Acknowledging religious diversity: Opportunities and challenges

Because federal law protects an employee's right to religious accommodation, managers cannot ignore the issue of religious diversity. The matter is far broader than simple legal compliance, though. Certainly, managers need to better understand the laws protecting employees’ rights for accommodation and prohibiting disparate treatment, religious harassment, and retaliation. However, they also need to understand the various opportunities and challenges associated with acknowledging religious diversity. Concerning opportunities, research suggests that allowing employees to express aspects of their religion can enhance their work lives and, thus, the value they place on the organization. Furthermore, respect for religious diversity can encourage a useful mindset for communicating with other stakeholders in areas from advertising to the sports interests of salespeople. Since learning more about a range of faiths can lead to greater skills in working with diverse groups, we offer information on Prothero's God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter and on different religions’ practices associated with death-related issues. In conclusion, we provide insight regarding the benefits of acknowledging religious diversity while respecting those who identify with no religion, and we do so without opening the door to proselytizing.     

How managers can lower mental illness costs by reducing stigma

The stigma associated with mental illness is not usually an issue that managers include in their portfolio of everyday concerns. However, published data from multiple sources makes it clear that the costs of doing business for any organization are increased when the very common conditions characterized as mental illnesses are stigmatized. Denial, fear of discovery, and insurance inadequacy among an organization's employees often delay treatment, harming organizational productivity and raising health care costs related to both the mental illness itself and other associated medical conditions. Additional costs to businesses range from the possibility of increased liability to higher taxes. To counter stigma among employees, the authors recommend personal communication with co-workers diagnosed with a mental illness, or with members of their families, to create new associations for these illnesses, which is a more effective approach than either education or anti-stigma messages. They also recommend communication to constituencies beyond one's own organization, joining with other companies to demonstrate actions aimed at community-wide stigma reduction, and offering consulting services to organizations promoting mental health.     

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.     

Intangible Assets and Corporate Signaling

Research and development (R&D) and advertising expenditures often result in patents, technologies and brand names which are difficult to accurately value. Under current generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) these intangible assets are generally not recognized in the financial statements, but instead are expensed in the period that they occur. Prior studies note that the market-to-book ratios of firms with significant levels of R&D and advertising expenditures suggest that investors, at least partially, value these assets. Researchers and practitioners argue that current GAAP, by not recognizing these intangible assets, reduces the usefulness and relevance of accounting reports.We investigate whether companies with significant levels of intangible assets are more likely to emphasize dividend increases and stock repurchases (which are generally perceived as signaling favorable investment opportunities), instead of traditional accounting disclosures, as a means of overcoming adverse selection. Because these assets are difficult to measure, cash distributions may be viewed as a more credible means of signaling firm value to investors. Using analysts' ratings of firms' accounting disclosures, we find that companies with higher levels of R&D and advertising expenditures are less likely to provide extensive accounting disclosures and instead tend to employ dividend and stock repurchase signals. We obtain these results even after controlling for other firm attributes, such as size, stock returns performance, leverage, liquidity and investors' expectations of growth opportunities. We also find that the market reaction to dividend increase and stock repurchase announcements is greater for firms with higher levels of R&D and advertising expenditures, indicating that these announcements are more informative for such firms.