Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual

This paper takes the regulation of identity as a focus for examining organizational control. It considers how employees are enjoined to develop self-images and work orientations that are deemed congruent with managerially defined objectives. This focus on identity extends and deepens themes developed within other analyses of normative control. Empirical materials are deployed to illustrate how managerial intervention operates, more or less intentionally and in/effectively, to influence employees' self-constructions in terms of coherence, distinctiveness and commitment. The processual nature of such control is emphasized, arguing that it exists in tension with other intra and extra-organizational claims upon employees' sense of identity in a way that can open a space for forms of micro-emancipation.     

Strategic Bankruptcies and Price Reactions to Bankruptcy Filings

This study investigates whether the stock market differentiates between firms that file bankruptcy petitions for strategic reasons and firms that file bankruptcy petitions for financial reasons. We perform both univariate and regression tests on a sample of 245 firms that filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions between 1981 and 1996. After controlling for bankruptcy outcome, probability of bankruptcy, firm financial condition, and firm size, we find that, in the period around bankruptcy filing, firms that file bankruptcy petitions for financial reasons have significantly larger stock price declines than firms that file bankruptcy petitions for strategic reasons.     

Competition in the electricity industry in England and Wales

When the electricity industry was privatized, the governmentmade structural changes to encourage competition in generationand in supply to consumers. The conventional power stationswere only divided between two companies, however, and we showthat duopolistic competition in an unregulated spot market mightimply undesirably high prices. Most sales are hedged in thecontract market, which makes the spot market more competitive,and a realistic threat of entry could also force generatorsto keep their prices down. In the event, a large amount of entrytook place, supported by the regional electricity companies'franchise monopoly over smaller consumers. That monopoly endsin 1998, so that further entry might become very difficult,while competition between firms already in the generation marketis still limited. Vertical integration between the major generatorsand regional electricity companies might make entry even harder,and should be blocked until the industry is more competitive.     

ISOLATING THE WILD CARD OPTION

Many embedded options are difficult to value the wild card option in the Treasury bond futures contract is one of these embedded options. We illustrate how narrow theoretical bounds on the value of this option, relative to the price of the contract, may be obtained in the presence of other embedded options. Simulations suggest that the value of the wild card option is close to zero. This implies that, in this economy, a simpler pricing model of the Treasury bond futures contract, which ignores the wild card option, will result in only a small loss of accuracy.     

Mitterrand: from Socialism to Realism

The French elected a government of nationalist Bourbons who thought they could plan the economy in a world of international trade. They soon discovered their error but are reluctant to act upon the lessons. Dr Green reveals that the main results have been economic stagnation and a division in the Government between pragmatists and ideologues.