Elections and representations in local government: A Victorian case study

This article examines the application of different views of representation in the electoral systems at local government level: interest, corporate and mirror representation. The electoral framework underpins the process of representation, influencing both who are eligible to become voters and how their votes are collected and counted. The paper examines the  interrelationship between representation and the electoral framework in local government in Victoria. We use a historical analysis, and identify a long period of interest representation; a short, relatively recent period of corporate representation; and an attempt to introduce some elements of mirror representation. We conclude by arguing that local electoral reform needs to take into account the multiple meanings of representation.

The gender composition of boards of property trust IPOs in Australia from 1994 to 2004

This study investigates the gender composition of the boards of directors of Australian property trust IPOs from 1994 to 2004. Like mining and industrial company IPOs, we find that property trust IPOs in Australia generally do not require female directors for the initial equity capital raising. We also find that larger IPOs during 1994 to 1999 tended to engage more women directors but that this relation was not significant in property trust IPOs from 2000 to 2004.

New forms of organizing in Australia, 2000-2004

This paper presents preliminary results from a survey of new forms of organizing in the highest grossing Australian owned companies. The Australian NewForms Survey draws on the groundbreaking Innovative Forms of Organizing (INNFORM) Survey conducted in Europe, USA and Japan in the late 1990s (Whittington, Pettigrew, Peck, Fenton, and Conyon 1999). The NewForms study seeks to identify emerging trends in forms of organizing within Australia’s largest companies and the extent to which the uptake of new forms of organizing signals a commensurate decrease in traditional forms. The analysis focuses on changes across three organizational dimensions: structures, processes and boundaries. The results suggest that for organizational structures there has been a significant shift from operational to strategic decentralization. For organizational processes, there have been substantial increases in both horizontal and vertical linkages and in the adoption of a range of new human resource practices. In relation to boundaries, alliances and partnerships have increased, signaling a greater focus on mainstream business activities and a move away from peripheral diversification. Overall, the prevalence of new forms of organizing has increased within Australian companies, but these new forms of organizing have emerged alongside traditional forms. This finding is consistent with research in other countries, and provides further evidence of complementarities between new and traditional forms of organizing.

An exploratory study into the accountancy firms chosen by industrial company IPOS in Australia from 1994 to 2004

This study is an exploration into the choice of independent accountants made by industrial initial public offering (IPO) companies in Australia between the years 1994 to 2004. The aim of this research is to determine which companies are more likely to use one of the Top 5 accountancy firms and in so doing we seek to offer some insight into understanding the likelihood of IPO companies adopting the services of the big accounting firms. Our findings show, as predicted, that the majority of industrial IPO companies, and particularly the larger companies, used one of the Top 5 accountancy firms as their independent accountant. However, unexpected was that certain industry types were less likely to hire a Top 5 accounting firm for their independent accounting services compared to other industry categories. Our studies also found that after the year 2000 a smaller percentage of companies used independent accountants than between 1994 and 1999. Many factors contribute to the selection of an independent accountant and this paper provides some understanding of identified factors and the influence that they have over the choice of independent accountants by industrial company IPOs.