Executive Board Members Research Articles

Nonprofit Service Organizations: Fidelity with Strategic Plans for Financial Survival—Critical Roles for Chief Executive Officers

ABSTRACT This study focuses on two nonprofit health education-advocacy organizations and the impetus and goals for initiating and implementing a strategic plan for financial survival. The study addressed the similarities and differences in implementation processes and the degree of fidelity (adherence) to the plan once implemented. On-site interviews in two different geographic areas were conducted. Content analysis revealed a sense of optimism about the future tempered by sharpened awareness of the need for following a strategic plan for survival driven by the difficulties of fund raising in today's increasingly financially competitive environment. Findings of the study indicate that poststrategic plan fidelity after implementation did exist. Communication between and among chief executive officers and volunteer board members reflects an area for further exploration. The study has important applied implications for the small, financially challenged nonprofit organization.

DO STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT MATTER IN MUNICIPAL ORGANISATIONS?

In Sweden, a large share of public services are organised, produced and delivered by municipalities, large and small, rich and poor. Contextual conditions (size and location) and economic conditions (efficiency and wealth) differ considerably among these service‐providing organisations. The question raised in this paper is whether a municipality's economic situation is a direct consequence of the contextual situation or the organisation's strategy and management – that is: Do strategy and management matter? Our analysis rests on a resource‐based view of organisation strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative observations have been made. First, cost savings data from 50 municipalities were examined for patterns and relationships between contextual and economic conditions. Second, about 100 representatives – municipal executive board members and leading officials – from 20 municipalities with different characteristics were interviewed. In this paper we outline an analytical framework and propose that sound and sustainable provision of municipal service depends on whether organisational decision‐making is in harmony with work methods and objectives. The results indicate that strategy and management do matter. Among the municipalities included in our study, we identify four prevalent basic strategies. Strategy tends to coincide with the economic situation rather than the contextual situation. A low‐performing municipality tends to have a predominantly outward orientation in its decision‐making, whereas a higher‐performing municipality makes decisions with both inward and outward orientation.

Monetary reality and economic adaptability of new entrants to the EU

The New EU entrants have face obstacles such as adjusting to a market economy, integration into The EU, and a single currency, to name a few. One major obstacle is the fact that the voting members consist of the six Executive Board members, and the 12 chairmen of the central banks of the original countries. In any given period this gives two votes to six of the original 12 countries. However, new members have no voting rights. This paper uses the Taylor Rule to determine if the monetary policies of the ECB match the economic realities of the EU new members.

Boston Rocks—Convention Draws More Than 13,000

Boston Rocks—Convention Draws More Than 13,000

The Role for Leaders of Health Care Organizations in Patient Safety

We review what leaders of health care systems, including chief executive officers and board members, need to know to have "patient safety literacy" and do to make their systems safe. High reliability organizations produce reliable results that are not dependent on providers being perfect. Their characteristics include the commitment of leadership to safety as a system responsibility, with a culture of safety that decreases variability with standardized care and does not condone "at-risk behavior." A business case can be made for investing resources into systems that produce good outcomes reliably. Leaders must see patient safety problems as problems with their system, not with their employees. Leaders need to give providers information to make and monitor system progress. All medical errors, including near misses, and processes associated with all adverse events may provide information for system improvement. Improving systems should produce better long-term results than educating workers to be more careful.

High Sierra Industries

High Sierra Industries (HSI) is a not-for-profit (NFP) organization with the dual purpose of being a competitive light manufacturer, while also providing productive jobs for physically and mentally disabled members of the community. This case documents how HSI’s accounting information system (AIS) failed to evolve with organizational needs. Throughout the case, HSI was able to rely upon temporary system fixes each time it faced a system failure. Each temporary fix brings them closer to a debilitating loss of information and business functionality. The case places the reader in the shoes of a student/consultant (SC) who was called upon to help HSI plan its next revision of the AIS. Analysis confirms the need for new software and renewed attention to internal controls. A legitimate debate among corporate directors and officers about priorities resulted in decision-making gridlock. This case consequently draws attention to the role of governance in a NFP and the leadership dynamics necessary for a systems project. The five key stakeholders are the chief executive officer (CEO), operations manager, accountant, an executive board member, and the SC. They need to find a way to move forward. The SC decides to use an evaluation matrix to organize the competing perspectives to help HSI decide on the goals of its first planned system development life cycle.

