June 22, 1918, Alonzo Sergent fell asleep while conducting a train that plowed into another train killing 86 passengers and injuring another 187. 17 days later, July 9, 1918, two passenger trains collided head on in what became known as The Great Train Wreck of 1918, killing 101 people and injuring 171 people. The investigations and analysis of failure in both accidents can be attributed to a single person. During this month, the single person failed to operate the company’s train properly, which lead to a colossal disaster which affected numerous lives, loss of business revenue, loss of credibility, and had a huge social impact. Similar to an analysis of a colossal train wreck, this report focuses on the complexities behind colossal business failures, analyzes the reasons for failure and the role of the CEO, and proposes recommendations that can be used to guard future businesses against colossal failure. / text

Traditionally, research investigating marketing's role and influence within the firm has focused on the marketing department and its ability to affect future firm strategies. Consequently, little is known about the antecedents of a Chief Marketing Officer's (CMO) role or influence. Yet the position of CMO is quite unique. Unlike other executive officers (e.g., CFOs), no reliable external validation or accreditation is generally recognized, required, or mandated. Similarly, firms are increasingly calling for their CMOs to justify their own existence, and many are even considering abandonment of the position entirely.The goal of this investigation is to understand how CMOs can generate influence within their respective firms given a lack of reliable external credentials. However, the current business press seems to suggest that there currently exists a great bias towards marketing in general and CMOs in particular. As a result, the current investigation uses a competing models approach to study CMO influence. Drawing upon the literature pertaining to competition, the author suggests that individuals, like firms, can generate their own competitive advantage by possessing unique bundles of resources (e.g., information). This is the common element in both models. As the uniqueness of the information provided by the CMO increases, other executive officers within the firm are more likely to confer expertise power to the CMO, which in turn leads to greater influence. The two models diverge as organizational legitimacy is introduced. In one model, the Socially Contingent model, the CMO can only garner expertise power to the extent that s/he possesses organizational legitimacy. In such a case, CMOs that lack organizational legitimacy will be unable to realize any gains in expertise power regardless of the uniqueness of their informational resources (i.e., organizational legitimacy moderates the relationship between the uniqueness of the information provided and expertise power). In the second model, the Merit-Based model, organizational legitimacy mediates the relationship between a CMO's expertise power and his/her influence. As a CMO's perceived expertise increases, other executive officers are more likely to support the CMO's initiatives, which in turn lead to greater influence during strategy design and implementation.

The transition for any executive into a new appointment is a challenge. This transition for the newly appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO) is especially challenging given the complexity and ambiguous nature of their role. Investment in information technology (IT) has steadily increased over the past twenty years and contributes to enabling business changes that drive organizational performance improvements. The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has evolved into an executive who holds significant responsibility for leading the organization in realizing these investment benefits. Therefore unsuccessful CIO transitions can negatively impact the extent to which the organization’s IT benefits are fully realized. This research has one objective: to increase our understanding of the process of taking charge for the newly appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO). This increased understanding contributes to academic research as well as provides insights to practicing CIOs that will increase their probability of successfully taking charge of a new appointment. The project explores this phenomenon in depth from both the CIO’s and non-IT executive’s (CxO) perspective through semi-structured interviews with 43 executives. Participants included twenty-one Chief Information Officers and twenty-two C-suite, non-IT executives. The study integrates concepts from role theory and leader socialization with CIO leadership challenges. Findings indicate that the newly appointed CIO experiences a mutual adjustment process when they take charge. This adjustment occurs within their role set; the IT leadership team, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the other top management team members (CxOs). The data suggests that CIOs experience three overlapping phases of taking charge; Entry, Stabilization and Renewal. These phases result in confidence, credibility and legitimacy as a new leader in the organization. The data further reveals that the type of transition (Start-up, Turnaround, Realignment or Success-sustaining) encountered by the CIO is a significant influence on the taking charge process. CIO socialization is influenced heavily by their role set and the expectations within it. CIOs will encounter CxO peers with varying preferences on interaction style and focus. In addition the CxOs in the study identified three different views of CIOs that reinforce the role ambiguity for the newly appointed CIO. The study reveals that CIOs experience organizational socialization in two domains of leadership. These domains are supply-side and demand-side leadership. The data suggests that supply-side socialization occurs prior to demand-side socialization. These socialization outcomes are dependent on transition type. This research extends previous work done on CIO transitions by identifying phases, activities and outcomes. An additional contribution is the first empirical model of new CIO socialization. Leader socialization research is enhanced with the study of a non-CEO executive. This model contributes a deeper understanding of the mutual adjustment process experienced by a newly appointed CIO. Practicing CIOs can apply these findings in developing transition plans and actions for taking a new appointment. The CxO types and attitudes can inform the newly appointed CIO on customizing their relationship building approaches. Understanding that taking charge requires 2-3 years can lead to more realistic expectations of the executive. The findings of this study can lead CIOs to a higher probability of success in taking charge of a new appointment.

