Us Knows Us in the UK: On Director Networks and CEO Compensation

We analyze the relation between CEO compensation and networks of executive and non-executive directors for all listed UK companies over the period 1996-2007. We examine whether networks are built for reasons of information gathering or for the accumulation of managerial influence. Both indirect networks (enabling directors to collect information) and direct networks (leading to more managerial influence) enable the CEO to obtain higher compensation. Direct networks can harm the efficiency of the remuneration contracting in the sense that the performance sensitivity of compensation is then lower. We find that in companies with strong networks and hence busy boards the directors’ monitoring effectiveness is reduced which leads to higher and less performance-sensitive CEO compensation. Our results suggest that it is important to have the ‘right’ type of network: some networks enable a firm to access valuable information whereas others can lead to strong managerial influence that may come at the detriment of the firm and its shareholders. We confirm that there are marked conflicts of interest when a CEO increases his influence by being a member of board committees (such as the remuneration committee) as we observe that his or her compensation is then significantly higher. We also find that hiring remuneration consultants with sizeable client networks also leads to higher CEO compensation especially for larger firms.Executive remuneration;Professional and social networks;Corporate governance;Managerial Power;Remuneration consultants

Custom-built environments for Communities of Online Informal Learning: an exploratory study of tools, structures, and strategies

This qualitative, exploratory study grouped together and explored custom-built environments for communities of online informal learning (COILs) with a special lens on the socio-technical relationship of platform tools, structures, and strategies that lead to social learning. The study was conducted through a three-phase process. First, a list of possible candidate sites was analyzed for appropriate fit based on the defining terms of a custom-built COIL environment. Second, an observational content analysis was implemented on 10 of the sites to aggregate a list of the tools, structures, and strategies used in the sites. Lastly, the same 10 sites and the lists of tools, structures, and strategies were researched through both pre-established codes for sociability, usability, and community-building designs and an open exploratory observation of their uses with a focus on the way these features support COILs. Social learning and informal learning were also purposefully scrutinized while themes regarding personalized learning and sustainability also emerged from the exploration. All design themes were found represented within the sites, as were social learning, informal learning, personalized learning, and efforts toward sustainability

A Most Secret Service: William Herle and the Circulation of Intelligence

This essay examines the letters of the Elizabethan intelligencer William Herle during a period of intelligence-gathering in the Low Countries in 1582. Writing to his patrons Lord Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham, Herle’s letters offer a rich landscape of detail and information. Yet these are not simply ‘administrative’ letters devoid of emotive expression, but display epistolary structures designed to maintain patronage, and attempting to recreate the distance between correspondent and recipient. While Herle was in Antwerp, there was an assassination attempt against William of Orange. Herle was keen to convey ‘breaking news’ as quickly as possible, and bridge the geographical distance between the English court and Delft, where the attempt occurred. In anticipation of pitfalls in postage, and to ensure that each of his recipients received the same intelligence at the same time, Herle increasingly opted to send ‘verbatim’ letters: duplicate copies of important correspondence. Letter-writers could also employ diverse methods to avoid interception and perusal, such as ciphers and the accompaniment of bearers. In this way, the letter might travel unnoticed, or under protection. These ideas of envoys and letters disseminating through porous membranes, ideally, but not necessarily, authorised and endorsed by the authorities are tantalising. I explore this transmission and translation, and attempt to determine through his letters the relationship between Herle and his correspondents; writing from a location without, reinforcing his liminal status as both spy and informant, decentralized yet essential to the English political landscape

Critical Success Factors for Innovative Performance of Individuals - A Case Study of Scania

