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This paper aims to examine the effect of governance mechanisms (board size, board independence, duality, the Sharia board size, Sharia board meetings and ownership concentration) on the performance of insurance providers of distinguishable Muamalah contracts (wakalah and hybrid), moderated by the length of senior leaders’ servicing time.

The full sample includes 21 listed Takaful companies divided into two subsamples – 12 insurance wakalah contracts offered in the South East Asian (SEA) countries and 9 insurance hybrid contracts offered in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries over the period of 2012–2018. The methodology is informed by Baron and Kenny’s (1986) moderation process approach.

The results of this study indicate that the larger the size of directors’ board and the higher the number of outside directors, the greater the SEA wakalah Takaful insurance performance. Nondual functions and a larger size of Sharia board along with a highly-concentrated ownership structure have a positive effect on the Takaful insurance performance in both the SEA and GCC regions. Furthermore, the higher the Sharia board meetings, the higher performance of all types of Takaful insurance providers in the sample. As for the moderating effect of the director’s seniority, it is found to negatively moderate the relationship between the governance mechanisms and the Takaful performance in both regions.

This paper highlights that the leader’s entrenchment stands as an obstructing factor impeding the governance mechanisms from enhancing Takaful performance. Thus, it serves to contribute to clearly understanding the appropriate governance mechanisms usefully fit for a Takaful insurance effective performance, applying the wakalah and hybrid contract types. Such a contribution should be appreciated by the concerned regulators engaged in setting up limited serving periods for the directors whereby the Takaful insurance practice could be efficiently managed and supervised.

Although visible leader support is an essential ingredient for successful organizational health interventions, knowledge on how leaders at different hierarchical levels engage with interventions is underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper is to explore leader engagement by drawing from the experiences of the intervention team.

Data from semi-structured interviews with the team responsible for implementing an organizational health intervention in two large UK organizations were used to examine how leaders at strategic (senior management) and operational (line managers) positions engaged with the intervention.

Thematic analysis uncovered 6 themes and 16 sub-themes covering the leaders’ initial reactions to the intervention, barriers to leader engagement, ways in which the intervention team dealt with these barriers, factors facilitating and factors accelerating leader engagement, and differences in engagement between leadership levels.

This study can inform research into the conditions for optimizing leader engagement in organizational health interventions and beyond. Insights also emerged on the roles of leaders at different hierarchical levels and the value of perspective taking for intervention implementation.

Recommendations for bolstering the engagement of leaders in interventions are offered, that apply to all leaders or separately to leaders at strategic or operational levels.

The experiences of the intervention team who sought to engage leaders at different organizational levels to support the intervention are invaluable. Understanding how leader engagement can be maximized can better equip intervention teams for delivering successful interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between some corporate characteristics, audit quality and managerial entrenchment in Tunisian companies.

The multivariate regression model is used for hypothesis testing using a sample of 224 listed observations on Tunisian Stock Exchange during 2014–2020. An exploratory factor analysis of four variables (chief executive officer (CEO) duality, CEO tenure, CEO seniority and CEO age) is used for calculating a unique index assessing the managerial entrenchment.

The results show a negative and significant relationship between audit quality and managerial entrenchment. The authors also find that firm characteristics affect management entrenchment. Precisely, corporate financial performance and firm leverage show positive connections with managerial entrenchment (ME). Additional analysis confirms the negative impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on managerial entrenchment level.

The study’s findings have practical implications that may be useful to different stakeholders, policymakers and regulatory bodies interested in reducing management entrenchment. This study offers signals to shareholders about specific governance attributes, namely audit quality, that control the extent of manager's entrenchment.

The originality of this paper consists in focusing on developing countries, namely the Tunisian context; while the managerial entrenchment phenomena has been widely examined in developed markets. Moreover, contrary to the overwhelming majority of previous studies that has used individual indexes for evaluating the entrenchment, the authors calculate a mixed index of managerial entrenchment using the principal component analysis based on four governance mechanisms (CEO duality, CEO age, CEO seniority and CEO tenure).

This paper aims to investigate the impacts of audit engagement team’s ethical leadership, trainee auditors’ reporting intent and other selected factors on their likelihood of reporting client’s irregularities.

