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The purpose of this research study was to examine the role perceptions of superintendents and their supervisors in Palestine regarding the roles and training needs of superintendents. It was part of a larger study conducted by the Department of Administration and Educational Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University.

A grounded theory approach was used in this study. Data were collected by interviewing 16 superintendents and four general directors using guided qualitative interviews, in addition to examining Ministry of Education documents and archival data.

The grounded theory approach analysis revealed that superintendents and general directors held variant perceptions regarding the roles and training needs of superintendents. Most superintendents felt they were ill prepared for the job and had to rely on the Ministry of Education for support and direction. They perceived their role as a combination of educational managers and educational leaders. Their supervisors, however, perceived them as keepers of the status quo. The findings showed that superintendents in countries similar to Palestine (newly emerging) appear to experience problems similar to their counterparts in other transitional societies.

The findings of this research are important to new educational systems. It shows clearly the difficulties experienced by superintendents in a newly emerging system. Furthermore, superintendents in such systems may require training needs different than their counterparts in developed systems. The findings are discussed in terms of their relevancy and contributions to educational leadership theory.

The point of exit in this research is that there should be an internal audit department in a national government department in South Africa to render a top‐class internal auditing service that is cost‐effective and affordable, preferred by clients, continuously complies with the standards of professional practice of internal auditing and best practice and have a positive impact on the national government department’s bottom line. The empirical research has highlighted several factors, including the ignorance of key role players and lack of professional proficiency on the part of internal auditors, as factors that impede the establishment and operation of an internal auditing function in the public sector in South Africa. It is recommended, that audit committees in the public sector should launch a joint marketing action, directed at key role players, to promote the potential value of a top‐class internal auditing service in the public sector, as well as the factors that impede it.

The study here examines how business actors adapt to changes in networks by analyzing their perceptions or their network pictures. The study is exploratory or iterative in the sense that revisions occur to the research question, method, theory, and context as an integral part of the research process.

Changes within networks receive less research attention, although considerable research exists on explaining business network structures in different research traditions. This study analyzes changes in networks in terms of the industrial network approach. This approach sees networks as connected relationships between actors, where interdependent companies interact based on their sensemaking of their relevant network environment. The study develops a concept of network change as well as an operationalization for comparing perceptions of change, where the study introduces a template model of dottograms to systematically analyze differences in perceptions. The study then applies the model to analyze findings from a case study of Norwegian/Japanese seafood distribution, and the chapter provides a rich description of a complex system facing considerable pressure to change. In-depth personal interviews and cognitive mapping techniques are the main research tools applied, in addition to tracer studies and personal observation.

The dottogram method represents a valuable contribution to case study research as it enables systematic within-case and across-case analyses. A further theoretical contribution of the study is the suggestion that network change is about actors seeking to change their network position to gain access to resources. Thereby, the study also implies a close relationship between the concepts network position and the network change that has not been discussed within the network approach in great detail.

Another major contribution of the study is the analysis of the role that network pictures play in actors' efforts to change their network position. The study develops seven propositions in an attempt to describe the role of network pictures in network change. So far, the relevant literature discusses network pictures mainly as a theoretical concept. Finally, the chapter concludes with important implications for management practice.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a first impact assessment of the Italian quota law in order to explore whether “gender equality by law” contributes to redefining, albeit in part, consolidating and establishing positions of power and decision making. The paper analyses these dynamics by focusing on a specific economic sector, the banking sector. The analysis strives to determine: whether binding quotas are giving rise to an apparent enforcement by building up new distortionary equilibria (such as new forms of horizontal segregation); what extent the financial crisis has impacted on the rhetoric of female representation, and whether it has pushed towards a “regenerative” organizational change aimed at achieving a more inclusive and egalitarian image.

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the theoretical and empirical debate on gender diversity and quota impact. Section 3 reports macro and micro data on the italian system; Section 4 describes the Italian banking system and gives a first impact assessment on Italian banks of the mandatory gender quotas in Italy (the so-called “Golfo-Mosca law,” named after MPs who proposed the law); some qualitative considerations are carried out on the reactions of Italian banks to the financial crisis in terms of “bridge policies” aimed at corresponding to a higher demand of customer satisfaction and fairness. Section 5 concludes and summarizes the finding of the study.

The Italian banking system is not so dramatically ranked among the EU countries as in the recent past. The gender rebalance in management bodies could be considered rather satisfying. If we compare ten-year-old findings, the number of women on board of directors has tripled. But data clearly show a dichotomy due to significant differences between listed and non-listed banks. In non-listed banks, women are still relegated to an under-represented position, reaching only 13 percent on boards of directors (as against 33 percent in listed banks). The data confirm the results found in non-financial sector that women are significantly better represented on audit boards. In accordance with all previous studies, no relevant changes can be noticed on key-decision roles: no CEOs or Directors general are women in listed banks, and women are always more represented in non-executive functions.

The paper analyses the law experience in Italy as a significant case study by proving that rules such as temporary binding gender quotas (introduced by law in 2011) can be useful, but not always enough to remove blocking or distortive factors in organizational ladders.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an easy‐to‐read article for academics, lawyers, directors and those advising directors, to be able to gain an appreciation of the duties that directors owe to their companies in light of the Companies Act 2006, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, 2007 and the Bribery Act 2010.

Using a range of case law and statutory materials, as well as published works, including material from the Financial Reporting Council, the Institute of Directors and the Health and Safety Executive, the paper aims to provide practical advice (as opposed to merely academic listing) on directors' duties.

