It's Labour Day in New Zealand: notionally a statutory holiday to recognise and remember the struggle (fight?) for the eight-hour work day. While it's a worthy marker peg in our nation's history, I've never really subscribed to the notion of an eight-hour work-day nor a 40-hour work-week. Blame it my farming heritage or madness if you wish, but I think in terms of working until the work is done. Today is no exception. The thesis writeup is very much to the fore of my mind every day of the week just now. In the last seven days, I have been working on the Discussion and Theory Development chapter, hoping to assemble a cacophony of ideas into the first complete draft. A couple of days were really slow going, but the great news is that the first draft is complete (save a series of diagrams)! Having laboured away on this chapter for a couple of weeks, I can now look back and see that, while the distance has not been great, some of the insights that have emerged could be quite significant in the overall scheme of things. I also received three pages of notes, suggestions and comments from my second supervisor during the week: her review of two chapters that I'd asked for feedback on back in August. While the slow turnaround has been frustrating, and some of the comments quite 'left-field', the overall tenor of the commentary has been helpful. Thanks Kate. Where to from here? The DTD chapter needs more work (this week's job), as does the Conclusions chapter (next week). Once these two pieces are done, the focus will move from creating content to refining that which has already been written—a significant milestone, in my mind anyway!
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This is the second of my soon-to-become regular updates written for folk who have asked to be kept up to date with my PhD write-up. I have provided updates irregularly in the past. However, I recently made a commitment to provide an update every week, in response to several requests to do so.
The week gone has been characterised by paper: lots of it, everywhere. As mentioned last week, my focus has been on the discussion and theory development (DTD) chapter. This is the piece of the thesis whereby the various threads and ideas that have been mentioned elsewhere are brought together—hopefully in a cohesive and coherent manner. As a digital immigrant, this process involves a pen and a keyboard: yes, I rely on pen-and-paper to augment what I do with computers. While the word processor is my go-to tool when writing new material, my default approach to reviewing and editing material is to print copies and mark them up with my trusty Waterman Expert rollerball. Thus the paper. I also have three piles of dog-eared research articles—each about six inches high—that receive periodic attention as I build arguments and refer to prior research work. The biggest challenge this week has been to assemble my thoughts and ideas into a logical structure and sequence, and then to write material into each section. The process is quite easy to describe. However, it is somewhat harder to implement. Ideas can flow at any time of the day or night, so I have taken to writing when the ideas flow rather than when my schedule says I should write. It will be interesting to see what effect the change has on my productivity. I'll let you know. My hope had been to complete the DTD chapter—to a first draft form anyway—by the end of this weekend. However, I have adjusted the structure of the chapter three times in recent days, and have opened up the conclusions chapter as well: the result of which has meant quite some re-work. I'm hoping to break the back of this work and re-work cycle in the next few days because, when I do I can start on the assembly and integration process, of pulling all of the chapters together. While there is some short-term frustration that things are taking a little longer than expected, I'm convinced that the extra effort being put in now will make the thesis easier to read later. Fingers crossed. "So, how's the research going?"
"Pretty well, thank you for asking." I've been party to this brief exchange, or a close variant of it, most weeks this year. It's usually originated by someone who knows me; or someone who has an interest in what I'm doing; or, someone who finds it odd that I stopped working a couple of years ago to investigate how boards influence performance. My response has typically been quite private—as above—without wanting to appear to be rude. That someone might actually be interested enough to listen to me wax on for a few minutes is an assumption I have wished to avoid, However, with the project now in its final couple of months and the write-up well underway, and seemingly increasing levels of interest in the findings starting to come from business people and academics, I've decided to write a weekly update from here on in. Please let me know if they are helpful or not. If you have a specific question, please post a comment below or send a note, and I will do my best to provide an answer. My goal, of submitting the completed thesis by Christmas Day, remains intact. It'll be tight—because work has an innate capacity to expand to fill the time available—but doable. The thesis will be six chapters long. Two of the three longest chapters (Literature Review and Research Methodology) have been out for review for a couple of weeks now. Last night, I finished the third of the 'big three' chapters (Data and Initial Analysis, the chapter that contains a summary of all of the data that has been collected and starts to makes sense of it). The first drafts of the Introduction and Conclusion chapters are completed as well. The satisfaction of having broken the back of the thesis writeup was palpable. The remaining chapter is entitled Discussion and Theory Development. It will be somewhat shorter than the big three and, as the title implies, it will hopefully answer the question that I set out to address. So, it needs careful thought. Thankfully, I have a fairly good sense of what needs to be written, although the proof of whether I'm on track will come as the week progresses and the mixed bag of notes and sentence fragments congeal (or not!). However, there is hardly a cloud in the sky or a breath of wind in the air this morning. The sun is streaming in the window and a tui is happily calling from a nearby tree. So, I have decided to take the day off. My wife and I are going to visit a famous rhododendron and azalea garden, in our old car, with a picnic. The joys of Spring! No doubt we will chat about the real sense I have, of now closing in on the prize and of handing over the final draft so it can be examined. But one must not get ahead of themselves, for there is much to be written yet. I'll keep you informed. The 28th Annual British Academy of Management Conference starts in Belfast today. With over 700 delegates registered, 640 papers to be presented (at times over 20 parallel tracks!), the next three days promise to be very busy. My intention is to attend as many of the corporate governance papers as I can get to, strategy papers and a selection of others. I'll post reflections that various points over the next three days, and encourage those interested to follow the hashtag #BAM2014.
