A review of hedge funds and their investor activism: do they help or hurt other equity investors?

Hedge funds tend to be highly activist investors who exercise their ??principal power?? over their portfolio firms. We observe that, compared to other investor types, hedge funds appear to be even more activist than is predicted by a comprehensive Investor Activism Model, due to the unexpectedly large role of several antecedent variables. This conclusion suggests that the relatively lightly regulated environment of hedge funds affects the weighting of conventional activism-antecedent variables. We explore how their access to several investing and trading strategies is allowing hedge funds to redefine investor activism. In the process, we find that, while hedge funds and their activism tend to benefit fellow investors, the potential exists for some specific hedge fund types to expropriate value from minority shareholders, creating ??principal?Cprincipal?? conflict. The potentially detrimental impact of hedge fund activism on other equity investors is demonstrated, illuminating several current policy concerns.     

The Bruce Report and social welfare leadership in the politics of Toronto’s “Slums”, 1934–1939

Slum clearance and rebuilding first became a serious political project in Toronto during the 1930s. Following the release of a systematic housing survey known as the Bruce Report (1934), a set of actors distinguished by their planning authority with respect to social agencies, influence over social work education, coordination of social research, and role as spokespersons of religious bodies inaugurated a political struggle over state power. While the campaign failed, it called forth a reaction from established authorities and reconfigured the local political field as it related to low-income housing. This article gives an account of these processes by drawing upon correspondence and minutes of meetings of city officials and the campaign’s organizers, newspaper clippings, and published materials.     

The Short and Long-Run Labor Market Effects of Age Eligibility Rules: Evidence from Women’s Professional Tennis

Age is often used in law and public policy as a low-cost proxy for competency, maturity, and ability. Age is also used in numerous sport (and non-sport) labor markets to determine workplace eligibility. We exploit the enactment of the women’s professional tennis minimum age rule (AR) in 1995 to estimate the effects of ARs on short-run and long-run labor market outcomes. We find very limited evidence that the AR has had any systematic beneficial effect on players’ career longevity or success. Our results suggest that sport governing bodies should (re-)evaluate the efficacy and necessity of “one size fits all” age eligibility rules.     

Afraid to care; unable to care: A critical ethnography within a long-term care home

This paper describes the findings of a critical ethnographic research study conducted in an urban long-term care home. While our intention was to learn more about the culture of care, specifically as it relates to mental health care provision, the participants in the study consistently spoke with us about (what we have labeled as) a culture of compliance. In a context where new long-term care legislation is being implemented along with new, standardized resident assessment instruments, gaining a deeper understanding of the (un)intended consequences of government's efforts to ensure a high quality of care is of paramount importance. This research demonstrates how policy-driven structural mechanisms can (re)produce conditions that result in frontline staff being afraid and unable to care, and thus contributes to a better understanding of the lived experience of frontline long-term care staff who find that their caregiving responsibilities are displaced by caregiving accountabilities.     

Beware the angry leader: Trait anger and trait anxiety as predictors of petty tyranny

Drawing on the general aggression model and theories of victimization and temperamental goodness-of-fit, we investigated trait anger and trait anxiety as antecedents of petty tyranny: employing a multilevel design with data from 84 sea captains and 177 crew members. Leader trait anger predicted subordinate-reported petty tyranny. Subordinate trait anxiety was associated with subordinate-reported petty tyranny. The association between leader trait anger and subordinate-reported petty tyranny was strongest among low trait anger subordinates supporting the theory of temperamental goodness-of-fit—or rather misfit—in dyads. Hence, leader anger-generated petty tyranny seems to constitute itself both as an average leadership style and as behavior targeting specific subordinates, in this case low trait anger subordinates. In addition, anxious subordinates report more exposure to such abusive leadership behaviors irrespective of levels of trait anger in the captain. The practical implications are above all the needs for organizational and individual management of leader trait anger.     

What Does it Mean to Listen to People with Dementia?

A total of 19 people with dementia were interviewed as part of a study into unmet respite care need amongst caregivers and day-care attenders in Sheffield. Some important contextual debates associated with conducting social research with people with dementia are considered. These include informed consent, competency, and how the interests of caregivers and people with dementia are bound together. A form of process consent was used in conducting semi-structured interviews with day-care attenders. Day-care attenders spoke about 'being here' in a number of ways. These include their initial experiences, their sources of satisfaction and their sense of being in families. These substantive findings and the associated methodological insights suggest day-care attenders have important things to say as service-users if appropriate strategies for listening are employed. Service-providers can collaborate imaginatively with day-care attenders to actively explore how care might be shaped by the experiences of persons with dementia.     

Micro-Political Strategies and Their Implications for Participative Decision Making

Drawing on both organizational behaviour and employee relations perspectives,the paper defines participation as `opportunity to influence decisions,' andconsiders the impact of the micro-political behaviour of organization membersin pursuit of their interests on the development of genuine participation.Three types of micro-political strategy are identified and their implicationsdiscussed: information control, flexibility, and stage-craft. The discussionis illustrated with findings from an international study of decision making,and brief comment is made on international cultural differences as acomplicating factor. It is suggested that the role of participation in enhancing the knowledge baseof the organization has been neglected. If genuine participation is to beinstituted, decision making will become more complex, requiring negotiation,not only of competing interests but also of what is to be accepted as`knowledge' in the organization. This in turn will place greater demands onthe intellectual skills and personal behaviour of participants.     

Optimal Price and Quantity of Refurbished Products

Many retail product returns can be refurbished and resold, typically at a reduced price. The price set for the refurbished products affects the demands for both new and refurbished products, while the refurbishment and resale activities incur costs. To maximize profit, a manufacturer in a competitive market must carefully choose the proportion of returned products to refurbish and their sale price. We model the sale, return, refurbishment, and resale processes in an open queueing network and formulate a mathematical program to find the optimal price and proportion to refurbish. Examination of the optimality conditions reveals the different situations in which it is optimal to refurbish none, some, or all of the returned products. Refurbishing operations may increase profit or may be required to relieve a manufacturing capacity bottleneck. A numerical study identifies characteristics of the new product market and refurbished products that encourage refurbishing and some situations in which small changes in the refurbishing cost and quality provoke large changes in the optimal policy.     

Telecommunication and suicide prevention: hopes and challenges for the new century

Development of information technology has created new opportunities and challenges in suicide prevention, research, and clinical practice. This article presents an overview of the wide range of telecommunication-based suicide prevention approaches. Interventions using the Internet, telephone, and videoconferencing are discussed, including crisis intervention, referral, and support, suicide risk assessment, psychotherapy for individuals at risk, and online-based suicide prevention training and education. Research regarding effectiveness of telecommunication-based suicide prevention in various demographic and clinical populations is reviewed, as well as concerns regarding this type of intervention. Future areas of research and development in the use of telecommunication media in prevention of suicide are discussed.