The development of political skill and political capital by global leaders through global assignments

The purpose of this paper is to explain how developing global leaders through global assignments (i.e. in the form of expatriation and inpatriation) may lead to their acquisition of valuable political skill and political capital. First, using the theoretical frame of political influence theory, the benefit of political skill is explained relative to the development and augmentation of global leaders' capital portfolio during global assignments. Second, a distinction between social capital and political capital, as the integral components of global leader's capital portfolio, is made. In conclusion, the value of acquiring political skill and building human, cultural, social and political capital by global leaders is discussed separately for expatriate and inpatriate assignments.     

Among leaders and territories: the political networks of the district councillors in Naples

This work describes the role of the district councillors of Naples, through an analysis of their relational networks. District councils are the result of the administrative decentralization of the major Italian municipalities. During a 2 year field research study, I gathered 387 semi-structured interviews with the councillors and 35 unstructured interviews with a set of key informants. In order to increase the understanding of the political networks, I have also collected information through direct observation of the councillors meetings and activities. The analysis combines qualitative and quantitative data. At a formal level, district councillors don’t have any actual power, but, in practice, they gain important social capital resources by playing a brokerage role between political patrons and their potential clients. I provide evidence that, on one side, they hold strong ties with the higher level politicians; and, on the other side, they play a fundamental role in taking care of the voters and collecting the electoral consensus. In conclusion, I argue that the district councillors of Naples perform the tasks which were previously carried out by the traditional party organizations, assuming the role of the “new” professionals of grass roots politics.     

经济责任审计系列专题研讨(三)部门党政领导干部任期经济责任审计的内容与方法

开展部门党政领导干部任期经济责任审计工作,是贯彻江泽民同志"三个代表"重要思想的具体措施和有效保证,是加强干部管理和监督工作的一个重要环节,是促进领导干部廉洁勤政,从源头上预防和治理腐败的一项重要举措,是推进依法行政、依法治国的有效手段.     

TRAP abortion laws and partisan political party control of state government

Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (or TRAP) laws impose medically unnecessary and burdensome regulations solely on abortion providers in order to make abortion services more expensive and difficult to obtain. Using event history analysis, this article examines the determinants of the enactment of a TRAP law by states over the period 1974–2008. The empirical results find that Republican institutional control of a state's legislative/executive branches is positively associated with a state enacting a TRAP law, while Democratic institutional control is negatively associated with a state enacting a TRAP law. The percentage of a state's population that is Catholic, public anti-abortion attitudes, state political ideology, and the abortion rate in a state are statistically insignificant predictors of a state enacting a TRAP law. The empirical results are consistent with the hypothesis that abortion is a redistributive issue and not a morality issue.     

Organizations undertaking complex projects in uncertain environments

Recent evidence suggests that firms’ environments are becoming more complex and uncertain. This paper investigates the relationship between the complexity of a firm’s activities, environmental uncertainty and organizational structure. We assume agents are arranged hierarchically, but decisions can be made at different levels. We model a firm’s activity set as a modified NK landscape. Via simulations, we find that centralized decision making generates a higher payoff in more complex and uncertain environments, and that a flatter structure is better for the organization with centralized decision making, provided the cost of information processing is low enough. Financial Support from Zengin Foundation for Studies on Economics and Finance is gratefully acknowledged.     

A theory of autocratic transition by government leaders: prerequisites to self-enforcing democracy

Economics of Governance - This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the conditions of self-enforcing democracy by analyzing the recent wave of autocratic transitions. Based on a...     

Policy Role of Social Media in Developing Public Trust: Twitter communication with government leaders

Citizens’ trust in a government is critical when the government utilizes Twitter to communicate with the public. This research collected 398 questionnaire samples from Korean citizens who communicate with a central government department via Twitter and employed a structured equation analysis. The study discovered that tweets coming from a leading (or an executive) government officer (e.g., a minister) played mediation role in increasing citizens’ perception of credibility in governmental Twitter feed. Furthermore, the citizens’ trust in governmental media functioned as a moderator for expanding their trust in government from an agency level to the overall government.     

The impact of political connections on government bailout: the 2008 credit crunch in the United States

Why is there so little money in contributions to political action committees (PAC) in United States’ politics? While there may be several explanations for this puzzle, we consider corporate PAC contributions as an insurance-like instrument that induces firms’ expectations of safeguard at times of grave need, with the 2008 credit crunch as a case in point. Given the unlikely occurrence of a credit crunch, few financial firms invest in PAC contributions. However, we find firms that make PAC contributions may gain ex ante benefits of corporate PACs as protection from financial distress by undertaking profitable but risky projects that later become illiquid assets while requiring the bailout money during the 2008 credit crunch. We also find that both consistent PAC investments over election cycles and subsequent lobbying activity to corporate PACs further allow firms to utilize their political ties as safeguard and demand additional bailout money. Our instrumental variable analysis confirms that firms with prior experience in political investments are found to enhance the likelihood and effectiveness of PAC contributions and related political investments.     