The organisers of the BAM2014 conference have published all of the conference papers online. If you wish to read a copy of my paper, On the use of critical realism to advance governance research beyond correlations, please click here. The purpose of the paper is twofold: to debate some of the core assumptions and approaches that have been favoured by many corporate governance researchers to date; and to offer an alternative approach to research—one that has the potential to help researchers solve the challenging problem of explaining how boards can influence the achievement of company performance outcomes.
The ideas in the paper form an important foundation stone of my doctoral research, so please feel free to post a reply, or to send an email, if you wish to make any comments about it. I'd welcome the feedback! I'm writing to express gratitude for your interest in my upcoming talk at the British Academy of Management conference. That my research to explain how boards can influence the achievement of company performance outcomes has stimulated such interest, even before it is completed, has amazed me. Thank you.
My paper will be on presented on Thu 11 September. A copy will be posted here afterwards. If you are planning to attend the conference and would like to meet between sessions, over lunch or in the evening, please contact me via Twitter or email. Also, I'll post summaries and reflections on this blog throughout the BAM conference, to give those that cannot attend an insight into what was discussed. To those people that have asked questions about my research: I will send a private reply. To those that have asked about meetings and speaking engagements in London and elsewhere: my schedule is now full (sorry!). However, I will be back in the UK and Europe in November. If you'd like to meet me then, please contact me to make an arrangement. In seven days time, I expect to be at least 35,000ft above the north-west reaches of the UK, nearing the end of a journey from Auckland, New Zealand to London, England. The reason for my trip? I'm booked to speak at the British Academy of Management conference in Belfast. While in the UK, I'll also attend some meetings, and take a few days off with my wife who is travelling with me. The trip involves 40,000km of air travel; 24 hours of timezone change; and, a season change (from late winter to late summer and back).
On the surface, it'll be a demanding trip. However, the trip may actually be a blessing in disguise: a time of relative calm sandwiched between two even busier periods. Here's what I've been up to in recent weeks:
A new list of actions to be completed before Christmas awaits my attention when I get home:
Measured against these lists, the seemingly hectic trip, to fulfil a speaking engagement and attend meetings on the other side of the planet, might not be so demanding after all. In fact, the trip may be analogous to the eye of storm. My point? The here-and-now can seem pretty hectic. Long-distance travel can be pretty demanding. However, if one steps back and looks at the big picture, periods of relative calm become visible amongst the busyness. Seek them out and enjoy them, for the next period of busyness lies in wait. One of the big challenges of tackling a major project relates to vitality. When we set out to tackle something new, be it a hobby, a job, a long walk, a marriage or something other 'project'; we generally start with much hope and anticipation. However, over time, we can get a little stale, as the rigours and routines of the daily grind take precedence in our mind over the goal that we set out to achieve. Sound familiar?
Regular readers will know that I've been working on a major research project in early 2012. The good news is that the end is now in sight. However, there is still much to do and the risk of getting stale is never far away. One of the techniques that I have used to keep fresh is to change the focus temporarily—by helping others solve gnarly real-world problems. Today for example, I had the privilege of working with a group of directors and a manager—helping them wrestle with their business, to try to get some clarity around core purpose and strategic priorities. The Chair's closing comment, "the morning was incredibly worthwhile", suggested that progress had been made. Next week, I have an independent review of another board to do. That board has some interesting challenges around focus; role; and, interaction with the Chief Executive. Small 'side' projects keep me mentally fresh. They get me out of the office and away from the routine of the research. Sitting with real people, and helping them wrestle with real problems, is so invigorating. Crucially, when I return to the research, I feel sharper and seem to work more effectively. How do you freshen up? I got a little bit fed-up with writing today, so I decided to read back through Musings, to see how the corporate governance discussion has changed over the last couple of years. Sadly, many of the topics discussed two years ago are still being discussed. Sure, the prevalence of articles about boardroom performance seems to be waxing, and the number of quota-based gender proposals has waned somewhat. That a very similar set of topics is being discussed is a shame. It suggests we are making slow progress. The following muse, originally written in October 2012, illustrates the point fairly well. Have you noticed the rising tide of news stories about corporate governance in recent months? While some have highlighted the fraudulent behaviours of some boards and directors, most of the articles have focussed on efforts to improve the quality of governance around the world. Over the past few years, I have read many articles propounding the benefits of diversity in the corporate boardroom. Much research has been conducted by well-regarded scholars and consultancy firms, and some great results have been achieved. Many correlations between a diversity variable (gender, race, religion, socio-economic, other) and some aspect of board or company performance have been identified. However, most of the articles also claim—either directly, or, more often, tacitly—that improved outcomes occur because the board is diverse.
To say that company performance improves because there is a woman on the board (for example) is akin to claiming that red cars go faster because they are red. Such claims stretch things a bit far. They are also patronising to women. There is a world of difference between a correlation and causality. The debate needs to move from talking about the correlation between diversity and performance (most but not all research supports this linkage), to investigating why and how diversity is helpful to improved performance. One of the most coherent arguments for diversity that I have read in a long time was made by Andrew Leigh, Australian Federal MP, recently. A copy of his speech, delivered at a Progressive Policy Institute meeting in Washington, D.C., is available here. Leigh says that diversity opens hearts and minds to possibilities—a wide breadth of experience and thought is what is important, if high quality outcomes are the goal. In essence, Leigh's thesis is that better outcomes occur when diverse experiences and thought are brought to bear, not because some flavour of diversity is present. I agree. The challenge now is to apply Leigh's argument to board research, to discover what underlying mechanisms are necessary to effective governance and improved business performance. |
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