Do Top Managers’ Individual Characteristics Affect Accounting Manipulation in the Public Sector?

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenio Anessi-Pessina ◽  
Mariafrancesca Sicilia
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Financial Data ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Upper Echelons ◽  
The Public ◽  
Upper Echelons Theory ◽  
Top Managers

Abstract Drawing on upper echelons theory, the article investigates the potential impact of top managers’ background and demographic characteristics and personality traits on organizational decisions in the public sector. The top-management figure being investigated is the municipal chief financial officer (CFO) and the specific organizational decision under analysis is the extent of revenue misrepresentation during both budget formulation and execution. The empirical setting is provided by the CFOs of Italian municipalities with populations above 15,000 over a 3-year period (2012–14). Financial data are drawn from existing databases. Non-financial data are collected through an online survey. The results show that top managers’ individual characteristics and traits do influence the extent of accounting manipulation. In particular, revenue misrepresentation was found to be smaller in the presence of female managers, managers with degrees in business administration, and managers describing themselves as “conscientious”. These effects on accounting manipulation were moderated by auditors’ and opposition councilors’ oversight, managers’ experience, and the presence of local elections. The article extends upper echelons theory and its applications in several directions: from the private to the public context, from CEOs to CFOs, from managerial decisions in general to accounting choices, and from background and demographic variables to personality traits.

scholarly journals Personality Goes a Long Way (for Some). An Experimental Investigation Into Candidate Personality Traits, Voters’ Profile, and Perceived Likeability

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Nai ◽  
Jürgen Maier ◽  
Jug Vranić
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Dark Triad ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Political Candidates ◽  
The Public ◽  
Candidate Evaluations ◽  
Candidate Personality

The personality traits of political candidates, and the way these are perceived by the public at large, matter for political representation and electoral behavior. Disentangling the effects of partisanship and perceived personality on candidate evaluations is however notoriously a tricky business, as voters tend to evaluate the personality of candidates based on their partisan preferences. In this article we tackle this issue via innovative experimental data. We present what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study that manipulates the personality traits of a candidate and assesses its subsequent effects. The design, embedded in an online survey distributed to a convenience sample of US respondents (MTurk, N = 1,971), exposed respondents randomly to one of eight different “vignettes” presenting personality cues for a fictive candidate - one vignette for each of the five general traits (Big Five) and the three “nefarious” traits of the Dark Triad. Our results show that 1) the public at large dislikes “dark” politicians, and rate them significantly and substantially lower in likeability; 2) voters that themselves score higher on “dark” personality traits (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) tend to like dark candidates, in such a way that the detrimental effect observed in general is completely reversed for them; 3) the effects of candidates’ personality traits are, in some cases, stronger for respondents displaying a weaker partisan attachment.

Managers as Insiders or Outsiders to Public Organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-122
Author(s):  
Oliver James ◽  
Ayako Nakamura ◽  
Nicolai Petrovsky
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Empirical Finding ◽  
Public Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Career Experience ◽  
Current State ◽  
Top Managers ◽  
Generic Management ◽  
State Of Research

The heart of public management is that the public sector context matters in ways that generic management research typically neglects. Generic management scholarship has found that the degree of match between top managers’ career experience and the characteristics of their current organizations creates managerial fit or misfit. However, public sector management adds the insight of “publicness fit” and the empirical finding that managers appointed from outside of public organizations tend to have shorter tenures, and in some contexts, weaker performance than managers with experience managing inside public organizations. This chapter reviews the current state of research on managerial publicness fit. First, the publicness fit on dimensions of public ownership, funding, and regulation is presented and a systematic review of broader studies of managerial fit for their relevance to the topic is given. Then, review evidence on publicness “insider/outsider” fit and its consequences for the public sector is offered. The third section concludes with an agenda for integrating publicness fit with the other dimensions of managerial fit identified in the review.

Exploring Under-Representation of Young Emirati Adults in the UAE Private Sector by Examining Emirati Job Satisfaction

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgia Daleure ◽  
Zain Al Shareef
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rating Factor ◽  
Employment Sectors ◽  
The Military

