Agency theory, national culture and management Control Systems

Management control system of an organization is the structured facet of management, the formal vehicle by which the management process is executed. In most organizations, systems exist for planning, organizing, directing, controlling and motivating. Depending on the level of appropriateness and quality of the management control systems, the task of management is either facilitated or hindered. The end goal of a management control system is achieving organizational objectives. Because employees (agents) do not always give their best efforts for achieving organizational objectives, management control systems need to strive for aligning goals of agents (e.g., employees, subordinates) with that of principals (e.g., senior management, owners). Agency theory and its extension, principal agent model, provide insights to the problem of goal congruence and suggest remedies, at least in the Western cultural context. Whether the agency theory presumptions, predictions and prescriptions are universally applicable is an important issue in management. Their validity in different cultural contexts is largely unknown. The available literature to date indicates the possibility that agency theory may not be valid in non-western cultures. However, further empirical research is needed in non-western cultures to shed more light to this issue.

Pandemic containment and management

In a pandemic, nurses will be the first health care contact for the general public in most cases. This clinical update provides information about the influenza virtus and its modes of transmission. The update will describe the principles of containment and management that will be important to understand in the event of a pandemic occurring.

The role of internal audit in corporate governance and management

This research report is based on a study undertaken in Australia, and aims to evaluate the role of internal audit in corporate governance and management. It identifies the accountability structures and objectives of internal audit, considers the nature of internal audit functions and the extent of application of The Institute of Internal Auditors Standards of Professional Practice, reviews the relationships of the chief audit executives (CAEs) and assesses the nature of financial report risks and other issues covered by internal auditors. The research findings include a diversity of accountability structures for CAEs and a range of internal audit activities, with the application of the IIA Standards being in need of improvement. In conclusion, the researchers make recommendations for improvements in practice to be considered by The Institute of Internal Auditors and other regulating and governing bodies.

Inadvertent doping through supplement use by athletes: assessment and management of the risk in Australia

Many athletes report using a wide range of special sports foods and supplements. In the present study of 77 elite Australian swimmers, 99% of those surveyed reported the use of these special preparations, with 94% of swimmers reporting the use of non-food supplements. The most popular dietary supplements were vitamin or mineral supplements (used by 94% of the group), herbal preparations (61%), and creatine (31%). Eighty-seven percent of swimmers reported using a sports drink or other energy-providing sports food. In total, 207 different products were reported in this survey. Sports supplements, particularly supplements presented as pills or other non-food form, are poorly regulated in most countries, with little assurance of quality control. The risk of an inadvertent "positive doping test" through the use of sports supplements or sports foods is a small but real problem facing athletes who compete in events governed by anti-doping rules. The elite swimmers in this survey reported that information about the "doping safety" of supplements was important and should be funded by supplement manufacturers. Although it is challenging to provide such information, we suggest a model to provide an accredited testing program suitable for the Australian situation, with targeted athlete education about the "sports safety" of sports supplements and foods.

Football-as-war, coach-as-general: analogy, metaphor and management implications

Sporting terms have been used as metaphor and analogy to describe and prescribe life experiences. It has been suggested that the use of sport terminology can assist in the general understanding of complex terms and situations, however, the use of sport as metaphor and analogy for many aspects of social understanding can have negative consequences. The analogy of sport and war seems to be particularly prevalent within football, irrespective of the code or culture in which it is played. This article demonstrates the popular understanding of Australian Rules ‘football as war’ through two complementary studies. The first study investigates the representation of Australian Rules football as war, specifically through the analysis of both images and text on the front covers of the sport ‘lift-out’ sections of two prominent Melbourne newspapers, The Herald Sun and The Age. The second study examines whether people interpret non-war-like images of Australian Rules football in war-like terms. Forty-five undergraduate sport marketing and management students were asked to write about one of four different images of football players and coaches interacting, which revealed that football is understood as war. Further, when prompted by an image of football players and coaches interacting, people in this study interpreted the interactions as consistently war-like. Coaches were portrayed as militaristic generals and the athletes as soldiers. Implications for management, education and practice are discussed.

