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The direct and indirect effects of the chief executive officer tenure and age on the CEO pay in the UK organization are examined. The findings imply further research for relating executive pay to the corporate governance process.

British firms may need to concentrate more on strategy in view of international competition, considering the case study of a successful Anglo-German joint venture making a strategic investment decision. The British company gave priority to financial considerations in decision-making, and financial targets. In contrast, the German company, which was more successful, concentrated on the strategic elements of the investment and control processes

Increasingly, what was formerly known as public administration is turning itself into management, while management itself is fast becoming synonymous with the management of change. These two directions meet in government calls to change the culture of the civil service, and are to be found most clearly in the Financial Management Initiative (1982), and its successor, the Next Steps (1988). While each stresses a different aspect, the core policy idea which runs through them is one of improving performance by delegating power and responsibility down the hierarchy closer to the point of delivery. In this way the bureaucratic giants which comprise the various central government departments are transformed into more adroit organizations, to the extent that it becomes appropriate to talk of giants learning to dance (Kanter 1989). This article, through a discussion of 'experiments in change' conducted in one of the largest central government giants, HM Customs and Excise, argues that teaching giants to learn to dance is easier said than done. The main focus of the article is on what giants may need to learn in order that they can become more attuned to change and it concludes with the proposition that change in central government cannot be understood or be properly managed without an appreciation of the changing context of change itself.

Most academic research on taxation relates to higher-level issues of fiscal policy. Much public debate takes place about the calculation and incidence of different taxes, but little academic research addresses the management problems that are specific to national taxation regimes. This paper identifies emerging issues and calls for joint practitioner/academic attention on an international basis to address these issues.

A new study investigates the application of target costing as a means to support supply-chain integration in the UK construction industry, illustrated with two case studies.

The total compensation of top executives in the UK were divided into salary, annual bonus and share options with the objective of establishing how each component is linked to executive performance. While salaries are primarily dependent on firm size, it was discovered that there is a strong association between performance and pay. This was evident from the size of the coefficient estimates determined between fluctuations of executive share options. Results suggest that the rewards that executives receive from increases in share prices are considerable., 1. Introduction The remuneration of executive directors in Britain continues to receive widespread attention and has been the topic of heated debate. Propelling this debate are the sizeable remuneration packages [...]

A number of studies have been published that claim to carry out cost of quality (COQ) studies on construction projects. These studies, however, have largely ignored the contribution of prevention and appraisal costs to COQ, and have limited their analysis to the impact of quality failures on the main contractor. This paper presents a methodology for assessing the 'complete' COQ for construction projects and reports on the findings of a building project in the UK on which the methodology was piloted. The company that applied this approach has now extended it to other projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considers the implications of the AP1RA 1998 conference for accounting research. Research of all kinds should lead eventually to better practice and be useful. The data bank of study should provide guidance in addressing accounting problems, therefore the data bank needs some structure and order to be useful Needs to be thought given and work undertaken to structure the knowledge into high, middle and low range theories into a hierarchical and generalised theory of accounting that is functional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Success in managing change requires a combination of good systems development and attention to the concerns of both individuals and groups. While HM Customs & Excise is steadily developing its systems, it is also experimenting with ways of involving managers down the line as owners of the change process. INSET: Department's Functions and Scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on the evolution of government financial control systems. The way historic changes in government financial control systems are explained is important because the past may be called on to provide the methodological tools for change in the future. This is particularly important for developing countries where, as sociologist P.N. Dean indicated, there is a need to modernize over a shorter period than it took developed countries. In addressing this issue, Dean presented a three-stage evolutionary model of government financial control systems and argued that developing countries need to recognize these stages in planning their developments. This paper presents a critique of Dean's model and asks whether governmental control systems develop in the neat stages suggested by Dean and, indeed, whether they had to develop in the sequence in which they did. Dean attributed many of the failed financial control reforms in developing countries to the failure to identify clearly what control system features were appropriate to the country's stage of development.

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Presents synopses of articles published in the March 1975 issue of the "Journal of Business Finance and Accounting." "Corporate Gearing in the European Economic Community," by J. H. Coates and P. K. Woolley; "Classical Pricing Rules, Cost-plus Pricing and the Capacity Constrained Firm," by F. M. Wilkes and R. Harrison; "Another Look at Residual Income," by Cyril Tomkins; "Tomkins on 'Residual Income'," by Llyod Amey.

This article investigates the usefulness of the residual income concept both for short- and long-term planning and for the evaluation of performance. The first part of the paper deals with profit centers and includes an examination of the L. R. Amey and D. Solomons controversy. The second tackles the usefulness of the residual income concept for investment centers.

Discusses the organizational change processes and the creation of strong cultures in the research university in Sweden. History of change at the Karolinska Institute; Reasons for change; Budget structure at Karolinska; Role played by a team of administrators as they influence the shape of change in management; Strategies of elaboration and extension; Dynamics of advances within the research discipline.

Tomkins (1989) makes a careful restatement of his advocacy of what might be called the balanced portfolio (BP) approach to the planning of accounting research and the use of certain techniques in actual assessments of value-for-money. The approach is balanced in the sense that it recognises the importance of both quantitative techniques and what might be called ‘naturalistic’ techniques. Assuming this to be a fair and accurate statement of his position (see Grimwood and Tomkins, 1986), it is one with which the present author agrees and which it is believed provides, inter alia, a basis to lobby for management research funding which many politicians and civil servants will find plausible and relevant to their (changing) needs. Nevertheless, there are some points which Tomkins raises and on which the present author would like to remark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the naturalistic approach to value for money (VFM) auditing. Constituent elements of VFM audit; Extent of VFM audit concerned with effectiveness auditing; Case studies of CFM audit; Facilitation of extensions into effective auditing.

Demonstrates the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) in evaluating efficiency the public sector, in particular the university departments of accounting in Great Britain. Previous studies on the performance of British university accounting departments; Brief overview of the DEA; Rankings of British university accounting departments in terms of efficiency; Strengths and weaknesses of the DEA.

Discusses local authority auditing under Great Britain's Audit Commission for Local Authorities in England and Wales using a private sector professional firm. Use of statistics in local authority value-for-money (VFM) audits; Depth required for regularity audit and local authority audit costs; Benefits being derived from the VFM audits.