Potential Discrimination in Structured Employment Interviews

This experimental study examines the effects of bias toward persons with disabilities (PWDs) upon the employment interview decision process. The design and operationalization of the study permitted examination of the effects of specific disabilities, interview performance, and the resulting interaction between disability and interview performance, using 630 undergraduate students at a major university in the southwestern United States as subjects. The results indicate that (1) interview performance has a favorable, significant main effect upon subsequent HRM decisions, (2) specific disabilities, that is, child care demands, HIV-positive status, and being wheelchair-bound, have unfavorable, significant main effects upon subsequent HRM decisions, and (3) the presence of any of the disabilities decreased the favorable impact of superior interview performance. The limitations of the structured interview to mitigate bias were demonstrated. Given the pervasive, unfavorable treatment directed toward PWDs, it appears that the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (1993) is warranted. The public policy implications of these results and recommendations for future research were discussed.     

Policy models in accounting: A critical commentary

The accounting profession, through its rule-making apparatus, employs a particular choice model for identifying and resolving policy issues. This model is referred to in this article as the “constitional” approach. It is of interest to inquire why accountants have adopted this paradigm and eschewed other policy models, such as the “legal” or “scientific” approaches, even though the latter have generated considerable advocacy within the recent history of the profession. This paper examines the interesting hypothesis that the choice of the “constitutional” approach is consistent with the Group Self-Interest Hypothesis. By forming an associative group the major accounting firms have a primary interest in achieving higher prices for the industry's products. These higher prices can be achieved in three ways: (1) restricting entry, (2) restraining supply and (3) increasing demand. The “constitutional” approach is more efficacious in achieving these results than are the proposed alternative policy models.     

Ethical decision–making: a multidimensional construct

Poor ethical decision–making costs industry billions of dollars a year and damages the images of corporations. Thus, by answering the question ‘Why do individuals behave as they do when confronted with ethical issues?’ ethical theory can provide businesses with a means to create a more ethical climate and a more successful operation. This study tested the Ethical Decision–Making Model with accountability (Beu & Buckley 2001), which uses theory that suggests that ethical behavior is influenced by the individual, the issue, social relationships (accountability), and the organization in which the employee is embedded (Brass, Butterfield & Skaggs 1988; Frink & Klimoski 1998). The results showed that individuals’ thought processes (cognitive moral development), personalities (locus of control, hostility and aggression, Machiavellianism), and gender influence how they respond to ethical dilemmas, as well as the salience of the moral issue (moral intensity) and the environmental context (work/school).     

Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland: Policy Implications for Emerging Economies

Ireland's success in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) provides guidance for emerging economies. The key to Ireland's success is its consistency of policy towards FDI. Ireland's success suggests that emerging countries should be proactive in seeking FDI, offer a package of incentives that is enterprise‐centred yet is sufficiently selective to build self‐sustaining clusters. Policy consistency is important to inward investors and this can be traded off against selectivity and monitoring of performance.     

HOUSING AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN RUSSIA: ZHIVAGO'S LEGACY

The inadequacy of housing and its effect on the quality of lifego a long way toward explaining many aspects of Russian life,but little data has been available to determine how housingaffected the relative well-being of the citizenry. This paperpresents comprehensive data examining for the first time theeffect that seventy years of a socialist housing allocationscheme had on the distribution of income. It seems clear thathousing provided by the government or by employers has a valuethat can be measured to yield useful inferences about the distributionof income and wealth. This article shows that housing allocation had a progressiveeffect on the distribution of income in Russia. In addition,when the imputed value of housing is added to household income,the increase in income inequality that occurred in recent yearsis significantly reduced. The analysis concludes with a discussionof how housing policy could be used to address poverty concerns,an important aspect of the transition process.      

The impact of the global factory on economic development

The global factory is a structure through which multinational enterprises integrate their global strategies through a combination of innovation, distribution and production of both goods and services. The global factory is analysed within a Coasean framework with particular attention to ownership and location policies using methods that illustrate its power in the global system. Developing countries are constrained by the existence and power of global factories. Firms in developing countries are frequently constrained to be suppliers of labour intensive manufacturing or services into the global factory system. Breaking into this system is difficult for emerging countries. It requires either a strategy of upgrading or the establishment of new global factories under the control of focal firms from emerging countries. The implementation of these strategies is formidably difficult.     

Identifying Factors Which May Influence Unethical Behavior

Unethical behavior occurs and can be explained by a number of theoretical approaches. This article is a report of a survey concerned with determining the factors which may influence unethical behavior. The respondents identified three factors (Grade Instrumentality, Attributing Blame Factor, and Negative Dispositional Factor) underlying the commission of unethical activities. An integration of the theories and the factors yielded a number of suggestions which may impact the propensity to engage in unethical behavior.