The Use of Co-ordination Theory to Improve Service Quality in Executive Search

This article considers service quality in a business service industry - execirtive search. It uses co-ordination theory to idtentify the ‘service garps’ which occur in the use of executive search consultancies and considers the ways in which these gaps can be closed. The use of an executive search consultant turns the recruitment process into a three-way relationship -between client, consultant and candidate -and raises the possibility of further service gaps than those identified in the service quality literature. This article finds that there are gaps in expectations evident in all three arms of the relationship but that they are much wider where the candidate is involved. The use of a consultant introduces uncertainty into the process (especially on the part of the candidate), the issue of who has responsibility for what within this relationship is not satisfactorily resolved or communicated. Ways in which the process can be managed to reduce the size of the expectations gaps are considered.     

Rapid assessment procedures in injury control

Injuries are among the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. The burden caused by injuries is even greater among the poorer nations and is projected to increase. Very often the lack of technical and financial resources, as well as the urgency of the problem, preclude applying sophisticated surveillance and research methods for generating relevant information to develop effective interventions. In these settings, it is necessary to consider more rapid and less costly methods in applying the public health approach to the problem of injury prevention and control. Rapid Assessment Procedures (RAP), developed within the fields of epidemiology, anthropology and health administration, can provide valid information in a manner that is quicker, simpler, and less costly than standard data collection methods. RAP have been applied widely and successfully to infectious and chronic disease issues, but have not been used extensively, if at all, as tools in injury control. This paper describes Rapid Assessment Procedures that (1) are useful for understanding the scope of the problem and for identifying potential risk factors, (2) can assist practitioners in determining intervention priorities, (3) can provide in-depth knowledge about a specific injury-related problem, and (4) can be used in surveillance systems to monitor outcomes. Finally, the paper describes some of the caveats in using RAP.     

Accounting ethics and education: A response

In this article we review the principal directions that an American Accounting Association committee has taken in the past three years to encourage the teaching of ethics in accounting programs and/or courses in higher education. We also (1) briefly comment on the place of accounting ethics in both higher education and continuing professional education and (2) provide some brief final comments.Dr. Stephen E. Loeb is Professor and Chairman of Accounting and the Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Auditing at the University of Maryland at College Park. Dr. Loeb is co-editor of theJournal of Accounting and Public Policy.Dr. Joanne Rockness is an Associate Professor of Accounting at North Carolina State University. She has been a member of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee since 1988. Dr. Rockness has published in the areas of ethics and social responsibility in journals such as Accounting Organizations and Society,Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, andIssues in Accounting Education.The authors are respectively Chair (1991–92) and Chair (1990–91) of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee. The authors appreciate the comments of William W. May on portions of the paper. The opinions expressed in this paper represent those of the authors and not necessarily those of the American Accounting Association's Professionalism and Ethics Seminar Committee.     

Contracting Productivity Growth

This paper analyses the interactions between growth and the contracting environment in production. With incompleteness in contracting, viable production relationships between firms and workers, and therefore the profitability of industries, depend on the rates of innovation and growth. The speed at which new innovations arrive in turn depends on the profitability of production, for the usual reasons examined in the endogenous growth literature. We show that these interactions can have important implications which are consistent with observed phenomena in both the micro and macro environments. In particular, we demonstrate that a technological shock (increasing productivity of research) can, through this interaction, lead to a productivity slowdown and a shift in labour market contracts away from firms providing implicit guarantees of lifetime employment and towards shorter-term "contractor" type arrangements. We show the consistency of an increase in the proportion of the labour force under short-term employment, increased relative returns of workers in high-productivity sectors, and increased income inequality, with a productivity slowdown of finite duration.     

The Future of European Monetary Arrangements

European Monetary Union is stilla a viable target, but disarray after Maastricht means it will be more difficult to achieve.     

Understanding the factors related to concerns over generically engineered food products: are national differences real?

Along with the rapid introduction of genetically engineered (GE) foods into the marketplace have come concerns about possible risks associated with this new technology. This study expands on previous research by exploring the relationships between certain sociodemographic, attitudinal and behavioural variables and North American college students’ levels of concern over GE foods. Six index scales are created from the data and a series of anova s are conducted, and displayed visually using bar graphs, to examine the relationships between the explanatory variable and the students’ levels of concern. The findings indicate that attitudinal and behavioural variables should be included in future models for predicting levels of concern for GE foods in addition to the sociodemographic variables currently used.     

BUSINESS ETHICS IN RUSSIA: Business Ethics in a New Russia

As indicated in the previous article, a Russian-sponsored conference on business ethics was recently held in Moscow. Another participant from the USA, Professor Joanne B. Ciulla, comments here on what could prove to be a new beginning for business in Russia. Professor Ciulla is an Associate Editor of this Review and occupies the Coston Family Chair in Leadership and Ethics at the University of Richmond, Virginia.