Henley Management College Research Articles

Bureaucratic Limits of Firm Size: Empirical Analysis Using Transaction Cost Economics

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration and awarded by Brunel University on behalf of Henley Management College

Evaluation of an action learning programme for leadership development of SME leaders in the UK

This paper presents the findings from an evaluation research project undertaken by Henley Management College in 2006. This project followed an earlier research study that focused on identifying the leadership development needs for leaders of small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, developed a leadership development model and made recommendations for a leadership development programme. The principle challenges facing the SME organisations overwhelmingly concerned leading change in their organisation. Their personal challenges concerned implementing change initiatives, communicating these and motivating the people in their organisation. In consideration of the challenges identified, one of the key recommendations was to pilot an action learning programme and evaluate the effectiveness of action learning to develop leadership skills in SME leaders. Henley Management College then conducted a research project to evaluate the pilot programme. This pilot consisted of three learning sets, run in three geographical areas in the UK and facilitated using three very different styles. Following the pilot programme, there were several wider reviews by academics, advisors and representatives of relevant government boards. This has since resulted in a significant programme of action learning for SME leadership development being implemented. This paper provides an overview of the relevant literature and research methodology and then presents the evaluation results from the pilot programme. The dominant theme was that action learning does indeed deliver significant business benefits and provides a real opportunity for SME leaders to develop their leadership skills.

The New Shareholder Activists: how can boards create more value? A review of the 9th International Conference on Corporate Governance and Board Leadership, Henley, October 2006

Corporate Governance: An International ReviewVolume 15, Issue 6 p. 1026-1029 The New Shareholder Activists: how can boards create more value? A review of the 9th International Conference on Corporate Governance and Board Leadership, Henley, October 2006 Bernard Taylor, Corresponding Author Bernard Taylor Centre for Board Effectiveness, Henley Management College *Centre for Board Effectiveness, Henley Management College, Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 3AU. Tel: +44 (0)1491 418877; Fax: +44 (0)1491 571574; E-mail: lesley.quelch@henleymc.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author Bernard Taylor, Corresponding Author Bernard Taylor Centre for Board Effectiveness, Henley Management College *Centre for Board Effectiveness, Henley Management College, Greenlands, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 3AU. Tel: +44 (0)1491 418877; Fax: +44 (0)1491 571574; E-mail: lesley.quelch@henleymc.ac.ukSearch for more papers by this author First published: 12 December 2007 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2007.00627.xCitations: 4Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume15, Issue6November 2007Pages 1026-1029 RelatedInformation

The practice of engagement: Research into current employee engagement practice

Dr Richard McBain of Henley Management College’s HR Centre of Excellence discusses the findings of research into current employee engagement practice at 10 organizations and puts forward a resulting model of engagement and commitment. He argues that while employee engagement is a desirable goal, it should not become an end in itself ‐ organizations need to keep it within a strategic context.

Q: Why not get rid of the HR department?

The author has carried our research in HR leadership at Henley Management College in the UK and has been speaking to a number of HR headhunters. One of them made a telling comment: “Ninety‐five percent of the senior HR people we see can’t enumerate the value they add to the business.” This is the heart of the problem.

Compliance in the Supply Chain: The Present and Future Implications of Sarbanes-Oxley for UK Businesses

Most recent research and press reports on Sarbanes-Oxley have focused on large, dual-listed companies and UK-based subsidiaries of US companies that have to comply with the regulation. Often, these companies have big compliance budgets and have been at the vanguard of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in the UK. The key aims of this report are to estimate the current number of UK companies that have to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, but also how that number will grow over the coming decade, particularly given the impact of the supply chain. The wider impact of Sarbanes-Oxley through the supply chain is a key issue that many UK businesses will have to deal with, many of whom will not have realised the implications to date given their status as partners or suppliers of compliant companies. These supplier companies will need to reengineer their internal processes to provide data to meet the compliant companies' Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements. This report also examines UK organisations that will need to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley as a cost of doing business, raising capital or for general corporate governance best practice. The focus of this study is on UK companies, employing between 50 and 1000+ people. The research was informed by relevant studies and reports from the US, as well as conclusions drawn from telephone interviews with UK companies affected by Sarbanes-Oxley and a focus group of leading academics at Henley Management College.

Driving value through stakeholder relationships a discussion using a research-based model

Many believe that innovation offers opportunities to create wealth through innovation in the form of new services and new technologies, an aspiration often not realised in practice. Nonetheless, organisations do possess unique advantages for governing certain types of economic activity through a logic very different from that of the market. This paper suggests that governing and guiding this 'organisational economy' of many and various stakeholders is essential to creating significant value from innovation, and that governance structures should be chosen which align with the economic character of the organisation. This paper considers relationships between wealth creation through innovation, choices of governance structure and the nature of the organisation's relationships with its stakeholders. To inform the discussion, the paper draws on analysis and findings from recent applied doctoral research at Henley Management College into the creation of significant economic change in complex organisations which have a high dependence on technology.

