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According to convergence theory, over time societies form similar social structures, political processes and public policies. In 2001, Israel adopted a welfare reform plan that rejected the traditional strategy of passive income support and instead endorsed the concept of activation. The plan was modeled on the Wisconsin Welfare to Work program and was designed to put the long-term unemployed to work. The program began operating in four regions in 2004 but was abruptly terminated six years later. The purpose of this paper is to analyze why Israel’s welfare reform failed to follow the smooth path predicted by convergence theory and elucidates the factors in the Israeli environment that made the implementation of a program borrowed from the USA unsustainable.

A multi-method approach including interviews with key informants, content analysis of media materials and government documents and a quantitative comparative values analysis of four nations.

The failure of US-style welfare reform in Israel was due to four main factors: a more diverse recipient population, a lack of understanding of Israeli cultural values, a welfare population that included a substantial number of ethnic minorities whose customs conflicted with program regulations and a social movement against the program by non-profit organizations.

This paper demonstrates the limitations of convergence theory and highlights the salience of cultural values in the transmission of activation policies across nations. Specifically, it shows that outcomes vary when policies that are superficially similar are implanted in nations with fundamentally different cultures.

The purpose of this article is to provide an account of the quantity, location and intentions behind companies' biodiversity disclosure.

This study applies a mixed methods approach to the examination of the quantity and location of biodiversity disclosure. The research focuses on a study of corporate websites and corporate reports over a five‐year period. Interviews with company representatives were also conducted regarding company intentions behind biodiversity disclosure.

The findings of this study show that few of the companies studied have a record of providing continuous biodiversity information. Those companies that provide the most biodiversity information are in the lower‐risk sector. The interview respondents identify social environmental reporting frameworks as catalysts for biodiversity disclosure. A reason for this low level of biodiversity disclosure may be the infrequency of interaction with pressure groups. However, the respondents also state, as increasingly their companies have paid more attention to sustainability reporting in recent years, more detailed biodiversity disclosure has resulted.

The research in this study, which is explorative and descriptive, is limited to a study of the quantity and location of biodiversity disclosure by 29 companies listed on the OMXS30 and the preparers' reasons for such disclosure.

This is an original study that attempts to go beyond mere reporting of biodiversity disclosure by examining the motivations for such disclosure using interviews with company representatives.

Steps take in Brighton Health District, with the help of CASPE Research (Clinical, Accountability, Service Planning and Evaluation), to build and maintain an approach to Quality Assurance (QA) are described. The system is based on co‐ordination of — and assistance to — voluntary peer review by clinicians and other professionals. The joint work has two aspects: first, implementation of microcomputer‐assisted trials of QA in a small number of clinical departments and professional/ non‐medical departments which aim to provide a productive environment for development of new indicators of the quality of care, and systems for their use, that are practical and economic for local use in the NHS. Second, the indicators are provisionally evaluated, and, where successful, related to service planning and resource management in the district. Indicators that are successful in Brighton will also be tested in other districts where CASPE is working.

SO much controversy has raged around the subject of newsrooms in the past two years, that librarians are, as a rule, utterly tired of it, and the appearance of still another article upon the subject is not calculated to tone down the general spirit of vexation. It requires no little courage to appear in the arena in this year of Grace, openly championing those departments of our institutions which were originally intended to convey the news of the day in the broadest manner.

The term “library management” covers many different aspects of the way that a library is operated and conjures up different concepts in the minds of different people, depending on their own interests, agendas and requirements. Research into the subject is even more difficult to define because the application of research in one field can be vital to the development of another. Some researchers would not consider their research central to library matters at all, whereas the practising librarian might well see it as casting new light on a difficult area of understanding or development.

The purpose of this paper is to position well-being as a necessary component of the productivity debate and highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the nature of such a link. It first considers productivity at the national level in order to show how this affects both the climate and the economic policies within which organisations operate.

The paper presents an overview of current research and practice in the area. It treats the organisation as the primary level of analysis, and before highlights some of the apparent challenges in conceptualising well-being.

