The Impact of Authentic, Ethical, Transformational Leadership on Leader Effectiveness

Authentic, ethical and transformational leadership in 21st century business leaders is needed. This research posits that ethical, authentic and transformational leaders are more effective, that there are incremental improvements in a leader’s effectiveness for each of these leadership qualities, and that transformational leadership moderates the impact of the leader’s authentic and ethical leadership on the leader’s outcomes. Analysis shows that authentic, ethical and transformational leadership behaviors make incremental independent contributions to explain leader effectiveness. The study did not find support for transformational leadership as a moderator of the relationships between authentic and ethical leadership behaviors and a leader’s effectiveness

Benefits, Limitations and Best Practices of Online Coursework…Should Accounting Programs Jump on Board?

The evolution of online teaching has evolved as quickly and vivaciously as the adoption of the World Wide Web. While there were and are skeptics, research shows that not only is online learning more convenient and makes educational available anytime and anywhere, it has the potential, in some cases, to be an improved tool for educating. To ensure maximized learning outcomes, and to experience the blessing and not the curse of online coursework, it is critical that universities embrace it wholeheartedly and follow online pedagogical best practices in developing and executing online courses. In addition, there are some courses where special forethought should be made to ensure online learning is effective. Courses that are more computational necessitate this consideration. This document serves to provide strategies and best practices on how to obtain excellence and maximized outcomes from online education. It examines research to date and outlines: the benefits and challenges of online learning, strategies and best practices for online educating, and considerations for online accounting coursework

A Research Framework for Measuring Multiple Bottom Lines

This paper presents a proposed framework for measuring multiple bottom lines (MBLs). MBL is a term that describes a company’s desire to not only measure its financial bottom line, but additionally create measures for important, non-financial initiatives and outcomes. The MBL concept evolved as corporate citizenship advocates argued that simply measuring a entity’s bottom line to determine whether the company was successful was not sufficient. Corporate Social Responsibility advocates argued that to truly measure a company’s achievements, the full impact of their efforts on society and the environment also needed to be computed. It was argued that each area of measurement, financial, social and environmental, was equally as important and should have its own bottom line calculation to assess the firm’s progress in that area during the evaluation period. While extensive research and study has occurred on the concept of MBL, theories on how to report and measure MBLs is still evolutionary and inconclusive. In an effort to bridge the gap in the literature and research, this study has developed this research framework for measuring MBLs. This research: (a) defines a bottom line and MBL, (b) provides background on the MBL theory, (c) outlines existing research and literature, (d) identifies unanswered and underdeveloped research questions, (e) proposes measurement methods for MBLs, (f) addresses how to handle multiple dimensions across companies and over time, (g) develops a conceptual/theoretical framework and an empirical framework for how theories can be tested and (h) concludes with an application of how this research may impact 21st century businesses

The Emerging Significance of Values Based Leadership: A Literature Review

The emergence of the 21st century was plagued with extensive, evasive and disheartening leadership failures. Moral and ethical deficiencies were prevalent in many charismatic, dynamic and seemingly transformational leaders that had risen to prominence in both the public and private sectors. In response, leadership and management theorists began to place a renewed emphasis on the importance of ethics and morality in exemplary leaders, and a plethora of values based leadership (VBL) theories emerged. VBL behaviors are styles that have a moral, authentic and ethical dimension. This study examines the prevailing literature and research on the various constructs rooted in VBL. It identifies three constructs: (a) authentic (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005; George, 2003; Luthans & Avolio, 2003), (b) ethical (Brown et al., 2005), and transformational leadership (Bass, 1985; Bass, 1990; Bass & Avolio, 1990; Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999) that are considered the most emphasized behaviors in the VBL literature and examines the literature streams and progression of research for each of these VBL theories. The study identifies literature that supports that when these VBL behaviors are found in leaders, the leaders are evaluated as more effective by subordinates. The purpose is to provide a summary of the seminal VBL literature to date and provide recommendations for future research and study

Assessing and Measuring Financial and Accounting Consulting Success: A Case Study Providing a Proposed Assessment Methodology

Executive Summary: The technology explosion coupled with global expansion, intensified competition and a volatile economy has challenged many service organizations to consider cost-effective ways to distinguish themselves from their competition. Research and empirical evidence has suggested that delivering outstanding, client-focused service is a successful differentiating strategy that has a high probability of improving the company’s bottom line. Measuring and improving service quality is a challenge for most organizations. Research on measuring service quality outlines that companies should seek to understand their customers’ expectations and then work to meet or exceed them. This analysis reviews the service quality of ABC Consulting, a financial, accounting and AIS consulting firm. The goal is to identify the areas where there is a gap between customer’s expectations for service quality and the perceived level of service that is being received. The review includes an audit of the company using the SERVQUAL measurement for evaluating customers’ expectations, perceptions and the discrepancies between the two. The purpose of the audit is to identify the problematic service delivery areas and provide recommendations on how ABC may improve their service quality and overall level of customer satisfaction. The contribution that this case study makes is to provide a tool and methodology that can be used by other public accounting or financial consulting service firms in assessing and improving their service quality, which would result in higher profitability and long term outcomes for firms undergoing this assessment

Improving Organizational Financial Outcomes through Flexible Leadership

The importance of both managing and leading is not a new concept. What is lacking is how each is interrelated, what components of each are critical and what combination of leadership and management skills can lead to improved leader effectiveness and organizational financial performance. The Flexible Leadership Theory (FLT) posits that key executives that are flexible leaders are: (a) more effective leaders and (b) able to strategically lead their organizations to achieve greater financial outcomes (Yukl, 2005, 2008). To date, a measurement tool to assess a leader’s propensity to be a flexible leader has not been developed and validated. This paper develops a proposed measurement instrument, the flexible leadership survey (FLS) that assesses flexible leadership and its contribution to improved organizational financial performance