International Journal of Accounting Information Science and

ISSN 1940-9524
International Journal of Accounting
Information Science and Leadership
Published and Sponsored by: Intellectbase International Consortium
IJAISL
International Journal of
Accounting Information
Science and Leadership
Volume 6, Issue 16
Editor-in-Chief
Dr. David King, Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. David King holds a Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems and over 14 years experience in Accounting
Information Systems, a Masters in E-business and Bachelors in Management Information Systems. He is
also a Certified Cisco Systems Instructor, Microsoft Certified Professional, Certified Novell Administrator and
has recently achieved Diplomas in Medical & Dental and Pharmacy academic programs. Dr. King’s
educational background expands across Australia, Europe, Africa and North America. He is keen in teaching
Networking Systems, Computer Systems Security, Applied Information Technology, Relational Database
Management Systems, Management Information Systems, E-business Strategies, Knowledge Management,
Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Reengineering and ERP Application Systems.
Dr. King’s research work is in the areas of: Computer-Mediated-Communication, The Internet and
Psychology, E-Learning and Distance Education, The Internet and Global Collaboration, Foreign Aid
Projects in Developing Nations, Accounting Information Systems, Knowledge Management, Intelligence &
Homeland Security Systems, Health Information Science & Management, Research Methods and Design.
He has published in several top Information Systems Conference Proceedings and Journals (IFIP, ACIS,
PACIS, IRMA, JAGR, JISTP, etc.). In addition, Dr. King serves on several editorial boards in the research
community. He has received several research presentation “Best Paper” awards in Seattle, USA, Bangalore,
India, Las Vegas, USA, and Venice, Italy. As new research disciplines develop, Dr. King expands his
horizons, investigates, experiments and contributes to intellectual consortiums and forums. He serves as the
Chair for the Intellectbase International Consortium conferences and leads the Editors Excellence Review
Panel (EERP) for the International Handbook of Academic Research & Teaching (IHART) Proceedings. In
adiition, he currently serves as the Program Coordinator for International Institute of Academic Research.
Contributing Editors
Dr. Jiri Strouhal, Assistant Editor
Intellectbase International Consortium
European Affiliate
Ms. Wenting Xie, Managing Editor
Intellectbase International Consortium
United States Affiliate
Senior Advisory Board
Dr. Cheaseth Seng, Associate Editor
Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, Cambodia
Dr. Devendra Prasad, Associate Editor
University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
Dr. Jun Yang, Associate Editor
University of Houston – Victoria, USA
Dr. Tehmina Khan, Associate Editor
RMIT University, Australia
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ISSN: 1940-9532 Online
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Editor’s Message
My sincere gratitude goes to the Intellectbase International Consortium (IIC) program committee for their
hard work in producing Volume 6, Issue 16. In addition, I want to thank all of the Reviewers’ Task Panel
(RTP), Executive Editorial Board (EEB), Senior Advisory Board (SAB), and the Contributing & Managing
Editors (CME) for their efforts, which has made IJAISL a successful and indexed academic Journal. They
work hard to review, comment and format the various research papers to fulfill accreditation standards. The
articles in this issue offer intellectual contributions and focus on the broadening of academic resources, a
continuous development and exchange of ideas among global research professionals.
The IJAISL is an intellectually reviewed Journal of present-day research in quantitative accounting,
information science and qualitative leadership practices. Examinations of empirical work in Accounting,
Economics and Finance, Information Processing and Leadership which are useful for the understanding of
their respective behaviors at regional and international levels are the core of this Journal.
The goal of the Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership (IJAISL) is to provide significant
research materials to the business, government, and academic communities by helping to promote the
interdisciplinary exchange of ideas on a global scale. IJAISL seeks international input in all aspects of the
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Reviewers Task Panel and Executive Editorial Board
Dr. David White
Roosevelt University, USA
Dr. Dennis Taylor
RMIT University, Australia
Dr. Danka Radulovic
University of Belgrade, Serbia
Dr. Harrison C. Hartman
University of Georgia, USA
Dr. Sloan T. Letman, III
American Intercontinental University, USA
Dr. Sushil Misra
Concordia University, Canada
Dr. Jiri Strouhal
University of Economics-Prague, Czech Republic
Dr. Avis Smith
New York City College of Technology, USA
Dr. Joel Jolayemi
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Smaragda Papadopoulou
University of Ioannina, Greece
Dr. Xuefeng Wang
Taiyun Normal University, China
Dr. Burnette Hamil
Mississippi State University, USA
Dr. Jeanne Kuhler
Auburn University, USA
Dr. Alejandro Flores Castro
Universidad de Pacifico, Peru
Dr. Babalola J. Ogunkola
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria
Dr. Robert Robertson
Southern Utah University, USA
Dr. Debra Shiflett
American Intercontinental University, USA
Dr. Sonal Chawla
Panjab University, India
Dr. Cheaseth Seng
RMIT University, Australia
Dr. Jianjun Yin
Jackson State Univerrsity, USA
Dr. R. Ivan Blanco
Texas State University – San Marcos, USA
Dr. Shikha Vyas-Doorgapersad
North-West University, South Africa
Dr. Tahir Husain
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Dr. James D. Williams
Kutztown University, USA
Dr. Jifu Wang
University of Houston Victoria, USA
Dr. Tehmina Khan
RMIT University, Australia
Dr. Janet Forney
Piedmont College, USA
Dr. Werner Heyns
Savell Bird & Axon, UK
Dr. Adnan Bahour
Zagazig University, Egypt
Dr. Mike Thomas
Humboldt State University, USA
Dr. Rodney Davis
Troy University, USA
Dr. William Ebomoyi
Chicago State University, USA
Dr. Mohsen Naser-Tavakolian
San Francisco State University, USA
Dr. Joselina Cheng
University of Central Oklahoma, USA
Reviewers Task Panel and Executive Editorial Board (Continued)
Dr. Mumbi Kariuki
Nipissing University, Canada
Dr. Khalid Alrawi
Al-Ain University of Science and Technology, UAE
Dr. Rafiuddin Ahmed
James Cook University, Australia
Dr. Natalie Housel
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Regina Schaefer
University of La Verne, USA
Dr. Nitya Karmakar
University of Western Sydney, Australia
Dr. Ademola Olatoye
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria
Dr. Anita King
University of South Alabama, USA
Dr. Dana Tesone
University of Central Florida, USA
Dr. Lloyd V. Dempster
Texas A & M University - Kingsville, USA
Dr. Farhad Simyar
Chicago State University, USA
Dr. Bijesh Tolia
Chicago State University, USA
Dr. John O'Shaughnessy
San Francisco State University, USA
Dr. John Elson
National University, USA
Dr. Stephen Kariuki
Nipissing University, Canada
Dr. Demi Chung
University of Sydney, Australia
Dr. Rose Mary Newton
University of Alabama, USA
Dr. James (Jim) Robbins
Trinity Washington University, USA
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Dalahmeh
University of Wollongong, Australia
Dr. Jeffrey (Jeff) Kim
University of Washington, USA
Dr. Shahnawaz Muhammed
Fayetteville State University, USA
Dr. Dorothea Gaulden
Sensible Solutions, USA
Dr. Brett Sims
Borough of Manhattan Community College, USA
Dr. Gerald Marquis
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Frank Tsui
Southern Polytechnic State University, USA
Ms. Katherine Leslie
American Intercontinental University, USA
Dr. John Tures
LaGrange College, USA
Dr. David Davis
The University of West Florida, USA
Dr. Mary Montgomery
Jacksonville State University, USA
Dr. Peter Ross
Mercer University, USA
Dr. Frank Cheng
Central Michigan University, USA
Dr. Van Reidhead
University of Texas-Pan American, USA
Dr. Vera Lim Mei-Lin
The University of Sydney, Australia
Dr. Denise Richardson
Bluefield State College, USA
Reviewers Task Panel and Executive Editorial Board (Continued)
Dr. Robin Latimer
Lamar University, USA
Dr. Reza Vaghefi
University of North Florida, USA
Ms. Alison Duggins
American Intercontinental University, USA
Dr. Jeffrey Siekpe
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Michael Alexander
University of Arkansas at Monticello, USA
Dr. Greg Gibbs
St. Bonaventure University, USA
Dr. Kehinde Alebiosu
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria
Dr. Mike Rippy
Troy University, USA
Dr. Gina Pipoli de Azambuja
Universidad de Pacifico, Peru
Dr. Steven Watts
Pepperdine University, USA
Dr. Andy Ju An Wang
Southern Polytechnic State University, USA
Dr. Ada Anyamene
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria
Dr. Edilberto Raynes
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Nancy Miller
Governors State University, USA
Dr. Dobrivoje Radovanovic
University of Belgrade, Serbia
Dr. David F. Summers
University of Houston-Victoria, USA
Dr. George Romeo
Rowan University, USA
Dr. Robert Kitahara
Troy University – Southeast Region, USA
Dr. William Root
Augusta State University, USA
Dr. Brandon Hamilton
Hamilton's Solutions, USA
Dr. Natalie Weathers
Philadelphia University, USA
Dr. William Cheng
Troy University, USA
Dr. Linwei Niu
Claflin University, USA
Dr. Taida Kelly
Governors State University, USA
Dr. Nesa L’Abbe Wu
Eastern Michigan University, USA
Dr. Denise de la Rosa
Grand Valley State University, USA
Dr. Rena Ellzy
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Kimberly Johnson
Auburn University Montgomery, USA
Dr. Kathleen Quinn
Louisiana State University, USA
Dr. Sameer Vaidya
Texas Wesleyan University, USA
Dr. Josephine Ebomoyi
Northwestern Memorial Hospital, USA
Dr. Pamela Guimond
Governors State University, USA
Dr. Douglas Main
Eastern New Mexico University, USA
Dr. Vivian Kirby
Kennesaw State University, USA
Reviewers Task Panel and Executive Editorial Board (Continued)
Dr. Sonya Webb
Montgomery Public Schools, USA
Dr. Randall Allen
Southern Utah University, USA
Dr. Angela Williams
Alabama A&M University, USA
Dr. Claudine Jaenichen
Chapman University, USA
Dr. Carolyn Spillers Jewell
Fayetteville State University, USA
Dr. Richard Dane Holt
Eastern New Mexico University, USA
Dr. Kingsley Harbor
Jacksonville State University, USA
Dr. Barbara-Leigh Tonelli
Coastline Community College, USA
Dr. Joan Popkin
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. William J. Carnes
Metropolitan State College of Denver, USA
Dr. Chris Myers
Texas A & M University – Commerce, USA
Dr. Faith Anyachebelu
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria
Dr. Kevin Barksdale
Union University, USA
Dr. Donna Cooner
Colorado State University, USA
Dr. Michael Campbell
Florida A&M University, USA
Dr. Kenton Fleming
Southern Polytechnic State University, USA
Dr. Thomas Griffin
Nova Southeastern University, USA
Dr. Zoran Ilic
University of Belgrade, Serbia
Dr. James N. Holm
University of Houston-Victoria, USA
Dr. Edilberto A. Raynes
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Richard Dane Holt
Veterans' Administration, USA
Dr. Cerissa Stevenson
Colorado State University, USA
Dr. Rhonda Holt
New Mexico Christian Children's Home, USA
Dr. Donna Stringer
University of Houston-Victoria, USA
Dr. Yu-Wen Huang
Spalding University, USA
Dr. Lesley M. Mace
Auburn University Montgomery, USA
Dr. Christian V. Fugar
Dillard University, USA
Dr. Cynthia Summers
University of Houston-Victoria, USA
Dr. John M. Kagochi
University of Houston-Victoria, USA
Dr. Barbara-Leigh Tonelli
Coastline Community College, USA
Dr. Yong-Gyo Lee
University of Houston-Victoria, USA
Dr. Rehana Whatley
Oakwood University, USA
Dr. George Mansour
DeVry College of NY, USA
Dr. Venugopal Majur Shetty
Multimedia University, Malaysia
Reviewers Task Panel and Executive Editorial Board (Continued)
Dr. Peter Miller
Indiana Wesleyan University, USA
Dr. Carolyn S. Payne
Nova Southeastern University, USA
Dr. Ted Mitchell
University of Nevada, USA
Dr. Veronica Paz
Nova Southeastern University, USA
Dr. Alma Mintu-Wimsatt
Texas A & M University – Commerce, USA
Dr. Terence Perkins
Veterans' Administration, USA
Dr. Liz Mulig
University of Houston-Victoria, USA
Dr. Sue-Jen Lin
I-Shou University, China
Dr. Robert R. O'Connell Jr.
JSA Healthcare Corporation, USA
Dr. Kong-Cheng Wong
Governors State University, USA
Dr. P.N. Okorji
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria
Dr. Azene Zenebe
Bowie State University, USA
Dr. James Ellzy
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Donn Bergman
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Padmini Banerjee
Delaware State University, USA
Dr. Yvonne Ellis
Columbus State University, USA
Dr. Aditi Mitra
University of Colorado, USA
Dr. Elizabeth Kunnu
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Myna German
Delaware State University, USA
Dr. Brian A. Griffith
Vanderbilt University, USA
Dr. Robin Oatis-Ballew
Tennessee State University, USA
Mr. Corey Teague
Middle Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Dirk C. Gibson
University of New Mexico, USA
Dr. Joseph K. Mintah
Azusa Pacific University, USA
Dr. Susan McGrath-Champ
University of Sydney, Australia
Dr. Raymond R. Fletcher
Virginia State University, USA
Dr. Bruce Thomas
Athens State University, USA
Dr. Yvette Bolen
Athens State University, USA
Dr. William Seffens
Clark Atlanta University, USA
Dr. Svetlana Peltsverger
Southern Polytechnic State University, USA
Dr. Kathy Weldon
Lamar University, USA
Dr. Caroline Howard
TUI University, USA
Dr. Shahram Amiri
Stetson University, USA
Dr. Philip H. Siegel
Augusta State University, USA
Reviewers Task Panel and Executive Editorial Board (Continued)
Dr. Virgil Freeman
Northwest Missouri State University, USA
Dr. William A. Brown
Jackson State University, USA
Dr. Larry K. Bright
University of South Dakota, USA
Dr. M. N. Tripathi
Xavier Institute of Management, India
Dr. Barbara Mescher
University of Sydney, Australia
Dr. Ronald De Vera Barredo
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Jennifer G. Bailey
Bowie State University, USA
Dr. Samir T. Ishak
Grand Valley State University, USA
Dr. Julia Williams
University of Minnesota Duluth, USA
Dr. Stacie E. Putman-Yoquelet
Tennessee State University, USA
Mr. Prawet Ueatrongchit
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand
Dr. Curtis C. Howell
Georgia Southwestern University, USA
Dr. Stephen Szygenda
Southern Methodist University, USA
Dr. E. Kevin Buell
Augustana College, USA
Dr. Kiattisak Phongkusolchit
University of Tennessee at Martin, USA
Dr. Simon S. Mak
Southern Methodist University, USA
Dr. Reza Varjavand
Saint Xavier University, USA
Dr. Jay Sexton
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Stephynie C. Perkins
University of North Florida, USA
Dr. Katherine Smith
Texas A&M University, USA
Dr. Robert Robertson
Saint Leo University, USA
Dr. Michael D. Jones
Kirkwood Community College, USA
Dr. Kim Riordan
University of Minnesota Duluth, USA
Dr. Eileen J. Colon
Western Carolina University, USA
Mrs. Patcharee Chantanabubpha
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand
Mr. Jeff Eyanson
Azusa Pacific University, USA
Dr. Neslon C. Modeste
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Eleni Coukos Elder
Tennessee State University, USA
Mr. Wayne Brown
Florida Institute of Technology, USA
Dr. Brian Heshizer
Georgia Southwestern University, USA
Dr. Tina Y. Cardenas
Paine College, USA
Dr. Thomas K. Vogel
Stetson University, USA
Dr. Ramprasad Unni
Portland State University, USA
Dr. Hisham M. Haddad
Kennesaw State University, USA
Reviewers Task Panel and Executive Editorial Board (Continued)
Dr. Dev Prasad
University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
Mrs. Donnette Bagot-Allen
Judy Piece – Monteserrat, USA
Dr. Murphy Smith
Texas A&M University, USA
Dr. Ya You
University of Central Florida, USA
Dr. Jasmin Hyunju Kwon
Middle Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Christopher Brown
University of North Florida, USA
Dr. Nan Chuan Chen
Meiho Institute of Technology, China
Dr. Yajni Warnapala
Roger Williams University, USA
Dr. Zufni Yehiya
Tree Foundation - London, USA
Dr. Brad Dobner
Tennessee State University, USA
Dr. Sandra Davis
The University of West Florida, USA
Dr. Ibrahim Kargbo
Coppin State University, USA
The International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership (IJAISL) is published semi-annually
by Intellectbase International Consortium (IIC). IJAISL provides a forum for academics, practioners and decisionmakers to advance their presumptions in diverse disciplines that have an international orientation. Articles
emerging in this Journal do not necessarily represent the opinion of Intellectbase International Consortium (IIC) or
any of the editors or reviewers. IJAISL is listed in Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Accounting,
ProQuest, Ulrich’s Directory, ABDC and JournalSeek. In addition, IJAISL is in the process to be listed in the
following databases: ABI Inform, CINAHL, EconLit new books, ACADEMIC JOURNALS DATABASE.
TABLE OF CONTENT
THE MIS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM
Richard Pitre ................................................................................................................ 1
ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF THREE MODES OF MEDICAL BUSINESS SOCIAL
DARWINISM: RADICAL, ECOLOGICAL, AND METROPOLITAN
Kamal Dean Parhizgar and Suzan S. Parhizgar ........................................................... 9
DISABILITY ADJUDICATION: THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND
HEURISTIC BIASES ON DECISION-MAKING
Rockie C. McDaniel ................................................................................................... 23
LEGAL AWARENESS AND PERCEIVED ETHICAL LEADERSHIP OF EDUCATIONAL
ADMINISTRATORS IN STATE UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES (SUCS) IN REGION 3
Robert P. Pena .......................................................................................................... 71
COST MATTERS: HIGHER EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY BASED CARE
ORGANIZATIONS
Kimberly Handy1 and Wanda Gwyn2 .......................................................................... 82
MANAGING HIGHER EDUCATION AS PUBLIC GOOD: CONTROVERSY,
STAKEHOLDERS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND
SUSTAINABILITY OF THE MODEL
Samir T. IsHak ........................................................................................................... 87
ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE: MAJOR
CORPORATE SECTOR OF ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
Amna Fahim and M Fahad Fahim ............................................................................ 104
Richard Pitre
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 1-8
Full Article Available Online at: Intellectbase and EBSCOhost │ IJAISL is indexed with Cabell’s, JournalSeek, etc.
International Journal of Accounting Information Science & Leadership
Journal Homepage: www.intellectbase.org/journals │ © 2013 Published by Intellectbase International Consortium, USA
THE MIS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM
Richard Pitre
Carlton Perkins, USA
A central feature of accounting in today’s business world is the interaction of accounting
professionals with computer-based information systems. As primary users of information
systems in organizations, accountants must participate in their design and implementation; and
understand their operation. Accountants must measure and evaluate the performance of the
information system, assess the quality of information processing and evaluate the accuracy of
data input and information output.
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The Objectives of AIS should be to:
Provide an in-depth understanding of key business processes of an organization, and
how the data captured during the business process flow through to management and
financial accounting.
Train students to model key business process activities and identify risk and control
issues related to a business process.
Provide comprehensive knowledge about AIS packages and enterprise resource
planning (ERP) packages and examine how AIS/ERP packages are implemented.
Provide students with an overview of some key modules of an ERP and teach
students the skills of using an industry standard package such as SAP.
However, most AIS course descriptions are as follows:
The AIS course is an introduction to accounting information systems and their roles in the
accounting environment. Systems covered include manual accounting, computerized
accounting, and Internet electronic commerce applications. Emphasis is upon developing
students' abilities to understand the processing of accounting data and the controls that are
necessary to assure accuracy and reliability of the data processed by the accounting system.
Objectives #3 and #4 are generally not covered.
Enterprise Resource Planning (also known as ERP) is an effective approach that most
businesses implement to enhance their productivity and performance. Before implementing
this system, it is necessary that business owners and board members have an extensive look
at the benefits and risks associated with the use of the ERP system. Known as a systematic
1
The MIS of Accounting Information System
approach that most industries use to organize resources as well as improve efficiency and
performance, Enterprise Resource Planning (also known as ERP) is usually implemented by
corporations to centralize the databases and functions of every department in a single system.
The system features various components including software modules, which integrate and
manage all the business and private records of firms. With the proper use of this system, firms
can decrease their losses and increase their profits.
How would an AIS course integrate the (1) providing a comprehensive knowledge about AIS
packages and enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages and examine how AIS/ERP
packages are implemented and (2) provide students with an overview of some key modules of
an ERP and teach students the skills of using an industry standard package such as SAP. This
paper offers the following:
ERP INTEGRATION
One of the essential factors that affect the efficiency of an ERP system is corporate integration.
To ensure that the system works appropriately, business records and data should be
integrated successfully. Data migration and consolidation can be done by following these
simple steps.
First, identify the records that should be transferred to the system. Set the date when the
migration will be done. Look for data templates that are very useful in organizing the records.
Remember to secure or freeze the tools to be used in the data transfer. Finally, remember to
examine and review the archive set-ups of the ERP system.
The Model Enterprise Resource Planning System
A model ERP system features databases that are organized into several software modules,
which include financial, human resources and manufacturing. Other modules that are present
in this system are projects, data warehouse, customer relationship management as well as
supply chain management. These modules are important to consolidate records related to
business tasks such as work flow management, supply chain planning and customer support
systems.
ERP and Corporate Productivity
Enterprise Resource Planning is one of the keys to enhance corporate productivity. Since all
the data or records of a firm were consolidated in a single system, then employees can get
updates on processes that are important to the supply and production chain. With the proper
use of the software, it will be easy for department heads to communicate with each other
whenever there are problems with the performance of the company.
2
Richard Pitre
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 1-8
Implementation of an ERP System
To maximize the use of an Enterprise Resource Planning system, there are some services that
should be featured in the software. Consulting services are important to the first phase of the
implementation of ERP because these will enhance workflows and product training activities.
Additionally, support services are also essential to the maintenance of the system. Lastly,
customization services are significant to assign codes that can hide and secure private and
confidential data.
Adding these two additional components will provide students with an understanding of how
the system integrates internal and external management information across an entire
organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer
relationship management, etc. The purpose of ERP is to facilitate the flow of information
between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the
connections to outside stakeholders.
Characteristics
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems typically include the following characteristics:
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An integrated system that operates in real time (or next to real time), without relying on
periodic updates.
A common database, which supports all applications.
A consistent look and feel throughout each module.
Installation of the system without elaborate application/data integration by the
Information Technology (IT) department.
Functional Areas
The following are common functional areas covered in an ERP System. In many ERP Systems
these are called and grouped together as ERP Modules:
Financial Accounting
General Ledger, Fixed Asset, Payables, Receivables, Cash Management, Financial
Consolidation[disambiguation needed]
Management Accounting
Budgeting, Costing, Cost Management, Activity Based Costing
Human Resources
Recruiting, Training, Payroll, Benefits, 401K, Diversity Management, Retirement, Separation
Manufacturing
3
The MIS of Accounting Information System
Engineering, Bill of Materials, Work Orders, Scheduling, Capacity, Workflow Management,
Quality Control, Manufacturing Process, Manufacturing Projects, Manufacturing Flow, Product
Life Cycle Management
Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Planning, Supplier Scheduling, Order to Cash, Purchasing, Inventory, Product
Configurator, Claim Processing
Project Management
Project Planning, Resource Planning, Project Costing, Work Break Down Structure, Billing,
Time and Expense, Performance Units, Activity Management
Customer Relationship Management
Sales and Marketing, Commissions, Service, Customer Contact, Call Center Support
Data Services
Various "self–service" interfaces for customers, suppliers and/or employees
Components
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Transactional database
Management portal/dashboard
Business intelligence system
Customizable reporting
External access via technology such as web services
Search
Document management
Messaging/chat/wiki
Workflow management
It is important that students have the ability to assess the advantages and disadvantages
associated with the use of the system, such as enhanced productivity and corporate financial
performance, improved business forecasting as well as organized work flows. On the other
hand the students should understand the disadvantages of using this approach such as the
need for allotting extra budget for the consolidation of all the databases and the need for the
development of an efficient re-engineering business plan.
The ERP selection process is an important step in the future financial and operational success
of an organization. Researching the vendor selection process for ERP systems revealed the
following as three of the most popular ERP systems:
Critical Success Factors in ERP Implementations.
4
Richard Pitre
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 1-8
Following are 10 tips for successfully selecting and implementing an ERP system:
1. Choose the right product – the right balance of flexibility, reliability, functionality, focus
(on your specific industry) of pre-designed processes – is essential if the team is to
have any chance of delivering against the business case. This means having the right
selection process and going beyond “tick box” analysis.
2. Choose the right implementation partner. There are many roles to fulfill within the
project requiring different skill levels and understanding. It is often better to have a mix
of skills, experience and rates to match to the level and complexity of each deliverable.
You need to look realistically at the support you need, technical, application, business,
change, process – most companies will need partners in more than one area. Note
that the right partner might be someone other than the ERP vendor.
3. Be ruthlessly commercial about your selection, negotiation and contracts.
Commercials are far more important here than the finite legal position (which will
almost certainly be that any liability on the vendor will be dependent upon you proving
that you did everything you were expected to do – which believe me is more difficult
than it sounds). The more you can document in terms of risk mitigation and shared
liability for project over-runs the better the working relationship.
4. Vendor management is key – while vendors are your partner in the project, you should
never forget they have their own drivers, wants and needs. You will both want a
“successful” project but their definition of success will be very different to yours.
5. Aim for the right goals – make sure you have a vision for where the system will be after
the initial phase, after two years and after five years. Be realistic about how much you
can implement at the outset and how much change your organization can take before
it breaks. Buy for the future state, while bearing in mind you will never get the same
discount on any software modules.
6. Use a third party to help with selection, planning, progress management, change
management and dispute resolution. Most people only do one or two ERP
implementations in their career – spending money with people who have completed
dozens or hundreds is always worthwhile.
7. If you have an ERP project that is off track, get the project reviewed and take advice
as early as possible – the faster you understand where you are and how to get control,
the more likely it is you will turn the situation around.
8. Use a tool to manage information, project milestones, budgets, resource allocation and
time/materials bookings. You need to know exactly where you are in the project and
5
The MIS of Accounting Information System
how much time and money you have spent to date in order to predict the cost and
timeline of the entire project.
9. Review and update the business case regularly – as you move through the project you
will find items that will boost your ROI, and you will find items that will increase your
costs. Being up-to-speed with this situation will help if you need to negotiate with the
CFO regarding re-shaping the budget.
10. Maintain constant senior management involvement. Support goes beyond what you
say. As mentioned earlier, this project will affect every part of your organization. The
risks in getting it wrong are immense and cost of losing control is hugely punitive.
Conclusion
The target for most ERP implementations is to integrate the business, reduce the “silo”
mentality, get information out of spreadsheets and into a single system, and get knowledge out
of peoples’ heads and into defined and repeatable processes. Key issues are granularity,
accuracy, uniformity and consistency of data combined with a standard method of delivery to
improve decision making and focus attention where it is most needed.
ERP implementations are about unification, bringing people together, improving flow,
increasing visibility and delivering business effectiveness. The technology is both an enabler
and a tool. The results come from how you build, define, articulate and communicate the
strategy, as well as how you support the change. All ERP programs have a technology partner
– isn’t it equally important that they have a business partner?
ERP COMPARISON
Comparing ERP vendors is a major activity in an ERP Selection Project. Many companies try
to focus on feature comparison as their method to compare vendors. Today there are many
websites and services that provide feature comparisons for free and for fee. The three
companies were chosen using the following criteria:




Company – understanding the size of the vendor, its resources, its, mission, markets
served, and its direction in the market. Does this vendor have the resources to keep
our company abreast of technology changes? Can this vendor be a great partner for
the next 15 to 20 years?
Technology – is the vendor’s technology direction in alignment with our client’s
technology strategy?
Function fit – evaluate how their software meets our client’s business process future
state
Support – understand how the vendor provides a support “ecosystem”: education,
web site, user group, partners, consultants, industry focus groups, and other
customers in our clients industry.
6
Richard Pitre

IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 1-8
Cost of ownership – evaluate the total cost of ownership over at least five years:
license fee, annual fee, implementation fees, and internal support costs, ongoing
internal and external costs.
SAP ERP Overview
Founded in 1972, SAP provides business software applications and services to companies of
all sizes in more than 25 industries. With subsidiaries in over 50 countries, the company is
listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol SAP. SAP employs more than 48,500 people in over 50
countries. Today, more than 89,000 companies in over 120 countries run SAP software.
Dynamics GP by Microsoft
Microsoft Business Solutions (NASDAQ: MSFT), which includes the businesses of Great
Plains, Microsoft bCentral, and Navision a/s, offers a range of business applications for small
and mid-market businesses. Microsoft Business Solutions applications can help automate
end-to-end business processes across the following areas.










Financials
Distribution
Project accounting
Electronic commerce
Human resources (HR) and payroll
Manufacturing
Supply chain management (SCM)
Business intelligence (BI)
Sales and marketing management
Customer service and support
Microsoft was established in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington (US).
Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains eEnterprise)
was originally released in July 1994. It meets the needs of over 34,500 small, mid-market, and
corporate account customers. This enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is extensible
and has a modular approach. It provides functionality for financials, inventory and order
processing, human resource management, customer relationship management (CRM), field
service, e-commerce, project management, manufacturing, and analytics and reporting.
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne by Oracle
Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (formerly PeopleSoft) is a suite of modular, pre-integrated,
industry-specific business applications designed for rapid deployment and ease of
administration on pure internet architecture. It is suited for organizations that manufacture,
7
The MIS of Accounting Information System
construct, distribute, service, or manage products or physical assets. It includes financial
management, asset lifecycle management, project management, supply chain management
(SCM), relationship management, human capital management, supply management,
applications technology, and performance management modules.
For more information, visit the company’s web site.
Founded in 1977, Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) supplies software for information
management. With annual revenues of more than $10.9 billion (USD), the company offers its
database, tools, and application products, along with related consulting, education, and
support services, in more than 145 countries around the world.
Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California (US), Oracle develops and deploys Internetenabled enterprise software across its entire product line, which includes database, server,
enterprise business applications and application development, and decision support tools.
Oracle offers e-business solutions that extend from front-office customer relationship
management (CRM), to back-office operational applications, to platform infrastructure.
CONCLUSION
The target for most ERP implementations is to integrate the business, reduce the “silo”
mentality, get information out of spreadsheets and into a single system, and get knowledge out
of peoples’ heads and into defined and repeatable processes. Key issues are granularity,
accuracy, uniformity and consistency of data combined with a standard method of delivery to
improve decision making and focus attention where it is most needed.
ERP implementations are about unification, bringing people together, improving flow,
increasing visibility and delivering business effectiveness. The technology is both an enabler
and a tool. The results come from how you build, define, articulate and communicate the
strategy, as well as how you support the change. All ERP programs have a technology partner
– isn’t it equally important that they have a business partner?
8
K. D. Parhizgar and S. S. Parhizgar
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 9-22
Full Article Available Online at: Intellectbase and EBSCOhost │ IJAISL is indexed with Cabell’s, JournalSeek, etc.
International Journal of Accounting Information Science & Leadership
Journal Homepage: www.intellectbase.org/journals │ © 2013 Published by Intellectbase International Consortium, USA
ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF THREE MODES OF MEDICAL BUSINESS SOCIAL
DARWINISM: RADICAL, ECOLOGICAL, AND METROPOLITAN
Kamal Dean Parhizgar1 and Suzan S. Parhizgar2
1Texas
A&M International University, USA and 2North Texas Osteopathic Medical College, USA
ABSTRACT
T
he main objective of this article is to analyze different ethical and legal dimensions
of human medical rights within the boundaries of natural human rights and civil
rights concerning application of the medical business Social Darwinism
philosophies. There are three major domains of Medical Business Social Darwinism
Philosophies: (1) The Radical Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy: “The poor are
poor because they are supposed to be that way due to their socio-cultural and political inferior
power-set and econo-political class stratification and they should barely have access to
medical care services and the rich are rich due to their socio-cultural and econo-political
superior status and they should enjoy from the highest possible medical care services.” (2) The
Ecological Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy: “Existence and survival of naturally
endowed fortunate individuals are prosperous and the unfortunate deprived individuals
(handicapped, retarded, low education, and low-income citizens and residents) who are sank
to the bottom for having born there are unworthy and deserve to tolerate pain and suffering
and die in poverty.” (3) The Metropolitan Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy: “The
survival of the fittest, mightiest, and wealthiest and the demise of the sickest, weakest, and
poorest.” Fittest, mightiest, and wealthiest deserve to have access to the best available,
affordable, and advanced medical facilities and sickest, weakest, and poorest patients because
of both weaknesses of their natural and socio-economic conditions not to have access to
advanced medical facilities and live with pain and suffering and die in misery.”
