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The purpose of the paper is to provide an informed but personal view on the debate surrounding the role of the non‐executive director and the board.

The approach is that of a practitioner recruiting non‐executive directors. The author offers a personal view.

The author has had extensive discussions with both chairmen and non‐executive directors of FTSE companies and the views in the paper reflect these discussions.

The value of the paper is to stimulate debate and to promote a realistic climate within which business can operate effectively.

Managers and executives joining an organisation represent a significant investment, yet few organisations have developed processes that help an executive move successfully into the new role. Why allocating resources to integrating a newly hired executive is imperative is explored, together with key steps in the integration process; and a series of critical questions on which newly hired executives should reflect. Also a comprehensive model of the executive integration process is outlined. The latter covers the three basic stages in the integration: reality testing; building rapport; and defining success, as well as the critical constituencies; boss, team, organ‐isation, and wider community. The author′s experience of working with senior executives, initially as a consultant and currently as Vice President, Management Development, for the Lawson Mardon Group, a billion‐dollar international printing and packaging conglomerate based in Toronto, Canada is also drawn upon.

Executive courage is an important cultural variable that influences the survival of a business organization in an increasingly competitive global business environment. This study presents the results of an empirical cross‐cultural investigation of executive courage. Forty American and 29 Arab executives participated in the study. Nine hypotheses were tested. Results indicated that the two samples exhibited significant differences with regard to their perceptions of the dimensions of executive courage, the role of executive courage in today's business organization, the relative importance of personal growth and personal courage, and the interaction between executive courage and the organizational reward system. It is concluded that executive courage is a positive cross‐cultural force, deserving careful consideration by researchers and practitioners. It is also concluded that business organizations can best serve their need for survival by rewarding those who seek to do the right things, rather than those who do the expected things right.

The purpose of this paper is to find the key influence factors of executive compensation within China ports and listed shipping companies and provide some reasonable suggestions. Eventually, help to perfect the executive compensation evaluation mechanism against the background of new area.

Grey correlation analysis is an important part of grey system theory. Professor Liu Sifeng further studies the relationship between two sequences absolute increment on the basis of Deng’s degree and put forward the “Grey absolute correlation degree,” which is widely used in practice. In the study, on the basis of the area of the line between sequences size, it measures the correlation degrees of firm performance, executive stock holding, continuous growth capacity and other relevant factors of executive payment in China ports and listed shipping companies.

The paper concludes that the main factors influence CEO salary in China ports and listed shipping companies are return on equity and growth rate of fixed assets. However, the authors consider the frequent occurrence of executives’ corruption in China listed state-owned enterprise under the environment of financial and economic crisis, the authors argue that the significant influence of net assets attributed to shareholders cannot be ignored. In addition, cash flow in operating activities and executive stock holding both have relatively important effect on executive compensation.

This paper still has some limitations. First, it merely takes into account the financial indicators and ignores the influence of non-financial indicators to the performance evaluation of listed companies, such as: innovation ability, human capital and goodwill. Second, it has not considered the power consumption and other types of “invisible income” in the executive compensation structure, neither the influence of investing and financing activities on corporate performance. Consequently, these are likely to cause a certain deviation to the results of the study.

The outcome obtained in this paper can be provided for China ports and listed shipping companies to establish a reasonable executive compensation evaluation and incentive mechanism under the background of depressed shipping market.

This paper intends to use correlation analysis between firm performance, executive stock holding, sustainability and executive compensation in the new area of time, tries to make a greater contribution to the major component of salary policy and then make some suggestions on incentive supervising and restraining mechanisms for the ports and listed shipping firms in China.

Although scholars have done many studies about the association analysis of executive compensation and firm performance, they neglect the economic environment of industry. Meanwhile, considering the non-financial indicators and incomplete information, this paper studies the grey correlation analysis of executive compensation and influence factors in China ports and listed shipping firms under the background of the Chinese flagging shipping industry.

Executive information systems (EIS) are relatively new, Windows‐based software products which enable executives to access information easily. Historically, executives have been reluctant to use computers, principally because they did not know how and had no inclination to learn about them. Executives must have timely and accurate information to make effective decisions. EIS gives them this information by allowing them to access internal and external databases for information in a summarized form, then drill down on a specific area to see backup detail. As modern organizations reduce the workforce to implement cost‐cutting measures in a difficult economy, executives find themselves in a position of attempting to maintain or increase efficiency with fewer employees. Increasingly, they turn to technology to fill this gap, relying on various information systems including EIS.

Suggests that most executive support systems are designed to support executives’ information and communication needs. The cognitive aspect of executive support has received relatively little attention in the field of decisions support systems. Focuses on the cognitive aspect of executive work and discusses three types of executive thinking: retrospective, introspective, and prospective. Proposes a three‐mode conceptual model for executive support systems design.

Executive education can be a powerful catalyst for both personal and organisational development. How corporations are utilising this potential was the subject of an international study of executive education trends among the Fortune 300, Fortune Service 100, and Fortune International 100 firms. The results of the study reflect expanding corporate support for executive education, both on an in‐company basis and through university‐based programmes. The results also suggest some interesting comparisons among the executive education practices of the three survey population subgroupings.

Reports the beginning of a process for identifying significant skills in the recruitment, development and retention of high calibre public sector executives. Focuses on the qualities which will be of significance in the public sector in the year 2000 and beyond. Compares the research available on both public and private sector executive qualities. Argues that there are differences in the qualities required of public and private sector executives. Suggests that a set of qualities specific to the public sector should be the basis of executive recruitment and development to ensure high level public sector executive performance.

Examines the role of non‐executive directors. Argues that there is universal agreement on the need for outsiders to be involved in company direction and that shareholders are not able to provide the necessary checks and balances to supervise board activities. Examines research on the system of non‐executive directors. Argues that there is a need to develop procedures to select non‐executives that are rigorous and add value. Concludes that non‐executive directors will have increasing influence on company direction.

A broad perspective on the trends and issues in executive education is provided. Some insights into the outcomes of the 1989 Conference of University Executive Program Directors are given. Together with a discussion of executive programme assessment, the impact of executive programmes is evaluated by assessing the extent to which the programme content and process is tailored to meet individual learning needs.