That a Maori problem existed in the North Island in the 1850�s and 1860�s, the inhabitants, both Maori and Pakeha agreed, but beyond that point there was very little agreement. What was the nature of the problem? Definitions were conflicting. Most Maoris saw the problem as one of survival, political and cultural, in their encounter with a foreign civilization determined upon their subjugation. They looked to the King Movement to prevent the European takeover which they apprehended would destroy their, independence and way of life. To the average colonist, on the other hand, the problem represented the Maoris themselves: their very existence in the country which he had come to settle; their claimed ownership of the land which he wanted to farm; their inconvenient (to him) system of land tenure, which rendered purchase difficult; their ignorance and disregard of the laws and customs which governed his society. The solution, in his view, was to detribalize the Maoris, make them obedient to his rule, and individualize or partition their communally owned land in order to facilitate his gaining possession of it. He desired colonial control of native affairs so that such a policy might be put into effect, but was unwilling to assume full responsibility lest Britain should leave the colony to bear the entire burden of its own defence against the potentially hostile tribes. The Ministers of the Imperial Government were concerned with yet other aspects of the same problem - observing the Treaty of Waitangi and protecting the Queen�s Maori subjects from injustice without obstructing the progress of colonization; keeping the peace between two cultural groups whose interests were often antagonistic; upholding British law and sovereignty. A difficult enough task, but one rendered still more difficult by the growing reluctance of the British taxpayer to foot the bill. Finally, the Governor, the man who had to find some way to resolve these conflicting aims and desires, faced his own particular dilemmas. How much responsibility should he accept for native affairs? How much control should he allow the Colonial Ministry to arrogate to itself. What interpretation should he place on the Treaty of Waitangi with respect to the rights of chiefs and the sovereignty of the Queen? By what means could he "civilize" the Maoris and bring about their assimilation into colonial society? Should he impose or persuade, legislate, educate, or conquer by force of arms? How was he to obtain the finance and power necessary to carry out any policy successfully? This thesis is an attempt to survey the many facets of a cultural and political relationship under stress and to examine, explain and comment upon the plans and attempts of various groups and individual leaders to adjust that relationship to coincide with their own conception of what was necessary and right -- Preface.

This dissertation examines changes that companies made in order to obtain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and the role that provincial governments have played in the implementation of this emerging market-based form of governance. It analyzes the indirect roles that governments have played in either encouraging or inhibiting the adoption of certification through their policies, as well as the direct roles played in response to particular certification attempts that occurred on public land. Through the use of case studies of individual operations in each province, the interaction between state and non-state authority is explored, as well as the role that forest tenure played in each operation’s ability to obtain certification. The results reveal that the changes required to obtain certification were substantial but associated with only a small subset of the FSC’s Principles and Criteria, heavily weighted towards environmental issues. While corrective action requests are issued to the company pursuing certification, the results show that non-exclusive tenure limits a company’s ability to respond to these requests without the cooperation of the provincial government and resource users with overlapping tenure rights. However, limited duration of forest tenure does not preclude certification, and for the most part, provincial governments are found to play important facilitative roles in certification, both through their policies and regulations, and as providers of information and technical support. Further, the majority of the corrective actions were not required to be implemented prior to certification being awarded, but within the five year term of the certificate. This appears to have acted as a flexibility mechanism, allowing the certification system to secure the participation of companies in the short term, with the hope of leveraging greater change in the long term from the company, the government in question, and other resource users with overlapping tenure rights.

This study identifies potential changes within the current tenure system to better accommodate Aboriginal values. Aboriginal expectations for sustainable forest management were identified using structured conceptual content cognitive mapping. A structured survey of industry, government and First Nations participants was then used to identify Aboriginal expectations that are poorly met through the current tenure system and establish which attributes of tenure could be modified in order to meet these expectations. Perception gaps existed between the Kaska and government/industry about the ability of current forest management institutions to meet Aboriginal expectations. Some of the expectations were met in part by tenure but when tenure failed or couldn’t meet expectations, other institutions were often in place to meet them. However, some expectations could neither be met through institutions nor modifications to existing tenures and so recommendations were made for the creation of an Aboriginal tenure as a means of addressing these issues.

This study identifies potential changes within the current tenure system to better accommodate Aboriginal values. Aboriginal expectations for sustainable forest management were identified using structured conceptual content cognitive mapping. A structured survey of industry, government and First Nations participants was then used to identify Aboriginal expectations that are poorly met through the current tenure system and establish which attributes of tenure could be modified in order to meet these expectations. Perception gaps existed between the Kaska and government/industry about the ability of current forest management institutions to meet Aboriginal expectations. Some of the expectations were met in part by tenure but when tenure failed or couldn’t meet expectations, other institutions were often in place to meet them. However, some expectations could neither be met through institutions nor modifications to existing tenures and so recommendations were made for the creation of an Aboriginal tenure as a means of addressing these issues.