Keywords: Social Darwinism, Evolution, Ecological, Radical, Metropolitan, Philosophy,
Biosophy, Technosophy, Paliobiology, Hypothetic-Deductive, Permaculture,
Affordability, Accessibility, Colonias
INTRODUCTION
Darwin was an excellent hypothetico-deductive philosopher. He advanced his scientific views
in multiple fields, including morphology, biology, psychology, sociology, and finally in evolution.
First, he claimed that evolution is a historical science that does not need to satisfy the
requirements of the hypothetic-deductive methods because the evolution of organisms is a
9
Ethical Analysis of Three Modes of Medical Business Social Darwinism: Radical, Ecological and Metropolitan
historical process that depends on unique and unpredictable events, and thus is not subject to
formulation of testable hypotheses and theories. The second kind of his analysis concerns the
elucidation of mechanisms or processes that bring about evolutionary changes. These
inquiries deal with causal and processes rather than consequential relationships. In biology,
population genetics, population ecology, paleobiology, and many other similar branches of
knowledge are the relevant disciplines. Similarly, foundations of Social Darwinism philosophies
are based upon historical changes happened among different species to be descriptive-base
and classified-stratification. Descriptive-base and classified-stratification of historical
evolutionary socio-economical characteristics of different social groups are necessarily known
as causal activities in all types of populations that through social interactions make distinctions
between advanced and retarded socio-economical groups of populations in all ecological
conditions.
From the standpoint of evolutionary theory of Social Darwinism, we assume that all people
prefer values based upon general consensus agreements about ethical issues in civilized
societies. Such a consensus view relies on a framework of equitable natural professional
treatments of all mankind in clinical interventions. Among those natural professional values
(not necessarily civil values); medical ethics is about committed codes and oaths of
professional medical authorities to protect natural rights and human rights of patients in
medical practices. Medical ethics in general and applied ethics in clinical intervention practices
in particular, are objectively oriented systems of thoughts and actions that help people to live
with dignity and integrity. However, there are different types of political-economical ideologies
that make distinctive signs of medical cost-affordability and accessibility among different
groups of people.
This article has analyzed inherent moral, ethical, and legal issues and problems of which
physicians, clinicians, and their team members should be familiar with during the time of
making decisions, performing surgical procedural operations, and presenting their professional
expertise opinions and forensic deliberations during court hearings. In particular, we describe
and analyze deontological, intellectual, and popular utilitarian principles and mechanisms by
which physicians and clinicians may assure that cross-cultural understanding are being
reviewed in very depth in order to prevent further conflicting consequences. Nevertheless,
attending physicians and clinicians should be familiar with patients’ background: religious faith,
cultural values, and lifestyles upon choices are adequately respected and protected. Finally,
we are going to review different clinical interventions through analyzing different sociocultural
and econo-political scenarios from the viewpoints of cultural backgrounds, patients’ categorical
characteristics, patients’ family members’ concerns, healthcare insurance companies, and
governmental regulatory agencies as stakeholders. It should be noted that Petrella (2012: 3)
indicated: “Signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (PPAC) [or Obamacare] contains an ‘individual mandate’ that requires
uninsured Americans to purchase health insurance if they do not fall within one of the
individual’s exceptions… This policy directive expressly requires U.S. citizens and legal
residents to have federal government-approved ‘qualifying’ health insurance coverage by
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K. D. Parhizgar and S. S. Parhizgar
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 9-22
January, 2014. Those who refuse to purchase a government-approved (NOT government run,
mind you) health insurance plan will incur a penalty of $695 per year or 2.5% of their annual
income, whichever is higher.” Such a medical legislative act has been approved by the U. S.
Supreme Court as a tax bill and all citizens and residents should observe it.
WHAT ARE OBJECTIVES OF HEALTHCARE?
As Parhizgar and Parhizgar (2011) stated, first, we will elaborate on the positive side of the
wellbeing that is the objective of healthcare insurance systems. The courses of action will have
some or all of the following objectives for the healthcare insurance services:





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

Promotion of health through observation of psychosomatic exercises and meditation.
Maintenance of health through observation of descent dietary habits.
Prevention of diseases through observation prudent decisions, directions, and actions.
Enhancement and improvement of functional status of compromised desires to be
healthy.
Following educational and counseling advices and directions on the basis of their
conscious awareness and avoidance of miserable actions.
Prevention of early death by following the healthy direction of a balanced life.
Avoiding harm to self in the courses of prevention and enhanced healthy condition.
Promotion of psychological, mental, and spiritual life.
Observation of hygiene directions.
Promotion of health within the contextual boundaries of natural aging.
Achievement of the above objectives is the benefit of healthcare insurance systems.
Frequently, all or most of these objectives can be achieved simultaneously. Now we would like
to turn to the opposite side of healthcare which is medical care.
WHAT ARE OBJECTIVES OF MEDICAL CARE?
Medicine aims to cure diseases, to treat patients’ abnormal symptoms, and to restore or
maintain patients’ natural normal functional abilities. Medicine has never been interested in
healthcare functions unless as treatment and/or therapeutic objectives in dealing with patients
against patients’ infections. On the other hand, the healthcare services emphasize on the
positive side of creation and maintenance of a normal life through prevention and offensive
mechanisms against diseases, physical weaknesses, emotional disorders, and societal
maladjustments. In medical care the courses of action will have some or all of the following
objectives:



To eradicate patients’ symptom of infections.
To restore healthy conditions of patients.
To improve the quality of a patient’s life who needs and seeks medical care services.
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Ethical Analysis of Three Modes of Medical Business Social Darwinism: Radical, Ecological and Metropolitan







To return a sick or ill or injured person back to a normal life by appropriate treatments
and/or therapeutic techniques.
To restore defected organs and convert them into normal functions.
To convert unable patients into able people after accidents.
To intervene patients’ abnormalities by reducing uncomfortable functioning of physical
body and maintenance of functions to the maximum capabilities.
To rehabilitate injured and/or aged patients into a normal functioning of life style.
To rehabilitate addicted patients to quit their addiction through restoration and
maintenance of a clean life.
To reduce profound depression of unpleasant experiences of patients such as physical
difficulties, disfigurement, blindness, limb amputation, plastic facial changes through
grafting, and limitation of dynamic activities into possible normal life.
To restore, maintain, and improve sanctity and quality of a patient’s life.
WHAT ARE EVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL DARWINISM PHILOSOPHIES?
Evolution was in its origin, a philosophical rather than a scientific concept. Jean-Baptiste
Lamarck (1744-1829) and Charles Lyell (1797-1875) were pioneers in arguing that individual
species changes in such a way that entirely no species come into existence. But it remained
for Charles Darwin to expound a fully development theory of evolution in his Origin of the
Species (1859), (Powell, 1967: 417). Within such a historical trend, what Darwin did, was to
stamp evolution with the seal of science. Darwin theorized that the scientific evolutionary social
theory occurs when species are able to adapt to changing environmental conditions and
thereby they survive while those lest fit will be destroyed. He believed that human beings are
mutable within the contextual boundaries of their origins; somatic DNAs and econo-political
national genes; cultural values. Accordingly, the discipline of medicine came into its existence
from its anthropological evolutionary trends from old beliefs of shamans as tribal religious
medical authorities to the present medical doctors as artistic-technological healers. Therefore,
all evolutionary changes are viewed as the result of “necessity in needs.” They need to be
adjusted, adapted, and modified to the changing conditions of the environment.
Evolution means that change whereby something becomes different as a result of modification
of its own species’ structural characteristics and functions. In the conceptual reasoning of the
theory of evolution, the new things are always related to something that existed before. As
applied in biosciences, evolution attempts to explain the progressive development of more
complex forms of life from simple ones. Moreover, as Ayala (1994:230) indicated, there are two
major views concerning evolutionary theory: (1) one concerns history. Some philosophers of
science have claimed that the evolutionary biology is historical science that does not need to
satisfy the requirements of the hypothetic deductive method. The evolution of organisms, it is
argued, is a historical process that depends on unique and unpredictable events. (2) The
second kind concerns the elucidation of mechanisms or processes that bring about
evolutionary changes. This dimension deals with causal, rather than historical relationships.
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K. D. Parhizgar and S. S. Parhizgar
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 9-22
Also, Parhizgar and Parhizgar (2006: 380) indicated: “As factual belief, human beings are living
within two integrated environments: (1) the natural (we can identify it as ecology) and (2) the
artificial (we can identify it as a culture). From the standpoint of material view, the ecological
environment provides all organic elements including human beings, animals, plants, and other
substances like air and water with appropriate conditions to survive. However, the artificial
environment (a culture) provides specific human-made social conditions to survive. Those
conditions that are an authoritatively approved set of political ideas are ideologies… A political
ideology is a set of political ideas: a formalized belief system that explains and justifies a
preferred political order for society. Ideologies offer a socio-political and cultural strategy
(processes, institutional arrangements, programs, and hierarchical power for their attainment
(Mullins, 1972: 498)… Ideologies are worldviews, which are built upon and reinforced by a set
of powerful dominant class of beliefs and values in social interactions.”
Nevertheless, the main objective of this article is to analyze different ethical and legal
dimensions of human medical rights within the boundaries of natural human rights and civil
rights concerning application of the Medical Business Social Darwinism philosophies. There
are three major domains of Medical Business Social Darwinism philosophies: (1) The
Evolutionary Radical Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy, (2) The Evolutionary
Ecological Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy, and (3) the Evolutionary
Metropolitan Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy.
I.
THE EVOLUTIONARY RADICAL MEDICAL BUSINESS SOCIAL
DARWINISM PHILOSOPHY
The Evolutionary Radical Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy is based on the
following hypothetical assumption:
H-1: “The poor are poor because they are supposed to be that way due to their sociocultural and inferior power-set and econo-political class stratification and they should
barely having access to affordable advanced medical care services and the rich are rich
due to their socio-cultural superior status and econo-political capabilities and they should
enjoy from the highest possible advanced medical care services.”
Any type of sociocultural and econo-political ideology concerning natural rights and civil rights
of individuals needs comprehensive cognitive understanding and construing its own rational
reasoning. Darwin believed that evolutionary social changes in species are not the result of
purposeful activities in the organism. Essentially, it is the results of historical conditional social
chances. This means that people should be in the right time and in the right places in order to
flourish. Genetic inherit characteristics of individuals are the basic principles of their existence
and survival. This means that in order to survive they should be adaptive to the new conditions.
Adaptation to the new environment is not based on the wishes of individuals; it is based on the
preset cultural characteristics of being poor or being rich. Since poor people do not have strong
sociocultural and politico-economic power infrastructure, they remain behind and those rich
people that have strong sociocultural status and econo-political resources will progress and
13
Ethical Analysis of Three Modes of Medical Business Social Darwinism: Radical, Ecological and Metropolitan
flourish. Therefore, the gap between rich and poor will exist to an extent that poor will be
weaker and weaker in order to be destroyed within the impoverish culture and poverty; and the
rich people will survive within the prosperous context of wealth and power. Nevertheless,
despite poor species that they try very hard to survive, because of their inherent conditions,
they will not be able to be upgraded as they wish in a short period of timeline. In sum, there are
three major characteristics for poor people as following:



A struggle for existence
Resulting to cope with present conditions
Because of inferior historical sociocultural and econo-political characteristics of
species, poor people remain and survive within the “poor culture” and wealthy people
because of their capabilities will improve their status and upgrade their future species
The Radical Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy does not view an individual to be
healthy because he/she is the differentiated part of the historical national class stratification.
Within the contextual boundaries of such an assumption, nature is no longer in harmony with
poor people. Poor people should struggle to survive because nature is viewed as a world of
tooth and claw. In supporting such a statement Kennedy (2012) has indicated: “By 2010, 15 of
the population owned 42% of financial wealth, while 80% of the population owned only 55 of
financial wealth… the bottom 80% pay the hidden interest charges that the top 10% collect,
making interest a strongly regressive tax that the poor pay to the rich… Public banking may be
a radical solution, but it is also an obvious one.” Within such a competitive environment,
eliminating poor people is rational because they should not use limited resources. Even, with
such a radical ideology, struggling for destroying poor people might even be considered well
because poor are not efficient in creation of wealth and technology. Consequently, they will be
as a burden in society and society should not reward the lazy, incompetent, and irresponsible
people. Therefore, for poor people the wealth includes healthy food, clean air, pure water,
fertile land, healthy and happy children, high quality of education, high quality of healthcare,
medical care, and pain care management, safety and security, and mental and spiritual status.
In addition, poor are consumers without productivity and prosperity. Also, Kennedy (2012) has
stated: “A stunning 35% to 40% of everything we buy goes to interest. This interest goes to
bankers, financial, and bondholders, who take a 35% to 40% cut of our GDP. That helps
explain how wealth is systematically transferred from Main Street to Wall Street.”
In contrast, wealthy people believe that productivity and prosperity are viewed as cardinal
foundations of good economy. Therefore, the wealth for rich people is capital, resources,
assets, access to resources, catching the inflationary rates, added capital gain, and profitability
within the individualistic, competitive, and aggressive free market economy. For the rich
through the lens of the Evolutionary Radical Social Darwinism, competition for survival is the
law of nature and the driver of progressive compiling numbers of financial wealth.
In regard of medical care, poor patients will not be able to afford the medical costs of visiting
specialists in hospitals and clinics and/or buying comprehensive and expensive healthcare
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K. D. Parhizgar and S. S. Parhizgar
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 9-22
insurance packages. They refer to the retail clinics, in-store clinics, and mobile street clinics
and will be hooked to the cheap generic type B medications and counter medicine or no
medicine. Within this type of treatment, the major controversial question put medical providers
to diagnose and treat those people that are energetic, productive, and wealthy. For example, in
the early of the 20th century, in the United States of America, there were many humanitarian,
religious, and county clinics and hospitals that used to provide free diagnoses and treatments
for needy and poor people through donation of goodwill and good faith people. In the late 20 th
century most of these medical institutions were sold to the commercial (profit-making) medical
groups and needy or poor people left without doctors and healthcare services. For example,
the sale agreement between the former Mercy Sisters Hospital in Laredo, Texas as a nonprofit medical institution and the Laredo Medical Group as a profit-making hospital. It left many
families and classes of people without humanitarian medical attention. Residences in Laredo
do have any philanthropic andor county hospital to treat poor people and non-documented
alliances who work in the city. Also, Brown et al., (2012:118) indicated: “In recent years, there
has been unprecedented population growth in Texas’s counties near the Rio Grandie because
of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and immigration. Unfortunately, the
population growth has outstripped the substantial economic growth, and the traditionally poor
border region now has even more poor people. The counties in the Mexican border area
between El Paso and Brownsville are among the most impoverished places in the country.
Many of the poor live in colonias (depressed housing settlements often without running water
or sewage systems). It is estimated that there are currently about 2,300 colonias in Texas. As
many as 400,000 Texans live in substandard conditions in these settlements”. Such a status
was extended nationwide to the point that forty five million citizens, residents, and no
documented immigrants have been left without resources to be treated against diseases. In
addition, professional medical authorities lost their expertise power and private healthcare
insurance and/or organizations (e.g., HMOs, PPOs, and MCOs) gained privileges to run the
national medical care services.
Parhizgar and Parhizgar (2008: 246) stated: “We human beings, like other predator species;
like the lion, the wolf, the wale, and the eagle, are the interlocutors between chaos and order,
playing a vital creative role in keeping all natural species including human beings in balance.
Human beings possess the ability and capability to be creators. Promethean utilitarian
biosophical believers believe in creation of evolutionary forms of holarchy in which they
perceive moral life should be based on amorality. They do not perceive themselves as
creatures to be managed by other extra Gs’ power (Gods and/or Governments). This means
that they do not perceive life as an absolute phenomenon. They believe life is a balance
between right and wrong, good and evil, just and unjust, beautifulness and ugliness, rich and
poor, and worthiness and worthlessness. What is right for the wale is catching the fish or the
death of the deer is not evil or wrong because the deer is a means to a wolf’s end. This is the
biosophy of balance of nature, which carries capacity the whole ecosystem to be maintained.
From the utilitarian Promethean biosophical view, our human-oriented amorality should not
regard all sufferings and pains including death as evil or immoral, because sentient life and
death are either good or evil. They are integral parts of natural holarchical life experiences and
15
Ethical Analysis of Three Modes of Medical Business Social Darwinism: Radical, Ecological and Metropolitan
processes. They believe death and suffering to be caused by human beings rather than by
natural means. They view it as legitimate reasoning because they are creating a balance
between life and death.”
Lenders are the economical first class people who will survive with prosperous medical care.
Reich (2012) has indicated: “These financiers have so much power over the rest of the
economy they get average taxpayers to bail them out when their bets in the casino called the
stock market go bad. They have so much power they even shred regulations intended to limit
their power.” Life-time struggling debtors as the middle-class people will pay interest to
lenders. Patients may survive without medical care services and die in misery and not only are
they borrowing more money to pay their current medical debts, but as well as the interest on
prior unpaid debts. Finally, this is the struggling process among three main groups: the Wall
Street creditors and lenders, the Main Street debtors, and the featherbedding Floor Street
healthcare insurance companies.
II.
THE EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGICAL MEDICAL BUSINESS SOCIAL
DARWINISM PHILOSOPHY
The Evolutionary Ecological Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy is based on the
following hypothetical assumption:
H-2: “Existence and survival of naturally endowed fortunate individuals are prosperous
and the unfortunate deprived individuals who are sank to the bottom for having born there
are unworthy and deserve to tolerate pain and suffering and die in misery.”
Generally, the Evolutionary Social Darwinism Philosophy has undergone theoretical changes
resulting in reassessment of the nature of systems, the locus of changes in systems, and the
models by which changes occur within living systems (Svyantek and Hendrick, 1988: 243).
Along with such a revision, the idea of the struggle for existence and survival possesses two
general characteristics: (1) the ecological and (2) the sociocultural. Through ecological
evolutionary characteristics, kinetic natural characteristics may affect natural life-span of
species in long-run. For example, if you look at two types of bodies of water: compare an
ocean with a pond, you will realize that species will be different. The ecological characteristics
of an ocean breed vales and giant creatures, and the ecological characteristics of a pond
breed worms and flies. Wales and giant creatures possess long lives and worms and flies
possess very short lives. Accordingly, Ecological Social Darwinism Philosophy indicates that
there are superior and inferior creatures to be existed and they have survived differently in
different ecological conditions.
In the field of Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy, there are some issues that may
be appropriate to be considered in such settings. These issues are patients’ cultural value
systems, ethnic background, nationality, religion, language and acceptable colloquial forms of
communication, lifestyle, family composition and relationships, intelligence, education,
profession, economic and social status, habits, customs and traditions, beliefs, faith,
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K. D. Parhizgar and S. S. Parhizgar
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 9-22
ideologies, mental health, self-esteem, levels of tolerance concerning pains, sufferings, and
deprivations, sexual orientation, cultural perceptions of the role of genders, and ethical and
moral conceptions concerning trustworthiness or expectations from physicians, clinicians,
nurses, and staff. With respect to cultural and religious value systems of patients, the following
questions should be addressed:


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
What are cultural perceptions of patients concerning sick care, well care, and total
quality care in relationships with religious faiths and economic conditions?
What are patients’ perceptions concerning national health care systems?
What are patients’ preferred cultural values concerning having access to the preferred
medical choices?
What is the cultural nature of endemic and/or pandemic diseases as opposed to
illnesses among particular groups?
Do patients perceive diseases as having an evil eye connotation?
Do patients have trust on physicians to cure their illnesses or sicknesses or they look
at them as mediums between them and God that patients through praying ask God for
recovering and physicians through their wisdom and knowledge work hard to heal
patients?
If given oral medications, will the patient ingest them as directed, or place them in
“mummy bundle” in the corner of his/her room and expect an efficacious result? After
all, if the medicine is really “magic,” it can work anywhere and need not to be taken by
the patient. This belief is held by many Native Americans (Rasinski-Gregory M.D., et
al., 1998: 15).
Are intramuscular or intravenous injections more valuable and effective than oral
medications? The Chinese place such a value on paternal medications.
Are sicknesses, illnesses, accidents, and disabilities seen as the “will of God?”
Does the patient have a cultural belief to accept whatever his/her fate is (whatever it
should be happened it will happen despite of the aggressive attitude of fighting back
against the consequences of the disease on his/her life)?
Does the patient’s religious faith construe health or sickness as part of God’s will?
Does the patient have a religious faith that exposure to acute diseases are the results
of his/her earthly misbehavior and/or sinful actions that caused God to punish him/her
as he/she deserves not to be recovered?
Does the patient have a sincere assurance that God will help him/her to be recovered
from sicknesses and illnesses because he/she has had good intentions, goodwill, and
good deed in his/or her life?
Does a patient accept pain and suffering as parts of earthly life in order to have God’s
graceful peace, harmony, and revelation after death as a gift for the eternal blessing?
Such a strong faith will mitigate the patient’s complaints and aggressiveness. It is a
spiritual mental reinforcement to resent pain, suffering, and early death for fulfilling the
enriched life.
17
Ethical Analysis of Three Modes of Medical Business Social Darwinism: Radical, Ecological and Metropolitan








Does a patient have consistent beliefs through his/her past religious practices to
manifest a strong faith that God will help him/her to be recovered or recently he/she is
a believer that God will help him/her to be recovered?
Does the patient have a spiritual belief through praying and giving away some material
wealth for the goodness of his/her physical and mental health recovery?
Does the patient have a spiritual advisor, counselor, priest, pastor, rabbi, ayatollah,
monk, and medicine-man to indoctrinate him/her with religious chants and
ceremonies?
How much the patient has been provided liturgical (public group praying) support or
customs of his/her religious faith?
Does the patient believe in “sacramental provision” for healing?
Does the patient believe in sacrificing animals (like Moslems, Jews, and Ibrahimian
believers) for the sake of recovery and healing?
How the hospital handles the body of a deceased person with respect to conducting
autopsy and other types of funeral clothing and perfume substances (in the Moslem
faith, all deceased corps before burial should be washed and groomed and to be
wrapped in a white fabric; Kafan).
How body part transplantation will affect the recipient’s socio-economical and
psychological characteristics?
The patients’ religious faiths and ceremonies are critical elements in how they interact with
physicians, clinicians, and medical care institutional policies and procedures. For example,
Ransinski-Gregory et al., (1998: 16) indicated:
In the treatment of the dying patient, the Jewish belief in the infinite value of life plays a vital
role. According to the Talmud, “one who is in a dying condition is regarded as a living person in
all aspects.” The condition is compared to flickering flame inasmuch as, if one touches it, that
flame might be extinguished. The patient in such a state, according to Orthodox Jewish
tradition, may not be washed, his pillow may not be touched, his eyes may not be closed, and
he may not be moved. In short, nothing should be done that might hasten his death. All efforts
needed to protect and nourished the “flickering flame” must be undertaken. This may become
a serious problem in treating an elderly Orthodox Jew, who is obviously terminally ill and dying
in an ICU. For that patient (and/or his/her family to permit his/her moved would be a violation of
Jewish law).
In sum, cultural beliefs and religious faiths held by patients may influence their understanding
of their illnesses. Religiously, patients ask themselves: Why am I ill? Why among all people
me? How can I be healed by God or by physicians and/or by both (e.g., Christian Scientists
and Moslems)? What does God want me to do? Do I have power to save myself? Can a
physician make a miracle to heal my chronic illness (e.g., progressive cancerous cells and/or
AIDS/HIV?) Therefore, fate or destiny would be a matter of faith concerning life and death
among religious people. That is a reason that some patients strongly believe in God’s will (e.g.,
in the Moslem faith: Ensha Allah) and pray for their recovery. In addition, through some
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K. D. Parhizgar and S. S. Parhizgar
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 9-22
religious faiths, virtuous individuals believe that people, who are exposed to acute diseases,
are the results of their sinful and unjust earthly behavior to themselves and/or to others during
their life-time and deserve to suffer from their ill-fated behavior and illnesses. Other religious
denominators like Confucianism, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and Shintoists through their
etiquette believe that heaven and hell are located on Earth.
In sum, Evolutionary Ecological Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy is based on
the geographical locations of birth, socio-cultural and economical condition of life, and both
natural genetic characteristics of genes and the DNA characteristics of cultural values of both
physicians and patients. All will affect existence and survival of physicians and patients. In
addition, since existence and survival of human species are subject to a historical somaticpsychological heredity through generation by generation, therefore, each generation may carry
their ancestral physiological and psychological characteristics that through long term changes
will be adaptive to the ecological conditions. Within such an evolutionary belief, medicine may
be effective for mitigating pain and suffering, but eventually will be transferred to the next
generation with both good and bad consequences.
III.
THE EVOLUTIONARY METROPOLITAN MEDICAL BUINESS SOCIAL
DARWINISM PHILOSOPHY
It may come as a surprise to many that anybody can call into question the existence of
diseases and normal lives. Epistemologically, illnesses, sicknesses, and injuries are full of
unknown causes, processes, and consequences. We need to attest that we live in a global
village in which people must live side by side in an environment, if they desire to peacefully
coexist. We must assume that human values are based upon general agreements about
ethical issues and humanitarian notions of permacultural (sub-superb) values. Such an
agreement relies on a societal framework of equitable treatments of all mankind. What people
need? They need to be ethical and moral in all aspects of their daily lives. The Evolutionary
Metropolitan Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy is based on the following
hypothetical assumption:
H3: “The survival of the fittest, mightiest, and wealthiest and the demise of the sickest,
weakest, and poorest: fittest, mightiest, and wealthiest patients deserve to have access to
the best available, affordable, and advanced medical facilities and sickest, weakest, and
poorest patients because of both weaknesses of their natural and preset socio-economic
conditions not to have access to advanced medical facilities and live with pain and
suffering and die in misery.”
The permaculture is an ethical promising path to create a sustainable environment. It is
founded on the basis of deontological theory of ethics which focuses upon the importance of
axiological shared values in highly developed metropolitan inhabitants. The permacultural
values emphasizes on caring for the planet Earth, caring for humans, caring for animals, caring
for clean air and clean water, and caring for the holistic existence. It is hard to believe that a
modern democratic and industrialized nation should not protect, promote, and enhance
19
Ethical Analysis of Three Modes of Medical Business Social Darwinism: Radical, Ecological and Metropolitan
healthcare, medical care, and pain care management of its population. Junda et al., (2008:
604) stated “Yet the United States is the only major industrialized nation without universal
health-care system. Rather, the United States has what is perhaps best described as a
patchwork system of care designed to cover different segments of the population – but not all
citizens in the nation. In addition to private insurance, which many Americans receive as
benefit of employment, government programs to provide health care [not necessarily medical
care and/or pain care management] include Medicare, primarily for the elderly; Medicaid, for
the qualified poor; and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), for children in
needy families.”
As we said before, evolution means that change whereby something becomes different as a
result of modification of an organism in its own structure and/or adaptation to the ecological
new conditions. In the conceptual reasoning of the theory of the Evolutionary Metropolitan
Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy, the new species are always related to
something that existed before. Also, as applied in biosciences, businesses, and healthcare
insurance, evolution attempts to explain the progressive development of more complex forms
of life spans from simple ones. Such a rational reasoning is applicable to the evolutionary
processes of healthcare, medical care, and pain care services within the contextual boundaries
of Evolutionary Metropolitan Medical Business Social Darwinism Philosophy.
The modern industrial societies like the United States of America have polarized citizens and
residents into metropolitan, suburbia, rural, and colonials (e. g., people living around Grande
River without public services, swage, and clean water in South Texas). All of the above
categories of people have their own inherent group multicultural characteristics concerning
accessibility to and affordability for being entitled to healthcare, medical care, and pain care
insurance. Also, from the standpoint of wealth and poverty in different industries, there are
some corporations that have the most capital resources and power in the free market economy
(e.g., banking, oil, information, pharmaceutical, and insurance). Nevertheless, being healthy is
a matter of political debate in a nation.
All nations according to their econo-political ideologies and technosophical structures have
established different classes of citizens and residents within affordability to have access to
healthcare, medical care, and pain care management systems. Some nations believe that to
be healthy is one of their civil rights. Therefore, they have social medicine. These types of
nations use the term “healthcare” to cover all related issues concerning “preventive care,”
“corrective sick-care,” and “promoting total-quality-care systems.” Other nations such as the
United States of America believe that to be healthy is a privilege not as a natural entitlement.
The U. S. Constitution is silent about healthcare, medical care, and pain care management
systems concerning citizens’/residents’ rights. Tozzi (2012: B16) stated: “Affordability means
healthcare premiums, co-pays, and deductibles can’t cost citizens’ and/or residents’ more than
9.5 percent of their family income… ” It has assumed that all those phenomena are subject to
the commercial and economical affordability of citizens and residents within the contextual
boundaries of the free market economy. In other words, healthcare, medical care, and pain
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K. D. Parhizgar and S. S. Parhizgar
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 9-22
care management systems are viewed as commodities to be bought or sold in the marketplace
between providers and patients through financial agencies which are called healthcare
insurance companies and/or HMOs, PPOs, MCs. The reason that in the United States of
America in a commercial term doesn’t use the terms of “medical care” or “pain care” is related
to providing insurance company’s legitimate reasons to deny many dimensions of diagnoses,
treatments, prognoses, and therapies for “sick care” and total “quality care,” because of
preexisting conditions as the result of “natural selection.” Therefore, patients are viewed as
customers to buy “health” and physicians, clinics, and hospitals are viewed as sellers and/or
financial providers to sell “health.” Nevertheless, in 2014, the Obamacare may eliminate some
of financial burdens on the US citizens and residents but also it may not include 22 million
undocumented aliens who are living and working in the United States. However, through
government funding policies (e.g., Social Security, Disability, and Welfare) insurance
companies use “Medicare and/or Medicaid” at the federal level and at the state level such as in
California they use it as “Medi-Cal” rather than healthcare. Also, according to the notion of
commercialization of medical care and pain care systems, government provides funds as an
opportunity for insurance companies and private and semi-private hospitals and clinics (state
funded medical colleges – teaching hospitals and clinics) with excessive profit rates to meet
the escalating costs for diagnoses, treatments, prognoses, and therapies of patients’ maladies.
All these types of institutions are located within the metropolitan areas of major cities.
Nevertheless, medical care and pain care management systems become expensive and
exclusionary, now offering patients a lifetime of debt payments. Instead to provide them
comfort in order to be healthy, they have created another obstacle for families that it might be
called “Medical Generation Debtor.” Such issues are related to the market demand and
supply. All of these issues are assumed within the individualistic states of liberty. However,
there is a natural, built-in tension between free enterprise economies and democratic
government because they embody equally legitimate but competing value systems. Free
enterprise values include economic efficiency, self-interest as a major motivator. Democratic
governments are the major regulatory agencies to protect citizens and residents against
monopolies.
CONCLUSION
It is very important to recognize that activities of a business are not like a game or a sport to
entertain an investor’s egoism. The objective is to manufacture valuable products and/or
render effective services that can serve the utility of consumers’ lives. In such a competitive
environment, it is not fair to protect some businesses by providing them with incentives in order
that their investors enjoy free gains. Protectionism is an ethical doctrine designed to evaluate
actions that have both good and evil consequences. In sum, the Obama Healthcare Act
provides opportunities for all citizens and residents to eradicate differences among economical
classes of people without discrimination against fittest, wealthiest, and mightiest and poorest,
sickest, and weakest people concerning their natural selection characteristics and their
preexisting conditions of maladies to be covered by healthcare insurance.
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Ethical Analysis of Three Modes of Medical Business Social Darwinism: Radical, Ecological and Metropolitan
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 23-70
Full Article Available Online at: Intellectbase and EBSCOhost │ IJAISL is indexed with Cabell’s, JournalSeek, etc.
International Journal of Accounting Information Science & Leadership
Journal Homepage: www.intellectbase.org/journals │ © 2013 Published by Intellectbase International Consortium, USA
DISABILITY ADJUDICATION: THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
AND HEURISTIC BIASES ON DECISION-MAKING
Rockie C. McDaniel
Corolado Technical University, USA
ABSTRACT
T
he disability adjudicator for the Social Security Administration is presented with
multiple types of evidence regarding claimants, and, utilizing primarily clinical
judgment must weigh and integrate this information before rendering a disability
decision. The need to process large amounts of evidence in this fashion can result in the use
of cognitive simplification strategies in the form of decisional bias, which can produce judgment
error. The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between emotional
intelligence and heuristic bias (empathy) that influence decision-making. More specifically, this
investigation proposed and empirically tested hypotheses consisting of behaviors in which
emotional intelligence (EI) abilities would prompt the use of judgment biases that could affect
the final disability decision. Quantitative measurements occurred using the Mayer-SaloveyCaruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT™) for EI and Davis’ Interpersonal Reactivity
Scale 2 (IRI2) for empathy. Pearson’s correlation test, multiple regressions, Pearson’s product
moment correlation (PPM), and Spearman’s rho test were performed to determine and analyze
the relationship between empathy and EI. The study’s findings led to the conclusion that a
statistically significant relationship does not exist between empathy and EI, but there was a
correlation of EI and educational attainment. Therefore, Social Security Administration leaders
should exercise caution when using EI and empathy alone in determining constructs for
effective decision-making within the hiring process of new adjudicators.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
The purpose of the quantitative correlational study was to determine if a significant relationship
existed between emotional intelligence (EI) and heuristic biases (empathy). The traditional
paradigm of decision-making is changing (Bielski, 2007; Goleman 2001; Kinsman, 2006;
Kristof, 1996; D. Smith, 2006; Spors, 2007). Today’s organizational leaders are seeking to hire
and retain leaders and employees with high EI skills (Cherniss & Goleman, 2001; Goleman,
1998; Wakeman, 2006), assuming that high EI skills lead to effective decision-making
(Erdogan & Bauer, 2005; Frase, 2007; Landen, 2002; D. Smith). The importance of ethical
decision-making and its impact on organizational culture (Autrey & Daugherty, 2003),
23
Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
citizenship behaviors (Cooper-Thomas et al., 2004), work attitudes (Ambrose et al., 2008;
Chatman, 1991; Kristof-Brown et al., 2005), workplace socialization (Autrey & Wheeler, 2005;
Chatman), work performance (Coppola & Carini, 2006), and job satisfaction (O’Reilly et al.,
1991) have been well documented.
