This study, utilizing Preston and Karahanna’s framework for shared vision development and Agency Theory, explores the impact of vision development factors and factors associated with incentive plans on shared vision and alignment. Results of the study confirm the strong relationship between shared vision and alignment, and indicate that having an effective management team is important with respect to developing and maintaining shared vision and alignment within the organization. Several vision development factors such as using the language of the business, participation on the top management team (TMT), and having knowledge of the business impact shared vision through their influence on teamwork. Also, results of this study suggest that participation on the TMT by the CIO/IT leader is more important than the individual’s position in the organizational hierarchy. In addition, attributes associated with incentive plans such as achievable and clear measures, measures linked to organizational goals, measures that align the interests of the individual with those of the organization, regular plan reviews, and using a balanced scorecard approach with respect to incentive plan design positively impact teamwork and shared vision. For practitioners, this highlights the importance of incentive plans as powerful tools that can be used to reinforce shared vision, effective teamwork, and alignment within the organization. Also, the CIO/IT leader needs to be knowledgeable of the business and must fill the role of both a technologist as well as an enterprise leader. This person must be an evangelist communicating the value and benefits of IT to the rest of the organization.

Thesis advisor: Ronnie Sadka / This dissertation is comprised of three essays which examine the ramifications of executive compensation incentive structures on corporate outcomes. In the first essay, I present evidence which suggests that executive compensation convexity, measured as the sensitivity of managerial equity compensation portfolios to stock volatility, predicts firm-specific crashes. I find that a bottom-to-top decile change in compensation convexity results in a 21% increase in a firm's unconditional ex-post idiosyncratic crash risk. In contrast, I do not find robust evidence of a symmetric relation between compensation convexity and a firm's idiosyncratic positive jump risk. Finally, I exploit exogenous variation in compensation convexity, arising from a change in the expensing treatment of executive stock options, in buttressing my interpretations within a natural experiment setting. My results suggest that managerial equity compensation portfolios do not augment a firm's future idiosyncratic crash risk because they link managerial wealth to equity prices, but rather because they tie managerial wealth to the volatility of a firm's equity. In the second essay, I exploit an exogenous negative shock to CEO compensation convexity in examining the differential ramifications of option pay and risk-taking incentives on the systematic and idiosyncratic volatility of the firm. I find new evidence that is largely consistent with the notion that compensation convexity, stemming from option convexity, predominantly incentivizes under-diversified risk-averse CEOs to increase the value of their option portfolios by increasing the systematic volatility of the firms they manage. I hypothesize that this effect manifests as systematic volatility is readily more hedgeable than idiosyncratic volatility from the perspective of risk-averse executives who are overexposed to the idiosyncratic risk of their firms. If managers use options as a conduit through which they can gamble with shareholder wealth by overexposing them to suboptimal systematic volatility, options are not serving their intended contracting function. Instead of decreasing agency costs of risk, by encouraging CEOs to adopt innovative positive NPV projects that may be primarily characterized by idiosyncratic risk, option pay may have contributed to the same frictions it was intended to reduce. In the third essay, I present evidence that is consistent with the notion that certain managerial debt-like remuneration structures decrease the likelihood of firm-specific positive stock-price jumps. Namely, I find that a bottom-to-top decile increase in the present value of CEO pension pay leads to a roughly 25\% decrease in a firm's unconditional ex-post jump probability. However, I do not find that CEO deferred compensation decreases firm jump risk. Finally, I find that information in option-implied volatility smirks does not appear to reflect these dynamics. Together, these results suggest that not all debt-like compensation mechanisms decrease managerial risk-taking equally. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