The present investigation is based on 150 effective questionnaire responses provided by a group of trainee auditors working for certified public accounting (CPA) firms. The questionnaire items relating to trainee auditors’ likelihood of reporting client’s irregularities are based on Crawford and Weirich’s (2011) classification of common forms of fraudulent financial reporting. The authors’ measurement of the audit engagement team leaders’ ethicality is based on the ethical leadership scale developed in Newstrom and Ruch (1975) and Kantor and Weisberg (2002). Regression models are used to testify the authors’ hypotheses on the correlations of the trainee auditors’ likelihood of reporting client’s irregularities with audit engagement team’s ethical leadership, trainee auditor’ reporting intents and other selected factors.

The major conclusion of this study is that there is a significantly positive correlation between trainee auditors’ likelihood of reporting client’s irregularities and their perception of audit engagement team leader’s ethicality. This paper also points out that trainee auditors’ higher evaluation of stable firm–client relationship reduces their likelihood of reporting client’s irregularities, whereas their concerns with future career development increase the likelihood of reporting. In addition, this paper documents the fact that male trainee auditors more easily perceive the ethicality of their team leader than females, and that trainee auditors with less academic achievements (lower GPA) tend to perceive more easily the ethicality of their team leader than those with better academic achievements (higher GPA).

Two business ethics variables constructed and used in this study, i.e. trainee auditors’ likelihood of reporting client’s irregularities and engagement team leader’s ethicality, can be applied in future research on whistleblowing in the audit profession.

Practical implications can also be drawn from the findings to enhance the ethical management at both engagement and firm levels.

This paper contributes to the audit research literature by providing evidence on the significant positive impacts of team leader’s ethicality on the entry-level audit professional’s likelihood of reporting client’s irregularities.

The purpose of this study is to explore alternative models of substitutes for leadership. These alternative models are a leadership-only model, substitutes for the leadership-only model and substitutes for the leadership-mediated-effects model.

Four occupational groups were targeted, namely, PhD faculty of institutions of higher education, medical doctors who work in district headquarters’ hospitals, licensed pharmacists and certified engineers. Also, a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data, and 523 usable responses were received.

Partial least square path modeling was used for data analysis, and the results of structural models revealed that: the dimensions of transformational leadership significantly affected the followers’ outcomes; a few substitutes for leadership also significantly affected the followers’ outcomes; and, in some cases, substitutes for leadership significantly mediated the relationship between dimensions of transformational leadership and followers’ outcomes.

Findings of the study provide useful implications to improve the managerial practices of organizational leaders, work design strategies in organizations and overall organizational policies for effective functioning. Other developing countries with similar socio-economic status may use these findings to improve organizational functioning.

This study makes important contributions to the leadership literature. It tests three alternative models in the domain of substitutes for the leadership theory and tests the separate effects of dimensions of transformational leadership and substitutes for leadership on followers’ work outcomes. Further, it specifies the mediating effects of substitutes for leadership on the dimensions of transformational leadership and followers’ work outcomes. Most important, this study for the first time tests transformational leadership and substitutes for leadership concepts in Pakistani work settings and advances the theoretical and empirical literature in this local context.

The aim of this study is to investigate some factors that have an influence on employee retention. Based on the literature and previous research, both employee and organisational factors are taken into account.

Data were collected by means of a questionnaire that was distributed on a voluntary basis in professional organisations and among employees, both electronically and in hard‐copy, during 2008‐2009. The study sample consisted of 972 employees, mainly clerks, from diverse profit and social‐profit organisations.

The results show that when organisations want to retain their employees it is important to pay attention to the learning of employees. Letting people do more and learn more of what they are good at will encourage them to stay with the organisation. Results concerning the selected employee variables show that only age has a significant relationship with retention. Regarding the intention to stay, there exists a positive relationship between age and retention.

A limitation of this study is that both employee as organizational factors are measured through the perceptions of employees. The response set of subjects when responding to self‐report measures could therefore be the result of a temporary mood, or could be the result of what may be considered as socially appropriate by the participants. Another limitation is that the questionnaire was voluntarily completed by the respondents; the researcher had therefore no information about the non‐respondents.

The paper focuses on the factors influencing employee retention.

The paper aims to explore Japanese followers' leadership preferences and consider the suitability of Bass and Avolio's full‐range leadership model in Japan.

A qualitative approach is used predominantly, including template analyses and several content analyses. Data collection is divided into two phases: Phase 1 was conducted by semi‐structured interviews and Phase 2 by questionnaires.

