (Turnover € 56.613.130, Employees 1.341).

The 1996 South African White Paper on National Transport policy provided the guidelines for the restructuring of the commuter bus industry. The restructuring objectives were based on improving the competitiveness of and service levels within the industry through a competitive tendering regime, the selective implementation of negotiated contracts and the general transformation of the industry to also include improved transparency in the funding arrangements between government and operators. In order to set the context of the paper, a brief overview is provided of the progress made with policy implementation and the background to funding issues that are experienced in the bus transport sector. To gauge the impact of the funding issues on the relationship between government and operators, a survey of the largest contracted operators was undertaken to determine, amongst other, how these funding issues have potentially impacted on trusting relationships between contracted parties.

Policy makers from around the world are trying to emulate successful innovation systems in order to support economic growth. At the same time, innovation governance systems are being put in place to ensure a better integration of stakeholder views into the research and development process. In Europe, one of the most prominent and newly emerging governance frameworks is called Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). This article aims to substantiate the following points: (1) The concept of RRI and the concept of justice can be used to derive similar ethical positions on the nano-divide. (2) Given the ambitious policy aims of RRI (e.g. economic competitiveness enhancer), the concept may be better suited to push for ethical outcomes on access to nanotechnology and its products rather than debates based on justice issues alone. It may thus serve as a mediator concept between those who push solely for competitiveness considerations and those who push solely for justice considerations in nano-technology debates. (3) The descriptive, non-normative Systems of Innovation approaches (see below) should be linked into RRI debates to provide more evidence on whether the approach advocated to achieve responsible and ethical governance of research and innovation (R&I) can indeed deliver on competitiveness (in nano-technology and other fields).

This paper is a response to our recognition that approaches to equity and consumer involvement in research differed in emphasis between our researchers and jurisdictions. Whilst we shared common aspirations we varied in our priorities between equity groups and methods to represent consumer interests. New Zealand has a historical focus on equity for indigenous Maori and shares with Canada concern about enduring inequalities that affect people’s lives.

Sue Collins gave a keynote presentation about funding longterm care at Laing & Buisson's annual Long-Term Care conference at the Radisson SAS Portman Hotel, London, on 5th March, 2009. She looked at options for funding long-term care and offered perspectives on the social care green paper. This paper is based on that presentation.

The public sector in Britain has been subjected to over a decade of major reform aimed at breaking up public service monopolies, at containing costs while at the same time opening services up to greater consumer choice. Health and social services have not been exempt from this revolution in the organization and management of public sector services. The long-standing policy of care in the community is being subjected to market principles and the introduction of a ‘contract culture’ very similar to the NHS reforms introduced in 1991. This paper reviews the origins of these developments in the doctrines of ‘new public management’, a movement which has proved attractive to policy-makers in many countries. Local authority social services departments have been identified as the lead agency for the development of a mixed economy of care following a review of community care policy by the government's health adviser, Sir Roy Griffiths, and a subsequent white paper. This paper examines the limited empirical evidence available on how managers and providers are meeting the challenge bestowed upon them, and concludes that most authorities are moving ahead cautiously if at all. Only a handful of authorities studied have embraced the reforms with any degree of enthusiasm. The paper concludes with an assessment of the reforms from two perspectives: a pessimistic one and an optimistic one. There are many worrying features of the reforms, not least among these being a lack of clarity over their intended purpose. Tensions and contradictions are plentiful, which places in jeopardy the certainty of the reforms in becoming user led rather than provider driven. A more optimistic scenario is that the changes are leading to a loosening up of services and practices which have often suffered from sclerotic tendencies, paternalism and sometimes complacency. If the reform process is skilfully handled and not rushed and if the ends are clearly established and communicated then users and carers could prove to be the principal beneficiaries.

Social and health policy analysis is at the heart of ‘value for money’ considerations in public provision and/or production. Economic appraisal is about meeting a potential efficiency test in the use of resources. In an increasingly ‘silver’ society providing for older people in the community, who are over time less likely to be living in a close-knit family, will be a growing resource commitment. Such provision can be organised in a number of ways and as such is an important area for government policy (eg the 2005 Department of Health Green Paper, Independence, Well-being and Choice) and policy appraisal. In particular this paper examines one dimension of provision in the form of delivery by integrated health and social care teams and by traditional arrangement. The analysis covers some of the theoretical and conceptual issues related to modelling ‘integrated’ team production and introduces the concept of ‘team capital’. Some empirical evidence from a three-stage eighteen-month interview based study is r...

