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1 – 10 of over 5000Ashesha Paveena Weerasinghe, Larelle Chapple and Alexandra Kate Williamson
This paper aims to explore how corporate Australia engages in reconciliation through recognizing and providing pathways for Indigenous Australians' corporate leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how corporate Australia engages in reconciliation through recognizing and providing pathways for Indigenous Australians' corporate leadership aspirations.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design is informed by the prior literature on pathways by minority groups to corporate leadership through the theoretical lens of transformational leadership. The investigation is conducted using textual analysis of reconciliation action plans (RAPs), a contemporary and voluntary practice adopted by Australian listed companies to disclose their commitment to national reconciliation. RAPs are publicly available from the official websites of listed companies.
Findings
The analysis of contemporary RAPs highlights organizational initiatives to support Indigenous Australians related to corporate and community leadership. Since the authors’ focus is the former, corporate leadership initiatives are further analyzed. Two initiatives for Indigenous Australians to pursue corporate leadership positions are emerging future leaders' programs and mentoring programs. This is the extent to which the authors observe Australian firms' transformational leadership. While some firms have implemented these initiatives with specific targets, other firms do not have specific initiatives or targets. The paper also conducts longitudinal analysis into the transformational leaders' past RAPs and triangulates to other evidence of reconciliation commitment such as the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Research limitations/implications
This paper contributes new insights to the research area of board cultural diversity, specifically to the limited literature on Indigenous reconciliation. It provides insights into firms and policymakers to address the ongoing issue of the underrepresentation of Indigenous Australians in corporate leadership. The sample of firms comprises Australian listed firms that have adopted higher-order RAPs, which restricts the generalizability of the findings to other sectors.
Originality/value
This paper explores the under researched phenomenon of Indigenous people's pathways to corporate leadership. The research design is informed by transformational leadership theory through considering institutional actions for reconciliation. This research provides evidence of the extent to which corporate Australia has taken action on the issue of the under-representation of Australian Indigenous people in corporate leadership.
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Robert C. Ricketts, Mark E. Riley and Rebecca Toppe Shortridge
This study aims to determine whether financial statement users suffered a significant loss of information when, in November 2007, the SEC dropped the requirement for foreign…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to determine whether financial statement users suffered a significant loss of information when, in November 2007, the SEC dropped the requirement for foreign private issuers using International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS firms”) to reconcile their financial statements to US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Design/methodology/approach
The study investigates whether analyst forecast errors and forecast dispersion increased for IFRS firms to a greater extent than for US GAAP firms after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped the reconciliation requirement. Using a treatment group comprised of IFRS firms and a matched sample of US GAAP firms, this study uses regression analyses to compare forecast errors and dispersion for the last fiscal year the reconciliation was available and the first fiscal year during which the reconciliation was unavailable to analysts.
Findings
The study finds evidence that forecast errors for IFRS firms exhibited no systematic change after the reconciliation was no longer available for analysts covering those firms. Thus, it does not appear that dropping the reconciliation requirement was associated with a change in forecast accuracy. However, the study does find evidence of increased dispersion in the IFRS firms’ forecasts relative to their US GAAP counterparts after the reconciliation requirement was dropped.
Practical implications
These findings have implications for evaluating the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2007 decision to eliminate the reconciliation for IFRS firms. Specifically, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision does not appear to have significantly altered analysts’ information environments.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the understanding of how a group of sophisticated financial statement users adapt to different sets of accounting standards.
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Marina Hennig, Stefan Stuth, Mareike Ebach and Anna Erika Hägglund
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how employed women perceive the reconciliation of work and family life in Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Great Britain, Sweden and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how employed women perceive the reconciliation of work and family life in Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Great Britain, Sweden and Switzerland. The paper seeks to explore why women in certain countries are more successful in combining family responsibilities with gainful employment.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2005, the questions are addressed by applying country specific linear regression analysis at the individual level, correlations at the country level as well as policy analysis.
Findings
The analysis shows that the most important factors influencing employed women's perception of the reconciliation are work load, the presence of children in the household and part‐time employment. In addition, the findings point at cross‐national differences. In countries where family policies focus on integrating men and women into the labour market, women rate the reconciliation of work and family life higher than in countries whose family policies aim at supporting the family.
Research limitations/implications
By comparing seven European countries the paper shows that family policies are closely related to employed women's perceptions of the reconciliation. In order to understand the interaction between the individual perception and the institutional framework, the paper suggests that further research is needed on women's perceptions in each country.
Originality/value
The paper explores how employed women perceive the reconciliation of work and family life in seven European countries and explains the differences by means of family policies.
