Valuing human resources: perceptions and practices in UK organisations.

Despite Government and academic interest in valuing human resources, there has been relatively little progress in reflecting the value of human resources in UK organisations. This research uses a survey questionnaire to identify perceptions and practices in the area of valuing human resources in three types of UK organizations; traditional companies, knowledge intensive companies and local authorities. The survey focuses on the importance of valuing human resources, current measurement practices, key barriers to the valuation of human resources and the progress expected in this field over five years in UK organisations. Although the majority of respondents identified that the measurement/valuation of human resources was important to their organization, only little or moderate progress in recognizing the worth of human resources in financial statements was expected. The main reasons for this were identified to be lack of understanding and support of the area by others in the organization, particularly senior management, lack of resources, uncertainty as to what information should be reported and lack of precision and reliability in current human resource measures. The research identified that there is more interest in the area from human resource professionals than accounting professionals and that valuation of human resources should be included in internal reports rather than reported externally. More research is now needed, both on conceptual models for valuing human resources within organizations and empirical research focusing on issues such as gaining commitment to valuing of human resources by senior management, the development of systems of valuing human resources, how systems to value employees, when developed, are implemented in organisations and the consequences, both intended and unintended of how the systems operate in practice

The establishment of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI): the first step in the development of an accounting profession in post-independence India

This paper analyses the influence of culture and politics on the establishment of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) using a theoretical framework, extending the work of Gray (1988) and McKinnon (1986) in which accounting change is analysed into three phases, a source phase, a diffusion phase and a reaction phase. The ICAI is established in a way which is in line with the cultural and social context of India with the ICAI set up under parliamentary charter promulgated through the parliamentary system and with government involvement in the council of the ICAI. In particular, the analysis shows the importance of the relationship between the state and the accounting profession in determining the outcome of accounting change, with in this case, the balance of power being in the hands of the Government

Development of company law in India : the case of the Companies Act 1956

The influence of culture and politics on the promulgation of accounting regulations in the Companies Act 1956 in India immediately post independence is analysed using an exploratory framework based on the work of McKinnon (1986) and Gray (1988). Within the framework, the process of change is analysed into three phases, a source phase, diffusion phase and reaction phase with all phases of change being influenced by intra-system activity, trans-system activity and the social and cultural context of India. In particular, the importance of the role of the Government within the process of accounting change is seen and the social context is seen to influence both the need for change and the process of change

A study on Quantization Dimension in complete metric spaces

The primary objective of the present paper is to develop the theory of quantization dimension of an invariant measure associated with an iterated function system consisting of finite number of contractive infinitesimal similitudes in a complete metric space. This generalizes the known results on quantization dimension of self-similar measures in the Euclidean space to a complete metric space. In the last part, continuity of quantization dimension is discussed

High energy electrons and emission of the omnidirectional synchrotron radiation in radio frequency and X-ray regions

High energy electrons and emission of galactic, omnidirectional synchrotron radiation in radio frequency and X rays region

Measurement of the Charged Splash and Re-entrant Albedo of the Cosmic Radiation

Proton and electron balloon measurements of splash and re-entrant cosmic ray albed

Strain specific effects of low level lead exposure on associative learning and memory in rats.

Exposure to lead (Pb) remains a significant public health concern. Lead exposure in early life impairs the normal development of numerous cognitive and neurobehavioral processes. Previous work has shown that the effects of developmental Pb exposure on gene expression patterns in the brain are modulated by various factors including the developmental timing of the exposure, level of exposure, sex, and genetic background. Using gene microarray profiling, we previously reported a significant strain-specific effect of Pb exposure on the hippocampal transcriptome, with the greatest number of differentially expressed transcripts in Long Evans (LE) rats and the fewest in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. The present study examined the extent to which this differential effect of Pb on hippocampal gene expression might influence behavior. Animals (males and females) were tested in a trace fear conditioning paradigm to evaluate effects of Pb exposures (perinatal (PERI; gestation to postnatal day 21) or early postnatal (EPN; postnatal day 1 to day 21)) on associative learning and memory. All animals (Pb-exposed and non-Pb-exposed controls) showed normal acquisition of the conditioned stimulus (tone)-unconditioned stimulus (footshock) association. Long Evans rats showed a significant deficit in short- and long-term recall, influenced by sex and the timing of Pb exposure (PERI or EPN). In contrast, Pb exposure had no significant effect on memory consolidation or recall in any SD rats. These results further demonstrate the important influence of genetic background to the functional outcomes from developmental Pb exposure