The competitive corporate environment of today, as marked by continuous changes and enhanced global competition, forces companies to constantly adapt their current business activities and increasingly excel. Innovation is considered a critical imperative in order to respond to these increased competitive threats. Hence, innovation ought to permeate corporate environments and their inherent business activities. Recent global studies indicate that innovation is considered particularly vital within the highly competitive automotive industry; 93 percent of its senior executives rank innovation as critical to long-term corporate success. Companies thus must embrace innovation through the consequent incorporation of levers for enhanced innovative performance throughout organisational settings and adherent contexts. The critical importance of particularly innovative individuals has been elucidated in recent studies. Therein, particularly innovative individuals have been identified as the single most critical element of innovative success of companies. To scrutinise the underlying critical success factors for the significant innovative performance of these particularly innovative individuals can thus be considered a key to long-term corporate innovative success and according also to corporate survival. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis project was to identify critical success factors for innovative performance of individuals within Scania specifically. Hence, this master thesis project aimed at increasing the corporate understanding therein. Method: Throughout this master thesis project, a system approach with a qualitative grip was applied, in order to capture complex interlinks and interdependencies. An explorative case study with focus on internal top innovators was conducted at Scania. It was preceded by exhaustive desk studies along with a quantitative survey of Scania‟s internal patent III database, which selected the survey units to include in the case study. As a key performance indicator of innovative performance, the number of registered invention submissions during the years of 2009, 2010 and 2011 was applied. Interviews, previous research and literature studies were the main data gathering techniques used. Semi-structured interviews with the selected top innovators provided qualitative primary data and constituted the major source of empirical data. Previous research provided exhaustive quantitative secondary data through register data from Scania‟s internal patent database, along with company-specific information. Literature studies provided foremost qualitative secondary data to the initial desk studies. Conclusions: The authors present six different critical success factors for innovative performance of individuals within Scania; motivation, creativity, innovative features, assignment, time for innovation and collaboration. Motivation must be in place through the presence of foremost intrinsic motivation but also extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivators must be present within all individuals. Moreover, extrinsic motivators, especially synergistic ones, must be in place throughout the organisation of Scania. Creativity must be in place within individuals through the presence of all its three components; i.e. creativity skills, task motivation and expertise. Yet, creativity skills were identified as the most critical component of creativity. Expertise was identified as the least critical component of creativity, as it can be compensated for through various external means. Innovative features must be present within individuals through three subcategories that were identified by the authors. These are personal traits, practical approach and intellectual skills. No single innovative feature was distinguished as utterly critical. Yet, individuals must possess innovative features of all three identified subcategories and preferably be particularly strong in at least one innovative feature of each subcategory. Assignment entails assigned general work field and inherent work tasks. Work field was identified to determine the general degree of innovation potential and hence is indirectly critical. Work tasks were identified as utterly critical, through their entailed degree of radical novelty, exposure to novel technologies and offered overall exploration potential. Particularly notably; assignment as a critical success factor for innovative performance was not explicitly articulated throughout the studied theory. Time for innovation must be offered through a certain degree of incorporated organisational slack. Yet, three identified fundamental prerequisites must be in place, in order for it to be favourable; the organisational slack must be balanced, flexible and properly managed. Collaboration is generally important to innovative performance. Yet, it is only critical on condition that some identified fundamental prerequisites are in place within the actual team. The most critical prerequisites of IV favourable collaboration are shared elementary knowledge, clear communication and unified attitudes. Moreover, networks and skunk works were identified as the utmost favourable designs of collaboration. In order to summarise the six identified critical success factors for innovative performance of individuals within Scania, the authors present the MCIATC framework for individual innovative profile, which can be considered an applicable tool in order to support the enhancement of innovative performance throughout the organisation of Scania

Building Bridges: Using the Office Consultation Project to Connect Students to Theory and Practice

The Office Consultation Project is an innovative capstone project that partners graduate students in student affairs preparation programs with academic and student affairs practitioners. It provides an opportunity for students to apply research and scholarship to practical settings, while giving practitioners new insight into their units, additional work support, and expanded professional networks. The project benefits graduate preparation programs by cultivating cross-divisional networking and increasing campus awareness about the student affairs profession that could generate new practicum and assistantship opportunities

Patterns of Ministry of clergy married to clergy in the Church of England

This is the author's manuscript of an article published in Journal of Anglican Studies.This article argues that for good practice, wellbeing and fruitful ministry, decisions by and about clergy married to clergy (CMC) in the Church of England require a clear quantitative picture of their ministry, and offers such a picture in early 2013 drawn primarily from published data, compared with national Church of England statistics. Over 26% more clergy dyads were found than previously thought, with many active in ministry. A wide variety of ministry patterns were identified, including a higher than normal percentage in non-parochial roles, supporting previous research noting high levels of boundary enmeshment and absorptiveness. Considerable gender inequality prevailed in shared parochial settings in spite of women having been ordained priest for nearly 20 years, with very few wives holding more senior positions than their husbands, while female CMC are more likely to be dignitaries than other ordained women

Learning and work: Efficacy of university internships for Syrian and Ugandan education students

Internships and related strategies within the diverse family of Work-Related learning pedagogies are widely credited for bridging the gap between the world of academia and world of work. Situated in a qualitative paradigm, this evidenced-based paper shows opportunities and challenges that define the efficacy dimensions of Syrian and Ugandan university internship models for students of Education

Learning and work: Efficacy of university internships for Syrian and Ugandan education students

Internships and related strategies within the diverse family of Work-Related learning pedagogies are widely credited for bridging the gap between the world of academia and world of work. Situated in a qualitative paradigm, this evidenced-based paper shows opportunities and challenges that define the efficacy dimensions of Syrian and Ugandan university internship models for students of Education