INTERNATIONAL DIFFUSION OF ISO 14000 CERTIFICATION

The ISO 9000 series of quality management systems standards and the more recent ISO 14000 environmental management systems standards have generated much controversy among practitioners. Although ISO 9000 has become a de facto requirement for many firms, its effects are poorly understood, and similarly the value and domain of applicability of ISO 14000 have been questioned. This paper reports on an exploratory study into the global spread of ISO 14000. We interviewed practitioners worldwide to identify factors that they believe explain differences between national ISO 14000 certification counts. We then collected quantititive data for these factors and, using regression analysis, we found that exports, environmental attitudes (combined with economic development), and ISO 9000 certification count were significant. The fact that ISO 9000 appears as an important factor explaining diffusion of ISO 14000 certifications suggests that the drivers behind the two have significant overlap. This indicates that, although ISO 14000 is an environmental standard, many of the factors driving national certification patterns are not at all environmental in nature, and that ISO 14000 therefore needs to be studied from a broader perspective than from a purely environmental point of view.     

Stakeholder Reporting: The Role of Intermediaries

Corporate social responsibility encompasses a multiplicity of different concepts, such that its nature is confused, and it remains difficult to operationalize because opening dialogue with and responding to the various expectations of diverse stakeholders is beyond the capacity of many companies. This paper adapts Mayston's normative “information beneficiaries” framework and focuses on intermediaries who might potentially use published financial information to open a restricted form of dialogue with companies, which might benefit unsophisticated stakeholders. The paper examines the Mayston framework using interviews conducted in organizations that might act on behalf of three stakeholder groups associated with gas and electricity suppliers in the United Kingdom, these being: consumers, employees, and the environment. While a long chain of communication exists between utility company and stakeholder, and many organizations do not fulfill their full potential as information intermediaries, there is some evidence that Mayston's framework might well operate in practice.     

Truth and Rhetoric: The Promise of John Dean's Memory to the Discipline of Psychology

The paper unpacks the far‐reaching theoretical and practical issues that underlay the classical debate between cognitive psychologist Ulric Neisser and discursive social psychologists Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter on Watergate witness John Dean's memory. Accounting for their disagreements, Neisser claimed the mantle of the cognitive‐ecological approach to memory and emphasized the psychologist's ultimate priority of truth over discourse, while Edwards and Potter claimed that of discursive/rhetorical psychology and focused exclusively on discourse over truth. As such, the debate at the time ended in mutual misunderstanding and the shadow of theoretical incommensurability. However, a rhetorical analysis of the arguments suggests that Neisser was right about truth when he intuitively sensed the importance of discourse, and Edwards and Potter were right about discourse when they did not lose sight of truth. Therefore, beyond the impasse there has remained a promise inherent in the debate: it demonstrated an imaginative attempt to undermine the absolute dichotomy of truth and rhetoric and demonstrate their mutual inter‐dependence. As will be argued, such integration of traditional concerns of the psychologist entails the re‐conceptualization of the discipline as political and moral science.     

A RECONSIDERATION OF THE ‘GREAT RATIOS’ OF ECONOMICS

Autocorrelations are found in the disturbance terms of regressions employed by L. R. Klein and R. F. Kosobud in a global model of growth employing five celebrated ratios of economics. This paper summarizes the Klein-Kosobud conclusions, modifies them by removing the autocorrelations, and extends the model to include more recent years. The modified conclusions hold even with the added observations.     

A System for Monitoring Social Work Activity with the Frail Elderly

Summary This paper describes the development of a recording system foruse by social workers in the long term care of elderly peopleat home. The system can be used by individual staff to plottheir caseload activities and by management in considering problemsof resource deployment. The system consists of Assessment Document,Periodic Case Reviews, a Monitoring Chart and Costing information.The analysis of a cohort of cases in the early phase of theircare are discussed and the possible range of uses for such arecording system considered.     

Research Note/Note de recherche Public opinion and gay rights

Bien que les attitudes canadiennes envers les droits à L'egalité des homosexuels soient devenues plus libérates, la condamnation morale de L'homosexualité n'a pas changé. Cela reflète des tendances contradictoires dans les démocraties libérates, qui d'un côte enchâssent les droits de L'individu au libre choix et à L'égalité des chances, et de L'autre imposent L'hétérosexisme et les normes traditionnelles basées sur la famille. Quoique le soutien du public pour les droits des homosexuels soit entouré de messages insitutionnels contradictoires, ce qui le rend volatile et fragile, il ouvre cependant la porte à d'importantes réformes.
Although Canadian attitudes toward gay equality rights have shifted toward more liberal positions, moral condemnation of homosexuality remains firm. This reflects contradictory tendencies in liberal democratic systems which on the one hand enshrine rights to individual choice and equal opportunity, and on the other enforce heterosexism and traditional family-based norms. Although public support for gay rights is beset by conflicting institutional messages, and is both volatile and fragile as a result, it does provide an opening for important reforms.