Leadership Styles, Change Context and Leader Performance in the Royal Navy

This paper presents the findings from a major study (Young, 2005a, Command, Leadership and Management Competencies predicting Superior Performance in the Royal Navy. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis: Henley Management College) into the competencies predicting superior performance in the Royal Navy (RN) and focuses on measures of leadership style and degree of change faced by the organization, as identified by the Leadership Dimensions Questionnaire (LDQ). The LDQ Model proposes that one of three leadership styles is appropriate for a specific degree of change faced within an organization. The results (from a sample of 261 Officers and Ratings) showed those individuals whose leadership styles were highly fitted, according to the Dulewicz and Higgs (2003, ‘Design of a new instrument to assess Leadership Dimensions and Styles’ Henley Working Paper Series HWP 0311) model, to the organizational context of change were rated significantly higher performers than those clearly not fitted. There was a significant preference for goal-oriented leadership among Officers and the LDQ measure of self-rated performance showed that those individuals with more accurate self-awareness of their own performance were also more likely to adopt a more suitable leadership style for the given organizational context of change.

The nonprofit marketing landscape: guest editors' introduction to a special section

Welcome to this special section of the Journal of Business Research devoted to nonprofit, arts and social marketing. The five articles appearing in this section have been selected and developed from papers originally presented at the first two annual colloquiums on nonprofit, social and arts marketing organised in the United Kingdom by Henley Management College and London Metropolitan University. This annual event is fast becoming a leading European outlet for cutting edge research in these important fields. The topics embraced by nonprofit, social and arts marketing are as diverse as they are complex. This introduction to the special section aims to illustrate the extent of the diversity, to identify critical problems, and to suggest possible areas for future research. It is impossible to mention in this introduction all the subjects covered by nonprofit, arts and social marketing, or even to cite all the major contributions to any one of its many spheres. Thus, we concentrate on relatively recent literature that, in itself, contains extensive references to prior and collateral research and which usefully reviews the work of others in the subject area concerned. A handful of topics have been especially salient in the literature concerning the marketing activities of nonprofit organisations during the last two decades. Essentially, these focus on the development and consequences of marketing orientation among organisation members, the theory and practice of fundraising, the stimulation of changes in social behaviour, and corporate involvement in nonprofit affairs. The employment of marketing techniques and principles to attract volunteers to work in nonprofit, social and arts organisations has also received much attention.

Hands on reward for hands on management

A paper presented at Henley Management College focusing on the issue of appropriate pay schemes and financial incentives for executives in the 21st century.

The Abstracts of the 4th Australian Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference

The 4th Australian Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference kept up the tradition set by the previous conferences of providing a full programme of workshops, keynote speakers, practice forums and free oral and poster presentations. This resulted in four very busy days, starting with a series of workshops presented by I/O Psychologists from the USA and the UK. The opening Keynote speaker for the conference was Professor Daniel Kahneman from Princeton University who looked at psychology and risk taking behaviour. All of the workshop presenters also gave a Keynote presentation so that everyone had the opportunity to hear them. The keynote presenters included Professor Denise Rousseau from Carnegie Mellon University, Professor Malcolm Higgs from Henley Management College, Professor Robert Dipboye from Rice University, Professor Steve Kozlowski from Michigan State University, Professor David Bartram from the SHL Group and Professor Beryl Hesketh from University of Sydney. A major feature of the programme was the 11 sessions or practice forums that covered recent developments in professional practice. In addition, there were eight symposia covering areas including modelling behaviour in complex work systems, managing organisational change, the safety of high performance systems, selecting and attracting employees, affective events theory and emotional intelligence. A highlight of the conference was the APS Elton Mayo award which is presented at every I/O Psychology conference to the person who has made an outstanding contribution to the field. This year's most worthy recipient was Professor Phyllis Tharenou from Monash University. Social events were also highlighted at the conference and included a welcoming cocktail party, a conference dinner and the Elton Mayo lunch which closed the conference.

