Give Them Something to Smile About: A Marketing Strategy for Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers

Using a marketing perspective, this study investigates whether the issue of “fun at work” would appeal to volunteers as a part of an effort to enhance recruitment and retention. Specifically, we examined volunteers' attitudes toward fun, their perceptions of what kinds of activities are fun and what are not, and the relative importance of workplace fun in what they perceive as an ideal volunteer position. In general, we found that volunteers had positive attitudes towards fun and experiencing fun at work was associated with higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intentions. Although “a fun workplace” was ranked relatively low in importance relative to other reasons why they volunteer, creating such an environment could enhance retention. Some age and gender differences were found in the perceptions of whether certain activities are fun or not. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.     

挑选合适酒店工作的员工提高激励效果

挑选适合酒店工作的员工是酒店成功的前提,是创造满意客人的关键。合适的酒店员工可为客人提供满意的情感体验,提升酒店在客人心目中的地位,切实提高酒店的激励效果。因而酒店管理者对合适的员工应建设一个开放型的上下级沟通环境,鼓励员工从工作中寻找乐趣,制定高标准的服务程序,提倡酒店的合作精神,并努力促使员工自行解决问题,同时关注员工的职业生涯发展,从而进一步的提高酒店的激励成效。     

Marketing Accounting Services in the U.S. and Norway

Abstract

This study compares the general perceptions of marketing and the marketing experiences and training by accountants in the United States and Norway. The results of this study indicate there are differences in perceptions of marketing held by accountants in the U.S. and Norway and in their marketing practices. Accountants in the U.S. held stronger opinions on the importance of marketing accounting services, whereas accountants in Norway believed more strongly that reputation for quality work was more important than marketing. Over two-thirds of Norway accountants reported they did not use marketing concepts in their practice while over half of U.S. accountants indicated they did. A majority of Norway accountants indicated they did not need marketing because their clients come to them when they need their services. These findings demonstrate the importance of being cognizant of the differences in marketing professional services as accountants expand their understanding of global business and accounting practices.     

How and why (imagined) online reviews impact frontline retail encounters

This research examines how frontline retail employees respond to customers whom they think might write an online review about their experience. Across six experiments (one field and five online) we show that when employees identify potential online review authors, often by what the customer says or does, it catalyzes them to deliver better service. This ensues because they experience a rise in determination to do well, motivated by the prospect of being associated with a positive review, which they believe will impress the retailer. Thus, they go ‘above and beyond’. However, determination is tempered by two boundary conditions. When employees (i) do not consider that being associated with an online review is beneficial (i.e., not goal relevant) or (ii) feel poorly equipped to serve the customer (i.e., low in self-efficacy), then a better service delivery will not occur. We also show that retailers can enhance customer service through internal championing of the importance of online reviews, so long as this is framed as promotional rather than punitive.     

Heed Our Advice: Exploring How Professionals Guide Small Business Owners in Start‐Up Entity Choice

There is little work on how attorneys and accountants evaluate new small businesses when giving advice. The focus of this paper is to gain a better understanding of those factors that are important in the practice of advising small business owners on entity choice. We utilize a policy‐capturing methodology to study how attorneys and accountants evaluate the likelihood they would advise a particular entity. Our results suggest that these two categories of advisers appear to prefer different factors when determining the form—a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability companies, or S corporation—small business should take.     

To Share or Not to Share: Assessing Knowledge Sharing, Interemployee Helping, and Their Antecedents Among Online Knowledge Workers

Sharing and helping are important issues in ethical research. This study proposes a model based on flow theory by postulating key antecedents as the critical drivers of knowledge sharing and interemployee helping. Flow is the holistic sensation that employees feel when they act with total immersion and engagement, facilitating individuals’ reciprocal activities such as knowledge sharing and interemployee helping. In the proposed model, knowledge sharing is influenced by flow experience directly and also indirectly via the mediation of interemployee helping. Accordingly, the flow experience is influenced simultaneously by four exogenous factors related to individuals’ perception about their work: work skills, self-fulfillment in challenges, perceived control, and vividness. This study contributes to the knowledge management literature by extending flow theory to the area of knowledge sharing and interemployee helping, by validating idiosyncratic antecedent drivers of the flow theory, and by performing a practical operationalization of the flow experience. This research also provides managerial implications for business leaders to boost their employees’ ethical behavior in terms of sharing and helping.     