Eulogy to the Quartet and The Gleaning Platform (Trend and End)

The following two poems are a tribute to honor the four prominent Igbo Scholars who have passed away, and whose works touch most directly on the area of Igbo culture and identity: Prof Don Ohadike, convener of the first Igbo Studies Association conference at Ithaca, Prof Ikenna Nzimiro, member of Dialectical Anthropology’s international editorial board, Prof Victor Uchendu, author of the classic ethnography, The Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria, and most recently, Prof Michael Mbabuike, executive board member of Dialectical Anthropology.

Can directors of public health implement the new public health agenda in primary care? A case study of Primary Care Trusts in the North West of England

The appointment of directors of public health (DsPH) to the Primary Care Trust(PCT) boards to work jointly with the local authorities in addressing health inequalitiesre”ects the adoption of a multidimensional perspective of public health,and a shift inpolicy focus from treatment to illness prevention.Neo-institutional theory of change isapplied to discuss “ndings obtained from a postal questionnaire with all DsPH (n=40)and qualitative interviews with executive and non-executive board members in “vePCTs in the NorthWest of England,and to conclude that public health potential maynot be ful“lled because of pressures outside the public health area and the lack ofcapacity in the PCTs.

The patron

The patron

Movers and Shakers, Then and Now

WHAT truly shakes up the education field? How does real change begin? I asked myself all sorts of questions like these after reading the results of a recent Education Week survey that rated which people, groups, reports, and media have the most influence on education policy. The survey really raised more questions than it answered. I agree with Alex Russo's observation on his website that there is a difference between influence and prestige, and the results of this survey really said more about prestige. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), for example, is our only national indicator of overall student achievement. Thus it has a lot of prestige. The survey respondents picked it as the most influential resource, but I can't think of any significant policies that can be attributed directly to NAEP. What I consider the most important influence on public policy in the last half century--the judicial system--didn't even make the list. Nor can I see any way that Bill Gates deserves to be named as the most influential person affecting policy. The small-school movement existed long before the Gates Foundation endorsed it, and not much state policy with regard to small schools has showed up since the Gates money made its appearance. Meanwhile, federal policy has fizzled out. When the Gates Foundation realized that just being smaller did not guarantee successful schools, it moved on to such other issues as systemic district reforms. Some governors took up Bill Gates' call for high school reform, but we don't know yet if stiffer high school graduation requirements will produce the kind of fundamental changes that he called for last year. More than 10 years ago Congress (also listed high on influence) decided to invest in building-level, comprehensive school reform. This move encouraged and sustained dozens of reform initiatives, such as Success for All, Accelerated Schools, America's Choice, and the Talent Development High School. But recent research on both elementary and secondary comprehensive reforms has found that only a few of the models improved student achievement and then only moderately. Most had not produced any change whatsoever. So, what does make a difference in education policy? Unlike the business sector, which can order change ranging from total quality management, to downsizing, to outsourcing and, consequently, can change the culture of an organization or a sector, the public sector changes policies slowly and only with great difficulty. Often, the changes are the result not of clear and forceful action but, rather, of political compromise. Even with all its perceived clout, the No Child Left Behind Act is mired in controversy and resistance and does not seem to be as much of a vehicle for improving student outcomes as its supporters anticipated. There aren't any ready answers to these questions. But I do know of some examples of how change comes about. Many years ago, I sat in a hotel room in Las Vegas, listening to the female members of the National Association of State Boards of Education hatching a plot. They wanted to break the monopoly control of the organization by white men and decided to outmaneuver them by promoting the candidacy of an executive board member who was not only female but also black. This was a bold political move, and it worked. In this little group were a future state legislator and a future state superintendent. A few years later, I heard about another small group of change makers: state superintendents who wanted to wrest control of their organization from a backward-looking tyrant of an executive. At a fly-in meeting in an East Coast airport, they decided on a strategy to remove executive board members, one by one. In a short time, they had enabled a more progressive organization to evolve. …

Were verbal efforts to support the euro effective? A high-frequency analysis of ECB statements

Using high-frequency euro–dollar exchange rates, we examine the effects of efforts by euro area central bankers to verbally support the euro. Based on a direction, a smoothing and a volatility criterion, we find little evidence that ECB verbal interventions were effective. The most important determinant of effectiveness is whether or not the verbal intervention is captured in the news report headline. Verbal interventions that coincide with releases of macroeconomic data are followed by lower exchange rate volatility. There is no difference in the effects of comments by ECB Executive Board members and NCB presidents.

