As firms diversify geographically and demographically, top management must also increase its reliance on properly designed management control systems to facilitate the implementation of the organizations' strategies, and align managers' personal goals with those of the organizations they manage. As a firm's management group diversifies, its management control systems may lose effectiveness if they are not reengineered to reflect the cultural diversity of the target management population. Gannon summarizes and embellishes on three influential studies comparing cultures across dimensions, and employs all of the dimensions, in addition to several others, to craft metaphors that illustrate cultural differences among 17 countries. Utilizes Gannon's metaphors to explore the cultural dimensions and contrast the related management control system design implications for the USA, Japan, China, Germany, Italy, and India. First, provides a framework and purpose for management control systems. Next, explores the elements of management control systems that might be particularly sensitive to cultural diversity. Then, compares and contrasts potential MCS design issues related to these elements across cultures. Finally, proposes directions for research addressing management control systems and cultural differences.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis report, prepared for the Office of Safeguards and Security of the Department of Energy, addresses safeguards issues relevant to materials accountancy and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verification activities at a modern mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility under IAEA safeguards. This work is an extension of an earlier study done by the Safeguards Systems Group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory during FY'85 under the sponsorship of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The earlier study was limited to identifying key elements of IAEA safeguards at a modern MOX fuel fabrication facility that could detect abrupt diversions. The present work addresses several issues of primary importance to materials accountancy and IAEA verification of the operator's materials balances and physical inventories.This MOX fuel fabrication plant is a bulk-handling facility where large quantities of plutonium are handled in chemical forms that are easily separated and converted into materials directly useful for nuclear explosives. Several IAEA member states are adopting state-of-the-art fuel-cycle technologies in newly constructed MOX fuel fabrication facilities. The facility design considered here is intended to enhance safeguards effectiveness at such a facility; it incorporates new technologies, remote/automated process operations, and features to augment near-real-time materials accountancy. This reference facility is a large-throughput plant (2.2 Mt Pu/yr) with extensive storage facilities for both feed materials and products. The two process lines at the plant can produce fuel assemblies for both fast breeder reactors (FBRs) and advanced thermal light-water reactors (ATRs).In this report, a detailed process design is presented, along with the analysis results of materials accountancy based on both abrupt and protracted diversion scenarios. Appendixes A through D discuss assumptions and methods used in our analyses. In addition, we present sampling plans for IAEA attributes/variables verification and calculations of a /K/{TTp*_r\y wnere MUF is an incomplete MUF (materials unaccounted for), and of corresponding detection probabilities for specified material-loss scenarios and two IAEA resource allocations. Although generic aspects of (MUF-D) have been discussed in the literature, to our knowledge no detailed simulation illustrating (MUF-D) behavior (as described in Appendix D) has been undertaken.A detailed analysis of the detection sensitivity of materials accountancy was conducted; the variance contributions for the operator's monthly materials balance closings at the process materials balance area (MBA) have a standard! deviation of l.*^6 kg of plutonium, which represent about 0.8% of the throughput or about 0.2% of the plutonium inventory during steady-state operation. Current practices at some fuel fabrication facilities, where the facility operators use results of high-quality chemical analyses of fuel pellets in accounting for fuel pins and fuel assemblies, would show a mor...

Like many companies that have experienced enormous domestic success but then stumbled when attempting to enter international markets, Japan is finding that the international scene presents a significantly different set of challenges from those encountered and surmounted domestically. Those skills and attributes that brought Japan domestic success do not easily translate into global success. Moreover, the country is faced with a serious economic downturn and a population entrenched in an outdated “social democracy expectations set”, including lingering lifetime employment expectations and government protection from “normal” business and credit risk. The speed at which Japan can reinvent itself and address its current economic and social issues is akin to a “time‐to‐market” crisis. Lost time translates to a major loss of international market share, making recovery increasingly difficult as time passes.

This instructional case describes an embezzlement committed by the former executive director of a Southeast Idaho nonprofit organization, New Day Products. The case, based on an organization that helps people with disabilities, provides a rich context for students to learn about the important roles and responsibilities of nonprofit organizations’ boards of directors. Highlighting the challenges faced by nonprofit boards of directors, the case asks students to consider how New Day Products’ board of directors’ governance decisions, including its choice of financial statement reviews rather than audits, increased the executive director’s opportunities to commit fraud.