Business Commons^™

The Steel Leadership Program: Telling The Stories, Karin H. Garrety, Viviane Morrigan, Richard Badham, Michael Zanko

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Introduction

• Between October 1999 and June 2000 fifteen interviews were conducted with Springhill employees who had participated in the SLP course.
• The OD Team at Port Kembla intends using these stories to help build a new culture.

An analysis and representation of participants' stories of their experiences arising out of the BHP Steel Leadership Program (SLP) does not lend itself readily to executive summary and bullet points. However, we have been able to discern a number of key themes from the process of gathering these stories and, of course, from the stories themselves.

Financial Intermediaries And The Design Of Loan Contracts In The Australasian Pastoral Sector Before World War Two, Simon Ville, G. Fleming

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the pooling and separating contracts designed by Australasian financial intermediaries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We show that after an initial screening process these agents altered interest rates and collateral requirements to separate out risk types to reveal additional information on borrowers. In multi-period contracts agents opted for flexible contract structures which permitted changes in individual or community-wide circumstances.

The Development Of Large Scale Enterprise In Australia, 1910-64, Simon Ville, D. Merrett

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study examines the evolution of large scale enterprise in Australia in the twentieth century. It applies a methodology common in the historical study of other nations, notably identifying and analysing the top firms by asset size for benchmarked years through the period. High concentration levels are identified among big businesses although they may have been slow to develop modern managerial systems

The Environmental Crisis And The Accounting Craft, Jane Andrew

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

If the purpose of environmental accounting research is to develop, suggest ad analyse ways out fo the environmental crisis, then it is fundamental that the ethical positions informing our research are developed and explored fully before we make choices about the path and direction of our own work. This paper reviews two alternative approaches to environmental ethics, namely, radical ecology (of which deep ecology, social ecology and eco-feminism are regarded as sub-divisions) and the emerging area of postmodern environmentalism. The aim is to encourage environmental accounting researchers to consider and explicitly state the ethical position adopted within their work.

Do Migrants Rob Jobs?: New Evidence From Australia, Gary Gang Tian, Jordan Shan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study contributes to the recent debate on immigration and unemployment in Australia by investigating the causal linkage between immigration and unemployment. The question of whether `immigrants rob jobs' is examined by identifying the sources of unemployment through causal linkages between unemployment and other key variables such as immigration. The research finds no Granger causality between immigration and unemployment, but does run from industrial structural change to the high unemployment rate in Australia. This research also finds that both GDP growth and immigration inflow reinforce each other in the course of economic development in Australia.

Analyzing Destination Images: A Perceptual Charting Approach, Sara Dolnicar, K. Grabler, J. A. Mazanec

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Heterogeneity of perceptions is a neglected issue in market segmentation studies. Only recently parametric approaches toward modeling segmented perception-preference structures such as combined MDS and Latent Class procedures have been introduced. A completely different nonparametric method is based on topology-sensitive vector quantization (VQ) for consumers-by-brands-by-attributes data. It maps the segment-specific perceptual structures into bar charts with multiple brand positions exhibiting perceptual distinctiveness or similarity. A brief introduction into the VQ methodology is followed by a sample study on three urban destinations competing on the world travel markets. City images serve as the underlying behavioral constructs. Preferential data are based on …

Comparative Analysis Of Management Accounting Practices In Australia And Japan: An Empirical Investigation, H. Wijewardena, A. De Zoysa

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper is based on the findings of a questionnaire survey conducted on large manufacturing firms in Australia and Japan during 1997. The results of the survey have revealed a number of important differences between the two countries. For example, while management accounting practices of the Australian companies place an emphasis on cost control tools at the manufacturing stage, those of the Japanese companies devote a much greater attention to cost planning and cost reduction tools at the product design stage. Further, the Japanese companies seem to have introduced more frequent changes to management accounting practices than their Australian counterparts.

A Comparison Of Financial Services Customer Segments: Convenience-Oriented Customers Versus Personal Service-Oriented Customers, Jennifer Thornton, Lesley White

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Whilst a market segment that seeks the primary benefit of convenience has often been identified in theoretical discussions, an empirical investigation of the characteristics of convenience-oriented customers have been largely deficient. This study details the demographic characteristics of two distinct groupings of financial service customers, these being convenience-oriented customers and personal service-oriented customers. These segments were derived through the use of hierarchical cluster analysis. The main result of the study was that the demographic variables of age, occupation, income, education, type of employment and marital status could be used to form demographic profiles of convenience-oriented customers and personal service-oriented customers.

