Digital Commons Network^™

Minimising Attainment Deficit: A Leadership Process Theory, George K. Kriflik, Robert Jones

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Leadership as a process was found by RTA workers to fulfill their need for attaining their potential in their jobs. This article presents an overview of this substantive theory which emerged during a Grounded Theory study. Minimising Attainment Deficit, the process, comprises a number of Leader Strategies which aim to modify workplace conditions and so alter workers’ behaviours. The fundamental premise of this theory is the workers’ perceptions of their own potential and their perception of what they are currently achieving, and that any shortfall in achievement results in an Attainment Deficit. Minimising Attainment Deficit Unleashes workers to achieve higher …

Using Olap And Multidimensional Data For Decision Making, Helen M. Hasan, P. Hyland

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Managers see information as a critical resource and require systems that let them exploit it for competitive advantage. One way to better use organizational information is via online analytical processing and multidimensional databases (MDDBs). OLAP and MDDBs present summarized information from company databases. They use multidimensional structures that let managers slice and dice views of company performance data and drill down into trouble spots. For over a decade, proponents have touted these tools as the ultimate executive information system, but most of the hype comes from product vendors themselves. Based on our experience with several OLAP tools, we have developed …

Are Popular Management Techniques A Waste Of Time?, Mario Fernando

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Management by objectives, zero-based budgeting, T groups, Theory Y, Theory Z, diversification, participative management, management by walking around, total quality management, teams, and empowerment. We've seen such popular approaches to management come and go with great regularity. Organizations often appear eager to embrace the newest managerial fads and just as eager to let go of those that lose popularity. Do these popular management techniques really improve an organization's performance, or are they just passing fads?

Challenges For Tomorrows Tourism Education – The Case Of Austria, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Austria is a highly developed country in terms of tourism industry. Nevertheless the educational system within the field of tourism increasingly fails to provide the industry with the workforce needed. The main reasons for this negative development is that, on the demand side, tourists have increasing travel experience and expect perfect service during their leisure time and, on the supply side, young Austrians strive for higher education, as apprenticeships have an image problem in general and especially within the field of tourism, where the association is “hard work, high need for mobility and modest wages”. The result: a lack of …

Gay Men And Lesbians In The University Community, H. W. Collier

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

[Extract] There is little doubt that there are gay and lesbian students, faculty, staff, and administrators in our universities. You may not see all of us unless we want you to, but we are there. Whether you choose to acknowledge our presence is another issue. Historical prejudices against minority groups and those who are 'different' still exist in many parts of the world and in many of our universities. There are significant cultural, religious, national and regional differences in how minority 'tribes' or 'groups' are identified and treated. There is a significant body of research discussing issues of homosexuality and …

How Financial Statements Enhance(D) The Long-Term Survival Of An International Religious/Charitable Organisation, H. J. Irvine

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The Salvation Army is a large international religious/charitable organisation with a high profile in Australia. In recent years, the profile of its financial reports has grown, particularly in the context of corporate fundraising. This is one manifestation of the importance for the Army, over its history, of a sound financial reputation. It has always relied heavily on external funds to continue its operations, and its financial statements are, and have been, a useful means by which its image has been enhanced, and it has established a legitimate claim for these funds. The Salvation Army's founding and early years, in the …

What The Big Picture Misses: How New Accounting Practices Were Institutionalised In An Australian Religious/Charitable Organisation, H. J. Irvine

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Neo-institutional sociology proposes that organisations in a particular field behave in essentially the same way. In taking for granted the prevalence of institutionalised activities, such as accounting, however, it offers little in the way of penetrating insights into how, and to what extent, those activities are actually introduced and embedded into individual organisations. Recent changes in the nonprofit environment in Australia have catapulted nonprofit organisations into a new corporate mode of operation, providing a unique opportunity not only to observe the introduction of new accounting practices, but also to critique the usefulness of neo-institutionalism as a complete explanation of organisational …

Getting More Out Of Three Way Data - Simultaneous Market Segmentation And Positioning Applying Perceptions Based Market Segmentation (Pbms), Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Perceptions based market segmentation (PBMS) is a simple framework for market structure analysis integrating the issues of segmentation and positioning. The only requirement is the availability of three-way data (numerous respondents evaluate numerous brands according to numerous attributes). The implicit consideration of interrelations between positioning and segmentation prevents unharmonized strategic marketing decisions and enables managers with clear strategic goals to analyze market information in depth and arrive at a profound basis for segmentation and positioning decisions. In this study, PBMS is applied to deodorant data. The simultaneous treatment of all three data dimensions enables insights into deodorant brand images (among …

