Andrew Kakabadse

Board governance and company performance: any correlations?

There persists the belief that a firm’s only responsibility to society is to maximize profits without breaking the law, hence the role of corporate governance is to provide appropriate corporate control. Research suggests that there is a growing perception that corporations are social entities overall, answerable to social constituencies and that the role of corporate governance is to understand and adequately address the interest of such social and political constituents. A review of research studies in the area of corporate governance’s contribution to corporate performance reveals that there is no conclusive evidence of contribution. Moreover, it illuminates the need for a boarder criteria of performance and for the adoption of a political model of corporate governance in order to facilitate a corporation’s external accountabilities.

Leadership and the public sector: an internationally comparative benchmarking analysis

In this article the concept of leadership is explored. Particular attention is given to examining the dynamics of individual and team leadership, as it is postulated that the impact of top people and top teams is crucial to the running of todays organizations. The results of an extensive survey conducted across the departments of the Civil Service of a European country government will be presented. These results will be benchmarked against the results of a worldwide survey of business leaders, spanning 12 countries and the responses of top managers in National Health Service (HNS) Trusts, UK. Emphasis will be given to the necessity of conducting effective team leadership through high quality dialogue and through cabinet responsibility in order to successfully lead and maintain the organization on its agreed path. Finally, approaches to the development of leadership for those already in top positions and for those entering into such challenging positions, will be discussed.

Current trends in Internet use: E‐communication, E‐information and E‐commerce

Rapid developments in the application and use of the Internet create new opportunities as well as the reformulation of ‘older problems’. This paper reviews current trends in Internet use, realizing that this is a ‘snapshot’ subject to rapid obsolescence. The paper critically canvasses what is on the Internet and focuses upon the broadening opportunities for e-commerce—incorporating e-channels and e-marketing. More importantly, the paper highlights emerging problems of Internet abuse, intrusions into privacy and the need for global management of the Internet at a time of increasing exposure and vulnerability of many stakeholders finding themselves dependent on, or addicted to, the Internet. Copyright

Cases of Official and Unofficial Business Practices: Examples from Australia, Germany, UK, South Africa, Russia and Pakistan

The authors of this chapter illustrate their case study of international corporate bribery and corruption with examples from the six countries identified in the title. Their central argument is the need for discretionary leadership morality.

High-Performing Chairmen: The Older the Better

The field of leadership, both in terms of academic and practitioner contribution, has attracted substantial attention since the beginning of the 20th century. The debate has fluctuated between understanding what capabilities of leadership can transform the status quo versus the recognition that situations restrain leaders’ discretion and despite the qualities and skills of any one person only transactional outcomes are feasible (Kakabadse and Kakabadse, 1999). Further, the study of leadership has not just focused on the upper echelons of the organisation but has also examined the leadership challenges of ensuring operational activities are undertaken in a manner that leverages that extra edge in order to better realise competitive advantage.

CEO/Chairman Role Duality Desire: Resistance to Separation Irrespective of Effect

Pre-19th-century notions of the governance of the enterprise were based on trust, namely that the stewards of the firm could be trusted to make best use of the assets of the organisation on behalf of the owners (Kakabadse and Kakabadse, 2008). At that time, governance processes were informal by nature but that soon changed. The birth of the joint stock corporation was accompanied by the registering of companies and the establishing of rules for corporate conduct, overseen by a body known as the Board. The reason for such stringency was the emergent misalignment between the interests of shareholders and that of the management (Shleifer and Vishay, 1997). In effect, the ‘manager’ agenda was viewed as differing from that of the shareholders (i.e. owners). In order to minimise such differences a number of actions have been taken tying managers’ actions tightly to shareholders’ goals through incentive-based mechanisms such as direct managerial share ownership (Jensen and Meckling, 1976) and the use of a variety of managerial remuneration schemes (Murphy, 1998). These levers have been central to Anglo-American (English) corporate governance practice (Roe, 2003: 1). Thus, the emergent purpose of corporate governance mechanisms has been to bring about greater alignment between owner (i.e. shareholders) and agent (i.e. managers).

Behaving as one

What makes a group of people a team? Groups and teams are not the same thing. We can define a group as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve a particular objective. The individuals concerned interact primarily to share information and to make decisions to help one another perform within each member’s area of responsibility. In this context, the group has no need or opportunity to engage in collective work that requires joint effort. Performance of the group is merely the summation of the group members’ individual contributions. There is no positive synergy that would create an overall level of performance that is greater than the sum of the inputs.

Grace under pressure

So, what has been learned? You must develop leadership capabilities if you are to become a better leader. The most relevant capabilities change from one stage to the next of a team’s development. As such, the capabilities most relevant at one stage may not be at the next. The chapters you have read thus far presented the elements we associate with each stage of a team’s development, and in doing so, clarified the capabilities you must focus on at each stage if you are to become a better leader.

Facing the future

How do you let go and face the future? Many leaders arrive where they are because of their ability to fight and win. Sometimes, however, winning is not enough. The ability for us to let go and face the future is intrinsically bound to our ability to manage ourselves, to know when not to fight or when to pick a different battle. Self-insight enables a manager to manage him- or herself, choosing one course of action in preference to others. We underpin the process of managing oneself by reflecting on what it means to be a leader, and consequently what we must do to become a better leader.