Reflections on management style and corporate social policy

Corporate social policy can be viewed as three legs of a tripod: efficient production, stable employment, and a social and political environment that promotes high performance of both workers and managers. Social policy process consists of achieving a balance of corporate interest with other interests in the society. Each policy position taken by the firm alters its relationships with all other interests and creates a new balance. This entails the risk of creating unfriendly interests and losing the support of others, depending on the issue and shift in power. The substance of policy affects this balance according to varying degrees of risk ranging from low to high: provision of good pay and working conditions, and justice; participation in local community affairs, charitable and cultural contributions, corporate lobbying, and electing candidates. Social policy formation is, thus, the search for a balance of public policy and private interests. It is an experiment in governance; in mediating differences over values between public and private interests.     

刍议“药品零差价销售”模式下公立医院危机管理

2014年我国医药卫生体制改革工作已经进入深水区和攻坚阶段,药品零差价销售改革、实现医药分开是医改工作的重点和难点。公立医院面对药品零差价改革,应采取积极、主动态度,分析医院面临的挑战和管理困境,配合国家一系列政策补偿措施以及逐步完善的医疗保障体系,改善医院管理运行机制,提高医疗服务质量,以专业、优质的技术为人们提供可信赖的医疗、保健服务,成为得到社会信赖和尊重的医院。     

Change and continuity in management systems and corporate performance: Human resource management,corporate culture,risk management and corporate strategy in South Korea

Embedded traditional management systems can change under the influence of several forces. The 1997 Asian financial crisis was such an event. This paper empirically investigates changes in the human resource management, corporate culture, risk management and competitive strategy parts of management systems in the General Trading Companies of South Korea in terms of internal perceptions of impact on corporate performance. It finds both change and continuity, particularly in corporate culture. This indicates that cultural change in organisations is not an easy task, not least because it is associated with changes in the values, attitudes, expectations, beliefs and behaviour of people. It also shows the importance of disaggregating trends as there can be simultaneously change and continuity.     

Emerging market corporate bond yields and monetary policy

I examine spillover of monetary policy on corporate bond yields. Emerging market corporate bond yields are positively associated with the federal funds rate. However, this positive relation is transmitted through the domestic policy rate. If domestic policy rates are held constant, the spillover of US monetary policy on corporate bond yields diminishes. This suggests that domestic policymakers face a tradeoff: if they leave their policy rate unchanged when the Fed hikes, this may have benign consequences for corporate bond yields. However, a higher US policy rate may lead to exchange rate depreciation for emerging market currencies and thus elevated debt burdens for their US dollar debtors. Alternatively, if the Fed hikes and policymakers follow suit, funding conditions for corporates worsen through higher yields.     

Collective punishment and public policy

In this paper I shall discuss various philosophical theories of collective punishment: marxian annihilism, metaphysical collectivism and methodological individualism. After refuting metaphysical collectivism and its modified version, I defend a modification of methodological individualism.J. Angelo Corlett has written on a wide variety of philosophical topics. His work appears in journals such asTheory and Decision, Theoria, Journal of Business Ethics, American Psychologist, Social Epistemology, andNew Ideas in Psychology. His main areas of research include ethics, social and political philosophy, and epistemology. He is currently working on a book concerning collective rights, responsibility, and punishment.     

A corporate perspective on the management of human resources in China

Many large corporations have established a China center to coordinate and control their operations in the country. This article describes the roles played by the HR function in these China centers. As we explain, the China center’s HR function provides a variety of services to the MNC units in China, is typically responsible for HR policy making and implementation, and is a key vehicle for organizational learning about HR.     