Non-compete agreements: How fiduciary duty and covenants not to compete restrict managers’ mobility

Companies spend time and money training employees; in the case of a merger or acquisition, they spend resources such as cash, stock, and debt. It makes sense, then, that they do not want an employee to take the expertise the company underwrote to a competitor. Thus, employment contracts will often include non-compete clauses—sometimes known as covenants not to compete—which state that the employee cannot move to a competitor for a certain period of time. Though not all employees have the heightened fiduciary duty of board members and officers, they frequently have signed agreements that, at least on paper, restrict their employment mobility. Not only have officers and board members often signed such agreements as well, but they also have fiduciary duties further restricting their new employment plans. In decades of teaching courses in the legal environment of business as well as in business ethics, no topic flummoxes students more than this one. After all, in a free country, a person should be able to work where they wish, right? How can such restrictions be fair? Legally and ethically, this is a complicated area and one in which the old lawyer’s answer—it depends—is true. This article provides some parameters for employees and employers to know when fiduciary duty precludes certain employees from moving to a new company, including when those are legal in what ways they are fair.     

The internal significance of codes of conduct in retail companies

This paper focuses on the significance of codes of conduct (CoCs) in the internal work context of two retail companies. A stepwise approach is used. First, the paper identifies in what way employees use and refer to CoCs internally. Second, the function and relevance of CoCs inside the two companies are identified. Third, the paper explains why CoCs tend to function in the identified ways. In both cases, the CoCs are clearly decoupled in the sense that they do not concern the immediate work context of the employees. Counter‐intuitively, this facilitates the process of establishing the CoCs. Even though the CoCs are not directly relevant for the employees, they are accepted and embraced with regard to contents, focus and function. Above all, the CoCs seem to confirm and even strengthen employee identity. On the basis of these observations, it is suggested that CoCs should not only be valued in light of their direct organisational consequences or lack of such consequences. The issue is not just whether CoCs are decoupled or not. Rather, it is argued that researchers should consider more closely a two‐level analysis that takes into account not only the concrete application of CoCs but also their function and meaning. An implication of this is that what might appear as a decoupled code cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the ‘core’ business processes of the organisation.     

签字会计师个人经验与财务重述

文章用累计签发报告数、签发报告年数度量签字会计师一般个人经验,进而考察其对客户公司财务重述的影响。结果发现,在控制了公司及事务所层面因素后,随着签字会计师一般经验的提高,客户财务报告发生重述的可能性显著降低。进一步研究发现,签字会计师的客户特定经验(任期)也对财务重述具有抑制作用,并且在客户特定经验较少时,一般经验的作用更为明显;就一般经验而言,无论是行业经验还是非行业经验均有助于降低财务重述;签字会计师一般经验对财务重述的影响主要来自复核合伙人。研究还发现,事务所规模、签字会计师性别会弱化一般经验的作用。这一研究提供了签字会计师个人经验与公司财务重述关系的经验证据,进一步拓展了审计师个人特质与审计质量之间关系的文献。     

CSR development in post‐communist economies: employees' expectations regarding corporate socially responsible behaviour – the case of Romania

Drawing on stakeholder theory and the evolutionary approach to institutions, this paper investigates the channels through which corporate social responsibility (CSR) is developed in post‐communist economies by focusing on the employee background factors that shape the employees' expectations with regard to corporate socially responsible behaviour. We identify three channels through which exogenous and endogenous CSR are developed: employees with work experience in multinational enterprises (MNEs) (leading to exogenous CSR), employees with CSR knowledge (leading to exogenous CSR) and employees with experience of the socialist system (leading to endogenous CSR). Furthermore, we argue that the interactions between these channels lead to hybrid CSR in transition economies. We use a questionnaire‐based survey with employees of domestic and MNEs in Romania and we conduct regression analysis. We find that employees with work experience in MNEs act as channels for exogenous CSR, while employees with experience of the socialist system act as channels for endogenous CSR. Furthermore, employees with experience of the socialist system and CSR knowledge or work experience in an MNE act as channels for hybrid CSR in transition economies. Based on our results, we put forward implications for theory, managers and policy makers.     