Individuals with high EI skills are able to recognize emotions in themselves and others and use
emotions effectively to manage their behavior and relationships with others (Mayer, Salovey, &
Caruso, 2004). The literature reviewed revealed support for EI’s role in leadership (Daus &
Ashkanasy, 2005; Dulewicz & Higgs, 2003; Goleman, 2001), workplace outcomes (Carmeli &
Josman, 2006), self- awareness, behavior (Carmeli, 2003; Macrae, 2004), workforce retention,
behavior, job satisfaction, workplace socialization, interpersonal communication, employee
commitment, acclimation, and professional success (Bradberry & Greaves, 2005; Carmeli;
Goleman, 1998, 2001). The literature review (a) introduced, defined, and explained the EI,
heuristic biases, and ethical decision-making constructs with a focus on germinal research for
each variable; (b) reviewed literature linking the constructs; and (c) reviewed literature citing
measurement strategies for each. Results of the study may be applicable to leaders who are
searching for ways to increase organizational effectiveness using EI and ethical decisionmaking models and frameworks.
Germinal Foundation of EI
EI has its origins in Thorndike’s social intelligence theory (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2000; Landy,
2005; Mayer et al., 2004; Thorndike, 1920). Thorndike suggested that variances in the
outcomes of his study on the predictive ability of IQ could be affected by personal qualities
such as “dependability, loyalty, readiness to shoulder responsibility for [one’s] own acts,
freedom from conceit and selfishness, readiness and ability to co-operate” (Thorndike, p. 27).
Thorndike attempted to distinguish traditional forms of intelligence from social intelligence
theory but was unable to accomplish this goal (Seal et al., 2006). Thorndike and, later,
Wechsler (1944) were pioneers in theories of social intelligence. Weschler (1944) offered a
definition of intelligence that suggested multiple components of intelligence. Weschler defined
intelligence as “the global capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively
with his environment” (p. 3). Weschler was the first to offer an intelligence test, the Wechsler’s
Adult Intelligence Scale. The scale differed from today’s traditional intelligence scales in that it
included components of social intelligence. Leeper (1948) published an article that essayed to
establish a connection between emotion and thought. In his article, Leeper discussed the
concept of “disorganization emotion” (p. 11). Disorganization emotion was described as a
person’s negative response to a situation in which he or she has no ready response. Leeper
argued that emotions could produce negative and positive behavioral responses. Many writers
cited Salovey and Mayer (1990) as the first to coin the phrase emotional intelligence. The
phrase was used by Leuner in 1966 in the German journal Praxis der Kinderpsychologie und
Kinderpsychiatrie (Matthews et al., 2004a). In Leuner’s article, a group of adult women was
described as having low EI due to their inability to adjust to their social roles.
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 23-70
The second mention of the EI construct was in Payne’s (1985) doctoral dissertation. Payne
used the construct in an educational context advocating the use of EI by suggesting that
schools take students’ feelings into consideration (Matthews et al., 2004a). While Salovey and
Mayer were the first to use the term EI, Goleman (1995) popularized the construct.
Historical Overview of EI Emotional intelligence (EI) has been defined in many ways, a fact that
has contributed to its characterization as a nebulous and elusive construct (Dulewicz & Higgs,
2000; Locke, 2005; Matthews et al., 2004a, 2004b; Murphy & Siderman, 2006). Matthews et al.
(2004a) defined EI as “the competence to identify and express emotions, understand
emotions, assimilate emotions in thought, and regulate both positive and negative emotions in
oneself and others” (p. xv). Landen (2002) described an emotionally intelligent person as one
who can regulate his or her emotions and respond positively to the needs of the organization
and of fellow employees. Socialization, defined as acclimating individuals to the organization,
is touted as the key to workforce retention. The emergence of the integrated study of emotion
and intelligence evolved during 1970-1989 (Mayer et al., 2002). The study of EI in the early
seventies was mainly in the academic arena (Sharma, 2008). Sharma (1983; 1985) conducted
studies during this period on the cognitive issues affecting academic success. During this
period, Gardner (2004), with his multiple intelligence theory, challenged educators to look for
several types of intelligences, for those with diverse learning abilities. Gardner is credited with
reintroducing the discussion around research aimed at discovering alternatives to traditional
intelligence (Seal et al., 2006). In his multiple intelligence theory, Gardner (2004) introduced
the concept of “personal intelligences” (p. 239). Gardner sought to examine internal and
external ways in which an individual processed and reacted to information. Internal processes
included ways in which the individual was aware of his or her own feelings, moods, and
temperament. External personal intelligence included “one’s ability to notice and make
distinctions among other individuals and, in particular, among their moods, temperaments,
motivations, and intentions” (p. 239). Wagner and Sternberg (1985) introduced their concept of
“practical intelligence” (p. 437). The authors proposed that practical intelligence, that is, the use
of one’s “emotions and feelings” (p. 437), was also an important factor in assessing
intelligence. It was during this period that the phrase emotional intelligence was used for the
first time in a dissertation by Payne (1985).
The period 1990-1993 saw a definitive theory of EI developed by Salovey and Mayer (1990),
which marked a milestone for focused study and research in the field. The authors addressed
the usage of the phrase emotional intelligence and offered the first definition of the construct.
Salovey and Mayer also attributed skills to the EI construct. The authors also offered a way in
which to measure EI as a mental ability. The result was an abilities-based method that used
color and design elements to determine one’s ability to identify emotional states.
EI study during the nineties focused on the study of emotions and the meanings behind
emotions and thought (Salovey, Brackett, & Mayer, 2004). Researchers focused on how
emotions and mood influenced personal thought processes and one’s judgment (Palfai &
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
Salovey, 1993-1994; Salovey & Birnbaum, 1989; Salovey et al.). Early studies were conducted
with depressed and bipolar individuals.
The field of EI was popularized between 1990-1994 by Goleman, a psychologist and journalist,
in his book Emotional Intelligence (Mayer et al., 2002). Goleman’s book was based on the
research and writings of previous authors in the EI field. Goleman suggested that EI might be
the most important predictor of success (Mayer et al.). It was during this period that
psychologists, educators, and human resource professionals began to use the EI construct as
one way to achieve organizational success (Salovey et al., 2004). Salovey and Mayer
contended that Goleman changed the meaning of EI, making it more of a social behavior than
a cognitive construct. The authors proposed that the change in meaning categorized
Goleman’s theory of EI as representative of personality rather than intelligence. The next
section traces the historical evolution of EI models, frameworks, and measurement.
EI Models and Frameworks
While there have been many attempts to conceptualize the EI construct, three models are
pervasive in the literature: (a) Bar-On’s model of EI and social intelligence, (b) Mayer and
Salovey’s abilities-based model and (c) Goleman’s EI- based theory of performance. EI models
are categorized as either mental-ability or mixed models. In mental-ability models, researchers
examine the interaction between emotions and thought. In mixed models, though based on
ability models of EI, researchers examine cognitive mental abilities as well as non-cognitive
personality traits such as motivation (Caruso et al., 2004). While mental-abilities models may
be better able to predict outcomes, mixed models are also valuable (Buontempo, 2005; Daus &
Ashkanasy, 2005; Mayer et al., 2004).
Bar-On’s model of emotional and social intelligence (mixed model)
Bar-On is credited with coining the phrase emotional quotient (Matthews et al., 2004a). Bar-On
referred to his theory as “a model of emotional and social intelligence” (p. 206) and defined EI
as “an array of non-cognitive capabilities, competencies, and skills that influence one’s ability
to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures” (p. 15). Bar-On’s
conceptualization of the construct appears to include personality traits and consists of five
competencies, each with multiple components.
Models of Emotional Intelligence
There are various comprehensive models of emotional intelligence that utilize alternative
theoretical frameworks to conceptualize the construct. These models are not contradictory, but
they do approach the concept of emotional intelligence from diverse perspectives (Buontempo,
2005). While Gardner (1983) did not actually utilize the term emotional intelligence, as
specified by Schutte et al. (1998), his concepts of intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences
essentially provided a foundation for later models of emotional intelligence. At the heart of
intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand one’s own emotions and
the emotions and intentions of others, respectively.
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 23-70
Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence
According to the ability model, emotional intelligence is a set of interrelated cognitive abilities
possessed by individuals to deal with emotions. In their initial model, Salovey and Mayer
(1990) conceptualized emotional intelligence as being comprised of three categories of
adaptive abilities: appraisal and expression of emotion, regulation of emotion, and utilization of
emotion. A revised model of emotional intelligence developed by Mayer and Salovey (1997)
emphasized more of the cognitive components of emotional intelligence and suggested that
intellectual and emotional growth may characterize emotional intelligence. The model
described four related abilities: The ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate and
emotions to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to regulate
emotions reflectively to promote emotional and intellectual growth. As an intelligence-based
and ability-oriented approach to the study of emotional intelligence, the Mayor-Salovey model
emphasized how both thinking and adaptive behavior can be facilitated by emotions. As
specified by Caruso, Mayor, and Salovey (2002), the ability model has to do with how people
think, decide, plan, and create. They further indicated that this model was skill-based and that
emotional intelligence was considered to be a unique class of mental attributes, either
cognitive capacities that were parallel to but distinct from traits (e.g., McCrae & Costa, 1996) or
as a special class of traits referred to as ability or cognitive traits (Cattell & Warburton, 1967, p.
10; Mayer, 1995, p. 859-864). Furthermore, objective, ability-based measures can be used to
measure emotional intelligence when it is conceptualized as an ability. For example, the
Mayer-Salovey model subsequently led to the development of an ability-based measure of
emotional intelligence: the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). In
addition, Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey (2000) have demonstrated that the four components of
emotional intelligence were distinct but also related to a single construct.
Mixed models of emotional intelligence
As described by Caruso, Mayer, and Salovey (2002), mixed models of emotional intelligence
were based on the ability model but included other psychological attributes. For example,
Goleman’s (1995) initial approach to emotional intelligence included the following components:
knowing one’s emotions, managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in
other people, and handling relationships. There is substantial overlap among these five
components and emotional intelligence as conceptualized by Salovey and Mayer (1990).
However, Goleman (1995) somewhat expanded the construct to include a number of specific
social and communication skills influenced by the understanding and expression of emotions.
Goleman (1998a) expanded his definition of emotional intelligence to include 25 competencies
grouped into essentially the same five components, although the names of the components
were altered. These five components with their associated competencies included SelfAwareness (emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment, self confidence); Self-Regulation
(self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, innovation); Motivation
(achievement, commitment, initiative, optimism); Empathy (understanding others, developing
others, service orientation, diversity, political awareness); and Social Skills (influence,
communication, conflict management, leadership, change catalyst, building bonds,
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
collaboration/cooperation, team capabilities). This emotional intelligence model was therefore
based on a competence approach. Caruso, Mayer, and Salovey (2002) indicated that Goleman
(1998a) had essentially combined both emotional abilities and the outcomes of those abilities
in the same model (Buontempo, 2005).
Goleman’s model, there are other mixed models of emotional intelligence, the most recognized
is Bar-On (1997), which developed the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I). The broad
categories comprising Bar-On’s model included intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, stress
management, adaptability, and general mood. Within these categories were included the
following competencies of skills: Intrapersonal skills (emotional self-awareness, assertiveness,
self-regard, self-actualization, independence); interpersonal skills (empathy, interpersonal
relationship, social responsibility); stress management (problem solving, reality testing,
flexibility); adaptability (stress tolerance, impulse control); and general mood (happiness,
optimism). The Bar-On model took a different perspective than did the Mayer-Salovey model in
that it viewed emotional intelligence as a collection of non-cognitive capabilities, skills, and
competencies that enabled one to cope with environmental pressures and demands. The BarOn model essentially related to emotionally intelligent behavior.
According to Buontempo ( 2005) with regard to mixed models of emotional intelligence,
Caruso, Mayer and Salovey (2002) indicated that the multitude of traits utilized in such models
had face validity, resonated well with leaders, and covered most of the current thinking on
leadership effectiveness. However, they further specified that the traits included in mixed
models were essentially covered by the five factor model of personality (Digman, 1990), in
addition to much of the leadership trait research (e.g. Hogan, Curphy, & Hogan, 1994; Yukl,
1981). For example, there was significant overlap between 14 leadership behaviors in Yukl’s
(1981) model of leadership and some competence-based mixed models of emotional
intelligence. Yukl’s (1981) 14 leadership behaviors included planning and organizing, clarifying,
informing, monitoring, consulting, recognizing, and networking, rewarding, mentoring,
delegating, team building and conflict resolution, problem solving, supporting, and motivation.
In addition, Caruso, Mayer, and Salovey (2002) also reported that some researchers (i.e.,
Davies, Stankov, & Roberts, 1998) believed that a mixed model approach to emotional
intelligence failed to distinguish the construct from other aspects of personality. These authors
collected data on a diverse set of instruments, claiming that personality measures and traits
offered better descriptions of emotional intelligence than models without personality measures
and traits. The substantive composition of the posited emotional intelligence must now be
identified.
Components of Emotional Intelligence (Mayer & Salovey, 1997)
The conceptual overlap between emotional intelligence as defined by mixed models and other
individual difference factors, such as those presented in the give factor model of personality
(Digman, 1990) or in much of the leadership trait research (Brackett, Rivers, Shiffman, Lerner,
& Salovey, 2006). Hogan, Curphy, & Hogan, 1994; Yukl, 1981) may ultimately result in a
narrow conceptualization of emotional intelligence. Therefore, in the present discussion, Mayer
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and Shalvey’s (1997) four-branch ability model of emotional intelligence, in which emotional
intelligence was represented as a multifaceted set of abilities, was conscripted as the primary
conceptualization of emotional intelligence for this study. This ability model of emotional
intelligence has utility in that it offered new contributions to the understanding and prediction of
leadership effectiveness. In addition, as will be elaborated on later, emotional intelligence
taken from an ability perspective can be useful in the context of judgment biases. According to
Buontempo (2005), this model, emotional intelligence involved Perceiving and Identifying
Emotions, Using Emotions to Facilitate Thought, Understanding Emotions, and Managing
Emotions. Each of these four branches will be discussed in terms of the abilities that were
associated with it, according to Caruso, Mayer, and Salovey (2002).
Perceiving and identifying emotions. This first branch of the ability model referred to
perceiving and identifying emotions in both the self and in other people. It involved being aware
of and identifying emotions in one’s own thought (Buontempo, 2005). It also involved being
aware of and identifying emotions in other people, which promoted a certain level of social
acuity that was crucial to working with others. Accurate expression of both one’s own emotions
and the emotions of others was another ability that was subsumed under this component of
emotional intelligence. Empathy may play a role in accurately expressing others’ emotions.
Differentiating between accurate and inaccurate feelings, both in oneself and in others, was
also important to consider in this component of emotional intelligence, in terms of the
consequences such differentiation may have for both an accurate level of self-awareness and
having correct data and information about the individuals in one’s surroundings.
Using emotions to facilitate thought. This second branch of the ability model included the
ability to direct attention to important events. It involved generating emotions to assist judgment
and facilitate decision-making. Furthermore, within this component of emotional intelligence,
mood swings were recognized as means to consider multiple points of view and promote
flexibility. In addition, different emotions were employed to encourage different approaches to
problem solving. How individuals felt influenced how they thought. A sad mood may cause one
to view the world one way, while a happy mood may result in a different interpretation of the
same events. For example, those in a sad or negative mood tended to be more likely to be
detail-oriented and search for error, while those in a more positive mood tended to be better at
generating new ideas and creative solutions to problems. In essence, this component of
emotional intelligence involved the ability to generate emotion, and then to reason with this
emotion.
Understanding emotions. This component of emotional intelligence involved the ability to
understand complex emotions and emotional chains, that is, how emotions transitioned from
one stage to another. It involved the ability to label and recognize relationships among
emotions. Furthermore, by understanding emotions, one was able to recognize the causes of
emotions and interpret the meanings that emotions conveyed. One was also able to assess the
consequences of emotions. Valuable information may be contained in emotions. Therefore, the
ability to understand this information and think about it was crucial in daily interactions. This
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
ability enabled individuals to understand why they were feeling a particular way or how another
individual felt if something were said to them. Such emotional knowledge was crucial for both
insight into us, thus promoting self-awareness, and insight into others, which enabled one to
exhibit social acuity when interacting with others.
Managing emotions. The managing emotions component of emotional intelligence essentially
encompassed the ability to manage emotions in one and in others. It included the ability to be
aware of and stay open to one’s emotions, even those emotions that may not be pleasant. It
involved engaging or detaching from an emotion and solving emotions-ladened problems
without necessarily suppressing negative emotions. In addition, this component of emotional
intelligence also included the reflective monitoring of emotions, for example, determining
whether a particular emotion was clear or atypical. By staying aware of one’s emotions,
learning from them, and utilizing the valuable information they contain, one may be able to
make better decisions and take appropriate action. The managing emotions component of
emotional intelligence thus included a more active dimension of emotions (Caruso, Salovey, &
Mayer, 2004; Kerr, Garvin, Heaton, & Boyle, 2006; Vigoda-Gadot & Meisler, 2010).
In summary, emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize the meanings of emotions
and their relationships and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them. Given that
emotional intelligence meets the criteria for a standard intelligence (Mayer, Caruso, and
Salovey, 2004), it is important to consider the domain of standard intelligence in which
emotional intelligence resides. Various researchers for many years have considered the noncognitive aspects of intelligence to be crucial for success in life (Gardner, 1983, 1993;
Sternberg, 1997; Thorndike, 1920; Wechsler, 1940, 1943). Therefore, it is not new to consider
forms of intelligence such as emotional intelligence and the influence they have on topics such
as leadership effectiveness. In recent years, there has been an increase in interest in the role
of multiple forms of intelligence, such as cognitive intelligence, practical intelligence, social
intelligence, and emotional intelligence, in leadership effectiveness. There are various
comprehensive models of emotional intelligence that utilize alternative theoretical frameworks
to conceptualize the construct. There are ability models of emotional intelligence (e.g. Mayer
and Salovey, 1997) and there are mixed models of emotional intelligence (e.g. Goleman, 1995;
Bar-On, 1997).
In the present discussion, emotional intelligence was conceptualized primarily by Mayer and
Shalvey’s (1997), four-branch ability model of emotional intelligence, since it offered new
contributions to the understanding and prediction of leadership effectiveness in the context of
heuristic-based biases. According to this model, emotional intelligence involved four
components: Perceiving and Identifying Emotions, Using Emotions to Facilitate Thought,
Understanding Emotions, and Managing Emotions. Each of these four components was
comprised of particular abilities that may be examined in individual leaders in order to
determine their influence on leadership effectiveness.
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EMPIRICAL WORK OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
According to Buontempo (2005), Goleman (1998a), a myriad of studies have shown that
effective leaders used more emotional intelligence competencies every day than less effective
leaders. As specified by Goleman (2000), the late David McClelland also found that leaders
with strengths in a critical mass of six or more emotional intelligence competencies were far
more effective than peers who lacked such strengths. Effectiveness was measured by annual
salary bonuses based on the leaders’ business performance, the performance of their
divisions, and their annual performance reviews. Goleman (1998a) discussed many studies
conducted by researchers in Boston where results were found in support of the importance of
emotional competencies in leaders. For example, it was found that on average, emotional
intelligence accounted for close to 90 percent of the success of star leaders, emotional
competencies were twice as important in contribution to excellence as were pure intellect and
expertise in star performers versus average performers, and in a study of more than 300 toplevel executives from fifteen global companies, it was discovered that six emotional
competencies distinguished stars from the average: influence, team leadership, organizational
awareness, self-confidence, the drive to achieve, and leadership itself (Buontempo, 2005).
In a study of fourteen hundred employees at a major pharmaceutical company, Cavallo and
Brienza (2001) demonstrated that the highest performing managers had significantly more
emotional competence than other managers in an article that supported the case for the
contribution that emotional intelligence can make to the bottom line in any work organization.
Cherniss (2000) described one study involving a sample of 515 senior executives in Latin
America, German, and Japan where it was found in all three cultures that emotional
intelligence was a better predictor of success than either relevant previous experience or high
IQ. In addition, in an examination of the effects of the emotional intelligence of both leaders
and followers on their performance and attitudes, Wong and Law (2002) demonstrated that the
emotional intelligence of the leaders had a marginally significant effect on the job satisfaction
of subordinates and a significant effect on their extra-role behaviors.
THEORETICAL WORK OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Various researchers examining leadership have proposed the importance of qualities
associated with emotional intelligence for various outcomes such as leadership effectiveness
(Badea & Pina, 2010; Boal & Hooijberg, 2000; Burke, 2002; Day, 2000; George, 2000;
Hooijberg, Hunt, & Dodge, 1997; Ramesar, Kootzen, & Oosthuiszen, 2009; Caruso, Mayer, &
Salovey, 2002; Sternberg, 1997). In their examination of how emotional intelligence could
assist various leadership functions and thus contribute to effective leadership, Caruso, Mayer,
and Salovey (2002) discussed why leaders need to be able to identify emotions, use emotions,
understand emotions, and manage emotions. The ability to identify emotions enabled leaders
to be aware of their own feelings and emotions, to accurately identify the emotions of both the
group or of individual followers, to express emotions accurately, and to distinguish between
both honest and false expressions of emotions. Leaders who were able to use emotions
appropriately could understand and motivate others by making emotions available, were able
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
to facilitate planning through the use of multiple perspectives, and could engage in activities
that are facilitated by emotions. Othman, Adbullah, and Amed, (2009) and Caruso, Majer, and
Salovey (2002) indicated that leaders who were adept at understanding emotions were able to
recognize relationships between emotions, determine meanings conveyed by emotions,
comprehend complex feelings, and recognize the transition of emotions from one state to
another. Managing emotions enabled leaders to handle stressful events that may occur, such
as disappointing sales, or to not be paralyzed by disappointing or fearful events that may
cause them to make poor decisions. Using the emotions created by a particular situation to
diagnose and solve and underlying problem resulted in an emotionally intelligent response to
problem solving (Mayer & Salovey, 1993).
Contribution of Emotional Intelligence to Effective Leadership
George (2000) has made an extensive theoretical argument for how emotional intelligence
may contribute to effective leadership. Utilizing Mayer and Shalvey’s (1997) ability model of
emotional intelligence, she conceptualized emotional intelligence as the appraisal and
expression of emotion, the use of emotion to enhance cognitive processes and decision
making, knowledge about emotions, and management of emotions. George (2000) then
proposed how emotional intelligence contributed to effective leadership emphasizing give
essential elements of leadership effectiveness. These elements included both outcome and
process criteria of effective leadership. Among the outcome criteria were the development of
collective goals and objectives and the establishment and maintenance of a meaningful identity
for an organization. The process criteria of effective leadership noted by George (2000)
included instilling in others an appreciation of the importance of work activities, generating and
maintaining enthusiasm, confidence, optimism, cooperation, and trust, and encouraging
flexibility in decision-making and change.
Emotional Intelligence influencing Decision-making
As decision-making was one contribution element of effective leadership, the present
discussion focuses on the points George (2000) and Sahoo & Mohanty (2010) made for how
the emotional intelligence abilities of leaders may influence their decision-making processes.
According to Buontempo (2005), she specified that when leaders know and manage their
emotions, they might be able to use them to improve their decision-making. Given the many
demands that leaders face, emotions could be beneficial as signals to direct leaders’ attention
to pressing concerns in need of immediate attention (Easterbrook, 1959; Frigda, 1988; George
& Brief, 1996; Mandler, 1975; Simon, 1982; Kerr, Garvin, Heaton, & Boyle; Sahoo & Mohanty,
2010). With regard to ranking such demands, an important role could be served by emotions
and the causes with which they are connected. Managing emotions becomes important for
effective decision making when leaders realize that emotions resulting from low priority
demands are interfering with more pressing concerns.
In addition, George (2000) and Sahoo and Mohanty (2010) stated that emotional intelligence
enable leaders to both effectively utilize emotions when making decisions and manage
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emotions that may interfere with effective decision making. For example, leaders who
accurately perceive their emotions and determine their causes can establish whether emotions
are associated with any particular opportunities, problems, or anticipated courses of action and
as a result, utilize such emotional input in decision-making (Schwarz, 1990 & Clore, 1988;
Buontempo, 2005). Furthermore, a leader may manage or discount a particular experienced
emotion identified as being irrelevant and prevent it from becoming a source of error in
decision- making.
Sahoo and Mohanty (2010) also pointed out that knowing and managing emotions enable
leaders to improve the flexibility with which they approach problems, consider alternative
scenarios, and avoid being rigid in their decision-making. George (2000) described how shifts
in emotions could lead to the generation of multiple points of view and options (Mayer, 1986;
Salovey & Mayer, 1990). The cognitive processes of leaders and the alternatives they consider
differ according to whether they were experiencing positive or negative moods and emotions.
Through meta-mood regulation (Deshpande, 2009; Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, &
Palfai, 1995), a leader may realize that a current mood, either positive or negative, may be
responsible for the way in which he or she was approaching a particular decision, and may
thus revisit that decision in a more neutral or opposite mood in order to gain a more rich,
flexible, and objective point of view. Furthermore, George (2000) specified that emotions could
be utilized in actually choosing among options and making decisions. For example, anticipating
how one would feel if certain events occurred could help decision-makers choose among
multiple options (Damasio, 1994; Deshpande, 2009).
There has been some empirical work that has assessed the relationship between emotional
intelligence conceptualized as a set of competencies (mixed model of emotional intelligence),
and effective leadership, assessed primarily through leader performance (e.g. Goleman,
1998a). In addition, theoretical work suggesting a connection between emotions intelligence
and different aspects of leadership effectiveness, such as decision-making, is on the rise (e.g.
Buontempo, 2005; Sahoo & Mohanty, 2009; George, 2000; Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002).
George (2000) has made a compelling case for how emotional intelligence may contribute to
effective leadership. Of particular interest to the present discussion are the points George
(2000) has emphasized for how the emotional intelligence abilities of leaders may influence
their decision-making processes. It potentially follows, then, that when leaders know and
manage their emotions, they may be able to utilize them to improve their decision-making.
However, no empirical work has been done that associated emotional intelligence with
effective decision-making in leaders (Buontempo, 2005). Therefore, what is clearly needed is
empirical research that assesses the influence that the emotional intelligence abilities of
leaders may have on their decision-making behaviors.
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HEURISTICS: JUDGMENTAL BIASES IN DECISION MAKING
Germinal influence of Biases in Decision-making
When examining decision- making, there are a variety of different perspectives one may take.
The perspective utilized in the present discussion involves the judgmental biases in decisionmaking that may occur through the use of heuristics. When making crucial organizational
decisions it is important that effective leaders formulate accurate judgments. Given the range
of negative consequences that can occur when biases affect one’s ability to make a decision
objectively, it is no wonder that the topic of judgment biases is now receiving increased
attention in the decision-making literature. What follows is a delineation of these various
automatic ways of thinking, and how they can create problems in decision-making
(Buontempo, 2005).
Bass (1990) emphasized the importance of judgment in leadership in various early leadership
studies. For example, Belingrath (1993), Drake (1944), Flemming (1935), and Web (1915)
reported correlations of 0.60, 0.34, 0.28, and 0.69, respectively, between judgment and
leadership. As specified by Moutier & Houdé (2003) and Brodt (1990), research on decisionmaking has experienced a revolution that has placed an emphasis on inferential shortcomings
and whims of human judgment and decision-making. Within this context, the individual
decision maker must be cognitive of the processes of decision-making and the influence of
heuristics and the importance of consideration. This has led to recent psychological research
on the role of heuristics, or rules of thumb, in judgment and decision-making. Such heuristics
are meant to reduce the information-processing demands of decision-making, that is, they
reduce difficult mental tasks into simpler ones. However, through their inappropriate
application, they may also cause individuals to make systematically biased mistakes in their
decision-making (Buontempo, 2005). Tversky and Kahnerman (1974) stated that people rely
on a limited number of heuristic principles, which reduce the complex tasks of assessing
probabilities and predicting values to simpler judgmental operations. In general, these
heuristics are quite useful, but sometimes they lead to severe and systematic errors (p. 1124).
As further indicated by Moutier and Houdé (2003) and Brodt (1990), because both correct and
erroneous judgments are potentially explained by these judgmental heuristics, they represent
the basis of intuitive judgment and decision behavior (Anandarajan, Kleinman, & Palmon,
2008; Arkes & Hammond, 1988; Kahnerman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982; Nisbett & Ross, 1980).
There has been frequent documentation of various heuristics that may result in systematic
biases and errors in decision-making. For example, the anchoring and adjustment heuristic
may lead to the bias of overconfidence, which occurs when individuals are overconfident of the
correctness of their answers when asked to respond to questions of moderate to extreme
difficulty (Bazerman, 2002). As noted by (Anandarajan, Kleinman, & Palmon, 2008; Brodt,
1990; Paul Meehl, 1954) first demonstrated this phenomenon by observing a significant
discrepancy between the prediction accuracy of individuals and their genuine belief about the
quality of their performance. Furthermore, this human conceit (Arkes & Hammond, 1988) has
revealed that confidence and accuracy were often not related (Bailey, 1986; Fischhoff, Slovic,
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& Lichtenstein, 1977; Oskamp, 1965; Schneers & Topol, 1987). Essentially, overconfidence
can be described as not knowing that one does not know. According to Brodt (1990), there
were various generalizations that could be made with regard to overconfidence. For example,
overconfidence occurred more often with relatively difficult tasks than with relatively easy tasks
(Lichtenstein & Fischhoff, 1980; Lichtenstein, 1977). With regard to the relation of
overconfidence to the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, (Anandarajan et al., 2008; Tversky
and Kahneman, 1974) explained that in problems assessing overconfidence, individuals were
asked to set a confidence range around their particular answer. Their initial estimate served as
an anchor that biased their estimation of confidence intervals in both directions. With the
anchoring and adjustment heuristic, adjustments from an anchor were usually not sufficient
and resulted in a confidence and that was overly narrow (Buontempo, 2005).
The overconfidence bias can be applied to an organizational context. Bazerman (2002)
provided a common scenario in an organization in which such excess confidence could result
in adverse effects: An individual has developed a marketing plan for a new product and is so
confident in the plan that no contingencies for early market failure have been developed
(Buontempo, 2005). If there were to be problems in the first stage of the plan, instead of
implementing changes in the marketing strategy, an overconfident individual might be blinded
to its flaws and might not take any action. Brodt (1990) indicated that when it comes to staffing
decisions, the employment interview might result in interviewers engaging in the
overconfidence bias. Employment interviews are popular and highly regarded among
interviewers. However, the employment interview may be subject to undue confidence by the
interviewer, since empirical evidence has revealed that the validity of interviews are
questionable (Anandarajan at al., 2008; Dunning, Griffin, Milojkovic, & Ross, 1989; Oskamp,
1965). Brodt (1990) further specified that the breakdown of the negotiation process may be
due to negotiator overconfidence. For example, Bazerman (1983) and Neale and Bazerman
(1985) found that negotiators were inappropriately confident about their judgments regarding
five key elements of the negotiation process: (1) A neutral third party position; (2) the likelihood
that a third party would accept their position; (3) the amount of compromise necessary for
success in arbitration; (4) the relative strength of their cases in relation to their partners; (5) the
probability that their partners would ultimately concede.
The Heuristic of Anchoring and Adjustment
The anchoring and adjustment heuristic may also result in the bias of insufficient anchor
adjustment, which occurs when individuals estimate values based on an initial value, which
can be obtained through means such as random assignment or from past events, and arrive at
a final value by making insufficient adjustments from that anchor (Buontempo, 2005). This bias
is based on the notion that estimation often begins with an initial starting point, which is a value
that is convenient or known, and then moves forward through a sequence of adjustments until
a final answer is achieved. This initial starting point, or anchor, may be obtained from the
particular problem itself or may be generated by the individual who is making the estimate
(Brodt, 1990). Some research has demonstrated that anchoring and adjustment can result in
systematic misjudgments that are biased in the direction of the initial anchor, even if it is
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irrelevant (Anandarajan et al., 2008; Northcraft & Neale, 1987; Slovic & Lichtenstein, 1971;
Tversky & Kahmeman, 1974). For example, Tversky and Kahnerman (1974) provided
empirical evidence for this anchoring effect when they asked participants to estimate the
percentage of African countries in the United Nations. Subjects first reported whether their
estimate was higher or lower than a randomly selected number obtained from the spin or a
roulette wheel. They were then asked to develop their best estimate of the precise percentage.
