Whistle Blowers: Saints of Secular Culture

Neither the corporate view of whistle blowers as tattle-tales and traitors, nor the more sympathethic understanding of them as tragic heroes battling corrupt or abused systems captures what is at stake in whistle blowing at its most distinctive. The courage, determination and sacrifice of the most ardent whistle blowers suggests that they only begin to be appreciated when they are seen as the saints of secular culture. Although some whistle blowers may be attempting to deflect attention from their own deficiencies and others may be disgruntled employees, the most serious instances involve a level of moral sensitivity that approaches religious proportions that are baffling for a culture that has dispensed with sainthood.     

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Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The involvement of trade unions in quality: evidence from EC enterprises

In 1987–88 a large attitudinal survey covering all 12 Member States of the European Community was carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Dublin which focused on various aspects of participation by employee representatives in new information technology. This paper presents evidence on one important aspect of technological change—that of participation in product and service quality.     

Thrift Asset-Class Returns and the Efficient Diversification of Thrift Institution Portfolios

We estimate quarterly return series from March 1984 through December 1989 for 10 classes of thrift assets using the statistical cost-accounting methodology of Hester and Zoellner (1966). We then use these return series to estimate mean-variance efficient frontiers for all thrifts, for thrifts that were well capitalized two years earlier and for thrifts that were insolvent two years earlier. Our results show that neither the asset restrictions existing before nor those in effect after passage of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 would have prevented thrifts from reaching most of the portfolios along the efficient frontier. The actual portfolio chosen by well-capitalized thrifts is close to the estimated efficient frontier, while the actual portfolio chosen by insolvent thrifts is located far from the frontier in the high-risk end of investment space. These findings, coupled with the high proportion of nontraditional assets in the actual portfolio chosen by insolvent thrifts, support the hypothesis that moral hazard induced thrifts to take on investments that were excessively risky from the deposit insurer's point of view.     

Is there a crisis in arts sponsorship?

What is the connection between Heinz Baked Beans, the Notting Hill Carnival and Windows 95? This paper examines present trends in arts sponsorship. Sponsorship by brands is developing rapidly, while traditional arts sponsorship as part of the corporate promotional budget is under threat. Examples of trend setting sponsorships from companies as diverse as Ernst & Young, Lilt and Beck's Bier, show that arts sponsorship is in transition. Arts organisations are having to adjust rapidly to the new environment if they are to fulfil their targets.