Cellular phone etiquette among college students

There has been tremendous growth in the cellular telephone industry in recent years. This evolving technology has given rise to concerns over the social rules of etiquette governing cellphone usage behaviour. The present study was undertaken to better understand the perceptions of cellphone usage propriety among one of the most important target markets for cellphone products – young adults attending college. Data were collected from a total of 383 cellphone consumers residing in geographically diverse regions of the United States. Overall, the results indicated a high degree of agreement among respondents as to appropriate and inappropriate situations for cellphone usage. Respondents considered inappropriate situations for cellphone usage to include during worship/church, during class, in a library and in a movie theatre during a movie. Respondents considered it to be appropriate to use cellphones while on public transportation, in a supermarket, and to use a hands‐free set while driving. Specific differences were found as a function of geographic regions, gender and employment status.     

Quality, patient safety, and the board

It is now broadly recognized that good outcomes for patients depend on more than a clinician's knowledge and skills and use of proven, effective practices or evidence-based medicine. Good outcomes also depend on the organization's culture, which affects how well providers and patients work together. Boards play a key role in helping their hospitals improve the quality and safety of the care they deliver--a governance imperative to ensure hospitals meet the needs of key stakeholders and perform effectively in an environment of reform. Nurse leaders who understand this key board responsibility will be better prepared to serve on boards and contribute to effective governance.     

Marketing and the law

Marketing decisions are particularly vulnerable to legal rulings made in both the courts and the legislatures. The effective management of those legal implications challenges the modern marketing professional. Grasping marketing’s overall legal environment, including its governing case law, regulatory statutes, and future trends, is essential. These reviews will provide analysis of recent court cases and legislation with particular emphasis on creatively assisting the marketer’s management of the legal factor.     

Agency rulemaking, political influences, regulation, and industry compliance

This article empirically examines the impact of congressionaloversight and agency rulemaking on firm compliance behaviorin FDA-regulated industries. Congressional oversight hearingsprovide signals to firms about future changes in regulatoryenforcement strategies. Agency rulemaking influences firms'incentives to comply with regulation because firms must investsignificant resources to keep up with changing agency policy.This analysis uses three-stage least squares to simultaneouslyestimate both the numbers of FDA inspections and industry violatorsbetween 1972 and 1994. Results show that congressional oversightdeters industry noncompliance. The effect of agency rulemakingon noncompliance differs between industries. For instance, anincreasing stock of human drug rules has raised compliance amongdrug firms because newer more, cost-effective rules have replacedolder, more costly rules. In contrast, the increasing stockof medical device rules has reduced industry compliance amongdevice firms because these rules have increased the complexityand the scope of regulation.     

Board oversight of executive performance and compensation

Making sure the relative roles of the board and management are clear and agreed upon is becoming more important as market and regulatory forces compel boards to govern at levels of detail once considered micromanagement, but are now required and necessary in the current environment of heightened governance accountability. A clear understanding of each other's roles and responsibilities is step one in building a solid partnership between the board and chief executive. A second element of building a strong foundation for the board-CEO relationship is taking time early on to establish mutual expectations about working together. The board's responsibilities in CEO performance management and compensation include setting performance expectations and goals that are clear and measurable and coaching and motivating the CEO. When a CEO fails, one of the most important steps for the board to take is to look in the mirror and commit to the rigorous due diligence needed to avoid future mistakes. Boards should always have CEO succession on their agenda.     

Enhancing board effectiveness

Like any other job, board work is associated with specific competencies. Competencies are the combination of knowledge, skills, personal characteristics, and behaviors needed to perform a job or task effectively. Boards are only as strong as their weakest member. Board education should focus on improving the knowledge and skills of the board and individual members and on overall board performance. Assessment of individual board member performance is designed to evaluate the trustee's knowledge of board roles and responsibilities and the expectations of board members. Board effectiveness is built through competency-based board member recruitment and selection; board member education and development; and evaluation of board, board member, and meeting performance.     

Causality of interest rate,exchange rate and stock prices at stock market open and close in Hong Kong

By an ARIMA approach and verified by the Granger causality tests, the causality of daily interest rate, exchange rate and stock prices in Hong Kong were explored for the period 1986 to 1991. Depending on the subperiods being considered, sporadic unidirectional causality from closing stock prices to interest rate, and weak bi-directional causality between stock prices and the exchange rate were found. The overall evidence, however, appears to show that the Hong Kong market efficiently incorporated much of the interest rate and exchange rate information in its price changes both at daily market close and open.The author would like to acknowledge helpful comments from two anonymous referees, helpful suggestions by Dr Daniel Cheung and research assistance from Theresa Tam. This project is supported by a research grant from the Institute of Social Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.     

Governing for improved quality and patient safety

Board members have a critical oversight role to play in monitoring and providing direction to improve health care quality and safety. In the emerging environment of health care reform, the board's role in overseeing quality and safety on behalf of stakeholders will become as or even more important than its financial oversight role. Nurses can expand their impact by joining the ranks of health care organization governing boards to lead and guide the entire health care enterprise to realize the goal of improved care and outcomes for all patients.