This study examined Emirati job satisfaction using an online survey to understand Emirati under-employment in the private sector. To date, double-digit Emirati youth unemployment has plagued the UAE even though it is a regional economic leader whose private sector has the potential to create tens of thousands of new jobs each year. The saturated public sector is so vastly preferred by Emiratis that many of them avoid working in the private sector despite abundant opportunities there, even when prolonged unemployment is a consequence. More than 1,000 employed Emirati participants rated 14 job satisfaction criteria using an online survey. Data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis, and mean tables were constructed to examine mean ratings of satisfaction criteria among demographic factors including employment sectors. The study found that job satisfaction was higher in the public and semi- government sectors than in the private sector for factors relating to compensation, culturally friendly working conditions, and flexibility to study and/or take care of family responsibilities. Only one rating factor—opportunities for advancement—was significantly higher in the private sector than in the public or semi-government sectors. Overall job satisfaction was high even in dangerous and physically demanding public sector jobs, such as those related to off-shore oil rigs, the military, and the police. لقد قامت هذه الدراسة بدراسة الرضا الوظيفي الإماراتي عن طريق إستخدام إستبيان إلكتروني لفهم أسباب نقص العمالة الإماراتية في القطاع الخاص

scholarly journals An Elaboration of a Strategic Alignment Model of University Information Systems based on SAM Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 2471-2476 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Ahriz ◽  
N. Benmoussa ◽  
A. El Yamami ◽  
K. Mansouri ◽  
M. Qbadou
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Information System ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Strategic Alignment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Top Managers ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Exploratory Approach ◽  
It Managers ◽  
Alignment Model

Information system is a guarantee of the universities' ability to anticipate the essential functions to their development and durability. The alignment of information system, one of the pillars of IT governance, has become a necessity. In this paper, we consider the problem of strategic alignment model implementation in Moroccan universities. Literature revealed that few studies have examined strategic alignment in the public sector, particularly in higher education institutions. Hence we opted for an exploratory approach that aims to better understanding the strategic alignment and to evaluate the degree of its use within Moroccan universities. The data gained primarily through interviews with top managers and IT managers reveal that the alignment is not formalized and that it would be appropriate to implement an alignment model. It is found that the implementation of our proposed model can help managers to maximize returns of IT investment and to increase their efficiency.

scholarly journals Managerial characteristics and budget use in festival organizations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Ståle Knardal ◽  
Trond Bjørnenak
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Upper Echelons ◽  
Upper Echelons Theory ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Coordination Process ◽  
And Control

Abstract Festivals are an important part of popular culture and have increased in popularity in recent decades. However, they remain relatively unexplored in the accounting literature, and understanding of the use of management control tools in this context is low. This study aims to investigate the use of budgets in festivals. Informed by upper echelons theory, it investigates how individual and observable characteristics of festival managers are associated with variations in the use of budgets. The study is based on a survey of 61 festival managers from 40 festivals. The findings suggest that festival budgets are particularly important in the planning and coordination process but used less frequently for ex post evaluations. The findings also indicate a positive association between a business educational background and the use of budgets for most purposes, with the exceptions of performance evaluation and reward. This paper contributes to the literature on accounting in popular culture in general and in festivals specifically. Through its application of upper echelons theory, it also contributes to the management accounting and control literature, showing how individual characteristics of managers influence the use of budgets.

Employee Characteristics and Representation Election Outcomes

ILR Review ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Representation Election ◽  
Job Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Labor Organizations ◽  
Employee Characteristics

This article proposes and tests a model to predict the outcome of representation elections contested by trade union and employee association types of labor organizations in the public sector. The author hypothesizes that the winners of such elections can be predicted from variables measuring individual characteristics of the potential employee voters, such as gender, race, age, seniority, and job level. Application of the model to data on five elections in Michigan predicts four correctly. Qualitative data offers further support for the model, suggesting that employee characteristics and also the length and nature of the election campaigns helped determine the outcome of the elections.

scholarly journals Neoliberal failures and the managerial takeover of governance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Sahil Jai Dutta ◽  
Samuel Knafo ◽  
Ian Alexander Lovering
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Managed Competition ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Top Managers ◽  
Public Sector Reforms ◽  
Early Failures ◽  
History Of ◽  
Postwar Planning ◽  
Fiscal Prudence

Abstract The history of neoliberalism is a messy attempt to turn theory into practice. Neoliberals struggled with their plans to implement flagship policies of monetarism, fiscal prudence, and public sector privatisation. Yet, inflation was still cut, welfare slashed, and the public sector ‘marketised’. Existing literature often interprets this as neoliberalism ‘failing-forward’, achieving policy goals by whatever means necessary and at great social cost. Often overlooked in this narrative is how far actually existing neoliberalism strayed from the original designs of public choice theorists and neoliberal ideologues. By examining the history of the Thatcher government's public sector reforms, we demonstrate how neoliberal plans for marketisation ran aground, forcing neoliberal governments to turn to an approach of Managed Competition that owed more to practices of postwar planning born in Cold War US than neoliberal theory. Rather than impose a market-like transformation of the public sector, Managed Competition systematically empowered top managers and turned governance into a managerial process; two developments that ran directly against core precepts of neoliberalism. The history of these early failures and adjustments provides vital insights into the politics of managerial governance in the neoliberal era.

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