It has been noted that there are not enough resources which combine the three aspects of legislation that impact upon directors' duties.

The paper focuses on directors' duties for private limited companies within the law relating to England and Wales, specifically the Companies Act 2006, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, 2007 and the Bribery Act. The implications are that those wishing to conduct business outside of the UK would need to look elsewhere for guidance. Conversely, UK‐based businesses seeking to conduct business internationally will need to be aware of not just directors' duties but also the potential conduct of those authorised to act on behalf of directors abroad, particularly in the context of the Bribery Act 2010.

The paper is an easy‐to‐read, useful source of impartial information for academics, lawyers directors and those advising directors to gain an understanding of directors' duties under English law.

The paper brings together three different areas of legal practice into one, as they have a significant impact upon businesses and appear not to have been addressed previously in such a manner.

We utilise the actor-network theory (ANT) – based especially on Latour (2005) – to examine how management accounting tools affect physicians’ representations and new managerial practices in French public hospitals currently undergoing reform.

We conducted a longitudinal case study – based on interviews and observations – in a large French public hospital in which dashboards are diffused to physicians and nurses dealing with both medical and managerial activities.

The case shows that head physicians and nurses are implicated in their new managerial tasks and spend time analysing dashboards. Management accounting tools thus play a role, as mediators, in organising new managerial practices, and dashboards are a means of materialising and giving structure to new managerial practices and enabling discussions and exchanges to take place between actors who were previously separated.

The case shows that management accounting tools are not necessarily useful because they help in decision-making or control – as in the dominant paradigm; rather, they are beneficial because they may help in changing representations and building a new collective organisation. Future research should therefore expand on the organisational and social roles of management accounting tools, especially in the healthcare field.

Most ANT-inspired studies in management accounting focus on explaining changes in accounting practices, which are perceived as a consequence of an ANT process. This chapter, however, analyses the practices by which management accounting tools act as a vehicle to organisational change.

The purpose of this paper is to explore issues of medical engagement in the management and leadership of health services in the English National Health Service (NHS). The literature suggests that this is an important component of high performing health systems, although the NHS has traditionally struggled to engage doctors and has been characterised as a professional bureaucracy. This study explored the ways in which health care organisations structure and operate medical leadership processes to assess the degree to which professional bureaucracies still exist in the English NHS.

Drawing on the qualitative component of a research into medical leadership in nine case study sites, this paper reports on findings from over 150 interviews with doctors, general managers and nurses. In doing so, the authors focus specifically on the operation of medical leadership in nine different NHS hospitals.

Concerted attention has been focussed on medical leadership and this has led to significant changes to organisational structures and the recruitment and training processes of doctors for leadership roles. There is a cadre of doctors that are substantially more engaged in the leadership of their organisations than previous research has found. Yet, this engagement has tended to only involve a small section of the overall medical workforce in practice, raising questions about the nature of medical engagement more broadly.

There are only a limited number of studies that have sought to explore issues of medical leadership on this scale in the English context. This represents the first significant study of this kind in over a decade.

To review and analyse the legal implications of the CA 2006 in respect of directors’ duties and powers, and in particular sections 172(1) and 471.

The use of business management theories complements the primary use of the legal doctrinal approach as applied in this study.

Section 172(1)'s wordings generate ambivalent legal implications for directors’ general duties as codified. It appears to give discretionary powers to directors where the review of the six statutory factors is concerned. However, directors will need to treat these seriously when read in conjunction with section 471. The latter pertains to directors’ disclosure obligations for the newly expanded business review section of the directors’ annual report. Available corporate evidence suggests that some corporate directors go beyond the minimum mandatory standards for environmental and social (Corporate Social responsibility, CSR) issues. They have benefited from the integration of their CSR policies and practices with their corporate strategic plans and actions. Some have even forged effective partnership with non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders to co‐create businesses.

This investigation provides strategic insights and practical thinking to investors, corporate directors, state planners, NGOs, and other corporate stakeholders.

Previous legal analysis on general directors’ duties focused on the law. This study advanced corporate legal theory further with the use of insights from contemporary business theories and practices.

This chapter examines corporate governance–related financial reporting issues in the context of globalization. Over the past few decades, the process of globalization has substantially altered the fields of corporate governance and accounting. More specifically, Anglo-American models of corporate governance and financial reporting have received increasing momentum in emerging economies, including China. However, a review of relevant studies suggests that there is limited research examining the implementation of Anglo-American concepts in various countries regardless of their growing acceptance. This monograph extends the existing literature by comprehensively investigating the adoption of internationally acceptable principles and standards in China, the largest transitional economy that has different institutional context from Anglo-American countries. In addition, the review has a number of implications for developing the theoretical framework, and determining the research methodology for the monograph.

This study seeks to add to the knowledge of the formation of social positions and power of individuals and their effects on the role of accounting in the development of management control systems (MCSs).

Drawing on institutional and the mobilization of power frameworks, the case analysis explores the development of the role of accounting in the MCS.

The results show that loose coupling between management control routines and formal accounting leaves room for individuals whose roles are important in the development of the MCS. These individuals with central social positions are the glue which enables loose coupling to persist through changes. The organizational culture of a family‐led firm may facilitate the individuals to mobilize power, so that they with central social positions mediate the encoding of institutions into rules and routines as well as the reproduction of the formal rules and informal routines and the relationship between them. Similarly, their own social positions may reproduce.

The paper is of value in showing how the power of an individual over (and in) accounting can be constructed in the MCS. In addition, the discussion is linked to operating in certain transitional economies.