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The growth in derivative activities, and the change in the way financial firms conduct these activities, has led to the development of practices within firms to manage risk. These practices relate to both the organisational context in which risk management takes place, and the measurement of market risk. Proposals and recommendations have been made in a number of reports in an attempt to encourage firms to adopt best practice, as identified by the Group of Thirty, through public disclosure requirements and rides for determining the amount of regulatory capital to support trading and derivatives activities. The adoption of best practice, together with the benefits of increased transparency and more appropriate methods for determining capital requirements, is seen to lead to a reduction in systemic risk. This paper examines the main proposals and recommendations made in the reports. In particular, the use of market risk measurement models, developed for internal risk management purposes, for public disclosures of market risk and for calculating regulatory capital is critically examined.

Discusses how resources are allocated in capitalist and socialist economies comparing the concept of interest (e.g. for present value calculations) with the use of capital charges (e.g. for calculating opportunity cost). Contrasts the Islamic economic system, which rejects interest but considers moral factors and the will of Allah when measuring welfare. Explains how these ideas can be expressed in the accounting price of capital (for objective factors) and by Islamic welfare criteria; and how they differ from the Pareto Criterion and capitalist concepts of utility. Lists four principles and 12 welfare criteria for an Islamic allocation of resources; and some hints on their practical application before summarizing the conclusions.

This paper proposes a framework for understanding the concept of a learning organization from a normative perspective. A questionnaire was developed to operationally measure the described management practice attributes of a learning organization. Using a sample of four organizations and 612 subjects, support was found for three a priori predictive hypotheses derived from a conceptual framework. Implications of the results and further empirical research are discussed, especially for linking learning organization attributes to performance using larger samples and multiple measures.

Literature on power differentials within mediation sessions has indicated that when power imbalances are too great, mediation is not the proper venue for the resolution of these disputes. However, when there is not an incapacitating imbalance, it is possible that mediators can take steps to rectify this situation. A field study was conducted at two community dispute settlement centers in New York State, with the proceedings of 73 actual cases transcribed and then coded to: (1) determine the impact of unequal power on the outcome of interpersonal mediation; (2) examine how mediators deal with unequal power; (3) assess the impact of mediator efforts to balance power discrepancies, and (4) determine the impact of disputant characteristics on differences in power and outcome. It was found that the mediators in the present study did attempt to remedy power imbalances: by encouraging the more passive disputant to participate more in the hearing by criticizing aggressive disputants, and by asking embarrassing questions of more argumentative disputants and those taking a determined principled stance. However, contrary to expectations, it was found that mediator efforts to balance power discrepancies were not successful, power discrepancies did not lead to unequal agreements, and being a female or a minority did not lead to an unfair outcome.

More than at any time during the past seven decades, Western companies are cultivating commercial relationships in the Soviet Union. Western direct investment began nearly four years ago; and by July 1990, there were almost 2,000 Western‐Soviet joint ventures, with about 20 percent operational. Altogether, Western companies have made more than $1.5 billion of joint venture investments in the Soviet Union.

Do it right, and your investment in information technology can have ail sorts of strategic payoffs. Do it wrong, and you'll be paying, dearly, for nothing. Here's a guide to evaluating IT and measuring its impact.

Brooker’s mini-series Dead Set displays numerous representations of British masculinity in crisis. Released just as the zombie narrative was regaining momentum, the series uses the threat of an apocalypse to expose British men as weak, cowardly and ultimately monstrous. Initially set within the confines of the Big Brother house, the characters have willingly come under scrutiny for the delectation of a scandal-hungry public. The men are seen to self-consciously perform their own brands of masculinity. However, when people quickly descend from figuratively devouring each other into actually devouring each other, these masculine ideals are left in tatters, and without them, the surviving men are in constant peril.

For the purposes of this chapter, I will look specifically at three characters within the series and how their representations adhere to the ideas put forward by Anthony Clare, among others – that contemporary masculinity is in a period of crisis. I also wish to uncover how representations of masculinity within the series reflect contemporary social and political concerns within British society – a distrust of state apparatus and the rise of a particularly malicious, right wing ideology are both prevalent here. The zombie has long been acknowledged as an allegory for society’s ills – but this chapter asks: what can those fighting (or failing) against the zombie threat tell us?

AS THIS ISSUE OF NLW appears, the Library Association begins its Centenary Conference in London. I am delighted to have been invited to attend the inaugural session on October 4, and I shall do so full of goodwill towards the association and the profession, both for the short term of this conference and for the outset of the new century in British library affairs. Mind you, and present gravity apart, I expect we shall still get plenty of fun out of the la before its bicentenary turns up.