Business Ethics in the Former Soviet Union: A Report

Transition from a planned command economy to a market economy means tearing down a socio-economic setting where everybody follows orders and nobody bears individual responsibility for anything. The absence of personal responsibility does not promote ethical behavior in any walk of life. Today, the malnourished business ethics in the former Soviet Union creates a critical obstacle to economic development. The paucity of new official rules governing the conduct of business makes the transition process painful and difficult to people habituated to numberless rules and regulations. The first part of this paper surveys the most visible unethical business practices that have been reported by the Western media and those that are causing the largest number of complaints by the local governments and businessmen. The second part of the paper looks at ethical problems that have been under-reported.     

Loglinear model for analysis of cross-tabulated coal mine injury data

Mine accidents/injuries can be cross-classified against the variables of interest in a contingency table and their associations can be assessed through aggregate statistics. However, there is a need to develop a coherent and structured procedure for analysis of accident data, which will allow one to identify associations between two or more variables multivariately. In this study, the loglinear model, which has been proposed as a mathematical representation of the contingency table, was applied to accident data from a group of coal mines to assess the associations/interactions between two or more variables multivariately through their main and interaction effects. The case study results revealed that the variables ‘occupation’ and ‘workplace location’ were highly associated with degree of injury. It was also clearly indicated that the workers with more than 20 years of experience exhibited high injury rate patterns. While designing training programs for miners, focused attention should be given to specific categories of workers to reduce accident/injuries at the case study mines.     

THE IMPACT OF INFLATION ON PRICES RECEIVED AND PAID BY GREEK FARMERS

This paper investigates empirically the impact of inflation on the terms of trade, prices received and paid, for Greek farmers in the period 1967–87. According to conventional theory, inflation can have a non-neutral effect if it is unanticipated and if prices received and paid by farmers exhibit different degrees of flexibility. However, in the case where prices are administered, inflation neutrality depends on government's policy objectives and ability to adjust prices of inputs and outputs to the rate of inflation. The empirical investigation undertaken in this study shows that pricing policies implemented by the Greek government have resulted in neutralising the impact of inflation on the terms of trade for Greek farmers. Furthermore, the observed significant variability of the terms of trade can be attributed solely to real demand and supply factors.     

Measuring the sustainability of a community safety promotion network: working from the inside out

Mackay Whitsunday Safe Communities (MWSC) was developed using a capacity building model that consciously attempted to design sustainability into the network. Our aim was to quantify the flow of resources used by MWSC to implement and sustain its injury control activities. Resource exchange among network members was quantified and analysed using social network analysis. In 2004, MWSC accessed an estimated 6.5 full-time staff equivalents and $0.9 million. However, these resources were largely accessed externally. The linking relationships that connected MWSC to its external support network, more than half of which were maintained by six broker network facilitators, were the critical social asset used to access resources and sustain network productivity. The sustainability of this network and arguably similar safety promotion networks is vulnerable to the changing priorities of external sponsoring agents and highly dependent on its leaders who facilitated access to the resources it required to remain productive.     

Control of lipid oxidation in cooked ground beef with water and salts*

The effects of exogenous water and salts on lipid oxidation in ground beef were determined. Deionized water, salts, or both, were added to treatment samples. Salts used were sodium chloride, potassium chloride and sodium sulphate, all at 3% concentration. The Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test was used to assess lipid oxidation. Addition of water at a 10% or 20% level had no effect on rancidity. Sodium chloride and potassium chloride reduced TBA numbers. Adding water to those samples containing potassium chloride and sodium sulphate raised moisture content.     

Making sense of corporate social responsibility in international business: experiences from Shell

International business organizations are regularly addressed on their corporate social responsibility (CSR). As illustrated in this paper, it is not yet clear exactly what CSR means to organizations and how to deal with it. In this paper, the authors explore how a sensemaking approach helps to understand the business challenges of CSR within an organizational context. The theories of Karl Weick are applied to the experiences of CSR in Royal Dutch Shell. The authors argue that the key to CSR in international business organizations is to engage stakeholders and start a process of joint sensemaking. Three main competencies are crucial in this: the competency to engage stakeholders through listening and understanding; the creation of an organizational language so that CSR makes sense to members of the organization; and recognizing the momentum of taking action.     

Long-term mortality following injury in working-age adults: a systematic review

Priorities for prevention activities and planning for services depend on comprehensive knowledge of the distribution of the injury-related burden in the community. The aim of this systematic review was to quantify the effect of being injured, compared with not being injured, on long-term mortality in working age adults. Cohort studies were selected that were population-based, measured mortality post-discharge from inpatient treatment, included a non-injured comparison group and related to working-age adults. Data synthesis was in tabular and text form with a meta-analysis not being possible because of the heterogeneity between studies. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. All studies found an overall positive association between injury and increased mortality. While the greatest excess mortality was evident during the initial period post-injury, increased mortality was shown in some studies to persist for up to 40 years after injury. Due to the limited number of injury types studied and heterogeneity between studies, there is insufficient published evidence on which to calculate population estimates of long-term mortality, where injury is a component cause. The review does suggest there is considerable excess mortality following injury that is not accounted for in current methods of quantifying injury burden, and is not used to assess quality and effectiveness of trauma care.