Anti-bribery and corruption reporting disclosures

Part of a series of research projects which analyses disclosures on areas of non-financial performance by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) companies.Publisher PD

Low pay and the living wage

Editorial Introducing Special Issue of Employee Relation

Effective speak-up arrangements for whistleblowers: A multi-case study on the role of responsiveness, trust and culture

This research project examined the opportunities, challenges and best practices associated with different types of speak-up arrangements, both internal and external, in a variety of organisational settings across different sectors, industries and locations. While recent research on the topic has focused mainly on the experience of those who have ‘blown the whistle’, the approach used here explored arrangements for speaking up (‘speak-up arrangements’) from the viewpoint of those who develop, operate and oversee them, seeking to provide recommendations for an effective framework. Findings from the investigation show that effective speak-up arrangements: • involve a combination of different channels through which employees can voice a concern • contribute to building trust through speak-up practices that evolve over time and are supported by the independence of speak-up operators • rely on robust and consistent response systems that are supported by appropriate recording of speak-up events, coordinated follow-up activities, and willingness to respond at different management levels; there are nevertheless barriers to responsiveness caused by anonymous concerns, legal issues, and lack of a visible response, albeit inadvertent, and • may need to take into account the potentially difficult interactions between organisational and national cultures. These findings give rise to key recommendations for developing, operating and overseeing effective speak-up arrangements. These are further discussed in the ‘Recommendations’ section at the end of this report. 1. Provide a variety of voicing channels and consider the use of an external independent advice channel when introducing a speak-up arrangement. 2. Be prepared to accept that concerns received may not be strictly considered speak-up or whistle-blowing cases but some of them may nonetheless help organisations recognise previously unidentified risks. 3. Design a speak-up ‘back office’ to record concerns and use this data to strengthen risk management and response processes, investigation and intervention, acknowledging the variety of concerns that could be raised. 4. Ensure that responsiveness is well organised, clearly mandated and adequately resourced. Merely encouraging employees to speak up, without putting robust response systems in place, is likely to have negative consequences, for both employees and the organisation. 5. Make responses visible where possible. This may be achieved by exploring whether employees who raised a concern can be included in developing a solution to the problem; this in turn can contribute to developing collective sense-making and increase trust in the effectiveness of the speak-up arrangement. It is also important to emphasise continuously to managers at all levels that responding to concerns is part of their role, and to restrict their discretion about whether/how to respond. 6. Consider participating in the development of a standard for the public reporting of data from speak-up arrangements

The Interaction of Progesterone and Allopregnanolone with Fear Memories

Sex differences in stress and anxiety disorders are well reported in the clinical population. For instance, women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to men. This difference is most profound during the reproductive years, suggesting a role for sex hormones and their metabolites in regulating fear and anxiety. Previous studies suggest sex differences also occur in rodents, which is modulated by gonadal hormones. Despite the majority of clinical cases occurring in women, most rodent studies only include male subjects. An understanding of what contributes to this disparity is necessary for sex-specific therapies and interventions. Here, we use Pavlovian fear conditioning, a learned task in which male rats display higher fear levels compared to females, to understand the neurobiological basis for sex differences in fear and anxiety. Specifically, we focus on allopregnanolone (ALLO), a metabolite of progesterone and potent allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors and its effects in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) in male and female rats. The BNST is a sexually dimorphic brain region and site of hormonal modulation that has been implicated in contextual fear. Raising ALLO levels in the BNST of male rats successfully impaired contextual fear and blocking ALLO in the BNST of female rats successfully increased contextual fear. However, impairing contextual fear via ALLO in male rats proved to be the result of state-dependent learning, which was unique to the BNST as global impairments in both contextual and cued fear to ALLO were found in the basolateral amygdala. In females, hormonal changes across the rodent estrous cycle follow similar patterns to that of the menstrual cycle in women and provide a naturalistic model to observe changes in fear responses at the cellular level when ALLO levels are high or low due to progesterone fluctuations. Results suggest naturally circulating progesterone may also contribute to state-dependent contextual fear; however, ovariectomized rats administered progesterone do not. The work presented here aims to elucidate the mechanisms underlying ALLO’s influence on sex differences in fear and anxiety and contribute to the growing body of literature on women’s healt

Determinants of voluntary audit and voluntary full accounts in micro- and non-micro small companies in the UK

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Accounting and Business Research, 42(4), 441 - 468, 2012, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00014788.2012.667969.This study investigates the link between the auditing and filing choices made by a sample of 592 small private companies, which includes 419 micro-companies. It examines decisions made in connection with the 2006 accounts following UK's adoption of the maximum EU size thresholds in 2004, and the impact of the proposed Directive on the annual accounts of micro-companies. The research extends the model of cost, management and agency factors associated with voluntary audit, and develops a complementary model for voluntary full accounts. The results show the benefits of placing full audited accounts on public record that outweigh the costs for a significant proportion of companies. In non-micro small companies, voluntary audit is determined by cost and agency factors, whereas in micro-companies it is driven by cost, management and agency factors. In both groups, the predictors of voluntary full accounts include management and agency factors, and choosing voluntary audit is one of the key factors. The study provides models that can be tested in other jurisdictions to provide evidence of the needs of micro-companies, and the discussion of the methodological challenges for small company researchers in the UK makes further contribution to the literature

Acca L Colby Purdy Correspondence, 1866-05-06

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/accacolbypurdy/1011/thumbnail.jp

Acca L Colby Purdy Correspondence, 1866-03-13

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/accacolbypurdy/1007/thumbnail.jp

Acca L Colby Purdy Correspondence, 1866-02-25

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/accacolbypurdy/1006/thumbnail.jp

Acca L Colby Purdy Correspondence, 1866-04-12

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/accacolbypurdy/1010/thumbnail.jp