Personal responsibility in health benefits: looking backward, looking forward

Consumerism and care management continue to make inroads as cost-containment strategies for employers, as well as for employees who have endured the steady rise in benefit cost-shifting. The latest statistics and trends point the way to a new era of personal responsibility in health benefits. The author describes how this trend has grown, and where it is leading.     

Corporate social responsibility culture and international M&As

We examine the role of corporate culture in M&As by utilizing a unique corporate social responsibility (CSR) dataset, providing in-depth information on multiple dimensions of organizational culture in 22 developed markets. In accordance with the prediction of the culture clash theory, a wider divergence between the CSR corporate cultures of the acquiring and target firms is associated with lower acquirer announcement and long-run returns as well as synergistic gains for the combined firm. Cultural misalignment also increases the time required to finalise a deal, reduces the likelihood of deal completion and the percentage of stock payment. Our results are robust to alternative explanations (e.g., similarities in national culture, acquirer CSR performance, institutional configurations), different regression specifications, and additional cultural misalignment measures. Our findings highlight the importance of the need for a deeper understanding of the role of CSR for the target selection process, integration planning, and financing choice of M&As to corporations and their investors.     

Awe culture and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from China

By proxying ‘awe culture’ (i.e., reverence for life and ethical behaviour) with regional induced abortion rates, we examine the impact of awe culture on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a sample of Chinese firms. We find that firms located in areas with higher induced abortion rates spend less funds on CSR activities and obtain lower CSR scores. The findings remain intact after an array of robustness tests. Further analysis shows that the effect of awe culture on CSR is more pronounced in areas with weaker law enforcement and where the local government emphasises economic growth targets. However, the effect becomes insignificant when firms are well-represented by top executives with overseas experience, foreign directors, and a high proportion of female board members. The significance of the effect also diminishes for non-state-owned firms, and firms with higher institutional ownership and higher cash holdings. Moreover, the lack of awe culture attenuates the positive impact of CSR on firm value. Overall, we document that awe culture, as an informal institution, shapes CSR behaviours.     

强化责任 搞好结合 努力做好股改上市后的党建工作

随着工行成功上市，工行在变革中实现了历史性的飞跃，从根本上改变了经营和竞争态势，使全行的经营管理、业务发展、经营模式和管理方式发生了根本变化，对新时期如何做好党建工作，提出了新的要求，特别是对基层行如何做好党建工作，确保全行经营管理的顺利进行，提出了新的挑战和考验。     

Persistence in capital budgeting reinvestment decisions – personal responsibility antecedent and information asymmetry moderator: A note

In this study we examine the effects of personal responsibility and information asymmetry on managers' tendencies to escalate their commitment to poorly performing investment projects. Consistent with the recommendations by critics of the escalation literature (e.g. Bowen, 1987), we provided subjects with unequivocal negative project feedback. However, counter to other recent conflicting studies adopting Bowen's recommendations, we reverted back to Staw's (1976) original methodology and incorporated "free-choice" into our personal responsibility construct. Our results confirm Staw's (1976) original proposition of a positive relation between a manager's personal responsibility for a poorly performing project and his/her subsequent escalation of commitment to the project. Further, we proposed that information asymmetry moderates the relation between the level of personal responsibility and escalation of commitment. Our results did not confirm this proposition. As such, results from our study re-establish personal responsibility as an important antecedent variable to escalation of commitment.     

绿色是一种社会责任

前不久,中国人民银行金融稳定局和世界银行集团国际金融公司（IFC）联合主办了银行社会责任国际研讨会：环境与社会风险管理。此次会议至少传达了两个信息,一个是如何建立中国的绿色信贷体系正在成为一个实践,一个是国际经验的借鉴意义变得更加重要。作为主办方的国际金融公司在此次会议上提供了他们的理念和经验。而对于今后要融资的企业来说,在考虑向银行获取支持时,首先要把项目置于这样一个标准之下：环保了吗？安全吗？     

Financing civil society for a global responsibility

The global civil society is exercising an increasingly important role in supporting innovative, democratic people-centred policy changes in global affairs. For the majority of people, solutions for poverty alleviation, the security of productive employment and livelihoods and for the restoration of the integrity of the environment are rooted in private or community-based initiatives. The establishment of an independent global Civil Society Development Fund, with a web of regional and local affiliates, can create the basis for an independent civil society which is able to seek its own solutions to global problems.     

Corporate social responsibility as a common risk factor

This article challenges factor models widely used to explain stock returns. For European firms involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions, we find a risk premium associated with extra-financial ratings priced by the market (that is, environmental, social, and governance [ESG] ratings). This premium is calculated as the excess return of low-rated firms compared to high-rated firms. To describe rated firms' returns, we propose a parsimonious two-factor model that includes both the market factor and this premium. Unlike the CAPM, three-, or five-factor models, our model is validated by the Gibbons, Ross and Shanken (1989) test. Our results lead to many managerial implications related to portfolio management, asset pricing, and corporate financial and investing decisions.     

Liquidating a remainder interest: simplifying personal finance

There are many ways in which decedents leave property in trust for their heirs. One technique is to grant a life estate to surviving children. The purpose of this paper is to describe verbally, and through example, an approach to liquidating a life estate. This simplification in personal finance involves a “buyout” of the interests of the remaindermen. The result is dissolution of the trust, leaving the income beneficiaries to manage, as owner in fee, the remaining assets as they wish, without the expense and complexity associated with maintaining a trust.     