This dissertation examines changes that companies made in order to obtain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and the role that provincial governments have played in the implementation of this emerging market-based form of governance. It analyzes the indirect roles that governments have played in either encouraging or inhibiting the adoption of certification through their policies, as well as the direct roles played in response to particular certification attempts that occurred on public land. Through the use of case studies of individual operations in each province, the interaction between state and non-state authority is explored, as well as the role that forest tenure played in each operation’s ability to obtain certification. The results reveal that the changes required to obtain certification were substantial but associated with only a small subset of the FSC’s Principles and Criteria, heavily weighted towards environmental issues. While corrective action requests are issued to the company pursuing certification, the results show that non-exclusive tenure limits a company’s ability to respond to these requests without the cooperation of the provincial government and resource users with overlapping tenure rights. However, limited duration of forest tenure does not preclude certification, and for the most part, provincial governments are found to play important facilitative roles in certification, both through their policies and regulations, and as providers of information and technical support. Further, the majority of the corrective actions were not required to be implemented prior to certification being awarded, but within the five year term of the certificate. This appears to have acted as a flexibility mechanism, allowing the certification system to secure the participation of companies in the short term, with the hope of leveraging greater change in the long term from the company, the government in question, and other resource users with overlapping tenure rights.

Accounting regulators are concerned about the potential threat of long-term auditor-client relationships on auditor independence, leading to lower audit quality. The main objective of this study is to examine the association between auditor tenure and an important feature of accounting, namely conservatism. Following Basu (1997) and Ball, Kothari and Robin (2000), I define conservatism as the quicker recognition in earnings of bad news about expected future cash flows. I investigate whether long-term auditor-client relationships are associated with less timely recognition of earnings to bad news, and a lower rate of reversal of negative earnings changes. The overall results strongly show that conservatism decreases as auditor tenure lengthens. The results are robust across various measures of conservatism and a series of sensitivity tests. However, auditors¡¯ litigation exposure appears to be able to mitigate the adverse impact of auditor tenure. In additional tests, I find that the reduced conservatism is not driven by the larger clients that auditors have incentives to retain. Moreover, I find that even industry specialists could not avoid the negative impact of longer auditor-client relationships on conservatism. The study provides some support to the regulators who are concerned about the potential negative impact of auditor tenure on audit quality and the rule of mandatory audit firm rotation.

The purpose of this study is to reveal, through the use of case study methodology, how faculty collaboration may foster the development of intellectual capital and how organizational reward systems mediate this process. Collaboration has been chosen as the unit of analysis due to the collaborative nature of innovation. Innovation often produces a sustainable competitive advantage for organizations. The key in leveraging organizations' innovative capacity is through the development of intellectual capital. Human resource development is a viable method of fostering organizational resources such as intellectual capital. Due to economic, political, and organizational constraints upon traditional human resource development activities, intellectual capital may be best fostered via non-traditional methods. Organizational reward systems, as in the case of performance-based tenure and promotion, have been shown to both promote and hinder collaborative activities. A qualitative case study approach has been chosen due to contextual factors influencing collaboration. Semi-structured interviews, document and archival analysis served as the primary means of data collection. Faculty collaboration occurring at a large Texas university was examined via three main data sources: the college-level strategic plan, network analysis of interdepartmental collaboration, and targeted, semi-structured interviews. Data analysis revealed collaboration at the university often occurs via relationships, networks, and is fostered via resource allocation. Tenure and promotion as well as available resources seem to have a mediating effect on the decisions faculty made relating to research collaborations. Data supported the theoretical variables derived from the Theory of the Learning Organization. Recommendations for fostering collaboration center upon administering rewards in close proximity of collaboration behaviors. Further research must be performed to better understand the outcomes of successful collaboration as well as the different context in which fostering collaboration may be beneficial to organizational outcomes.

Prior studies that examine audit quality and earnings management mostly separate discretionary accruals from total accruals and use discretionary accruals (or absolute value of discretionary accruals) to measure the magnitude of earnings management. Although most of those studies find audit quality is able to restrain the degree of earnings manipulation, few evaluate whether audit quality is capable of reducing the information risk faced by investors. Compared to discretionary accruals, accruals quality measured by the extent to which current accruals map into operating cash flow realization is more directly related to information risk. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between audit quality and information risk faced by investors, using accruals quality to proxy for information risk and adopting auditor brand name, audit-firm tenure, CPA tenure and auditor industry specialization as measures of audit quality. The study hypothesizes that auditor brand name, audit-firm tenure, CPA tenure and auditor industry specialization will contribute positively to reduce information risk faced by investors. The empirical results indicate (1) higher quality auditors (Big 4 auditors) are able to lower the information risk faced by investors, (2) the longer the audit-firm tenure, the lower the information risk faced by investors, (3) clients of industry specialist auditors have lower information risk than clients of non-specialist auditors, and (4) the relationship between audit-partner tenure and information risk is yet insignificant. Finally, the results further show that the divergence between control rights and cash flow rights will weaken the negative relationship between auditor brand name and information risk as well as the negative relationship between audit-firm tenure and information risk. However, it does not affect the negative relationship between auditor industry specialization and information risk; it may be because the industry specialist auditors can better resist the pressure from the controlling shareholders that can help alleviate the information risk faced by investors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 302-327). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-218). Also available on the Internet.