Trick or Treat: The Ethics of Mediator Manipulation

Much of what good mediators do can be characterized as “helpful interventions” that assist the parties towards legitimate goals such as a better understanding, a platform for developing options, and (where the parties choose) an agreement or settlement. However, all such “helpful interventions” are inevitably manipulative, in the sense that the mediator is, often unilaterally, making “moves” with profound impact on the parties’ bargaining. To evaluate the ethics of any individual move, the authors propose asking two questions: 1) does the move further or help a legitimate party or process goal that advances party self-determination in decision-making; and 2) is the move manipulative in such a way that it disadvantages one side or undermines the integrity of the mediator or the mediation process. The more “secret” or hidden the intervention, the more problematic it becomes

Barriers to the Development of SME's in the Australian Construction Industry

Small and medium sized companies (SMEs) operating in the construction industry in regionalareas of Australia often struggle to compete against city-based companies for constructionwork. This paper identifies the barriers that confront SMEs in areas outsidemajor cities, specifically in regional areas of Victoria (Australia) where local firms oftencompete unsuccessfully against large Melbourne-based organisations. The authors alsolook at the possibility of using e-commerce solutions to give regional SMEs greater competitivenessas well as considering possible policy initiatives that may assist these companiesto be more successful in tendering against city-based competition

Creating awareness and seeking assistance on transportation issues facing DSS clients in the Pee Dee of South Carolina

This research project which asks: "How can the DSS State Director be provided with data that can be used to convey to Pee Dee legislators the complexity and depth of DSS involvement in transportation and the need for assistance in addressing key transportation issues that remain

Whither Scottish Higher Education? [Special Edition: Higher Education]

The last year has seen much discussion across the UK of the funding of Higher Education. Discussion among politicians, media commentators and academics has highlighted two elements: the continuing need to find an approach to the funding of Higher Education which facilitates high, international quality of research, teaching and knowledge exchange activities; and the continuing durability of familiar and exhaustive arguments about sources of contributions to funding. Against a long-standing background of governmental financial support for the UK HE sector, policy-makers are choosing elements from a wellestablished menu of options about sources of funding, and, as evident in policies on tuition fees, those choices may vary in different parts of the UK. The recent past has also seen, in contrast to the approach taken by Dearing some fifteen years ago, a series of partial approaches to the issue of HE funding: debate on RAE/REF exercises and the associated funding regime takes place almost separately from the discussion of funding education which tends to concentrate on fees and graduate contributions

Ex Post Evaluation of Economic Infrastructure Assets: Significance of Regional Heterogeneities in Australia

The process of evaluation is pivotal for ensuring infrastructure assets meet the demands and needs of business and the wider community. An empirical ex-post evaluation of the impact of regional heterogeneities for economic infrastructure assets in Australia is undertaken using a panel error correction model. The paper provides governments with an invaluable insight into the nature of ex-post evaluation, which is needed to develop and implement new performance measures to improve the public sector’s ability to future-proof their infrastructure assets

The Scottish economy [February 1986]

With the inauguration of the quarterly Scottish Business Survey (SBS) in September 1984 there are now two regular up-to-date indicators of trends in the Scottish industrial sector. The combination of the new survey and the long-standing CBI Industrial Trends Survey provides a comprehensive assessment of trends in Scottish industry. The two data sources are essentially complementary, but there are important differences between them