Corporate social responsibility committees and the use of corporate social responsibility assurance services

This study examines whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) committees associate with the external assurance of CSR reports. Specifically, we consider the presence and effectiveness of CSR committees. Using a sample of Australian firms over the period 2004–2016, we show the mere presence of a CSR committee is not related to the external assurance of CSR. However, CSR committee effectiveness is positively related. In addition, firms with higher CSR committee effectiveness are more likely to seek external assurance provided by the Big4 accountancy firms and acquire financial audit and CSR assurance services from the same provider. Taken together, CSR committee effectiveness plays an active role in CSR assurance services. Our results are particularly relevant to those with interests in understanding the demand and choice of external CSR assurance services, as well as the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on these services.     

The benefits of a partnership approach to disability management

Taking a partnership approach to disability management and fostering a return-to-work culture can significantly reduce disability costs for employers and help disabled employees successfully return to work. Two rehabilitation case managers from ReliaStar Life Insurance Company share their perspective and experience, including three case studies that illustrate successful case management intervention and return-to-work strategies.     

Conquering a culture of indecision

The single greatest cause of corporate underperformance is the failure to execute. Author Ram Charan, drawing on a quarter century of observing organizational behavior, perceives that such failures of execution share a family resemblance: a misfire in the personal interactions that are supposed to produce results. Faulty interactions rarely occur in isolation, Charan says. Far more often, they're typical of the way large and small decisions are made or not made throughout the organization. The inability to take decisive action is rooted in a company's culture. But, Charan notes, leaders create a culture of indecisiveness, and leaders can break it. Breaking it requires them to take three actions. First, they must engender intellectual honesty in the connections between people. Second, they must see to it that the organization's "social operating mechanisms"--the meetings, reviews, and other situations through which people in the corporation do business--have honest dialogue at their cores. And third, leaders must ensure that feedback and follow-through are used to reward high achievers, coach those who are struggling, and discourage those whose behaviors are blocking the organization's progress. By taking these three approaches and using every encounter as an opportunity to model open and honest dialogue, a leader can set the tone for an organization, moving it from paralysis to action.     

Building a learning organization

Continuous improvement programs are proliferating as corporations seek to better themselves and gain an edge. Unfortunately, however, failed programs far outnumber successes, and improvement rates remain low. That's because most companies have failed to grasp a basic truth. Before people and companies can improve, they first must learn. And to do this, they need to look beyond rhetoric and high philosophy and focus on the fundamentals. Three critical issues must be addressed before a company can truly become a learning organization, writes HBS Professor David Garvin. First is the question of meaning: a well-grounded, easy-to-apply definition of a learning organization. Second comes management: clearer operational guidelines for practice. Finally, better tools for measurement can assess an organization's rate and level of learning. Using these "three Ms" as a framework, Garvin defines learning organizations as skilled at five main activities: systematic problem solving, experimentation with new approaches, learning from past experience, learning from the best practices of others, and transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout the organization. And since you can't manage something if you can't measure it, a complete learning audit is a must. That includes measuring cognitive and behavioral changes as well as tangible improvements in results. No learning organization is built overnight. Success comes from carefully cultivated attitudes, commitments, and management processes that accrue slowly and steadily. The first step is to foster an environment conducive to learning. Analog Devices, Chaparral Steel, Xerox, GE, and other companies provide enlightened examples.     

Building a leadership brand

How do some firms produce a pipeline of consistently excellent managers? Instead of concentrating merely on strengthening the skills of individuals, these companies focus on building a broad organizational leadership capability. It's what Ulrich and Smallwood--cofounders of the RBL Group, a leadership development consultancy--call a leadership brand. Organizations with leadership brands take an "outside-in" approach to executive development. They begin with a clear statement of what they want to be known for by customers and then link it with a required set of management skills. The Lexus division of Toyota, for instance, translates its tagline--"The pursuit of perfection"--into an expectation that its leaders excel at managing quality processes. The slogan of Bon Secours Health System is "Good help to those in need." It demands that its managers balance business skills with compassion and caring. The outside-in approach helps firms build a reputation for high-quality leaders whom customers trust to deliver on the company's promises. In examining 150 companies with strong leadership capabilities, the authors found that the organizations follow five strategies. First, make sure managers master the basics of leadership--for example, setting strategy and grooming talent. Second, ensure that leaders internalize customers' high expectations. Third, incorporate customer feedback into evaluations of executives. Fourth, invest in programs that help managers hone the right skills, by tapping customers to participate in such programs. Finally, track the success of efforts to build leadership bench strength over the long-term. The result is outstanding management that persists even when individual executives leave. In fact, companies with the strongest leadership brands often become "leader feeders"--firms that regularly graduate leaders who go on to head other companies.     

个人结算户、个人支票系统的软件设计

从2003年9月1日开始施行的《人民币银行结算账户管理办法》，把个人储蓄账户分离为储蓄和结算两种账户。客户账户被认定为结算账户后，除可以办理现金存取、汇兑、代发工资、转账结算、代缴水电费等基本业务外，还增加了签发个人支票及可能签发汇票、本票，跨行转账等功能。     

The benefits of a right to silence for the innocent

This article shows that innocent suspects benefit from exercising their right to silence during criminal proceedings. We present a model in which a criminal suspect can either make a statement or remain silent during police interrogation. At trial, the jury observes informative but imperfect signals about the suspect's guilt and the truthfulness of the suspect's statement. We show that a right to silence benefits innocent suspects by providing them with a safer alternative to speech, as well as by reducing the probability of wrongful conviction for suspects who remain silent with and without a right to silence.