Brenton Fiedler

Reducing the Risk of Corporate Irresponsibility: The Trend to Corporate Social Responsibility

What can be done to control and minimise the risk of corporate irresponsibility? This question has been raised anew in Australia with the collapse in May 2001 of the nations second largest general insurer HIH leaving a A

Developers, Decision Makers, Strategists or Just End-users? Redefining End-User Computing for the 21st Century: A Case Study

4 billion (US

Seeking an explanation for the poor uptake of in-hospital AED programs.

2 billion) shortfall. The official regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), claimed a lack of resources contributed to its neglect. The auditors claimed that they had been given incorrect information. The government suggested tightening the law and enforcing more rigorously its criminal sanctions. The problem, however, lies with the misconception that such fiascos can be avoided by governments creating and enforcing appropriate rules. This is simply not the case. For while legislation and regulatory mechanisms that seek to enforce organisational rules and policies are necessary, they are simply not sufficient to establish and entrench corporate accountability and responsibility. In this paper, the authors demonstrate how corporate entities can and should develop a ‘culture’ of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in order to reduce the risks associated with irresponsible practices. CSR principles and initiatives can be delivered and enticed by a broad range of facilitators, including governments, industries and regulatory bodies. They can also be used for the purpose of enhancing the broader notion of corporate governance. The authors illustrate the manner in which CSR initiatives can and should become fundamental tools of risk assessment and risk management in modern corporate and organisational practice.

Do learner’s gender and ethnicity really matter for academic performance evaluation

The acceleration of technology in business since the 1980s suggests that traditional management techniques, systems, and strategies employed in a business environment should be challenged. As a consequence of this acceleration, end-user computing EUC and end-user development EUD have also grown. Definitions of EUC developed in the 1980s continue to be used by contemporary researchers without regard to the changing technological environment, user experience, and user needs. Therefore, the authors challenge traditional definitions of EUC developed and used by researchers to ascertain whether they meet the needs of management for the 21st century. There is a conflict among traditional definitions that has not been addressed since the early 1990s Downey & Bartczak, 2005. In this regard, the authors proffer that the management strategies for end-user EU systems development in the 21st century should suggest a different and proactive role for users. This paper summarises key traditional definitions from the literature and evaluates their consonance with the technology and business system environment. The impetus for researchers to rethink the traditional definition of EUC is provided through a real world management project involving the development of a university staff workload database that investigated the role of end-users in system enhancement and development.

Investigating and Preventing Fraud Against Australian Businesses: Counting the Costs and Exploring The Strategies

The automated external defibrillator (AED) has been adopted by emergency service personnel as a first-line intervention in the management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). AED leads to more successful Advanced Cardiac Life Support; consequently, national resuscitation organisations worldwide have recommended that nurses and doctors also integrate AEDs as a component of their basic life-support response to cardiac arrest. Despite these recommendations, the implementation of AED programs within hospitals has been generally sporadic and isolated. A continuation of this situation will most likely disturb and perplex nurses and patients, as they are key stakeholders with respect to upholding recommended BLS practices. In the absence of any explanation from change agents within hospitals, this paper seeks, by way of a pilot study and a review of the literature, to identify the extent of the problem and identify factors contributing to the relatively slow uptake of this device. We argue that nurses and other first responders to in-hospital cardiac arrest (CA) have much to gain, in the context of Occupational Health Safety and Welfare (OHS and W), from ready access to AEDs. Cost factors are also considered, with initial cost of AED purchase likely to be a major concern for managers of hospital budgets. The issues we discuss in this paper clearly support the need for further research to (a) explain the nature of public hospital resistance to AEDs and (b) to consider whether AEDs will provide practical advantages to public hospitals from an occupational, social and economic perspective.

Universities' expectations of pastoral care: trends, stressors, resource gaps and support needs for teaching staff.

This study aims to determine whether different perceptions based on a learner’s characteristics of age, gender, ethnicity, and duration of stay in Australia provide an explanation of teaching performance evaluations. Perceptions determine interpersonal behaviour (including communication and motivation)and the way a learner believes that they are going to be assessed by the teacher. Thereby, this will impact on a student’s formal evaluation of teaching performance through a student survey of teaching (SST). This study considers the existence of ethnic and gender bias in postgraduate students undertaking accounting‐related courses. The study applies a combination of quantitative online and offline surveys which include SST data and additional questions identifying demographic data to demonstrate that a learner’s evaluation of teaching performance is influenced by the learner’s perceptions. Whilst there were no significant findings related to gender, we identified that students from certain ethnic backgrounds and citizenship, had different perceptions of a teacher’s performance. In addition we identified age and duration of stay in Australia as two demographic elements which were also statistically significant.

Structure versus Judgement in the Audit Process: A Test of Kinney's Classification

The current high levels and extent of fraud against businesses in Australia are having an enormous impact on productivity, profitability and competitive ability in the marketplace. It is simply impossible to calculate the impact accurately. Be that as it may, it is axiomatic that businesses, governments and organisations which are able to detect fraud, and decrease or eliminate it, will not only have an edge on their rivals, but also assist the Australian economy generally by reducing its reliance on costly law-enforcement measures, protection services, security protocols, criminal prosecutions and criminal trials. Since there is ample evidence that fraud is endemic to most Western democratic societies, it is useful to consider Australia’s contribution toward its solution. Australia has been active in promoting the internationalisation of accounting and auditing standards where harmonised standards are designed to support the identification and management of the risk of fraud. Often companies operate in different geographic regions, and it must be recognised that different legal systems, ethical environments and attitudes may have different impacts on the interpretation of fraud and the action to be taken to observe and prevent fraudulent activities. To what extent can fraud be detected, costed and prevented in the 21st century? How can law enforcement policy-makers, and business and corporate planners, take appropriate steps to prevent the commission of fraud or take ameliorative action once it is detected? This paper provides an overview of the current state of fraud against Australian business, reviews the inadequacies of the way in which it is currently prosecuted, and explores ideas for its prevention in commercial and legal practice.