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Following the growing interest in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Committee on Consumer Policy (ISO/COPOLCO) opened the discussion about the feasibility of CSR management system standard. In this paper, we investigate the underlying issues that shape the development of CSR standard. Based on our case study research, we provide a framework for organisations to establish, manage, improve and document a CSR management system. This framework is based on process and systems thinking and analogous to ISO 9001:2000 adding significantly to existing definitive management frameworks. Finally, we outline areas for further research and indicate substantial managerial implications.

This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing methodological discussions surrounding the adoption of ethnographic approaches in accounting by undertaking a comparative analysis of ethnography in anthropology and ethnography in qualitative accounting research. By doing so, it abductively speculates on the factors influencing the distinct characteristics of ethnography in accounting and explores their implications.

This paper uses a comparative approach, organizing the comparison using Van Maanen’s (2011a, 2011b) framework of field-, head- and text-work phases in ethnography. Furthermore, it draws on the author’s experience as a qualitative researcher who has conducted ethnographic research for more than a decade across the disciplines of anthropology and accounting, as well as for non-academic organizations, to provide illustrative examples for the comparison.

This paper finds that ethnography in accounting, when compared to its counterpart in anthropology, demonstrates a stronger inclination towards scientific aspirations. This is evidenced by its prevalence of realist tales, a high emphasis on “methodological rigour”, a focus on high-level theorization and other similar characteristics. Furthermore, the scientific aspiration and hegemony of the positivist paradigm in accounting research, when leading to a change of the evaluation criteria of non-positivist research, generate an impoverishment of interpretive and ethnographic research in accounting.

This paper provides critical insights from a comparative perspective, highlighting the marginalized position of ethnography in accounting research. By understanding the mechanisms of marginalization, the paper commits to reflexivity and advocates for meaningful changes within the field.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

Mandatory auditor firm rotation (mandatory rotation) has been a controversial issue in the United States for many decades. Mandatory rotation has been considered at various times as a means of improving auditor independence. For example, in the United States, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has considered mandatory rotation as a solution to the independence problem (PCAOB, 2011) and the European Parliament approved legislation that will require mandatory rotation in the near future (Council of European Union, 2014). The concept of implementing a mandatory rotation policy has been encouraged by some constituents of audited financial statements and rejected by other constituents of audited financial statements. Although there are apparent pros and cons of such a policy, the developmental process of such a policy in this country has not necessarily been an open-democratic, objective process. Universal mandatory rotation may or may not be the ideal solution; however, an open-democratic, objective process is needed to facilitate the development of a solution that considers the needs of all major stakeholders of audited financial statements – not simply accounting firms and public companies, but also investors. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine key issues relating to mandatory rotation and to encourage and stimulate future research and ongoing dialogue regarding this issue, in spite of efforts by certain constituents to silence the issue. This paper provides an overview of the various reasons, including practical, theoretical, political, and self-motivated reasons, why a mandatory rotation policy has not been implemented in the United States in order to address the potential conflict of interest between the auditor and client. This paper will also discuss how some deliberations of mandatory rotation have been flawed. The paper concludes with a summary of key issues along with two approaches for regulators, policy makers, and academics to consider as ways to improve the process and address auditor independence. The authors are not advocating for any specific solution; however, we are advocating for a more objective, unified approach and for the dialogue regarding auditor rotation to continue.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

The purpose of this research is to investigate faculties' perceptions of emotional intelligence about job performance (task and contextual performance (TP and CP)) in the higher education sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This research employed an explanatory research design method. A quantitative design approach is adopted by implementing a survey-based study. Quantitative data have been collected anonymously from faculty members (n = 277) working in different higher educational institutes in Saudi Arabia.

The research findings revealed a positive relationship between others' emotions appraisal and use of emotions with CP, whilst all the dimensions of emotional intelligence, namely self-emotions appraisal (SEA), others' emotions appraisal (OEA), use of emotions (UOE) and regulation of emotions (ROE) revealed a significant positive relationship with the TP. Nevertheless, the research supports the argument that emotional intelligence is considered an essential contributor to faculty members' job performance.

This research study provides empirical support for the argument that emotional intelligence is a direct driver for enhancing job performance through the appraisal, use and regulation of emotions. In terms of practical implications, the research findings will encourage higher education institutions to take specific actions that will help to enhance awareness of and build emotional intelligence skills amongst faculty staff.

This study is the first that has sought to investigate the impact of emotional intelligence on employees' performance in the Saudi Arabian higher education sector. Additionally, this study has developed a new psychometric scale that is useful in the higher education sector.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of auditor type on management’s choice of forecast precision and management forecast errors, including the effects of corporate governance. The authors use a different sample and a larger period of years to determine whether prior inferences are robust across these dimensions as well as various corporate governance and other control variables.

This quasi-experimental study uses archival data in regression-based analyses.

The authors find firms with Big 5 auditors issue forecasts that have larger forecast errors are biased downward and are less precise. The inferences of this study are robust to the inclusion of corporate governance variables, along with an extensive number of control variables found important in prior studies.

While the sample and time period may be limited, the authors have no evidence this biases the results.

More stringent auditing may have an unintended consequence of reducing the informativeness of management forecasts, as managers act strategically in regards to forecast accuracy, bias and precision.

The inferences of this study indicate that while higher quality audits could constrain earnings management, higher quality audits may induce management to provide forecasts that have greater errors, may be biased and may be less informative.

The results and inferences of this study suggest that the inferences in prior studies hold across a different sample and a different time period. This is important given concerns in the academic community regarding the extent to which prior studies can be replicated.

Various aspects of managerial and professional employees in Australia are examined in an attempt to establish if the Australian experience is similar to that reported in other countries where “management” appears to have emerged as a third force between the employers and organised labour. It is argued that the new style manager is a younger, more highly educated “professional” but that the managerial function is also changing. A survey, conducted in Australia during 1985 of senior executives and 14 large scale organisations from both the public and private sector, provides the basis for this report of the changing characteristics of managerial and professional employees in Australia. Areas explored include the proportion of managers and professionals as a percentage of the labour force; particular characteristics which are emerging; education levels and qualifications; the process governing the movement of managers within the labour market; the effect of recent legislation on remuneration systems; and the degree of union membership among managers.

This paper aims to presents a novel application of neural network (NN) pattern recognition to ore rock sorting using inductive electromagnetic (EM) sensors.

The impedance of a metallic rock can be measured with an inductive method based on Faraday’s law and eddy current theory. A virtual rock model is then created for the simulation of the EM measurements. An NN is trained to differentiate between waste and useful ore samples (containing high amount of minerals) based on the EM sensor signals produced by the rocks.

The NN solution showed high accuracy of rock classification and produced relatively robust results from signals with noise.

A pattern recognition NN was applied to classify low- and high-grade ore samples. It has the potential to determine the approximate amount of conductive materials inside ore rocks through multiple classes. This method can be used to improve the performance of EM-based ore sorting for mineral pre-concentration.