Roles of civil society in nation-building and post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq

 This thesis aims to provide a nuanced typology of post-2003-war Iraqi CSOs that reflect their functions, rather their manifestations, by analysing and examining their roles in socio-economic service provisions and active citizenship; the impact of their roles in nation-building; and the geographic field (rural or urban) of their activities.

Participative leadership and the organizational commitment of civil servants in China: The mediating effects of trust in supervisor

The present study examines whether participative leadership engenders organizational commitment amongst Chinese civil servants and analyses the mechanisms by which it transmits its effects. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling revealed that there was a significant relationship between supervisor-level participative leadership and the affective and normative commitment of subordinates, but no relationship with continuance commitment. Affective trust was also identified as the mediator variable underlying the relationship between participative leadership and organizational commitment. We show that participative leadership of supervisors elicits higher levels of trust and leads subordinates to reciprocate through exhibiting higher levels of organizational commitment. Our study also reveals that Chinese civil servants who accept an unequal distribution of power between supervisors and subordinates typically exhibit lower levels of affective and normative commitment to the organization than those who do not. Our results provide greater support for the deepening of administrative reforms and the dissemination of participative leadership practices in China's new civil service system. © 2013 British Academy of Management.

Shareholder class actions - a critical analysis of the procedure under Part IVA of the Federal Court of Australia Act

Part IVA of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1974 (C’th) governs the class action procedure, which has been available in Australia since March 1992. The procedure was not popular amongst the shareholders until in the late 1990s, and since then the number of shareholder class actions has steadily increased. Many of these shareholder class actions settled before a final court hearing. This article critically examines the class action procedure and in doing so, it highlights the current issues that contribute to a rapid rise in shareholder class actions. The article calls for reform to the class action procedure. It identifies areas for reform in an attempt to improve the position of the group members so that they can receive a better outcome than what they can get under the current class action model.

Corporate social responsibility of small businesses: a developing country perspective

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as an important concept for developing countries in recent years. This paper investigates the issues of CSR relating to small businesses that have emerged as a result of market-based reforms in developing countries, where the compliance of voluntary standards, code of conduct and regulations are limited. The paper argues that prevalence of corruption, lack of rule based governance, resource constraints for effective capacity building on the part of the state and lack of awareness have created a weak and unethical corporate culture leading to low levels of CSR in developing countries. Using Bangladesh agriculture sector as an exemplar, this paper investigates how small businesses trading in agricultural inputs with no brand capital and low public visibility are behaving in a socially irresponsible way, in an environment of inadequate regulatory sanctions and compliance by selling contaminated inputs to farmers who are mostly poor and not even aware of their rights. The low levels of CSR is undermining and also threatening the sustainability of the positive impact of the market-based reforms undertaken in this sector. The paper proposes that integrated governance linking state, private sector and civil society can promote good governance and better CSR relating to small businesses .

Codes of ethics in corporate Sweden

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to examine and describe the use of codes of ethics in the top 100 companies operating in the Swedish corporate sector. This paper reports on the responses of those companies that possessed a code of ethics.

Design/methodology/approach – A three-stage research procedure was used. First, a questionnaire was sent to the public relations managers of the top 100 companies operating in the Swedish corporate sector (based on revenue). Companies were asked to answer up to 29 questions and to supply a copy of their code of ethics. The second stage involved content analysis of the codes of ethics supplied by survey respondents. The third stage involved a more detailed follow-up of a smaller group of firms that appeared to be close to best practice. Findings for Stage 1 of the research are reported in this paper. The areas of questioning were: how common are codes of ethics? Who was involved in the development of these codes? What are the reasons for the codes? How are they implemented? Do companies inform internal and external publics of the codes? What are the prescribed benefits of the codes?

Findings – It would appear that business ethics has only recently become a topic of interest in corporate Sweden and that many companies are in the early stages of code development and assimilation into company policies. The incidence of codes in the population (of 100) suggested by this survey (56 per cent) is lower than a US study finding (in 1995) that over 84 per cent of comparable US companies had codes of ethics. It would appear that Sweden today lags behind the US situation of 1995. When one investigates the special measures to support the inculcation of ethical values at the organizational level, there appears to be some shortfall. The supporting measures of ethics committees, ethics training committees, ethics training, ombudsman, an ethical audit and procedures to protect whistleblowers appear to be under-utilized in companies that possess codes. This lack of utilization tends to suggest that companies in Sweden, as yet, either have not developed a high commitment to supporting business ethics in their corporations, or they may have developed other methods to support their codes in their organizations that they view are as beneficial as the traditional methods practised in other western industrial democracies.