Editorial

In 2006, the journal continued to grow, enjoying increasing recognition as a source of timely, reliable and valuable research information ranging across the full spectrum of food and agricultural research. Articles in our wide remit of subjects are submitted in ever-increasing numbers each year. The innovation, quality and popularity of papers continues to increase—one of the most frequently downloaded articles from the past year was a paper evaluating, for the first time, the spectral properties of juvenile and adult olive leaves by NIRS,1 which could contribute to a much faster screening technique in olive breeding programs. Another paper on rapid determination of trace elements in kidney beans, lentils and chickpeas2 was also among some of the most top-accessed articles in 2006. Thanks to the efforts of the SCI Publications department and of course the submission of ground-breaking and interesting research papers, the journal has enjoyed a significant increase in attention from the press. Highlights include a paper by Ghosh et al. on the protective effects of boysenberries and blackcurrants from oxidative stress and DNA damage,3 an article by Neto et al. on the anticancer properties of cranberry extract4 and a paper by Topping et al. investigating the possible transfer of latex allergens from food wrapper adhesives to the contained food.5 A recent paper by Lagunas-Solar et al.6 describing an interesting new method for disinfection and disinfestation of agricultural produce that avoids the use of potentially harmful chemicals also received some coverage. The year closed with the publication of an assortment of special issues and popular front matter articles. We continue to source and publish thought-provoking perspective articles, such as Addiscott's piece on nitrates in food7, and put out Review articles of great significance, such as Mueller-Harvey's paper on tannins in animal feed.8 Publication of Special Issues, such as the NEODIET issues of 2000 and 2001, provide reviews of lasting significance, evidenced by the frequency with which reviews in these issues are still accessed. Our recent ‘Enzymes in Grain Processing’ Special Issue, tackling the issues surrounding enzyme use in cereals—the core of human and animal nutrition—promises to be another such contribution to the scientific literature. In addition to Special Issues, 2006 marked the launch of the In Focus section, in which an issue commences with several coordinated reviews on a chosen theme. Two recent In Focus series of papers, ‘The Future of Sustainable Materials for Industry’ and ‘Polyphenols and Health’, have met with high acclaim. Our developing policy of commissioning both the Perspectives and Review articles from world-class authors should continue to raise the profile of JSFA in the competitive landscape of science publishing. Meanwhile, behind the scenes in the Editorial Office, we have migrated to a new version of the manuscript handling system, Manuscript Central v.3, that we hope will lead to an improved service to our authors. The journal would like to offer its sincere thanks to those who, owing to other commitments, resigned as Associate Editors from the Board in 2006. JSFA warmly welcomes to our family the new Associate Editors who joined last year to help strengthen our expertise in various fields. We also have a new Executive Board member—Dr Bo Jiang, who is Professor of Food Science and Associate Dean of the School of Food Science and Technology, Southern Yangtze University, China. Bo's research areas are food enzymology and functional food, with a focus on purification and properties of enzymes and immobilization, placing him in a good position to head the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology section of the journal. We would like to thank all members of the Board for their invaluable contributions in 2006 and look forward to working with them in 2007 to further develop the journal. Peer review is a fundamental aspect of improving the quality of JSFA and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have given their time to referee papers for JSFA (please see the acknowledgement list) in the past year. We welcome your views and suggestions on how to improve the journal for the future and we hope you continue to read and value JSFA in the coming year.

PIMA Code of Ethics for Pacific Islands Museums and Cultural Centres—Canberra, Australia, February 2006

The Pacific Islands Museums Association (PIMA) has existed as an Affiliated Organisation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 1998. PIMA and its members fully endorse and support the ICOM Code of Ethics. In addition, PIMA is proud to produce this specialised code for professional museum work particularly adapted to the values of Pacific Islands Museums and Cultural Centres.Please Note: This Code of Ethics was developed during a special session of the Pacific Museums in Sustainable Heritage Development Workshop, held at the Australian National University in Canberra during February 2006. The facilitation was expertly co-chaired by PIMA Executive Board Members, Lawrence Foana'ota (Director, Solomon Islands National Museum) and Ralph Regenvanu (Director, Vanuatu Cultural Centre) with the assistance of Bernice Murphy (Chair, ICOM Ethics Committee) and Professor Amareswar Galla (Director of Graduate Studies in Sustainable Heritage Development, The Australian National University and Vice President, ICOM). The Workshop was convened by the Pacific Asia Observatory for Cultural Diversity in Human Development and the Cross Cultural Taskforce of ICOM. For details visit: www.pacificasiaobservatory.org