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With the progress of new technologies of information and communication, more and more producers of data exist. On the other hand, the web forms a huge support of all these kinds…
Abstract
With the progress of new technologies of information and communication, more and more producers of data exist. On the other hand, the web forms a huge support of all these kinds of data. Unfortunately, existing data is not proper due to the existence of the same information in different sources, as well as erroneous and incomplete data. The aim of data integration systems is to offer to a user a unique interface to query a number of sources. A key challenge of such systems is to deal with conflicting information from the same source or from different sources. We present, in this paper, the resolution of conflict at the instance level into two stages: references reconciliation and data fusion. The reference reconciliation methods seek to decide if two data descriptions are references to the same entity in reality. We define the principles of reconciliation method then we distinguish the methods of reference reconciliation, first on how to use the descriptions of references, then the way to acquire knowledge. We finish this section by discussing some current data reconciliation issues that are the subject of current research. Data fusion in turn, has the objective to merge duplicates into a single representation while resolving conflicts between the data. We define first the conflicts classification, the strategies for dealing with conflicts and the implementing conflict management strategies. We present then, the relational operators and data fusion techniques. Likewise, we finish this section by discussing some current data fusion issues that are the subject of current research.
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Mohanad Mustafa and As'ad Ghanem
This article aims to analyse the Israeli negotiation strategy in reference to the theoretical frameworks of reconciliation and settlement. It focuses on the Israeli‐Palestinian…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to analyse the Israeli negotiation strategy in reference to the theoretical frameworks of reconciliation and settlement. It focuses on the Israeli‐Palestinian negotiation experience over the past three years, or since Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister of the Israeli Government in 2009.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical literature provides two hypothetical frameworks for resolution of conflicts: a political settlement; and reconciliation between parties to the conflict. This article argues that Israel's vision of conflict resolution effectively attempts to integrate both hypothetical frameworks by proposing a political settlement for Palestinians in return for obtaining reconciliation from them. To analyse this strategy, this article explores the Israeli political discourse over the past three years, as well as Israel's vision of the conflict resolution as is manifest in this discourse.
Findings
The article argument is based on the indication that willingness of a party to reach a settlement is met with reconciliation from the other party to the conflict. A party's insistence on offering a settlement and attaining reconciliation is associated with power relations between both parties. To maintain its powerful position, the stronger party usually demands reconciliation from the weaker party, at the same time presenting a settlement that implies a political, not moral, recognition of the weaker party with a view to dispossess it from its moral logic in the conflict.
Originality/value
An assessment of the Israeli political discourse over the past three years indicates that Israel is implementing a compound negotiation strategy to resolve the conflict. The strategy entails settlement and reconciliation components. Israel wishes to deal with Palestinians through a political settlement. On the other hand, Israel wants the Palestinians to deal with it through the reconciliation process.
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This paper aims to examine the nature and level of disclosures on engagement with Aboriginal communities by Australian mining companies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the nature and level of disclosures on engagement with Aboriginal communities by Australian mining companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis of annual and sustainability reports of Australian Stock Exchange listed companies was undertaken to address the central research aim of this paper. An Aboriginal engagement framework was developed based on the five dimensions suggested by Reconciliation Australia.
Findings
The findings of the study report an overall low level of disclosures on Aboriginal engagement by mining companies and reveal that corporate disclosures largely focus on Land and Native title agreements, Aboriginal employment and corporate investment in Aboriginal socio-economic development. The least reported issues include Aboriginal immersion experience, Aboriginal inclusion in leadership roles and commitment to the reconciliation process. The findings of the study suggest that although corporate engagement practices have started to recognise and incorporate marginalised stakeholder rights and issues, only a few companies have created necessary avenues to empower Aboriginal communities. Regarding the reconciliation process, the findings reveal that the companies are mostly reporting on only three out of the five dimensions of the framework.
Practical implications
This study provides a better understanding of the current state of Aboriginal engagement practices in the mining sector, in particular the issues and gaps in reporting Aboriginal engagement to align it with the national reconciliation process, which will be useful for policymakers and, possibly, standard setters to develop future Aboriginal engagement and disclosure policies.
Originality/value
In spite of the rapid development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure, disclosure of corporate impacts on Aboriginal people and reconciliation with Aboriginal communities has been given little attention in business CSR practice and previous CSR disclosure literature. This research fills this gap and investigates the increasing uptake of Aboriginal engagement disclosures by business corporations.
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Isaac Heard, Peter E.D. Love, Michael C.P. Sing and Veronica Goerke
Research examining the role of construction and involvement of resource organisations with indigenous reconciliation has been very limited in Australia. This paper aims to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
Research examining the role of construction and involvement of resource organisations with indigenous reconciliation has been very limited in Australia. This paper aims to examine how a sample of organisations from Western Australia (WA) are engaging with indigenous reconciliation.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey juxtaposed with in-depth interviews are used to explore how construction and resource companies (mining and energy) operating in WA have been planning to build better relationships with the indigenous community as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme.
Findings
The majority of construction and resource companies sampled embraced reconciliation as part of a contractual and legal requirement rather than part of their CSR. It was acknowledged that to effectively address the issues associated with reconciliation and indigenous engagement, there is a requirement for flexibility and adaption of existing protocols and processes to better suit the cultural differences that arise with interactions between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.
