New legislation affecting us nonprofits

In the summer of 1996, Congress passed and the President signed, four pieces of legislation of significance to the nonprofit sector: the Taxpayers Bill of Rights 2 (TBR2), the Small Business Job Protection Bill of 1996 (Small Business Act), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation (Welfare Reform) Act of 1996. Taken together, these four laws contain what are perhaps the most significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code since the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and what are certainly the most profound changes in the rules affecting tax-exempt organisations since the enactment of the 1969 legislation governing private foundations. This paper highlights the most significant features of these laws as they affect nonprofits.¹     

An integrated approach to managing absence supports greater organizational productivity

Both absenteeism and "presentee-ism" significantly erode productivity and impact the bottom line. The author discusses what drives absence, why companies are looking at total absence management, and how employers can implement integrated programs to reduce the impact of absence and associated productivity losses on their businesses.     

Communicating Ethical Values: A Study of Employee Perceptions

Communicating ethical values is a serious issue for a number of organizations. While ethical codes are useful, they cannot exist alone. Organizations must make certain codes reflect the ideals of individuals in the organization and the ethical expectations must be clearly communicated. This study examined the sources (people) and channels (ways messages were received) that affected how employees learned about ethics. Results showed that training and orientation programs were affirmed as sources of learning along with teaching others. Codes and handbooks were also identified as ways employees learned about ethics in their organization. Ethical issues were discussed more frequently with fellow employees than with supervisors suggesting that managers could be more proactive about discussing ethics with employees.     

Broadening the concept of rational economic behavior: A case study of cheese making at the Abbey of Tamié

Through an analysis of the business activities of a Trappist monastery, an attempt is made to add to the understanding of how ethical considerations, custom, and culture, as well as the profit motive, affect how actual economic decisions are made. This analysis is implemented through a case study of the cheese-making business of a monastery in the French Alps where the tradition of cheese, agriculture, and monks is important to the culture and customs of the area. The analysis finds that the monks are able to successfully conduct their business in ways that honor their custom and culture within the religious confines imposed by the monastery.     

Competitive intelligence practices of industrial marketers

This paper explores two ideas: that the competitive inteligence-gathering efforts of industrial marketers differ in purpose from those of consumer marketers, and that the scope of those efforts can be explained by a model incorporating purpose, size, competitive environment, and strategy. Based on data provided by employees of 151 firms, support is found for both of the basic ideas explored.     

What Makes Apple Golden

The mass market is supposed to bedead, but you would never know it from Apple. In February the iTunes Store be-came the second-largest music retailer inthe U.S., right behind Wal-Mart. The i-Pod is to music players what Kleenex isto tissue or Xerox is to copiers. Almosteverything Apple makes transcends gen-     

Ethical Evaluations of Business Activities and Personal Religiousness

The study examines the relationship betweenmoral judgments of a business situation with ethicalcontent and personal religiousness. The findingssuggest that ethical interest and behaviour arerelated to religiousness. However, only the ethicalphilosophy of contractualism was found to be relatedto religiousness, while moral equity and relativismwere not.