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The article is intended to share findings from an ongoing investigation undertaken by questionnaire survey, interview and in‐company observation into the leadership of performance improvement and corporate transformation.

The article examines and compares the approaches and behaviours of winning and losing boards.

Directors and boards of companies that succeed at managing change, competing and winning exhibit very different approaches

Trainers and developers need to understand the differing approaches of the boards of successful and struggling companies and encourage and help directors, both individually and collectively, to learn from, emulate and develop the approaches and behaviours of those boards that are successful in managing change, competing and winning.

The article highlights behaviours and approaches that trainers and developers need to encourage if directors and boards are to become more effective at managing change, competing and winning.

As boards become subject to greater public scrutiny, they have an increasing need to manage their reputation. Over and above considering the organisation's communications plan at least once a year, there are strong arguments for developing a board communication strategy and plan. Such a plan would include a clear statement of communication objectives, defined methods for communicating decisions and decision‐making processes, how the board demonstrates leadership (living the values) and a system to measure the impact of board communications, both external and internal.

The importance of hospital board engagement in the work of governing healthcare quality has been demonstrated in the literature. Research into influences on effective corporate governance has traditionally focused on board architecture. Emerging research is bringing to light the importance of governance dynamics. This paper contributes to emerging research through highlighting how communication and leadership underpin effective engagement in governing healthcare quality.

A comparative case study of eight Australian public hospitals was undertaken involving document review, interviews and observations. Case studies were allocated into high- or low-engagement categories based on evidence of governance processes being undertaken, in order to compare and contrast influencing factors. Thematic analysis was undertaken to explore how communication and leadership influence healthcare governance.

Several key components of communication and leadership are shown to influence healthcare quality governance. Clear logical narratives in reporting, open communication, effective questioning and challenge from board members are important elements of communication found to influence engagement. Leadership that has a focus on healthcare excellence and quality improvement are aligned and promote effective meeting processes is also found to foster governance engagement. Effective engagement in these communication and leadership processes facilitate valuable reflexivity at the governance level.

The findings highlight the way in which boards and senior managers can strengthen governance effectiveness through attention to key aspects of communication and leadership.

The case study approach allows the exploration of communication and leadership in greater depth than previously undertaken at the corporate governance level in the healthcare setting.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how trust, honesty and transparency impact the willingness and timeliness of communicating financial information between Government Finance Officers (GFOs) and members of the municipal boards they serve.

Survey data was collected from professionals who work with municipalities to ensure government resources are properly managed. Nonparametric local-linear regression was used to analyze the data.

Evidence suggests that trust in the board, GFO preference for honesty and greater transparency of the municipality influence the timeliness of communication. There is evidence that when the GFO and board members have a working relationship built on trust and the GFO has a preference for honesty, the GFO is more willing to share positive information with the board. In addition, there is evidence that with greater transparency and trust in the board, there is a reduction in the time of sharing positive information in situations where there is little discretion in disclosing and less willingness to share information.

A principal limitation of this study is the small sample size. In addition, the study was conducted using only participants from the pool of members of the Government Finance Officers Association of Texas. As an exploratory study, the survey included a minimal number of questions to gather data from actual GFOs and included only six possible scenarios. The time constraint resulted in a reduced number of questions related to the models used. Other limitations include the potential of missing variables, factors or perceptions related to scenarios not presented in the survey instrument.

The findings suggest that with greater transparency, there is less time between the event and the GFO communication to the board providing the opportunity to improve the effectiveness of the decision-making process.

This study is the first to explore the effects of increased transparency on the level of communication between the GFO and the board.

The present study was carried out with the purpose of establishing a model of effective board governance in Uganda's service sector firms.

This study is cross‐sectional. The analysis was conducted using Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) software on a sample of 128 service firms in Uganda. The perceived effective board governance in Uganda was measured by the perceptions of 128 respondents who are managers or directors in each of those service firms. Three confirmatory factor analysis models were tested and fitted.

The three‐dimensional model of effective board governance in Uganda – consisting of control and meetings’ organization, board activity and effective communication – was determined to be the best fitting model. Evidence in support of relevant theories of board governance was adduced.

Although plenty of literature on corporate governance exists, there is scarce literature on effective board governance conceptualization and this together with imprecise terminology regarding this area may have affected the authors’ conceptualization of the study. The authors’ study was limited to the service sector firms registered and operating in Kampala, Uganda and it is possible that their results are only applicable to this sector in Uganda. Nevertheless, policy makers of Uganda dealing with financial markets, academicians, company directors, company owners and even general readers interested in the area of effective board governance might find this paper handy.

