A conceptual model of corporate moral development

The conceptual model presented in this article argues that corporations exhibit specific behaviors that signal their true level of moral development. Accordingly, the authors identify five levels of moral development and discuss the dynamics that move corporations from one level to another. Examples of corporate behavior which are indicative of specific stages of moral development are offered.R. Eric Reidenbach is Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Business Development and Research at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has written extensively on business and marketing ethics.Donald P. Robin, Professor of Business Ethics and Professor of Marketing at the University of Southern Mississippi, is coauthor with R. Eric Reidenbach of two recent books on business ethics with Prentice-Hall. He is a frequent lecturer on business ethics and is the author of several articles on the subject.     

THE ARBITRAGE PRICING THEORY AND COST-OF-CAPITAL ESTIMATION: THE CASE OF ELECTRIC UTILITIES

Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and alternative arbitrage pricing theory (APT) methodologies are used to estimate the cost of capital for a sample of electric utilities. The statistical factors APT method is found to produce significantly different estimates depending on the number of factors specified and the set of firms factor analyzed. The use of macroeconomic factors is explored, and it is shown that this methodology has advantages over the statistical factors APT and the market model.     

Career Analysis: the Missing Link In Managerial Assessment and Development

Robin Jacobs and Robert Bolton argue that, although competency-based assessment methods have improved the haphazard management development practices of the past, they nonetheless provide an incomplete picture for improving performance and developing potential. They suggest that self-development through a career planning framework might provide the missing link and present a case study in this area based on their work in the Nationwide Building Society. Robin Jacobs is a Lecturer in Management at the Open University Business School as well as one of the directors of Transitions Limited, and Robert Bolton is Human Resources Manager at the Nationwide Building Society.     

Computing occupations: organizational power, work transition and collective mobility

The computing occupations are in a state of transition between a technical service and something more central to organizational power and decision-making. This process has had complex implications for the nature of computing work and for careers. There is no certainty that embryonic changes will carry through. But neither should the chances of these occupations of mounting a 'collective mobility project' be written off early.     

ON MANAGING HYBRIDS: SOME DILEMMAS IN HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

This is an exploratory and conceptual paper. It argues that the concept of a hybrid organisation offers a useful way of conceptualising some dilemmas of current higher education management. The process of hybridisation captures some of the internal stresses and management problems facing higher education institutions caught between quasi-market and commercial market pressures. The increasingly widespread contractual management style may offer an inappropriate coping structure for some of these dilemmas. An open, negotiating management style, making explicit the problems of accountability and legitimacy generated by hybridisation, may be the only way to maintain staff commitment, but is very hard to achieve in the current context.     

Citizen participation through computer conferencing

As American society grows more diverse and the issues that must be decided grow more complex, the need for new forums and better forms for public debate increases. Is computer conferencing likely to meet this need because of its potential for facilitating public participation in government? To shed light on this question, we constructed, ran, and observed a computer conference on recombinant DNA among four participants with no previous experience in using computers and no scientific training. Results indicate that not only was this topic successfully discussed by lay people in this way, but that the conferencing mode of discussion was preferred by certain types of people. Our experience also gave us insights that may improve management of computer conferences for inexperienced users.