John Meriwether and the Promethean Hero: A Cautionary Tale in Financial Ethics

Ethicists typically understand unethical actsto be those that either violate social normsand mores or that prevent people fromdeveloping the character needed to thrive. This paper looks to a classical source – the mythof Prometheus' creation of man – to explore analternative understanding of what it means toact unethically. On this classical view,acting in an evil fashion is less a matter of asingle violation of some norm or of developingan unwholesome character and more a matter ofworldview or outlook. Evil enters the worldwhen humans cease to understand themselves inrelation to the divine and cast themselves asgods. The rise and fall of the Long-TermCapital Hedge Fund (LTCM) and its legendaryfounder John Meriwether nicely illustrates thehuman attempt to supplant the gods and itsuntoward consequences.     

Instilling ethical behavior in organizations: A survey of Canadian companies

An organization's management control system can play an important role in influencing ethical behavior among employees. In this paper a theoretical framework of control is developed by linking various ethics related control mechanisms reported in the literature to the primary components of a management control system. In addition, the findings of a survey of the Financial Post's Top 1 000 Canadian industrial and service companies are reported. The survey investigated organizations' use of ethical codes of conduct, whistleblowing systems, ethics committees, judiciary boards, employee training in ethics, and ethics focused corporate governance and reward systems. The findings indicate that ethics related control mechanisms, particularly codes of conduct, are being used by a good number of organizations. However, closer analysis of the data suggests that many companies may only be paying lip service to the importance of promoting ethical behavior.R. Murray Lindsay is Professor of Accounting, Linda M. Lindsay is Assistant Professor of Accounting, and V. Bruce Irvine is Professor of Accounting at the College of Commerce, University of Saskatchewan. The authors share a teaching and research interest which focuses on examining the behavioral effects of management accounting and control systems on employee behaviour.     

Examining tourism SME owners’ place attachment,support for community and business performance: the role of the enlightened self-interest model

This research examines how support for the local community by small tourism businesses influences their enterprise performance, and the extent to which the owners’ place attachment influences the level of support that they provide to the community. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the responses from the owners of 298 small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) operating in regional South Australia. Results of the analysis provide support for the validity of a structural model. The place attachment of tourism business owners has a significant positive effect on their support for the community which in turn has a significant positive effect on enterprise performance. The robustness of the structural model was tested through a series of invariance (equality) tests. Results demonstrate that the causal relationships among place attachment, support for community and enterprise performance hold true (are invariant) irrespective of the gender of the business owner, the size of the business, and/or the length of time the business has been operating. These findings have implications for research scholars in developing more robust tests of model relationships between and across groups, and for tourism policymakers aiming to support the sustainable development of regional tourism destinations.     

The Role of Ethical Values in an Expanded Psychological Contract

Social values and beliefs systems are playing an increasingly influential role in shaping the attitudes and behavior of individuals and organizations towards the employment relationship. Many individuals seek a broader meaning in their work that will let them feel that they are contributing to the broader community. For many organizations, a willingness to behave ethically and assume responsibility for social and environmental consequences of their activities has become essential to maintaining their ‹license to operate.’ The appearance of these trends in individual and organizational behavior towards outcomes that are more explicitly congruent with ethical and social values has significant implications for understanding the psychological contracts being created today. In this paper, we examine issues associated with the psychological contract and ethical standards of behavior, focusing on both the individual and organizational levels.     

The role of parental influence and additional factors in the determination of food choices for pre‐school children

Every pre‐school child requires an adult to purchase and provide a variety of foods, to help ensure a balanced selection is included in the diet to avoid any nutritional deficiencies. Children under 5 years have a greater demand for nutrients and energy to support the body's requirements for growth and development than at any other time throughout their life cycle. The paper critically reviews the main factors that influence food choices made by parents on behalf of their pre‐school child. Dietary deficiencies in inner city areas remain a challenge for the government, educators and health professionals. A particular concern is iron deficiency as the prevalence of anaemia is common especially in British pre‐school children from various family backgrounds. Poor parenting skills often exacerbate the problem, especially the early introduction of pasteurized cow's milk, poor weaning practices and lack of dietary knowledge. Therefore, improving education and understanding about the importance of iron could potentially improve dietary iron intake. Phase 1 of the study was completed in West Bridgford area of Nottingham in the UK. This part of the study aimed to determine parental knowledge with regards to the feeding of their pre‐school child. A questionnaire and a 3‐day diet history method were employed. These methods enabled the diet adequacy of the pre‐schoolers to be analysed by NetWISP software. This study highlighted that iron deficiency remains a cause for concern and should be further addressed. The Sure Start programme is a possible means of education as it has the potential to access parents from all socio‐economic classes. The programme can support and empower parents to become healthier consumers. Good dietary habits, established early in life, contributes to a positive start, and can be advantageous to individuals throughout their lifetime. Such long‐term changes will help contribute to a healthier nation that the government envisages for the future.     