The importance of well-being is rising up national and employer agendas. Organisations need people to perform at their best in a sustainable way. The paper argues that an organisation with well-being at its core will reap productivity gains. It supports the view in the literature that improvements at national level can only be made on the back of sophisticated strategies across numerous organisations. However, for this to happen shared actions and understanding of these challenges has first to be created and acted upon across institutions and organisations. There are notable costs of poor well-being to productivity, and identifiable benefits of promoting and supporting employee well-being for productivity.

There is a clear practice implementation gap. Some organisations are embracing the opportunities to invest in their staff, but those who make employee well-being a business priority and a fundamental part of how the organisation operates are in the minority. There is also an ongoing challenge of measuring the impact of well-being programmes which can inform ROI assessments and enable organisations to demonstrate the business benefits of employee well-being.

There remain many unanswered questions about both the nature of the link between well-being and productivity and the economic impact of an association. This paper sparks further interest in expanding the understanding of the well-being and productivity link or peripheral issues.

There is increasing interest in long-term conditions experienced singly and in combination. This paper aims to address this by considering the impact of long-term conditions on female labour market participation in later life.

This literature review considers a variety of evidence and policy related to long-term conditions as experienced by women.

The review suggests the importance of gender when considering long-term conditions and when considering employment because this is often gendered. There are several long-term conditions affecting women in particular that need to be considered by employers and policy makers.

This review scopes the literature offering some illustrative examples of long-term conditions.

The review encourages practitioners and policy makers to include long-term conditions, as people age in thinking about ways to prevent, alleviate and respond to long-term conditions and to consider them in age-related initiatives in employment.

The review addresses long-term conditions among women in later life, suggesting that multiple policy and practice responses may need to be considered together in the development of any strategies and guidance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the financial statement impacts of adopting NZ IFRS during 2005 through 2008.

The effects of NZ IFRS on the financial statements and ratios of first‐time adopters of NZ IFRS for a stratified random sample of 56 listed companies is analysed. In total, 16 of these were early adopters and 40 of which waited until adoption of NZ IFRS became mandatory. The analysis of the financial statement impact of NZ IFRS is conducted in the context of the accounting choice literature.

The results show that 87 per cent of firms are affected by NZ IFRS. The median and inter‐quartile ranges indicate that for most firms the impact of NZ IFRS is small. However, the maximum and minimum values indicate the impact can be large for some entities. The impact has considerable effects on common financial ratios.

The usual limitations applicable to small samples apply.

The findings may be useful to regulators and policy makers reviewing financial reporting requirements.

This study is the first to offer a comprehensive empirical analysis of the effect of adopting IFRS on financial statements in New Zealand, as well as on selected key ratios of interest to financial analysts. The data used are more recent than most IAS or IFRS studies around the world and are stratified to allow for comparison between voluntary/early adopters and mandatory/late adopters.

Congress has spilled a good deal of ink in an attempt to support survivors of sexual assault and to prevent sexual violence from occuring. Legislation has been passed to address and prevent sexual assault in the military environment, higher education, and even within various government agencies. However, Congress has had a long and sordid history of burying incidents of sexual assault within its own halls. Prior to the #Metoo movement, Congress had a rather lackluster bill that provided minimal protection for those who were harassed or assaulted by a member of Congress and rarely held anyone accused accountable for their actions. In fact, the original Congressional Accountability Act included a fund that was used to pay off those who came forward with allegations of sexual harassment or assault against a member of Congress. This chapter follows the legislative history of Congress with regard to the response to and prevention of sexual assault and its shocking lack of oversight of its own members who were frequently committing the same assaults that they were legislating against in other areas. The chapter also highlights the brave work of survivors of assault during their time in Congress, and the work of the #MeTooCongress movement, including current members of Congress, who helped to bring more accountability to Congress as a result of their efforts.

Up until the turn of the millennium, there had been very little positive representation of women and women in action characters in the action film genre. Two notable exceptions were Ellen Ripley in the Alien movies and Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise. Whilst this has certainly changed over the last 20 years, one action/horror/science fiction heroine remains neglected: Project Alice in the six Resident Evil films. Portrayed by Milla Jovovich, and loosely based on the platform game character, Project Alice is strong, driven, motivated and tough. This chapter will, through detailed analysis of character, her physical presence through the clothing she wears, psychogeographical aspects, her use of weapons and narrative arc, clearly demonstrate the importance of Project Alice to the horror genre.