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The expansion of alternative education, globally, has coincided with a shift towards greater accountability for ensuring educational access and opportunity, high academic standards and increased graduation rates. While studies suggest the pervasive influence of accountability may be redefining how school leaders provide meaningful learning experiences and facilitating high achievement, little is known about school leaders of alternative schools administering accountability polices. If there are inconsistencies between meaningful learning experiences for at‐risk students and performance‐based standards outcomes, this may suggest issues around equity and alternative schools that should be evaluated. Using a theoretical frame of policy implementation, specifically the authoritative design of policy and social constructs of compliance, this study aims to examine how alternative school leaders implement accountability policies.

This cross‐case study employs a qualitative thematic strategy of data analysis in conjunction with Fairclough's three‐dimensional framework of discourse analysis to examine how seven school leaders at five alternative schools in California and Texas interpret and administer accountability policy.

The theme of reconciliation: tension between compliance and innovation was revealed from the data. The discourses surrounding the nature of students at risk and policy compliance converged, creating a notion that alternative school leaders were losing their autonomy as knowing what is best for their students amidst increasing accountability standards.

While many of the administrators are positioned by their districts to act as an at‐risk student expert when designing or sustaining academic and social programs at their respective alternative schools, they are in the process of losing some of their autonomy because of the pressures derived from accountability standards. However, school leaders continue to take responsive and reflexive actions to create distance between their settings and accountability policy in order to protect their students and schools from external pressures.

The study presents original findings in the area of accountability policy implementation in alternative school settings. This work suggests that the social constructs of compliance and student risk factors converge with the authoritative nature of accountability policy. In turn, tension was created for alternative school leaders as they consider what is best for at‐risk students.

Historically, South Africa’s apartheid policies had a negative effect on the financial performance of the South African beverage industry. This effect was characterised by the non‐participation of South African companies in the global market and the presence of foreign enterprises in the domestic market. From 1994, South African industries have been increasingly exposed to new opportunities and forces. Globalisation, deregulation, changing manufacturing systems and the entry of foreign competitors in the 1990s exposed the local industry to competitive challenges in the domestic and the global market. This study examined the impact of changing levels of competition on the performance of strategic business units and the mediating role of management accounting in the South African beverage industry. The methodology employed to investigate this relationship comprised both a survey and a case study. The results indicate a positive correlation between the level of competition and the performance of business units. The results furthermore indicate that enterprises can utilise a management accounting system (MAS) as a strategic response to competition. The increased use of MAS will, in turn, improve the performance of an enterprise. Enterprises that do not respond positively to competition will not survive.

Employee Stock Options [ESOs] have been used widely as a component of employees' compensation. To maximise the incentive effect of these options it is very important to understand the exercise decision of the employees. This is an important financial decision that is dependent on both rational and psychological factors. This paper aims to study the mediating role of Herding Bias on Personality Traits and the employees' decision to exercise ESOs.

The data were collected through a self-structured questionnaire from 210 employees of Banks and NBFCs [Non-Banking Financial Companies] who have received and exercised the ESOs. SPSS MACRO version 25 was used to understand the mediational effect of Herding Bias on Personality Traits and Employees' decision to exercise their ESOs.

The results showed that Personality Traits affect the employees' decision to exercise their ESOs. The study also shows a partial negative mediating effect of Herding Bias on Personality Traits and employees' decision to exercise ESOs.

Limited study has been conducted on how the employees make their decision to exercise ESOs. Although extant studies have touched upon the importance of including behavioural biases in ascertaining the exercise decision of the employees, the predictors of the behavioural biases have not been studied under this context. To the best of the author's knowledge, this study is the first in itself to study the inter-linkage between Personality Traits, Herding Bias and employees' decision to exercise ESOs.

This paper aims to explore how opportunities for learning clinical skills are negotiated within bedside teaching encounters (BTEs). Bedside teaching, within the medical workplace, is considered essential for helping students develop their clinical skills.

An audio and/or video observational study examining seven general practice BTEs was undertaken. Additionally, audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants. All data were transcribed. Data analysis comprised Framework Analysis informed by Engeström’s Cultural Historical Activity Theory.

BTEs can be seen to offer many learning opportunities for clinical skills. Learning opportunities are negotiated by the participants in each BTE, with patients, doctors and students playing different roles within and across the BTEs. Tensions emerged within and between nodes and across two activity systems.

Negotiation of clinical skills learning opportunities involved shifts in the use of artefacts, roles and rules of participation, which were tacit, dynamic and changing. That learning is constituted in the activity implies that students and teachers cannot be fully prepared for BTEs due to their emergent properties. Engaging doctors, students and patients in reflecting on tensions experienced and the factors that influence judgements in BTEs may be a useful first step in helping them better manage the roles and responsibilities therein.

The paper makes an original contribution to the literature by highlighting the tensions inherent in BTEs and how the negotiation of roles and division of labour whilst juggling two interacting activity systems create or inhibit opportunities for clinical skills learning. This has significant implications for how BTEs are conceptualised.

The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of corporate governance systems in enhancing earnings quality during the recent global financial crisis (GFC). The literature provides insight into the corporate governance–accruals quality relationship during periods of relative financial stability. However, little is known about periods of unexpected financial shocks such as the GFC.

The sample consists of 340 companies (1,020 firm years) listed on the ASX during 2007-2009. Factor analysis is used to compute corporate governance factors. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) is used to test the impact of pre-GFC corporate governance on accruals quality during the GFC.

Consistent with prior research, the findings suggest that good corporate governance is positively related to accruals quality before the GFC. More importantly, the impact of good governance intensifies during the GFC, where the mitigating role of governance is arguably under pressure. Furthermore, during the GFC, good corporate governance also affects the level of asset impairment.

The study provides empirical evidence that the relationship between good corporate governance practices and accruals quality is amplified during the GFC. The results support the efforts of market regulators to improve the governance of companies and make them stronger during financial crises.

The study is an important addition to corporate governance research because it tests governance dynamics in a unique crisis period and establishes that corporate governance structures are effective when most needed.

The aim of this study is to better understand how principals in Turkey perceive and navigate overwhelming stress and to identify leadership practices that enable coping with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A qualitative case study was used to gain an in-depth understanding of the stress factors, coping strategies and leadership experiences that the principals faced during the pandemic through semi-structured interviews with 12 school principals.

The results of the research showed that the stressors perceived by the principals were reflected in their leadership practices. The leadership practices of the principals in this period were interpreted as their reactions to perceived stressors. In addition, ensuring the self-care and well-being of principals has been evaluated as a prerequisite for successful crisis leadership. Leadership practices that are effective in achieving crisis leadership in the context of the pandemic are explained.

Implications were made for the development of a comprehensive theory of crisis leadership that focuses on the well-being of school leaders and the development of leadership skills. Further empirical research on how leadership is achieved in different types of crises is recommended.

Our research contributes to the existing knowledge and school leaders about how crisis leadership is achieved by revealing the complexity and multidimensional structure of school leadership in the context of the pandemic.