Objective To identify the international philanthropies that have invested in tobacco control in China, describe their role and strategies in changing the social norms of tobacco use, and define the outcomes achieved. Methods Information on the international philanthropic donor China projects, including activities and outcomes, was gathered from multiple sources including organisational websites, key informant interviews and emails with project officers, and published research papers and reports. Results Philanthropic donations to China9s tobacco control efforts began in 1986. The donors provided funds to national, city, provincial government organisations, non-government organisations, universities, and healthcare organisations throughout China to establish a tobacco control workforce and effective programmes to reduce the burden of tobacco use. Conclusions International engagement has been an important dimension of tobacco control in China. Recognising the large burden of illness and capitalising on proven effective control measures, philanthropic organisations understandably seized the opportunity to achieve major health gains. Much of the international philanthropic investment has been directed at public information, policy change and building the Chinese research knowledge base. Documenting research and evaluation findings will continue to be important to ensure that promising practices and lessons learned are identified and shared with the China tobacco control practitioners. The ultimate question is whether foreign philanthropy is making a difference in tobacco control and changing social norms in China? The answer is plainly and simply that we do not know; the evidence is not yet available.

In June 1999 the Australian Government signalled, with the publication of a Green Paper, its intention to reform research and the training of research students in universities. After a period of public and institutional comment and debate, the reforms eventuated and the new policies result in performance based funding for research and research training, which is separated from the base of funding of coursework teaching. The new funding mechanisms can shift core government research resources across universities.Within universities, funding inputs from government need to be directed internally to research-active areas with large numbers of research students and substantial external grants, which contribute most strongly to the performance indicators that bring in the funding. This train of funding from government through to internal resource allocation can be modelled and the results imply potentially permanent changes in the character of universities, by changing the way academic work is funded and accounted for.Funding models can leave teaching-active sections, if they have few research students and little external grant funding, without the means to support even basic levels of research and scholarship. This threatens the standard and nature of university teaching, which by its nature should take place within a culture of sustained scholarship and creation of new knowledge through research.The paper discusses these issues, in the context of models for funding of research, and the responses by university managers and grass-roots academics to the challenges of adapting to the new policy and funding framework.

The recent UK government Green Paper proposes reform for the supply side of 14–19 education, establishing four key goals. This article focuses on the first of these goals: meeting needs and improving choice. The article draws on research on sixth form colleges, general further education colleges and schools. It argues that employers, one of the two groups highlighted in the Green Paper, are a relatively weak force in shaping provision. The second group, young people, are more powerful due to current funding incentives. It presents evidence which suggests that colleges and schools perceive both practical and attitudinal difficulties in collaborating to meet needs by offering flexible routes and a distinctive range of choices. A long history of intervention in the supply side has not achieved widening participation nor equity amongst the choices offered. A more radical approach to influencing the demand side may be needed.

We study unique data from a dynamic natural experiment involving more than 7,000 American women to understand how a woman’s propensity to perform an annual mammography changes over time after a co-worker is diagnosed with breast cancer. We find that in the year this event occurs the probability that a woman performs a mammography drops by about 8 percentage points, off a base level of about 70%. This impact effect is persistent during at least the following 2 years, is driven by cases of breast cancer diagnosed at non-early stages, and by the behavior of individuals who are less knowledgeable about health issues. This negative effect is confirm ed when we allow for serial correlation in screening behavior and when we estimate the effect of the treatment on the hazard of not screening, at the daily frequency. However, the effect vanishes in placebo experiments.

The permeation of the corporate social responsibility imperative and the proliferation of the Internet across the globe have begun to redistribute social influence. A wider spectrum of competing stakeholders now exists and as a result corporate strategies and governance structures are subject to greater demands for transparency and accountability. In this context, reputation, of which the public relations practitioner is custodian, is now a company’s most valuable and fragile asset. To help rationalise the accountability dynamic, proposed changes to UK company law could enable a more inclusive approach to corporate reputation management through a change in definition of directors’ duties and the introduction of a non‐mandatory operating and financial review (OFR) to include intangible assets within a company’s reporting framework. The proposals are likely to be the subject of a white paper and legislation in the this session of parliament. This paper argues that by demonstrating greater emphasis on planning, research and evaluation the public relations practitioner can more effectively inform the company reporting framework and exceed the demands of accountability necessary for successful strategic corporate reputation management.