HRD involvement in the investigative phase of a merger & acquisition

This qualitative study describes the involvement of human resource development (HRD) professionals in the investigative phase of merger and acquisitions (M&As). Telephone interviews were completed with 38 HRD professionals and 17 business managers in 12 organizations that had undergone M&As between 1996 and 1999. The results show that there is some cognizance between business managers and HRD professionals on what HRD professionals do during an M&A. What is most significant, however is that the activities identified by both business managers and HRD professionals are all human-capital related; this shows that business managers and some organizations are not only involved in finance related but also human capital due-diligence during an M&A. The study results show that M&A activities are team-oriented and HRD professionals need to be prepared to work in different projects during an M&A, especially during the investigative phase. The notion that HRD professionals will be solely working on HRD-related activities is non-existent during the investigative phase of an M&A.     

A New Look at Husbands' and Wives' Time Allocation

The impacts of economic and non‐economic factors on husbands’ and wives’ market work time and housework time are estimated using 13 years of data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics. Several limitations in earlier studies are addressed, and a unique feature of the study is the direct estimation of effects on time allocation from changes in the prices of market‐produced goods and input goods in household production. Many of the findings of earlier studies are reconfirmed, but new insights are also explored. Husbands and wives respond similarly in their time allocations to changes in input goods prices, but their responses are different to changes in market goods prices.     

Marketing program standardization: A cross-country exploration

This study explores the antecedents and consequences of marketing program standardization in subsidiaries of multinational corporations by contrasting the case of a lead market (Japan) and of an emerging market (Turkey). The findings show that: (1) marketing program standardization is positively related to performance in Japan and Turkey; (2) centralization of nonproduct decision is negatively related to performance in both markets; (3) customer similarity is positively related to marketing program standardization in both Japan and Turkey. Whereas, in Japan, marketing program standardization has a direct, positive relationship to performance, in Turkey, in addition to such a direct effect, there is also an indirect effect at work, through centralization of nonproduct decision.     

Broadening the Concept of International Entrepreneurship: Internationalisation, Networks and Politics

In this article, the situation where a company internationalises over an extended period without changing operation mode is explored. The focus of the empirical research is the Australian company CSR and its large-scale sugar exporting operations, which developed over a period of about 75 years. Because of the highly politicised nature of the sugar industry in many countries, CSR was called upon to make extensive investments in political networks in order to achieve its global sugar exporting operations. Overall the CSR experience demonstrates that it is possible to stretch the use of a given mode, although this may demand considerable creativity in market, network and policy responses of a kind which illustrate that international entrepreneurship may come in many guises, and may need to be viewed in a broader way.     

A Values Framework for Measuring the Impact of Workplace Spirituality on Organizational Performance

Growing interest in workplace spirituality has led to the development of a new paradigm in organizational science. Theoretical assumptions abound as to how workplace spirituality might enhance organizational performance, most postulating a significant positive impact. Here, that body of research has been reviewed and analyzed, and a resultant values framework for workplace spirituality is introduced, providing the groundwork for empirical testing. A discussion of the factors and assumptions involved for future research are outlined.     

Transforming Personal Experience into a Pedagogical Tool: Ethical Complaints

One of the crucial intellectual and social challenges facing corporation leaders is to foster a new way of thinking about business and society which recognizes the multinational corporation as a key player in society's responsibility to support and maintain fairness in the global reorganization of markets. In order to establish a sound global social economy, we are in need of the organizing and directing principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. Both of these principles speak to the need of transforming our public and private institutions in such a way that all persons are placed in positions whereby they can share in the benefits of the newly-formed global economy.     

Self-Efficacy Toward Service, Civic Participation and the Business Student: Scale Development and Validation

This paper presents the development andvalidation of new measurement tools to exploreself-efficacy toward service and toward civicparticipation. We developed and administereda survey to 851 students in an AACSB-accreditedcollege of business at a comprehensive publicuniversity located in the Midwest. Traditionalscale development methodologies plusconfirmatory factor analysis and simultaneousfactor analysis in several populations wereused to analyze both a primary sample and aholdback sample. Results strongly support thevalidity and reliability of the surveyinstrument. Future use for the instrumentincludes verification of the effectiveness ofpedagogies designed to increase self-efficacytoward service and motivation for civicparticipation in business students.     

Spanish and American Business Professionals' Ethical Evaluations in Global Situations

More ethics research needs to explore the global differences in ethical evaluations. This study explored the relationships among nationality, teleological evaluations, ethical judgments, and ethical intentions using a sample of 222 American and Spanish business professionals. The path analysis indicated that teleological evaluations were related to ethical judgments and that both ethical judgments and teleological evaluations were related to ethical intentions. Executive nationality was related to teleological evaluations and ethical intentions with American individuals having higher teleological assessments and intentions to act ethically than the Spanish individuals. These findings have implications for global companies, which are presented along with the study's limitations and future research suggestions.     

The Importance of gender Across Cultures in Ethical Decision-making

Business ethics attracts increasing attention from business practitioners and academic researchers. Concerns over fraudulent behavior keep attentionfocused on ethics in businesses. The accounting profession pays particularattention to matters of ethical judgment. The profession has adopted a strictcode of conduct and many states require the passage of an ethics exam to gaincertification. The more that is understood about the relationship of gender and ethics, the better chance of education and training programs will bedesigned to improve ethical awareness and sensitivity. Prior studies have found that personal characteristics are an important aspect of cultural norms.This study analyzes the responses of students from eight different countries toquestions on their probable actions to an ethical dilemma.