Corporate Moral Agency: Review and Implications

The debate concerning corporate moral agency is normally conducted through philosophical arguments in articles which argue from only one point of view. This paper summarises both the arguments for and against corporate moral agency and concludes from this that the arguments in favour have more weight. The paper also addresses the way in which the law in the U.K. and the U.S.A. currently views this issue and shows how it is supportive of the concept of corporate moral agency. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the debate for business ethics in general, and stakeholder theory and virtue ethics in particular.     

Modernising pay in the UK public services: trends and implications

The emerging character of the UK government's public sector pay reforms during the second and third (New) Labour terms of office is reviewed and contextualised. Three settings are examined where pay reform has been actively employed – with the accent on harmonisation, simplification and devolution of practice, with the express intention of restoring public service workforce morale, while improving services to clients – namely, local government, the National Health Service and the Higher Education sector. The evidence is interpreted as illustrating undoubted change, but also significant areas where progress has been less than intended, measured against the government's original programme goals. Equal pay considerations appear to have dominated all three projects reviewed: the failure to date of public sector managements to capitalise on opportunities the new pay architecture affords them to change local working practices may be attributed to a combination of factors discussed in the article. These have given rise to tensions as efforts have been pursued to transplant private sector pay techniques, somewhat hastily in some cases, without due consideration of the institutional context within which public services and proximal institutions function.     

Social cultural influences on current and future coastal governance

Australians have strong attachments to the coast. The impact of climate change brings to the fore deep-seated socio-cultural values, which add to the already complex and uncertain biophysical changes that challenge our preparations for future climate change.Our research aims to examine the role of worldviews and deep seated values in decision-making in response to climate change. The objective is to show how a multi-layered discourse analysis using causal layered analysis (CLA) can provide a powerful means of revealing the underlying social and cultural influences on decision-making and provide more insight into potential pathways for more effective responses to complex phenomena such as climate change. A case study of coastal governance in the south west of Western Australia, which is highly vulnerable to sea-level rise, provides the context of the research.We have found that CLA as a critical research tool has proven to be a useful method in uncovering the dominance of the administrative rationalist worldview on coastal governance. In our view, future coastal governance would benefit from a shift towards greater participatory governance and the incorporation of more reflexive practice so that the deeper emotional and relational aspects of decision-making balance out the dominant problem-solving discourse.     

Coping with Crowding: Tourist Displacement in the New Zealand Backcountry

The displacement phenomenon in outdoor recreation has increased in importance in recent years. It is one of a number of cognitive and behavioural coping mechanisms that are being employed by recreationists in the New Zealand backcountry. Displacement may be divided into intra-site and inter-site displacement, and further segmented into spatial and temporal displacement. This paper, utilising data collected at 22 sites within the New Zealand backcountry, explores the extent to which displacement is occurring in our natural areas. It evaluates displacement at the key Department of Conservation tracks, namely, the Great Walks and investigates other cognitive and behavioural coping strategies that are being employed at these sites. Furthermore, management strategies that may be used to mitigate crowding and displacement are identified.     

The Stability of Judgmental Modelling: an Application in the Social Services

Judgmental modelling has been used on a wide variety of business problems, and with the advent of new technologies is becoming increasingly user friendly. The range of applications has helped develop understanding of managerial decision making processes, especially those related to group decision making. However, to date there has been little evidence of their use in the social services. This paper describes such an application among social workers in the United Kingdom.One of the difficulties facing social workers is deciding how to deal with individuals with mental disorders. The state has various legal procedures which can be brought into operation, ranging from no involvement with the individual through to compulsory hospitalisation. This study shows how a judgmental modelling approach was used to help define the decision variables. A group of experts from a particular social services department worked together on the problem, using a simple computer model to investigate its decision making criteria and the associated processes. The results are fully presented, and the implications for the role of social workers discussed.     

Public finance foundation

Tight cash limits have continued to keep public sector pay under control. Though the Government may be pleased, their success is making it ever more difficult for public sector managers to recruit staff and use them more effectively.     

Criteria for Responsible Business Practice in SMEs: An Exploratory Case of U.K. Fair Trade Organisations

This paper develops a set of 16 criteria, divided into four groupings, for responsible business practice (RBP) in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) drawn from the existing SME/RBP literature. The current lack of a general set of criteria against which such activity can be judged is noted and this deficit is redressed. In order to make an initial assessment in support of the criteria so derived, an exploratory feasibility study of RBP in U.K. Fair Trade organisations was conducted. The findings from this study show that most but not all of the RBP criteria seem to be applicable to U.K. Fair Trade organisations but it is recommended that the complete set of criteria continues to be used in further research until such time as there is a general consensus as to which criteria are appropriate. Implications for RBP in small businesses in general, and for Fair Trade organisations in particular, are drawn out and suggestions for further research are identified.     

Some practical hints for newcomers to health futures

The three authors of this article are all relative newcomers to the health futures field. One is based within an academic Institute of Public Health, another at the regional tier of the UK National Health Service (NHS), and the third within the NHS Executive Headquarters. The common bond between them is a desire to contribute to the development of new ways of planning for health and a wish to see health futures actively engaged with health services to bring about effective change. With the aim of providing practical advice for others who are beginning to take an interest in health futures work, they look back on their own personal experiences and summarize the lessons they have learned.