Performance Management
Author Alasdair White
Is there a link between the behaviour of “bankers” who have been credited with bringing down the world’s financial system as they pursued ever-greater bonuses, and British parliamentarians who have been credited with ripping off the taxpayer in an orgy of greed and dishonest expense claims?
Clearly, in the minds of much of the press and perhaps most of the public, there IS a link in that both groups have been driven by greed and avarice … or so it is assumed. But is this actually true?
The neoclassical economic approach (and the one that underpins the position of much of the press on this matter) is that both groups have been exercising rational and fully informed decision-making and have concluded that the long-term financial benefits accruing from their decisions are of far greater economic value than the costs incurred. But this is to fully misunderstand that neoclassical economic theory simply does not apply in cases where a behavioural approach makes more sense Read the rest of this entry »
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Author Alasdair White
During their academic careers, students go through a series of major changes and entering university is one of the most significant. From primary school through to the end of secondary school, they have been in a ‘protected environment’ under the control of teachers; at home, they will have had parental guidance and support; and within their local community, they will have developed friends and a social life. Going to university changes all this. From being in a controlled predetermined learning environment and living within supportive social context, the student is suddenly faced with an academic environment that demands much greater independence and personal responsibility, while at the same time having to cope with a radically changed and possibly much less supportive social context. Ill-prepared and ill-equipped to manage the changes facing them, students struggle and it is not surprising, therefore, that universities find themselves faced with a significant ‘drop-out rate’ in the first year that, in the UK, averages 22% and ranges up to and in excess of 40%. And the problem is repeated across Europe, North America, and Australia. Read the rest of this entry »
Author Alasdair White
I actually heard a politician say something sensible this weekend! It was Alistair Darling, the UK Chancellor, and he was echoing something President Obama said last week. What caught my attention was the statement “there is nothing wrong with rewarding success, but there has to be a penalty for failure”. I’m afraid that, after that, the standard dropped again.
Like most western and developed nations, both the administrations in the UK and the US have stimulus packages in place (if not yet delivering) and both have found their proposals under fire from the opposition politicians (how unsurprising is that!). The issue that seems to enrage the opposition and the populace equally is the idea of bonuses for top bankers – especially those in the banks that have had to take government (tax payer’s) money in the current crisis. On the one hand, there are the free-marketeers who are saying that top bankers should get their bonuses and then there are the socialist reactionaries that say they shouldn’t.
Let’s take a closer look at the issue. Read the rest of this entry »