Corporate social responsibility and public accountability

The development of legislation determining corporate behaviour is a fascinating topic, offering insight into the societal problems of corporate enterprise as they are related to their accounting, their administration, and their external reporting. In this paper the following specific implications for accounting are examined:

-Should accountants get involved in social auditing and are they the ‘core’ persons in corporate social accounting systems?

-Should corporate social performance measurement and reporting become obligatory and to what extent?

-A general framework for the implementation of corporate social accounting systems is suggested and quidelines for its auditing are proposed.

-A tentative set of social auditing standard is outlined together with its methodological accompaniments.

     

Factors affecting employee willingness to report customer feedback

Effectively capturing consumer feedback can help organizations swiftly react and improve the quality of their service processes and delivery systems. In most organizations, frontline employees are a vital source of customer feedback as they interact with customers frequently and intimately. Thus, the current paper seeks to understand the factors influencing employee willingness to report customer feedback up the organizational channels of communication. The conceptual model was tested empirically using data collected from major chain restaurants in Taiwan involving 332 frontline employees. A hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized model. The obtained results demonstrate the impact of service climate, perceived organizational support, and internal locus of control on frontline employees’ willingness to report customer feedback.     

Ethics-Related Responses to Specific Situation Vignettes: Evidence of Gender-Based Differences and Occupational Socialization

This research presents findings from a study of gender-based differences in an ethical decision situation. The study focuses on gender as it relates to situational factors and accounting experience. The primary element of interest is how the gender of the actor (the person described in each vignette) influences the evaluation/assessment of the ethical/unethical decisions. While previous research has provided evidence of ethical differences relating to the gender of the responding subjects, limited evidence has been presented relating to situational issues that may influence assessments of ethical decisions.This research uses four accounting environment vignettes to survey the responses of accountants and accounting students to the ethical/unethical nature of the actions that are taken. In addition, how likely the accountants believe they are to take the same actions is also surveyed. The subjects are a representative sample of practicing accountants in the U.S. and senior/graduate accounting majors at a state university in the southwestern United States.The survey finds that occupational socialization is occurring up to a point. When specific rules are violated or tested, males and females behave similarly, thus illustrating that they have learned from their environment – occupational socialization. Alternatively, when gray areas are involved, they either tend to behave differently or assess the behavior of others differently, pointing to evidence of gender socialization.     

The Ethical Dimensions of Decision Processes of Employees

The influence of stakeholders, organisational commitment, personal values, goals of the organisation and socio-demographic characteristics of individuals on the ethical dimension of behavioural intentions of employees in various organisations are investigated. The research results show that employees working for the public sector or in educational institutions take more ethical aspects into account than employees working in the "private" sector. The influence of stakeholders and organisational commitment do not significantly affect the ethical behaviour of employees, and only some personal values and goals of the organisation have a significant influence on ethical behaviour. The most significant explanatory factor of ethical decision making seems to be what may be called "stage in the career of the employee": "ethical" employees can be described as young, with a relatively low income, limited work experience and a low level of responsibility in the company.     

Involving mind, body, and friends: Management that engenders creativity

Based on the careful observation and interviews of employees at three companies, and supplemented by cases from the popular business press, a discovery approach is used to derive four management principles that engender creativity and innovation in organizations: (1) manage organizations so that their knowledge base is more diverse than what would occur naturally; (2) encourage employees to embrace a collaborative and non-complacent attitude towards work and the organization; (3) make it possible for organization members to engage in the quick testing of ideas and solutions as they emerge; (4) reward employee and supervisor behaviors that support these principles and punish resistance to their implementation. The principles work in companies even if creativity and innovation are not stated organizational objectives, and do not require large investments or disruptions to work processes to yield valuable results.     

