Zeroing in on leadership effectiveness: The methodological challenges of benchmarking leadership practices

Business success in the 21st century will be based on the widespread mastery of leadership roles, rather than on the directives of a professional or leadership elite. The first step for systematically enacting a leadership development agenda for our nation is to identify the factors, values or qualities most important to leadership effectiveness. Next, we must improve our understanding of how these guiding ideas and insights translate into what successful leaders do. As we perfect this understanding, we will need to operationally define the best practices of successful leaders. These best practices must then become benchmarks for intensive leadership development efforts.This article considers nine methodological challenges of the first agenda item-identification of the factors, values or qualities most important to leadership effectiveness. To illustrate these challenges, the authors use their own business leadership research as a case study. This research surveys 127 chairmen, chief executive officers, and presidents-a cross section of successful U.S.A. business leaders, including men and women from all parts of the nation who have diverse industry, racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. The authors identify where methodological improvements are needed to cope with the challenges of leadership research. They suggest important directions for methodological development and propose three minimum standards for future leadership research.     

Emigration dynamics from and within South Asia

This review of current knowledge about emigration dynamics from and within South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) opens with a brief history of the three phases of emigration from the area since the 1830s (plantation labor; postindependence to the UK, US, Canada, and Australia; and labor migration to the oil-exporting countries). The influence of the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh is also covered as are British colonial and commonwealth policies. It is noted that migration data are incomplete and that India exhibits an ambivalence about collecting such information. The discussion then turns to emigration since 1970 and considers permanent migration from South Asia to the traditional receivers; South Asian asylum seekers in Europe; South Asian refugees, illegal migrants, migrant workers (flows and destinations), the stock of contract migrant workers (and their characteristics); returnee migrant workers; and skill levels. Analysis is provided of macro level determinants of emigrations such as gross national product (level and growth), the general demographic and social situation, labor force growth and structure, poverty and inequality, and internal and international migration. Environmental factors causing displacement in Southern Asia include floods, cyclones, river bank erosion, drought, and desertification. Global warming could displace millions of people in the region, and development projects have contributed to displacement. The remainder of the report covers political and ethnic factors, micro-factors influencing migration decision-making, the policies of sending and receiving countries, the consequences of emigration, and the potential for migration in the future.     

Grandmothers' influence on mother and child health

This study is based on interviews with grandmothers during July-September 1992-93 in Sudan. The study shows that grandmothers play a significant role in health education and child care within families in the Sudan. Grandmothers, who are not aware of the changes in knowledge, also promote harmful traditions. The authors recommend that health education be directed to elderly women and grandmothers in order to change beliefs and practices that continue to be harmful to children and mothers. Grandmothers were found to give sound advice on child birth, such as movement during labor, breast feeding immediately after birth, and birth intervals of 2-4 years. Grandmothers also gave sound advice on good nutritional practices during pregnancy and use of fermented cereals as weaning foods. Grandmothers recommended use of fenugreek for lactating mothers and use of mint and haharaib for stomach upsets, remedies that are beneficial. Babul is useful after an episiotomy for its antibacterial effects. Harmful advice includes recircumcision after delivery, short birth intervals, and avoidance of contraception. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a major practice that exposes girls and mothers to a greater risk of mortality during childbirth and pregnancy. The sample of grandmothers agreed on the importance of sex education for a girl before marriage. Unfortunately, 57% of grandmothers recommended 14 years as a suitable age for marriage. Grandmothers generally believed wrongly that riding bicycles, drinking coffee, and wearing trousers by girls would increase their sexual desires. Grandmothers explained menstruation to granddaughters and offered home-made remedies for cramps. 45% believed that there were no disadvantages to FGM and recommended FGM at ages 2-5 years. Most viewed fevers as a danger that required a doctor's care. Advice varied among grandmothers according to socioeconomic class.     

West and Central Africa

This article reviews scientific and other literature during the 1990s that links migration and mobility with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS. The focus is on key population groups linked to the spread of HIV and STDs in West and Central Africa: migrant laborers, truck drivers, itinerant traders, commercial sex workers (CSWs), and refugees. Countries with high emigration and immigration tend to have high levels of HIV infection, with the exception of Senegal. The main destination of immigrants are Senegal, Nigeria, and Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa and Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, and Congo in Central Africa. The risk of infection and the spread of HIV is variable among migrants. There is little in the literature that substantiates hypotheses about the strong association between migration and HIV-positive status. Information is needed on the duration, frequency of return visits, living conditions, sexual activities with multiple partners, and information before departure, along the routes, at final destination, and at the time of returns. Action-based research in five West African countries (Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Senegal) should produce results in late 1998. Comparable studies in Central Africa are unknown. Regional studies should be complemented by local studies. Prevention would benefit from studies on the relative size of these five population groups by geographic location.     

Circuit optimization via sequential computer experiments: design of an output buffer

In electrical engineering, circuit designs are now often optimized via circuit simulation computer models. Typically, many response variables characterize the circuit's performance. Each response is a function of many input variables, including factors that can be set in the engineering design and noise factors representing manufacturing conditions. We describe a modelling approach which is appropriate for the simulator's deterministic input–output relationships. Non-linearities and interactions are identified without explicit assumptions about the functional form. These models lead to predictors to guide the reduction of the ranges of the designable factors in a sequence of experiments. Ultimately, the predictors are used to optimize the engineering design. We also show how a visualization of the fitted relationships facilitates an understanding of the engineering trade-offs between responses. The example used to demonstrate these methods, the design of a buffer circuit, has multiple targets for the responses, representing different trade-offs between the key performance measures.     

Curved Chaotic Map Time Series Models and Their Stochastic Reversals

This paper considers two types of chaotic map time series models, including the well-known tent, logistic and binary-shift maps as special cases; these are called curved tent and curved binary families. Deterministic behaviour is investigated by invariant distributions, Lyapunov exponents, and by serial dependency. Stochastic time reversal of the families is shown to produce models which have a broader range of stochastic and chaotic properties than their deterministic counterparts. The marginal distributions may have concentrations and restricted supports and are shown to be a non-standard class of invariant distribution. Dependenc y is generally weaker with the reversed stochastic models. The work gives a broad statistical account of deterministic and stochastically reversed map models, such as are emerging in random number generation, communica tion systems and cryptography     

Fit and Skill in Employee Selection: Insights from a Study of Headhunters

We draw upon evidence from a qualitative study of headhunters to provide insights into the character and importance of candidate fit and skill for the selection of a broad range of white-collar employees. Headhunters suggest that the fit of a job candidate is assessed at two levels, one corresponding with a general compatibility with organization-level norms, culture, and strategy, the other corresponding more closely with traits and characteristics of the person or persons with whom the job candidate actually interviews. Skill—a factor which is largely neglected by those who tout the importance of fit—also plays an important and independent role in employee selection. Stalls that influence the selection of employees from a pool of candidates tend to be highly specific if not idiosyncratic, and take the form of what headhunters call hot buttons. We conclude by discussing the conceptualization, causes, and implications of fit; we also consider how the importance of fit and hot buttons challenges the explanatory logic of standard accounts of labor-market success.