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Aristotelian-Thomistic Virtue Ethics, Emotional Intelligence and Decision-Making

Arjoon Surendra

This paper examines an Aristotelian-Thomistic virtue ethics as it relates to decision-making. In particular, an examination of psychological stages shows that decision-making is a human act which is voluntary and utilises the human faculties of the will and the intellect which are both strengthened by the intellectual and moral virtues respectively. The relationship between the virtues and emotional intelligence (EI) is also explored. A review of the literature reveals that the EI project lacks an explicit philosophical basis, suffers from various disagreements about definitions and effectiveness, does not provide any coherent account of the notion of EI, fails to appreciate the moral dimensions of resolving emotional conflicts and lacks a clear and unified reference to an identifiable psychological process of decision-making. It can be concluded that many aspects of EI do not resonate well with the Aristotelian-Thomistic virtue ethics account, but EI may be better akin to a Humean virtue ethics, an ethics of care or a feminist ethics. Implications of virtue ethics for management practice are also presented. .

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Days-of-the-Week-Effect and Stock Return Volatility: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Padhi Puja

The average return on Friday is known to be high and for Monday less, which is termed as “days-of-the-week effect” or “week-end” effect. In this paper an attempt has been made to check whether there is the presence of the days-of-the week effect in the aggregate indices including Sensex and Nifty, BSE 100, BSE 500 and S&P CNX 500 by modeling linear regression, GARCH (1,1),GARCH-M (1,1) and asymmetric model EGARCH and GJR model. The linear regression shows the days of the week effect in the Sensex. In the GARCH (1,1) model Nifty shows the days-of-the-week effect. All other indices are showing statistically insignificant results. The risk factor is positive for Nifty and BSE 100

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Effectiveness of Electronic Employee Performance Management Systems in the UAE Public Sector

Abdulaziz Al-Raisi *, Saad Amin and Saad Tahir

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is in the midst of tremendous economic development. With a rapidly changing economy, it is increasingly important for this expatriate dependent country to start equipping a modern native workforce with the skills required to enter the work place. UAE impressive economic diversification programs, including expanding commercial infrastructure, advancement in the banking sector, development in educational programs, tourism and hydrocarbon natural resources are fuelling growth and helping the country prepare for a more challenging position on the world economic arena. This paper outlines the effectiveness of Electronic Employee Performance Management Systems (E-PMS) within the UAE federal government organizations. This paper also investigates the current situation of using manual and traditional as well as electronic performance management systems and covers the managers’ and employees’ attitudes towards using E-PMS. The research reveals that E-PMS identify major components that have a dramatic impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of governmental operations such as exploring the advantages of using such systems in accelerating the accomplishment of jobs objectives and facilitating employee performance evaluation and monitoring.

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Assessment of QOS for Public Bus Transport System – A SERVQUAL Based Kano Approach

Rita S. and Ganesan V.

Assessing the customer satisfaction is extremely important for any service organization which tries for sustainable success in today’s competitive environment. The Chennai city’s population is 4216268 according to the census taken in 2001. One of the most important problems in Chennai city is transportation problem and this is tried to be controlled by using public bus transportation system. This proposed study examines the impact of Quality of Service (QoS) provided by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation Ltd on passengers and investigates the prominent dimensional structure of satisfaction for the MTC public bus transport using a collection of service attributes. This research work is done through two models, SERVQUAL and Kano, for measuring and classifying service attributes. The service gaps are identified through passengers’ expectations and the perceived quality of the bus transportation system. Factor analysis identifies the significant factors that can serve as a basis for improvements and applied to suggest primary strategies.

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Customer Focus in the Indian Banking Industry

Lakavath Mothilal

Customer service is being redefined continuously across industries and had undergone a great change. However, customer focus among Indian banks is found inadequate in providing banking services to their customers as their main focus is on economic growth year after year in a fast moving economy. Factors that determine the customer focus were developed and on most of these factors, private sector banks are found to be less customer-centric than their counterpart public sector banks. Customer focus also differs among rural, semi-urban and urban branches, between men and women managers, junior and senior managers. Private sector banks should build their trust and confidence among all types of customers by being more customer-centric. They need to benchmark the services of the best banks in the advanced countries and look for long-term growth and retention strategies. New comers and women managers also need to be re-oriented to be more customer-centric.

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Importance of Corporate Brand for E-detailing: A Study of Indian Physicians

Jha Ajeya and Munjal Sonia

Detailing is a unique aspect of pharmaceutical selling and it is difficult to find its parallel in marketing of any other product. Pharmaceutical selling essentially employs missionary type of selling which implies that the salesman does not sell the product directly but induces/motivates sales through his activities like communicating/convincing of indirect customer who influences the sale of product. Thus, pharmaceutical manufacturers manufacture drugs and supply the same to the pharmaceutical retailers through distribution intermediaries such as whole-sellers and carrying and forwarding agents. Patients buy medicines from such retail outlets as per the prescriptions of physicians.