It was found that the arbitrary number from the roulette wheel had a significant impact on the
estimates. For example, those individuals who received 10 countries and 65 countries as
starting points estimated 25% and 45%, respectively (Buontempo, 2005).
Applications of the insufficient anchor adjustment bias to an organizational context can be
made in the realm of salary negotiations (Bazerman, 2002). For example, employers often ask
job applicants to reveal their current salaries because they may be looking for a value from
which they can anchor and adjust. If an employee is worth far more than his or her current
salary, the firm will make an offer that is lower than the employee’s true value. Since an
employee’s current salary may not be indicative of this or her true worth, the use of such
systems of compensation utilizes past inequities as an anchor and makes insufficient
adjustments from that initial point. Such a bias may also be applied to the evaluation and
performance appraisal process (Bazerman, 2002). For example, when measuring performance
and allocating resources, managers may have numerous potential anchors, such as goals and
group norms, which they can utilize for assessments purposes. There is a tendency for them to
anchor their assessments on the past performance of employees, which may be based on
factors such as those employees who had received accolades in the past through high ratings.
Huber, Neale, and North craft (1987) found that the employees who received high ratings in
the past continued to receive positive feedback, received larger increases in pay, were told that
they were more likely to be promoted, and were less likely to be perceived as being in need of
training than those employees who had received lower ratings in the past. In addition, a more
general application of the insufficient anchor adjustment bias involves what has been referred
to as the first-impression syndrome. Initial impressions we gain from individuals we meet for
the first time may serve as anchors on which we inadequately adjust our opinions at a later
date (Bazerman, 2002).
Heuristic of Availability
The availability heuristic may lead to the bias of ease of recall in which individuals judge events
that are more easily recalled from memory, as a result of vividness or recency, to be more
numerous than events of equal frequency that are less easily recalled. (Anandarajan,
Kleinman, & Palmon, 2008; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974) contended that when an individual
utilizes the availability of an event to judge the frequency with which that event occurs, an
event of equal frequency occurs where instances are less easily recalled. That is, frequency
and likelihood are inferred by assessing the ease with which instances can be anticipated or
retrieved from memory. It is assumed that likely events are more easily imagined or recalled
from memory but unlikely events are less easily imagined or recalled from memory (Brodt,
1990; Buontempo, 2005).
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In addition to frequency, there are various other factors that may influence the ease of
construction and retrieval of events. First, information that is vivid and dynamic and is therefore
salient disproportionately captures people’s attention and may bias judgment (Taylor, 1982).
Brodt (1990) indicated that according to Nisbett and Ross (1980) information is vivid to the
extent that is (a) emotionally interesting, (b) concrete and imagery-provoking, and (c)
proximate in a sensory, temporal, or spatial way (p. 45). In addition, vivid information is
predicted to have more impact than pallid information, since vivid information comes to mind
more easily than pallid information, independent of the information’s validity. Nisbett and Ross
further demonstrated that three factors are responsible for the ease with which vivid
information can be accessed from memory. First, vivid information attracts attention, and as a
result, is processed more fully during acquisition. Second, a mental image is often evoked by
vivid information, which enhances the encoding, and retrieval in information from memory.
Lastly, people often respond emotionally to vivid information, which facilitates retrieval
(Buontempo, 2005).
Second, familiarity with information also has an influence on the irretrievability of that
information, independent of judgments of frequency. For example, Tversky and Kahnerman
(1982) illustrated the fame effect in which males were judged to be more frequent than females
in a list containing 19 more famous males and 20 fewer famous females and vice versa. Third,
recency also influences availability, independent of frequency, that is, recent events, even
those that may be highly atypical, are more readily available than events that occurred in the
past (Anandarajan, Kleinman, & Palmon, 2008). Lastly, an individual’s belief and values may
lead to preconceptions that focus attention on specific events, as well as make such events
more readily available in memory.
The events ease of recall bias resulting from the availability heuristic can be applied to
organizational context. With regard to evaluation and performance appraisal, Bazerman (2002)
specified that vivid instances of an employee’s behavior, whether they are positive or negative
in nature, will appear more frequent than more common incidents, and a result will receive
more weight in the performance appraisal. For example, if only instances of an employee’s
poor performances are vivid enough to come to mind, the evaluator may conclude that poor
performance is more frequent than superior performance and that, overall, the employee is a
poor performer. In addition, the recency of events may also play a role when it comes to the
per performance appraisal process. For example, managers may place more emphasis on an
employee’s performance during the three months preceding the evaluation than to the previous
nine months of the evaluation period. Therefore, an employee who is generally a superior
performer but has recently experienced a failure on a project may be at a disadvantage when it
comes to the performance appraisal as a result of the recency of the single failure.
The Heuristic of Representativeness
The representativeness heuristic may result in the base-rate fallacy, which occurs when
individuals are assessing the likelihood of events and ignore base-rates, or information about
the prior probability of any event, if any other descriptive or concrete information is provided,
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
even if such information is irrelevant and less valid and reliable than the base-rate information
(Anandarajan, Kleinman, & Palmon, 2008; Ginosar & Trope, 1980; Hamill, Wilson, & Nisbett,
1980; Nisbett & Ross, 1980; Taylor & Thompson, 1982; Tversky & Kahneman, (1974).
However, when no other descriptive information is provided, base-rate data are utilized
correctly (Kahneman & Tversky, 1974). More generally, the representativeness heuristic is the
simple rule of thumb that individuals utilize to make judgments about category membership
and numerical prediction. According to Buontempo (2005), as specified by Brodt (1990), the
representativeness heuristic aims to reduce a complex task to a simple goodness of fit
assessment between object A and the essential properties of category B or between outcome
A and the essential properties of the process B. To the extent that A resembles B, A is judged
to be a member of category B. Similarly, if outcome A resembles process B, then outcome A is
believed to be the result of process B (p. 233).
Kahnerman and Tversky (1973) conducted a series of studies that connected the base-rate
fallacy to the representativeness heuristic. In one set of studies, comparisons were made
between assessments of probability and similarity. One group of students provided estimates
for the percentage of graduate students enrolled in various academic disciplines. These
estimates served as proxies for the actual base-rates and represented people’s perceptions of
the base-rate frequencies. After reading a brief description of Tom W, a second group of
participants was asked to specify how similar he was to the typical graduate student in each
academic discipline. The third group of students also read the description of Tom W, but was
instead asked to predict the likelihood that Tom W. was a graduate student in each of the
disciplines. The results revealed that there was an almost perfect correlation between the
likelihood estimates from group 3 and similarity ratings from group 2. Essentially, the
participants’ probability estimates were not affected by the fact that some academic disciplines
were large and others were small (Buontempo, 2005).
The base-rate fallacy can be applied to making selection decisions in organizations. For
example, Huber (1986) found that even though participants were told about an interviewer’s
accuracy rate and the likelihood that any individual who entered could perform a specific job,
the participants’ subsequent predictions reflected an underutilization of base-rates.
Anandarajan, Kleinman, & Palmon, (2008) and Brodt (1990) imply that personnel decision
makers are expected to combine extensive knowledge about classes of individuals and jobs
and specific information about candidates when they are making choices, and that the
challenge for researchers is determining the boundaries and conditions under which these
factors may not serve the needs of neither the individual nor the organization.
According to Mantel (2005), the false-consensus bias occurs when one’s own behavior and
responses to situations are considered typical and appropriate, while other alternatives are
considered unusual and inappropriate. This results in the tendency for people’s own beliefs,
values, and habits to bias their perceptions of how widely they are shared by the general
population (Givlovich, 1990). Ross, Greene, and House (1977) provided early evidence for this
bias by demonstrating that when participants were asked to decide between two alternatives
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for resolving a specific conflict situation, there was overwhelming belief among the participants
that the alternative they chose would be the more common alternative. As further specified by
Brodt (1990) the false-consensus bias has many implications for social perception. First, it
results in individuals overestimating the commonness of their beliefs, behavior, attitudes and
opinions. Second, false-consensus may lead to belief perseverance such that there is low
motivation to question one’s beliefs or opinions as a result of the assumption that these beliefs
or attitudes are consistent with respectable people in the rest of the world. Third, regarding the
derivation of estimates from the data available to the inferential process, false-consensus
utilizes a biased sampling process that is based on one’s own beliefs or attitudes (Buontempo,
2005). This compounds the difficulties inherent in social inference. Fourth, serious social and
professional ramifications may result from biased judgments about the typical nature of one’s
beliefs. For example, if an individual mistakenly believes that most people respect
independence, he or she may be surprised to receive negative feedback on a performance
appraisal after behaving in independent ways that may demonstrate a lack of team effort or a
lack of respect for authority. Lastly, biased estimates of commonness and deviancy may have
implications for understanding social behavior and making causal attributions. It has been
found that individuals believe that deviant behavior, behavior that is contrary to one’s own, is
more indicative of an actor’s disposition than is behavior that is consistent with one’s own
(Ross, Greene, & House, 1977; Buontempo, 2005).
The false-consensus bias can be applied to organizational contexts, for example, the
evaluation and performance appraisal process in organizations. This bias can have negative
implications for the notion of a fair and equitable appraisal. With false-consensus, a manager
conducting a performance appraisal may believe that his or her decisions and behavior are the
norm and therefore, when a subordinate excels, the manager may believe that he or she would
have done the same thing and thus not reward that particular behavior. The subordinate, in
turn, may think less of the accomplishment and pass it off as being mediocre. Therefore, the
false-consensus bias can potentially devalue excellence in the workplace (Brodt, 1990; Mantel,
2005).
In sum, the formulation of accurate judgments is important to consider when it comes to
effective decision-making because there are various distortions or biases that may occur in the
context of judgment and decision-making. This has led to recent research on the role of
heuristics, or rules of thumb, in judgment and decision-making, thus placing an emphasis on
individual decision-makers cognitive processes. These heuristics are meant to simplify difficult
mental tasks, and thus reduce the information-processing demands of decision-making. There
is a tendency for systematically biased errors in judgment and decision-making to result when
such heuristics are improperly applied in decision-making situations. As previously discussed,
such biases include overconfidence, insufficient anchor adjustment, ease of recall, insensitivity
to base-rates, and false-consensus. Therefore, such serious biases in judgment resulting from
the use of judgmental heuristics are important to consider in the context of effective decisionmaking behaviors.
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
The Effect and Use of Heuristics
Emotions are intertwined in the processes by which individuals think, behave, and make
decisions. The stereotypical irrational decision-maker is an individual who cannot disregard
emotions when contemplating the best way to deal with a particular problem (George, 2000). In
addition, according to Buontempo (2005), research has demonstrated that one affected with
emotion makes one more prone to engage in general heuristics behavior which can influence
rational decision-making (Anandarajan, et al., 2008; Forgas, 1995; Isen, Means, Patrick, &
Nowicki, 1982; Schwartz & Clore, 1988). Kahnerman (2003) proposed the Two-System View,
originally labeled by Stanovich and West (2002), of the cognitive processes involved in
judgment. The use of heuristics would fall under the operations of System 1, which Kahneman
(2003) described as typically being automatic, effortless, associative, implicit (not available to
introspection), and often emotionally charged (p. 698). Such operations may also be subject to
habit and, as a result, may be difficult to manage or alter. Furthermore, Forgas’ (1995) affect
infusion model (AIM) provides a framework for understanding the conditions under which affect
may influence cognition, social judgment, and decision-making. The AIM model suggests that
affect has a tendency to directly inform judgments when decision-makers employ a heuristic
processing strategy as individuals utilize their affective state as a shortcut to deduce their
judgment. As specified by Forgas (1995), heuristic processing is most likely to occur when
decision- makers are making judgments that are simple, highly typical, and not very personally
relevant, there are no specific motivational objectives, the situation does not require accuracy
or detailed consideration, and there is a limitation in cognitive capacity as a result of other
demands on current information processing at the time (Buontempo, 2005).
Isen, Means, Patrick, and Norwicki (1982) proposed that positive affect influences the decisionmaking process itself, that is, the strategies, motivations, and the criteria central in making a
decision. More specifically, they hypothesized than an individual in a positive affective state
who is faced with making a judgment or solving a problem will reduce the complexity of the
judgment or decision task and engage in faster, simplified types of processing. In a series of
studies, Isen et al. (1982) found that positive affect resulted in attempts to simplify the
particular decision-making situation at hand which resulted in speedy, efficient decisionmaking, but sometimes biased or incorrect solutions, depending on the circumstanced
involved, such as the nature of the task or the feasibility of the participants’ initial hunches.
Additional support has been found for the notion that individuals experiencing positive affect
tend to process information less systematically in a more heuristic manner, focusing primarily
on cognitive shortcuts and broader knowledge structures as opposed to more careful and
logical thought (Bless, Bohner, Schwarz, & Strack,1990; Forgas, 1991; Mackie & Worth, 1989;
Mattison, 2000; Schwarz, Bless, 1991; Sinclair, 1988).
Emotions play a crucial role in both judgment and decision-making. Research has consistently
demonstrated that affect makes one more prone to engage in general heuristic behavior
(Badea & Pana, 2010; Forgas, 1995; Isen, Means, Patrick, & Nowicki, 1982; Schwartz & Clore,
1988). Given the important role that emotions may play when it comes to the utilization of
heuristics, the concept of emotional intelligence, which essentially describes the ability to foster
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effectively a connection between emotions and reasoning, to utilize emotions to facilitate
reasoning, and to reason intelligently about emotions (Othman, Abdullah, & Ahmad, 2009;
Mayer & Salovey, 1997), is important to consider in terms of how it may affect heuristic-based
biases in judgment and decision-making.
SKILLS: SELF-AWARENESS, EMPATHY, AND CREATIVITY
There are various skills, such as self-awareness, empathy, and creativity, associated with the
different components of emotional intelligence that may influence the use of various
judgmental heuristics and their ensuing biases that tend to inhibit effective decision-making.
The rationale for incorporating each of these particular skills into the present discussion is that
each may be a skill that is both characteristic of a particular component of emotional
intelligence and whose presence may influence some of the factors that may lead to a specific
judgment bias. Following will be a brief discussion of common definitions of each skill, how that
skill may be related to a particular component of emotional intelligence as conceptualized by
the ability model of emotional intelligence (Majer & Salovey, 1997), and how its presence may
ultimately influence a specific judgment bias.
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness involves self-focused attention in which an individual directs attention to his or
her thoughts, feelings, behaviors, or appearance. It involves individuals reflecting on
themselves and making decisions or plans that involve themselves (Fenigstein, Scheirer, &
Buss, 1975). A higher level of self-awareness may result when individuals are able to both
perceive and identify their own emotions and understand their emotions, that is, why they may
be feeling a particular way. In addition, the self-focused attention characterizing self-awareness
may help to reduce the human conceit (Arkes & Hammond, 1988) that may characterize the
overconfidence bias, in which individuals overestimate the quality of their performance.
Furthermore, with regard to the ease of recall bias, self-awareness may also enable individuals
to be more attentive to the emotional reactions to information that is particularly vivid or salient
and, thus, they may be less likely to let such reactions influence their judgments of the
likelihood of specific events.
Empathy
Empathy can be defined as the intellectual or imaginative apprehension of another’s condition
or state of mind without actually experiencing that person’s feelings (Hogan, 1969, p. 308). In
essence, empathy involves being willing and able to take the perspective of another individual
and modifying one’s behavior as a result. A higher level of empathy may result when
individuals are able to perceive and identify the emotions of others and take the perspective of
others in order to understand why they may be feeling a particular way. In addition, being
empathic toward the beliefs or behaviors of other people may enable an individual to be less
susceptible to the false-consensus bias, since empathy may enable individuals to consider that
the beliefs and behavior of others, even if such beliefs are discrepant with their own, might also
be appropriate in a given situation. Empathy may enable an individual to be less likely to jump
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
to conclusions and make judgments about others from available descriptive information but,
instead, take the perspective of the particular individual involved and assess specific
information about the individual as it may pertain to any base-rate information, this potentially
reducing the occurrence of the base-rate fallacy.
Creativity
Creativity involves the capacity to generate ideas that are novel, of superior quality, and fitting
to the situation at hand and to have these ideas well received in a specific domain
(Csikzentmihalyi, 1994, 1996; Gardner, 1983; Simonton, 1984; Sternberg & Lubart, 1995).
When individuals are able to utilize emotions to facilitate their thinking, they may be better able
to increase their flexibility, consider multiple viewpoints, and generate novel ideas and
solutions to problems, thus potentially leading to a higher level of creativity. Furthermore, an
individual with a high level of creativity may be less susceptible to the bias of insufficient
anchor adjustment since he or she has the capacity to generate novel, high-quality ideas as
opposed to demonstrating the inflexibility that may come with overemphasizing an arbitrary
initial starting point or anchor that may be available. Therefore, self-awareness, empathy, and
creativity, are introduced into the present discussion to develop a conceptual link between
emotional intelligence and judgment biases. Such skills are briefly defined and then discussed
in terms of how they may be characteristic of a particular component of emotional intelligence
as conceptualized by Mayer and Salovey’s (1997) ability model. In addition, mention is then
made of how the presence of each skill may influence some the factors that may lead to a
particular judgment bias. Self-awareness, empathy, and creativity are, therefore, introduced as
mediating variables in the relationship between emotional intelligence and judgment.
Culminating Effect of Emotional Intelligence, Skills, and Judgment Biases
A framework consisting of abilities, skills, and behaviors is proposed in this case, such that
emotional intelligence abilities lead to skills such as self-awareness, empathy, and creativity,
which may affect certain biases in judgment involved in the decision-making behaviors of
disability adjudicators. In this framework, a skill is viewed as being a characteristic
encompassed by a broader, overarching ability. This general ability-skill-behavior framework
has been utilized before in the context of leadership research. For example, Beach, Barnes, &
Christensen-Szalanksi, (1986), Badea & Pana (2010), and Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding,
Jacobs, and Fleishman (2000) proposed a multi-faceted model in which complex decisionmaking skills and knowledge mediate the effects of cognitive abilities, motivation, and
personality on leader problem solving and performance. The incorporation of intervening
variables or explanatory processes into the chain explaining how abilities such as emotional
intelligence can affect an outcome such as the use of different judgment biases that may inhibit
effective decision-making. Badea and Pana (2010) and Moutier and Houde (2003) specified
that the exclusion of different explanatory processes, such as potential intervening variables,
from the examination of any significant correlations between individual leader attributes and
criteria of leadership effectiveness may be one of the reasons why early trait research failed to
find any traits that would guarantee leadership success. In addition, as cited by Connelly et al.
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(2002), Lord and Hall (1992) indicated that studies of leadership do not always consider the
possibility of mediators, either by failing to mention interrelationships among variables, or by
utilizing contingency explanations for differences in what leader traits predict in different
conditions or situations.
Ethical Decision Making
The majority of the literature available on ethical decision-making is in reference to those
decisions made in a professional capacity by people who are in the medical professions or
social work. Moreover, many professions have published codes of ethics to guide their
decisions. Nonetheless, people make ethical decisions in every line of work as well as in
everyday life.
Historical Overview
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the question of what actions are morally right
and how things ought to be, which guide the code of conduct that directs an individual to act in
accordance with the values that person professes (Garrett, 1994; Mattison, 2000;
Woodward, Davis, & Hodis, 2007).). Therefore, any choice that involves contradictory ethical or
moral principles is an ethical decision, and strategies to rank the conflicting principles are
problematic. In such an ethical dilemma, all possible alternatives may be correct, but to make
one choice over the other requires reasoning that is often difficult and time consuming to
determine all the serious consequences. Woodard et al. (2007) suggested a method for
making such choices by carefully considering all sides of the conflict, the ethical codes
involved, and personal values that enter into the equation that may inject personal biases.
Following those considerations, the next step is seeking compromises that minimize negative
consequences and that will be acceptable to all parties concerned. Woodard et al. (2007) and
Mattison (2000) affirmed that ethical decisions are fashioned by the decision-maker and by the
process used to resolve ethical dilemmas; hence, discretionary judgments form the ultimate
choice of action. In other words, although ethical decision-making involves a concentrated
focus on the particular details of the dilemma, it should also include reflection throughout the
process as well as in retrospect to activate self-knowledge and insight. The individual can then
later use this reflective self-awareness to make corrections or adjustments to influence future
ethical decisions. There is seldom any option that is entirely satisfactory; therefore, the action
generally desired is the one that results in greater degrees of good. However, actions can be
justified by the consequences they create and the belief that the desired ends will be met,
thereby justifying the means. This realization led to Mattison’s belief that ethical decisionmaking in everyday life must never be considered a discrete act or a task that is unremittingly
logical or scientific by nature. Mattison further stated that even though systematic guides for
solving ethical dilemmas may offer a logical approach to the decision making process, to some
extent, discretionary judgment is inevitable, because context and situational preferences lead
to exceptions to following one particular systematic approach. The process a person chooses
for making such decisions is forged by the prejudices and prejudgments brought into the
process. Initially, the reasoning process helps the decision-maker establish, understand, and
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
organize the complex facts related to the particular situation. Yet, the ultimate decision for
resolving an ethical dilemma lies in the circumstances and the value system or preferences of
the decision-maker.
Other influences on the decision may include prior socialization and developmental stages as
well as situational factors. In addition, Mattison reiterated that ethical decision-making is
sensitized by cultural background and beliefs, which often inadvertently cast judgments on the
rightness or wrongness of attitudes and behaviors. Character, conscience, personal
philosophy, attitudes, and biases help to determine choice of action. In addition, ethical
decision-makers bring to the process a tendency to select an action that is in line with personal
preferences, professional roles, commitment to laws and policies, practical experience,
motivations, attitudes, and other individualized perspectives. Mattison (2000) and Woodard et
al. (2007) declared that ethical problems are usually pressing, but often subtle and without
clear signs and symptoms, as in petty theft, accepting gifts or remuneration for special
services, or division of loyalty. Different religious, ethnic, socioeconomic, political, familial, and
workplace groups are likely to hold different values and rules of behavior regarding what is
acceptable to all parties. This would lead to differing moral conclusions about a particular
problem, and thereby cause conflict between peers, organization and employees, family
members, or other members of the social group involved. Signs that a person is facing an
ethical problem may include heightened emotional sensitivity, avoidance, anger, or even a
vague sense that something is amiss.
Culture of SSA Disability
Like the Social Security system of which they are a part, the operational mandate is to treat all
citizens who apply fairly and equitably. This standard is achieved through uniformity in
disability decision-making, which protects viable applicants from inequity and federal coffers
from illegitimate claims.
To ensure that the disability programs meet these objectives, Social Security devised
substantive and procedural mechanisms to adjudicate the claims of each American who
applies. Of these mechanisms, the following five are considered essential to ensure equal
treatment: (a) the Listings of Impairments that form a standard measure of disabilities; (b) the
requirement that disabling conditions be verified by objective medical evidence; (c) the
Medical-Vocational Guidelines, or the “Grid,” that considers factors; (d) the five-step sequential
evaluation that dictates the order in which decisions are made; and (e) the appeals procedure
that grants dissatisfied applicants a hearing before an impartial Administrative Law Judge (SSA
Disability Professionals Blue book, 2005).
The listings of Impairments are lists of medical criteria against which every applicant’s medical
condition is compared. The listings describe more than 100 medical conditions by their
symptoms, signs, and laboratory findings. For each condition, the Listings also establish levels
of severity that can usually be presumed to result in an inability to work.
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The Listings standardize the disability application because they measure each recognized
condition by the same criteria. For example, an applicant who is mentally retarded will be
judged “disabled” according to the Listings if his or her IQ falls between 50 and 59; and a
claimant who has congestive heart failure will be judged “disabled” under the Listings if his or
her heart disease persists despite prescribed treatment. If, however, a claimant’s condition
does not meet the criteria of the Listings, he or she will be judged on additional criteria,
including age, education, and previous work experience.
Disabling Conditions Verification
To recognize a condition as disabling, the Social Security system requires that the symptoms
be verified by “objective medical evidence,” that is, by visible signs or laboratory findings
declared by physicians (SSA, 2003). This requirement is considered central to ensuring that
the application process is fair and unbiased and that it disqualifies all but the truly deserving.
The objectivity of medical evidence, however, naturally depends on the physicians who
generate, interpret, and explain it.
Four types of physicians play critical roles in the disability decision-making process: the
applicant’s treating physician, Consultative Examiners (CEs), Disability Determination Services
(DDS) physicians, and medical experts (MEs). The most influential of these four groups is the
applicant’s own physician because Social Security regulations grant preferential weight to the
opinions of treating physicians as long as they are supported by clinical and laboratory
findings. Treating physicians provide disability adjudicators with clinical impressions and
diagnoses in the form of medical records and reports.
Consultative evaluators are paid by a state agency to examine an applicant to provide medical
findings and reports only when he or she cannot afford a treating physician or when a treating
physician refuses to cooperate or is deemed unqualified. In every case, Disability
Determination Services (DDS) physicians evaluate the applicant’s medical file at the initial and
the reconsideration stages to determine what medical evidence is credible and what additional
tests are needed. Unlike consultative evaluators, Disability Determination Services physicians
have no direct contact with the applicant. Finally, Medical Experts advise Administrative Law
Judges (ALJs) in cases where judges require assistance in interpreting medical evidence.
Typically, MEs decide whether an applicant meets or equals a listing and the extent identified
medical impairments limit the ability to perform job-related activities.
The Grid
The Medical-Vocational Guidelines, commonly referred to as the “GRID,” are a standardized
set of rules from the Code of Federal Regulations that are laid out in grid format. These
medical-vocational factors become relevant in a disability claim when an applicant’s condition
does not meet or equal the Listings. Adjudicators are required to render disability decisions
based on the Grid’s recommendation. In cases in which impairment restricts an applicant’s
physical capabilities, disability adjudicators rely on the Grid as follows: Adjudicators take into
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
account the applicant’s remaining physical capabilities, “residual functional capacity,” along
with other factors, including age, education, and work experience. They then refer to the Grid
for an “objective” determination of what employment possibilities still exist. For example,
according to the Grid, a physically disabled 55-year-old woman with an 11th grade education
and previous experience as a retail salesperson would be found “not disabled” if she had the
residual functional capacity to perform telephone sales sitting at a desk (Social Security
Evaluation of Disability- Bluebook, 2005)
The Five-Step Sequential Evaluation Process
The five-step sequential evaluation process, the fourth mechanism designed to increase
objectivity and promote uniformity in disability decision-making, requires adjudicators to
evaluate each disability claim in a prescribed order. Adjudicators are bound to follow the fivestep sequence throughout the application and appeals process. In step one, the process of
determining each disability claim begins with the DDS, a state agency that the federal
government hires to evaluate the medical grounds of the claim and to supplement them as
needed. The federal government contracts this function out to states’ DDSs so that initial and
reconsideration state medical work-ups and evaluations are made in the claimant’s home
state. This delegation makes sense because state-run agencies have stronger institutional ties
with the professionals and local agencies needed to process and adjudicate claims (Social
Security Evaluation of Disability- Bluebook, 2005).
A team of DDS examiners, which includes a DDS physician, well versed in the rules carries out
a DDS evaluation. Disability evaluators base their decisions exclusively on medical and related
records and reports; they have no fact-to-face interview with the applicant. As the first step of
the sequential process, DDS adjudicators establish whether the applicant is working. Work is
defined as an activity involving significant and productive physical or mental duties done for
pay or profit. If the claimant is working, benefits are denied. If the claimant is not working, the
case proceeds to step two. In step two, evaluators determine whether the claimant’s
impairment is “severe.” Impairment is considered severe when it significantly affects a person’s
ability to work. If the claimant’s impairment is considered non-severe, the claim is denied; if it is
found to be severe, the claim proceeds to step three, wherein evaluators consider whether the
applicant’s medical condition as claimed meets or equals his or her condition as defined in the
Listings of Impairments. If the condition matches or exceeds the Listings requirement, he or
she automatically qualifies for benefits. If the condition is closely related but not identical to the
definition in the Listings, the DDS adjudicators determine whether the impairment is “close
enough” to the Listings. If they assess the documented condition as “close enough,” the
claimant is found disabled on the theory that the condition “equals” the description in the
listings. If the applicant’s condition is assessed as less severe, or is not included in the
Listings, evaluators proceed to step four (Social Security Evaluation of Disability- Bluebook,
2005).
In step four, a claim is denied if evaluators conclude that the applicant’s condition does not
prevent him or her from doing work formerly done. If the applicant is found to be incapable of
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performing the work, evaluators move to step five (Social Security Evaluation of DisabilityBluebook, 2005). In this final step, adjudicators assess the claimant’s “residual functional
capacity,” whether the alleged medical condition affects the claimant’s ability to perform
activities common to many kinds of work, including standing, bending, sitting, squatting, lifting,
following instructions, and thinking clearly. To make this assessment, adjudicators also
consider the applicant’s age, education, and work experience. Taking all these factors into
account, evaluators decide whether the applicant is physically or mentally capable of doing any
full-time work in the nation’s economy. If the impairment is physical, the Grid is applied to make
that final decision; the adjudicator evaluates the claim in light of the physical and mental
impairments alleged. If the claimant is found capable of working, the disability claim is denied:
if found incapable, the claim is approved (Social Security Evaluation of Disability- Bluebook,
2005).
The Appeals Process
The final mechanism designed to ensure applicants a fair and uniform determination is an
appeals procedure that grants dissatisfied applicants a hearing before an impartial ALJ. It is
useful to characterize the hearing process in the context of the overall application procedure.
Eligibility for disability benefits begins with an application, which is initially processed by a
claims representative at a Social Security district office. Social Security claims representatives
do not make substantive disability determinations. Rather, they help applicants fill out
necessary forms, forward all the relevant forms and paperwork to the DDS for a decision, and
process claims that are ultimately paid.
If the application is denied, the applicant has recourse to various levels of appeal. The first of
these, called reconsideration, allows the applicant to submit new medical evidence to a team of
DDS examiners but does not include a fact-to-face interview. The chances of a favorable
decision at the reconsideration stage are relatively low. Of the 1.5 million Americans whose
initial applications were reviewed in 1990, approximately 60 percent were denied benefits
(Committee on Ways and Means, 1991). That same year, 50 percent of those whose initial
applications were denied applied for reconsideration; 83 percent of these were again denied
benefits (Committee on Ways and Means, 1991).
Clinical Judgment and Decision-making Research
The substantial body of literature pertaining to clinical judgment has relevance for disability
assessment and decision-making, A well-known early contributor, Meehl (1954), demonstrated
an advantage of actuarial (statistical based) over clinical prediction methods, a position that
has provoked a great deal of debate for 50 years. Recent literature continues to compare and
contrast the relative effectiveness of clinical versus mechanical approaches to clinical decisionmaking. A large metaanalysis, for example, performed by Grove, Zald, Lebow, Smitz, and
Nelson, 2000, including over 130 articles involving a wide variety of psychiatric and medical
outcomes, found mechanical judgment more accurate than clinical methods 47% of the time. In
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
only 6% of studies were clinical approaches found superior, however, comparable accuracy
rates were observed between the two methods just under 50% of the time. A factor that
appeared to limit the effectiveness of the clinical method was the use of a clinical interview.
Arguments have been put forth for a more balanced view of clinical versus mechanical
prediction efficacies (e.g., Ganzach, Kluger, & Klayman, 2000; Karon, 2000). Kleinmuntz
(1990), for example, argued that these two methods can be successfully used in combination,
given the complexity of many clinical situations and the fact that all decisions cannot be made
via statistical prediction. It should further be noted that some degree of clinical
judgment/decision making is needed to develop statistical decision rules. More recently,
Mumma (2001) stated that clinical decisions must often be made on the basis of various
amounts of clinician-integrated evidence and that decision aids, such as statistical prediction
rules, are not routinely available.
IMPEDIMENTS TO DECISION-MAKING AND CLINICAL JUDGMENT
Heuristics Biases within the Disability Adjudication Process
Tversky and Kahneman (1974) reported on three major types of decisional simplification
strategies, which, while useful in some situations, have the potential to introduce considerable
error into one’s judgments. Representativeness, availability and adjustment and anchoring, are
heuristics that can impact the quality and accuracy of disability determinations.
Representativeness
This heuristic tends to be used where there are questions about the correlation or directionality
of relationship between two (or more) events. According to Tversky and Kahneman (1974), the
degree of perceived relationship between events, under the representativeness heuristic, is
based on the similarity between the events rather than more meaningful probability
considerations. The fundamental error here is that judging the relationship between variables
on the basis of similarity alone disregards other potentially significant factors that should also
be considered prior to a determination or decision. Garb (1998) reported that diagnostic
decisions could be affected by the representativeness heuristic when clinicians base their
diagnoses on the degree to which an individual is thought to resemble those making up a
diagnostic category. Clinicians have subjective standards, which may include stereotypes (ie.