A preliminary study on building demolition engineering and management

In recent years, building demolition has been challenging urban developers due to the increased incidence of demolition projects and the elevation of demolition requirements. The importance of building demolition is also recognised by researchers and, given its environmental impacts, it is anticipated to achieve the same attention as conventional planning, design,
construction and maintenance in the near future. In this article, the authors aim to develop a series of strategies for promoting building demolition practice. Environmentally-friendly demolition procedures are introduced through a waste minimisation decision that makes the approach on alternatives to demolition and an integrated demolition planning and design approach focus on a just-in-time (JIT) philosophy. A conceptual management framework is also presented for the implementation of demolition projects.

A novel data replication and management protocol for mobile computing systems

Mobile computing has enabled users to seamlessly access databases even when they are on the move. Mobile computing environments require data management approaches that are able to provide complete and highly available access to shared data at any time from any where. In this paper, we propose a novel replicated data protocol for achieving such goal. The proposed scheme replicates data synchronously over stationary sites based on three dimensional grid structure while objects in mobile sites are asynchronously replicated based on commonly visited sites for each user. This combination allows the proposed protocol to operate with less than full connectivity, to easily adapt to changes in group membership and not require all sites to agree to update data objects at any given time, thus giving the technique flexibility in mobile environments. The proposed replication technique is compared with a baseline replication technique and shown to exhibit high availability, fault tolerance and minimal access times of the data and services, which are very important in an environment with low-quality communication links.

Pieces of silver : examples of the economic impact and management of the silver gull (Larus novaehollandiae) in Melbourne, Australia

Like a number of gull species, the silver gull Larus novaehollandiae has expanded its population in response to human food subsidy. The major anthropogenic food source is food waste at rubbish tips. Other sources of human food waste are also exploited. Many problems result from the activities of these birds, including human health and safety, economic impacts, and effects on the conservation of other species. My study examines aspects of the economic impacts of the silver gull on the human community of the Greater Melbourne Area comprising approximately 4065 km2 (1569 square miles). My data collection method involves identifying sites where problems have been experienced and completing questionnaires during face to face interviews with the managers of those sites. Data collected at this early stage of the study demonstrate that there are significant, quantifiable economic impacts associated with the superabundance of the silver gull in this area. Other impacts, such as reduced amenity and potential health hazards are equally real but more difficult to quantify. Costs include damage to structures and products, damage prevention measures, and loss of production. Information about the costs of these problems will be presented to the relevant landfill management authorities to encourage them to consider alternative means of disposing of putrescible waste, rather than by open landfill disposal, because even current best practice management of open landfill sites (rubbish tips) provides ample opportunity for silver gulls and certain other bird species to exploit this food source. Controlling access by the silver gull to food at rubbish tips would be an important first step in managing the population of this species.

An investigation of scale economies and quality issues in the teaching and management of large subjects

Many in the tertiary education system have had concerns with the issues surrounding the teaching of large classes, including teaching quality and whether there are effective learning outcomes for students. An issue closely related to quality is the cost of providing an efficacious education system. It is a common perception that large classes are economical to run and small subjects are not. As with any complex issue there are several perspectives that could be utilised, the needs of the institution, the teaching staff, the community or the students, and whether or not these needs are being met.

This study aims to assess whether universities are meeting the needs of students in large marketing classes. For this purpose the study investigates the application of selfdetermination theory and psychological needs satisfaction. The basic needs scale, comprising of three constructs; Control, Competence and Caring was adapted and used to evaluate students' perception of an introductory marketing subject.

The study used a multi-method approach consisting of a literature review, a qualitative phase involving in-depth interviews and focus groups. A survey of 366 students who had undertaken an introductory level marketing subject in a large class format was also conducted. The results show that the psychological needs satisfaction of many students are not being fully realised. It was also found that marketing degree students enjoyed the challenges and were more stimulated by the subject (than students in other degree streams). The higher achieving students enjoyed the challenge of the subject more than the lower achieving students. The implications of these findings and suggestions for
further investigation are discussed.

