Search results

Corporate annual reports are viewed through the lens of researchers of these documents. The aims are to obtain insight into how researchers view annual reports; to ascertain how the different ways of seeing the annual report relate to each other; and to draw out the gaps in this diverse research in a continuing attempt to understand its role and purpose. Selective examination of a decade of corporate annual report research (1990‐2000) reveals how researchers have sought to find visibility and meaning. Few studies address the document as a whole, in terms of the integration of the messages between the various parts of the report. Explanation of the changing structure and content of annual reports remains divided, largely because of the differing perspectives of researchers. They have revealed diversity in the ways of seeing the annual report and a tension in understanding its overall purpose and role.

Considerable research has sought to establish the use of impression management in corporate annual reports (CARS), especially in depicting the reporting organisation in as favourable a light as possible. Whether there is a useful outcome from the perspective of influencing those being managed has not been addressed. Based on the evidence that impression management mainly occurs in the front half, an experiment was conducted to examine whether readers’ perceptions of a company's performance differed depending on their assigned reading. Four similar groups rated the performance of an organisation in terms of several dimensions after completing their reading task, but no significant differences were found. Respondents in three groups approximate what may be termed “sophisticated users”, perhaps not easily impressed by the front half. The fourth group, homogeneous at university level but without the same financial background, ranked financial performance higher. Implications are drawn about the effectiveness of impression management.

General purpose financial reporting by Australian government entities is claimed to be in the public interest, providing users with information to monitor use of government resources and to make resource allocation decisions. This study argues that these claims to economic usefulness cannot be discharged by the financial reporting procedures. The requirements of the government accounting standard are analysed, the suitability of its neo‐classical economic foundations questioned, and the translation of economic concepts into accounting practice criticised. The inclusion and valuation of public heritage assets and stewardship lands in statements of financial position are shown to require a subjective estimate of the future economic benefits of such assets, whilst ignoring the social, institutional and legal environment. The paper concludes that accounting’s use of the economic concept of value is inadequate and unreliable. Application of the government accounting standard will result in information which reflects neither the financial nor the economic position of the reporting entity.

This study examines the management rostering systems that inform the ways medical scientists are allocated their work in the public healthcare sector in Australia. Promoting the contributions of medical scientists should be a priority given the important roles they are performing in relation to COVID-19 and the demand for medical testing doubling their workloads (COVID-19 National Incident Room Surveillance Team, 2020). This study examines the impact of work on medical scientists and rostering in a context of uncertain work conditions, budget restraints and technological change that ultimately affect the quality of patient care. This study utilises the Job-Demands-Resources theoretical framework (JD-R) to examine the various job demands on medical scientists and the resources available to them.

Using a qualitative methodological approach, this study conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with managers and trade union officials and 9 focus groups with 53 medical scientists, making a total 76 participants from four large public hospitals.

Due to increasing demands for pathology services, this study demonstrates that a lack of job resources, staff shortages, poor rostering practices such as increased workloads that lead to absenteeism, often illegible handwritten changes to rosters and ineffectual management lead to detrimental consequences for medical scientists’ job stress and well-being. Moreover, medical science work is hidden and not fully understood and often not respected by other clinicians, hospital management or the public. These factors have contributed to medical scientists’ lack of control over their work and causes job stress and burnout. Despite this, medical scientists use their personal resources to buffer the effects of excessive workloads and deliver high quality of patient care.

Findings suggest that developing mechanisms to promote sustainable employment practices for medical scientists are critical for the escalating demands in pathology.

The paper aims to understand why and how paratextual elements are included in annual reports, hence how meaning is made through the workings of language and imagery.

A comprehensive framework of analysis, combining Genette’s paratextual elements with Barthes’ rhetoric and denotation and connotation concepts, is applied to the case study of the dstgroup, a Portuguese engineering and construction group.

The study demonstrates the potential of the annual report as a communication tool between an organisation and its stakeholders. The framework of analysis evidences that the paratextual elements highlight and supplement accounting information and that the denotative and connotative meanings associated with them make visible and enhance intangible features of the organisation.

The paper extends theories from other interdisciplinary fields to accounting communication and proposes a comprehensive framework that combines the writings of Genette and Barthes. By exploring the Portuguese under-researched context, it also adds to the literature by analysing the rationales and choices of the preparers on the inclusion of paratextual elements in annual reports.