How similar is person X to the typical person in diagnostic category Y?), prototypes (ie. How
similar is person X to the person showing all characteristics associated with diagnosis Y?), as
well as exemplars (How similar is person X to those that the clinician has seen in their personal
work?). Within the context of disability assessment, one should remain open to the potential for
categorizing a claimant based upon the degree to which they are representative of one or more
subjectively held clinical standards (e.g., the stereotypic drug abuser), as contrasted with a
more objective integration of all available data (and use of decisional aides such as DSM-IVTR). Garb (1996) demonstrated the representativeness heuristic in a series of studies requiring
clinicians to make psychodiagnostic ratings and predictions based upon case history material.
Findings indicated that the representativeness heuristic was present when the judges were
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asked to make diagnoses but when the task involved predictions (e.g., of future violence or
substance abuse); whereas the representativeness heuristic involves the use of stereotypes or
prototypes in decision-making (rather than base rates or decision aides such as the DSM-IV),
the past behavior heuristic involves the use of previous behavior to predict future behavioral
outcomes. Tversky and Kahneman (1974) also contend that the representativeness heuristic
reduces the likelihood that judgments and predictions will incorporate base rate information.
Predictions of future events will be based more upon issues of similarity and resemblance than
on the actual frequencies with which these events have occurred in the past. Such objective
frequency probability data, where available, may be useful in forming predictions of future
events, especially in cases where prior probabilities are extremely high or low (Franklin &
Krueger, 2003; Garb, 1998; Meehl, 1973). It is important, however, to remain realistic about the
fact that base rate data alone is insufficient for clinical prediction purposes. Ruffalo (2003)
argued that base rate information often lacks precision, as it reflects sample group data Q that
is no substitute for the unique findings present in the individual case. Thus, knowledge that
disability applicants or patients involved in personal injury litigation, as a group, are more likely
to exaggerate symptoms (Griffin, Normington et al., 1996; Williams Lees-Haley, & Djanogly,
1999) should not be considered a basis for a clinical judgment until a broader review of all
available data is conducted. Ruffalo (2003) emphasized the need for careful intraindividual
comparisons over time and across tasks, which differ in degree of similarity.
Another potential problem for disability examiners involves the (mis) interpretation of change
as representing true improvement or decline in a clinical condition. A basic statistical principle,
regression to the mean, asserts that extreme observations, scores, or performances on one
occasion will likely be followed by less extreme results on future occasions. In determining the
existence of a disability-level psychiatric impairment, and/or change in such impairment,
clinicians are often presented with multiple observations taken over an extended period of
time. A typical example involved the review of multiple sets of IQ data associated with
allegations of MR, learning disability (LD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), or other cognitiverelated impairments (e.g., HIV-related dementia). It is quite common to find considerable
variability between scores from evaluations separated by various periods of time. While many
variables can certainly contribute to score discrepancies (e.g., reason for testing, level of
motivation, and emotional status at time of examination), regression effects need to be
considered before deciding that a claimant, for example, has shown significant improvement,
given a 15-point increase in IQ values, which went from 65 to 80 in a period of 12 months.
Clearly, the interpreted meaningfulness of this change should not be based solely on score
difference but also on more global indicators, like day-to-day functional capacities. It is at least
theoretically possible that the 15-point change in this case was based upon factors such as
regression to the mean and not representative of actual cognitive change (Pincus, A. P.,
Kennedy, C., Simmens, S. J., Goldman, H. H., Sirovatka, P., & Sharfstein, S., 1991; Schretlen,
D., Wilkins, S. S., VanGorp, W. G., & Bobholz, J. H., 1992).
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Availability within clinical judgment
The availability heuristic pertains to the situation where information used for prediction or
decision-making is that which is most easily accessed or recalled (Tversky & Kahneman,
1974). In a series of studies involving projective personality measures (Rorschach, Projective
Drawing Tests), Chapman and Chapman (1982) showed that even trained clinicians are prone
to perceiving test sign–symptom correlations that have not been established by the empirical
literature. They further showed that these perceived correlations (e.g., between large eyes in a
projective drawing and paranoia, or broad shoulders and worry about manliness Q) tend to
persist even in the face of information to the contrary. In fact, the tendency to rely on such
illusory correlations was similar for both clinicians and students. Similar findings were seen
with the Rorschach. The authors raised a concern that, without proper attention to the
availability heuristic, decisions may be made by clinicians based more on their personal
associations and projections than on data that was descriptive of the individual being
evaluated. The psychologist making a disability-related decision (e.g., presence of drug
addiction and abuse (DA&A) materiality) based upon unsupported and subjective signs (e.g.,
presence of a DWI arrest in the history) may well be operating under the availability heuristic
and, more specifically, an illusory correlation. Recall of information may also be impacted by
availability and factors such as vividness (Tracey & Rounds, 1999; Tversky & Kahneman,
1974). It may, for example, be easier to recall more vivid events in a record (e.g., attempted
murder of a relative) as compared with less extreme, yet important, information about a
claimant (e.g., extent of treatment involvement and response). Factors such as examiner mood
state or ability to imagine a particular event/outcome may similarly impact the ease with which
information can be accessed from memory and thereby made available for decision-making.
The problem here is that accessibility alone does not guarantee recall or subsequent judgment
accuracy.
Adjustment and anchoring within clinical judgment
The third heuristic outlined by Tversky and Kahneman (1974) typically is seen in situations
requiring some type of numerical prediction Q and where some data relevant to the task are
present. The usual task here is one that requires an adjustment of some initially available value
(or anchor) point in an attempt to arrive at a final determination. The general tendency is
toward error in prediction based upon inaccurate data adjustment. Bias is demonstrated via
estimates or predictions that are overly influenced (i.e., anchored) by the initial data. Garb
(1998) described the tendency for final judgments to be biased in the direction of initially
reviewed data as an example of anchoring. Rather than suspend judgment until all evidence
was reviewed and appropriately weighed, a final disability decision may be strongly grounded
in case information reviewed first, when, in fact, a more reasonable conclusion would result
from some modification or adjustment of the initial impression. Elstein and Schwarz (2002)
pointed out that anchoring may be seen in situations where evidence was reviewed in a
sequential fashion. This would suggest the potential for disability reviewers to reach different
opinions regarding the same evidence in the event that this evidence was reviewed in different
sequences. It also raises the possibility of a more systematic type of judgment error when
individual reviewers elected to consistently consider pieces of evidence in the same order
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(e.g., psychometric data, followed by mental status findings, followed by claimant self-report,
etc.). Anchoring may also be seen in the tendency for conclusions regarding novel clinical
information to be influenced by the type of patients or clinical work that one does on a regular
basis (Garb, 1998). Thus, primarily seeing patients with one type and severity of
psychopathology may contribute to inaccurate decisions regarding patients with dissimilar
clinical circumstances. Essentially, the clinician’s primary reference point (needing adjustment)
was their personal experience base, which may deviate from a point of clinical neutrality.
Elstein and Schwarz (2002) appeared to identify a core feature of the heuristic problem in their
observation that many judgments based on clinical intuition were at odds with probabilistic
logic, as put forth in Bayes’ theorem (e.g., see Franklin & Krueger, 2003). This was not an
easily resolved problem, given the complexity of clinical decisions and the lack of statistical
rules to use in complex determinations, such as the presence or absence of psychiatric
disability.
Bias and Disability-Related Decisions
Much has been written about the potential role of bias in clinical decision-making within the
administrative disability adjudication process. In providing a general framework for
understanding the impact of systematic bias on human judgment, Kerr, MacCoun, and Kramer
(1996) made reference to three types of error associated with biased judgment. First, sins of
imprecision were demonstrated via a comparison of judgments and criterion outcomes based
(theoretically) upon an unbiased criterion. Bias here was present when judgments
systematically deviated from conclusions that would be reached if data were considered within
a formal logic system, such as probability theory. The second variety of biased judgment,
categorized as sins of commission, involved the consideration of information that was not
relevant to the decision. Within the realm of disability determination, an example might involve
assigning undue weight to factors such as claimant literacy level or visual acuity in cases of
alleged disability based on agoraphobia. Bias was deemed to be present under this condition
to the extent that the irrelevant evidence played a role in the final judgment, such that a
different conclusion would be reached using only relevant data. The third bias category
involved sins of omission. It is here that the decision maker neglected or overlooked data that
were relevant to the judgment (e.g., third-party observations of functional decline in cases of
alleged schizophrenia and other physical impairments).
To follow is a review of specific types of decisional bias that deserve consideration in the
disability assessment process. It should be noted that while discussed separately, it is certainly
possible for a combination of heuristics and bias to impact a particular judgment or clinical
prediction.
Response Bias and the Judgment of Credibility
When establishing the presence of a medical determinable impairment (MDI), an assessment
is made regarding the credibility of a claimant’s allegations. This involves an attempt to rule out
the presence of malingering or less extreme forms of dissimulation, which would raise
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
concerns about the validity of evidence and assessment results. Research, within adjudication
of mental impairments, has demonstrated measures of response bias in the assessment of
dissimulation. Within the context of SSA disability determination, psychometric data are often
unavailable (due, at least in part, to financial considerations), such that a careful assessment of
the consistency of test and non test data in the record is crucial in establishing the credibility of
a claimant’s psychiatric allegations (Griffin, Normington, & Glassmire, 1996).
Griffin et al. (1996) studied the methods of assessing deception and dissimulation among SSDI
applicants. They noted that such assessments within the Social Security Program are typically
based upon clinical judgment, which carries a risk of bias. The authors obtained a composite
malingering score (CMS) based upon sections of the Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI-III), M Test, Millon Clinical Multi-axial Inventory-II MCMI-II), and Beck
Depression Inventory (BDI) administered to several groups with various degrees of assessed
motivation to exaggerate their symptoms. Participants included individuals already on the
disability rolls, disability applicants, as well as disability analysts (familiar with the SSA
program) instructed to malinger. It was discovered that this composite psychometric measure
was effective in differentiating between subject groups. A tentative estimate of 19% was
proposed regarding the malingering rate of SSDI applicants in the population studied. Griffin
(1996) further made the important point that some degree of dissimulation may be present in
individuals who actually meet the requirements for Social Security disability. In any event, while
the CMS used in the Griffin’s research is not a part of the routine disability determination
assessment performed by SSA, it does demonstrate the potential usefulness of such a tool in a
program that must routinely make credibility judgments.
Williams, Lees-Haley, and Dianogly (1999) provided a number of guidelines for assessing the
credibility of self-report in forensic settings, many of which can be applied to the disability
determination arena. They emphasized the importance of realizing that such cases must be
viewed differently than typical psychotherapy cases that successful malingering can and does
occur even in the presence of trained clinicians, and that pre-evaluation coaching of
examinees has been known to occur by various advocate groups. Williams suggested the use
of well-developed psychological instruments with validity scales, careful review of both selfand other-report data, review of any relevant historical records, the use of objective mentalstatus examination findings, and decision making based upon internally consistent data from
multiple sources.
Zasler and Martelli (2003) also addressed the issue of response bias in evaluations and mild
traumatic body injury (TBI). They outlined a response bias continuum ranging from denial of
impairment, through normal demonstration of symptoms, to symptom exaggeration, and finally,
outright malingering. It was contended that the role of financial incentives was more
pronounced in cases of mild (vs. more severe) trauma brain injury (TBI). Recommended
methods of reducing response bias included routinely assessing for examinee motivation,
considering available symptom base rate information, suspending assessment decisions until
all evidence was considered, and obtaining feedback from objective peers.
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Diagnostic Overshadowing
The overshadowing bias exists when the presence of one impairment or condition results in a
reduced likelihood that another existing impairment will be identified. Often, the primary
overshadowing condition is particularly salient and has the effect of inhibiting further data
exploration or processing activity by the clinician and adjudicator. This type of bias has been
found to occur frequently in cases of mental retardation, which account for the majority of
psychiatric disability beneficiaries (SSA, 2003). Jopp and Keys (2002) studied factors related
to overshadowing in cases where MR coexisted with other types of psychiatric conditions.
They pointed out that diagnostic overshadowing may be an example of either decreased
clinical sensitivity (i.e., increased false negative error rates) or potentially even reduced
specificity (with an excessive diagnosis of disorders not present). The literature reviewed by
Jopp and Keys indicated the presence of overshadowing, despite the type of coexisting
psychopathology, order in which evidence was reviewed, professional experience of examiner,
specific experience with MR populations, severity of MR, or examiner work setting. It appeared
that higher levels of clinician cognitive complexity reduced the overshadowing bias; however,
precisely defining this concept was problematic. It was further pointed out that this bias has
primarily been demonstrated via analogue research paradigms, although its existence in the
real world seemed highly likely.
In a study that has relevance for disability assessment, Walker and Spengler (1995)
demonstrated that individuals with AIDS were less likely to be referred for treatment of a
coexisting major depression than were patients with terminal cancer or no medical problem.
There was some support for the position that clinician cognitive complexity (in the form of
greater information about AIDS) moderated the overshadowing bias. Clinicians with greater
cognitive complexity were more likely to acknowledge the need for psychiatric treatment in
AIDS patients. The authors speculated that the overshadowing seen with AIDS patients may
reflect a clinician’s tendency to view depression as an expected reaction to a stigmatizing
illness, which then reduced the likelihood of a mental health treatment referral.
It would appear that diagnostic overshadowing could play a role in the disability determination
process, given the fact that an individual claimant may allege a number of impairments
(medical and/or psychiatric), some of which may stand out as more prominent than the others.
The adjudicator must give careful consideration to all alleged impairments to properly arrive at
an accurate determination, especially because disability allowances can be based upon
functional limitations produced by a combination of physical and psychiatric factors.
Spengler and Strohmer (1994) studied the moderating effect of two clinician-based variables
(preference for work with an MR patient population and degree of clinician cognitive
complexity) on diagnostic overshadowing. Predictions included expectations of less
overshadowing bias by clinicians with more interest in the MR population and greater
complexity as a feature of their information processing style. Findings demonstrated the
importance of cognitive complexity but not population preference. In fact, clinicians in the lowcognitive-complexity condition demonstrated the overshadowing bias at a rate three times that
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
seen in the high-complexity condition. Such a finding was important, as it highlighted a variable
that appeared to increase clinician susceptibility to at least one type of judgment bias. These
findings also raised the question of whether clinicians can be instructed in more complex dataprocessing strategies (e.g., generating and testing multiple hypotheses) that are part of the
high-cognitive complexity style. Difficulties with this, however, involved precisely defining
cognitive complexity, as well as clarifying which types of judgment tasks required more versus
less complex information processing.
Confirmatory Bias
Another impediment to accurate information gathering, processing, and recall involves the
tendency to selectively attend to information that is in line with one’s viewpoint while minimizing
or disregarding data that may disconfirm this position. A disability file containing a large
amount of evidence, some of which is internally inconsistent and in need of clarification, can
easily set the stage for a selective data review, which simplifies task complexity and allows for
the illusion of having performed a more thorough evaluation. Ganzach, Kluger and Klayman
(2000) showed that clinical adjudicators tended to overemphasize pathological as contrasted
with non-pathological findings. This was found to be associated with a confirmatory bias aimed
at supporting the hypothesis that a patient’s psychopathology was severe. Clinician
adjudicators were found to consistently assign greater weight to findings associated with
psychotic (vs. neurotic) score patterns in contrast to more objective criterion models. According
to Ganzach et al. (2000), clinical adjudicators relied primarily on information associated with
psychosis, and ignored information associated with neurosis. This diagnostic strategy was not
justified, since, with regard to the criterion, the importance of these two types of information
was about the same. Strohmer et al. (1990) also demonstrated the existence of confirmatory
bias in a study on clinical information processing. Findings revealed that, when provided with
various clients’ information, master’s level counselors were significantly more likely to
subsequently recall that which confirmed their hypotheses, even when relatively more
disconfirmatory data were made available to them. It was further discovered that counselor
certainty regarding their viewpoints increased as a function of amount of confirmatory data
recalled. These findings implied that the confirmatory bias seen in information processing and
recall may also set the stage for unrealistic confidence estimates, which only further hampered
the decision-making process for the adjudicator. Confirmatory information processing thus
appeared to persist even in the face of contradictory evidence, a finding that clearly has
relevance for any type of assessment activity. They noted the existence of a related
phenomenon, framing, which occurred when the same medical evidence, presented in different
ways, led to different conclusions. The potential certainly exists for a disability determination to
be impacted by both selective recall of confirmatory information and the justification of
decisions within the framework of the highlighted evidence.
Hindsight Bias
Dawson (1995) defined hindsight bias as the tendency for people considering a past event to
overestimate the likelihood of having predicted its occurrence. This study required participants
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to review a case history and predict the likelihood of various primary diagnoses. Some
participants were additionally required to make note of evidence in the case history that could
support each of the provided diagnoses. Other participants were provided strong cues in the
case material regarding the primary diagnosis and were not asked to consider evidence
specific to other provided diagnoses. Findings revealed that the debiasing intervention used
with the former group was effective in reducing the presence of hindsight bias relative to the
group-making judgments on the basis of case history with strong diagnostic cues. The latter
group, according to the author, exemplified the frequently observed situation where clinician
adjudicators contended they knew it all along after having been told an outcome and, thereby,
saw no reason to question their prediction skills. Systematically considering alternative
explanations or outcomes was suggested as a possible means of reducing hindsight bias, as it
would encourage the clinical adjudicator to consider a wider range of possibilities prior to
(overconfidently) arriving at an adjudication decision. Within the realm of disability decisions,
one might apply these findings by searching out evidence contrary to the arrived at conclusion
(i.e., disabled or not disabled) prior to the final determination. Hindsight bias can be influenced
by the degree to which feedback on a decision reflected positively or negatively on the decision
maker. It appeared that positive decisional feedback (whether accurate or not) increased the
likelihood that one will invoke the I-knew-it-the-entire-time viewpoint.
The implications of the above research include a possibility that a self-serving mechanism
plays a role in hindsight bias and that this can be suppressed via education about the tendency
to make internal attributions for success, regardless of objective accuracy. There are also
implications for an intervention aimed at encouraging a more realistic view of the prediction
situation and how one rates one’s degree of proficiency. It would not be difficult to imagine the
development of hindsight bias in a large disability assessment setting, where a lack of negative
feedback (e.g., from quality assurance reviewers) regarding a case decision is construed as
confirmation or approval regarding all of the many conclusions and judgments that were part of
the case adjudication process. At the very least, caution may be in order under conditions of
favorable decision feedback, especially in the absence of a debiasing strategy.
Biases and Characteristics
Variables such as age, gender, cultural background, and health status have additionally been
studied within the context of judgment bias. Wrobel (1993), for example, examined the manner
in which age and gender influenced the diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic decisions made
by clinical psychologists. Findings indicated an increased frequency of physical and organic
disorder diagnoses with increases in patient age, whereas younger individuals with identical
symptoms were most often classified as depressed. Furthermore, older patients were most
often viewed as in need of supportive treatment, whereas younger patients were considered
good candidates for cognitive–behavioral, medical rehabilitation and pharmacological
interventions. Prognostic ratings were also more negative for the older participants. Wrobel
stated that such findings suggest bias, given an empirical database showing the effectiveness
of several treatment modalities in depressed elderly individuals. It also appeared that the
clinical adjudicators attended to different case history information, depending upon patient age.
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
There was more attention, for example, given to suicide potential in younger participants when
such a risk may actually be greater in older age groups. Participants with poor health were also
rated more negatively in terms of interpersonal attributes (interpersonal bias). According to the
author, it is likely that a heuristic assumption regarding the desirability and treatability of both
physically impaired and older patients affected ratings and may operate in everyday clinical
practice. As age and health status are factors considered in all disability assessments,
concern is warranted regarding the types of judgment bias identified in this research.
Cultural Bias
Cultural bias has been addressed in the empirical literature and would also have relevance for
disability assessment. Malgady (1996) asserted that in evaluating individuals from ethnic
minority groups, psychologist adjudicators should not assume that standardized test results
were free of bias, unless this hypothesis has been carefully evaluated for the specific minority
group(s) under consideration. In fact, absent of a demonstration of measurement equivalence,
Malgady contended that the prevalence of bias should be expected in the test results of
minority examinees. One step toward reducing this concern involved the use of multi-method
assessment strategies, which allowed for a variety of response and measurement formats.
Like age and health, culture was also an issue to be considered in disability assessments,
especially when interpreting the results of psychological tests normed only within the
mainstream culture. Even nonverbal tests, which are frequently used in disability assessment,
cannot be assumed to be completely free of cultural influences.
Measurement of Disability Outcomes
In 2006, over 6.8 million disabled workers received benefits from the Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI) program, with an average monthly payment of somewhat more than $900
(SSA, 2007). An additional 2.8 million disabled working-age adults received income from the
means tested Supplemental Security Income Program, which provides guaranteed incomes to
the elderly, blind, and disabled. These programs were designed to ensure the well being of
disabled workers and their dependents and provide an important safety net for those unable to
work, yet too young to qualify for Social Security retirement benefits. In addition to the financial
transfers, the programs provide health care coverage. Social Security Disability Insurance
(SSDI) recipients are entitled to Medicare two years after the onset of disability, while SSI
recipients are eligible for Medicaid immediately upon the determination of eligibility.
Financial Consequences of Disability
At a first glance, the benefits from these two programs appeared to be of substantial
importance to recipients. Social Security estimated that over one-half of disabled-worker
families would have incomes below the poverty line if SSDI benefits were excluded (SSA, n.d.).
Furthermore, several studies have shown those older workers’ application rates responded to
changes in SSDI benefit rates (e.g., Burkhauser, Bulter and Gumus, 2003; Autor and Duggan,
2007), suggesting that some workers might choose SSDI receipt over employment.
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However, despite the financial protection offered by the SSDI/SSI programs, the receipt of
benefits may come with costs greater than would first appear. Although the formula for SSDI
recognized the necessarily shorter work period that disabled applicants would have relative to
retired workers, and therefore required fewer covered quarters for eligibility and benefit
determination, benefits were lower than the individual’s average index monthly earnings and
may be lower than what old age and survivor insurance (OASI) benefits would be, were the
individual to work until the normal retirement age. Thus, not only is income for recipients of
disability likely to be lower during the prime age working years, the lower income levels will
likely remain throughout their lives.
Other financial consequences of disability may be less immediately apparent. Depending on
the age at disability, the disabled worker will likely lose much of his potential pension wealth
and any employer-provided retiree health insurance to which he would have been entitled had
he continued to work (Mitchell & Phillips, 2000). Additional restrictions on both future earnings
(for SSDI and SSI) and wealth accumulation (for SSI) ensure that households remaining on
these programs will experience modest standards of living, at best, throughout their lives. The
long-term financial security of people who were rejected for SSDI or SSI is not well understood.
Could it be due to the differences of EI and heuristic biases that are influencing the decisionmaking within the adjudication process? McGarry (2008) concluded that those having ever
applied for SSDI/SSI appear to be a marker for a particularly adverse wealth and income shock
that goes even beyond the obvious differences in education, occupation, race/ethnicity, or selfreported health. In part, the lower wealth (even conditional on income) may be explained by
government restrictions of the decision-making process.
CONCLUSION
McGarry (2008) revealed some preliminary results in measuring the longer-term outcomes for
people who applied for (and may have received) SSDI/SSI. Surprisingly, only modest (and
often insignificant) differences were found between those accepted, and those rejected for
SSDI/SSI. According to McGarry (2008), this slight negative finding was consistent with a
possible explanation. It was possible that all those who applied for SSDI or SSI were
legitimately unhealthy, but the application and adjudication process were so complicated (and
disability so difficult to discern) that the adjudicators were influenced by heuristic biases and
had various levels of emotional intelligence thereby, decision-making failed to adequately
distinguish between those truly unable to work and those who could.
SUMMARY
The literature review offered an in-depth review of germinal, historical, and current literature on
EI, heuristic biases and decision-making, including ways in which the constructs have been
conceptualized, operationalized, and measured. A large amount of literature existed for each
construct. Foundational research for the EI construct was found in Thorndike’s (1920) social
intelligence theory. The most cited heuristics theorist was Kahneman & Tversky (1974) George
(2000) who both have written several reviews and offered in-depth analyses of the heuristic
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Disability Adjudication: The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Heuristic Biases on Decision-Making
biases concept. While the EI construct had been studied for many years by Mayer et al.
(2004), posited that their mental abilities-based model of emotional intelligence (EI), could be
categorized as a true intelligence, Goleman (1995) popularized the construct. Heuristic biases,
decision-making, and EI have been studied in many different environments. During the course
of this review, no publications were found in which researchers explored the existence of a
relationship between the constructs. Consequently, a gap in the literature exists revealing little
or no research completed to show if there was a relationship between EI and judgmental
biases and the possible influences on decision-making. An exhaustive search showed no
research on EI, biases, and decision-making within the disability adjudication of the Social
Security Administration. Given the lack of empirical research in this area, the quantitative
correlational study’s goal was to add to the body of knowledge by determining if a significant
relationship existed between EI and heuristic biases (empathy), which ultimately influences
decision-making. design used to determine the existence of a significant relationship between
empathy and EI.
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LEGAL AWARENESS AND PERCEIVED ETHICAL LEADERSHIP OF
EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATORS IN STATE UNIVERSITIES AND
COLLEGES (SUCS) IN REGION 3
Robert P. Pena
Pampanga Agricultural College, Philippine
ABSTRACT
T
his study determined the ethical leadership behavior and legal knowledge of
administrators in State Universities and Colleges in Region III. A correlation of the
respondents’ profile (i.e., age, educational attainment, academic rank, years in
position) was established with their ethical leadership behavior and legal knowledge. A
descriptive type of research was utilized to correlate respondents’ ethical leadership behavior
(ELB), legal knowledge, and demographic profile. An ELB scale was drawn from the studies of
Brown, Trevino, and Harrison (2005) and a legal knowledge test (LKT) was constructed by the
researcher. The content of the LKT are cases drawn from the decisions of the Supreme Court
(Criminal Law, 1987 Philippine Constitution, Civil Code of the Philippines, Sexual Harassment
Act, Education Act of the Philippines, and Government Service Insurance Act). Pearson
correlation, Chi-square, frequency, and percentage were the statistical instruments used to
analyze the collected data. Major findings in terms of demographic profile revealed that there
were 143 administrators who were mostly holding office for more than 10 years, have high
academic ranks, and are holders of Doctorates. In terms of the respondents’ ethical leadership
behavior (ELB), most of the respondents strongly agreed with the statements found in the ELB.
The result showed that respondents strongly value professional code of ethics in matters of
legal decisions. In terms of the respondents’ legal knowledge, respondents were described as
Competent in all topics in the legal application test. However, the respondents had poor legal
knowledge on some details such as legal terms, procedural laws and legal processes. It was
further established that the correlation established between demographic profile and ethical
leadership behavior was not significant. On the other hand, the correlation established
between ethical leadership behavior and legal knowledge was slight in particular with Criminal
Law and Education Act of the Philippines. In summary, the findings in the legal knowledge test
suggested that administrators should strengthened their knowledge such as laws relative to
state policies, academic freedom, duties and responsibilities, administrative rules, and
administrative sanctions. In addition, findings in the ethical leadership behavior of the
respondents suggest that SUC administrators should reevaluate their legal discernment or
judgmental powers towards issues or concerns that they might encounter.
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Legal Awareness and Perceived Ethical Leadership of Educational Administrators in State Universities and Colleges (Sucs) in Region 3
Keywords: Ethical Leadership, Legal Awareness, Administrators.
INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE
In any organization, conflicts or disputes arise between subordinates and supervisors from a
myriad of reasons. Administrators usually rely on their managerial experiences, interpersonal
skills, and professional judgment to settle disputes. Moreover, other demographic (e.g. gender)
and social factors (e.g., personality, leadership styles) relatively influence settlements,
decisions and moral reasoning of an administrator.
Ethical leadership is a demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal
actions, interpersonal relationship, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through twoway communication reinforcement, and decision-making (Brown & Trevino, 2006). In this view,
leadership is rooted on human aspects of supervision (Bago, 2010) or reflective supervision
(Blase & Blase, 1998; Osterman, 1990). According to Bago, leadership in this sense espouses
reflection and transformation rather than inspection and control (p.27). The type of leadership
that any administrator should espouse will highly be crucial to the settlement/unsettlement of
any organizational disputes.
Bazerman and Messick (1996) posit that there is a need to identify and confront tendencies of
poor decision-making to improve ethical quality of decisions among executives. In their views,
there are three types of theories that executives use in making decisions; – theories about the
world, other people, and ourselves. These theories underscore reasons for any decision –
culture, organized beliefs, and perceived knowledge or capacity. In other words, decisionmaking is influenced by personal values and beliefs and consequently greatly affecting others.
Actions by school officials are likely to be strongly influenced by personal values and
professional code of ethics built on the values and experiences (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2005).
The premise of ethical leadership underscores empowerment and transformation of followers
while grounding decisions in morals and values (Copper, 1993). This view is in consonance
with the multiple paradigms posited by Shapiro & Stefkovich (2005). The paradigm view ethics
of justice, ethics of care, and professional ethics (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2005) as very
important framework in decision-making. It is crucial to decision-making because it serves the
best interests of student. In addition, obligations of educational leaders are said to be fulfilled.
Research on ethics and leadership has becoming more interesting and significant to
educational leaders. It has only been in the past decade that ethical leadership has been
systematically explored (Brown & Trevino, 2006). Ethical decision-making models sensitize
decision-makers to a variety of moral issues. They become more conscious on how their
decisions could affect others; the reasons for their decisions; and how they could rectify wrong
decisions; and even avoid possible dangerous situations. However, researchers on ethics and
ethical leadership are equivocal in the view that theoretical frameworks developed as research
models for ethics training have several limitations (e.g., Elenkov, D., Kuntz, J.P. & Kuntz,
J.R.C., 2011). First, models and measurement tools are designated to cater to a specific
professional group such as counselors, accountants, marketing professionals. This means that
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R. P. Pena
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 71-81
tools to gauge ethical leadership seemed to be scarce in some professions such as in
education. In addition, authentic measurement tools are imperative to obtain valid results.
Second, individual moral orientation is overlooked in dilemma identification and ethical
reasoning. These variables were investigated in relation with educational leaders’ perceived
leadership behaviors - personal values, ideals, culture, demographic profile, managerial
experience, education, personality are some of the factors which have been found to influence
professional judgment and ethical leadership of educational administrators (e.g., Elenkov et al.,
2011).
This study investigated legal knowledge of administrators on education-related laws (i.e., basic
state policies, academic freedom, duties and responsibilities, administrative rules, penalty and
administrative sanctions). In addition, their ethical leadership behaviors were examined.
Specifically, the following research questions were addressed:
1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents?
2. How can the respondents’ ethical leadership behaviors be described?
3. How can the respondents’ legal knowledge (or ethical reasoning) on ethical dilemmas
be described in terms of:
a. Criminal Law
b. 1987 Philippine Constitution
c. Civil Code of the Philippines
d. Education Act of the Philippines
e. Sexual Harassment
f. Government Service Insurance Act
4. Is there a significant relationship between respondents’ demographic profile and
ethical leadership behaviors?
5. Is there a significant relationship between respondents’ ethical leadership behaviors
and their legal knowledge?
METHODOLOGY, FINDINGS, ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION
This study utilized descriptive type of research. Ethical leadership behaviors of the
respondents were determined and results were correlated with their legal knowledge and
demographic profile. Respondents of this study were key policy makers from State Universities
and Colleges in Region 3. Respondents have similarities in terms of their administrative
positions. This means that all of the respondents in the selected SUCs are keyplayers of
government-run educational institutions, policy/decision makers, and school officials
Furthermore, they hold administrative and supervisory functions, and have judgmental powers.
The study determined the perceived ethical leadership behaviours and legal knowledge of
educational administrators from State Universities and Colleges in Region III. When the
researcher has obtained the exact number of respondents per selected SUC, letter of invitation
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Legal Awareness and Perceived Ethical Leadership of Educational Administrators in State Universities and Colleges (Sucs) in Region 3
and request was personally delivered by the researcher. Then, when a schedule was
arranged, the researcher administered the following:
1. Ethical Leadership Scale
2. Legal Knowledge Test
3. Evaluative Test
RESULTS
The grand mean score of all the statements in the ELB scale was 4.6 which means that the
respondents strongly agreed with the ethical behaviors. In terms of ranking, number six (6)
statement “Sets an example of how to do things the right way in terms of ethics” was ranked
first (or highest). This means that respondents strongly value professional code of ethics in
their execution of any legal decision. On the other hand, Statement 2, “Having the best
interest of employees in mind” was ranked tenth (10th). This finding agrees with the ethical
frameworks postulated by Elenkov, Kuntz, JP, Kuntz, JRC (2011). Educational leaders tended
to be more conscious on how their decisions could affect others.
Table 2: Mean Scores of Respondents’ Ethical Leadership Behavior (ELB)
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Statements in the ELB
Listens to what employees
have to say.
Has the best interest of
employees in mind.
Makes fair and balanced
decisions.
Can be trusted.
Discuss business ethics or
values with employees.
Sets an example of how to
do things the right way in
terms of ethics.