Results suggest the unsuitability of Bass and Avolio's full‐range leadership model in a Japanese context, indicate some impact of cultural changes in Japan, and identify liberal, trust, punctual, network, protective, and after‐five as Japanese culture‐specific preferred leadership styles.

The paper indicates that in a Japanese context not only is the new leadership approach of Bass and Avolio's model of value but also the traditional approach of House's path‐goal theory. Whilst the qualitative data of this study give insight into existing theories and leadership perspectives in Japan, findings should be further examined in future research.

The paper offers guidance for leaders who deal with Japanese followers by identifying leadership styles within Bass and Avolio's model, and culture‐specific leadership styles which are particularly preferred by Japanese followers.

This paper identified that, building upon Bass and Avolio's and House's leadership theories, a new Japanese leadership model, which particularly suits contemporary Japanese followers' leadership preferences, should be developed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of board characteristics (board size, board independence and duality) on the performance of takaful insurance providers with distinguishable muamalah contracts (wakalah and hybrid) moderated by ownership concentration.

The sample consists of 30 takaful insurances. The authors divided it into two subsamples: 18 insurance companies using wakalah contracts provided by Southeast Asia and 12 insurance companies using hybrid contracts provided by the Gulf Cooperation Council over the period 2010–2020. For data analysis, the authors used the partial least squares path modeling method.

The results show that the larger the board of directors and the higher the number of independent directors, the greater the takaful performance in both the wakalah and hybrid subsamples. Nondual functions improve the takaful performance in both the wakalah and hybrid subsamples. The results also reveal that a highly concentrated ownership structure positively (negatively) moderates the relationship between board size and takaful performance in the wakalah (hybrid) subsamples. Moreover, highly concentrated ownership insignificantly (negatively) moderates the relationship between independent directors and takaful’s performance in the hybrid (wakalah) subsample. Furthermore, a highly concentrated ownership structure insignificantly (negatively) moderates the relationship between the nondual structure and takaful performance in the wakalah (hybrid) subsample.

This study contributes to the understanding of the moderating role of a highly concentrated ownership structure between the characteristics of the board of directors and the performance of takaful insurance, which applies wakalah and hybrid contracts. In addition, this study contributes to takaful insurance by determining the appropriate board characteristics that must be adopted to achieve oversight and improve performance. Regulators should appreciate this contribution to the formulation of suitable approaches for efficiently supervising takaful insurance activities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Shariah governance mechanisms of takaful insurance and their impact on its financial performance.

The effect of Shariah governance mechanisms on financial performance is analyzed over 2012–2018 on a sample of 11 takaful listed insurances in the Middle East region. Using multiple regression models, four hypotheses addressing Shariah governance mechanisms are tested.

The findings generally reveal that Shariah governance has an impact on the financial performance of takaful insurance. The Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) size, the members’ reputation and their qualifications are the main determinants of financial performance for listed takaful insurance.

This paper includes two main limitations that may affect the accuracy of the finding. First, the results are restricted to the Middle East region and may not be generalized to other regions. Second, the sample is dominated by UAE, i.e. 4 takaful insurances out of 11.

Both Shariah governance and regular governance have an impact on the financial performance of takaful insurance. Yet, the effect of Shariah governance is more robust. To improve its financial performance, takaful insurance should expand the size of the SSB, hiring reputable scholars and recruit doctors in Islamic economics.

This research studies takaful insurance, unlike the majority of other works that have focused on Islamic banks.

This article explores the practical difficulties of leadership in a complex and fast‐moving environment. It argues that in the context of the public sector, where stakeholders and legitimate interests are many and varied, the challenge is even greater for leaders. Despite these difficulties, the key is to ensure that they get the right things done with and through other people, whether in the context of day‐to‐day transactional leadership or during periods of transformational change.This article demonstrates that the existence of an explicit, principle‐driven model of leadership is a particularly important vehicle for encouraging distributed leadership, effective partnership and team working.The basis on which leaders adapt their behaviour appropriately to the nature of the task and the people concerned is the measure that will be applied when considering an individual's leadership wisdom. The quality of those choices when faced with decisions will have an immense impact not just on the leader's reputation but also on his or her ability to achieve positive outcomes whilst maintaining an appropriate life balance.