Employer‐supported volunteering benefits: Gift exchange among employers,employees, and volunteer organizations

Using gift exchange theory to explain the growing trend of employers offering employer‐supported volunteering (ESV) benefits, this article discusses the creation of exchange relationships between the employer and employee and between the volunteer organization and employee. Hypotheses derived from the employee's perspective are tested with a nationally representative sample of volunteers (n=3,658). Findings suggest that ESV benefits are positively related to hours volunteered by the employee. Volunteer hours predict employee perceptions of skill acquisition, and such perceptions are positively related to perceptions of job success and employer recognition. We discuss the implications of these findings for business, employees, and volunteer organizations, with an emphasis on human resource management policy and practice. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

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Valid measures of how people view risks due to combinations of hazards are needed. 320 adult smokers responded to four vignettes in which hypothetical men were described as having high or low levels of (1) smoking and (2) either (a) blood cholesterol or (b) family history of CHD (coronary heart disease). Ratings of the risk of a heart attack were made using one of three different rating scales: (a) nine‐point, (b) 101‐point, and (c) unbounded. The nine‐point scale yielded a strong sub‐additive interaction, the 101‐point scale yielded a weak sub‐additive interaction, and the unbounded scale yielded a weak synergistic interaction. Although respondents preferred the nine‐point scale, evidence from this and other studies suggest that scales with nine points or fewer should not be used to assess perceptions of risks due to multiple hazards.     

The influence of voice and explanation on performance in a participative budgeting setting

This paper examines the relationship between the use of a fair budgeting process and subordinate performance. Organizational justice theory is used to define a fair budgeting process as having two components: the subordinate’s involvement in the budgeting process, voice; and the communication of a rationale for the subordinate’s lack of influence over the final budget target the superior sets, explanation. Results indicate significant performance improvements when voice and explanation are combined as compared to voice alone.     

The Development of a Measure of Auditors’ Virtue

Auditors’ virtue comprises those qualities of character that manifest the ideals of the audit community (c.f., Maclntyre, 1984, After Virtue. (University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame)), and are instrumental in ensuring that auditors’ professional judgment is exercised according to a high moral standard (Thorne, 1998, Research on Accounting Ethics. (JAI Press, Greenwich, CT)). Nevertheless, the lack of valid and reliable quantitative measures of auditors’ virtue impedes research that furthers our understanding of how best to promote virtue in the audit community. To address this gap, we develop two measures of auditors’ virtue. We report the results of the validity and reliability of the scales. In addition, we use the findings from the administration of these scales to professional accountants to refine and validate the theoretical characterization of virtues developed by Pincoffs (1986, Quandaries and Virtues. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS) and Libby and Thorne (2004, Business Ethics Quarterly). In so doing, this study provides a foundation by which future audit research can study ways to ensure that auditors’ virtue is promoted throughout the audit community. Theresa Libby, Ph.D. (University of Waterloo) is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has published mainly in the areas of accounting ethics, managers' use of accounting information for decision-making, procedural justice and innovation in management accounting systems. Linda Thorne, Ph.D. (McGill University) is an Associate Professor of Accounting at York University. She has various publications that consider factors that influence auditors and others’ ethical decision process.     

Assessment of the equivalence of conventional versus computer administration of the Test of Workplace Essential Skills

This study examined the equivalency of computer and conventional versions of the Test of Workplace Essential Skills (TOWES), a test of adult literacy skills in Reading Text, Document Use and Numeracy. Seventy‐three college students completed the computer version, and their scores were compared with those who had taken the test in the conventional paper‐and‐pencil mode. Scores for the two groups for all three subscales were equivalent based on their means and variances. Rank order equivalency was demonstrated for two of the three TOWES subscales (Reading Text and Document Use). Additionally, participants rated the computer version of the test as easy to use.     

International bankruptcy and the spirit of comity: New U.S. law encourages cooperation among nations

While many international businesses are successful, others experience financial difficulties and file for bankruptcy. These cases pose challenges for bankruptcy courts worldwide because the assets of the debtor are located in more than one nation. How is this being handled? The trend is toward cooperation. Under the principle of comity, one nation gives effect to the laws and judicial decisions of another nation as a matter of deference and mutual respect. The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (the Act), effective October 2005, amends the bankruptcy code in several significant ways. One such amendment is Chapter 15: Ancillary and Other Cross-Border Cases. Chapter 15 not only embraces but also advances the spirit of comity.