Michael L. McIntyre

The top team: examining board composition and firm performance

Purpose – This paper seeks to argue that boards can be playing a more proactive role in contributing to organizational effectiveness and that their composition requires greater research attention. By integrating the organizational behaviour literature on teams with the governance literature, the paper empirically examines the relationship between key board composition variables and firm performance.Design/methodology/approach – At this stage in the development of the approach, the focus is on a sub‐set of the elements proposed in the group dynamics literature. The population for this study comprises all companies included in the Canadian TSE 300 Composite Index (renamed the S&P/TSX Composite Index). This study uses cross‐sectional regression analyses to examine the nature of the relationships between board composition and firm performance.Findings – The data analyses revealed that high levels of experience, appropriate team size, moderate levels of variation in age and team tenure were correlated with fir...

Board of director performance: a group dynamics perspective

Purpose – This paper proposes mainly that boards of directors (BOD) are teams that share characteristics with many other kinds of teams. As a consequence, some of the factors that lead to board effectiveness are the same factors that lead to team effectiveness in general. By integrating the organizational behaviour literature on teams with the governance literature, a comprehensive model of BOD performance is proposed.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper proposes a model to assess the performance of a board and situates board performance as one input into firm performance.Findings – This paper outlines the dynamic interplay between board characteristics, functionality and performance and proposes a comprehensive model, based largely on the group dynamics literature.Research limitations/implications – Suggests that future research attempt to empirically address some (or all) of the items in the conceptual model. Acknowledges that operationalizing certain variables will prove challenging, but...

Do firms seek social license to operate when stakeholders are poor? Evidence from Africa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test for the salience of social licence to operate in the context of a very poor community. The idea of social license to operate is closely linked to ideas of stakeholder power, legitimacy and urgency (Mitchell et al., 1997). But what if a community is impoverished, and lacks the tools and privileges to effect change? Do the stakeholders believe they have influence over extension of the social license to operate? Does the employer listen to them? To examine this issue, survey data was gathered from 12,000 stakeholders working in a poor township in South Africa. The township is located near a major South African city in an employment market dominated by a single heavy industry. Responders perceived their welfare to be of importance to the employer and that they had a role in extension of the social license to operate. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 12,000 employees working in an impoverished township near a large South African city. Findings – Despite b...

Addressing role and value in policing: toward a sustainable policing framework

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the sustainability of policing organizations and propose approaches to enhance their sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses an action research approach involving the researchers and partners from the main national policing bodies in Canada and six police service research sites. Findings – This paper presents a Sustainable Policing Framework (SPF) intended to enhance the sustainability of policing services. Practical implications – The SPF the authors present can be implemented by police service organizations to assist with organizational development as the external environment changes. Originality/value – No other approaches to police sustainability that involve a framework similar to the one that is presented are known. This paper provides specific tools for police services to deploy to address their sustainability concerns.

Director education programs in Canada, Australia and the UK: a comparative study

In this paper, the authors examine the details of the board of director (BOD) education programs currently offered in Canada, the UK and Australia. The authors analyse the program patterns relative to an integrated model of BOD education and present recommendations for change.

Board of director performance reporting

Purpose – This paper characterizes the role of the board of directors in a more specific way than has been done previously, and uses this characterization to support the argument that, in some cases, the mandate of an effective board should go beyond the prevention of self‐interested behavior by management. The enlarged role for the board of directors that this paper contemplates carries with it the need to ensure shareholders that the board of directors is not engaging in self‐interested behavior of its own, and posits that requiring the board of directors to report to shareholders on its activities and effectiveness is a potential solution to this problem. The paper seeks to present theoretically grounded ideas on how this might be done in a meaningful fashion.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper proposes a “short list” of reporting items for boards of directors, derived from a theoretical model that examines board of director performance from a group dynamics perspective.Findings – This ...

The inescapably ethical foundation of sustainability

In this paper, we show how various authors have discussed the idea of sustainability and linked it to ethics and ethical behaviour. We further show that ideas of sustainability are closely linked to the notion of sameness through time. We discuss sameness in an object-predicate framework and show that in this context, it requires selecting clear criteria, with behaviours adopted to meet those criteria. An important insight from the object-predicate framework is that selection of the criteria for sameness is shown to rest entirely on the value judgements of those making the selection. We provide a detailed example that demonstrates this, and argue that given the prominence of value judgements in assessments of sameness (and in this sense, of sustainability), ethics are unavoidably at its foundation. Examining ideas of sustainability in this way may provide insights into how we might become better able to meet the conception of sustainable development articulated in the Brundtland Report.

Board of director effectiveness committees

This paper presents a framework for board self-evaluation based on a model grounded in the governance and team effectiveness literatures. It develops arguments for the creation of board effectiveness committees that are assigned responsibility for evaluating board construction, activities and outputs and the fit of these factors to environmental conditions. It presents the board effectiveness committee as an important element in the governance process.

Assessing what police officers do “on the job”: toward a “public values” approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a test in a policing context of a performance assessment tool that is based on a “public values” approach. The Capability, Importance, and Value (CIV) Tool allows police organizations to examine the roles their members carry out to determine whether they are being capably done, are important, and deliver value to stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach Five focus groups were conducted with front line officers from a large Canadian police service. The focus group process incorporated elements of Appreciative Inquiry and Structured Brainstorming. Findings Valuable information can be collected from front line police officers with the CIV Tool. Police organizations could use this information to improve performance while ensuring that the roles undertaken by their members align with broader organizational goals and objectives including providing value to stakeholders. Research limitations/implications This study was designed as a limited test of the CIV Tool. More extensive testing is required with a larger sample that includes police investigators and members of other specialty units. Practical implications The CIV Tool can serve to augment existing police performance measurement strategies. It can help to identify which roles contribute to achieving organizational goals and which do not. Based on this information, ameliorative action can be taken. Social implications A “public values” approach places emphasis on stakeholder needs and expectations. Addressing these directly can result in enhanced performance as well as greater police transparency, responsiveness, and accountability. Originality/value Ongoing police performance assessment based on a “public values” approach is uncommon in policing. Its use has important implications for police organizations and their stakeholders.

The Theory of Practice and the Practice of Theory.

As academics who interact with senior and mid-level business managers on a regular basis, both informally and as consultants, the authors often note that ideas of theory and practice are not well developed among people outside of academia. It is posited that this deficit offers the prospect of less than optimal approaches to matters such as solving business problems, understanding the role of management education and nurturing useful interaction between businesses and business schools. This paper attempts to explain the role of theory and its relationship to practice in a business setting so that it can act as a standing reminder for business practitioners.