South Africa’s youth unemployment figure ranks among the worst in the world and is one of the country’s major macro-economic challenges. Research identified the most significant cause of youth unemployment as being the high cost of labour in relation to the level of productivity by the youth of the country. The government is consequently attempting to reduce the cost of labour by means of the Employment Tax Incentive Act which subsidises employers for appointing new workers below the age of 29. The study reviewed international research performed on similar globally implemented incentive programmes, which established that the majority of wage subsidy programmes do not appear to have a net positive impact on the longer-term employability of the participants in these incentives. This was found to be particularly so in the case of developing countries, such as South Africa. The interaction between the Employment Tax Incentive Act (No 26 of 2013) and the proposed Special Economic Zones Bill was also evaluated by reviewing international research on geographically targeted wage subsidies. The research identified that incentives tied to the number of new jobs created within targeted areas are able to raise employment levels within those areas. However, the increased levels of employment within targeted areas are frequently offset by the consequent decreases in employment levels in surrounding areas, resulting in an absence of net impact. The study also found that when geographically targeted wage subsidies are used in conjunction with other forms of business incentives, existing establishments are, resultantly, at a competitive disadvantage. This causes business closures and loss of employment, which once again neutralises the positive effects of the new employment opportunities created by the subsidy. In the study, it was established that wage subsidies, such as those proposed by the Employment Tax Incentives Act, are probably not the answer to raising employment levels. Furthermore, the Employment Tax Incentives, used in conjunction with the proposed Special Economic Zones Bill, are also unlikely to yield any significant increase in employment levels in these specific zones. Recommendations were made for future research relating to international experience with other forms of active labour market programmes and the outcome of the Employment Tax Incentives, on the country’s employment levels, when actual data and statistics become available. / MCom (South African and International Taxation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

South Africa’s youth unemployment figure ranks among the worst in the world and is one of the country’s major macro-economic challenges. Research identified the most significant cause of youth unemployment as being the high cost of labour in relation to the level of productivity by the youth of the country. The government is consequently attempting to reduce the cost of labour by means of the Employment Tax Incentive Act which subsidises employers for appointing new workers below the age of 29. The study reviewed international research performed on similar globally implemented incentive programmes, which established that the majority of wage subsidy programmes do not appear to have a net positive impact on the longer-term employability of the participants in these incentives. This was found to be particularly so in the case of developing countries, such as South Africa. The interaction between the Employment Tax Incentive Act (No 26 of 2013) and the proposed Special Economic Zones Bill was also evaluated by reviewing international research on geographically targeted wage subsidies. The research identified that incentives tied to the number of new jobs created within targeted areas are able to raise employment levels within those areas. However, the increased levels of employment within targeted areas are frequently offset by the consequent decreases in employment levels in surrounding areas, resulting in an absence of net impact. The study also found that when geographically targeted wage subsidies are used in conjunction with other forms of business incentives, existing establishments are, resultantly, at a competitive disadvantage. This causes business closures and loss of employment, which once again neutralises the positive effects of the new employment opportunities created by the subsidy. In the study, it was established that wage subsidies, such as those proposed by the Employment Tax Incentives Act, are probably not the answer to raising employment levels. Furthermore, the Employment Tax Incentives, used in conjunction with the proposed Special Economic Zones Bill, are also unlikely to yield any significant increase in employment levels in these specific zones. Recommendations were made for future research relating to international experience with other forms of active labour market programmes and the outcome of the Employment Tax Incentives, on the country’s employment levels, when actual data and statistics become available. / MCom (South African and International Taxation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

It is important for a selling company to have a motivated sales force. The motivation and what employees is motivated by have occupied the interest of human resource researchers for decades. There has been a large amount of research within motivational psychology, which has produced several theories regarding human needs and motivation factors. This study focused on sales professionals within business-to-business (B2B) with the purpose to explore and describe sales professionals’ perceptions regarding financial incentives and their motivation. The study also answers the questions of how sales professionals perceive that financial incentive affects their motivation and how the financial incentives relate to sales professional motivation. This study utilizes a qualitative approach, where the empirical data was gathered by six semi-structured interviews. By analyzing the findings, the researchers have concluded that financial incentive can both work as a motivator and a demotivator. Financial incentives can increase stress and pressure for the sales professional especially for individuals new to the profession. The study has found that this is something that the individual have to cope with since the organization is not providing support for this. If the sales professionals can cope with the stress, it will work as a motivator. Lastly, the study presents practical and managerial implications for sales organizations. They need to be aware of the business environment to ensure that financial incentive achieves the desired effect.