The Effects of Technological Change on the Economic Impact of Agricultural Drought in Manitoba

A series of physical and economic models is used to simulate the effects of drought and two drought-mitigating cropping strategies on the performance of Manitoba's agricultural sector. A drought scenario, defined in terms of the weather events of 1936–37, is compared with anormal weather scenario, consisting of the average soil moistures of 1961 to 1982. Results simulated under 1979–80 economic/technological conditions indicate that, in the absence of drought-mitigating measures, two years of drought followed by three more “normal” years (1938 to 1940 weather) result in an average annual crop revenue loss of 10%, most of which accrues in the calendar year following the year of most severe drought. Examination of two potential drought-mitigating strategies – conservation tillage in conjunction with one million acres of winter wheat, and two irrigation projects – suggests that their revenue-enhancement effects predominate. The alternative strategies would result in significantly increased gross (but not necessarily net) sales revenues over the entire simulation period, but the variance of these revenues over time would not be attenuated. Nous avons eu recours à une série de modèles physiques et économiques pour simuler les effets de la sécheresse et de deux stratégies culturales visant à réquire ces effets sur le rendement du secteur agricole du Manitoba. Un scénario de sécheresse fondé sur les conditions observées en 1936–1937 a été comparé à un scénario normal fondé sur les conditions ?humidité moyenne du sol observées de 1961 à 1982. La combinaison de ces donnés et des conditions économiques et technologiques qui existaient en 1979–1980 laissent conclure qu'en ?absence de mesures de lutte contre la sécheresse, deux années de sécheresse suivies par trois années “normales” (conditions observées de 1938 à 1940) entraînent une perte moyenne annuelle des revenus des cultures de 10%, la majeure partie de cette perte survenant au cours de ?année civile suivant immédiatement ?année de la sécheresse la plus grave. ?étude de deux stratégies possibles de lutte contre la sécheresse (méthode de travail du sol favorisant la conservation et ensemencement ?un million ?acres en blé ?hiver et deux projets ?irrigation) laisse conclure que les effets ?augmentation du revenu prédominent. Les stratégies de rechange ont laissé voir des hausses sensibles des recettes brutes (mais pas nécessairement des recettes nettes) sur ?ensemble de la période de simulation mais la variance correspondant à ces recettes n'a pas été atténuée.     

Introduction: Policy and prophecy in the Five-Year Outlook on Science and Technology

The efforts of the National Science Foundation to gather inputs to and commentary on the Five-Year Outlook are recounted. The respective roles of the National Academy of Sciences and the Office of Science and Technology Policy are discussed, as is the change in approach to the Outlook, and to science policy in general, between the Carter and Reagan administrations.     

Australian Trade Unions' Responses to Human Resource Management Initiatives in a Globalized Era

Within the development of a human resource (HR) philosophy, the HR function has been elevated to take an active role in business strategic planning processes. It should be co-ordinated and integrated to support the notion of human resources as a source of competitive advantage, and these changes should be accompanied by greater involvement in HR matters by all managers and employees as part of their everyday work. This research focuses on the role of trade unions and their strategies in maintaining a pro-active position within workplaces that embrace a HR framework. If the goal of a unified workforce, committed to common goals, is to be realized it is critical that industrial relations reflect this philosophy. Employee commitment becomes a pivotal precondition for success. This view raises questions about whether dual commitment to both the organization and union is possible, or indeed whether such an approach precludes the need for unions. Greenfield sites, relatively free from past negative stereotypes, have been identified for the research because they offer an untarnished opportunity for the practice of effective HR principles and the observation of union responses.     

Beyond budgeting or budgeting reconsidered? A survey of North-American budgeting practice

Budgets have historically played a key role in management control; however, recently they have become the subject of considerable criticism and debate. Some argue that the problems with budgeting stem from the way budgets are used (Horngren et al., 2004) while others argue that budgeting processes are fundamentally flawed (Hope and Fraser, 2003a). Hansen et al. (2003), among others, have called for a systematic examination of these issues against empirical evidence. In this paper, we present the results of two surveys of mid- to large-sized North-American organizations to 1) update the literature on North-American budgeting practices, 2) collect empirical evidence to assess the criticisms, and 3) begin to identify strong tendencies or patterns in budgeting practice to inform future academic research. Overall, we find for the majority of firms that budgets continue to be used for control purposes and are perceived to be value-added. While problems exist with budgets, organizations are adapting their use to account for these problems rather than abandoning budgets altogether.