The authors believe that application of their model should improve the quality of board governance in Uganda and can also apply to other sectors of Uganda's firms to help avert the problem of ineffective boards as evidenced by consistent firm failures in Uganda. By improving the quality of board governance, Ugandan boards will demonstrate their relevance in company direction and improvement of company value to the benefit of all stakeholders.

The present study provides one of the few studies that have analysed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS to test effective board governance measurement model and provides a benchmark for Uganda's service firms yearning to leverage the use of their boards.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the clinical communication using Tamale Teaching Hospital as a case.

The paper is based on the Reassure, Explain, Listen, Answer, Take Action and Express Appreciation (RELATE) model and the Four Habits models of Clinical Communication.

The results of the study indicate that leadership conducted staff meetings with some of the components of the RELATE model. These include staff meetings, employee rounding and communication/notice boards. The results of the study also suggest that much as some parts of the Four Habits model was used in provider–patient communication, certain aspects of the model were absent. The study identified some communication challenges including poor dissemination, lack of unity among some health workers, poor attendance in meetings and, with respect to patients, language barrier, patients’ reluctance to disclose their actual health problems to health providers, lack of privacy and lack of a friendly environment.

Providers, especially physicians, should be given training on the local languages in areas where they perform their services. Health service providers should receive as part of their learning in-depth training on the Four Habits model of Clinical Communication, especially the Medical Officers.

It is imperative to embrace evidence-based practices/models aimed at securing proper communication in all hospitals but most especially teaching hospitals.

As a result of the many governance failures in the past decade, new legislation, increased regulation, and best practices have been adopted by boards in an effort to improve corporate governance. Unfortunately, not all of the changes, such as increasing the number of external directors, have favorably impacted the quality of board governance. While having the majority of external directors on a board increases the board's independence from the CEO, these external directors lack inside directors' understanding of the firm's operations, customers and business model. The board members' lack of understanding presents a key challenge to CEOs, as their tenures depend on keeping their boards informed about the firm's business model. If CEOs are to succeed in this new governance climate, they need to find a way to effectively explain the business model to external directors in order to educate them, access their competencies, and ensure their long term support. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the strategy map to communicate the firm's business model to the board.

The paper used the authors' experiences, a review of the literature, and a case study as a basis for making recommendations presented in the article.

Outside directors may struggle to understand the firm's business model. While some may argue this is not the CEO's problem as it is the board's role to govern and management's job to manage, the authors argue it is an important issue for CEOs for two reasons: First, if the board does not understand the impact of changes to a firm's business model then CEOs are not fully leveraging their boards' expertise. Second, if CEOs do not keep the board adequately informed about the business model it hinders, rather than helps CEOs from building open and transparent relationships with their boards. By ensuring that directors receive the right information about the organization's business model and then have the opportunity to have a constructive dialog regarding the quality of the business model, CEOs can build trusting relationships with their boards and thus ensure they succeed over the longer term.

Recent governance failures have demonstrated a need for better communication between boards and CEOs. This is one of the first papers to examine the role of the strategy map to communicate the firm's business model to the board.

This paper aims to examine the impact of board governance quality (BGQ) and its mechanisms, namely board activity, board independence, board communication and board expertise, on the level of risk disclosure compliance (RDC) among financial institutions (FIs) in Uganda.

The study adopts a cross-sectional design where data are collected through a questionnaire survey and audited financial statements of 83 FIs. The authors employ partial least square structural equation modeling (SmartPLS32.7) to test hypotheses.

The authors find that the level of RDC in Ugandan FIs is low. Further, the study finds the positive relation between BGQ and RDC. Moreover, the authors find that RDC is positively and significantly related with board activity, board independence, board communication and board expertise. Furthermore, the authors find that the level of RDC is positively and significantly related to ownership type, firm size and board size, respectively. Nevertheless, industry type, number of branches and firm age are insignificantly related to RDC.

The study provides relevant insights into regulators and policy makers with early symptoms of potential problems regarding weak board governance in FIs. Policy makers may also use these findings as a guideline tool for improving existing board governance frameworks in place and development of new disclosure policies. In addition, the study provides an input into the review and amendments of existing corporate governance codes for the regulators.

This study offers the empirical evidence on the nexus between BGQ and RDC of FIs in Uganda. Moreover, the study also offers evidence on how BGQ mechanisms impact RDC. The study also further adds theoretical foundations to the RDC literature.

A relationship between board/management “involvement” and “awareness” with organizational mission and their link to “employee commitment” and “organizational performance” was modeled by drawing on previous research. The model was tested with data from 339 large Canadian and US organizations. It was determined that “mission awareness” on the part of both the board and senior management is an important consideration in the determination of employees' commitment to the mission. However, the impact of board and management involvement with the mission is not identical. The results emphasize the strong and important role that the board performs when it is actively engaged in the development of the organization's mission.