Contextual Influences on Thinking in Organizations: Learner and Tutor Orientations to Organizational Learning

This paper examines the orientations, or frames of reference, of participants in five bank training programmes run by three banks in the United Kingdom. Adopting a symbolic interactionist approach and ethnographic methods of investigation, the paper attempts to elucidate the ways in which both learners and tutors thought about their roles in the learning events and the goals and strategies they adopted in order to cope with their situation. It is suggested that in order to understand the participants' behaviour it is necessary to take into account the contexts in which their actions were constructed. In particular it is proposed that the organizational context of the training programmes, which exposed the participants to the gaze of ‘hidden audiences’ of organizational superiors, inhibited the potential of the programmes as vehicles for learning. It is also argued that interactionist approaches using ethnographic methods, which enable organizational actors to be studied in situ, have an important contribution to make to the wider study of organizational cognition.     

Teaching the Minimum Wage in Econ 101 in Light of the New Economics of the Minimum Wage

The author argues that the recent controversy over the effect of the minimum wage on employment offers an opportunity for teaching introductory economics. Research findings on the minimum wage could be used to motivate alternative models of the labor market, such as monopsony and search models, and to teach students how economists test hypotheses with data.     

Prostitution services: an exploratory empirical analysis

This study provides an empirical analysis of the market for some male prostitution services in the UK. Flexible working hours, part-time working, and multiple job holding are considered as important labour market characteristics in this service sector. Statistical models helping explain the provision of a deviant and a more mainstream sexual service is reported, utilizing cross-section data drawn from individual prostitute advertisements. The significance of various declared intrinsic endowments of the prostitutes are examined in relation to the offer of these services, including age, ethnicity, physique, and masculine demeanour.     

Parental preferences and choice of school

This paper provides a UK high resolution microeconometric study of parental preferences and the choice process for secondary schools. Given the particular geographical features of the region, first preference almost entirely related to one of two state schools, which is a situation that perhaps better reflects the real nature of the options faced by most parents in the UK. In contrast to earlier work, distance and access considerations were explicitly incorporated in the preference and choice models estimated and found to be a significant influence on parental decisions. Further significant factors were found, dependent upon the parents' actual choice of school.     

A coming ‘Magnesian’ age? Small states,the global system,and the international community

Since Plato, we have considered that the ideal polis, or political community, is the small state, akin to the idyllic ‘Magnesia’ of the Laws. The Platonic ideal, however, generally has been considered unrealistic. Even in the ancient world, the Alexandrine model ‐ an expanding, pluralistic network of large trading cities under a single aegis ‐ came to contradict it. Subsequent history, especially the imperialism of the nineteenth century which swallowed up many small polities around the world, seemed to prove that only large and powerful entities were ‘fit’ to survive. Why, then, are there still so many small‐sized countries in the world today? Why is their number actually increasing? Decolonisation, the end of bipolarity, democratisation, trade liberalisation and the digital revolution are five factors that have given small states more freedom. Yet many are vulnerable, and the economics of their situations are precarious. The workings of the global system, particularly the globalisation of business, may harm them even while promoting their freedom. The international community, a large part of which is now in fact made up of small states, should be prepared to act, for the global public good as well as out of sheer political and also environmental self‐interest, to help safeguard the livelihood of the world's many and varied small states, whose ‘Magnesian’ venues and values can be of both functional and normative importance for mankind as a whole.     

City of Discontent? The Influence of Perceived Organizational Culture,LMX, and Newcomer Status on Reported Bullying in a Municipal Workplace

Workplace bullying is a counterproductive behavior that has captured the attention of researchers in recent years. The extent of reported bullying behavior in US organizations varies however; it is estimated to affect 15% to 50% of workers with projected annual costs of over $40 billion including direct and indirect costs. Workplace bullying poses a serious ethical challenge by sending messages about appropriate conduct within the organization’s culture. In this study, we focus on environmental factors as predictors of self-reported bullying in a public-sector organization. Specifically, the factors of interest are organizational culture, commitment to change, and leader-member exchange (LMX). We also investigate newcomer status and its relationship to reported bullying. Findings demonstrated perceived stability in the organization and higher levels of LMX showed lower levels of workplace bullying. Further, an organizational culture that emphasizes rewards lead to higher levels of bullying and newcomers are subjected to more bullying than longer service workers.     

BANKING LICENCES, BAILOUTS AND REGULATOR ABILITY

I analyse a model in which it is socially optimal for banks to manage depositor funds but in which concerns about fraud discourage depositing and justify regulation. The regulator screens bankers and decides the level of charter value which they will receive as incentive to prevent fraud. She can also encourage deposits by insuring them. The optimal policy depends upon the regulator's screening ability: high ability regulators rely upon charter value and low ability regulators rely upon deposit insurance. I relate these findings to the regulation of transition economy banks, to operational risk management, and to banking competition policy.     

The determinants of foreign direct investment into European transition economies

Using a panel dataset of bilateral flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), we study the determinants of FDI from Western countries, mainly in the European Union (EU), to Central and Eastern European ones. We find the most important influences to be unit labor costs, gravity factors, market size, and proximity. Interestingly, host country risk proves not to be a significant determinant. Our empirical work also indicates that announcements about EU Accession proposals have an impact on FDI for the future member countries. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 775–787.