Environmental management system adoption by government departments/agencies

Purpose: – This paper seeks to examine the adoption of an environmental management system (EMS) in government departments involved in one Australian state and identify the key factors that contribute to successful adoption.

Design/methodology/approach: – Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with environmental coordinators involved in the EMS adoption. The external consultant appointed by the Environmental Protection Authority who provided the training on behalf of the government departments was also interviewed.

Findings: – The results from the analysis shows that environmental coordinators valued the training as it enhanced their knowledge and skills. They experienced a combination of both tangible and intangible benefits. The lack of contribution and support from top management; difficulty in accessing resources; and resistance from employees were the main challenges experienced during EMS implementation. Recommendations made by the interviewees included: providing training to top management to increase their understanding of the EMS process and its benefits; selection of the right champion; provision of adequate resources; and, training of employees.

Research limitations/implications: – The findings are based on interviews conducted in only one Australian state and no follow up interviews could be undertaken to track the progress made by various departments.

Originality/value: – The findings of this paper are original as no other similar study has been undertaken in this Australian state documenting the experiences of environmental coordinators when implementing an EMS. Our findings have practical implications for public sector organisations and government departments implementing EMS.

Chemical modification of timber decking: looking to the future

To help avoid conflict and even market rejection, the design and introduction of new technologies can be aided by consideration of the potential concerns of different stakeholder groups. An assessment of their desired goals for technological change may be useful for pre-empting changes in the  parameters of acceptability for technologies. As part of a research  programme evaluating the parameters of acceptability for bio-based  technologies using life cycle assessment of products and an analysis of the  perceptual frameworks of stakeholders, respondents from four stakeholder  groups in New Zealand were interviewed about the desirable and  undesirable trajectories for chemical modification technologies. Three  examples of pine decking products derived using different amounts and  types of chemical modification served to help explore the contemporary  criteria and rationale for acceptability. The responses of the 70 respondents  in those four groups indicated that new technologies need to be able to  prove their worth with regard to both tangible and intangible qualities if they  are to be accepted into the market in the place of either the existing product  or an inorganic competitor.

Managing knowledge and intangible assets

This comprehensive handbook is very popular with HR practitioners, line managers, and anyone else who needs an overview of the legal and managerial aspects of managing people in organisations.

In this edition, over 50 chapters have been updated to reflect current workplace relations law, including the new Forward with Fairness Transition Act changes. There is also a new chapter on "Government Funded Traineeships - A guide for HR Professionals".

The valuation of fast food outlets in Australia : methodology, analysis and reliability

Fast food outlets are a significant sub sector of the Hospitality and Tourism Property Market and a specialized form of business. This form of hospitality outlet has experienced significant growth and change in the last 20 years. Their value as an asset is therefore of significant interest to many involved in the tourism and hospitality industry, not least fast food operators or potential operators and their financiers. However, little attention has been given in professional and academic literature to valuation methodology, the analysis of the major components of asset value, and the underlying factors which influence asset value. As such the reliability of the valuation process could justifiably be questioned.
This paper sets out a working definition of a fast food outlet. It investigates the major determinants of value with respect to asset value and examines the accepted methods of valuation of fast food outlets in Australia as well as establishing the methods most commonly used. It clarifies the major components of asset value and examines to what extent these have changed with the changing business environment. In particular it isolates the role of Goodwill in assessing Going Concern Value. Sources of data include a comprehensive literature review and personal interviews with professionals involved in the valuation process. The paper concludes that an efficient valuation process requires that fast food outlets be considered as both a real estate and business investment. The contribution of both tangible and intangible assets to the value of the asset must be identified.

Reading between the lines

This dissertation provides a critical reflection on the author's published work over 30 years to forge an understanding of the indivisibility of cultural and natural heritage values, both tangible and intangible, in the Australian landscape. There are prospects for establishing a distinctively Australian conservation management of cultural landscapes.

Will these glasses help? Holocaust videotestimony and the transfer of intangible heritage

An analysis of Erica's videotestimony, presented at the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre in Melbourne, reveals how audio-visual history can act as a medium for the transfer of cultural heritage, despite claims that the trauma of the Holocaust has destroyed the possibility of any meaningful transmissíon. It is argued that the discussion of personal photographs from before and after the Holocaust forms a key component of the videotestimony and constitutes the primary mechanism for intergenerational transfer of Jewish communal heritage, Transfer is further facilitated by the interviewer whose questioning explicitly encourages Erica to reflect on issues of cultural continuity. Significantly, Erica's answers do not always conform to the interviewer's expectations about Jewish communal and religious identification and this can result in tension between the
two. Here too the photographs play an important role in resolving tension between Erica and the interviewer.