Disciplines
employees
who
violate
ethical
standards.
Defines success not just
by results but also the way
that they are obtained.
When making decisions,
asks, “What is the right
thing to do?”
Conducts his/her personal
life in an ethical manner.
Grand Mean
Mean Score
Descriptive Rating
4.44
Agree
4.42
Agree
4.64
4.59
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
4.65
Strongly Agree
4.76
Strongly Agree
4.55
Strongly Agree
4.66
Strongly Agree
4.60
Strongly Agree
4.62
4.6
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 71-81
Relationship between Respondents’ Demographic Profile and Ethical Leadership
Behavior
Table 4 shows the relationship between the respondents’ age and ethical leadership behavior.
Results revealed the p value, .129 which is greater than the critical value .05. This means that
there is no significant relationship between the age of the respondents and ethical leadership
behavior. The results suggest that the age of the respondents was not an indicator of their
ethical leadership behaviors.
The Table also shows the relationship between respondents’ years in position and ethical
leadership behavior. Results revealed the p value, .250 which is greater than the critical value
of .05. This means that the respondents’ number of years in position is not significantly related
to their ethical leadership behavior.
The relationship between the respondents’ educational attainment and ethical leadership
behavior showed that the p value .082 is greater than the critical level of .05. This means that
there is no significant relationship between the respondents’ educational attainment and their
ethical leadership behavior. The result suggests that the degree earned by the respondents
does not affect their responses in the ethical leadership behavior scale.
The relationship between the respondents’ academic rank and ethical leadership behaviors
revealed that the p value .676 is greater than the critical value .05. This means that there is no
significant relationship between the respondents’ academic rank and ethical leadership
behaviors.
Table 4: Chi-Square Test on Respondents’ Age and Ethical Leadership Behavior
Variables
Value (sig. 2 tailed)
Remark
Age
.129
Not significant
Number of years
vs Ethical Leadership
Behavior
.250
Not significant
Educational attainment
vs Ethical Leadership
Behavior
.082
Not significant
Academic rank
vs Ethical Leadership
Behavior
.676
Not significant
Relationship between Respondents’ Ethical Leadership Behavior and Legal
Knowledge
The relationship between the respondents’ Ethical Leadership Behavior (ELB) and legal
knowledge in Criminal Law showed the r value, .325** which means that there is a low or slight
correlation between respondents’ ELB and their legal knowledge in Criminal Law. The result
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Legal Awareness and Perceived Ethical Leadership of Educational Administrators in State Universities and Colleges (Sucs) in Region 3
suggests that the respondents’ legal competence in Criminal Law is associated with their
ethical leadership behavior. In other words, as the respondents agreed with the ELB, there is a
slight possibility of getting higher scores in the legal application test in Criminal Law.
It also shows the relationship between the respondents’ Ethical Leadership Behavior (ELB)
and legal knowledge in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Results revealed the r value, -.104,
which means that there is a negligible correlation between respondents’ ELB and legal
application in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. The result suggests that the respondents’ legal
knowledge (in the 1987 Philippine Constitution) was not significantly related to the
respondents’ ethical leadership behaviors. In other words, even if the respondents strongly
agreed with the statements in the ELB scale, their scores in the 1987 Philippine Constitution
were not high enough to be statistically significant.
The relationship between the respondents’ Ethical Leadership Behavior (ELB) and Legal
Knowledge in Civil Code of the Philippines revealed that the r value, is .008, which means that
there is a negligible correlation between the respondents’ ELB and their legal knowledge in
Civil Code of the Philippines. The result suggests that the respondents’ legal knowledge in Civil
Code of the Philippines was not significantly related to their ethical leadership behaviors. In
other words, the respondents may have higher/lower scores in the legal knowledge test but
may disagree/agree with the statements found in the ELB.
The Table also shows the relationship between the respondents’ Ethical Leadership Behavior
(ELB) and Legal Knowledge in Education Act of the Philippines. Results revealed the r value,
.222* which means that there is a low or slight correlation between the respondents’ ELB and
their legal knowledge in Education Act of the Philippines. The results suggest that there is a
significant relationship with the respondents’ legal knowledge in Education Act of the
Philippines and their ethical leadership behaviors. In other words, the more that respondents
agreed with the statements found in the ELB scale, the higher their scores in the legal
knowledge test in Education Act of the Philippines.
The relationship between the respondents’ Ethical Leadership Behavior (ELB) and their legal
knowledge in Sexual Harassment Act revealed that the r value is -.077, which means that there
is a negligible correlation between the respondents’ ELB and their legal knowledge in Sexual
Harassment Act. Result suggests that there was no significant relationship between
respondents’ ethical leadership behaviors and their legal knowledge in Sexual Harassment
Act. In other words, the respondents’ ethical leadership behavior was not an indicator of higher
scores in the legal knowledge test in Sexual Harassment.
Lastly, the relationship between the respondents’ Ethical Leadership Behavior (ELB) and their
legal knowledge test in Government Service Act revealed that the r value is , .080, which
means that there was no significant correlation between the respondents’ ELB and their legal
knowledge in Government Service Insurance Act. The result suggests that the respondents’
legal knowledge in Government Service Insurance Act was not significantly related to their
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 71-81
ethical leadership behavior. In other words, even as the respondents strongly agreed with the
statements found in the ELB scale, it was not an indication of higher or lower yield of scores in
Government Service Insurance Act.
CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
1. There were a total of 143 respondents from 11 SUCs. In terms of demographic profile,
the following are summarized:
a. 61 or 42.7% belong to the 40 year-old and above group while 1 or .7% belong to
the 20-30 year- old group of respondents;
b. 65 or 45.5% of the respondents have been in the public service for one to 10
years;
c. Fifty-three or 37.1% of the respondents were Directors, 21 or 14.7% were Deans,
2 or 1.4% were Vice Presidents, and one or .7% was a Principal;
d. Eighteen or 12.5% of the respondents were Professor 5. There were only two or
1.4% who were Instructor 2; and
e. Forty-seven or 32.9% of the respondents were Doctorates or Ph.D. holders. There
was only one or .7% who was an MBM or Masters in Business Management.
2. In terms of the respondents’ ethical leadership behavior, the following were the
significant findings:
a. The grand mean score of all the statements in the ELB scale was 4.6 which
means that the respondents strongly agreed with the ethical behaviors. Ranking of
the statements showed that respondents strongly valued the statement “Sets
example of how to do things the right way in terms of ethics”;
b. The grand mean score of the respondents in the Legal Knowledge Test was 47.9.
3. In terms of the respondents’ legal knowledge to ethical dilemmas, the following were
the significant findings:
a. The statement which most respondents answered correctly in Criminal Law was,
“Ignorance of the law is a valid excuse from compliance with the rules”. There
were 119 respondents who answered False;
b. On the other hand, the question which most respondents did not answer correctly
was,”When a teacher who gave provocation was assaulted by a student, the latter
is liable only for physical injuries and not for the crime of direct assault”. There
were 58 respondents who answered False;
c. The question which most respondents answered correctly in the 1987 Philippine
Constitution was,”Schools can refuse to admit student who failed to meet the
retention policy. Students have no right to demand admission since the school, in
the exercise of its academic freedom, has the power to promulgate reasonable
rules for study, subject to fair, reasonable, and equitable requirements”. There
were 119 respondents who answered item B8 correctly;
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Legal Awareness and Perceived Ethical Leadership of Educational Administrators in State Universities and Colleges (Sucs) in Region 3
d. On the contrary, the question which most respondents did not answer correctly
was, “Due process requires that there be a trial. It cannot be done through
pleadings.” There were 93 respondents who answered incorrectly;
e. The question which most respondents answered correctly in the Civil Code of the
Philippines was, ”The school exercises custodial and supervisory power over the
enrolled students no matter what their ages are”. There were 125 respondents
who answered True;
f. The statement which most respondents did not answer correctly was, “The power
of the school over its students cease absolutely when they leave the school
premises, their conduct outside of school houses cannot be subject to school
discipline”. There were 86 respondents who answered incorrectly;
g. The statement which most respondents answered correctly in the 1982 Education
Act of the Philippines was, ”Married professors may be charged with immorality if
he carries on an affair with a female student even if the affair is carried on outside
the schools”.. There were 122 respondents who answered the item correctly;
h. Most respondents did not answer the question correctly was, “Expelling a student
is vested solely on the Secretary of Education”. There were 109 respondents who
answered incorrectly;
i. The question which most respondents answered correctly in Sexual Harassment
Act was, ”Respondent may appear before the Committee on the case of sexual
harassment with the aid of a counsel”. . There were 111 respondents who
answered correctly;
j. The statement which most respondents did not answer correctly was, ”The
complaint on sexual harassment may be prosecuted even if it does not conform
with the standard procedure in handling a case, due to the unusual nature of the
sexual harassment act. A mere letter may be sufficient to prosecute the case”.
There were 52 respondents who answered incorrectly;
k. Respondents answered the question correctly in GSIS Act was, “Contractual
employees who have no employer-employee relationship with the agencies they
serve are excluded from the coverage of the GSIS Act”. There were 96
respondents who answered correctly;
l. The statement which most respondents did not answer correctly was, ”Retirement
shall be compulsory for an employee at sixty-five (65) years of age with at least
fifteen (15) years of service. If he has less than fifteen (15) years of service, he
shall be allowed to complete the fifteen (15) years”. There were 53 respondents
who answered incorrectly; and
m. Respondents were rated Competent in all the topics in the Legal Knowledge Test.
4. In terms of the relationship between respondents’ ethical leadership behavior and
demographic profile, the following were the significant findings:
a. There is no significant relationship between the age of the respondents and ethical
leadership behavior.
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 71-81
b. Respondents’ number of years in position, educational attainment, academic rank
were not significantly related to their ethical leadership behavior.
5. In terms of the relationship between the respondents’ ethical leadership behavior and
legal knowledge, the following are the significant findings:
a. Respondents’ legal knowledge in Criminal Law and Education Act of the
Philippines was slightly significant to the respondents’ ethical leadership behavior;
and
b. Respondents’ legal knowledge in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Civil Code of
the Philippines, Government Service Insurance Act, and Sexual Harassment Act
were not significantly related to respondents’ ethical leadership behavior.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the findings of this study, the researcher posits the following insights:
1. The respondents of this study were mostly 40 years old above and have served State
Universities and Colleges in Region III on the average of 10 years. In addition,
respondents belong to higher academic ranks and educational attainment. Most
respondents hold offices that require judgmental powers in terms of policy-making and
rule-implementation;
2. Respondents strongly agreed with the statements found in the Ethical Leadership
Behavior scale. Respondents particularly valued or strongly agreed with setting an
example to subordinates. In other words, respondents are sensitive with how their
decisions affect others;
3. Respondents were Competent in their legal knowledge test in Criminal Law, Education
Act, Sexual Harassment Act, and Civil Code of the Philippines, Government Service
Insurance Act, and 1987 Philippine Constitution. However, respondents had poor legal
knowledge in:
a. issues concerning liabilities and possible litigations that a teacher may face after
physical altercation with students;
b. legal terms such as pleadings;
c. views on extent of supervisory and administrative powers over students who
committed offenses outside school premises;
d. processes encompassed in delivering sanctions and directing expulsion/dismissal
case to appropriate officials;
e. following procedures in prosecuting sexual harassment cases;
f. views that concern retirement rules;
4. Respondents’ demographic profile such as age, educational attainment, years in
position, and academic rank was not significantly related to their ethical leadership
behavior. It could be implied from the findings that ethical leadership behavior of the
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Legal Awareness and Perceived Ethical Leadership of Educational Administrators in State Universities and Colleges (Sucs) in Region 3
respondents may or may not be affected by their profile. Meaning, whether they were
young or old and had higher ranks; or have held positions in a very long time, their
ethical leadership behaviors would still be ideal or favorable; and
5. There was a slight correlation between respondents’ ELB and their legal knowledge in
Criminal Law and Education Act. Respondents’ scores in these two topics have
statistical value. Perhaps, the scores were higher because most respondents have
encountered similar situational cases in their respective institutions. Thus, they were
legally competent in their judgmental powers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Administrators or SUC officials requiring legal discernments in their offices be given
adequate training. Costly litigations may be avoided if administrators and faculty
members who impose policies, implement rules and author sanctions are properly
guided and trained;
2. SUC Presidents may include a legal knowledge test in their screening and hiring
process. In addition, the legal knowledge test may be used as a tool to promote or
designate an aspiring dean or an administrator;
3. Faculty members should be properly oriented to laws concerning student’s rights and
personal rights. A faculty manual should be made available to all SUC faculty. There is
also a need for faculty members to reevaluate their legal discernments towards
students, peers or colleagues, parents, supervisors or immediate heads;
4. Students who are majors of education, supervision, and administration should have
core or elective subjects (both in the undergraduate and graduate programs) that
challenges their decision-making abilities and tap or enhance their legal knowledge;
and
5. Studies that investigate and encourage programs on legal training planned by SUC
Administrators themselves are possible areas that other researchers can consider.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beckner, W. (2004) Ethics for educational leaders, New York: Allyn & Bacon.
Brown, Michael E. (2007) Misconceptions of ethical leadership: How to avoid potential pitfalls,
Organizational Dynamics, Volume 36, Number 2, pp. 140-155.
Brown, Michael E., Trevino, Linda K., & Harrison, David A. (2005) Ethical leadership: A social
learning perspective for construct development and testing, Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, Volume 97, pp. 117-134.
Dizon, L. (2003) Factors affecting the instructional leadership and administrative readiness of
empowered elementary school principals in the division of Pampanga, Unpublished
Dissertation, Pampanga Agricultural College, Magalang, Pampanga.
Dungca, E. (2001) Administration and supervision problems commonly encountered and
coping mechanisms applied by principals of selected public secondary schools in Region
III, Unpublished Dissertation, Pampanga Agricultural College, Magalang, Pampanga.
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Elenkov, D., Kuntz, J.R. & Kuntz, Joana R.C. (2011) Ethical decision-making: an empirical
examination, Journal of Academy of Business and Economics, 11.1, p. 11.
Flores, F. (2006) Leadership styles of Deans in Nursing Schools in Region III in Relation to
Nursing Board Passing Rate, Unpublished Dissertation, Pampanga Agricultural College,
Magalang, Pampanga.
Johnson, L. (2008) Teacher candidate disposition: moral judgement or regurgitation? Journal
of Moral Education, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 429–444
Plinio, A. (2009) International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, p. 277.
Ponnu, C. & Tennakoon, G. (2009) The association between ethical leadership and employee
outcomes – the Malaysian case, EJBO Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and
Organization Business, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 21-32
Reilly, E. (2006) Educational Leadership and Administration, 18, p163.
Shapiro, J. & Stefkovich, J. (2005) Ethical Leadership and Decision Making in Education,
Applying Theoretical Perspectives to Complex Dilemmas Second Edition. New Jersery:
USA, Lawrence Erlbaum Association, Inc.
Shi, J., Xu, S. & Yu, F. (2011) Ethical leadership and leaders' personalities, Social Behavior
and Personality: An Iinternational Journal. 39.3. p. 361.
Soto, G. (1997) Leadership qualities of public schools district supervisors in region III: Its
implication to management. Unpublished Dissertation, Pampanga Agricultural College,
Magalang, Pampanga.
Uglietta, J. A. (2001) Escaping the consequences: Two problems in consequentialist
moral theory. The John Hopkins University; AAT 993199.
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COST MATTERS: HIGHER EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY BASED CARE
ORGANIZATIONS
Kimberly Handy1 and Wanda Gwyn2
1Walden University USA and 2Capella University, USA
ABSTRACT
A
s non-profit sectors such as higher education institutions and community based
companies look at how they prepare its students for the future, they must also
take into consideration such variables as cost, social conditions, decision-making
influences, organizational interaction, but most importantly the human factors, which effect
sustainability and growth of non-profit sectors. What can higher education institutions learn
from other non-profit sectors? The non-profit sector is a large and valuable industry in the
United States and it contributes to the domestic economy by serving the welfare of individuals,
families, and culture through philanthropic, social service, and religious activities (Burlingame,
2004; Grobman, 2005). In 2008, the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS)
documented the non-profit sector to be over 1.4 trillion dollars in revenues and 1.34 trillion in
total expenses. In 2009, the NCCS reported those figures amounted to 20% from contributions,
gifts, and government grants; 70% from program services revenues, to include government
fees and contracts; and 10% from “other” sources, including dues, rental income, special event
income, and gains from goods sold. Those statistics demonstrated service revenues that
received support from government fees and contracts as the major component of non-profit
funding. In 1999, the NCCS recorded that there were 492, 693 501(c) non-profit organizations,
which accounted for 41% of all organizations. By 2009, there were 453, 824 non-profit
organizations, which accounted for 28.7% of all organizations. Sustainability in corporate
America seeks to be the main goal for profit and non-profit organizations.
BACKGROUND
Just as non-profits across the globe are adhering to the needs of its community and
environment, higher education institutions must also become and remain cognizant of its
community and the people it serves. The community based care organization (CBC) Circuit 12
have the responsibility to act in a responsible manner by displaying corporate social
responsibility which is defined in the literature as a voluntary corporate action designed to
advance social conditions (Mackey, Mackey & Barney, 2007), or corporate actions not required
by law, which may benefit the organization (McWilliams & Siegel, 2000). Therefore,
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 82-86
organizations that do not meet the expectation of managing their monies responsibly fall short
of forming a buffer, and stand exposed to potentially greater impacts (Sjostrom, 2009). For
community based care organizations (CBC) that new direction brought fresh opportunities for
collaborating with other organizations, state, and local government to promote a positive
community agenda.
Higher education must be community oriented and know the stakeholders they serve; they
must have a genuine feel for the community and not take a happenstance approach to the
needs of that environment. In addition, higher education must know the climate they serve:
students, teachers, counselors, and other administrators and from that develop a gauge on
which ways things may need to change or stay the same. Drury-Hudson (1999) examined the
decision-making between two groups of social workers with varying degrees of knowledge.
One group represented new workers and the other experts in the field of child protection. The
study particularly focused on what information the new would draw upon in order to base their
decisions. In relation to theory, Drury-Hudson (1999) focused on the relationship between
theory and practice and analyzed that new workers only drew upon theory after a decision
instead of using it as a basis for making a decision therefore, describing the use of theory as
unconscious, rather than a conscious act. However, during the study the experts tended to
view theory as more of a tool within the trade that assisted in the background of understanding
and interpretation (Drury-Hudson, 1999).
Dworkin (1990) pointed out that tension frequently exists between professional autonomy and
the environment in which practice takes place because of decision-making. The Dworkin’s
study indicates discrepancies between professional and organizational expectations and goals
developed from community expectations and organizational procedure.
Tracy and Phillips (2007) and Zietlow (2001) both found that as nonprofit organizations
engaged in social enterprises, the intersection of the social service mission of the nonprofit
organization and the business mission of the social enterprise might raise questions about
understanding its uniqueness. Mozier and Tracey (2010) found social enterprises had both
social and commercial objectives that include managing a double bottom line, which
demanded a careful balance between resource utilization and engagement with the community
in order to build and maintain organizational legitimacy. As a result, the failure to strike an
appropriate balance between the two competing objectives threatens organizational
sustainability. Arguably, the manner and severity in which the organizational strain manifests
would vary among organizations and influences. For an organization to sustain there are
several definitions in which to draw upon for clarification.
Moxley (2004) explains that strategic planning is a means to maintain organizational
sustainability in human services noting that the objective is to align organizational behavior
with organizational desires. Moxley (2004) points out that the strategic planning model in nonprofit organizations tended to be vision based, where future direction was defined, envisioned,
and changes are implemented. Austin, Stevenson, and Weick-Skillern (2006) argued
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Cost Matters: Higher Education and Community Based Care Organizations
sustainability should be an overriding objective for any kind of organization; but for social
enterprise, it took on particular importance because of the uncertain and complex nature of
their operating environment. In their views, Austin et al. (2006) described that “corporate
sustainability” might have been considered as a “company’s ability to achieve its business
goals and increase long-term shareholder value by integrating economic, environmental and
social opportunities into its business strategies” (Symposium on Sustainability, 2001). Haugh
and Talwar (2010) described organizational sustainability as a broad and evolving construct
that defied an all encompassed definition. Haugh and Talwar (2010) in contrast to Moxley’s
(2004) view of sustainability had more to do with organizational behavior and desires rather
than a broad nonspecific construct. In addition, the research performed by Austin et al. (2006)
was supportive of incorporating the economic, environmental, and social opportunities for
business strategies to gain sustainability rather than behavior or broad concepts. Moreover,
within research there is emerging consensus that there are three pillars of sustainability,
economic, social, and environmental (Elkington, 1998; Schmidheiny, 1992; Rondinelli & Berry,
2000; Bansal, 2005).
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Higher education must also play a reoccurring role in the lives of the families it serves as well.
Focusing just on the student not the entire student’s ‘family,’ which it brings with him or her as
they walk through the front doors brings about a disenfranchised student and community. The
literature shows that the human factor plays a large role in the implementation of services in
type and cost. Depending on the service needed an organization could in theory struggle with
sustaining when tasked with providing a service that is not covered by a purchase of service
agreement? For non-profits, Kaplan (2001) focused on the financial outlook and recommends
agencies spend within their budgets; however, budget variances did not provide an indication
of organizational performance but was important for assessing said performance. As such,
financial processes often focused on increased funding levels, sustainability, efficiency, and
cash flow. Social return on the community could be the prime concern for social enterprises,
and must accentuate financial measures as a means for sustainability, and move away from
grant dependency. Instead, making it grant supported but provide additional financial streams
independent of government contracts.
Higher education sees the needs for an organizational evolution and strategic planning. Higher
education can take a section from the lesson plans of local CBCs. Organizational evolution
moves the organization from one phase in development to another. Based on the study
results, the CBC arguably is in need of new and innovative ideas that can stop the financial
bleeding associated with decisions made regarding service choice. Clearly, by simply dividing
the issue into multiple sections with an attempt to fix each section separately may no longer be
enough to effect a system wide change. However, utilizing a systems thinking approach may
benefit the organization as a whole and move it into a new developmental stage. A systems
thinking approach focuses on the part of the system that needs changing by studying how it
interacts with the other parts of the system and how those elements interact to produce
behavior of the process being studied (Aronson, 1996). The CBC needs to look at how and
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 82-86
what is affecting the budget and causing the organization to struggle financially and put in
place a system that will allow it to address organizational needs at a stage less than critical.
CONCLUSION
Decision-making, staff edification and cultivation are paramount in ensuring that case workers
are up to date with empirical information that can support decisions and communications held
within the community. Accompanying decision-making is the impact of outside decision
makers such as the courts and child abuse investigators from other agencies and management
policies and procedures that may order an action contradictory to current information. These
outside forces coupled with an already strained system impacts the CBC’s ability to fund areas
appropriately.
The desire to make changes is derived from the viewpoint of a new system that centers on
developing a plan of operation designed to increase the effectiveness of the organization.
Organizational activities that support change activities often involve large monetary
investments and time to execute. A successful organization can execute change and evolve
by effectively implementing an aggressive and focused management team and gain favorable
impact on organizational performance and effectiveness. Rigorous studies have expressed
very diverse outcomes without committing to any type of consensus methodology to apply and
achieve effective change.
REFERENCES
Aronson, D. (1996) Overview of systems thinking. Retrieved December 27, 2011, from:
www.Thinking.net: http://www.thinking.net/Systems_Thinking/systems_thinking.html
Austin, J., Stevenson, H., & Wei-Skillern, J. (2006) Social and commercial entrepreneurship
same, different, or both?, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, (30), pp. 1-22.
Burlingame, D. (2004), Religion and philanthropy, In philanthropy in America: A comprehensive
historical encyclopedia, 2. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc.
Drury-Hudson, J. (1999) Decision-making in child protection: The use of theoretical, empirical,
and procedural knowledge by news and experts and implications for fieldwork placement,
British Journal Social Work, 29(1), pp. 147-169.
Dworkin, J. (1990) Political, economic and social aspects of professional authority, Families in
Society, 71(9), pp. 534-41.
Elkington, J. (1998) Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of sustainability, Gabriola
Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
Hage, J. (1999) Organizational innovation and organizational change, Annual Review of
Sociology, 25(1), pp. 597-622, Doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.597
Kaplan, R. S. (2001) Strategic performance measurement and management in non-profit
organizations, Non-profit Management & Leadership, 11(3), pp. 353-370.
Mackey, A., Mackey, T. B., & Bamey, J. (2007) Corporate social responsibility and firm
performance: Investor preferences and corporate strategies, Academy of Management
Review, 32, pp. 817-35.
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Cost Matters: Higher Education and Community Based Care Organizations
McWilliams, A., & Siegel D. (2001) Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm
perspective, The Academy of Management Review, 26(1), pp. 117-127.
Moxley, D. P. (2004) Factors influencing the successful use of vision-based strategy planning
by nonprofit human service organizations, International Journal of Organization Theory
and Behavior, 7(1), pp. 107-132.
Mozier, J., & Tracey, P. (2010) Strategy making in social enterprise: The role of resource
allocation and its effects on organizational sustainability, Systems research and behavioral
science, System research, 27, pp. 252–266.
Sjostrom, E. (2009) Shareholders as norm entrepreneurs for corporate social responsibility,
Journal of Business Ethics, 94, pp. 177-191.
Tracey, P., & Phillips, N. (2007) The distinctive challenge of education social entrepreneurs: a
postscript and rejoinder to the special issue on entrepreneurship education, Academy of
Management Learning and Education, 6, pp. 264–271.
Weick, K. E., & Quinn, R. E. (1999) Organizational Change and Development, Annual Review
of Psychology, 50, pp. 361-388.
Zietlow, J. (2001) Social entrepreneurship: Managerial, finance and marketing aspects, Journal
of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 9(1), pp. 19–27.
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MANAGING HIGHER EDUCATION AS PUBLIC GOOD: CONTROVERSY,
STAKEHOLDERS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND
SUSTAINABILITY OF THE MODEL
Samir T. IsHak
Grand Valley State University, USA
ABSTRACT
H
igher education as a concept and practice has been plagued by controversy from
the beginning of its initiation and formation. The related issues have sprung to the
forefront of international and national debates which renewed scholarly inquiries
transcending academic discipline’s boundaries and led to an avalanche of research studies,
doctorate dissertations and Journals’ publications. As an important issue of public policy, the
topic deserves some further explanation of its significance and the multi-dimensionality of
related implications. This paper is an attempt to present in a straightforward manner some
answers to the most asked questions, including: Is Higher Education (HE) a Public good? A
private endeavor or a public/private establishment? Is HE a national entity or an international
organization due to its impact that transcends national boundaries? Whatever the classification
maybe, what are the controversies that surround the nature of such configuration? Who are the
‘primary and secondary’ stakeholders of HE and of more importance what are their specific
‘stakes’? Can we, scholars and practitioners settle once and for all some of these
controversies to the satisfaction of most or some of the primary stakeholders?; What are the
specific social responsibilities of the institutions and of the managers of such institutions
including (boards of control, presidents, administrators, faculty, students, legislators, citizens);
To whom are the managers of the institutions accountable and for what? And finally, is the
model which has been applied for the last century or so sustainable for the foreseeable future
and if so at what cost? After providing some relevant answers to these questions, the paper
shall present two studies assessing the impact of their institutions on the immediate
environments, regionally and nationally. These two empirical studies illustrate the magnitude of
the impact of institutions of higher education and would clarify some of the issues under study.
A final section outlines an agenda for further research and future inquiries. Methodologically
the author draws on his academic background, review of literature, experience with
assignments with UNDP, International Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP), academic
teaching and administration.
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Managing Higher Education as Public Good: Controversy, Stakeholders, Social Responsibility, Accountability and Sustainability of the Model
Keywords: Higher Education, Academic Planning, Public Policy, Social Responsibility,
Sustainability, Social And Economic Impact Of Universities, Public Good, International
Impact Of Higher Education.
PUBLIC GOOD OR PRIVATE GOOD OR A HYBRID OF BOTH?
The definition of what is “Public Good” is controversial and the controversy is not new. The
concept of ‘Public Good’ has been defined in many ways. For example, Birdsall uses the
source of finance as his differentiating criterion. “A public good is any good or service which is
de facto provided for or subsidized through government budget finance” (Birdsall: 1965, p.235).
Another set of definitions is based upon the technical characteristics of public goods and
services, specifically that of perfect public consumption. Samuelson (Samuelson: 1954:p. 334)
is actually credited as the first economist to develop the theory of public goods. He defined
public good as a “collective consumption good”.. “goods which all enjoy in common in the
sense that each individual’s consumption of such a good leads to no subtractions from any
individual’s consumption of that good”. That is no excludability. This particular property has
been known as the ‘non-rivalry’. In addition a public good exhibits a second property called
“non-excludability’ that is it is impossible to exclude any individuals from consuming the good.
It is important to elaborate on this important definition and its ramifications. By contrast, a
private good does not possess these two properties whereby the owner of the private good can
exclude others from using it, and once it has been used it could not be consumed again. He
further called a ‘good which is ‘rivalrous’ but none ‘excludable’ as a ‘common-pool resource’
which raise similar problems to public goods which he called the ‘tragedy of the commons’.
This is a concept which Elinor Ostrom (Ostrom: 1971, 1973) later expounded on in detail.
Breton (Breton: 1954, p. 334) and Strotz (Strotz: 1961, p. 213) have used this characteristic.
Dorfman’s (Dorfman: 1971, p. 24) definition states ‘ there are certain goods that have the
peculiarity that once they are available no one can be precluded from enjoying them whether
he contributed to their provision of not… these are public goods.. law and order is an example.
Haveman and Margolis (Dorfman: 1971, p.25) find such definition is narrow and prohibitive.
Instead ‘any publicly induced or provided collective good is a public good. when the
coordinating mechanism for providing a collective good invokes the power of the state it is a
public good” This definition stresses the pluralistic nature of the courses of collective demands
These demands may arise from technical characteristics of particular goods, e.g. defense or
from the market imperfections and failures or from other ‘divergences between collective and
individual failures (Samuelson: 1965). However, Samuelson warns against confusing the
theory of ‘joint supply’ and the theory of ‘public goods’ in terms of welfare economics of the
optimality conditions. Through diagrammatical and mathematical models Samuelson
concludes that it would be misleading to characterize the public good case as a case of joint
supply. Higher education, at least the Public higher education, fits into any of the
abovementioned definitions as a public good or service
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On the other hand, we can look at Higher education from the standpoint of welfare economics
at least on the national level. William (Williams: 1966,p.18) was able to introduce a spatial
reference point in the provision of public goods which affects the availability between
communities that is the site of production is explicitly introduced as a relevant influence upon
pattern of consumption. He suggests a rather sophisticated definition of the “social optimum
which entails allocative efficiency in the Paretian sense and which is also compatible with the
strictest interpretation, and implications regarding externalities and spillovers. However,
Brainard and Dolebear (Brainard, Dolbair: 1968,p.416) challenge William’s implication
regarding the ‘oversupply or redistribution of real income that would occur whereby one of the
communities would be worse off and thus would not be willing to agree to a reallocation of
such public good which William requires to define the ‘ social optimum”. This last point is
important in that it may explain why communities would like to have higher education
institutions in their locality at the expense of other institutions thus the economy pays the price
of over supply and duplication of wasteful overlapping services. We shall return to this point
later.
There are some serious concerns about all these definitions. Is higher education a ‘public
good’ or is it ‘for the public good’? This is not an epistemological question. If it is a public
good, then it follows that it is owned by the public in any form of ownership and as such would
be managed or controlled or monitored in the interest of the public that owns it. If it is ‘for the
public good’ then it could be owned by other than the public, or jointly between the public and
the private sector, yet must also be managed or controlled in the common interests of the
public. If it is a private good or service, then this has a whole host of other issues related to
ownership, management, accountability and control. This latter is what David Reed (Reed:
2011) called “The higher education paradox: a public good but private cost”. Baum and
McPherson (Baum and McPherson: 2011) argue that not many goods are ‘perfect’ public
goods. … Some have one characteristic or the other.. as such higher education is not a pure
public good. This means that it is possible to exclude people who do not pay, indicating that
there are positive externalities, e.g. not all benefits accrue only to students. Hence, who owns
and who pays and who controls.
A recent article by Marginson (Morginson:2011, p.411-433) came to an interesting conclusion
regarding whether universities are public or private goods, he stated ..” the nature of higher
education is policy-determined; and while limited by its form of production these themselves
are open to politically-driven change. In other words, the public character of higher education
is not so much a function of the timeless character of universities but grounded in social
practices. Higher education institutions are more or less ‘public’ and ‘private’ according to the
policy and funding configurations chosen for them.
Marchesetti (Marchesetti: 2012) claims that “universities are not ‘public’ in the sense of having
been founded or run by the government. A university is public because, among other aims, it
furthers the advancement of public knowledge; because it arises out of public charity (i.e. the
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Managing Higher Education as Public Good: Controversy, Stakeholders, Social Responsibility, Accountability and Sustainability of the Model
free gifts of private individuals who want to benefit the public at large) and because it is open to
any member of the public who is willing and capable of learning”.
