The impact of interest rate on the demand for credit in Ghana

This article investigates the impact of financial liberalization on the demand for credit in Ghana. It contributes by making suggestions pertaining to questions on the effectiveness of interest rate liberalization in driving private sector demand for credit both in the short and the long‐run, as well as the speed of adjustments to equilibrium after the implementation of the financial liberalization programme. The study results indicate that interest rate has no significant impact on the demand for credit both in the short‐run and long‐run. Moreover, inflation has a negative significant effect on the demand for credit in the short‐run. The results also suggest that about 66% of disequilibrium from the preceding year is corrected in the current year. However, these findings seem to indicates that the financial market in Ghana is not fully competitive. The oligopolistic and noncompetitive financial system may be attributable to the extreme minimum capital requirement and the emerging consolidation of commercial banks through government takeovers as well as the various credit rationing practices by banks aimed at reducing the risk of adverse selection and insolvency.     

Dark side of social media and academic performance of public sector schools students: Role of parental school support

Students are regularly engaged in several things at the same time during class and school time. They are using smartphones, tablets, laptops, and using social media on these devices while learning and attending class. However, there are some situations likely influenced by this, current study tests the influence of technostress, cyberbullying, and media multitasking in the context of students in technology‐saturated classrooms and how this is affecting their academic performance. This study further explored the buffering effects of parental school support on the relationship between technostress, cyberbullying, and student's performance. By using the person‐environment fit model, this study surveyed 248 public sector school students in two waves and examined the impact of these variables on student's academic performance. Results show that technostress, cyberbullying, and media multitasking have a negative impact on student performance, and school parental support moderates the negative relationship between technostress and student performance. Implications and contributions have also been discussed.     

Implementing management tools in Turkish public hospitals: the impact of culture,politics and role status

The government of Turkey has attempted to substantially improve the management of its public hospitals. However, an analysis of the performance of the quality certified hospitals finds only minor improvements. This study seeks to explain these disappointing results by interviewing 46 hospital managers and employees about the successes and failures of the management reform effort. The interviews suggest that traditional Turkish organisational culture often hinders attempts to decrease hierarchy, but, more positively, it also encourages the use of frontline teams and group rewards. Moreover, Turkey's hybrid system of allowing public doctors to maintain private practices has provided doctors with both the resources and the incentives to fight management reform efforts. Finally, organisational decentralisation in Turkey has evoked fierce political opposition, ironically even from many pro‐modernising forces that fear it could increase the power of Islamic fundamentalists. Turkey's experience suggests a number of broader points about management reform in non‐western societies. It suggests that decentralisation can often impede, rather than strengthen the other aspects of management reform; that a hybrid market organisation is often harder to move toward market efficiencies than a purely governmental one; and that national cultures should help guide the order in which reform tools are implemented. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sudden death due to congenital pericardial defect: an autopsy case

Pericardial defects are rare in childhood and outcome is usually benign. Patients may be asymptomatic, but chest pain, emboli, arrhythmia, and sudden death have been described in the literature. We report the case of a 12-year-old boy who suddenly died after mild exercise. A left-sided pericardial defect with a diameter of 8 cm was detected on medico-legal autopsy.     

Administrative ethics and organizational learning in Kuwait and the united states: an empirical approach

This article explores how a sample of public agencies in Kuwait respond to ethics failure. The learning response is examined in detail, in order to understand how these agencies attempt to inquire into the organizational causes of ethics failures and implement organizational changes in response to the inquiry. This study builds upon a previous methodology for measuring the strength of the organizational learning response. The data from Kuwait is compared to an earlier, similar study of organizational ethics learning conducted in the United States. The sampled agencies devote only moderate efforts to learning from ethics failure.     

Economic evaluations vs. ideology: Diagnosing the sources of electoral change in Turkey, 2002–2011

Turkish elections reflect two competing influences. One concerns a long-term increasingly conservative ideological orientation; the other, more short-term pragmatic evaluations primarily on the economic policy front. This article uses three nationwide representative surveys from 2002, 2007 and 2011 to assess the relative merits of these competing hypotheses. The findings indicate that the critical election of 2002 is not shaped by economic performance evaluations but rather by indicators of ideology at large and left–right ideology in particular. The influence of ideology appears to rise from 2002 to 2007 and 2011. Economic performance evaluations increase in salience from 2002 to 2007 but seem to have somewhat lost their power for 2011. Implications of these findings for the Turkish party system and further research questions are discussed in the concluding section.     

Community not the Councillors: A Study of Commitment of Australian Senior Council Officers Working under a Politicised Employment Relationship

Council officers as public managers are expected to work for the community. Yet, it has been argued that council officers working under a politicised employment relationship are likely to be more committed to the elected councillors than to the community. This proposition has been examined through a survey of senior council officers across Australia and the results are presented in this article. This study develops an analytical approach which combines for the first time the multi-focus and the multiple bases of managerial commitment approaches, applies this to the case of Australian local government managers and finds that although most senior council officers perceive that their employment is politicised they remain committed to the community. Based upon these findings, it is argued that a conceptual framework utilising a combined multi-focus and multiple bases approach is more appropriate to the study of commitment of local government managers and to managers in the public sector in general than the use of either approach alone.     

Initiatives that Counter Violent Radicalization but are Perceived as Suitable by Targeted Communities

To redress the scourge of violent extremism, an array of policies, programs, and practices have been implemented. Yet, these initiatives could sometimes conflict with the preferences of individuals who may be susceptible to radicalization. To illustrate, some initiatives might challenge the values of these individuals. The degree to which these individuals feel significant or important might thus decrease—a decrease that has been shown to rouse the pursuit of violent radicalization. To prevent this complication, two studies were designed to uncover programs, policies, or practices that align to the preferences of people who may be more susceptible than average to violent radicalization. In Study 1, three individuals who had been charged with crimes related to terrorism, but had since relinquished extremism, were asked to suggest initiatives they feel could prevent violent radicalization in Australian Muslims. Similarly, in the second study, young Australian Muslim adults who rejected extremist ideologies were asked the same question. The participants advocated initiatives that foster tolerance towards diverse perspectives, inspire individuals to trust their values and intuition, encourage civic engagement, improve the credibility of imams, and enable people to derive strength from their community. A review of previous literature indicates that many of these initiatives might not only resonate with the preferences of individuals who may be vulnerable to violent extremism but could also foster a sense of significance and meaning in life—an experience that tends to prevent radicalization.     

Resolving Incompatibilities of Bilateral Investment Treaties of the EU Member States with the EC Treaty: Individual and Collective Options

Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) concluded by the EU Member States contain substantially similar clauses, including free movement of capital and investor‐to‐state dispute resolution. Article 307 EC provides for the primacy of pre‐accession treaties over the EC Treaty and simultaneously requires the Member States to eliminate their mutual incompatibilities. The European Court of Justice has declared that free movement of capital clauses of Austrian and Swedish pre‐accession extra‐EU BITs are incompatible with the EC Treaty as they will impede any restrictions on the movement of capital imposed as future Community legislation. A similar ‘free movement of capital’ clause is present in all extra‐EU BITs of the Member States, whether pre‐ or post‐accession. Article 307, however, does not apply to the post‐accession treaties which are equally capable of contriving the same consequences of impeding the application of the EC Treaty. In addition, the application of intra‐EU BITs provides investors from BIT party states access to the investor‐to‐state dispute resolution which is not available to investors from the Member States who do not have BITs with those Member States. This is discrimination and may distort the principle of equal treatment within the EU. Furthermore, the newly acceding EU States are facing extensive arbitral claims for carrying out the BIT‐EU conflicting obligations within their respective territories.