An institutional view of local entrepreneurial climate

This paper proposes a conceptual framework on the role of formal and informal institutional factors at the sub-national level (e.g. city) in shaping the climate conducive for the growth and success of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Extant literature reveals that institutional analyses tend to focus on either formal or informal institutions, in narrow and fragmented ways. Likewise, previous studies focused their analysis on national or country-wide institutional frameworks, ignoring the institutional heterogeneity of regions and cities within a given country. This study attempts to develop an integrated institutional approach at the city-level and stretch the conceptual boundaries of formal and informal institutions as they shape the local entrepreneurial climate – the set of tangible and intangible institutional factors that are shaping the performance of entrepreneurial firms in a geographically and politically defined area such as a city.

Learning to engage with human rights in heritage

Cultural heritage should not be seen merely as a technical matter or from a narrow visitor management point of view but rather as cultural practice—a form of cultural politics dominated by ruling regimes and social groups in which decisions are made about the future of and access to scarce resources. Several scholars have sought to push this approach further by arguing that heritage studies should take on the protection of human rights as a core consideration in the processes of identifying, inscribing, conserving and interpreting cultural heritage. This paper builds on these previous works to explore what the shift to a rights-based management approach in the World Heritage system might mean for various stakeholders in the heritage protection enterprise as they learn to meet this challenge and to find ways to support people’s right to access, enjoy and maintain cultural heritage. Reaffirming the need to maintain a strong relationship between theory and praxis, the paper draws into the discussion heritage practitioners, decision makers in governments and government agencies, scholars and educators. Of these, the principal emphasis in this paper is on educators who are seen to have a fundamentally important role in developing a critical understanding of the cultural heritage concept, how heritage is created, used and misused and how conservation approaches and programs sit within the broader context of community attitudes and aspirations and governmental responsibilities. A distinction is made between teachers in universities and trainers offering short courses more focused on specific employer needs. The paper focuses on World Heritage but refers to both tangible and intangible aspects. It shows how current moves to establish a rights-based approach to the management of World Heritage sites connects with moves elsewhere in global governance, most notably in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Value relevance of information in hi-tech industries in Australia : accounting information and intangible asset disclosures

The main objective of this study is to test the value relevance of financial and non-financial information in high-tech industries in Australia. Ninety-one companies were selected from the sectors of Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences; Technology, Hardware and Equipment; and Telecommunication Services of ASX for the analysis. Both financial and non-financial sections of annual reports were scrutinized in order to obtain data for the analysis. The unaudited sections of annual reports were particularly analysed using NVivo to obtain the word-count of intangible assets. Ohlson’s (1995) Equity Valuation Model (modified for the intangible assets disclosures) was explicitly applied to examine the value relevance of financial and non-financial information. The overall results provide evidence that book value is the most significant factor and earnings are the least significant factor in deciding share prices in high-tech industries in Australia. This finding supports the previous studies that showed value relevance declined in earnings but increased in book value. This research proved that voluntary disclosures of intangible assets are value relevant, providing support for the previous US and Australian studies and the conclusion that investors probably increasingly rely upon alternative information sources.

Photosharing on Flickr: intangible heritage and emergent publics

This paper argues that Flickr, a popular ‘photosharing’ website, is facilitating new public engagements with world heritage sites like the Sydney Opera House. Australian heritage institutions (namely libraries and museums) have recently begun to employ Flickr as a site through which to engage communities with their photographic archives and collections. Yet Flickr is more than an ‘online photo album’: it is a social and cultural network generated around personal photographic practices. Members can form ‘groups’: self‐organised communities defined by shared interests in places, photographic genres, or the appraisal of photographs. These groups are public spaces for both visual and textual conversations – complex social negotiations involving personal expression and collective identity. For one group, the common interest is the Sydney Opera House, and their shared visual and textual expressions – representations of this building. This paper argues that such socio‐visual practices themselves constitute an intangible heritage. By drawing on the work of scholars Jose Van Dijck and Nancy Van House, Dawson Munjeri and Michael Warner, the paper proposes that this enactment of intangible heritage is implicated in the broader cultural value of the Sydney Opera House

Functional system maps as boundary objects in complex system development

A trend towards the provision of product-service packaging and the proliferation of service businesses introduces both tangible and intangible elements into system design. In this paper, we consider the utility of hierarchical system models as a way of flexibly combining such elements by focusing on requisite functionality. Four cases illustrate how the same approach may be used to clarify the requirements of business or socio-technical systems during system development, operation or reengineering stages. It is suggested that a suitable loosely coupled model has significant utility as a 'boundary object' - a term first coined in the study of museum artefacts. Discussion of such objects requires the use of imagination, which may support innovative system design and development. It is suggested that a well-crafted model has multiple uses - as a foundation for system development, in combining traditional and agile project management strategies and in providing a framework to facilitate the capture and organisation of project knowledge.