Disbanding an Effective System for Self Regulation of Advertising: Beyond the Media Council of Australia

This paper analyses the role of government, advertisers, advertising agents, and the industry complaints body in unravelling what was once an effective self regulatory system for advertisements. It outlines the connection between the system for the accreditation of advertising agents and the system of fuzzy Codes of Practice rules for the content of advertisements that regulated Australian advertising until the end of 1996. It shows how a revamped competition policy, government review, aggrieved advertisers and an entrenched Advertising Standards Council contributed to the demise of the Media Council system of self regulated advertising. The paper describes the new self regulatory system that has been put in place and analyses both the old Media Council Code of Practice rules and the rules of the new Advertiser Code of Ethics.     

R&D Project Termination Decisions: Processes, Communication, and Personnel Changes

The decision to terminate a project can demoralize project managers and team members, and increase concerns about job security. For these reasons, managers tend to delay project termination decisions. However, delaying project termination diverts scarce R&D resources from higher potential projects. Ramaiya Balachandra, Klaus K. Brockhoff, and Alan W. Pearson describe the results of a study that explores the manner in which managers inform staff of the decision to terminate or continue a project. Survey respondents are the highest ranking R&D managers in 78 large German, British, and U.S. companies. Respondents were asked to describe the procedures they use for monitoring R&D projects and deciding whether to continue a project. Underlying this research is the belief that more effective management of these processes can improve project team effectiveness, employee relations, and morale. All survey respondents use project monitoring procedures. Most use formal procedures, often supplemented with informal procedures. More than one person usually monitors projects. Project managers, their immediate superiors, and project staff typically have these responsibilities, but respondents also indicate that marketing managers often monitor projects. Compared to U.S. companies, European firms typically involve fewer people in project monitoring. U.S. firms involve more non-R&D personnel in these tasks. Most firms focus on monitoring such variables as time, technical success, and probability of technical success. Staff motivation is the least used monitoring variable. Cost control was mentioned more frequently by German respondents than by respondents from other countries. Decisions regarding the fate of a project usually come from individuals not directly involved with the project. Termination decisions are typically communicated in writing; no respondents use staff meetings to relate such decisions. Following the decision to terminate a project, management faces the difficult task of finding suitable jobs for project team members. Rather than assign an entire team to a new project, management typically disbands a team and assigns its members to other teams. The inherently uneven progress of R&D projects complicates these scheduling problems, and thus compounds the career uncertainty caused by project termination decisions.     

Reviews

“LOCAL EMPLOYMENT PLANS” Norwich City Council, 1987: Taking Norwich into the 1990s. Norwich, free.

Bristol City Council, 1987: Bristol: An Employment Plan. Bristol, £1.00.

Reading Borough Council, 1987: Creating Opportunities: A Programme for Jobs in Reading. Reading, no price stated.

Cleveland County Council, 1987: Unemployment Strategy. Middlesbrough, free.

Sheffield City Council: Employment and Economic Development Department 1987: Sheffield Employment Matters. Issue 1. Sheffield, £10 for 3 issues.

Lancashire Enterprises Ltd, 1987: Annual Report 1986-87. Preston, free.

“ETHNIC MINORITIES AND YOUTH TRAINING” Malcolm Cross and Douglas Smith (editors) 1987: Black Youth Futures: Ethnic Minorities and the Youth Training Scheme, National Youth Bureau. No price stated.

“HOMEWORKING” Allen, S. and Wolkowitz, C., 1987: Homeworking: Myths and Realities. London: Macmillan, £25.00 cloth, £7.95 paper.

“STRATEGY FOR RETAILING” Montgomery, J., 1987: Trade Winds — the changing face of retailing and retail employment in the South East — an alternative strategy. South East Economic Development Strategy, Daneshill House, Danesgate Street, Stevenage, Herts. No price stated.     

Smart award projects in north-west england

80% of the Small Firms Research Award for Research and Technology (SMART) award winners ia North-west England replied to a 32-point questionnaire seeking information about the .start-up of the venture, backgrounds of the entrepreneurs, sources of funding, and problems encountered. In addition, five firms were interviewed. Whilst the sample is too small to draw any statistically significant conclusions, the following observations were made: 29% of the firms in the survey reported an improvement in the attitude of banks towards their proposals once they had won the SMART award; the discipline of preparing the entry for the SMART award provides a useful proposal for use at banks or verture capital institutions; projects that are tightly defined are more likely to be selected for both a stage I and stage 2 SMART award; the fact that the stage 1 and 2 awards run concurrently discrirninates in favour of nentures of this type; larger firms that have complementary assets are more likely to attract the stage 2 award than new ventures relying on the success of the SMART project for survival.