An Analysis Of Iran’S Third Five-Year Development Plan In The Post-Revolution Era (2000-2005), Abbas Valadkhani

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The major objective of this paper is to provide a succinct and critical review of Iran’s Third Five-Year Development Plan (2000/01-2004/05, fiscal year ending March 20). After highlighting the salient features of the Iranian economy and a brief explanation of the previous two development plans, this paper discusses the extent to which the specified macroeconomic objectives of the third plan are achievable. It is argued that there are a number of practical inconsistencies and structural problems in this plan like its predecessors that stifle the long-run economic development. More specifically the constitution, which is beyond the government control, should be …

Humanistic Redesign And Technological Politics In Organizations, R. Badham, Karin Garrety, Christina Kirsch

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The political nature of technology design and implementation is explicitly addressed in human centered projects to introduce technologies that support job enrichment, group autonomy and industrial democracy. Yet the political meaning of such projects does not simply manifest itself in pure form from the methods employed or the intentions of the humanistic actors but, rather, from the complex configuration of these and other factors present in the design and implementation context. This paper illustrates this theme in an analysis of a case study human centered project. It argues that an improved understanding of the configurational politics surrounding such projects is …

Market Efficiency Or Not? The Behaviour Of China’S Stock Prices In Response To The Announcement Of Bonus Issues, M. L. Barnes, S. Ma

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Event study analysis is applied to investigate stock price reaction to the announcement of bonus issues for the emerging stock markets of China. Results show that the issues with a high bonus ratio (number of bonus shares in the issue/number of existing shares) usually attract positive returns and the issues with a low bonus ratio are rewarded with negative returns. The A-shares’ and B-shares’ prices exhibit some similarities in their reactions to bonus issues’ approvals. The hypothesis of semi-strong form market efficiency is rejected only partly for China’s stock markets.

A Framework To Audit Intellectual Capital, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Until recently few firms have attempted to measure and assess Knowledge, the new intangible. Previous research shows that key components of intellectual capital are poorly understood, inadequately identified, inefficiently managed and inconsistently reported. Two types of audit are available: auditing by competence, and auditing individual or a spectrum of items. There are several methods for auditing these types, and selection depends both on the type of audit, and whether the aim is to quantify monetarily, to make comparisons, or to set benchmarks. A better way to approach the audit is to combine more than one method and audit object, so …

Doing Hard Labour: Gendered Emotional Labour In Academic Management, Linda Hort, Mary Barrett, Liz Furlop

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores, from the authors' experiences, emotional labour as gendered experience in the area of university management in Australia. University work (teaching and research) clearly involves high levels of emotional labour. Commitment, passion and curiosity in the self and created in others are keys to developing and transmitting knowledge. But what of the managerial roles within universities? To explore the gendered nature of managerial work in the university context, the authors related to each other three critical incidents associated with their work as senior managers. These narratives were explored to determine themes within our experiences. Some of the new …

Intra Project Learning: Are The Right Questions Being Asked?, Andrew J. Sense

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper will propose and describe, a number of interdependent dimensions that form a 'learning architecture' for intra project learning.

The proposition which underpins this paper, is that members of project teams managing innovation projects within manufacturing operations, do not proactively recognise & 'engage a personal or group 'learning focus" within the management of their project activities. As such, they do not establish systems, processes or mechanisms to actively facilitate and optimise their learning within the project management activity. Consequently, they may also miss the opportunity to incorporate the available learning into the next phase of a project. As a …

Effective Teaching And Learning: A Business Education Focus, Anne Abraham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The need to understand the process of student learning in order to improve the quality of that learning has been identified in the education literature (for example, see Biggs, 1978, 1987a, 1987b, Malton and Saljo, 1976, Ramsden, 1992). In addition, the outcomes of this learning have been identified in quantitative, qualitative or attitudinal terms (Biggs, 1990; Marton and Booth, 1997). To this end there have been a number of models of student approaches to learning (Biggs, 1988; Kember and Gow, 1989; Marton and Saljo, 1976; Zhang, 2000). Each model has considered the antecedents, and by way of application, the effectiveness …

Learning Within And Across Projects: A Comparison Of Frames, Marc Antoni, Andrew J. Sense

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In a world of global markets and fast changing competitive environments organizations need to embrace flexibility and adaptability in response to these environmental challenges. One organizational response to these conditions is that the classical functional structures of organizations are now more and more complemented by temporal organizations or projects. Projects are used to accomplish a diverse and often complex set of organizational goals or changes that would otherwise be less obtainable by the organization, or, that would overstrain the ability of the permanent organization to achieve successful outcomes. The diverse raft of projects that organizations do pursue can comprise projects …