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Understanding how institutions affect or shape fisheries performance is an important part of providing practical insights for the development of management strategies that promote sustainable fishing. In the Gulf of California there is widespread evidence of declines in fish stocks upon which small-scale fisheries depend and these declines are largely attributed to policy failures. Using methods commonly used in social sciences, I investigated the formal and informal rules regulating resource use by smallscale fishers from two fishing communities in the Northern Gulf of California (NGC), Bahía de Kino and Bahía de los Ángeles, Mexico, and their effects on fisheries sustainability. Some of the main results are summarized below: a) The percentage of fishers holding fishing rights and actually using them to report and commercialize catch was quite small in both communities (fishing rights are usually in the hands of absentee operators). b) Current policies and policy changes do not reach the fishers in a direct and formalized way in any of these communities, and these policies are shaped with no participation of local fishers. c) Current policy tools show poor performance in practice and have been ineffective (at the moment) in promoting sustainable fishing practices by fishery stakeholders. Neither community has been able to manage their resources sustainably. Results also suggest some potentials that could lead to more sustainable fishing practices in both communities: d) The presence of informal rights (fishers' sense of ownership) over the fishing grounds in the surroundings of their home communities. Generally, local fishers do not conform to or enforce the individual boundaries of the fishing rights they hold (or work under), but they do care about and defend an area that they perceive as belonging to their community as a whole, particularly when there are "outsiders" coming in. e) The presence of strong support from the fishers for implementing improved regulatory measures for local fisheries. Specific recommendations for each case study are provided with the aim of enhancing rules legitimacy and improving management outcomes.

MPH, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Poor retention rates and a lack of human resource management capacity have led to a critical shortage of nurses and serious disparities in their distribution between urban and rural areas in Zambia. The Zambian government is faced with the challenge of developing retention schemes that address the most pressing needs of nurses in rural service. The aim of the study is to contribute to the body of work in Zambia that looks at the influence of non-financial incentives on the retention of nurses in rural areas. The study also aims to show what factors nurses think would keep them in rural posting. The objectives of this study are to determine the perceptions of nurses in two rural hospitals in the Copperbelt province of Zambia about non-financial incentives that could influence retention in rural areas and to determine which factors nurses perceive to be the most important for retention. The study design was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Forty nurses were conveniently sampled. Data was collected by means of structured interviews using a questionnaire and was analysed using stata10. The majority of nurses strongly agreed that individual, institutional and local environmental factors play a significant role in retention. Factors identified as the most important for retention were motivation to work (n=26), appreciation from the community (n=33), ability to make decisions about work (n=17), satisfactory accommodation (n=32), availability of schools for children (n=26), managable distance to work (n=13), access to continuing education and iv professional development (n=26), having good relationships with colleagues (n=15) and, availability of essential equipment, tools and supplies (n=14). Factors ranked first choice according to level of importance by the majority of nurses were satisfactory accommodation (n=25), access to continuing education and professional development (n=20) and motivation to work (n=18). There are no straight forward answers to the problem of retention in rural areas. The development of appropriate strategies requires an understanding of the interaction of factors which influence nurses’ decisions to work in a rural and remote post. Successful retention strategies will require strengthening and upgrading of human resource management capacity. The response must be all inclusive, engaging relevant stakeholders, including non-health and nongovernmental group

A continuing programme of NPM reforms, grounded in quasi-market modes of governance and private sector best practice, have been applied to English NHS hospitals over the last thirty years in response to concerns about their performance efficiency and accountability. However, in the transition to market modes of governance, the retention of hierarchical features gave rise to a multi-layering of accountability. From 2001-02 balanced scorecard inspired performance measurement systems (PMS), were introduced into the NHS, aimed at improving service standards through improved cost efficiency. Study 1 in this thesis finds that, in this context, the relationship between service standards and cost efficiency is positive and that, consistent with it being a more effective PMS, this was stronger for the ‘Annual Health Check’, a PMS characterised by features aimed at reducing manipulation, than the Star ratings, its predecessor. The approach to the manipulation of financial breakeven, a key accountability measure, was however more relaxed, particularly when service standards were under threat. The system of ‘financial support’ had its roots in previous hierarchical relationships and acted to shift revenue across the NHS in order to allow Trusts in financial difficulty to meet their financial objectives without damaging service standards. These transfers, which were effected through the revenue account, were generally reversed out in future years with the result that financial support accelerated revenue recognition in Trusts receiving it. In Study 2, the receipt of financial support by Trusts in financial difficulty was found to be associated with an improvement in service standards and in future financial performance but, in an increasingly demanding performance regime and multi-layered accountability, evidence was also found of opportunistic exploitation of the system. Financial support had a considerable impact on the accountability of both NHS Trusts and the wider NHS because of the limited transparency around financial support transactions.