Research limitations/implications
The questionnaire survey was cross-sectional, and a limited number of in-depth interviews were undertaken. Respondents’ opinions were sought about their organisations’ reconciliation action plans, which have only been recently embraced by firms, and thus, views that were solicited should not be treated as being definitive.
Originality/value
Research examining the role of construction and involvement of resource organisations with indigenous reconciliation in the construction and resource sector has been limited. The findings of this study can provide a platform for examining and comparing how construction and resource organisations in different countries are embracing the process of reconciliation with their indigenous peoples.
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Peter A. Chew and David G. Robinson
The purpose of the present paper is to investigate how methods from statistics, natural language processing, information theory, and other scientific fields can be brought to bear…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the present paper is to investigate how methods from statistics, natural language processing, information theory, and other scientific fields can be brought to bear on account reconciliation. Practically, the goal is to reduce the number of labor hours it takes to complete a task which is widespread in various subfields of accounting including fraud investigation.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors explore novel applications of data mining techniques from natural language processing and statistics to a particular account reconciliation problem. The authors are careful to avoid ad hoc heuristics and instead work with techniques that are theoretically justifiable; this means the techniques should be extensible (subject to appropriate modifications) to problem variants other than those that are explicitly considered here. The authors evaluate their techniques based on precision and recall – standard measures from the field of information retrieval.
Findings
The paper finds that with careful tuning, it is possible to achieve near 100 percent precision (suggesting that the technique is highly accurate compared with an expert human reconciliation clerk) and close to 100 percent recall.
Originality/value
The current approach, unlike many previous approaches, looks to general principles of information theory rather than relying on heuristics which may work for one problem but not another. This approach is therefore highly general, and would apply to virtually any kind of accounting data (including even data where transaction descriptions are in a language other than English).
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Adamina Ivcovici, Ian McLoughlin, Alka Nand and Ananya Bhattacharya
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are increasingly being created to facilitate knowledge mobilization in organizations. This paper aims to elucidate an underexplored aspect of…
Abstract
Purpose
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are increasingly being created to facilitate knowledge mobilization in organizations. This paper aims to elucidate an underexplored aspect of participation in mandated CoPs – identity reconciliation. Specifically, the authors explore how actors reconcile their existing identities with becoming members of new knowledge mobilization CoPs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a longitudinal qualitative case study over a 12-month period to explore identity reconciliation practices during the formation of the “ED CoP” – mandated by policymakers to mobilize knowledge between process improvement advisors and clinicians from various hospitals. Observation and interviews allowed us to uncover “front stage” and “backstage” practices of identity reconciliation.
Findings
The findings reveal two key unexpected modes of identity reconciliation – “distancing” and “peripheral lurking”. These modes resulted in different trajectories of participation of two of the key participant groups – “veteran” improvement advisors and “veteran” clinicians.
Practical implications
Different modes of identity reconciliation of different participants impact the formation of CoPs and how knowledge mobilization occurs within them. This paper offers a sensitizing lens for practitioners creating CoPs which enhances awareness of hidden identity practices, and recommendations to enable practitioners to effectively facilitate CoP formation.
Originality/value
This study suggests that identity reconciliation is an integral aspect of CoP formation, and essential for knowledge mobilization within CoPs. Whereas studies on CoPs in the knowledge management literature have mostly assumed that collaboration produces beneficial knowledge mobilization outcomes, the findings build a more nuanced picture of the processes involved in producing these outcomes.
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Sia Beng Yi, Janice Chan Pei Shan and Goh Lay Hong
Medication reconciliation is integral to every hospital. Approximately 60 percent of all hospital medication errors occur at admission, intra‐hospital transfer or discharge…
Abstract
Purpose
Medication reconciliation is integral to every hospital. Approximately 60 percent of all hospital medication errors occur at admission, intra‐hospital transfer or discharge. Effectively and consistently performing medication reconciliation at care‐interfaces continues to be a challenge. Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) averages 4,700 admissions monthly. Many patients are elderly (>65 years old) at risk from poly‐pharmacy. As part of a medication safety initiative, pharmacy staff started a medication reconciliation service in 2007, which expanded to include all patients in October 2009. This article aims to describe the TTSH medication reconciliation system and to highlight common medication errors occurring following incomplete medication reconciliation.
Design/methodology/approach
Where possible, patients admitted into TTSH are seen by pharmacy staff within 24 hours of admission. A form was created to document their medications, which is filed into the case sheets for referencing purposes. Any discrepancies in medicines are brought to doctors' attention. Patients are also counseled about changes to their medications. Errors picked up were captured in an Excel database.
Findings
The most common medication error was prescribers missing out medications. The second commonest was recording different doses and regimens. The reason was mainly due to doctors transcribing medications inaccurately.
Research limitations/implications
This is a descriptive study and no statistical tests were carried out. Data entry was done by different pharmacy staff, and not a dedicated person; hence, data might be under‐reported.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate the importance of medication reconciliation on admission. Accurate medication reconciliation can help to reduce transcription errors and improve service quality.
Originality/value
The article highlights medication reconciliation's importance and has implications for healthcare professionals in all countries.
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