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Research Challenges in Cross-cultural International Business Management: The Issue of Cultural Construct Equivalency

Scroggins Wesley A., Rozell Elizabeth J., Guo Aimin, Šebestová Jarmila and Velo Veronica

As business becomes more global in nature, management researchers are increasingly interested in conducting cross-cultural research. Although cross-cultural management research has provided us with an understanding of management practice in various cultures, the nature of the research presents researchers with numerous challenges. One such challenge is the issue of cultural construct equivalency. Cultural construct equivalency concerns the validity of measures across cultures. Oftentimes, construct equivalency is assumed to exist in the measures used. This paper presents initial research data from the EWORLD Project, an international entrepreneurship research project. The data are used to demonstrate the construct equivalency problem and to show that methods commonly employed by researchers do not necessarily solve the problem.

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The Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management on Productivity and Turnover in the Maquiladora Industry: A Conceptual Framework

Barragan Salvador and Wagar Terry

This study proposes a conceptual framework on the use of Human Resource Management (HRM) Practices to reduce turnover and increase productivity in the Mexican Maquiladora Industry. Previous studies have tried to adapt these practices based on understanding the National culture. In this study we propose two perspectives: the universal approach and the contingent approach, in order to understand how the use of “best HRM practices” or the use of HRM practices that fit the manufacturing strategy will improve organizational effectiveness. The second approach is of special relevance because the maquila industry is moving towards more value-added strategies

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Financial Accounting Theory

William R. Scott

Publishers: Pearson Education, Inc., Prentice Hall

The fifth edition of Financial Accounting Theory includes 13 thoroughly-researched and succinctly written chapters on various important issues in financial accounting and reporting. The book is supported by short cases collected from financial press. The book differs from the fourth edition in several ways. For instance, the fifth edition of the book includes a new section on behavioral finance.

The book is divided into 13 chapters. The first chapter is a description of the organization of the book. This chapter describes the role of accounting research in improving our understanding of the accounting environment. It also discusses the historical development of accounting and the role of standards in mediating the conflicting information needs of various users of financial statements. The second chapter of the book focuses on the role of accounting in a world of complete certainty. This chapter is divided into sub-sections dealing with each aspect in detail. Chapter 3 is large as it covers theoretical aspects in financial reporting in a world of uncertainty. In this chapter, the author introduces the concept of decision usefulness in financial reporting. The author uses the rational decision theory and portfolio diversification theory to explain the decision usefulness approach to financial reporting.

The main topic of chapter 4 is the Efficient Market Hypothesis and CAPM. This chapter is also divided into sub-sections which discuss and explain the problems and potential solutions to challenges in the area of financial reporting. The chapter also summarizes the findings documented in empirical-archival literature in financial accounting. The chapter 5 provides discussion about the information perspective on financial reporting. This chapter also summarizes the results of capital market research in accounting. The problems and short cases provided at the end of the chapter are useful for tutorial class discussions. This chapter is informative and contains real-life cases suitable for students in accounting.

The chapter 6 starts with the capital market anomalies and explain why information perspective in financial reporting is inadequate and describes the role of measurement perspective in financial reporting. The chapter introduces the theoretical perspectives of comprehensive income statement and the fair value accounting. This chapter also discusses important theories of behavioral finance and their implications for financial reporting. The chapter 7 provides discussions about the application of measurement perspective. It discusses the application of fair value accounting in financial reporting e.g. investment in debt securities, asset revaluation and other current issues. The chapter 8 begins with the concept of economic consequences and examines an area where economic consequences have been particularly apparent. The author provides examples of economic consequences that are inconsistent with the efficient securities market theory (EMH). The chapter then introduces the positive theory of accounting to explain economic consequences that are inconsistent with the theory of efficient capital market. The chapter 9 considers the game theory and questions of manager/shareholders alignment that underlie the economic consequences and positive accounting theory.

Chapter 10 makes students familiar with the applications of game theory by having discussions on executive compensation. Especially, this chapter focuses on the role of compensation contract in mitigating agency conflicts. Chapter 11 of the book discusses earnings management from both a contracting and a financial reporting perspective. This chapter may help accountants to avoid some of the serious of the serious legal and reputation consequences that may arise when firms become financially distressed. Chapter 12 explains the public interest and theories accounting regulation while chapter 13 discusses the economic consequences and political aspects standard setting.

In summary, the book provides an introduction to a broad range of financial accounting theories. The book is well organized. Each chapter of the book is supported by well written and up-to-date news articles that reflect recent financial accounting issues. Moreover, at the end of each chapter, the author provides useful summary and many discussion questions for classroom use. Because the book covers a broad range of theories, students and researchers interested in employing one of these theories in their research work may wish to read more about the particular theory. The only shortcoming is that the book does not have a chapter that deals with cross-country differences in global financial reporting environment.