We tend to agree with this last conclusion related to the nature of higher education as having
the combination of characteristics of being public and private. The most pressing issue would
be: what are the implications of such consensus on the attendant issues of management,
stakeholders and accountability. ( see IsHak 2011, 2010); ( IsHak , Ostrom:1972, 2010)
REGIONAL OR NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL?
There is consensus that higher education, regardless of being classified as public or private
good or a combination of both, has many externalities. Four questions must be answered:
what are these externalities and how can we identify them? Can we identify who are the
beneficiaries of each or all these externalities? Can we assess the value, qualitatively or
quantitatively, of each or the most important externalities? Who should pay for these
externalities, and in what form, to whom?
While the question of the nature of higher education seems to have been settled to a level of
universal prevalence, to consider it a public good in itself and it produces also public goods
with some particular characteristics, there is an emerging concern about higher education as a
commodity for trade. To consider this issue we must first determine the scope and magnitude
of the externalities of higher education.
First what are the externalities? (Papandreou:1998) defines externalities as ..”Benefits
conferred or costs imposed on others without compensation. An externality is a phenomenon
that arises when an individual or a firm takes an action but does not bear all the costsnegative externalities- or receive all benefits – positive externalities. Externalities are primarily
seen as linked to and emanating from the activities of individual actors making it possible to
take policy action to encourage positive externalities or discourage negative ones”.
The
literature is rich with discussion on the effects of externalities- spillover and spillouts- on the
provision of local governments.
And the spillover of Public education costs and benefits (Marcus: 1964). In this context of
higher education these include all the following. Employment of those who are directly and
indirectly involved in the activities. Tax base for localities where an institution is located in the
forms of local , city , sales taxes, and other forms of revenue generation such as excise taxes
and fees on municipal agencies, legal services and other commodities or services. Same
applies to state revenues from taxation and related licenses. Such revenue sources finance
the municipal and state primary functions to all citizens, not just those who generated such
revenues. The beneficiaries include many who might have not contributed to generate the
revenues and could not be excluded from benefiting from the services. And the externalities
extend to the national level as well.
In addition there are the secondary beneficiaries of owners of housing, lodgings, food suppliers
and users. The multiplier effect could be estimated and the value could be quantified using a
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sophisticated econometric model. We shall illustrate this point with two examples from
Michigan.
Add to these the non-quantitative benefits which the neighborhoods, the cities, the region enjoy
and that are translated in quality of life and related amenities. The externalities transcend the
boundaries of the local environment to the nation at large in the form of educated and trained
or licensed human resources whose productivity could be measured and contributions could
be enumerated.
Hence, the externalities could be enumerated, the beneficiaries could be identified in groups or
classes and locations, the benefits, especially that could be assesses quantitatively could be
estimated and those that do not render themselves to quantification could be approximated.
Applying an input-output econometric model, a multiplier could be computed and the aggregate
valuation of the externalities could be developed.
Two questions remain: what is the cost of producing this public good we call higher education
and what are the sources of financing their services. Both questions are relatively easy to
answer. Since the providers of the service of higher education are clearly identified due to the
strict requirements by the federal and state governments and taxation agencies, the cost could
be estimated with a high degree of accuracy Budgets and statements of accounting and
auditing reports would provide answer. Sources of financing the provision of the related
services are equally easy to identify and their relative contributions could be computed and
accurately verified. Of course we are not discussing at this point the issue of efficiency of
delivery of the services or the effectiveness of managerial functions.
THE STAKEHOLDERS AND THEIR STAKES
Regardless of higher education being classified as public or private good or a hybrid of both,
there are two sets of stakeholders. There are the primary and the secondary stockholders;
Each of these identified stakeholders has its own stakes. The stakes are defined interests in
the institution of higher education whereby the stakeholder has the means to defend and to
enjoy the relevant interests. However, the mechanisms of achieving the stakes and the
effectiveness of such mechanisms would be affected by the degree of being ‘pure public’, ‘pure
private’ or a hybrid of both.
Of course we expect that the interests of any stakeholder would be directly related to the
espoused mission of the institution. But considering that most of such written missions are
nothing more than articulate prose of generic pronouncements that can warrant many
interpretations. Normally nobody can question or argue with their intentional vagueness or far
reaching promises.
In defining the relevant stakes of each stakeholder, we shall deviate from what they should be
in theory, to what they are in reality. This is based on our direct observation in academia for
over fifty years of teaching and short stints in administration.
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The Boards of Control
These are either elected directly by the citizens of the state, or in case of private institutions,
elected by a selected group from within the owners or donors, of appointed by governors of
states based on political affiliations. Presumably, their primary stake is overseeing the policies
that help to implement the university mission. However, based on my close observation it
seems that their stakes are to satisfy some ‘self actualization need of feeling important and the
image of making decision by a feeling of representing the ‘public interest’ however that maybe
defined! Of course they put their stamp of approval on whatever the president refers to them
including the budget a, capital investments and fund raising for projects and new buildings.
For those who are appointed by a political entity they maintain some public image and
proximity to the legislator or governor who will appoint them or to the president who would be
inclined to nominate them. Their effectiveness is dubious at best. But they may use their
political clout in lobbying for more state funds, or donor contributions, or securing research
contracts or influencing some legislation to help the institutions.
The Academic Administrators
These include the president and all levels of the hierarchy to the deans or director levels. Their
primary stake is to stay in office as administrators. While it maybe true that in some top
universities they consider administration as a privilege and public service for a noble cause
and some accept the privilege reluctantly, I venture to state that in my fifty years of teaching
and involvement with them, they are in administration for the glory, not the agony, of the
position. In our academic model in the USA the administrators are chosen, primarily by
appointment with the façade of elections by faculty under some form of ‘shared governance’.
Their rewards are many. This includes: a sense of importance in managing faculty, higher
payment with higher fringe benefits that add up to a hefty differential at time of retirement,
guaranteed summer payment, staff and prestige, normally nominated for civil appointments in
the community, and other amenities the least of which they normally do not teach or teach
minimal courses of their choice on regular basis. Of course they have noble intentions and
high level of integrity befitting their primary allegiance to whom appoints them. “Somebody has
to do it and I accepted the burden and responsibility” an adage I have heard so many times.
How do they protect their stakes? By simple rule, to please the boss who can remove them
from office anytime since their appointment is at the will of the higher level. It is not uncommon
to note that some administrators are so badly evaluated by their faculty yet they remain in their
positions because the provost likes them. There is enough literature to validate this assertion.
(Baldridge: 1971, Smith: 1969; Chronicle of Higher Education 2010, 2011, 2012)
The Faculty
These are the real front line workers whose primary function is to deliver the services for which
the institutions are created, namely teaching and research. Their stakes are to do a good job
of teaching first to their satisfaction and to accommodate the other requirements of the job.
They like the status and the privileges that come with the ranks of professors. And of course
they like to continue being employed to pay their accrued debts from getting their degrees and
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to support their families. Job security is of paramount importance to them, albeit it has been
drastically eroded by administrators through the creation of alternate venues other than the
tenure system. New classifications of faculty have been invented to deviate from being tenure
track such as adjunct, part time, affiliates and the like. Most of the faculty I have known care
for their students and alumni, teach effectively and conduct quality research and outside
services. How do they protect their stakes? By abiding by the rules that are imposed on them
by their deans and that are ever changing to make the rules more stringent and grueling. (See
Gunsalus: 2006; Baldridge: 1971; perkins: 1966)
The Students
These are the recipients of the services which we call public or private higher education.
There are millions of them throughout the nation and the world. They are going to colleges to
graduate, simple and straightforward. In the process they hope to learn what would be their
ticket to a paying position after graduation. Yes their stakes include: gaining knowledge that
they have no real choice in selecting yet hope to be able to apply in their future, gain some
experience, exposure to fields of inquiry, socialization, and graduating. They protect their
stakes by abiding by the rules that are set for them, without their input or participation, for
graduation; balancing their learning requirements and their working hours. Most of the
students are working 20-40 hours per week in addition to carrying full load academic courses.
Of course that affects their academic performance and not getting the full benefit of their
college years.
The irony is that although these students are the primary stakeholders of the whole process,
and they are the main consumers of the service, they are rarely if at all represented in
determining the requirements of graduation. Yes they evaluate their professors on regular
basis, but they do not select, or elect, or appoint or have any say regarding those who
determine the cost of their education and the conditions under which they are learning. It is
reported and verified that the cost of higher education has doubled over the past decade while
the rate of inflation increased by less than 15%! Consequently they graduate with a heavy
burden of debt that has been tripled over the past decade.
The Providers of Auxiliary Services
These include book sellers, publishers, food services, maintenance personnel, security
officers, and related necessary activities for the proper functioning of the universities. Their
primary stake is to provide the needed services and in return be paid for it. This is predicated
on the continuous presence of the university. They protect their interest by diligently provide
the services and faithfully assume their responsibilities.
The Neighborhoods and the Society
Their primary stake is to attract the institutions of higher education and their related activities to
their locations. The attendant stakes include the revenues from the different taxes and fees
which they collect, the job opportunities that creates, the commercial and industrial activities
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they generate, social, artistic, sport and cultural activities the universities provide which would
contribute to the quality of life of the communities involved, the image of the cities and counties
as attractive magnets for further businesses, industries and services. Each of these activities
has its own derivatives of income generation and benefits. They protect these stakes by
providing a host of incentives to attract the institutions and to retain their presence and
expansion. They improve the delivery of their respective public services and infrastructure and
recruit their personnel from the graduates. The agencies may contract the faculty for some
consulting or advising and civil organizations recruit them for boards and contributions.
As a public good – regardless of their ownership-higher education institutions have a wide
variety of stakeholders, each with its own stakes which they serve. The externalities are many,
with longevity and of large magnitude and favorable impact.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: WHAT AND TO WHOM
Do the institutions that provide the public good which we called higher education have to
assume certain social responsibilities? If so, what are the deliverables? To whom these entities
are socially responsible? And what are the modes of assuming and delivering such
responsibilities?
By the very nature of their functioning within the public domain there are explicit and implicit
responsibilities. The fact that these institutions are totally or partially financed by public
agencies imposes further responsibilities. Moreover the very pluralistic nature of the services
and their dual characteristics of being ‘non-rivalrous and non-excludable’ magnify the
magnitude of the responsibilities and intensify their importance. They are responsible to the
following entities. Spatially, this covers the neighborhoods, the surrounding cities, counties,
boroughs, states from which they recruit their students, faculty and other personnel, to the
country at large and to the world where they export their graduates and businesses.
Temporally, they are responsible for as long as their activities are maintained and to the end of
the life of the output of their activities, that is their graduates. Financially, the responsibilities
are due to the financing sources and donors. Morally, to the humanity in its widest sense.
Internationally, to the world at large and all its environs. Academically, they are responsible to
teach and train to achieve one goal: the truth, Veritas. The ultimate of all noble endeavors of
education. It is indeed a long list of commitments and obligations to a wide variety of entities.
These have a diversified interests and a multitude of conflicting demands and far reaching
expectations.
What are the deliverables? The answer depends on the vision of the stakeholders and their
orientation. Students want education, but what kind? Conducting a survey among my students,
about 425 of them on the undergraduate and graduate levels I compiled a list of their wants:
the list includes: The education that can get them jobs, that is practical, relevant, applied,
realistic, advanced, prepare them for real world, technologically savvy, up to date and
interesting. They are not the least interested in ‘knowledge for knowledge sake’, or history, or
political science or philosophy or sociology or even art. They are practical, impatient, the Y
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generation, and have no time, short time orientation and limited spatial horizon. Ironically, the
professors have another list of priorities that stress creating a rounded knowledge of a massive
dose of liberal arts and sciences and a host of pre-requisites that consume the first two years
of the students’ education before they get into their professional curriculum if they so choose.
Here we find a schism between the student’s wants and the professors’ mandates. The
question is: are the professors responding to the users of the service needs as they perceive
them? Is there a deviation between the producers’ of the service assumed responsibilities and
the receivers perceived needs?
The expected deliverables to the society at large include: relevant education that would lead to
gainful employment in fields that are still in demand and will continue to be in demand for the
foreseeable future. That deliverable requires several commitments to be undertaken by the
university administration. This include: accurate forecasting of future demand on specific
occupations and or specializations, knowledge of the consumers of the education services,
namely the students wants, projecting what prospective employers needs for at least ten years
after graduation, reasonable return on the financing agents on their investments in higher
education. The synchronization among these commitments is indeed lacking. These are not
new challenges, yet they remain unmet (see Kertesz, 1971; Smith: 1969; Daedalus: 1975,
1976)
With the globalization and its continuing thrust into most of the globe, it is imperative that
higher education deliver internationally rounded graduates. The position of the USA graduates’
level of knowledge in basic science and math has progressively declined, not to mention
delinquency in teaching foreign languages or even proper English. USA functional illiteracy is
indeed discouraging. Yet, globalization is not a new phenomenon. Our exposure to other
countries and cultures has been continuing for a long time. Yet, our academic institutions have
been flagrantly delinquent to deliver the proper mix of graduates who meet the challenges of
foreign competition on many key scores.
Another responsibility is of paramount importance and that is the responsibility to meet
society’s needs and to find solutions to solve the endemic and expected problems facing this
society. It behooves academic institutions of higher education with all its acquired talents and
cumulative knowledge to define the present problems, be proactive in expecting potential
issues and devise the mechanisms to solve all of them by preparing the problem solvers, the
innovators and gurus of wisdom and practitioners of meeting the very difficult tasks. In the
words of Derek Bok, President emeritus of Harvard University “…Serving society is only one of
higher education’s functions; it is surely among the most important. At a time when the nation
has its full share of difficulties… the question is not whether universities need to concern
themselves with the society’s problems but whether they are discharging this responsibility as
well as they should”. Among these problems are poverty alleviation, employment generation,
social equality, gender empowerment, delivery of health services to all, narrowing the gap
between the rich and poor, and above all national security through economic and social
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development not the military race. Unfortunately universities have not lived up to the society’s
legitimate expectations, yet.
There are several explanations for such delinquency in meeting the social responsibilities of
higher education. The nature of our Federal system which leaves a basic function like
education exclusively in the hands of the different states. The states in return abandon such
responsibility to the individual districts without any common thread of policy or priorities. In
addition the forms of financing education, on all levels, are amazing. The plethora of financing
schemes, sources, variations in levels of funding, different standards – or lack thereof- for
teachers and professors, the maze of accredited entities without any common denominators,
the absence of standards to measure outputs and a host of other excuses. All these
deficiencies lead to one conclusion: low standards for a long time to come. Yes there is a high
level of awareness by this administration, but the gestation period of long eighteen years to
reap any results is just too long to lose. Ironically the ideological divide between so called
conservatives and liberal regarding developing any resemblance of policy to establish
standards is so great to warrant any hope to bridge the gap in the near future. Apparently
education is not a top priority even on the state level.. The level of state funding to most of the
public universities has drastically declined leading to the massive increase in tuition, resulting
in heavy debts for families and students. Worse, in the name of cutting cost, universities had
to discontinue several important programs such as foreign languages and cultural studies to
name a few. The inevitable result is that our global competitiveness positioning has been
eroding and will continue to do so.
ACCOUNTABILITY
The International Institute for Educational Planning is a UNESCO agency located in Paris since
1963 and was established with initial help from the World Bank and the Ford Foundation. Its
primary function is “capacity building in educational planning and management”. To this end
the over hundred professionals addressed themselves to the issue of accountability of Higher
education institutions. The issue gained agency in the USA in the last decade due to several
factors. Due to the fierce competition among nations within a global competitive environment, it
became apparent that we have to evaluate our educational system and its outcomes. The
enormous funds that have been allocated to higher education and the financial squeeze on the
federal government and the states gave impetus to demand more scrutiny of the quality of
education and the preparation of the graduates to meet the challenges of global
competitiveness. Also, there is an absence of standards of universal applicability that can help
in measuring the performance of educational agents in a comparative manner whereby
learning of successful experiments would provide guidance for improvements. In addition there
have been urgent demands by professional licensing agencies to develop some standard
norms to measure efficiency and effectiveness of the education systems. Historically, there
existed some requirements that were developed by state regulatory agencies for compliance
accountability systems that were based on government statutes and regulations. The new
demands called for developing systems that measure performance by concrete results that
have been achieved, what is referred to a s ‘ result-based accountability systems’. Of course,
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especially in the USA, such systems must take into consideration the local conditions and must
be adapted accordingly to the cultural setting and political environment and fiscal constraints of
relative entities.
“Normally there are three main types of accountability systems. These are compliance with
regulations, adherence to professional norms and results driven systems. “As indicated earlier
in this paper, the new trend is to address the system to two questions: accountability for what
and to whom. In developing any of these systems they must embody the prevailing societal
values and aspirations in addition to being pragmatic within the prevailing fiscal and financial
constraints. The objectives of any system must include the five components of clear
objectives, valid assessment, effective instructions, provision of resources and a transparent
set of rewards and sanctions. (Anderson: 2011)
It would be instructive to present two examples of accountability reports as developed by two
universities in Michigan. These are the Eastern Michigan University and Grand Valley State
University.
Eastern Michigan University
Eastern Michigan University (EMU) is a 163 years institution in Michigan. They conducted their
economic impact study for 2008/2009 and are just completing the report for 2010/2012. They
applied an econometric model that was developed by an economist, Dr. Raouf Hanna who was
appointed as the ‘Executive Associate to the President for Strategic Planning” which indicates
the seriousness of the central administration to produce an excellent study as a means to
achieve their goals through a valid strategic planning. The effort was assisted by several
participants drawn from most of the university’s constituents. Hence it was sophisticated and
well devised. It is a detailed and documented report in over 80 pages (:Hanna et al: 2009)
The following are the highlights of the study. It identified the spatial impact of the university by
the immediate environs (city of Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County and the State) and extended the
area to include, the other states in the nation and ultimately to the world. The expansion was
warranted by the fact that their alumni were tracked as serving in international organizations
throughout the world. The components that contributed to the economic base of the impacted
areas included: educational services in the forms of salaries for faculty and staff, other
expenditures by the university, placement of the graduates in high skilled jobs at the local,
state and national levels “more than those requiring only high school diplomas” basing their
computation on the assumption that “ about two thirds of the total economic impact of spending
on higher education comes from the higher earnings of these college graduates”. In addition
EMU study included a factor for “enhancing the quality of life of the local, regional communities
through providing arts and entertainment, athletics events, radio and university support for
public service activities”. They added another variable estimating the value of “cultural events,
services to businesses, research and development, the extensive volunteer activities of staff
and students”. The study quantified the impact of these components by reporting on the
different dimensions of the impact.
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The study was divided into two parts: economic and social impact. The first “dealt with the
direct and indirect spending of EMU and its constituents in the economy. The second dealt
with the university’s contributions through community and engagement and workforce
development.
The Economic Impact
The basic data, upon which the impact was estimated included: the students enrolled in the
base year of 2008, the total degrees awarded in same year, the total number of employees,
the total operating expenses for FY 2008, the amount of salaries, wages and benefits for same
year, building construction budget for four years (2004-2008) and the expected building
construction cost for 2009-2011 since the budget was approved for such projects. Based on
these actual figures the study reached the following conclusions.
“Including the earnings premium from earning college degrees the total direct impact of EMU
was more than $1.8 billion for the academic year 2008. The alumni earnings premium
accounts for more than 75% of EMU’s total direct impact on Michigan’s economy. When
adding all indirect effects the total economic impact would estimate as more than $3.7 billion.”
The study states that “while this type of regional impact analysis is not precise, the basic
numbers (premises) that have been developed are based on established methodological and
accepted multipliers that have been used for economic impact analyses in many settings
across the nation”.
Of more significance are the computations regarding the return on the State’s investment in
EMU? Adding the figures of the State’s contributions in the forms of general appropriations,
financial Aid, Grants and contracts and dividing the estimated value of the impact by that total,
the study showed that “the estimated impact on Michigan economy was $41.6 for each dollar
received from the State”. In addition ‘EMU estimated impact on State government tax revenue
is @1.87 for each dollar received from the State”. Both are impressive figures and show that
investment in higher education has positive financial impact on the economies of the affected
States.
The Social Impact
It is a recognized fact that impact of universities on their surrounding communities and beyond
extends beyond pure economic measures since it permeates the social fabric of the entire
communities and their environs. This factor is directly related to the mission of universities as
agents of change and development and the stakes of a major stakeholder, namely the
immediate area and the whole society. There are national organizations that recognize
university engagement and contributions to the community. For example the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching granted EMU their 2008 recognition for a
Community Engagement Classification. Community engagements take several forms. These
include: community outlets as venues for faculty and student activities; non-academic and
support units using facilities; mutually beneficial learning experiences; field experiences;
internships; social integration with the community through housing and related services; job
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related workforce development activities, outreach programs; student teaching; career
preparation activities and business consulting assignment or serving on civic boards and
committees. The problem in estimating the impact of such contributions is to devise a model
for quantifying the impact in concrete terms with valid assumptions and accurate parameters.
EMU did that. The university units which kept track of their involvement with the community –
and this is only a partial list- provided the raw data of their engagement programs. These
include: sponsoring or hosting events and the estimated number of attendees; receiving
outside funding for community-based programming and the number of organizations,
individuals, businesses and association; collaboration with different organizations engaging in
community services. Three other components were added to the list contributing to this part
of the impact. These are the workforce development which contributed to the economic
development of the State; interaction with alumni for mutually beneficial endeavors and retiree
contributions.
The report concludes with the following statement “The study has empirically illustrated the
significant economic and social impact that EMU has on the various communities of which it is
a part. The information presented provides an understanding of the university that can be
presented to current and potential supporters. It also can provide guidance to all members of
the university community in developing and implementing programs that continue and increase
the value of the university to its students, its faculty and staff members and to the region and
State which it serves”. It is clear that the institution serves its primary and secondary
stakeholders and fulfills its espoused mission.
However, it is a contribution to initiate such a study and to document the university’s
achievements, that is laudatory and a good public relations tool to get support.
Grand Valley State University
The Grand Valley state University Accountability Report for 2012/2013 has just been released.
(GVSU accountability:2012). It starts with stating its “principles of Accountability. There are six
‘principles including: “measures of student success; access and affordability; diversity; GVSU
and the State of Michigan; Efficiency Measures; Private-Public Partnership and Economic
Development”. Under Executive summary it states: “GVSU fares well under metrics used,
including those proposed by the Business leaders of Michigan….these facts show GVSU is a
solid return on investment for students, their families, business leaders and those who pay
taxes in Michigan”. The first metric regardi9ng the measures of student success “show the
number of graduates in 2011/2012 who consistently scored higher than average on licensure
examinations and that 90$ recent graduates are employed or in graduate school”, and “that the
graduates are successful and bring vitality to their fields of work and inquiry”. The other two
metrics are not more specific other than to state that “GVSU is committed to providing
opportunities for students… it serves students from every county, and keep its tuition in the
lower half of all Michigan Public universities and it increases its financial aid which is nearly
$4000 per year.”. Diversity is proven by stating that “GBSU has diversity of thought and
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background as a cornerstone of its mission, efforts to enroll minority and international students
and make them feel welcome on campus”. The metric of “Grand valley and the State of
Michigan is veri9fied by stating that GV documents its efficiency with the appropriation it
receives from the state which remains the lowest per student of any public university in
Michigan.. Nearly 84% of graduates remains in the state”. Efficiency measures are shown by
stating that “GV efficient operations have been noted in Michigan and in national rankings, the
university’s lean operation is illustrated by administrative costs remaining incredibly low while
resources are pumped into the main operation of teaching students…and that GV is
internationally recognized as a leader in sustainable practices that save the environment and
dollars”. Public-private partnership is evidenced by “GV has proven to be a productive
recipient of gifts and grants... those private donations to the university are up again... that the
university works to secure millions of dollars of grants...” The last metric under economic
development shows that ‘GV has economic impact in the West Michigan region of more than
$730 million, nearly 11,000 people are working in the private sector because the university
exists.. many of the regions most notable companies have GV alumni in various positions of
leadership and that our activities surrounding Lake Michigan will protect this tremendous asset
for years to come”.!!! The report further provides more statistics in an attempt to show the
accountability of the university to its constituents. These include: Median composite ACT sore
for fall 2011 at 24 which third high in Michigan; freshman to sophomore retention rate at 82%
(4th in Michigan); Graduation rate of 63% (4th ranking); pass rates of graduates on licensure
exams at 100% in many programs; and a host of self congratulatory national ranking and
recognition statements”. Additional historical figures are presented as evidence of
accountability including: recent graduates employed or in graduate school 89%; 54% increase
in enrollment over 12 years period which is highest in the state drawn from the surrounding
counties; the ten years tuition change reached 99.3% with increase in financial aid
commitments, noting that loans reached $184,709,255 in 2011-2012 about 72% of total
available sources with student default rate of 2.7 being second lowest in the state. It should be
noted that the universities achievement were achieved with lowest appropriation per student by
the state at $7,396 compared to the state average of $4694 and at the lowest level of the 15
public universities. It is ironic to reflect upon the responsibility of the state towards an institution
with the highest rate of growth in student enrollment and the continued lowest funding per
student. While the ratio of state aid to tuition declined from 53% in 1992 to 16.8% in 2013,
tuition increased almost doubles in the same period with the students and their families bearing
the brunt! This is a question for the state to ponder regarding its accountability for higher
education. The report concludes with a statement regarding the fact that GVSU is consistently
recognized for its commitment to sustainability.
SUSTAINABILITY
Two questions regarding sustainability: One, what is the potential for sustainability of financing
higher education according the same models that persisted during past decades, and two,
would such mode of financing and lack of coordination and control lead to achieve the
aspirations of the stakeholders on the local, regional and national levels?
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There is strong evidence that the answer to the two questions is in the negative. This evidence
includes several indicators. The federal government in the USA has reduced its funding for
many academic programs and institutions. It funding for basic research, through contracts and
independent contractors have drastically declined due to the anemic increase in revenue and
the staggering expenditure on other than education. The states are in no better conditions;
they are much worse which has more direct impact on funding for public universities. Even
traditionally more supportive states like California have drastically reduced their contributions
to higher education institutions which led to massive protests and interruption of classes and
canceling of programs. Available funds for borrowing that were guaranteed by the government
dried up and the cost of borrowing from the remaining open sources has skyrocketed and
became hard to get. Universities were pressured to resort to one of the available resources
that is to increase tuition and all attending fees at staggering rates. With such an open end
source of financing, they continued spending at same level albeit their contention, unproven,
that they are ‘efficiently managing their resources.
There is another explanatory variable to explain that the present mode of operation will
continue, hence exasperating the situation further. There are no quantifiable measurements to
assess accountability of the producers of the services we call higher education via universities
and other institutions. Most of the accountability criteria is still generic, qualitative, altruistic
and mundane. From what we have seen of the so called accountability reports, they are self
congratulatory accolades that can fit under public relations rhetoric. With the open spigot of
tuition and fees, there is no real incentive for administrators to cut cost since there is no system
of rewards and penalties for deviation from established standards of performance. Absence
objective criteria for measuring efficiency and effectiveness, and the two concepts are not the
same, there is no model for comparative studies.
Some may argue that accrediting agencies can serve as a conduit to devise specific criteria for
evaluation. We beg to differ. We think they are self-serving, profit making agencies that have
contributed to the problem. But that is another topic. They are not the solution nor are they to
meet the needs to establish normative and innovative criteria to demand accountability
adherence to standards. As evidence we have for over a century a multitude of such
accrediting agencies and we are still deficient and in disarray in this regard. They have not
succeeded so far nor, in our judgment, they are capable of succeeding albeit they maybe able
to play a role in the process of initiation and of monitoring implementation.
OUTSTANDING ISSUES
There are several outstanding issues that need to be addressed and which space and scope of
this paper did not allow for further elaboration. Let us outline three of these issues.
One is the global impact of higher education especially in an age of open frontiers and
globalization of labor, and other factors of production. The benefits of higher education have
transcended national boundaries. They are what Stiglitz (14) calls ‘global or international public
goods’. Actually Stiglitz identified five such global goods, including: international economic
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stability, international security or political stability, international environment, international
humanitarian assistance and knowledge. With the fast pace of technological advances in
communication, all these ‘global goods’ are interdependent. Their indicators of their
prominence are glaringly transparent and clear. The primary mechanism to deal with them,
individually or collectively is glaringly obvious. It is education first and last. It is education,
especially higher education institutions cross borders and inter cultural.
Two, the control of higher education administration is so lacking and is practically absent. The
ideology of granting the universities autonomy and self governing status might have proven
valid in the past; it is no longer valid today. There is a role for central governments to play and
to dictate. Europe has started a serious dialogue on this issue and is coming with some valid
conclusions and practical recommendations without disregarding national cultures and the
attendant historical, or political sovereignty peculiarities. The damage from wasteful use of rare
resources transcends college campuses. The dangers of misguided ideological convictions
should give way to pragmatic consideration for the public interest. This issue is a national
security issue of a magnitude larger than a war. Wars end after a while, but the need for
accountability to deliver what is needed for future generations and the continuity of our race
must be of the most paramount importance.
Three, the present modality of higher education must be revisited. It is time to consider a new
modality of Higher education as a tradable commodity available for those who deserve it and
whose services upon graduation are needed. Higher education should not be considered a
birth right or a constitutional mandate. That is what seems to be the prevailing philosophy in
the USA. It is not the dominant ideology in Europe or the rest of the world. Alternative modes of
education and avenues must be pursued. There is a dominant role for central governments to
set national priorities and to make sure to achieve them.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The field of managing higher education is not in its infancy. Volumes have been written about
it. Yet, we in the USA are still debating some issues which other countries have settled. We
elaborated on the controversy surrounding whether higher education is a public good or private
good or a hybrid of both. We came to the conclusion that while primarily it is public good it has
far reaching ramification to render it an international good. We identified the primary and
secondary stakeholders with their attending stakes. We further discussed the issue of
accountability and presented two recent accountability reports outlining the deficiencies and
shortcomings of the practice. We concluded by outlining three outstanding issues that deserve
further studying.
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1, pp. 80-84.
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Skinner, B.F. (1974) Designing Higher education, Journal of The American Arts and Sciences,
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The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, (1975), prospects for Higher
Education in a Period of Uncertainty, Jossey-Bass Publishers, London.
Anderson & Jo Anne (2005), ‘Types of Accountability systems’, The International Institute for
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Birdsall, W. (1965) A Study for Demand of Public goods, in R. A. Musgrave, ed., Essays in
fiscal Federalism, Washington D.C. The Brookings Institution, pp. 235-292
Breton A. (1954) A Theory of the demand for Public Goods, Canadian Journal of Economics
and Political Science, Vol. 32, August, pp. 334-344
Dorfman R. (1971) General equilibrium with Public goods, as quoted in Robert H. Haveman
and Julios Margolis, Public Expenditure and Public Policy, (Chicago) p.24
‘Economic and Social Impact of Eastern Michigan University 2008-2009, Raouf S. Hanna et
al., Ypsilanti, Michigan July 2009
Grand Valley state University Accountability report 2012-2013, Allendale Michigan USA (2012)
IsHak, S.T. & Amanda IsHak (2012) Ignoring Social Dimension of Development and
Sustainability as Prelude to Revolutions, Journal of Global Intelligence & Policy (JGIP),
Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 84-97
London, S., Higher Education for the Public Good: A Report from the National Leadership
Dialogues.
Marginson, S. (2011) Higher Education and Public Good, Higher Education Quarterly, Vol. 05,
No 4, pp. 411-433.
McPherson, P. & David Shulenburger (2010) Understanding the Cost of public Higher
Education, Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), pp. 15-25.
Ostrom E. (1971) Institutional Arrangements and the Measurements of Police Consequences
in Urban Areas, Studies in political Theory and Policy Analysis, and Urban Affairs
Quarterly.
Prospects for Higher Education in a Period of Uncertainty’, The Carnegie foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, 1975.
Samuelson P. A. (1954) The Pure theory of Public Expenditure, Review of Economics and
Statistics, Vol. 36, pp. 382-389.
Skinner B. F. (1974) Designing Higher Education, Journal of American Arts and Sciences, vol.
1, pp. 196-202.
Strotz R.,H. (1961) Two Propositions Related to Public Goods, Journal of Political Economy,
vol. 69, pp. 213-225.
Ulam, A.B., (1974) Where do we go from here, Journal of the American Arts and sciences, Vol.
1, pp. 80-84.
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 104-116
Full Article Available Online at: Intellectbase and EBSCOhost │ IJAISL is indexed with Cabell’s, JournalSeek, etc.
International Journal of Accounting Information Science & Leadership
Journal Homepage: www.intellectbase.org/journals │ © 2013 Published by Intellectbase International Consortium, USA
ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE:
MAJOR CORPORATE SECTOR OF ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
Amna Fahim1 and M Fahad Fahim2
1Air
University, Islamabad and 2Independent Writer, USA
ABSTRACT
P
urpose - The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of knowledge
management in the perspective of culture and its dimensions. Methodology - The
methodology adopted for this study consists of random sampling technique and
the targeted population is from the privatized banks in the capital area of Pakistan.Findings the findings of the study reported significantly positive results among the variables and strong
significance are showing positive contrive. Implications - this study has practical implications
for the human resource managers and top level management for the designing and
implementation of the corporate strategy. Originality - Novelty in this study is the investigation
of culture as a mediating variable between the KM and competitive advantage.
