Factors influencing job valuation: a comparative study of critical care and mon-critical care nurses

This study sought to identify the relationship between three predictor variables. perceived collaboration with medical staff, autonomy and independent actions and an outcome. the value hospital nurses placed on their work. In total 189 critical care and 366 non-critical care nurses completed a mailed survey. Critical cure nurses perceived themselves to have a mure collaborative relationship with the medical staff. described performing actions independent of medical orders more frequently and perceived their jobs to have more value than non-critical care nurses. However the latter group perceived themselves to have more autonomy in their work. Within both groups collaboration and autonomy were significantly, but weak to moderately correlated with job valuation. Simply expanding the work hospital nurses do is unlikely to result in nurses valuing their jobs more. however promoting an environment of respect and sharing between the medical and nursing staff and supporting nurses when they act in an autonomous fashion may positively influence nurses' perceptions of their work. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The relevance to firm valuation of capitalising intangible assets in total and by category

Debate about the appropriate treatment of intangible assets can benefit from knowledge about the relevance of their financial statement capitalisation to valuation of firms. With rules permitting or requiring intangible asset capitalisation, Australia provides an ideal setting to obtain this evidence. This paper reports findings that indicate that capitalisation of intangibles is value-relevant for Australia's largest firms. Results indicate that investors place greater value on capitalised goodwill than on other categories of capitalised balance sheet items. Similarly, capitalisation of identifiable intangible assets adds value to large firms. However, research and development capitalisation does not affect the value of firms in our study.

Reconciling value estimates from the discounted cash flow model and the residual income model

This paper examines why practitioners and researchers get different estimates of equity value when they use a discounted cash flow (CF) model versus a residual income (RI) model. Both models are derived from the same underlying assumption -- that price is the present value of expected future net dividends discounted at the cost of equity capital -- but in practice and in research they frequently yield different estimates. We argue that the research literature devoted to comparing the accuracy of these two models is misguided; properly implemented, both models yield identical valuations for all firms in all years. We identify how prior research has applied inconsistent assumptions to the two models and show how these seemingly small errors cause surprisingly large differences in the value estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of governance: The curious case of non-profit community services in Australia

Community has taken on a new significance in Australian social policy discourse. Seemingly sound and morally justifiable, in the context Of neo-liberalism the language of community positions non-profit delivery of services as superior to state-provided services. As a consequence, non-profit community services are being centrally positioned to mediate the relationship between the state and citizen subjects. In the first part of this paper we trace some of the key historical developments in Australia's welfare state and patterns of governance that are propelling the non-profit sector firm the margins to the centre. The second section examines the relationship between Australia's shifting political landscape and the emerging welfare regime. One key feature of this new regime is the attempt to relocate citizenship away from the domain of the state and into that of civil society. The article concludes by sketching out some research themes, focusing, for example, on the impact of devolution of governance in terms of client rights and public accountability.

Using workflow technology to manage flexible e-learning services

Workflow technology provides a suitable platform to define and manage the coordination of business process activities. We introduce a flexible e-learning environment – called Flex-eL – that has been built upon workflow technology. The workflow functionality of Flex-eL manages the coordination of learning and assessment activities of the course process between students and teaching staff. It provides a unique environment for teachers to design and develop process-centric courses and to monitor student progress. It allows students to learn at their own pace while observing the learning guidelines and checkpoints modeled into the course process by teaching staff. We also report on the successful deployment of the concept and system for university courses and our experiences from the implementation.

McCabe v Goliath: The case against British American tobacco Australia Services Ltd

Significance of the decision in McCabe v British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd - ramifications for the possibilities for success of future litigation of this nature in Australia and overseas - ethical and public policy issues regarding the duties of lawyers to the courts and to their clients - whilst a lawyer's implication in the destruction of documents to prevent a fair trial ultimately involves stricter duties, it exposes a need for vigilance against the possibilities for corporations to act outside the public interest, if not the justice system.