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This paper examines the role of citizen budget advisory committees in local government to gain a better understanding of what exists, what works, and what does not. Specifically this paper seeks to answer the following questions: How are citizen advisory committees utilized? What influence do citizen advisory committees have on the planning and decision making process of local governments? What variables influence the effectiveness of citizen advisory committees? What obstacles prevent meaningful citizen participation from taking place? Through a better understanding of what makes some committees more effective than others, recommendations can be made that will improve the effectiveness of this type of citizen participation.

This study focuses on ad hoc policy advisory committees that bring together experts and stakeholders to propose public policies on the basis of consensus. These kinds of committees are often considered to be a typical governance mechanism of the social democratic model of regulation and policy-making known from the Nordic countries. We challenge this view by comparing the Norwegian system of committee governance with those of Germany and the European Union and point out the central role of coordination and consensus in all three systems. Relying on existing and original research, and contrary to the assumption of a distinct Nordic regime, we find significant similarities between the three committee governance systems when it comes to organisational features, the kind of expertise produced and the committees' governance functions. Most remarkable is the prevalence of hybrid, tripartite committees that draw together interest groups, civil servants and researchers in all three systems. We show that these kinds of ad hoc advisory committees tend to generate a kind of coordinated, negotiated expertise where notions of validity and objectivity are connected not only to cognitive quality but also to the breadth of viewpoints that are integrated. Moreover, the Nordic committee system of Norway stands out with only few distinctive qualities, and it is not obvious how the notion of ‘social democracy’ helps illuminating these features. To help shed light on the striking resemblances we find across systems, we develop a notion of consensus-oriented political and epistemological systems, which may be a useful complement to the notion of Nordic social democracy.

When added together, there are currently 1000 federal advisory committees with over 60,000 participants. In one U.S. city of more than one million people there are over 700 citizens serving on advisory boards. Yet, this form of citizen participation receives scant attention in the public administration literature (Lavertu & Weimer, 2010). We use the foil of the 2008 recession to reduce the gap in our knowledge. Advisory boards offer the potential for giving citizens power since they provide direct input into decision-making. Results from interviews of 25 citizen advisory board members suggest this does occur. However, the way in which the board leverages its power is novel. The experiences of citizen advisory board members can inform attempts to increase the legitimacy of participation, especially during fiscal stress.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically relate subordinate board structures with improved financial and social performance in microfinance institutions (MFIs).

The research question is analyzed using a panel data from 23 MFIs in Ethiopia over a period of 2006-2011. Random effects panel data estimation is applied to analyze the link between board committees and MFI’s performance.

In MFIs with larger than average boards, the findings demonstrate significant ties between financial and outreach performance and how their boards are structured. The structure of board committees moderates the relation between board size and financial and outreach performance measures. Importantly, board committee benefits MFIs through better operational self-sufficiency, lower operating expenses, greater outreach to customers, and outreach to poorer customers using average loan size as the proxy.

Practitioners within microfinance sector, and those operating in advisory and regulatory roles to the sector could benefit from the argument advanced in the paper in that normative recommendation to restructure boards or establish committees requires reevaluating the board characteristics vis-à-vis the optimal monitoring, controlling, and advising needs of the institution.

Prior literature focuses on who sits on boards, how large are the boards, and how independent are they. This paper advances the understanding of the structure of board committees and how this may affect the performance of MFI. This approach provides better representation of director’s role and is thereby a good test of board effectiveness.

Knight's Industrial Law Reports goes into a new style and format as Managerial Law This issue of KILR is restyled Managerial Law and it now appears on a continuous updating basis rather than as a monthly routine affair.

This study aims to examine whether the presence of advisory directors affects firm discretionary accruals (DACC), a widely used proxy for financial reporting quality. The authors argue that the advisory director weakens the board monitoring role and impairs the firm financial reporting quality by increasing DACC.

The sample consists of listed firms on the Australian Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2015 using 7,649 firm-year observations. The authors perform descriptive statistics, regression and propensity score matching analyses to examine the research hypothesis.

