Is this the right time to come out? Case study

In this fictional case study, Adam Lawson is a promising young associate at Kirkham McDowell Securities, a St. Louis underwriting and financial advisory firm. Recently, Adam helped to bring in an extremely lucrative deal, and soon he and a few other associates will be honored for their efforts at the firm's silver anniversary dinner. George Campbell, vice president in mergers and acquisitions, is caught unprepared when Adam tells him that, after serious reflection, he has decided to bring his partner, Robert Collins, to the banquet. George is one of Adam's biggest supporters at the firm, and he personally has no problem with Adam being gay. But it is one thing for Adam to come out of the closet at the office. It is quite another to do so at a public company-client event. After all, Kirkham McDowell's client roster includes some very conservative companies--one of the country's largest defense contractors, for example. George is concerned with how Adam's openness about his sexual orientation will play with their clients and, as a result, how senior management will react. Adam has not come to George for permission to bring Robert to the dinner. But clearly Adam wants some sort of response. George has never faced sexual diversity issues in the workplace before, and there is no company policy to guide him. Just how negative an effect could Robert have on Adam's career with the firm and the firm's relationship with its clients? Isn't it possible that even the firm's most conservative clients will simply decide that Adam's choice of guest is a personal matter--not a business one?(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Inherent risk: An investigation of auditors' judgments

The assessment of inherent risk is a judgment required of auditors by Statement on Auditing Standards 47 (Auditing Standards Board, AICPA, New York, 1983) that normatively affects the scope of work performed on audit engagements. This study explores the judgments of auditors concerning inherent risk in inventory. Four inherent risk factors were examined: turnover of the controller, financing pressure, the amount of complexity of overhead in inventory, and the quality of the personnel responsible for the inventory calculation. A human information processing approach employing ANOVA was utilized to determine the relative reliance on these factors in the inherent risk judgments of 65 practicing auditors. Correlation techniques were used to measure consensus, reliability, and self-insight.The results suggest that although all four inherent risk factors were important to auditors, quality of personnel was the most significant. Reliability was slightly lower than in previous research, but was still fairly high. Self-insight was moderate.     

State Accountancy Regulations,Audit Firm Size,and Auditor Quality: An Empirical Investigation

This paper extends the literature on occupational licensing by examining the effect of states' licensing requirements for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). We related variations in licensing requirements across states to CPA firm based assessments of service quality. Based upon prior research, we also examined the relationship between service quality and a market generated quality indicator: CPA firm size. The results show no association between audit quality and variations in regulatory strictness. However, a positive relationship was found between audit quality and firm size, suggesting that market forces, rather than governmental intervention, is effective in addressing the information asymmetry that can exist between CPAs and their clients.     

HR Professionals' beliefs about effective human resource practices: correspondence between research and practice

Five thousand human resource (HR) professionals were surveyed regarding the extent to which they agreed with various HR research findings. Responses from 959 participants suggest that there are large discrepancies between research findings and practitioners' beliefs in some content areas, especially selection. In particular, practitioners place far less faith in intelligence and personality tests as predictors of employee performance than HR research would recommend. Practitioners are somewhat more likely to agree with research findings when they are at higher organizational levels, have SPHR certification, and read the academic literature. Suggestions are made for more effective dissemination of HR research findings. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How do small businesses pursue sustainability? The role of collective agency for integrating planned and emergent strategy making

Research on sustainability strategy in large corporations has shown that carefully planned strategies can address environmental and social concerns. However, we still lack clarity on how small businesses form sustainability strategies. Assuming that small businesses can—or should—carefully plan strategies is inappropriate considering that such organizations often lack the needed resources, foresight, and formalized decision-making structures. Building on the study of two craft breweries in Canada and Germany, we detail how a combination of planned and emergent actions enables owners, employees, and external stakeholders to jointly form strategic sustainability orientation. Developing these findings into an integrated activity-based model, we show the need to move beyond the dichotomy between planned and emergent strategizing. We contribute a human-centered perspective to the sustainability strategy literature and suggest that research should take the role of people in small businesses more seriously as here interpersonal relationships and collective agency are central in forming strategic sustainability orientation.     

Music Piracy on the Web – How Effective are Anti-Piracy Arguments? Evidence from the Theory of Planned Behaviour

This article presents the results of an experiment in which three different types of anti-piracy arguments were tested among 139 young adult consumers susceptible to engage in swapping music over the Internet: (1) stressing the negative personal consequences of pirating music, (2) stressing the negative consequences for the artists, and (3) stressing the unethical nature of this behaviour. The psychological determinants of music piracy behaviour were modeled in part with (1991) Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour. The results show that the intention to swap music on-line depended on one’s attitude toward music piracy, one’s perception that important others want that this behaviour be performed, and one’s perceived competency in doing so. In addition, having swapped music on-line in the past had a strong influence on one’s intention to do it again. Contrary to expectations, the anti-piracy arguments had no significant impact on the behavioural dynamics underlying on-line music piracy.     

The use of expected value in pricing judgments

Lacking specific knowledge, the public perceives technical risks based on their trust in the authorities. This article explored the role of shared value in the process of trust judgment and risk perception of genetically modified (GM) foods. Study 1 showed that social trust was a mediator between shared value and risk perception. Higher value similarity between individual and spokesperson resulted in deeper trust in the institution; moreover, social trust effectively reduced public risk perception of GM foods. Study 2 demonstrated that shared value improved in the care and competence dimensions of trust. The two dimensions of trust were positively related, but only competence had a significant influence on risk perception. Implications for risk communication are discussed.