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The question of whether leadership is teachable has received considerable attention in the academic and practitioner arenas. Organized athletic team participation offers students a different experiential venue that many argue develops leadership. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between organized sports team participation and leadership skills. We employ a valid means of measuring several leadership dimensions using a validated assessment center method. Nine distinct leadership skill levels were measured for 141 MBA program students. Using ANOVA and correlation analysis we found no systematic association between the number of seasons of sports team participation and the level of any particular leadership skill. The findings caution recruiters and other persons making personnel decisions against using this past behavior as an indicator of these or any other leadership skills. By showing a preference for athletes, recruiters may bypass persons who would be a good fit for a position.

In the mainstream international business literature on multinational corporations (MNCs), an authoritative central headquarter (HQ) that transfers standardised practices to its subsidiaries remains the norm. This study aims to explore how MNCs coordinate their management practices through principles.

The paper draws on empirical findings from a qualitative in-depth single case study based on evidence-rich qualitative data including observations from how a high-tech MNC headquartered in Sweden coordinates its development practices.

An alternative informal coordination approach (i.e. coordination by principles) is identified. Additionally, antecedents and implications of the approach are presented.

Coordination by Principles may facilitate the internalisation of practices and be a feasible compromise between context adaptation and traditional standardisation, particularly for MNCs with highly heterogeneous research and development operations.

This paper highlights the importance of acknowledging that firm practices often are based on management ideas that HQs adopt to prevent loss of legitimacy. As such, this study contributes to the scarce literature that critically questions the assumption that HQs solely transfer practices to subsidiaries to improve subsidiary efficiency and performance.