企业处理危机要有全周期意识

2008注定是要被历史铭记的一年,企业界这年也发生了很多事情,同样值得我们去深思与铭记。新媒体时代一个显著特点就是信息传播的猝不及防,“一颗铁钉毁掉个王国”的传奇故事,在这个时代有了新的极速升级版。     

Fetal protection: Law,ethics and corporate policy

Corporate fetal protection policies are designed to protect unborn children from exposure to harmful substances in the workplace. In recent years, a number of corporations have instituted fetal protection policies which excluded all fertile female employees from jobs which exposed them to hazardous substances. Critics argued that these policies discriminated against women, and several lawsuits were filed.The United States Supreme Court recently decided a case involving the fetal protection policy of Johnson Controls, Inc. This article will analyze the impact of the Supreme Court decision from a legal and ethical perspective. Practical guidelines for policies which protect the unborn and comply with the law will also be addressed.Ira Sprotzer, J. D., is an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Business Policy and Environment at Rider College, Lawrenceville, N.J. Professor Sprotzer is a member of the New Jersey Bar and publishes research in the field of Employment Law.Ilene V. Goldberg, J. D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business Policy and Environment at Rider College, Lawrenceville, N.J. Professor Goldberg is a member of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Bars and publishes research on topics related to Health Law.     

Bank affiliations and corporate dividend policy in pre-World War I Belgium

We investigate the impact of universal banks on the dividend policy of affiliated companies, in an environment characterised by poor investor protection, booming stock markets and strong banks. Our results, based on a unique sample of 428 listed companies in pre-World War I Belgium, are consistent with the hypothesis that companies with good investment opportunities and a bank director on their board paid higher dividends to establish a good reputation with investors. However, our results also indicate that companies with several bank directors and companies in which the bank had an equity stake paid lower dividends.     

论公司公益捐赠的法律规制

公司公益捐赠会导致各方的利益冲突.通过法律规制为公司捐赠中内外部利益冲突提供一个合理的平衡方案,是公司公益捐赠健康发展的必要条件.公司公益捐赠的法律规制措施主要是合理确定公司公益捐赠的决策机构,限制公司公益捐赠的对象与数额,并建立外部债权人的权利救济措施.     

Alliances and the innovation performance of corporate and public research spin-off firms

We explore the innovation performance benefits of alliances for spin-off firms, in particular spin-offs either from other firms or from public research organizations. During the early years of the emerging combinatorial chemistry industry, the industry on which our empirical analysis focuses, spin-offs engaged in alliances with large and established partners, partners of similar type and size, and with public research organizations, often for different reasons. We seek to understand to what extent alliances of spin-offs with other firms (either large- or small- and medium-sized firms) affected their innovation performance and also how this performance may have been affected by their corporate or public research background. We find evidence that in general alliances of spin-offs with other firms, in particular alliances with large firms, increased their innovation performance. Corporate spin-offs that formed alliances with other firms outperformed public research spin-offs with such alliances. This suggests that, in terms of their innovation performance, corporate spin-offs that engaged in alliances with other firms seemed to have benefitted from their prior corporate background. Interestingly, it turns out that the negative impact of alliances on the innovation performance of public research spin-offs was largely affected by their alliances with small- and medium-sized firms.     

Multinational corporate social policy process for ethical responsibility in sub-Saharan Africa

The article identifies the challenges that multinational corporations (MNCs) from the developed world face in sub-Saharan Africa and examines the direct foreign-investment and development interests of the region. In light of these challenges and interests, it also explores answers to the question “What is to be done?” The occurrence of MNCs' operations in culturally pluralistic societies suggest that they use, as the basis for a corporation-formulated regional code of conduct, a value-based corporate social policy process. That process should embody utilitarian and situation ethics in the exercise of MNCs' prima facie operations and of their responsibilities to society. For the African normative environment, the appeal of this approach is substantiated by the notion that both utilitarian and situation ethics are at once consistent with the region's investment codes, development interests, and value systems. But more than that, utilitarian and situation ethics are consistent with corporate social policy process and can assist MNCs to meet effectively their social responsibilities by helping them reverse the economic stagnation of most of the continent. However, because deontological (that is, Kantian) ethics emphasize autonomous actions that satisfy individual goals, they are largely at odds with sub-Saharan African value systems that typically emphasize the ethnic group (heteronomy) rather than the self. MNCs would, therefore, do well to de-emphasize their use in the region.     

In defense of enlightened hardball management

What can we learn from bygone successes? How can we get moving again? The authors offer an action agenda that managers can start on immediately.