Advertising Wearout Of Shock-Value Anti-Speeding Ads, Jennifer Thornton, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

An advertising experiment was conducted to test the advertising wearout of four anti-speeding ads, each with varying underlying "patterns" of fear arousal. The patterns of fear were established beforehand by using a dial designed to track viewers’ reactions in terms of tenseness felt. The advertising experiment involved 284 participants from a first-year University marketing class. Four experimental groups were exposed to the same antispeeding ad each week, for three sequential weeks. Measures were obtained, via a questionnaire, of the participants’ attention paid to the ad, expected effect on speeding behaviour, emotions felt, perceptions of the relevance, believability, realism of the …

You Are The Rats: Action Research, Academic Forums And The Reflective Practice Of Professional Bricoleurs, Andrew J. Sense, Richard Badham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

"I saw the University as helping us to reflect on what we are doing- they are the expert reflectors. This is particularly what I saw as X's role. Sometimes his inteIjections go above their heads, and his nine words or less, statements need to have some explanation, and I should feed this back to him. I also see the University as playing a visionary role, helping to show us new things, about what is possible. I don't see the University as helping to pull the team together - that is when it gets confusing. They are observing us, they are …

Keynote Address: Cognitive, Emotional, And Hard-Core Behaviourism As Theoretical Paradigms For Consumer Behaviour, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

When Paula asked me to be the keynote speaker at this conference, I naturally wanted to pick a big, important topic that was relevant to consumer researchers, you, the audience. I am working on three big topics at the moment, between editions of the Rossiter and Percy textbook. One topic is marketing knowledgewhat it is and how we can test it. I have a large ARC grant for that one. A second topic is a new procedure for the measurement of marketing constructs-a replacement for the narrow Churchill procedure that everyone seems to follow. Some of you have seen working …

Environmental Accounting And Accountability: Can The Opaque Be Transparent?, Jane Andrew

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Accounting and the environment can no longer be considered mutually exclusive. Accountability forms part of the philosophical justifications for current accounting practice, and as such, it is a concept that may provide a pivotal grounding upon which environmental issues may be recognised within its practice. This paper examines the radical possibilities of environmental accountability, the contribution that this could make to a new practice of accounting and ultimately, a pathway out of the environmental crisis that could be forged by such changes. Central to the development of the ideas within this work is a critique of the relationship between accountability …

A Panel-Data Study Of The Effect Of Student Attendance On University Performance, Joan R. Rodgers

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The literature indicates that absenteeism from university classes is a common phenomenon in Australia and North America. Whether this constitutes a problem from society’s point of view depends upon whether absenteeism has a detrimental effect on student learning. Several authors in the economics discipline have argued the affirmative although none has established a causal linkage using experimental data and appropriate statistical analysis. The study reported here used panel data on business and economics students in an introductory statistics class at an Australian university to estimate the effect of attendance on performance. The methodology takes account of unobserved heterogeneity among students …

The Kyoto Protocol: Will Cheaters Prosper?, Jane Andrew

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Environmental accounting researchers need to be involved in the formulation of national and international greenhouse gas policy in order to help ensure that there is an acceptable level of international accountability for actions that have climatic affects. This paper discusses the role of accounting within these debates.

A Model Of Quality Determinants In Internet Retailing, Julie Francis, Lesley White

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

While there is a substantial body of literature relating to the activities of Internet marketers and the technology which drives E-Commerce, less attention has been given to consumer oriented research. To partially address this gap in marketing knowledge, a preliminary model of quality determinants in Internet retailing has been developed in this paper. In-depth interviews with 14 experienced Internet shoppers provided the data that was used to develop the model. Respondents discussed what they expected from Internet retailers and the quality of service that they have received. The analysis of results indicated that inherent differences between traditional and Internet environments …

Student Responses To The Integration Of Webct Into An Accounting Subject, Anne Abraham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

How can WebCT be integrated into classroom teaching? How can it be used to enhance the learning experience of students? Students are often hesitant about using new technology, especially if they are asked to communicate publicly in some way. The use of WebCTprovides students with valuable learning experiences as well as flexibility by offering a virtual classroom, wherever and whenever (within reason) that it suits the students. In addition, WebCT can enhance communication by encouraging online participation and overcoming students'fear ofdealing with new technology. This paper presents the result of research based on student evaluations of the integration ofthe use …