Este artículo pretende entender por qué y cómo se incluyen elementos paratextuales en los informes anuales y, cómo se construye el significado a través del funcionamiento del lenguaje y las imágenes.

Se desenvolvió un marco de análisis global, que combina los elementos paratextuales de Genette y los conceptos de retórica y denotación y connotación de Barthes. Este marco se aplicó al estudio de caso del grupo dst, un grupo portugués de ingeniería y construcción.

El estudio muestra el potential del informe anual como herramienta de comunicación entre una organización y sus grupos de interés. El marco de análisis evidencia que los elementos paratextuales resaltan y complementan la información contable y que los significados denotativos y connotativos asociados a ellos hacen visibles y realzan rasgos intangibles de la organización.

Este artículo extiende teorías de otros campos interdisciplinarios a la comunicación contable y propone un marco global que combina los escritos de Genette y Barthes. Explorando el contexto portugués, insuficientemente investigado, también se añade a la literatura mediante el análisis de las motivaciones y opciones de los preparadores de los informes anuales sobre la inclusión de elementos paratextuales.

The purpose of this study is to build on previous research in hypermedia by including an investigation of the relationships between navigation tools, path patterns and mental representations with traditional measures of navigation outcomes. We examined the effects of four different spatial layouts on three facets of hypermedia use, performance, path patterns and mental representation, during an information search task. Typically, such measures are evaluated independently. We have sought to reveal what types of information in a navigation tool might mediate links between these three aspects of hypermedia use. The performance measures indicated that providing certain types of spatial information does not enhance speed, accuracy or economy but does enhance recall of page titles. Reference is then made to an earlier analysis on the dataset of path patterns using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) which indicated that users’ paths reflected the most prominent type of information provided in the navigation tool. The MDS configurations were then compared to the results of a distance‐like ratings task using correlation and regression methods. Only users given explicit spatial cues in the navigation tool exhibited ratings that reflected the paths they had actually taken. Although spatial information may not impact surface performance measures such as speed and economy, spatial information does play a role in influencing where users go and the development of their mental representations of the material in a hyper document.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the body of logistics customer service (LCS) research published in leading logistics journals from 1990 to 2017. Specifically, the paper presents a call to arms for logistics and supply chain researchers to address new and emerging issues impacting customer service in the age of omnichannel and e-commerce retailing.

The authors reviewed academic journals to identify articles focusing on LCS from 1990 through 2017. The authors noted trends in academic research activity/focus and supplemented the findings by examining more recent trends covered in trade publication articles.

The authors observed a large amount of LCS research in the early 1990s and 2000s, but noticed a substantial decline in coverage within academic journals since the late 2000s while industry continues to give customer service issues even greater attention. The difference between the level of coverage within academic journals and the increased importance firms place on customer service represents a critical gap and opportunity for scholars. This research represents a “call to arms” to address this gap. With particular emphasis on observed customer impatience and escalating requests, within omni- and e-commerce channels of distribution, we suggest greater theoretical insights into customer service strategies and their role in successfully navigating today’s changing logistics service environment are needed.

The review serves as a call for more attention to customer service issues within leading logistics journals. Suggestions for research into new and emerging topics are offered.

The purpose of this paper is to describe two studies that investigate the suppression of negative emotions in the context of elder care, including the emotional job demands that may, together with display rules, elicit negative suppression (Study 1) and the association between negative suppression and job attitudes (Study 2).

Group interviews were conducted to understand the emotional demands of elder care (Study 1), and a survey was administered to direct care providers that included measures of negative suppression, job satisfaction, and job stress (Study 2).

Difficult events with patients (e.g. deterioration) are an emotional demand that may interact with display rules to elicit negative suppression (Study 1). Negative suppression is generally associated with less favorable job attitudes, controlling for individual differences in affectivity (Study 2).

This investigation is the first both to qualitatively examine the emotional demands of elder care (Study 1) and to empirically demonstrate links between negative suppression and job attitudes (Study 2).

Practitioners face difficulties with recruitment and retention in elder care; the results suggest that negative suppression is a possible point of intervention.

There is a shortage of direct care providers in the context of elder care, and the results of the present investigation potentially suggest how to improve working conditions.

The focus on negative suppression in the context of elder care is unique.