Participation: 'bounded freedom' or hidden constraints on user involvement

User participation in information systems development is often surrounded by assumptions that the resultant system will be a success, will reflect user needs, and that the process results in an empowered workforce. This paper argues that underlying these foreground rational assumptions are instrumental, politically motivated justifications driving the need to involve users.     

Proactive Crisis Management and Ethical Discourse: Dow Chemical's Issues Management Bulletins 1979-1990

This study employed a Discourse Ethicality survey instrument to analyze the legitimacy and ethicality of one of Dow Chemical's externally focused, rhetorical, crisis management strategies. A stratified random sample of the issues management bulletin The Point Is . . ., published over a ten year time period, was evaluated. The bulletins were divided into three time periods corresponding to significant events in Dow's history over the ten year period. Statistical and thematic analysis determined that perceived legitimacy and ethicality increased in the bulletins over time. The results showed that at the height of external criticism from the media and public interest groups in the early 80's, Dow's response was characterized as antagonistic and focused on technological arguments. By the late 1980's, the bulletins range of issues had broadened considerably, were perceived as less antagonistic in tone, and focused more on issues and projects that may be described as socially conscious.     

The executive suite: Are women perceived as ready for the managerial climb?

In a developing profession, emphasis is placed on two key ingredients for a successful climb to the executive suite — namely, interpersonal skills and an appropriate personality structure than can cope with forms of stress and uncertainty. The data presented in this study were collected from one of the major accounting firms and offers insights into men and women on the upward climb within the accounting profession. Analysis of this data shows that although appropriate personality characteristics are predicated on a male managerial model, women and men perceive themselves similarly with respect to these characteristics. However, others' perceptions of women, male accountants as well as clients, seemed more skeptical of women's ability to succeed. Furthermore, there are indications that women and men have different job assignments along their career paths. Our data collected in the latter half of the seventies tend to corroborate many of the findings in the first half — in general women are not perceived as ready for the managerial climb.     

An investigation of managerial interventions in employee disputes

Seventy four university managers described up to six recent conflicts and reported on their intervention strategies. Findings show that managers use a range of strategies, including overlooking, as interventions for employees’ disputes, instead of favoring the use of any particular one. Choices of intervention strategies were influenced by the type of issue being disputed, the seriousness of the dispute, and managers’ self-efficacy with mediation. Specifically, managers most frequently used mediation to resolve task-related disputes, and tended to use a variety of different strategies to intervene in personality conflicts. When managers perceived conflicts to be highly serious, they most frequently used mediation, followed by arbitration, offering incentives, and lastly, overlooking. Managers with a high degree of mediation self-efficacy more frequently mediated employees’ disputes, whereas managers with a low degree of mediation self-efficacy more frequently overlooked employees’ disputes. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Waiting for innovation in the human resources department: Godot implements a human resource information system

The implementation of a new human resource information system (HRIS) represents a major form of planned organizational change for the Human Resource function, yet little research has been conducted on this issue. This article presents a longitudinal case study of the reactions of the Human Resource community in a large energy company to the planned implementation of a new corporate HRIS. Implementing an HRIS to enhance strategic and business decision-making has important organizational development implications. A new HRIS (1) represents an attempt to enable Human Resources to become more of a business partner, (2) changes the nature of HR work to encompass a greater information broker and decision support role, and (3) alters power dynamics and communication patterns involving Human Resources. Varying levels of resistance and ambivalence were found regarding the extent to which human resource information systems skills were valued as a critical competency. While there is a trend, toward attitudinal convergence within the human resource community, over time, the results suggest that user skill level may be more strongly related to variance in attitudes toward the value of a new HRIS than to hierarchical level or business unit affiliation. The study also found that face-to-face seminars were a significantly more effective intervention than was written communication in influencing favorable intention to use the HRIS.     

Microcapitalism and the mega-corporation

More than 100 miles from Bangalore, India, there's a rural area called Kuppam where one in three citizens is illiterate, more than half of the households have no electricity, and there's a high rate of AIDS. It's exactly this challenging atmosphere that prompted Hewlett-Packard to choose Kuppam as one of its first "i-communities" initiatives. Through the program, HP creates public-private partnerships to accelerate economic development through the application of technology while simultaneously opening new markets and developing new products and services. HP brings to these initiatives the management disciplines of a successful technology business. For example, it unearths customer needs using an iterative cycle that involves prototyping products and services and then closely observing residents' experiences with them. It fields a diversely talented team that brings many skills to the initiative, including deep technical ability, management acumen, and market knowledge. It takes a systems approach, simultaneously examining all the elements that must come together to create a working solution to a given problem. It establishes a "leading platform" on which other players--comapnies, nonprofits, and government agencies--can build technologies and applications. Practices like these help ensure that HP's investment yields real, sustainable results for the community in question. But HP also sees returns to its own business. In Kuppam, the company is discovering the need for (and developing) new products like a solar-powered digital camera, with printer, that fits in a backpack. By engaging the community and its leaders and working with them to design valuable new tools and capabilities, HP is gaining the knowledge it needs to be a stronger competitor in other developing regions.     

The impact on the market for audit services of aggressive competition by auditors

Supporters of direct uninvited solicitation activities argue that clients can make more informed choices of auditors when auditors are allowed to solicit prospective clients. In banned markets, auditors are allowed to submit bids to provide audit services only when invited by the client. This study provides theoretical models that examine the efficiency of client–auditor alignments in the banned and allowed market. We identify conditions under which realignment differences between the two markets occur and derive client losses in the banned market as compared to the allowed market. We also identify conditions under which independence may be impaired in the allowed market, consistent with the claims of solicitation opponents. However, we believe that, in view of the potential positive effects related to audit pricing and client–auditor alignment, restrictions on advertising or direct uninvited solicitation are not necessarily indicated. Instead, regulators or market mechanisms should insure that the independence (truth-telling) condition is so readily satisfied as to be virtually irrelevant. This can happen in one of two ways: (a) increased scrutiny, leading to an increased likelihood of discovery, or (b) increased penalties when an audit failure is discovered, leading to increased costs of an audit failure, or both.     

Exchange rate risk and transactions costs: Evidence from bid-ask spreads

This paper develops a model of exchange rate bid-ask spreads which is used to examine the relationship between exchange rate risk and volatility and to measure transactions costs. The empirical results indicate that market-makers judge the probability of exchange rate changes based on both recent and long-term volatility and that the second moment alone is not a complete measure of volatility. While a proxy for trading volume does not have the expected relationship with spreads, weekend and holiday effects conform to theory. Transactions costs vary over time and seem responsive to the imposition of exchange controls.