Do women really make better leaders than men? : an update

Women are continuing to make a major impact through their participation in organizations and their ownership of businesses and it is reasonable to assume that the number of women taking up significant roles in society will increase in the future. The growing impact of women in the workforce has kept the leadership style of women on the research agenda. Within the leadership literature, writers lamenting the lack of women in senior management positions do so primarily on the basis that modern organizations need the very style of leadership that comes naturally to women. By contrast, a number of studies have highlighted a generally held negative perception of women as leaders that could account for the dearth of female managers at the top. Against this background, this paper revisits the study of women and leadership given that leadership style remains a central theme in management literature and continues to be viewed as a critical factor in effective organizational performance

The financial crisis and U.S. cross-border financial flows

The financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007 caused notable changes in the composition of U.S. cross-border financial flows, especially in the fall of 2008, when the crisis intensified. This article documents three major channels through which financial flows and associated portfolio positions were affected: (1) “flight to safety” shifts away from riskier securities and toward investments in safe and liquid markets, particularly U.S. Treasury securities; (2) unusual flows through the banking system resulting from a shortage of dollar liquidity abroad and a breakdown in interbank markets; and (3) a pullback from cross-border positions during the crisis.Financial crises ; Government securities

Economic Globalization and Caribbean Economies: Competitive Developments, Strategic Response, and Performance

This study examines the effects of economic globalization on competitive situations of local firms in a small economy, the strategic responses of these firms to the competitive developments, and marketing and financial performance outcomes of these strategies. Findings indicate both beneficial and deleterious effects of economic globalization on domestic competitive situations. Findings also indicate variations in strategic responses and performance outcomes of local firms. Implications are presented along with recommendations for future research

Expanding entrepreneurship opportunities through local governance: the case of Barbados

This paper looks at the government and local governance structures of Barbados, arguing that local governance should be leveraged to expand entrepreneurship opportunities at the community level. It examines the links between local governance and entrepreneurship, and proposes a framework aimed at strengthening the relationship between Barbados’ newly formed constituency councils and its government institutions supporting entrepreneurship. The research concludes that there are many inefficiencies in the interaction between government agencies and constituency councils, which the proposed framework is a first step toward remedying.  The research suggests that local governance is a complex issue worldwide. More specifically in Barbados, even though the role of the constituency councils is defined, there are weak formal arrangements which undermine the processes and activities to support community entrepreneurship. The proposed framework highlighted in the research is a first step in formalising a way forward for entrepreneurship in the community.

Transformational classroom leadership : developing the teacher leadership notion

The literature on teacher-leadership suggests that the notion has developed over time and some have argued that this development comprises three stages or ‘waves’ that progressively de-link the idea from the formal organizational hierarchy. The third wave emphasizes that teacher-leadership is a process rather than a positional concept and notes that teacher-leaders tend to possess many of the characteristics of transformational leaders. The literature also suggests that third wave teacher-leaders are excellent classroom instructors. This paper described a Hong Kong study that explored the relationship between the exercise of transformational leadership in the university classroom and student perception of the quality of their classroom instruction. In a university setting, the results indicate that a fourth wave of teacher-leadership could include transformational classroom leadership as one of the defining qualities of a teacher-leader

Full range leadership in the university classroom : a Hong Kong study

This article describes a Hong Kong study that examined the effects of full range leadership in the university classroom. The full range (transformational-transactional) leadership model was chosen because research has indicated that a positive association exists between transformational leadership and various desirable leadership outcomes. It was hypothesized that university instructors adopting a transformational classroom leadership style would generate positive classroom leadership outcomes and that these positive outcomes would be confirmed by positive student evaluation of teaching (SET) scores for the instructors concerned. Through the development and testing of an instrument for measuring full range leadership in the university classroom, it was noted that employment of transformational aspects of full range classroom leadership was significantly and positively associated with desirable classroom leadership outcomes. Furthermore, there was sufficient indication of an association of positive leadership outcomes with positive instructor SET scores to merit further investigation of the relationship