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Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are often very complex management endeavors. Analyzes the IT component of M&A for two financial institutions. Students are tasked with assisting Mike Farrell, the CIO of New Millennium Financial (NMF), a new company created through the merger of FinStar Financial and D&L Bank, in determining the optimal combined IT portfolio. To accomplish this task the strategic business objectives of the firm must be clearly understood and the IT projects in the pipelines of both institutions analyzed. Students must make an IT portfolio management decision and answer the question: What is the optimal IT strategy and project portfolio for NMF?

To apply a framework to manage a company's IT portfolio, i.e., understand the company's strategic context, develop business objectives that align with its strategy, assess IT investments, and develop a portfolio of IT projects that support the objectives. The framework is iterative, i.e., IT investments are assessed on a regular basis based on their performance and risk/return tradeoffs. Also to introduce a leading Web-based tool, ProSight, that helps managers organize IT portfolios.

In this article, David Banes examines the impact of Microsoft Surface on how people with disabilities interact with technology and information. Microsoft Surface is a dynamic multi‐touch environment offering direct interaction with data without the need for a keyboard or mouse. These new forms of interaction offer new opportunities to reduce the digital divide.

The purpose of this paper is to explore what worked well in terms of peer involvement in a diverse network of community groups for people affected by mental health problems in Bath and North East Somerset (BANES), UK.

A participatory action inquiry approach engaged the network’s key stakeholders (group members, facilitators, and commissioners) in critical reflection on what supported successful groups.

Successful groups have six characteristics: mutual support, a positive shared identity, opportunities for taking on roles, negotiated ground rules, skilled facilitation, and a conducive physical environment. Additionally, each group achieved a balance between the following areas of tension: needing ground rules but wanting to avoid bureaucracy, needing internal structure whilst also committing to group activities, balancing leadership with accountability, wanting peer leadership whilst acknowledging the burden of this responsibility, and lobbying for change in mental health services whilst acknowledging the need for support from them.

The evaluation shows a group’s success is about adaptability and group facilitation is the art of navigating a course through these competing demands above. These insights have informed plans for a practical guide for developing peer led groups and for training of peer leaders in BANES.

This evaluation focuses on self-efficacy. It draws on group members’ own perceptions of what worked best for them to provide transferable learning about how peer led support groups might develop more generally. It can thus inform the growth of a comparatively new kind of community-based support for people with mental health problems and for their carers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources of caffeine and its utilization in different food products, along with its impact on human health in terms of benefits and adverse effect.

The papers reviewed were selected based on the following key descriptors such as caffeine, sources, trends of consumption, utilization, benefits and adverse effects, regulation and labelling.

There are many physiological effects of caffeine on respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, reproductive and central nervous system. It has a positive effect in reducing the risk of diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and liver injury and, at the same time, in improving mood, psychomotor performance and immune response. On the other hand, the negative effects of caffeine include addiction, cancer, heart diseases, insomnia, gastrointestinal disturbances and intoxication. As caffeine, when taken in large amount, is harmful, therefore as per the regulatory bodies, its concentration should not exceed the set limit, and its presence needs to be listed on the label of that particular food product. In a nutshell, it can be said that caffeine acts as a boon as well as bane because it possesses both beneficial and adverse effects.

This is a unique and comprehensive review that will provide a brief overview of sources, utilization, healthful as well as harmful effect of caffeine to the readers.

There has been an intensified recognition of the importance of corporate operational audits since the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Treadway Commission Report. As a consequence, outsourcing (or contract) internal auditing has become a new service arena for many public accounting firms. This also looms as a new challenge to internal audit professionals. Examines the service forms, advantages, and disadvantages of contract internal auditing. Discusses the implications of such a new trend from the perspectives of individual practitioners and the profession as a whole.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01425458910133950. When citing the article, please cite: A.J. Geare, (1989), “Job Stress: Boon as well as Bane”, Employee Relations, Vol. 11 Iss: 1, pp. 21 - 26.

Explores Chinese culture and the problems foreign firms and governments encounter when dealing with China. Emphasizes Confucianism’s dominant cultural tradition in China and attempts to explain it to improve foreign firms’ chances of success. Describes Confucianism as a way of living, incorporating the principles of humanism and the notion of filial piety. Mentions the five cardinal relations, harmony and Neo‐Confucianism’s “Principle of universal truth, order, law, production and reproduction”. Assesses the implications of social inequality, social ritual, familism, guan xi (connections), face, and sun yung (mutual trust) for foreign firms. Concludes that foreign firms wishing to do business with China need to understand the labyrinth of Confucianism.

Family is considered to be the corner stone of every society; it enhances its functionality and sustainability. However, the problem of spousal abuse has destroyed and disorganized many families in Nigeria, thereby hampering the stability of the basic institution. This study takes a look at spousal abuse as it affects the family stability as perceived in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Three research questions and a hypothesis guided the study. Descriptive research design was used, the population of the study consisted of 200 respondents. The study combines both qualitative and quantitative methods, which involves the use of questionnaire and focus group discussion (FGD) to collect data. The study selects 200 respondents and two FGD sessions of 10 participants each (married men and women). Data generated was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation while the hypothesis was tested using linear regression. The results of the study revealed that wife/husband battering, insults/name calling, spousal rape/sexual deprivation, economic deprivation, and food deprivation constitutes spousal abuse in Lafia, Nasarawa State; destruction of platform necessary for good and healthy upbringing of the children among others are how the problems of spousal abuse affect family stability; there is a significant relationship between what constitutes spousal abuse and causes of spousal abuse in Lafia, Nasarawa State. It was recommended that more sensitization and education to end spousal abuse should be vigorously pursued; government and non-government organizations should create avenues where women are empowered and psychological centers for rehabilitation should be established.