Is a Word to the Wise Indeed Enough? ECB Statements and the Predictability of Interest Rate Decisions

We show that comments by euro area central bankers contain information on future ECB interest rate decisions, but that the comments mainly reflect recent developments in macroeconomic variables. Furthermore, models using only communication variables are outperformed by straightforward Taylor rule models. During the first years of the European Economic and Monetary Union, comments by ECB Executive Board members and high-level Bundesbank policy-makers were more informative than comments by national central bank presidents. We also find that differences of opinion were informative when they concerned the outlook for economic growth. Finally, our results suggest that the ECB used communication especially to signal interest rate increases.

Alex Johnson: 2006 ASHA President

Alex Johnson: 2006 ASHA President

Im Parteiauftrag: Herbert Warnke an der Spitze des FDGB

This essay looks at how Herbert Warnke, 1948–1975 chairman of the federale executive board FDGB and member of the SED- (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) leadership, thought and behaved in the political scenery of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and how he understood his own role. The article focuses on the divergence between individuality and communist party-discipline. Another problem is the applicability of idea “elite” for the FDGB-leadership. Answer upon this is abiding ambiguous. Warnke’s politcal career was exemplary referring to this: Party-discipline on the one hand, and frequently to run withdrawal in private life otherwise.

The Gendered Stereotype of the ‘Good Manager’ Sex Role Expectations towards Male and Female Managers

mrev management revue , Seite 104 - 121

Foucault, feminists and funders: A study of power and policy in feminist organisations

The article explores the relationships of feminist organisers with government policy makers and within their own organisations. Based on a qualitative study of eight directors and eight board members of grassroots feminist organisations, this paper examines how the funder (State) and the women (executive directors and board members) interact and exercise power. Using a Foucauldian post-structuralist lens, the article contributes to an understanding of power, discourse, policy, and learning.

A new ‘Aims and Scope’ for 2005

The past year has been very successful for JCTB. The migration to the online submission and tracking system, Manuscript Central, is now complete and has significantly decreased the time from submission to decision for authors and the associated costs. Environmental and Sustainable Technology Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Process Technology Industrial Catalysis and Biocatalysis Industrial Application of New and Emerging Technologies JCTB will be commissioning a series of reviews in 2005 to reflect these changes. JCTB still continues to welcome quality research and review papers that may fall outside the main scope. The journal would like to offer its sincere thanks to Dr Gary Lye who, owing to his other commitments, has resigned as Technical Editor from the Executive Board in 2004. JCTB warmly welcomes two new Executive Board members—Dr Frank Baganz and Dr Eric Thwaites. Dr Baganz is a lecturer at University College of London; his research is mainly concerned with the application of metabolic pathway engineering to improve the cellular characteristics of microorganisms by using a combination of metabolic modelling and fermentation studies. Dr Eric Thwaites is currently responsible for designing and implementing large-scale purification processes for protein, enzyme, polysaccharide and biopolymer products, at Novozymes in Denmark. A number of Editorial Board members have retired during the last year and we would like to acknowledge and offer sincere thanks and appreciation for their service to JCTB and their dedication to the journal; it is also an opportunity to welcome the new Editorial Board members. Everyone associated with the journal is committed to maintaining the relevance and high standards of the papers published and we would like to thank the Board for their contribution in 2004. JCTB particularly welcomes review and mini-review articles and has introduced a new section, entitled ‘Technical Notes’, to provide readers with useful information on techniques and processes that do not justify publication as a full research paper. Refereeing of papers is a vital role in maintaining the quality of the journal and it is a pleasure to thank and acknowledge all those who have reviewed papers for JCTB (please see the acknowledgement list). It is appreciated that it is you, the scientist, as a reader and author who maintains the quality of JCTB and we welcome your views and suggestions on how to improve the title for the future. We hope you continue to use and value JCTB in the coming year.

NAPNAP updates

NAPNAP updates