The life and death of the Australian permanent building societies

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries permanent building societies have been important providers of housing finance in Australia. Despite their long history Australian building societies have been disappearing at a steady rate since the early 1980s as they have converted into banks or become involved in mergers. The purpose of this paper is to give a background account of the history of Australian building societies and put forward explanations for their past popularity and more recent disappearance from Australian housing finance markets.     

The ‘Myth’ of Human Resource Management in Chinese Enterprises

This study examines changing labour-management practices in China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in comparison with those in joint ventures (JVs). Based on a sample of 62 firms in seven Chinese major cities, it explores the degree to which HRM practices are a ‘myth’. The researchers carried out semi-structured interviews with managers and other employees at all levels. The role of trade unions and workers' congresses are also examined. The results show that the ownership type, size of the firm, and its location are important factors affecting the extent to which these enterprises have adapted to market-orientated HRM practices. The study concludes that most firms have not fully made this adaptation, and that even where it has been taken up, it has in many cases only been done so partially due to organizational inertia, amongst other factors.     

Deane–Draper stores: employee empowerment in a retail environment

This case focuses on the application of employee empowerment principles to a large retail group. It provides the opportunity to analyse the manner of the strategy implementation and the consequent impact on both individuals and the organization. The case establishes significant financial underperformance in one part of a retail group and investigates the use of ‘employee empowerment’ techniques - following Carlzon (1987) - to provide a solution. The case illustrates the dysfunctional activity associated with implementing empowerment without either appropriate management control or staff training, together with the dire financial implications. The Teaching Resource Note discusses alternative approaches that might have been adopted.     

Human resources in Sino-foreign joint ventures: selected case studies in Shanghai,compared with Beijing

This article examines HRM in joint ventures (JVs) in Shanghai compared with those in Beijing using a case-study approach. It focuses primarily on issues relating to labour contracts, rewards and benefits, social insurance, trade unions and personnel policies, and describes current developments in China in each of these areas. In order to place these JV human resource practices in context, we also draw on interviews in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Shanghai and Beijing. Taking as a starting point a summary of traditional SOE 'iron rice-bowl' ( tie fan wan ) practices in the management of personnel, we ask to what extent HRM in the present JV sample differs from traditional methods and to what extent 'iron rice-bowl' practices continue despite foreign ownership. The extent to which HR practices in JVs are distinct from those in contemporary SOEs is also examined. We conclude that, although, as one would expect, foreign ownership has modified traditional practice, the degree and extent to which this is true varies widely. There is strong evidence of institutional and organizational continuity in 'iron rice-bowl' practices in both JVs and SOEs. Finally we propose a framework for categorizing the companies investigated in terms of their distance from traditional 'iron rice-bowl' HR practices and proximity to 'imported' practices. This consists of two 'pure' and two hybrid categories: pure 'iron rice-bowl'; hybrid I (predominantly local); hybrid II (predominantly imported): and, finally, pure imported. In this schema, the companies examined do not however group neatly according to whether they are JVs or SOEs.     

A Long-run Analysis of Cooperative Housing Societies and Housing Construction in Victoria, Australia

Housing construction is an important component of economic development. The use of cooperative housing societies is one means of channelling scarce financial resources to housing construction. The aim of this paper is to explore the causes of the rapid growth and subsequent decline of the cooperative housing societies as a source of housing finance in the State of Victoria in Australia during the years 1947 to 1992. Significant evidence is established of a strong relationship between the availability of funding for the societies and the growth of their assets. Mixed results are presented for the impact on the general level of housing construction.     

‘All sorts and conditions of men’: The social origins of the founders of the ICAEW

The early organisation of accountants in Scotland during the 1850s and 1860s has excited the intellectual curiosity and research endeavour of a number of students of professionalisation. By contrast, until recently there was a dearth of academic interest in institutional developments in England and Wales during the 1870s and 1880s. Yet, organisations such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) which emanate from this period soon became the most significant players on the British professional scene and were to exert considerable influence on the development of accountancy institutions and professional ideologies in several locations. Exploiting a variety of genealogical sources this paper seeks to fill a void in the literature by analysing the social origins of the founding members of the principal professional association in England and Wales. It provides evidence of early chartered accountancy as a destination for long distance, upwardly mobile males, both intergenerationally and intragenerationally. The rate of self-recruitment among the founders of the ICAEW is shown to be low. The proportion of founders deriving from the upper and upper-middle classes is revealed to have been markedly less than that of their Scottish counterparts. The paper contributes to understandings of the complex professionalisation of British accountants, the extent of social mobility in Victorian Britain, the pathways to social advance in a class-based society, and illuminates the social complexion of one of the ‘new’ professions which emerged during the nineteenth century.     

Fiscal Policy in Southeast Asia

Monetary policy was ineffective in dealing with the 1997 Asian macroeconomic crisis. Fiscal policy might have been more effective but was not considered for a variety of reasons.