Marketing Cues and Perceptions of Service Quality in the Selection of Accounting Firms

Abstract

This study tests the survey responses of clients of accounting firms to determine what marketing cues influence their selection of firms and what relationship these cues have on the perceived service quality of the firms' products. The study argues that three marketing cue factors are influential in the clients' selection of accounting firms. Using Principle Components Analysis, three factors were identified: Factor 1, termed Internal Factors-Tangibles includes the following cues: fees, physical facilities, appearance/dress of employees, convenience of location, and available parking. Factor 2, termed Internal Factors-Intangibles includes reputation of the firm, professional quality of employees, and “my own personal experience with other accounting firms.” Factor 3, termed External Factors comprises the opinion of friends/relatives, manner of employees, and word-of-mouth reputation. The relationship betwecn the resultant cues and perceived service quality measures suggests that the intangible and external factors have more influence than tangible factors on the perceived service quality of accounting firms.     

Once more, with feeling: Empathy and technology in customer care

Information technology is reshaping relationships between companies and customers, often bringing benefits to both. The unfettered use of technology, however, can erode customer care. For a company to care for customers, its managers and front-line employees must listen empathetically to what they have to say. But a rash of ‘innovations’ aimed primarily at reducing costs has made many companies opaque to their customers, who are—as a consequence—inadequately served and increasingly frustrated. Equally damaging is the resulting estrangement of employees from customers, a separation that dampens the empathy upon which true care for customers depends. As a number of innovative companies have shown, though, technology need not necessarily sour relations between businesses and those they serve. Indeed, technology can actually enrich them if senior managers (1) affirm their commitment to active, empathetic involvement with customers; (2) understand the ways in which current procedures and systems mediate interactions with customers; and (3) promote the deployment of social networks and other technologies to help customers tell their stories, and to enable workers and managers alike to hear them. Only when employees can step into their customers’ shoes can companies add authenticity to the claim: “We care for you.”     

Assessment of work compatibility across employees’ demographics: a case study

‘Work compatibility’ (WC) is a multi-dimensional diagnostic tool for measuring human performance that affects safety performance of work force. There are a dearth of literature on the use of WC in industrial applications. In this study, the status of WC and its components across employees' demographics such as age, experience, designation and location of work were examined in a steel plant in India. Data on 119 employees collected using Demand-Energizer Instrument was analysed. The results revealed that supervisors perceive higher energizers, higher demands and low WC as compared to workers. Older and high experience employees perceive higher energizers, lower demands and high WC as compared to younger and less experienced employees. All employee groups perceive higher demand for physical environment and physical task content. The problematic work groups identified are less experienced employees and workers in ‘allied sections’. The outcomes of the study help the management in three ways to improve human performance at work places: (i) it provides useful information about the work factors to be considered for intervention design, (ii) it identifies the work groups to be targeted while preparing intervention strategies and (iii) it can be used as a leading indicator of human performance.     

Wearables in the workplace: The brave new world of employee engagement

Organizations increasingly introduce wearable devices, hoping to improve organizational performance. Wearables provide new and unique opportunities for engaging employees with their work and their organizational environment. The performance-related feedback these devices provide is supposed to help both employees and managers navigate the work environment more effectively. Despite the compelling benefits of wearables, they may prove to be detrimental to organizational performance unless a number of ethical issues are addressed. This article provides an overview of the benefits that certain wearable technologies can provide employees and managers, as well as the challenges they may create for organizations.     

A Cross-Country Comparison of the Codes of Professional Conduct of Certified/Chartered Accountants

This research examines the extent to which similarities and differences exist in the codes of professional conduct of certified (chartered) accountants across the following countries: the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Ontario (Canada), Australia, India, and Hong Kong. These eight countries exemplify some of the diversity in economic, political, legal, and cultural environments in which public accountants practice. The professional codes of ethics establish the ethical boundary parameters within which professional accountants must operate and they are a function of these environments.The results of the study reveal that commonalities exist on some ethical rules indicating that some rules are indeed "culture free". Cross-country variations, however, exist as to the specificity and elaborateness of the rules. Such variations can be attributed to cultural and legal differences, as well as the length of time each professional organization has been in existence. An understanding of the similarities and differences in the codes is important to individuals who may work in these countries. Professional accountants involved in international business must understand the implications of the decisions they make in light of the ethical codes and moral values of their counterparts in foreign countries. After a discussion of the similarities and differences in the codes, the implications of these comparisons for accounting practice are discussed.