Punitive Damage Decision Making: The Decisions of Citizens and Trial Court Judges

Some states have allocated the authority to determine the amount of punitive damages to judges rather than to juries. This study explored the determination of damages by jury-eligible citizens and trial court judges. The punitive damage awards of both groups were of similar magnitude and variability. The compensatory damages of jurors were marginally lower but, in some conditions, were more variable than the compensatory damage awards of judges. Both groups appropriately utilized information about both the actual and potential severity of the harm to the plaintiff in determining punitive damages and used only the actual severity of the injury in determining compensatory damages. The punitive damage awards of both groups were influenced by the wealth of the defendant, but the compensatory damage awards of judges were marginally more influenced by defendant wealth than those of citizens. The results are discussed in the context of proposals for punitive damages reform.     

Elite executives in issues management: the role of ethical paradigms in decision making

The perspectives of elite (or top‐level) issues managers on ethics are explored in this paper. From these elites we can learn how issues were managed at their global organisations and how questions of ethics were addressed in issues management. The organisations in this study were chosen because of their superlative rankings in measures of ethics and reputation. Research questions explored ethical decision making and the predominant paradigm of ethics in each organisation through six elite interviews and observation. Although both organisations attempted to address ethics, the elite issues managers at one organisation did so more thoroughly and effectively than did the managers at the other organisation. This efficacy was due to the depth of ethical study and training engaged in by the elites, the intense ethical analysis of issues, and the choice of a deontological approach to ethics. This paper argues that ethics should be concerted, codified, consistent, trained and rigorously analysed. A deontological paradigm of ethical decision making fits all of these criteria, and this research shows that a deontological ethical paradigm can contribute to effective issues management. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Time-of-voting decision and susceptibility to campaign effects

There is mounting evidence that election campaigns matter. There are also reasons to expect interpersonal heterogeneity in the susceptibility to campaign influence. Time-of-voting decision has been suggested as a key mediating variable for campaign effects. However, there is no persuasive empirical evidence to substantiate the claim that people who decide during campaigns actually respond to campaign events or campaign-specific information.This study incorporates time of decision into dynamic models of campaign effects in order to test whether there is a significant interaction effect between time of decision and campaign persuasion. In sum, the vote intentions of campaign deciders are indeed more volatile because they respond to actual campaign events and coverage, not because they fluctuate haphazardly. People who say they decided before the campaign are, reassuringly, not influenced by campaigns.     

战略视角下的国有企业董事会职能研究

我国国有企业改革的重点是完善企业的公司治理机制,但目前国有企业董事会在战略决策的制定中没有起到应有的作用,战略职能弱化。因此,我们应强化国企董事会战略决策职能,在接受企业内部和外部监督的基础上,将战略思维与遵循、运用科学的决策程序和决策工具相结合,从而改善公司治理绩效。     

犯罪决策的经济分析

本文以理性人假设为前提,对犯罪决策进行经济分析。笔者认为,犯罪成本由物质性成本、非物质性成本及惩罚性成本构成。当预期刑罚成本高于预期犯罪效益,犯罪物质性成本、心理感受之和高于预期犯罪效益时,潜在犯罪人不选择犯罪;反之,则可能选择犯罪。     

行政复议“不利变更禁止原则”初探

根据现行《行政复议法》的规定,行政复议的“变更”决定内在地包含着一种“不利变更”的可能性。但是,行政复议作为一种应申请的和授益的行政行为,基于“控权法”的理念和“信赖保护原则”的要求,行政复议决定中的“变更”应该受到一定的限制,即确立“不利变更禁止原则”。     

民进党新潮流系的政治影响力

民进党新潮流系在台湾政治中有相当的影响力。本文运用“政治影响力”的概念加以分析,认为:在选举方面,新潮流系向来具有较大的影响力,但现在已经有人提出质疑;在决策方面,新潮流系对党内路线、决策、人事安排、夺取政权等都有相当大的影响,但在某些重大问题上无法对陈水扁产生牵制作用,影响力正在下降,而且目前正在受到其他派系的围攻,处于相当孤立的境地;在政治动员方面,由于脱离了劳工群众,影响力有相当大的衰退。总之,新潮流对当前台湾当局和台湾社会具有一定的政治影响力,但也受到很大的限制,不宜估计过高。“台独”理念是制约新潮流系政治影响力发展的“瓶颈”。     

Toward general principles of managerial fairness

The present study identified the principles employees use for judging a broad range of managerial actions. A cross-sectional sample of 44 executives were asked to describe recent fair and unfair treatment in seven areas of management responsibility: planning, staff development, delegating, motivating, coordinating, daily activities, and representing the organization to the public. These responses were coded to yield 16 rules guiding judgments about perceived managerial fairness. Aggregation of these rules yielded six major clusters of fairness concerns. The paper describes these clusters in detail and highlights their potential usefulness to a broader understanding of the complex nature of procedural fairness judgments in organizations.     

公安机关民警录用考试成绩与工作岗位分派关系模型

在入警录用考试中 ,考试成绩往往仅被当作一种资格的决定指标 ,其功用并未得到完全发挥。通过考试科目的设定、考试成绩的分析来了解每个人的特点 ,应成为人事部门的研究课题之一。工作岗位分派模型的基本思路是 :根据运筹学中的“匈牙利法”原理 ,设计出计算机辅助决策程序 ,通过对待分配人员各项能力的考察 ,并与工作岗位的能力要求相比较 ,在综合评价的基础上依据个人特长获得人员的最佳分配方案模型。     

Accuracy of comparison decisions by forensic firearms examiners

This black box study assessed the performance of forensic firearms examiners in the United States. It involved three different types of firearms and 173 volunteers who performed a total of 8640 comparisons of both bullets and cartridge cases. The overall false-positive error rate was estimated as 0.656% and 0.933% for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively, while the rate of false negatives was estimated as 2.87% and 1.87% for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively. The majority of errors were made by a limited number of examiners. Because chi-square tests of independence strongly suggest that error probabilities are not the same for each examiner, these are maximum-likelihood estimates based on the beta-binomial probability model and do not depend on an assumption of equal examiner-specific error rates. Corresponding 95% confidence intervals are (0.305%, 1.42%) and (0.548%, 1.57%) for false positives for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively, and (1.89%, 4.26%) and (1.16%, 2.99%) for false negatives for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively. The results of this study are consistent with prior studies, despite its comprehensive design and challenging specimens.