Developing a sustainability ethic in leaders

The triple bottom line of fiscal, social, and environmental success considerably alters how organizations (and stakeholders) measure sustainable success. More important, however, is the conceptual shift required to understand and successfully lead organizations within this increasingly accepted paradigm. This article uses a mixed‐methods approach to explore the conceptual development of a sustainability ethic in aspiring leaders. More specifically, the authors report research examining the curriculum and pedagogy of a leadership education effort, in this case a college‐level course, aimed at effecting change in both individual aspiring leaders and their immediate community. The article describes the philosophical and research base for the curriculum and specific activities with their pedagogical approach. Results show evidence of increased awareness, importance, and commitment to sustainability as well as changes in how students conceptualize sustainability leadership. Findings offer insights for further developing leadership education for sustainability.     

Perceptions and outcomes of a managerial coaching certificate program: Educational leaders vs. business leaders

Educational leaders face unprecedented changes in developing new strategies and processes that improve teacher effectiveness, student performance, and administrators' professional development. Coaching is a way to improve and increase performance. Educators are in a position to take advantage of coaching as used by business leaders all over the world. This study examined the effectiveness of a coaching model designed for managers in a college of business. The study included both educational (n = 5) and business leaders (n = 30). It examined their perceptions and outcomes of their participation. The results strongly support the efficacy of this coaching model.     

企业教练型领导与员工创新行为的实证研究

企业领导的行为对员工的工作状态和工作效率,甚至个人发展都有着重要的关联作用,而员工的自身发展对企业的发展又有着重要的影响。企业员工个人对企业的影响作用可以通过其创新能力,创新行为的实施表现出来。然而在企业员工的日常工作当中,员工的心理资本是影响其创新行为实施的重要因素。由此看来,企业领导的教练行为、企业员工的心理资本、企业员工的创新行为的实施,这三者之间有着密不可分的关系,对企业的发展也存在着深远影响。     

Narcissistic leaders and corporate cash Holdings: Evidence in China

We use a sample of Chinese firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong over the period 2007–2018 to examine the relationship between narcissistic leadership and corporate cash holdings. We find that narcissistic leaders seek to attract public attention and promote self-image by overinvestments that reduce cash holdings. We also show that narcissistic leaders have better access to bank loans and lower loan cost, prompting them to hold less cash. The negative effect of narcissistic leaders on cash holdings is more pronounced at private firms than at SOEs. In addition, narcissistic leaders negatively affect the firm value. We contribute to the literature on leader narcissism, cash holdings, and corporate governance in emerging market contexts.     

government and the PSBR

The government has changed its view of how to gauge the size of the budget deficit. Nick Parsons and David Coleman, of Union Discount, argue that this change is an ill-omen for the control of public spending.     

Managers, leaders, and teams in a team-based environment

In order to succeed in today's dynamic environment, abundant with corporate restructuring and downsizing, into what must today's manager transform? Part of the answer lies in "leadership." Some managers are leaders, some leaders are managers, but the two are not synonymous. There are notable differences between managers and leaders, particularly in the role each plays in the transition towards organizations that are customer-focused, empowered, and team-based. The evolution towards team-based organizations begins with three different, concurrent transitions: of managers into leaders, of employees into teammates, and of functional hierarchical organizations into those of team empowerment.     

Centralisation and decentralisation in local government bargaining

The system of pay bargaining in local government has been subjected to conflicting pressures, both from employers and trade unions, since the second half of the 1970s. The author argues that these difficulties will intensify under the increasing financial stress which local government is experiencing.     

Environmental leaders: making a difference. A typology of environmental leaders and recommendations for a differentiated policy approach

In the literature, environmental leaders are often implicitly considered as a homogeneous group of companies. In addition, this proposition underlies much public policymaking that is aimed at supporting companies that go green'. A recent exploratory study conducted in the Netherlands however revealed that environmental leaders are often rather heterogeneous – even if they operate in the same sector. Differences are particularly related to incentives for and barriers to environmental leadership. In this paper we develop a typology of environmental leaders and provide recommendations for a differentiated and more effective public policy approach to supporting environmental leaders. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Abstention and political competition

The classical literature on spatial majority voting postulates that all citizens vote. The Median Voter Theorem (MVT) then obtains when parties have perfect information on voter behavior and are either office-seekers (“Downsian”) or ideological. This paper introduces abstention, a simple yet realistic modification. We show that the main features of the MVT survive to a large extent but subject to some qualifications. First, the winning policy does not bear any necessary relation to the median voter. Second, there exist examples in which the candidates choose different positions at equilibrium. Third, equilibrium may fail to exist or be unique. Finally, the equilibria of the model with office-motivated parties may differ from the ones where parties are ideological. Received: 18 September 1999 / Accepted: 31 January 2000     

Complexity in local government change

Abstract

This article discusses empirical research findings indicating that complexity is a dominant characteristic in local government change and addresses that the current complexity sets limits to rational reform processes and gives way to political leadership.

During the recent decade, intermunicipal co-operation has emerged as a major issue in local governance in Finland. Despite the fact that the need for intense co-operation is acknowledged in most surveys, practical steps are often difficult to take due to complexity of the interorganizational action. Actors come upon complex situations involving many issues; situations where the issues are continuously changing and complicatedly interdependent. Circumstances are further blurred by the fact that actors often hide their preferences.

In the changing local governance, complexity, paradoxes and uncertainty decrease the prospective of managerial and expert knowledge, because rational calculations do not give definitive support for decision making. From this perspective, we have reached the limits of rational, clear-cut reforming. More than before, the implementation of change depends on the emergence of political leaders willing and able to take responsibility for reforms.