Kai Peters

Business school rankings: content and context

Purpose – This paper sets out to examine the affect of rankings on business schools from the perspective of a business school director.Design/methodology/approach – The paper critiques the methodologies of ranking systems, their statistical validity, the factors used, and the weightings given to them.Findings – Rankings are significant drivers of a schools reputation. Good performance can double inquiries and applications and allow schools to charge prestige premiums. Financial Times top decile MBA programmes charge, on average, just below

Diversity management in South Africa: Inclusion, identity, intention, power and expectations

80,000 for an MBA. Bottom decile schools charge only

Diversity and corporate governance

37,000.Originality/value – This paper finds that it is impossible to challenge the criteria set out by a variety of rankings organisations and it is ill‐advised to boycott rankings. Schools are advised to consider which criteria reflect areas needing improvement and to continue “playing the game”.

Leading ethically: What helps and what hinders

Today’s modern organisations have no choice but to face choices regarding how to implement diversity initiatives and treat their stakeholders, given the globalized nature of capital markets. Unfortunately, their foci appear to be narrowly deployed at the ‘managing diversity’ level, or even the ‘acknowledging diversity’ level, but not getting to the necessary ‘inclusion’ level. This paper reports on an in-depth study which focused beyond multiculturalism to include psychological issues of diversity relating to identity, intention, expectations, power and inclusion. The study sought to investigate this premise through insights gained from the analysis of personal stories relating to individual experiences of diversity, and the outcomes provide new and deeper insights for the design, implementation and success of diversity initiatives.

What could an Executive Coach do for an Association Football Manager

In the broadest sense, the purpose of corporate governance is to ensure that listed companies are fair and honest with their range of stakeholders. These stakeholders include shareholders, employees, customers and society at large.

Impact of Locus of Control Expectancy on Level of Well-Being

Ethics is concerned with moral obligation, responsibility, social justice, and the common good. It is about defining the practices and rules—written and unwritten — which inform responsible conduct and behaviour between individuals and groups in order to maintain, or enhance, the common good. Everything we do has a consequence, such that ethics is fundamental to the very essence of who we are, and what we value, both as individuals and as people. This chapter presents the findings of a study that aimed to identify those enablers that seem to help individuals to live and act ethically, and those stumbling blocks that prevent them from translating a theoretical knowledge of ethics and morals into action. The sample involved 646 middle managers enrolled on the MBA programmes of the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Erasmus University (Netherlands). The chapter explains the approach taken and presents the findings, as a contribution to the debate on the practical steps that might increase ethical behaviour in individuals.

Ethics and leadership: Enablers and stumbling blocks

INTRODUCTION In his target article, Simon Jenkins asks if a structured coaching intervention, specifically the eight-stage behavioural coaching process advocated by Marshall Goldsmith, could be of value to Roy Keane, the leading midfielder best known for his time at Manchester United, who subsequently went on to a coaching spell at Sunderland (August 2006 to December 2008) and is presently at Ipswich Town. The question is intriguing from a number of perspectives. Firstly, the situation reverses the usual metaphor of sports coaches as guides for businesses which is trod out all too often and rightfully asks whether psychology and business can offer something of value to a coach in a sports environment. Second, in applying Marshall Goldsmith’s methodology, a value judgement is made about that specific methodology, which deserves some further investigation. Lastly, the situation as described begs the question of who is fit to be coached with a realistic expectation of success and how expertise about football relates to the ability to be successful as a coach in football.