Interest rates are low but are annuities expensive?

It is often claimed that annuities are now 'expensive'. That claim is at least partly based on money illusion. Careful analysis shows that the current prices of annuities are largely the result of a decline in inflation expectations which has brought about a change in the income stream for annuities.     

Lessons from Lowell, Massachusetts (1821–62): The Shifting Sands of Managerial Beneficence

Far more than a mechanism to voyeuristically delve into the past to satisfy trivial interests, management history can be used to provide insight into contemporary practices and guide us away from repeating past mistakes. Using historiography, this paper offers a glimpse into the nature of the employer–employee relationship, comparing events from the earliest days of industrialization to the present. Set in the historical site of Lowell, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, this research addresses the progression of events that seem to predictably occur when well-meaning entrepreneurial enterprises face environmental turbulence and subsequently alter their labor philosophy from paternalism to social Darwinism. In the early 1800s, Lowell's textile mills represented a progressive environment. A close-knit, planned community was created which allowed the women opertives to grow socially and intellectually. However, economic downturns resulted in cycles of wage-cutting and cost-saving efforts. Eventually, the women were replaced with immigrants who were willing to tolerate substandard working conditions. By the 1860s, the owners had completely abandoned their concept that corporations should have souls. In history, market forces are continually in flux and often so is management's perception about whether the worker is a valuable asset or an easily discarded econom ic liability. Reactions to this unpredictability are addressed.     

Collective and individual voice: convergence in Europe?

This paper uses longitudinal survey data from Britain, Germany and Sweden to examine whether, as some researchers have suggested, there has been a convergence internationally towards individual forms of employee voice mechanism and, if so, to measure the extent and trajectory of change. The paper begins by examining the importance of the employee voice issue. It then reviews competing accounts of the utility of different forms of employee voice and their manifestations within different varieties of capitalism. It is hypothesized that there has been a general trend away from collective and towards individual voice mechanisms; this reflects the predominant trajectory of managerial practices towards convergence with the liberal market model. This hypothesis is largely rejected. The data showed only very limited evidence of directional convergence towards individual voice models in the three countries. Collective voice remains significant in larger organizations, and although it takes a wide range of forms that include but go beyond unions and works councils, this is a positive finding for proponents of those institutions.     

Networking strategy of boards: implications for small and medium-sized enterprises

Development of linkages with the external environment, e.g. interlocks, is a mechanism to access scarce resources. Creating and maintaining these linkages may be an organizational capability that creates a competitive advantage for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A partial model of networking strategy is proposed, which includes measures of board composition, interlocks, entrepreneurial orientation and environmental hostility. Analysis of 70 community bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) responses (58% response rate) lends support to the proposition that firms with a networking strategy performed better (higher return on assets (ROA) and higher return on expenditure (ROE)) than those firms that did not actively pursue the development of networks.     

Communicating the Ethos of Codes of Ethics in Corporate Australia, 1995–2001: Whose Rights, Whose Responsibilities?

This paper considers the commitment to business ethics of the top 500 companies operating in the Australian private sector and communicates the results of a longitudinal study conducted from 1995 to 2001. Primary data was obtained (in 1995 and again in 2001) via a self-administered mail questionnaire distributed to a census of these top 500 Australian companies. This commitment of each company to their code of ethics was indicated and measured via a range of methods used by organizations to communicate the ethos of their codes to employees. Just as they were in 1995, it would appear that companies in 2001 still are good at ensuring that their rights are protected, but at the same time they do not seem to take on the responsibility to ensure that employees' rights are just as well protected. This double standard leads to cynicism towards the current business ethics processes inherent in Australian companies.