Does More Corporate Governance Enhance Managerial Performance? CFO Perceptions And The Role Of Mindfulness

Abstract

The results of studies into the effects of enhanced governance structures have been equivocal and there is virtually no literature on the performance effects of individual managers, such as the professional accountant in practice. This paper reports the results of an empirical study designed to assess the relationship of governance structures, specifically the conformance and performance dimensions defined by the International Federation of Accountants (2009), to mindfulness and managerial performance among CFOs in Canadian firms. Organizational theory describing high reliability organizations provides the theoretical framework for specifying and appraising capacity for mindfulness. As predicted, there is no significant direct relationship between governance and managerial performance for the conformance dimension; instead, this relationship is explained by the path through capacity for mindfulness and on to managerial performance, both of which are positively significant. Likewise, there is no significant relationship between governance and managerial performance for the conformance dimension; however, although there is a significant path between the performance dimension and capacity for mindfulness, the path from the latter to managerial performance is insignificant. Implicating the powerful role of the controllability principle in accounting may explain this unexpected finding.