Research limitations/implications – This research was limited to internal ethical expectations. The commitment to business ethics is usually explored in terms of internal ethical expectations, but the simultaneous consideration of the external ethical expectations in the marketplace (e.g. among suppliers and customers or other publics) is desirable. A dyadic approach considering a company's internal ethical expectations and the external ethical expectations of a company's business activities may give a more balanced and in-depth approach.

Practical implications – Evidence is now available to show that codes of ethics are well developed in many of Sweden's largest corporations: organizations that, from their responses, appear to see a diverse range of benefits in developing the area of business ethics. Companies are beginning to implement not only a code of ethics, but other complementary initiatives that reinforce the need for the culture of the organization to be ethical. Codes of ethics are perceived by organizations to have assisted them in their dealings in the marketplace and many companies use their ethical values to underpin their strategic planning process. It appears that many companies now see the formalisation of business ethics as an integral part of their commercial practices.

Originality/value – This study is the first one of its kind on codes of ethics in corporate Sweden. It will enable all sectors of Swedish business to benchmark their efforts against the major companies in the Swedish corporate sector.

Relationship of body condition score, live weight, stocking rate and grazing system to the mortality of Angora goats from hypothermia and their use in the assessment of welfare risks

Body condition scoring is widely used for sheep and cattle but the practice is included in only one Code of Practice for the welfare of goats in Australia. There is no published scientific evidence to support or defend its use in the assessment of welfare risks to farmed goats.

PROCEDURE: The significance of stocking rate, grazing system, body condition score (CS) and live weight were investigated in explaining the risk of mortality of individual and flocks of grazing Angora goats from hypothermia following a severe weather event in April. This event occurred 5 weeks after shearing the goats. Angora goats and Saxon Merino sheep were grazed alone, or mixed together in equal numbers at each of three stocking rates.

RESULTS: There was no mortality amongst Angora goats provided they grazed at the lowest stocking rate even when their CS was < or = 2.0. Mortality in flocks of Angora goats was most related to the CS reached during the preceding 2 months. For flocks of Angora goats there was no mortality at CS > or = 2.5 and mortality increased sharply at mean CS < 2.0. For individual Angora goats, mortality increased as CS declined and stocking rate and grazing combinations were additive in effect on mortality. Grazing with sheep increased mortality of Angora goats at higher stocking rates. The individual goat mortality rate was not dependent on individual plot effects suggesting that these results are applicable widely. Live weight loss was not related to mortality rates of goats once CS had been accounted for.
CONCLUSION: It was concluded that CS and stocking rate were highly significant determinants of welfare risk in Angora goats.

Extended supervision or civil commitment for managing the risk of sexual offenders : public safety and individual rights

Since the early 1990’s, there has been a proliferation of legislative initiatives in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australasia that are intended to improve public protection from high risk sexual offenders. These laws include extended supervision of sexual offenders once released from prison and indefinite involuntary civil commitment to secure treatment facilities following the expiration of a prison sentence. The enactment of these laws has sparked intense debate and numerous legal challenges on a variety of issues, including the need to strike a proper balance between public safety and the rights of individual offenders. Recent challenges to Extended Supervision Orders in New Zealand have included the assertion that this approach is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act. This article compares the use of Extended Supervision Orders in New Zealand to the use of civil commitment of Sexually Violent Predators in the United States, and particularly in California, which currently confines the largest number of offenders under this type of commitment. It is argued that Extended Supervision is more flexible, less intrusive, less punitive, and less costly than civil commitment. The degree to which it is effective in improving public safety remains an empirical question.

The advantages of the construction sector of China and India: a comparison

With the spectacular rise of the Chinese and Indian economies the accompanying growth in these two countries' construction sectors justifies more understanding. There is, however, a lot of unknowns about the two countries' construction sectors from a comparative perspective. This study attempted to identify and compare the comparative/competitive advantages of the two fast-growing economies in construction in pursuit of policy and management implications, which can benefit not only the two countries but also other developing countries. In this regard, a comparative advantage framework and Porter's Diamond Framework were applied to analyze the relative advantages of the Chinese and Indian construction sectors. The comparative analyses showed that China appears better endowed in labor with high productivity. Government intervention was identified as benefiting Chinese firms with support for the development of human resources. China also benefits from superior access to a wide range of inputs, including equipment, construction materials, and technology. The existence of large corporate champions provides scale of economy and contributes to the advantage of the construction sector of China. In contrast, India benefits from the increased competitive rivalry thanks to its more hands-off government policies that focus primarily on providing a good business environment with a favorable tax system, market entry policies, laws and regulations, and code/standard systems. The differences identified provide policy implications to the decision makers of the two countries in further developing their construction sectors. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.