The research evidence that firms with a higher presence of advisory directors have more DACC, indicating poor financial reporting quality. Furthermore, the authors categorize the DACC and find that the firm has higher income-increasing DACC in the presence of higher advisory directors. The findings are robust concerning endogeneity issues.

The research evidence that firms with a higher presence of advisory directors have more DACC, indicating poor financial reporting quality. Furthermore, the authors categorize the DACC and find that the firm has higher income-increasing DACC in the presence of higher advisory directors. The findings are robust concerning endogeneity issues.

The research contributes valuable insights for regulators and policymakers seeking to comprehend the implications of firms using more advisory directors. Additionally, the authors recognize the potential significance of the findings for the institution of directors, as they can provide a nuanced understanding of the specific roles played by advisory directors in organizational dynamics.

While the extensive body of literature on corporate governance and financial reporting quality has been well-established, a noticeable void exists in academic research delving into the relationship between advisory directors and DACC management. This study seeks to fill this gap, making a distinctive and original contribution to the existing literature on corporate governance.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

Within each political subdivision of the state of Florida, there is an ordinance which applies to the procurement of goods and services for agencies under its jurisdiction. One common requirement in all these ordinances is the use of the Request for Proposal when purchasing goods or services above a given threshold. In contrast to an Invitation to Bid, the RFP is structured in such a way as to allow other criteria to be evaluated, along with the bottom line price submitted by vendors. The issue in this analysis is whether each meeting of the evaluation committee set up to review these criteria is subject to Florida’s Sunshine Law. Several court decisions and opinions of Attorneys General have held that meetings of ad-hoc committees, advisory committees, and other panels of staff or non-staff members are subject to the Sunshine Law. It appears clear, after a discussion of a few cases relating to the Sunshine Law, that any agency procurement officer must be very careful to avoid even the suggestion of making any recommendation outside of the public view. Public notice should be posted at least seventy-two hours prior to any meeting of the committee. Only by closely adhering to both the letter and the intent of the law will procurement officers avoid having their agency brought into court for a violation of the Sunshine Law.

The PubMed Central (PMC) National Advisory Committee was established by the National Institutes of Health in 1999 to guide the development of a new, open‐access digital repository of biomedical research reports. Headquartered at the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information, PMC has achieved significant technical accomplishments, including a recommended publisher document type definition for digital archiving, but little interest in the use of the new digital archive has been shown by the medical publishing community. This article chronicles the evolution of the initial concept from digital publisher to digital archive and includes issues related to technology and the culture of scientific communication.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the confusion among project management practitioners about the role of steering committees.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with highly experienced participants selected from a range of industries and disciplines in Queensland, Australia.

Six separate confusions on the role of steering committees were identified within that practitioner community. However, despite participants expressing various opposing views, they had actually come to the same working arrangements for their committees; all that was missing was a common conceptualisation of these working arrangements and consistent terminology.

The paper provides clear evidence to the academic literature that confusion over the role of steering committees actually exists within the practitioner community and identifies six separate ways in which this occurs. It also identifies a problematic error in the widely used PRINCE2 governance model. Clarity in committee governance arrangements will facilitate future research endeavours through the removal of confusion surrounding committee labelling and accountability.

A committee decision tree model that guards against all six confusions is proposed for practitioner use, providing a means of avoiding unnecessary internal conflict within organisational governance arrangements. It can be used to check terms of reference of existing or proposed committees, facilitating organisational efficiency and effectiveness. The suggested renaming of project control groups to project coordination groups, and discontinuance of the practice of labelling committees that cannot authorise their decisions as either steering committees or boards, further supports this.

Reconciliation of terminology with actual practice and the consequent clarity of governance arrangements can facilitate building social and physical systems and infrastructure, benefitting organisations, whether public, charitable or private.

Clarity regarding committee accountability can avoid confusion, misunderstanding and their consequent waste of time, resources and money.