Q Methodology As A Research Methodology For Human Computer Interaction, Joseph A. Meloche

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper briefly introduces the reader to QMethodology and suggests its suitability for research with the field of He!. Furthermore, this paper takes the perspective that HCI is largely aform ofhuman to human interaction. Thus design for HC! would need to take into account human understandings, of computers, systems, networks and software, by all types ofparticipants, iffruitfUl interaction between computers and people and the people who use them is to occur. This paper describes and suggests the use of an established methodology, QMethodology, for the examination of human perceptions in HCI. The example this paper gives is a study that …

Pass The Plate Around Again: A Study Of Budgeting In A Local Church, H. J. Irvine

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

How does a religious organization, with a spiritual agenda, reconcile the inevitable tension between its spiritual aims and the necessity of providing funds in order to fulfill those aims? What part does accounting play in the working out of this tension? Are there implications, because of spiritual considerations, for the acceptance of accounting as a legitimate management tool? How does a religious organization protect its belief system from the potential corruption accounting might bring? These are all issues that have been raised in the study of churches and other religious organizations from the point of view of a sacred/ secular …

Causality Between Exports And Economic Growth: The Empirical Evidence From Shanghai, Jordan Shan, Gary Gang Tian

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The export-led growth hypothesis is tested using monthly time series data for Shanghai (one of the major exporting provinces in China) using the Granger no-causality procedure developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995) in a vector autoregresion (VAR) model. This paper builds on the existing literature in three distinct ways. This is the first study of the export-led growth hypothesis which employs a regional dataset (Shanghai). Second, the paper follows Riezman et al. (1996) in controlling for the growth of imports to avoid a spurious causality result; and finally, the use of the methodology by Toda and Yamamoto is expected to …

Settlers And The State: The Creation Of An Aboriginal Workforce In Australia, Robert Castle, Jim Hagan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

White settlement of Australia began a process whereby the Aboriginal people who had settled the Australian continent for 40,000 years were dispossessed of their land, economy, society and often their lives. Henry Reynold's 'Law of the Land'' demonstrates the impact of the application of the doctrine of 'Terra Nullius' on Aboriginal society and the subsequent development of black-white relations in Australia. Land was the foundation of Aboriginal life - of an economic, religious and cultural system centred on hunting and gathering which provided a basis for a sustainable and stable society. The alienation of Aboriginal land and the resulting conflict …

The Sociotechnical Politics Of Focused Factories: Establishing A Cross Functional Project Team, Andrew J. Sense

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This extract of a larger case study is written to provide real and relevant information to stimulate discussion on the importance of deliberately and vigorously managing the politics associated with the various aspects of Sociotechnical projects. It offers a reflective insight into one company's change initiative with a particular focus on the political issues associated with establishing a cross functional management project team to manage the design and implementation of an Sociotechnical change program.

A Metaphorical Study Of Information Seeking Using Q Methodology, Joseph A. Meloche, Kate Crawford

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This brief paper examines a metaphorical perspective for information science. Metaphorical understanding, like learning itself, is a fundamental component in the movement from the known to the unknown. Adopting this perspective has the potential to inform and further advance the study of characteristics ofinformation and.how it relates to emerging knowledge. This will be demonstrated by an examination ofthe metaphors used by theorists to describe how users approach information.

In At The Deep End: Conducting Processual Research On Organisational Change, Patrick M. Dawson

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article provides a series of reflections on the practice of carrying out processual research on organisational change. At a broad level, some of the main tasks associated with conducting company case studies are described and the benefits of this approach for dealing with complex change data are outlined. At a more specific level, the article addresses three main areas tied to the actual ‘doing’ of processual research. First, the notion of tacit knowledge and ‘getting your hands dirty’ by engaging in ongoing in-depth fieldwork. Second, the design and implementation of a longitudinal case study research programme. Third, the advantages …

Pass The Plate Around Again: A Study Of Budgeting In A Local Church, H. J. Irvine

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Is there a contradiction between the spiritual aims of a religious organization and its need to gather resources in order to fulfill these aims? This is a study of budgeting in a local church. It considers the tension between the “sacred” agenda of the church and the often-perceived “secular” nature of accounting. There was potential for this difference to lead to resistance to accounting as it was practised within the church, and this has been considered from the point of view of the church’s religious belief system. The study was based on a consideration of accounting reports, meetings, financial techniques, …

Research Assistants In The Clever Country, Michael K. Organ, S. Svensen

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In this paper, we outline some of the problems facing research workers in Australian universities, with an emphasis on research assistants, the lowest classification of paid research worker. It is concluded that, while conditions have improved slightly since 1978, research assistants are still among the most marginalised public sector employees, and subjected to employment conditions which should be considered unacceptable in a society which values the benefits accruing from research activities.

Research Assistants In The Clever Country, Michael K. Organ, S. Svensen

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the employment conditions of research assistants in universities in the context of the stated intention of the Australian government to transfonn Australia into the 'clever country'. Research assistants have played an important role in Australia's research efforts. The growing teaching and administrative workloads of academic staff. and the increasing sophistication and complexity of research methodologies. have increased the demands on research assistants and the importance of their contribution. Despite this. there has been little improvement in the employment conditions of research assistants. These conditions include the absence of any job security; lack of career structure and development: …

An Application Of Optical Surface Assessment To Engine Preparation Techniques, F. Sweeney, E. J. Davis, Trevor A. Spedding, K. J. Stout

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper presents a study of established two dimensional models which have been applied to the characterization of the preparation of engine cylinder liners and bores. These models are extended to three dimensions and quantified using a three dimensional stylus measuring system consisting of a computer controlled Talysurf 5 stylus instrument and a precision linear translation stage. Relocation techniques are then employed and the surface finish is assessed using a computer controlled laser measuring system. With reference to the original models it is shown that engine preparation techniques may be monitored using an optical assessment of this kind. Thus an …