An Attitudinal Revolution in Irish Industrial Relations: The End of ‘Them and Us’?

Intensified international competition and high unemployment have characterized many Western economies since 1980. A firm's survival in such an environment demands a flexible and co-operative work-force, a requirement incompatible with traditional adversarial industrial relations. Drawing on a survey of employees in nine unionized companies in the Irish manufacturing sector, this paper examines the effect of these changes in the economy and workplace in facilitating a significant reduction in 'them and us' attitudes and an associated weakening of union structure and influence in the workplace. We found no evidence of a reduction in 'them and us' attitudes, but a cohesive and influential union was associated with less intense 'them and us'.     

INFORMATION CONTENT OF QUALIFIED AUDIT OPINIONS FOR OVER-THE-COUNTER FIRMS

This study investigates the information content of the initial public announce-ment of an audit qualification for a sample of American firms traded over-the-counter. These firms have smaller predisclosure information sets than New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and American Stock Exchange (ASE) firms. The results of research focusing on NYSE and ASE firms cannot, therefore, be extended to the over-the-counter (OTC) market. When the qualification is not confined to a 'bad news' scenario, a significant market reaction to the announcement is found, indicating that audit qualification announcements for OTC firms do, indeed, have information content.     

Jean-Claude Daumas. Les territoires de la laine: Histoire de l'industrie lainiere en France au XIXe siecle. Villeneuve D'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2004. 419 pp. ISBN 2-85939-812-0, {euro}26.00.

Based on his doctoral dissertation, Jean-Claude Daumas’sbook on the economics of nineteenth-century wool manufactureis a sound, workmanlike, and well-organized exposition. Withmany books already detailing various sectors of the industry,from the sheep’s back to the consumer’s closet,the question arises why another synthetic study was needed.Daumas’s rationale is that while the general contoursof the industry are well known, the variegated nature of individualwool centers has been glossed over. Like the industrial     

The Nature of and Conditions for Online Trust

As use of the Internet has increased, many issues of trust have arisen. Users wonder: will my privacy be protected if I provide information to this Internet vendor? Will my credit card remain secure? Should I trust that this party will deliver the goods? Will the goods be as described? These questions are not merely academic. A recent Boston Consulting Group study revealed that one out of ten consumers have ordered and paid for items online that never were delivered (Williams, 2001). This year consumers filed around 11,000 complaints with the Federal Trade Commission alleging auction fraud, a figure up from the 107 lodged in 1997. It is no wonder that people are increasingly worried about whom to trust in online interactions. This paper explores the conditions under which online trust thrives and looks at examples of best and worst corporate practices. Online trust issues arise in a wide array of forums – chat rooms, news postings, e-catalogues, and retail transactions, to name a few. This paper focuses primarily on the online retail market, but the analysis applies to informational and entertainment sites as well.     

John Meriwether and the Promethean Hero: A Cautionary Tale in Financial Ethics

Ethicists typically understand unethical actsto be those that either violate social normsand mores or that prevent people fromdeveloping the character needed to thrive. This paper looks to a classical source – the mythof Prometheus' creation of man – to explore analternative understanding of what it means toact unethically. On this classical view,acting in an evil fashion is less a matter of asingle violation of some norm or of developingan unwholesome character and more a matter ofworldview or outlook. Evil enters the worldwhen humans cease to understand themselves inrelation to the divine and cast themselves asgods. The rise and fall of the Long-TermCapital Hedge Fund (LTCM) and its legendaryfounder John Meriwether nicely illustrates thehuman attempt to supplant the gods and itsuntoward consequences.     

East Meets West: Toward a Universal Ethic of Virtue for Global Business

Rudyard Kipling famously penned, “East is East, West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” His poetic line suggests that Eastern and Western cultures are irreconcilably different and that their members engage in fundamentally incommensurable ethical practices. This paper argues that differing cultures do not necessarily operate by incommensurable moral principles. On the contrary, if we adopt a virtue ethics perspective, we discover that East and West are always meeting because their virtues share a natural basis and structure. This article sketches the rudiments of what a universal virtue ethic might look like. Such an ethic is especially relevant and valuable in this era of global business.