A SURVEY OF THE COSTS OF WORLD SUGAR POLICIES

The world sugar market has long been characterized by volatileprices and widespread intervention. Controls on domestic prices,demand, and supply have created an inefficient pattern of worldproduction, consumption, and trade. Without government controls,production would shift from the countries with higher cost,subsidized production (especially the European Community, Japan,and the United States) to the countries with lower costs (suchas Australia, Brazil, and Thailand). The resources saved couldthen be directed to other activities. Sugar policies in countries with high costs reduce world sugarprices quite substantially in the long run and increase pricevariability significantly; production controls in countrieswith low costs increase world prices somewhat and also increasetheir variability. What would happen if all interventions ceased? Average worldsugar prices would probably— but not definitely—rise. World prices would definitely vary less, and economicconditions would definitely improve, especially in developingcountries that depend heavily on sugar exports. But the prospectsfor substantial reform of the sugar market are not promising,even though the GATT Uruguay Round continues. This article putsforward some modest proposals for changing the existing interventionsto lessen economic distortions and reduce costs.      

Work‐Related Training and the Probability of Transitioning from Non‐Permanent to Permanent Employment

It is widely believed that work‐related training increases a worker's probability of moving up the job‐quality ladder. This is usually couched in terms of effects on wages, but it has also been argued that training increases the probability of moving from non‐permanent forms of employment to more permanent employment. This hypothesis is tested using nationally representative panel data for Australia, a country where the incidence of non‐permanent employment, and especially casual employment, is high by international standards. While a positive association between participation in work‐related training and the subsequent probability of moving from either casual or fixed‐term contract employment to permanent employment is observed among men, this is shown to be driven not by a causal impact of training on transitions but by differences between those who do and do not receive training, that is selection bias.     

Perspectives Articles: Exploring Stakeholder Perspectives on What Is Affordable Health Care

Health care expenditures have accounted for increasing proportions of the U.S. gross domestic product, and the rate of growth of health care expenditures has increased over the past two decades. These two measures of assessing whether the level of health care expenditures is affordable may be appropriate in the aggregate for the United States but are not appropriate to assess whether individual stakeholder groups can afford their particular level of spending on health care. Health care is an economic good that differs from other economic goods, as it involves life and death issues, and invokes a call for a moral authority. This article explores definitions of what is affordable health care from the perspective of different stakeholders and suggests that other measures are needed to assess whether or not health care is affordable for stakeholders as one definition is not appropriate for all stakeholders.     

The development,implementation and operation of an undergraduate distance learning module in auditing: a teaching note

The development of a distance learning module, to be undertaken by students whilst out on work experience in a thick sandwich degree programme, was driven by the motive to maximize the students' time on placement, rather than the belief that the module could be more effectively taught in this manner. However, with many institutions offering work placement as an optional extension within a degree programme, our experiences may pave the way for introducing some academic input into the work placement. This paper outlines the development and operation of an auditing distance learning module, which is undertaken by students during their placement year in an Accounting and Finance degree in Scotland. The pitfalls of distance learning have been well documented and the profile of the cohort which would undertake the course exacerbated concerns. However, the Course Team have produced a model that has been implemented and is currently operating in a manner that has largely satisfied all respective stakeholders, (namely students, educators, employers, professional bodies, and external examiners). The data for the review was generated through informal discussions with the Course Team and a selection of employers. Focus groups with students were also conducted. These were deliberately unstructured in nature to facilitate the use of dialogue with which the participants were familiar. The rationale for this was to allow participants to identify and highlight salient issues as perceived by them, rather than to answer specific questions on topics that the authors believed to be of relevance.     

Business Process Re-engineering in the Public Sector: a Case Study of the Contributions Agency

There has been a growing literature which, from a social science perspective, seeks to critically assess the use of business process re-engineering (BPR) in effecting radical organisational change. Using a case study of the Contributions Agency, this article reports on the problems of using BPR in a public sector organisation, and discusses the findings in relation to the current critique of BPR.     

Exploring the preparation practices of teachers who organise secondary school ski trips in England and Wales

Secondary schools across England and Wales understand the importance of offering young people the opportunity to experience activity-based trips. One of these fundamental trips is the ski trip which enables young people to experience new challenges and adventure. However, within England and Wales, skiing is an atypical activity due to the lack of accessibility to the slopes. Consequently, it is vital to effectively prepare young people for skiing to promote enjoyment and reduce the likelihood of injury. The purpose of this study was to explore the current practices in the preparation of school ski trips within England and Wales. An electronic survey was administered to secondary schools across England and Wales with 270 completed responses of schools which organise ski trips. Analysis revealed that there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) across the regions with information being shared with parents prior to the ski trip. Young people are informed on similar information prior to and during the ski trip across the regions (p < 0.05). However, there was a significant difference between respondents screening (33%) and not screening students (67%) (p > 0.01) and under half (47%) of schools provide their pupils with exercise programmes prior to the school trip. Overall, these findings appear that ski trip organisers are consistent across England and Wales with their education of the young person and the management of the ski trip. Although, the knowledge gained by organisers to prepare young people is gathered from a variety of different sources. Therefore, it is essential for evidence-based information to be shared and disseminated to ski trip organisers to provide best practice and to facilitate other schools in providing ski trips for their pupils.     

Stratography: The art of conceptualizing and communicating strategy

Representations of strategy tend to either be so generalized as to have little real meaning for employees, or go into such detail that people struggle to understand what is really required. The problem is this: a strategy not understood by those charged with implementing it is as bad as, or even worse than, not having a strategy at all. In 1983, a classic Business Horizons article by Karl Weick highlighted the importance of using graphical approaches to overcome strategy relation challenges; however, since then, little has been written regarding how managers might accomplish this successfully. Our article argues that individualized drawings of strategy, or what we term ‘stratography,’ could enable more effective conceptualization and communication of the strategic complexity that organizations face and the paths they are seeking to follow. Herein, we employ the latest thinking in cartography, educational philosophy, optics, graphic design, and military protocol to outline seven good practices of effective stratography.     

Globalization and Confrontation: The Transformation of the Australian Coal Industry

The Australian coal industry serves as a vivid illustration of the impact of globalization on workplace organization and workplace industrial relations. In this contribution we outline the changes and developments, from the organization of production through to the product market, that are impacting on workplace organization and industrial relations of the Australian coal industry. In particular the authors highlight the attempts and strategies of management to increase productivity, to realize functional and numerical flexibilities in the deployment of labour and to deregulate employment relations. Simultaneously, trade unions are faced with institutional, legal and global competitive pressures to conform to the flexibility strategies of managers. The result has been persistent and sporadic outbreaks of industrial disputation in the midst of the erosion of employment conditions and a shift towards greater managerial control of the labour process. The forces identified as globalization are systematically transforming workplace organization and impacting on the strategies of coal mine managers and trade unions.