Developing a relevant research agenda in knowledge management ‐ bridging the gap between knowing and doing

The diversity and sometimes‐sporadic nature of research in the area of knowledge management (KM) points towards the need for a better understanding of the underlying framework of issues and potential research topics. This paper describes the search for a research agenda in this fast developing area. Important issues were identified through a general review of the KM literature followed by a survey of business practitioners, consultants and academics at a one‐day conference dedicated to the subject. The investigation was carried out in the context of a feasibility study for a proposed KM Centre at Henley Management College in the UK. The survey followed an interpretivist approach employing open‐ended questions that sought to establish important issues in KM and to examine the benefits that participants would seek from a such a forum of practitioners and academics. A conceptual framework of disciplines and key topics was developed from the literature review and applied to the issues identified in the survey. The results point towards three areas of significant interest, namely: (i) implementation issues, (ii) best practice, and (iii) measurement. Additionally, the nature of the fast evolving field of knowledge management points to the need for more interactive research that brings together the different players in the field into a tighter and faster learning cycle.

Four principles for training trainers in emerging market economies

Four principles for training trainers in emerging market economies

The development of standards of competence for senior management

Senior managers are continually required to manage the challenges brought about by the waves of rapid and dynamic change. Research undertaken by Henley Management College into the development of standards of competence for senior management can contribute much in helping managers develop to meet such demands. Examines how the standards of competence were developed, and the outcomes from the research.

The development of standards of good practice for boards of directors

Explains the model which underlies the Institute of Directors′ Standards of Good Practice for Boards of Directors produced in association with Henley Management College. These standards were derived from an extensive, rigorous research and consultation process over a period of two‐and‐a‐half years involving over 1,000 directors. The model consists of three major parts: organizing and running the board; personal competences and knowledge; and the tasks of the board which are supported by indicators of good practice.

Service quality and correspondence analysis in determining problems with the effective use of computer services

Research methodology is the underlying theme of this paper which describes a study conducted into the computer services offered at Henley Management College, in the UK. The study is used as a means of demonstrating service quality gap analysis and correspondence analysis as diagnostic tools. The business school employed two computer networks and a number of standalone systems. There are six different groups of users. Users were sent a self-completion questionnaire and the results were analysed using a spreadsheet and a correspondence analysis package. The paper shows how the reports produced by these research techniques may be used to establish whether the computer service is effective. These reports are also used to identify key problem areas. These powerful research techniques are easily accessible to academics and professional researchers. They are easy to use, inexpensive to acquire and can produce results quickly. The reports produced are highly graphical and are thus easily interpreted, even by relative novices.

The future for boards: Self-regulation or legislation?

This article reviews the main findings of an international conference, ‘Whither Corporate Governance?’ hosted in London by Henley Management College and the Strategic Planning Society during November 1992. The conference was chaired by Sir Adrian Cadbury, who was also the Chairman of the Committee on Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance which published its final report in the same month.

Can Commitment Be Managed? A Longitudinal Analysis of Employee Commitment and Human Resource Policies

Tim Morris, Helen Lydka and Mark Fenton O'Creevy present data on a group of graduates during the first five years of employment. Dividing the sample into those who have remained with their original employer and those who have changed, they examine attitudinal commitment and tenure intentions against a set of human resource policies measured at three points in time. They find that those policies significantly associated with high commitment change over time; that attitudinal and behavioural commitment are conceptually distinct constructs; and that behavioural commitment is a less stable construct than attitudinal commitment. Generally, it appears that employee commitment is more provisional than is implied by much of the literature.Tim Morris is a Lecturer at the London Business School, Helen Lydka a researcher at the Henley Management College, and Mark Fenton O'Creevy a Research Fellow at the LBS Centre for Organisational Research.

Headhunters Seek a New Breed of Engineer

Demand for mechanical engineers is far outstripping supply, according to the London‐based headhunters, Eurosurvey, who report that this generally depressed market is now enjoying significant growth in some sectors. With economists forecasting a 1.5 per cent growth in the expansion of mechanical engineering in the UK in the immediate future, emphasis will be on “design, development, quality and reliability assessment and simulation”; the engineers who will be head‐hunted will have skills in robotics, electronics, CAD‐CAM and CAD‐MAT. Many engineering projects fail due to a suitably integrated approach to project management, and the value of the engineers of the future will depend on their financial and management expertise as much as their engineering abilities. A new MSc in project management, begun in 1985 in a joint course run by Henley Management College and Brunei University, is the closest thing to a general technical education currently available. Organisations such as GIM, Lucas Industries and Marks and Spencer are actively supporting new moves to bring disciplined logic and improved training and management/career development to project management.

Helping Women become the “Best Man for the Job”

The impact of video‐based distance learning technology will give women who are currently prevented from studying by time, money or geographical considerations, the chance to undergo further training and progress up the management ladder, an opportunity to reverse the trend that allows management still to be seen as a masculine role. Henley Management College (in conjunction with Brunei University) offers a two‐ to four‐year distance learning MSc, in addition to its full‐time courses, having the aim of training women managers and getting them into positions of seniority. (Article includes a listing of opportunities for women in management education).