Edging toward ‘reasonably’ good corporate governance

Over four decades, research and policy have created layers of understandings in the quest for “good” corporate governance. The corporate excesses of the 1970s sparked a search for market mechanisms and disclosure to empower shareholders. The UK-focused problems of the 1990s prompted board-centric, structural approaches, while the fall of Enron and many other companies in the early 2000s heightened emphasis on director independence and professionalism. With the financial crisis of 2007-09, however, came a turn in some policy approaches and in academic literature seeking a different way forward. This paper explores those four phases and the discourse each develops and then links each to assumptions about accountability and cognition. After the financial crisis came pointers n policy and practice away from narrow, rationalist prescriptions and toward what the philosopher Stephen Toulmin calls “reasonableness”. Acknowledging that heightens awareness of complexity and interdependence in corporate governance practice. The paper then articulates a research agenda concerning what “reasonable” corporate governance might entail

Unknown is unloved? Diversity and inter-population trust in Europe

With more than 400,000 trust evaluations, we examine inter-population trust in the European Union. We focus on social capital theory explanations in a context where European inhabitants from 20 countries rate trust in the populations of 27 other European countries and in their own national population. We emphasize the role of ethnic heterogeneity, but we extend the research by studying the importance of the presence of specific European migrants in a country for trusting this population as a whole. Moreover, we consider the relation with the citizen’s country and characteristics of the trusted populations’ country. We use the European Election Studies, showing that diversity is important for explaining trust in other populations and trust in one’s own population – but opposite to what is expected by Putnam

Oral mucosal lesions and their association with sociodemographic, behavioral, and health status factors

The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of oral mucosal lesions and their associations with sociodemographic, health, and behavioral factors in a southern Brazilian population. Information was collected from participants (n = 801) using a structured questionnaire during an oral cancer screening campaign held at an agribusiness show in southern Brazil in 2009. Data were described using frequency distributions or means and standard deviations. Associations between independent variables and outcomes were assessed using the Chi-squared test. A total of 465 lesions were detected (actinic cheilitis: n = 204, 25.5%; candidiasis: n = 50, 6.2%; fibrous inflammatory hyperplasia: n = 42, 5.2%; ulceration, n = 33, 4.1%; hemangioma: n = 14, 1.7%; leukoplakia: n = 11, 1.4%). Candidiasis, actinic cheilitis, and fibrous inflammatory hyperplasia were associated significantly with literacy. Actinic cheilitis was also associated significantly with sun exposure and hat use, and leukoplakia was associated with smoking. The high frequency of oral mucosal lesions observed highlights the importance of education about risk factors. Additionally, training of health professionals, mainly those from public health services, in the use of preventive and community education strategies is needed

Cuidado de enfermagem ao paciente com comorbidade clínico-psiquiátrica em um pronto atendimento hospitalar

Pesquisa qualitativa, descritiva, exploratória desenvolvida em 2009 no pronto atendimento de um hospital geral de Curitiba, Paraná. Teve como objetivo conhecer o cuidado de enfermagem desenvolvido ao paciente com comorbidade clínico-psiquiátrica. Participaram seis enfermeiros, sete técnicos de enfermagem e 14 auxiliares de enfermagem. Os dados foram obtidos mediante entrevista semiestruturada e submetidos à análise de conteúdo temático-categorial. As categorias que emergiram dos dados foram: O cuidado é técnico e sem especificidade; Segurança e proteção ao paciente; e Contenção física e química como medidas de proteção. Evidenciouse que os cuidados de enfermagem desenvolvidos aos pacientes com comorbidade clínico-psiquiátrica são sem especificidade, com ênfase em cuidados básicos, contenção química e física. Concluiu-se que há necessidade da implantação de programas locais de capacitação em saúde mental e sensibilização dos profissionais de enfermagem quanto aos cuidados a tal clientela

An exploration of micro- and macro-level determinants of board effectiveness

This paper addresses recent calls to narrow the micro–macro gap in management research (Bamberger, 2008), by incorporating a macro-level context variable (country) in exploring micro-level determinants of board effectiveness. Following the integrated model proposed by Forbes and Milliken (1999), we identify three board processes as micro-level determinants of board effectiveness. Specifically, we focus on effort norms, cognitive conflicts and the use of knowledge and skills as determinants of board control and advisory task performance. Further, we consider how two different institutional settings influence board tasks, and how the context moderates the relationship between processes and tasks. Our hypotheses are tested on a survey-based dataset of 535 medium-sized and large industrial firms in Italy and Norway, which are considered to substantially differ along legal and cultural dimensions. The findings show that: (i) Board processes have a larger potential than demographic variables to explain board task performance; (ii) board task performance differs significantly between boards operating in different contexts; and (iii) national context moderates the relationships between board processes and board task performance. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Perceived neighborhood characteristics and the functional performance of elderly people in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area, Minas Gerais State, Brazil: a quantile regression analysis

Abstract: This study aims to examine the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and the functional performance of elderly people living in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Data of a representative sample of 2,033 elderly were analyzed using quantile regression. Functional performance was measured by the number of activities of daily living (ADL) the elderly had difficulty to perform. The neighborhood characteristics evaluated were: maintenance, trust, insecurity and defective sidewalks. Functional performance was found positively associated with the characteristic defective sidewalks, whose effect increased as the number of ADL the elderly had difficulty to perform increased. The results suggest that inadequate sidewalk conditions can contribute to functional losses in elderly people, especially among those who are functionally more compromised