The purpose of this article is to present the latest Heidrick and Struggles (H&S) corporate governance report, Towards Dynamic Governance 2014. H&S have been monitoring the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to present the latest Heidrick and Struggles (H&S) corporate governance report, Towards Dynamic Governance 2014. H&S have been monitoring the behaviour and habits of European boards for the past 15 years. Every two years they publish their European corporate governance report.
Design/methodology/approach
H&S scrutinise the composition of boards in terms of gender, nationality and age; examine their tenure and the regularity of their meetings, and question how collective decisions are made. Using both quantitative and qualitative data collection, they canvass the opinions of board members drawn from the top listed companies of 15 European markets, formulating a unique and shifting bird’s eye view.
Findings
H&S latest corporate governance report, Towards Dynamic Governance 2014, was published in March this year. There is no doubt, if we cast our eyes back to 1999, when the first report was prepared, that there have been notable improvements. The commitment, diversity and flexibility of boards is on the up. Sixty-eight per cent of boards in The Netherlands continue to combine the roles of the chief executive officer and Chair, and 40 per cent of boards in Poland still include no female directors, but the overall trend revealed by the data is positive.
Originality/value
This is a brand new study made up of both quantitative and qualitative data. The report compares the behaviour and progress of different countries but perhaps even more revealing are the conversations with board directors and executive teams conducted as part of the report’s board effectiveness survey. These inputs enable H&S to tell a more nuanced story and to draw conclusions about the ideal future for European boards.
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Aims to discuss incentive schemes within sales management circles and illustrates effects on sales staff. Believes that there is a belief among writers that the ‘carrot and stick’…
Abstract
Aims to discuss incentive schemes within sales management circles and illustrates effects on sales staff. Believes that there is a belief among writers that the ‘carrot and stick’ method prevails within the selling/marketing fraternity, but purports to show that sales people are motivated by the anticipated satisfaction that comes with performance, rather than by performance itself, stating that self‐esteem has a direct effect on performance. States that three main areas bear on the incentive system: monetary incentives affect goal setting; lower goals allow rewards to be obtained easier so resulting in lower performance; personalized income may be increased if budgeted individuals set own goals. Proposes in summation that middle‐term sales disciplines should be quantified and assessed by means of a merit‐based appraisal scheme. Concludes that it is naive to assume that incentives motivate sales people to perform more effectively and that sales managers have the power of improved motivation in their hands.
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The purpose of this paper is to supply insights into talent management (TM) in Russia in the light of Soviet experience and the contemporary officially sanctioned…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to supply insights into talent management (TM) in Russia in the light of Soviet experience and the contemporary officially sanctioned business‐antagonistic political culture.
Design/methodology/approach
A diachronic approach, whereby a key dictum of Karl Marx which underlays Soviet thinking and methods is contextualized and applied to post‐communist Russia, and TM practice in Russian firms and foreign firms in Russia is contrasted.
Findings
A key finding is that there is seemingly greater value placed on Russian employees' talents by foreign companies. Six influential factors are identified which give Russian‐style TM a dysfunctional character: Russia's default position (i.e. instinctive gravitation to authoritarian rule), mistrust of institutions, entrenched “bossdom”, persistence of “Soviet mental software”, negative selection, and limited tradition of empowerment.
Research limitations/implications
The paper highlights needs for: comparative empirical studies, contrasting Russian firms' and foreign firms' understanding and application of TM; investigation into the relationship of Russian‐style TM and career progression in Russian companies; and studies into contrasting ways of transferring TM concepts and practices by Western firms.
Practical implications
Foreign firms must be prepared to engage with Russia's prevailing officially sanctioned business‐antagonistic, occasionally xenophobic political culture.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates how engagement with contemporary Russia for management research purposes requires a deep appreciation of the Soviet period and the complexities of its legacy and judicious use of Russian‐language material adds credibility.
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The user-centered approach to understanding information use and users has shaped research in library and information science (LIS). In a user-centered environment, catalogers are…
Abstract
The user-centered approach to understanding information use and users has shaped research in library and information science (LIS). In a user-centered environment, catalogers are told to focus on users and adapt standards to meet users’ needs while following standards in order to be efficient in their jobs. This study describes three academic cataloging units as they negotiate both the demands to follow and adapt these standards to meet users’ needs. New institutional theory served as a framework for the study. The results suggest that standards and users are pressures that cataloging units negotiate in their jobs, along with demands for work efficiency and professional legitimacy. While negotiating these pressures, catalogers and cataloging units redefine their work jurisdiction and maintain legitimacy to remain relevant in a complex work environment. Understanding how catalogers negotiate the normative institutional pressures of standards and users leads to an understanding of the complex nature of work in areas that deal with issues of standards and users, shows how an area within a profession maintains legitimacy when the profession no longer values that work, and, finally, shows the limits of the user-centered focus in LIS practice.