Critical infrastructure protection, modelling and management: an Australian commercial case study

This research extends upon the previous work of Pye and Warren (2005) and presents a refinement of the previously proposed critical infrastructure model to enhance further our understanding and apprecication of where the likely inter-play and existance of dependency relationships between infrastructures coexist.

These associations are presented as a number of linkages that exist within each sector of Australia'a critical infrastructure, which is then extended further to the modelling of dependency inter-relationships that exist between critical infrastructures itilising Petri Nets.  The recognition and identification of such reliance relationships between critical infrastructures is necessary to allow both infrastructure owners and the government to identify and effectively manage and maintain the security, stability and availability of their particular critical infrastructure against potential scenario driven effects.  These issues are reflected within a case study as modelled using the Petri Net approach to encapsulate the issues of reliance relationships by drawing upon an Australian commercial case study.

Observation of pain assessment and management- the complexities of clinical practice

• Pain assessment and management are complex issues that embrace physiological, emotional, cognitive, and social dimensions.

• This observational study sought to investigate nurse–patient interactions associated with pain assessment and management in hospitalized postsurgical patients in clinical practice settings.

• Twelve field observations were carried out on Registered Nurses' activities relating to pain with their assigned patients. All nurses were involved in direct patient care in one surgical unit of a metropolitan teaching hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Six observation times were identified as key periods for activities relating to pain, which included change of shift and high activity periods. Each observation period lasted 2 hours and was examined on two occasions.

• Four major themes were identified as barriers to effective pain management: nurses' responses to interruptions of activities relating to pain, nurses' attentiveness to patient cues of pain, nurses' varying interpretations of pain, and nurses' attempts to address competing demands of nurses, doctors and patients.

• These findings provide some understanding of the complexities impacting on nurses' assessment and management of postoperative pain. Further research using this observational methodology is indicated to examine these influences in more depth. This knowledge may form the basis for developing and evaluating strategic intervention programmes that analyse nurses' management of postoperative pain and, in particular, their administration of opioid analgesics.

The mental health Risk Assessment and Management Process (RAMP) for schools: II. Process evaluation

The Risk Assessment and Management Process (RAMP) is a whole-school process for the assessment and management of student’s mental health and wellbeing in primary and secondary schools. A process evaluation revealed that RAMP was implemented as intended across six primary and three secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Using the RAMP risk and protective factors monitoring form and screening processes, each school identified ‘at-risk’ students who had not previously been identified or received assistance from welfare staff at the school. School staff and mental health workers from local agencies reported improvements in their knowledge of risk and protective factors, and their ability to identify at-risk students following RAMP. They also reported satisfaction in outcomes for at-risk students managed within the school using RAMP. All the primary schools and one of the
secondary schools continued to use some RAMP processes in their school up to 6 months after the initial implementation of the program.

Conservation and management of hydromyine rodents in Victoria, Australia

Of the 15 species of native rodents recorded from Victoria, Australia, six became extinct within 70 years of European settlement, and two of the remaining nine are classified as ‘threatened’ and four are classified as ‘near threatened’. Thus, only three species are considered to be adequately conserved. This represents one of the most dramatic mammalian species declines recorded in Australia. All the threatened species belong to the subfamily Hydromyinae, the Australian ‘old endemics’. Of the extinct species, four were recorded only from the semi-arid north-west of the state and two from dry woodlands in the central and southern regions. The two  endangered species are the smoky mouse, which has a disjunct distribution from near-coastal to sub-alpine habitats, and the New Holland mouse, which is the most geographically restricted species. Discovered in Victoria only in 1970, it has become extinct at several locations and is the subject of a major recovery program that includes captive breeding and reintroduction. Conservation protocols and practices for Victoria’s native rodents are implemented under state legislation, but lack of basic ecological information makes their conservation a difficult task.