Motivating Through Delegating Tasks or Giving Attention

An important role of managers is to motivate subordinates. Monetaryrewards have been the focus of economic analysis. Managers alsouse other means to influence subordinates. If a manager canbetter assess the subordinate's ability than the subordinatehimself, and if ability and effort are complements, the managerfinds it hard not to overstate a junior's ability. Talk is cheap.We analyze under what conditions a manager can use organizationalpractices such as delegation and the selective provision ofattention to credibly communicate his assessment. We comparetheir desirability. Delegation is preferable in case the manager'sassessment is fairly accurate; attention is inescapable if itis inaccurate.     

Socio-political Aspects of Establishing Ecotourism in the Qwa-Qwa National Park,South Africa

Large portions of rural South Africa can be considered to belong to the Third World. Tourism has been shown to often be the catalyst for the economic empowerment of such regions. Since 1993, there has been no tourism development in the former Qwa-Qwa homeland, therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate the lack and problems of tourism development in Qwa-Qwa, with emphasis on ecotourism in the Qwa-Qwa National Park (QNP).

Although the QNP has all the necessary resources and features to provide specialised tourist facilities, the following were identified as the major factors affecting ecotourism development in the area:

(1) the dispute over the legal tenureship of the land covered by the QNP;

(2) the almost endless restructuring and re-organisation of departments and reporting structures in Agri-Eco and the Free State Provincial Government;

(3) the inability of the Free State Provincial Government to provide clear policies and direction for ecotourism development in the QNP; and

(4) the inefficiency in the manner in which the Free State Provincial Government conduct its funding operations.

Unless the Provincial Department gets its house in order and starts making constructive decisions regarding the development in the Park, the future of ecotourism development is bleak. There is much at stake: the community in and around the Park cannot share in the benefits associated with ecotourism development, and in addition, South Africa stands to lose the use of one of its important sensitive catchment areas.     

AIDS is your business

If your company operates in a developing country, AIDS is your business. While Africa has received the most attention, AIDS is also spreading swiftly in other parts of the world. Russia and Ukraine had the fastest-growing epidemics last year, and many experts believe China and India will suffer the next tidal wave of infection. Why should executives be concerned about AIDS? Because it is destroying the twin rationales of globalization strategy-cheap labor and fast-growing markets--in countries where people are heavily affected by the epidemic. Fortunately, investments in programs that prevent infection and provide treatment for employees who have HIV/AIDS are profitable for many businesses--that is, they lead to savings that outweigh the programs' costs. Due to the long latency period between HIV infection and the onset of AIDS symptoms, a company is not likely to see any of the costs of HIV/AIDS until five to ten years after an employee is infected. But executives can calculate the present value of epidemic-related costs by using the discount rate to weigh each cost according to its expected timing. That allows companies to think about expenses on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs as investments rather than merely as costs. The authors found that the annual cost of AIDS to six corporations in South Africa and Botswana ranged from 0.4% to 5.9% of the wage bill. All six companies would have earned positive returns on their investments if they had provided employees with free treatment for HIV/AIDS in the form of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), according to the mathematical model the authors used. The annual reduction in the AIDS "tax" would have been as much as 40.4%. The authors' conclusion? Fighting AIDS not only helps those infected; it also makes good business sense.     

AAOIFI reporting standards: Measuring compliance

Islamic banking and finance have grown rapidly in recent decades. Islamic banks offer a range of products, which, in complying with Islamic law, often differ from traditional Western financial products. Consequently, developing accounting standards to guide Islamic financial reporting is now an important issue. To this end, the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Organizations (AAOIFI), was established in Bahrain in 1991. While the AAOIFI has published a substantial body of accounting and governance standards empirical research into compliance with these standards is lacking. This article addresses that gap. A benchmark index is constructed to measure the compliance of Islamic banks licensed and domiciled in Bahrain. The findings of the study show compliance to be very high with respect to the governance standard relating to the in-house supervisory boards of Islamic banks, and reporting the Islamic murabaha contract. In contrast, compliance with the AAOIFI's requirements regarding the zakah religious tax and the mudaraba contract is relatively low.     

Argumentation-Based Qualitative Preference Modelling with Incomplete and Uncertain Information

This paper presents an argumentation-based framework for the modelling of, and automated reasoning about multi-attribute preferences of a qualitative nature. The framework presents preferences according to the lexicographic ordering that is well-understood by humans. Preferences are derived in part from knowledge. Knowledge, however, may be incomplete or uncertain. The main contribution of the paper is that it shows how to reason about preferences when only incomplete or uncertain information is available. We propose a strategy that allows reasoning with incomplete information and discuss a number of strategies to handle uncertain information. It is shown how to extend the basic framework for modelling preferences to incorporate these strategies.