Volume 02 Number 01
State and Public Sector Unionism in ASEAN with special reference to Malaysia
Ponniah Arudsothy
An attempt to compare the diverse experiences of trade unions in the Public Service sector of the ASEAN countries will help to focus on the critical relations between the state and trade unions that have emerged in the region. From the regional vantage point this paper goes on to discuss in greater detail the Malaysian situation by first of all tracing the origins of public sector unionism in that country to the confrontation between the colonial administration and left-wing unions in 1948. The declaration of Emergency in that year and the attendant restrictions on freedom of speech and movement that ensued have had a profound effect on the types of labour legislation and the patterns of trade unionism that have emerged. While in the post-Emergency period the government had actively sought to encourage public servants to unionise and set a moderating tone on the labour movement as a whole, the post colonial state has largely sought to diminish the role of trade unions particularly in the public services. Although this has been a protracted process of weakening the consultative and negotiating machinery (Joint Councils) and the adoption of centralised Salaries Commission Awards, the unions themselves were not deregistered. Since the dissolution of all existing consultative machinery in 1989, the future of unionism in this sector is seriously threatened.
Growth and Development of Counter-trade Activities South-East Asia
G Anna Czerkawska
This article discusses economic costs and advantages of counter-trade with special reference to the South-East Asian region. The development and the growth of various counter-trade activities are reviewed and the major macroeconomic and microeconomic factors contributing to the expansion of barter, offset, counter-purchase and buy-back are discussed. The current institutional arrangements for counter-trade in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand are compared and contrasted and the long-term prospects for its further development are analysed. This analysis implies that the potential benefits of counter-trade were not fully exploited and that the prospects for further expansion of counter-trade in this region are not that great as previously assumed.
Memory-judgement Audit Research
Dieter Fink
The research examined auditors' evaluation of internal accounting controls in two ways: first, the memory organisation present during the recall of controls and second, the consensus among auditors during the judgement of controls. The internal controls were evaluated by South African external auditors and reflected the requirements of advanced Electronic Data Processing (EDP) systems. To infer memory organisation, the Adjusted Ratio of Clustering (ARC) measure was used. The low ARC score of 0.118 established in the study appears to indicate that auditors' knowledge of advanced EDP internal controls is structured in an "ad hoc" manner. Inter-auditor consensus of 0.205 was also low, indicating the complexity inherent in the judgement task. In order to link memory and judgement in future research, it is suggested that Hastie and Park's (1986) "memory causes judgement" or "availability" model be used.
Conflict and Cooperation: Managing Across Cultures in China
Prof Peter Glassman
- [Our] desire for man is only that he should be human.
- S. Freud
Recently an international pharmaceutical products firm operating in China convened a training session. The purpose was to upgrade the skills of its marketing department. The marketing department is staffed by Chinese nationals. They are managed by expatriate executives who are on short-term assignment to China from the United Kingdom. The group was being trained by one of the world's leading public relations firm: an American company staffed, in this instance, by a Hong Kong-born master trainer.
The Effects of Audit Firm Structure and Management Advisory Services on Hong Kong Bankers' Decisions
Ferdinand A. Gul, KS Kwong, Gladie MC Lui and Marian YJ Tong
No abstract - opening paragraph reads: The auditing profession is said to be facing a crisis with the current spate of unprecedented litigation and broadened auditor liability. The claims against audit firms, some of which have been staggering, has sent shock waves amongst auditors and members of the accounting profession [Collins, 1986; Palmrose, 1987]. For example, in 1985, the Australian firm Fell and Starkey had damages of A$145 million awarded against it in the Cambridge Credit case! The award was overturned on appeal in 1985 but the prospect for huge damages is still a major concern for the profession. The problem is aggravated by the fact that available professional indemnity insurance cover has fallen and premiums are too high thus making it difficult for auditors to obtain adequate cover in case of litigation. These concerns have led to several suggestions to limit the liability of the auditor. These include a statutory cap on liability, contributory negligence, contractual limitation and allowing audit firms to incorporate as limited companies. The fourth possibility was in fact raised by the Hong Kong Society of Accountants and there seems to be a groundswell support amongst Hong Kong auditors for this notion. A report in the South China Morning Post [June 10, 1990, p. 1] read as follows: "Local auditors have called for the right to incorporate as limited companies to cap the liabilities they face and to avoid scaring graduates away from the profession." In the United Kingdom, the Companies Act 1989 allows incorporation of auditors to the extent that the eligibility provisions of the Companies Act 1985 has now been amended to omit the prohibition on a body corporate acting as auditor. These changes have prompted members of the Hong Kong accounting profession to clamour for the right to incorporate. While this suggestion provides security for auditors, there is a more fundamental question that needs to be addressed and considered before proceeding to facilitate the incorporation of audit firms. This relates to the potential impact of audit firm incorporation as limited liability companies on third party confidence in the auditor's ability to exercise due care and skill and independence.
Credit Potential in a Subsistence Economy: The Case of Bangladesh
Tofazzal Hossain
The problem of credit availability in a third world country is well known. The scarcity of credit in the least developed countries is even more serious. A major characteristic of these least developed countries is that they have a large non-monetised subsistence sector. The monetisation of this non-monetised sector could provide a huge source of credit for these countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential for credit that can be generated by monetizing the non-monetised sector of a subsistence Third World economy with particular attention to Bangladesh. The paper is organised as follows. Section I provides a brief overview of the theory of money and credit creation in general, linking it to the particular case of a subsisitence economy. The sources of credit and the structure of the credit market in a developed economy is compared with that in a subsistence economy in Section II. The size and the nature of the non-monetised sector in the Bangladeshi economy and the potential for credit that can be generated by monetizing this sector is examined in Section III. Section IV looks at the measures and problems of monetizing the non-monetized sector. The paper is concluded in Section V.
The Information Effect of Announcements of Note Issuance and Revolving Underwriting Facilities
Ng Kah Hwa
Note Issuance and Revolving Underwriting Facilities have become important financing vehicles in recent years. This paper examines the information effect of the announcements of such issues on the stock prices of the issuing companies listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange. The empirical results support the hypothesis that such announcements have negative impact on shareholder wealth.
Relating Miles and Snow's Strategy to Environment and Control System Attributes
Hai Yap Teoh, Dr AB Sim and Dr Gregory Thong
This study, using a stepwise multiple discriminant analysis of a sample of 69 industrial firms in Singapore, showed that a discriminant model could be constructed that would serve to differentiate firms into the Miles and Snow's prospectors, defenders and analyzers based on selected environmental and control system characteristics. Further areas of research are also suggested.
Determinants of Capital Structure: Some Hong Kong Evidence
Judy Tsui
The globalization of trade and the growing development of international financial markets has led to increasing emphasis in investigating important issues such as capital structure in less matured capital markets such as Hong Kong. This study is motivated by two considerations. First, there is insufficient empirical evidence on the determinants of capital markets in recently developed countries such as Hong Kong. Second, the methodology used to obtain empirical evidence on developed capital markets such as USA and UK have lagged behind the development of econometrics. This study attempted to provide further evidence to understand determinants of capital structure by using a factor analytic approach, linear structural modelling. This model overcomes many criticisms of prior studies in examining capital structure. The results of this study found that volatility and firm industry class significantly affected firm's choice in short-term debt financing.