Steven T. Croney and Brian H. Kleiner
Although sexual behaviour in the workplace is not a recent phenomenon, only within the past ten years have companies began to understand the implications of sexual harassment in…
Abstract
Although sexual behaviour in the workplace is not a recent phenomenon, only within the past ten years have companies began to understand the implications of sexual harassment in the corporate environment. In a 1988 study, Working Woman magazine stated that 90 per cent of Fortune 500 companies had received sexual harassment complaints; and these sexual harassment problems cost the average Fortune 500 company approximately $6.7 million per year in legal costs, employee absenteeism, turnover and lack of production [4, p. 67].
In many Third World countries tourism is an economic activity the importance of which can hardly be ignored 1). Thus it is obvious that the governments of those countries, besides…
Abstract
In many Third World countries tourism is an economic activity the importance of which can hardly be ignored 1). Thus it is obvious that the governments of those countries, besides paying attention to the usual sectors such as agriculture, industry, mining, transport and communication, public health and hygiene and education, should also engage in sectoral programs with regard to tourism. Since “a sector comprises, for the most part, the producing or operating units in the economy that share a common function or output” 2), tourism lays claim to a sectoral approach. In tourism there clearly exists a common function of activities, comprising both Services and production of goods ‐Pertot speaks of a mixed commodity‐service exchange 3) — for the sake of the tourist. The separate activities together constitute the compound tourist product.
Dean Tjosvold, Lindsay Meredith and R. Michael Wellwood
Addresses the problem of implementing relationship marketingsystems. Uses LISREL to analyze how co‐operative, competitive andindependent goals affect the ability of a firm′s…
Abstract
Addresses the problem of implementing relationship marketing systems. Uses LISREL to analyze how co‐operative, competitive and independent goals affect the ability of a firm′s personnel to work together in serving customers. Results indicate that goal interdependence affects employee perceptions of the quality of service they deliver.
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The Seminar on Library Interior Layout and Design organised by IFLA's Section on Library Buildings and Equipment, and attended by people from over twenty‐two countries, was held…
Abstract
The Seminar on Library Interior Layout and Design organised by IFLA's Section on Library Buildings and Equipment, and attended by people from over twenty‐two countries, was held at Frederiksdal, Denmark, in June 1980. This present article neither reports on the Seminar's proceedings, as it is hoped to publish the papers in due course, nor describes fully the Danish public libraries seen, but rather uses the Seminar's theme and the library visits as a point of departure for considering some aspects of the interior layout—the landscape—of public libraries. Brief details of the new Danish public libraries visited are given in a table at the end of the article.
Michael W Preis, Salvatore F Divita and Amy K Smith
Missing in most of the research on selling has been an examination of the process from the point of view of the customer. When satisfaction in selling has been considered…
Abstract
Missing in most of the research on selling has been an examination of the process from the point of view of the customer. When satisfaction in selling has been considered, researchers have focused on the satisfaction of the salesperson with his job and/or the impact of this job satisfaction on performance (e.g. Bluen, Barling & Burns, 1990; Churchill, Ford & Walker, 1979; Pruden & Peterson, 1971). To concentrate on salesperson performance while neglecting customers is to ignore the most important half of the relationship between buyers and sellers and entirely disregards the marketing concept and the streams of research in customer satisfaction. This research takes a different approach and examines customers’ satisfaction with salespeople.
David B. Reynolds and Brian H. Kleiner
Professor Anita Hill's testimony in October of 1991 at the Senate confirmation hearings for then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas brought more attention to the issue of…
Abstract
Professor Anita Hill's testimony in October of 1991 at the Senate confirmation hearings for then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas brought more attention to the issue of sexual harassment than in any other year since the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published its definitional guidelines in 1980. Recent events such as the Navy's Tailhook incident and current sexual harassment claims filed against several U.S. Congressmen have heightened awareness of the magnitude of the sexual harassment problem.