Keywords: Knowledge Management, Culture, KM, Competitive Advantage.
INTRODUCTION
Globalization has changed the scenario of working practices and this shift in the market
brought changes in the managerial carry out. Knowledge management is now a day’s a hot
subject in the organizations. Businesses are realizing the need to manage the information and
deal with it as a sustainable source to reach at the competitive level. Organization keeps an
eye on their performance and finally conforming about the fact that knowledge is ultimately the
major contributor towards the competitive advantage.
One of the key resources of organizations is their knowledge. According to DeLong & Fahey,
2000; O’Dell & Grayson, 1998 benefits of market competition can b achieved by effective use
of inner knowledge. Knowledge management (KM) initiatives often are seen to encounter
issues from organizational culture and, as a result, to have restricted effect. An Ernst and
Young study determined culture as the greatest obstacle to transfer knowledge, stating the
lack of ability to change individuals' conducts as the greatest barrier to handling knowledge
(Watson, 1998). Knowledge and its effective utilization have been at the center of research
scholars’ interest for the last two decades. Knowledge is one of the main crucial achievements
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 104-116
aspects for formulation of any company's technique. The decision on type of knowledge that is
important for a company should be determined through its objective and ideal goals.
Knowledge Management (KM) is an effective ideal device, to develop different decision making
techniques (Carnerio, 2000). Harrison and Leitch, (2000) statedt that companies need to
replenish their knowledge source consistently for competition.
The availability of information and product options are providing creativeness in supervisors
and effective application of sources as part of modifying technique. The alternative techniques
help with ever modifying atmosphere. The employment of environmental knowledge can create
competitive benefits (Carnerio, 2000). The Functional efficiency and technique are both pre
requirements for excellent efficiency, which is the aim of any company. Competitive advantage
produces out of the total system of activities. Porter, (1996) contends that the fit among actions
either considerably decreases cost or improves difference. Competitive strategy is all about
holding a different strategy than your competition. Christensen (2010) contended strategy is
used as the plan management. If it is handled wisely, objectives will be obtained as organized,
otherwise outcomes will be different.
An organization can outwit competition only if it can make a change that it can maintain. It must
produce better value to clients or identify similar value at a cheaper or execute both. Malhotra
(2003, 2005: 66) attentively summarized the worldwide business atmosphere as, “radical
discontinuous change”. The Knowledge is handled through individual and in ever modifying
situation, if procedures are arranged with technique and knowledge has been effectively used
the end outcome will be just what the company set out to accomplish. In the changing
atmosphere, being versatile is another crucial achievements aspect. This quality can be used
to acquire maintainable benefits as well as offer solutions as per client preferences.
Organizational Knowledge has to be modified consistently to stay competitive.
This will bring modification in strategy and procedures that help in retaining competitive
advantage (Weber, 2007; Hamid, 2008). In today's current changing fast environment,
durability of competitive advantage depends upon the usefulness of decisions. The ideal
strategy should be, doing the right thing that is performance, instead of doing things right
meaning performance driven strategy. It is known fact that efficient approach without being
effective will not succeed (Malhotra, 2005). It is recommended by (Malhotra, 2003) that
achievements is supposed to be to those who use knowledge before their competitors, and
create it outdated before they can use it. People and organizations started to appreciate the
significantly part of knowledge in the existing competitive atmosphere.
For years organizations have coded, saved, and transferred knowledge. The success of
knowledge management, in particular the generation and sharing of tacit knowledge is also
affected by organizational culture. It is hypothesized that certain size of organizational culture
motivate the generation and sharing of tacit knowledge. Many researchers have recommended
knowledge as a source of continual competitive advantage. Knowledge is challenging to mimic
since it is embedded in the enterprise such as in organizational culture, policies, techniques,
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Role of Knowledge Management in Cultural Perspective: Major Corporate Sector of Islamabad, Pakistan
and workers. The thoughts of knowledge as resources and can be capitalized for business
competitive advantage should press all companies to institution appropriate knowledge
management system. However, companies should understand that knowledge is challenging
and complicated to handle. Therefore, although knowledge is so valuable for organizational
competitive advantage, companies should identify the needs to institution a proper system to
handle it properly.
Problem Identification
For the survival of organization some challenging situations are created due to competitive
market circumstances. This shift in managerial practices rules out towards the enhanced
needs of the knowledge acquisition, sharing, dissemination and its retention in the
organization. A knowledge supportive culture which allows the sharing and distribution of
information across the organization is required for the infrastructural requisites and insufficient
processes. To assure the involvement of the employees and to ensure their adaptability which
paves the way towards the knowledge management and creation of organizational competitive
advantage a knowledge supportive culture is to be set in any organization.
Objectives of Study
The core objectives of this study are:




To attain the competitive advantage of the organization
Analyzing the outcomes of knowledge management and their impact in perspective of
culture
To see the relationship between the knowledge management and competitive
advantage
To check the pattern of knowledge management in the organization and its effect on
culture.
Rationale of the Study
This study consolidates the conceptual explanation about managing the knowledgeable
resources in a way to generate competitive advantage. The culture inside the organization sets
the way of acquisition of knowledge within the organization. Its dissemination along the role
performers is carried out with high involvement and adaptability of the employees. Knowledge
management leads towards the customer focus in an adaptable and highly involved culture.
Purpose and Significance of Study
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of knowledge management accordance
with culture. Knowledge management is to be seen in perspective of three dimensions .The
cultural imposition will be studied to attain the competitive advantage.
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 104-116
This study makes it significant that knowledge management is a distinction object of
organization in-order to step into the growth phase and to retain development. This is quite
important for organizations those are at stage of growth inevitable to functionalize and motivate
the knowledge management in order to create competitive atmosphere to attain competitive
advantage and becomes at leading role in the industry. Employees working in knowledge
based system integrated with an adaptable and involved culture could be a source to create
competitive advantage.
LITERATURE REVIEW
“Knowledge management refer to a systematic organization, planning, scheduling, monitoring
and development of people, process, technology and environment, with appropriate targets
and feedback mechanisms under the control of public or private sector concern, and
undertaken by such a concern, to facilitate specifically and explicitly the creation, retention,
sharing, acquisition, utilization and measurement of information and new ideas in order to
achieve strategic aims such as improved competitiveness and improved performance
subject to financial, legal, resource, political, technical, cultural and societal constraints.”(Peter
sharp, 2006).
KM is highly associated with the intellectual capital of the firm, which in turn affects its
innovation and financial achievement (Wong, 2005). However, previous studies about how to
improve KM capability efficiently are still controversial (Birkinshaw et al., 2002). According to
Cardinal,(2001), his point of view is that acquired knowledge will have an effect on an
organization’s worth, knowledge amalgamation and procedures. “Absorptive capabilities” are
known to be the acceptance of information value, assimilation of knowledge and possible
knowledge about the procedures and knowledge can be acquired from external environment.
Zahra and George (2002) claimed that possible absorptive competence include knowledge
attainment potential and knowledge incorporation potential, as well as well-organized
achievement and submission of exterior knowledge in eventually leads to modernization.
Zahra and George (2002) using vibrant competence scrutiny of the stream reinterpretation of
absorptive potential, that the absorptive potential is a psychotherapy of organizational
knowledge accretion and surge through the vibrant competence to produce and sustain the
organization aggressive improvement in the aggressive contemporary age.
Badii and Sharif (2003) believes that for innovation to take place, knowledge should be
integrated effectively so that the firm saves time and lowers cost of administering and securing
information. People come together from diverse backgrounds and areas, the wider the scope
of knowledge will be incorporated. Due to this diversity, people in the organization have better
communication and share more ideas. Therin (2002) states that a firm will be able to innovate
products and improve processes if the firm has the ability of attaining new knowledge and
integrating it with existing knowledge. Grant (1996) suggests that achieving continuous product
innovation depends on the capability of a firm to update existing knowledge.
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Role of Knowledge Management in Cultural Perspective: Major Corporate Sector of Islamabad, Pakistan
Herskovits (1955) defines culture as “an ingredient of the upbringing of humans that is
prepared (or modified) by human beings. Culture as the cumulative container of knowledge,
experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, religions, concepts of self, the other world and the
relationships between both , hierarchies of status, role expectations and time concepts
obtained by people from generations”.
Culture has also been defined by many authors in different ways. According to Webster’s New
Collegiate Dictionary “the integrated patterns of human behaviour that includes thought,
speech and action which it depends on man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge
to succeeding generations.” Pettigrew (1979) stated that culture consists of various concepts
like “symbolism”, “myth” and “rituals” that can be considered in analysing the organizational
behaviour and aspects. Dandridge, Mitroff and Joyce, (1980) explained this concept by stating
how these myths and symbols could facilitate while understanding culture. According to Deal
and Kennedy (1982) “Culture is the way we do things out there” or “non-rational qualities of an
organization”.
The concept of collectivism in the society evolves thinking, to sort out methodology of
integration of individuals into group, in a manner that they can adopt external environment
benefiting the perceived values.
Advancement of society is emerging from singleness to community. It includes two aspects:
namely, moderating into a strong whole and then waving into external environment. To absorb
into the requirement of group living, learning played a crucial role and produced a set of shared
assumptions and beliefs, called culture.
Adkins et al., (1999) suggest that adaptability is the ability of the company to scan the external
environment and respond to the ever-changing needs of its customers and other stakeholders.
Customer satisfaction is the core factor of any effective organization. It helps employees to
become bold in performance of their function and adopt leaning behaviour (Collins et al., 1994;
Nadler, 1998; Senge, 1990). Carley & Ren (2001) have experienced that factor leading to
adaptability as an interim measure performance on the short run. Adaptability is woven in
creating change, customer focus and organization learning.
Adkins et al, (1999) are of the view that the extent to which the individuals are involved in a
collaborative manner is the pathway towards the accomplishment of enterprise goals. Dr.
Denison (1990) believes that “The sense of responsibility in an individual towards his task
refers to his involvement in that task”. the employee’s interest areas are empowerment, team
orientation and capability development. Jones et al., (2005) believe that more the employee is
involved more is the organizational performance with flexible provision of effort. Good
workplace practices are considered destiny to achievement of organizational goals as they
have high learning curve.
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IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 104-116
Organizational culture supportive for knowledge management, may lead to improved
organizational effectiveness. (Brain Lehaney, Gillian Jack, Steve Clarke, Elayne Coakes, 2004)
states that employee attitude plays the mediating role between organizational culture and
organizational effectiveness. But it is very important to continually analyze and the realignment,
if needed, the organizational culture shortens the gap between espoused and existing
organizational culture which will take the organization towards knowledge management
(Kimberley Buch, David K. Wetzel, 2001). Organizational culture or environment plays a
significant role not only in the selection of knowledge management strategies but on the
implementation of knowledge management as well (Martin E. Gein, Tilo Bohmann and Helmut
Krcmar, 2007).
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
On the basis of extensive literature review, some of the variables have been ascertain that
their effectiveness should be analyzed.
Schematic Diagram
Assimination
Dissemination
IV
MEDIATOR
Culture
 Involvement
 Adaptability
Knowledge
management
DV
Competitive
advantage
Retention
Hypothesis
Some of the hypothesis has been determined to analyses variable established in the
schematic diagram as under:
H1: Knowledge management has significant effect on competitive advantage
H2: Knowledge management has significant effect on competitive advantage
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The method adopted for this study is in relation to the factors which are contributory and plays
their role in attaining the competitive advantage. Research design of this study consists of the
details about the targeted population, sample and measuring scale. The statistical tools and
techniques used to analyze the data from the selected sample represent the relationship
among the variables and trends of variation in them.
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Role of Knowledge Management in Cultural Perspective: Major Corporate Sector of Islamabad, Pakistan
Population, Sample & Respondents
The targeted population is of major Banking sector of Pakistan. Population constituted with
private banks of Islamabad Pakistan. Sample selected from the population consists of 350
respondents. Sample consists of first line and middle levels of officers at managerial positions.
The respondents are in the age range from 25 to 40 years and minimum qualification is
Masters with work experience not less than 1year.
Instrument & Measure
Data collection is done through the structured questionnaire which is comprised of two
sections. The first section is about the personal information and second section consists of
details related to variables under study and their sub constructs. Questionnaire is adapted and
taken from the studies of previous researchers. Some of the elements are adjusted according
to the requirement. Items of questionnaire are measured against 5 point Likert scale. The
questionnaire used for data collection is self explanatory. Data collected from the respondents
is analyzed through the SPSS.
RESULTS & DATA ANALYSIS
The factors contributory of the knowledge management and its effects on competitive
advantage is analyzed through SPSS and also the elements comprised knowledge
management with mediating effects of culture and their effects on competitive advantage have
been analyzed to determine the strength of relationship.
Table 1:
Reliability and Validity of Variables
Cronbach’s Alpha Mean Standard Deviation
Involvement
.733
3.756 1.281
Adaptability
.712
4.011 .763
Knowledge Assimination
.771
3.707 1.302
Knowledge Dissemination .765
3.805 1.105
Knowledge Retention
.745
3.905 .950
Competitive advantage
.771
3.707 1.302
Table 1 explains the reliability of the culture dimensions of involvement and adaptability are
.733 and .712 respectively as it shows acceptable level of reliability. Knowledge management
shows level of reliability .712, .771, and .765 of knowledge assimination, dissemination and
retention and depicts level of reliability in accepted range. Lastly, competitive advantage is
positioned on .771 level of reliability. All the reliabilities fall within the suggested and
acceptable range which concludes that data taken is reliable and can be used for further
statistical analysis and testing. In other words the knowledge management is built up with three
constructs i.e. assimination, dissemination and retention and culture consideration comprised
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A. Fahim and M. F. Fahim
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 104-116
of involvement and adaptability which particularly depicts that employees involved with their job
roles and adaptable with the situation can create the competitive advantage.
Table 2:
CULTURE
KM
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Correlation among the Variables
Correlations
CULTURE
Pearson Correlation 1
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
45
Pearson Correlation .806**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
45
Pearson Correlation .856**
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
45
KM
.806**
.000
45
1
45
.812**
.000
45
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
.856**
.000
45
.812**
.000
45
1
45
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 2 shows the knowledge management is positively correlated with the competitive
advantage. The data considerations reveal that the knowledge management has positive and
significant effect on the competitive advantage directly. It shows that the change is values of
knowledge management there would be change in the competitive advantage and the direction
of movement will be same. The relationship among the variables is held significant as the p
value is less than 0.05 and these are showing 86% effect of knowledge management in
creation of competitive advantage. Whereas the culture is affecting the competitive advantage
by 80.6% and it shows the strongly positive effect.
In brief the relationship amongst the both variables stay positive and highly significant. It shows
the aspect that the positive contribution of knowledge management makes the organization to
attain the competitive advantage and on the other side culture plays very important role in
contributing organization at the path of success. If any of the constructs of KM and culture
could not get success in contributing towards organization then competitive advantage would
be not pleasant. Hence H1 and H2 are positively significant and proved.
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Role of Knowledge Management in Cultural Perspective: Major Corporate Sector of Islamabad, Pakistan
Table 3:
Model Fit Summary
Model Summary - 1
Model
R
R Square
Adjusted
Square
1
.812a
.660
.652
R
Std. Error of the Estimate
.314595
a. Predictors: (Constant), KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Regression
8.245
ANOVAb
df
Mean
Square
1
8.245
Residual
4.256
43
Total
12.501
44
Model
1
Sum of Squares
F
Sig.
83.311
.000a
Standardized
Coefficients
Beta
t
Sig.
.610
9.127
.545
.000
.099
a. Predictors: (Constant), KNOWLEDGE_MANAGEMENT
b. Dependent Variable: COMPETITIVE_ADVANTAGE
Model
1
(Constant)
KNOWLEDGE_MANAGEMENT
Coefficientsa
Unstandardized
Coefficients
B
Std. Error
.239
.392
.872
.095
.812
a. Dependent Variable: COMPETITIVE_ADVANTAGE
The values in table 3 shows significantly strong impact of the knowledge management on the
competitive advantage. The value estimated by statistics shows that 65% of knowledge
management amplification in the organization effectuates the resulting competitive advantage.
This critical value indicates that knowledge management is the core and important determinant
of the competitive advantage.
The model summary shows the strongly significant impact of the knowledge management on
the competitive advantage with culture as the mediating variable. The value estimated by
statistics shows that 72% of knowledge management amplification in the organization when
the cultural aspect is to be envisaged for the enhancement of resulting competitive advantage.
This critical value indicates that knowledge management with supportive culture is the
foundation and key determinant of the competitive advantage.
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A. Fahim and M. F. Fahim
IJAISL - Volume 6, Issue 16 (2013), pp. 104-116
Model
R
R Square
1
.856a
.734
Model Summary – 2
Adjusted R Square
.727
Std. Error of the Estimate
.278303
a. Predictors: (Constant), CULTURE
ANOVAb
Model
1
Regression
Residual
Total
Sum of
Squares
9.171
3.330
12.501
df
Mean
Square
9.171
.077
1
43
44
F
Sig.
118.403
.000a
a. Predictors: (Constant), CULTURE
b. Dependent Variable: COMPETITIVE_ADVANTAGE
Coefficientsa
Model
1
Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients
B
Beta
.856
(Constant)
1.869
Std.
Error
.182
CULTURE
.512
.047
t
Sig.
10.291
.000
10.881
.000
a. Dependent Variable: COMPETITIVE_ADVANTAGE
DISCUSSION & MANAGERIAL IMPLICATION
This study confirms the relationship between the knowledge management and competitive
advantage as it is a necessity for the organizations to innovate the process, product or service
inorder to make the survival possible and this study has provided empirical support and 80%
contribution of knowledge management is seen and its amplification proves the organization at
competitive position and the same was reported by Davey (2005) who has claimed and
reported the knowledge management is the integral part to achieve the competitive advantage
which embraces organization at competitive position. This proclamation describes that 92% of
knowledge management amplification to attain the competitive advantage. The same was
claimed by Solomon and Goldsmith (2005) realized the real value of KM to be the effective role
playing to achieve the competitive advantage. Hence the H1 is accepted.
Cultural aspect cannot be ignored in the modern practices era. Knowledge assimination and
dissemination is possible and resulting positively when the culture is highly adaptable and let
the personnel involved in it. Cultural aspects discussed by Hofstede () reported positive results
and significant effects of culture on organizational competitive advantage. This research
reported cultural infusion 72% which significantly proves its positive effects. Coakes (2004)
claimed 78% of cultural mediation to attain the competitiveness. Therefore the H2 is accepted.
On the basis of these facts following recommendations have been made:
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Role of Knowledge Management in Cultural Perspective: Major Corporate Sector of Islamabad, Pakistan



Organizations should pay particular attention to manage the knowledgeable activities
across the hierarchal levels.
HR managers and practitioners should be engaged while making and organizing the
learning processes through which people could access knowledge easily
HRD practitioners should employ organizational knowledge management to figure out
an organizational learning culture, which in turn improves human resource practices.
CONCLUSION
The employee involvement is the core requirement to establish the competitive advantage.
Moreover building up of an infrastructure requisite a knowledge supportive culture is to be
introduced in the organization to make the sharing and distribution of information possible. The
empowerment, team orientation and capability development of an individual relating to the
organization should be enhanced.
A knowledge based culture adapted with competitive environment and involved behavior
regarding the strategies to be implemented in functionalize and knowledge supportive
enterprise can increase the survival rate of organization and of course the competitive
advantage as well.
Futuristic perspective is to be linked up with the growth of knowledge management concept
and its implementation in organizations and seek towards the diversified methods of research
those could be needed to understand that how organization manages their resources and get
best out of these to create competitive advantage.
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Call for Article Submissions
International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership
The International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership (IJAISL) seeks submissions of
original articles on current topics of special interest to practitioners and academics. Research or application
oriented articles that describe accounting, leadership, business education, finance, general business,
management, pedagogy, educational facilities issues, or professional/personal development will be
considered for publication in the journal. Analyses relying on organizational size, statistical financial
performance, and various operationalizations of leadership composition, will present evidence of methodical
control structure and demonstrate consistency in results.
All articles are refereed by a rigorous evaluation process involving at least three blind reviews by qualified
academic, industrial, or governmental professionals. Submissions will be judged not only on the suitability of
the content, but also on the intellectual framework and significance to society in general. All papers are peer
reviewed.
The Executive Editorial Board (EEB) of the International Journal of Accounting Information Science and
Leadership (IJAISL) strongly encourages authors to submit their article(s) to an IIC conference prior to
Journal consideration. Author’s who submit their articles to an IIC conference receive the benefit of feedback
from the IIC Reviewers’ Task Panel (RTP) and conference attendees. This feedback generally improves the
quality of submissions to the International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership
(IJAISL). Articles that are accepted for presentation at an IIC conference have a higher likelihood of being
published in IJAISL.
IJAISL solicits only original contributions that have not been previously published or submitted elsewhere,
with the exception of a submission to IIC refereed conference proceedings. Note! IIC refereed proceedings
are a partial fulfillment of Intellectbase International Journals. Papers awaiting presentation or already
presented at IIC conferences must be revised (ideally, taking advantage of feedback obtained at the
conference) and have a slightly modified title to be considered for journal inclusion. All manuscripts selected
for publication must maintain a high standard of content, style and value to the readership. An important
criterion for acceptance of a manuscript for publication is the relevance of the work to the global accounting
and leadership field and its potential usefulness for advancing the quality of accounting and leadership
practices.
IJAISL REVIEW PROCESS
The author submits his/her paper electronically and the paper is sent to the Managing Editor. A confirmation
of receipt will be e-mailed to the author(s), usually within 2 days of your submission. The Managing Editor
assigns the paper an ID number, removes author(s) names and affiliations, and sends the paper to
reviewers. Reviewers usually have 2 weeks to perform the review; however, on occasions the reviewer may
take up to 4 weeks to complete a review. Once review comments are returned, the Managing Editor puts
them together and provides the original paper and the reviews to the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief,
based on the comments of the reviewers and his reading of the manuscript, forms an overall
recommendation regarding publication. On occasion, the Editor-in-Chief will consult the Senior Advisory
Board and if necessary, request that an additional review be performed. Once the Editor-in-Chief has formed
an opinion on the acceptability of the paper, an email will be sent to the corresponding author of the outcome
of the review process. The full review process currently takes anywhere from 1-4 weeks from receipt of
manuscript.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
IJAISL only accepts electronic submissions of manuscripts. To submit a manuscript for the review process,
you should send an email with the paper as an attachment to [email protected]*. In the body of your
email message include the author(s) name(s), contact information for the corresponding author, and the title
of your submission. Your submission will be acknowledged via return email. All submissions must be in
English and in Word format.
Intellectbase International Consortium prioritizes papers that are selected from Intellectbase conference
proceedings for Journal publication. Papers that have been published in the conference proceedings, do not
incur a fee for Journal publication. However, papers that are submitted directly to be considered for Journal
publication will incur a $195 fee to help cover the cost of formatting, printing, processing, archiving, indexing
& listing, postage & handling if accepted.
Page 1 of your submission should contain the title of the paper and should identify all authors, including
authors’ names, mailing addresses, and email addresses. Authors’ names should not appear anywhere else
in the manuscript, except possibly as part of the reference list. Author details should be followed by an
Abstract of 200-500 words. Following the Abstract, Key Words should be identified and the Key Words are
followed by the text of the paper.
The manuscript must be single-spaced, contain a single column, utilize 11 point Arial Narrow justified font,
and contain 1” margins on all sides.
TITLE
Centered across the top of the first page, 16 point Arial Narrow bold font, all letters capitalized.
MAJOR HEADINGS
14 point Arial Narrow bold font, left aligned, all letters capitalized.
First Level Sub-Headings
13 point Arial Narrow bold font, left aligned, capitalize each word.
Second level sub-headings
12 point Arial Narrow bold italic font, left aligned, capitalize each word.
Third level sub-headings
12 point Arial Narrow italic font, left aligned, first word capitalized.
No blank line is to appear between a sub-heading and the text. Tables and figures should be included in the
text, approximately where the author thinks that they should appear. Manuscripts must be edited for spelling
and grammar.
Reference citation ordering and format must follow Harvard (or APA) Style referencing. Reference entries
should be ordered alphabetically (in text and Reference section) according to authors’ or editors’ last names,
or the title of the work for items with no author or editor listed. Any reference contained in the text must be
included in the Reference section and vice versa.
References in the text should be of the format: (Harris et al., 1995; Johnson, 1996). Quotes from a source
should include the page number (Johnson, 1996, pp. 223). References must be complete.
The paper should not normally exceed 15 single-spaced pages, including all sections, figures, tables, etc.
However, the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to consider longer articles of major significance.
Electronic submissions should be sent to [email protected]*. Please visit the Intellectbase
International Consortium website: www.intellectbase.org for further information.
* By submitting a paper, authors implicitly assign Intellectbase the copyright license to publish and
agree that at least one (if more authors) will order a copy of the journal.
CALL FOR ACADEMIC PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION
Intellectbase International Consortium Academic Conferences
TEXAS – USA
Nashville, TN – USA
Atlanta, GA – USA
Las Vegas, NV – USA
International Locations
April
May
October
December
Spring and Summer
Abstracts, Research-in-Progress, Full Papers, Workshops, Case Studies and Posters are invited!!
All Conceptual and Empirical Papers are very welcome.
Email all papers to: [email protected]
†
Intellectbase International Consortium provides an open discussion forum for Academics, Researchers, Engineers and
Practitioners from a wide range of disciplines including, but not limited to the following: Business, Education, Science,
Technology, Music, Arts, Political, Social - BESTMAPS.
B
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EDUCATION
BUSINESS
SCIENCE
INTELLECTUAL
PERSPECTIVES
SOCIAL
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MULTI-DISCIPLINARY
TECHNOLOGY
FOUNDATIONS
POLITICAL
MUSIC
ARTS
†
By submitting a paper, authors implicitly assign Intellectbase the copyright license to publish and agree that at least
one (if more authors) will register, attend and participate at the conference to present the paper.
All submitted papers are peer reviewed by the Reviewers Task Panel (RTP) and accepted papers are published in a
refereed conference proceeding. Articles that are recommended to the Executive Editorial Board (EEB) have a high
chance of being published in one of the Intellectbase double-blind reviewed Journals. For Intellectbase Journals and
publications, please visit: www.intellectbase.org/Journals.php
All submitted papers must include a cover page stating the following: location of the conference, date, each author(s)
name, phone, e-mail, full affiliation, a 200 - 500 word Abstract and Keywords. Please send your submission in
Microsoft Word format.
For more information concerning conferences and Journal publications, please visit the Intellectbase website at
www.intellectbase.org. For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Conference Chair at
[email protected]
REGISTRATION GUIDELINES
Registration Type
Early Registration
Normal Registration
Student Registration¥
Additional Papers (No More than 3 Articles per Conference)
Second & Subsequent Author Attendance
Fee
$395.00^
$450.00^
$250.00^
$150.00^ ea.
$195.00^ ea.
^ Prices subject to change
¥ Must provide evidence of Full Time student status.
Cancellation Policy
A 22% processing fee will be applied to all refunds. Cancellations received at least two weeks prior to conference
date will be refunded 100% of registration fee (minus processing fee). Cancellations received 2-3 weeks to
conference commencement are eligible for a 50% refund of the registration fee (minus processing fee). No refunds
will be made within two weeks to the conference commencement. All cancellations must be in writing, include
Author's Name and Paper Title and be mailed to: Intellectbase International Consortium, 1615 Seventh Avenue
North, Nashville TN 37208. Attn: Dr. David King ([email protected]).
INTELLECTBASE DOUBLE-BLIND REVIEWED JOURNALS
Intellectbase International Consortium promotes broader intellectual resources and publishes reviewed
papers from all disciplines. To achieve this, Intellectbase hosts approximately 4-6 academic conferences
per year and publishes the following Double-Blind Reviewed Journals
(http://www.intellectbase.org/journals.php).
JAGR
IJAISL
RHESL
IJSHIM
RMIC
JGIP
JISTP
JKHRM
JIBMR
Journal of Applied Global Research – ISSN: 1940-1833
International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership – ISSN: 1940-9524
Review of Higher Education and Self-Learning - ISSN: 1940-9494
International Journal of Social Health Information Management - ISSN: 1942-9664
Review of Management Innovation and Creativity - ISSN: 1934-6727
Journal of Global Intelligence and Policy - ISSN: 1942-8189
Journal of Information Systems Technology and Planning - ISSN: 1945-5240
Journal of Knowledge and Human Resource Management - ISSN: 1945-5275
Journal of International Business Management & Research - ISSN: 1940-185X
The US Library of Congress has assigned ISSN numbers for all formats of Intellectbase Journals - Print,
Online and CD-ROM. Intellectbase Blind-Review Journals are listed in major recognized directories: e.g.
Cabell’s, Ulrich’s, JournalSeek and Ebsco Library Services and other publishing directories. Intellectbase
International Consortium publications are in the process to be listed in the following renowned Journal
databases e.g. ABI/INFORM, ABDC, Thomson SCIENCE and SOCIAL SCIENCE Citation Indexes, etc.
Note: Intellectbase International Consortium prioritizes papers that are selected from Intellectbase conference proceedings for
Journal publication. Papers that have been published in the conference proceedings, do not incur a fee for Journal
publication. However, papers that are submitted directly to be considered for Journal publication will incur a US$195 fee to
help cover the cost of formatting, printing, processing, archiving, indexing & listing, postage & handling if accepted. Papers
submitted direct to a Journal may be emailed to [email protected]* (e.g. [email protected]*,
[email protected]*, etc.).
* By submitting a paper, authors implicitly assign Intellectbase the copyright license to publish and agree that at least one (if
more authors) will order a copy of the journal.
International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership
Individual Subscription Request
Please enter my subscription for the International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership
Name ________________________________________________________________________________
Title ____________________________________ Telephone ( ______ ) __________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________________
City _______________________________ State __________________Zip Code ____________________
Country____________________________________ Fax ( _____ ) ____________________
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Please check the appropriate categories:
Within the United States
□ Annual Individual Subscription - US$150
Outside the United States
□ Annual Individual Subscription - US$150
Begin the annual subscription with the: □ Current Issue □ Next Issue
□ Single Issue - US$79
□ Single Issue - US$85
If you are requesting a single issue, which issue (Volume, and Issue) are you requesting ? ______________
Payment by check in U.S. Dollars must be included.
Make check payable to: Intellectbase International Consortium
Send this Subscription Request and a check to:
IJAISL Subscription
Intellectbase International Consortium
1615 Seventh Avenue North
Nashville, TN, 37208, USA
All e-mail enquiries should be sent to: [email protected]
International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership
Library Recommendation
(Please complete this form and forward it to your Librarian)
Dear __________________________________ (Librarian’s name)
I recommend that _______________________________________ (Library’s name) subscribe to the following
publication.
□ International Journal of Accounting Information Science and Leadership (IJAISL) ISSN: 1940-9524 (US$225
/Year)
I have indicated the benefits of the above journal to our library:
(1=highest benefit; 2=moderate benefit; 3=little benefit)
1 2 3 REFERENCE: For research articles in the field of Accounting, Information Science and Leadership.
1 2 3 STUDENT READING: I plan to recommend articles from the above to my students.
1 2 3 PUBLICATION SOURCES: This journal is suitable to my current research agenda.
1 2 3 PEER EVALUATION: This journal is highly regarded by my peers around the world.
Name ________________________________________________________________________________
Title ______________________________________ Telephone ( ______ ) ________________________
Mailing Address ________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
City ________________________________ State ____________________ Zip Code ______________
Library Subscriptions:
Within the US - US$275
Outside the US (includes air mail postage) - US$295
Payment by check in U.S. Dollars must be included.
Make check payable to: Intellectbase International Consortium
Send this Subscription Request and a check to:
IJAISL Subscription
Intellectbase International Consortium
1615 Seventh Avenue North
Nashville, TN, 37208, USA
Tel: +1 (615) 944-3931; Fax: +1 (615) 739-5124
www.intellectbase.org
All e-mail enquiries should be sent to: [email protected]
For information about the following Journals, please visit www.intellectbase.org
RMIC-Review of Management
Innovation and Creativity
JOIM-Journal of Organizational
Information Management
JGIP-Journal of Global
Intelligence and Policy
RHESL-Review of Higher
Education and Self-Learning
IJEDAS-International Journal of
Electronic Data Administration
and Security
JWBSTE-Journal of Web-Based
Socio-Technical Engineering
JISTP-Journal of Information
Systems Technology and
Planning
JKHRM-Journal of Knowledge
and Human Resource
Management
IJSHIM-International Journal of
Social Health Information
Management
JAGR-Journal of Applied Global
Research
IHPPL-Intellectbase Handbook
of Professional Practice and
Learning
JIBMR-Journal of International
Business Management &
Research
B
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EDUCATION
BUSINESS
SCIENCE
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY
SOCIAL
FOUNDATIONS
&
INTELLECTUAL
TECHNOLOGY
PERSPECTIVES
POLITICAL
MULTIMEDIA
ARTS
S