The Municipal Manager is responsible for the overall financial management of the municipality as requirement of MFMA. However, section 79(1) of the MFMA makes a provision for the municipal manager to delegate the financial management to the senior manager. The legislative requires that all municipalities should appoint a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who must be a member of the Senior Management of the municipality. The act, furthermore, requires the municipality to establish the budget and treasury office to be headed by the CFO. In 2007, the Minister of Finance released guidelines for the minimum competency requirement regulation of CFOs implemented on the first day of July 2007. According to the literature review, the CFO should move away from being number crunchers to become more visible in strategic and leadership management. Generally, according to the literature review, financial management within local municipalities in Gauteng is not properly managed. This was revealed in the general report on the audit outcomes of local government for the financial year ended 30 June 2003, 2004 and 2005. The summary of these reports shows that the Auditor-General expressed disclaimer of opinion to 50% of the financial statements and 13.1% adverse opinion of the municipalities. The reports further revealed that most of the municipalities do not have effective internal risk management or internal audit departments, late submission of financial statements is rife, and failure to implement newly enacted legislation prevails. Therefore, the municipalities' overall financial management is not well managed. The data gathered from the municipalities by administering questionnaires show that the local municipalities' finances are properly managed and they have effective systems of internal control. The municipalities have internal audit or risk management departments, they have functional audit committees and lastly, they implement recommendations from the Auditor-General's office and internal audit diligently. Information from the Auditor-General's office contradicts the information received from municipalities. The researcher is biased towards accepting the Auditor-General's point of view since the Auditor-General has no reason to paint a good or bad picture about the municipalities. The problem presented is that the municipalities do not have welt-established governance structures in place, in the first place; secondly, the contradiction highlights the perceptions of the people involved with the day-to-day financial management about its effectiveness and the Auditor-General's opinion of it. To overcome the problems, municipalities are advised to include competency assessment in their job selection processes, develop their staff members, establish and implement succession planning, and adhere to the legislation and submission timeframes. It is further recommended that the municipalities should adhere to the policy framework and develop strategies that support enhanced service delivery, as well as to instill energy and thought to overcome loss of skill and expertise due to high staff turnover. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The Municipal Manager is responsible for the overall financial management of the municipality as requirement of MFMA. However, section 79(1) of the MFMA makes a provision for the municipal manager to delegate the financial management to the senior manager. The legislative requires that all municipalities should appoint a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who must be a member of the Senior Management of the municipality. The act, furthermore, requires the municipality to establish the budget and treasury office to be headed by the CFO. In 2007, the Minister of Finance released guidelines for the minimum competency requirement regulation of CFOs implemented on the first day of July 2007. According to the literature review, the CFO should move away from being number crunchers to become more visible in strategic and leadership management. Generally, according to the literature review, financial management within local municipalities in Gauteng is not properly managed. This was revealed in the general report on the audit outcomes of local government for the financial year ended 30 June 2003, 2004 and 2005. The summary of these reports shows that the Auditor-General expressed disclaimer of opinion to 50% of the financial statements and 13.1% adverse opinion of the municipalities. The reports further revealed that most of the municipalities do not have effective internal risk management or internal audit departments, late submission of financial statements is rife, and failure to implement newly enacted legislation prevails. Therefore, the municipalities' overall financial management is not well managed. The data gathered from the municipalities by administering questionnaires show that the local municipalities' finances are properly managed and they have effective systems of internal control. The municipalities have internal audit or risk management departments, they have functional audit committees and lastly, they implement recommendations from the Auditor-General's office and internal audit diligently. Information from the Auditor-General's office contradicts the information received from municipalities. The researcher is biased towards accepting the Auditor-General's point of view since the Auditor-General has no reason to paint a good or bad picture about the municipalities. The problem presented is that the municipalities do not have welt-established governance structures in place, in the first place; secondly, the contradiction highlights the perceptions of the people involved with the day-to-day financial management about its effectiveness and the Auditor-General's opinion of it. To overcome the problems, municipalities are advised to include competency assessment in their job selection processes, develop their staff members, establish and implement succession planning, and adhere to the legislation and submission timeframes. It is further recommended that the municipalities should adhere to the policy framework and develop strategies that support enhanced service delivery, as well as to instill energy and thought to overcome loss of skill and expertise due to high staff turnover. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Many Supreme Court followers contended that Judge John Roberts entered his Supreme Court confirmation hearings as a "stealth candidate" who lacked a paper trail the Judiciary Committee could vet to discern the interpretive approach, or judicial philosophy, to which Judge Roberts' subscribed. This dissertation used rhetorical criticism as a methodological approach for examining this claim. A close-reading of Roberts' law journal articles, his writings from his service during the Reagan and Bush (41) administrations, the text of his appellate court confirmation testimony and published opinions, and the text of his Supreme Court confirmation testimony and published opinions reveals that Roberts was not a "stealth candidate" but instead a jurist who resolved constitutional, judicial, political, and statutory issues by incorporating components of originalism and positivism into his prudentialist judicial philosophy. The first two chapters of the dissertation provide the requisite background for the study. Chapter I discusses the challenges of the nomination and confirmation processes for Supreme Court Justices, and the chapter discusses the crucial powers that the Chief Justice possesses. Chapter II introduces readers to legal arguments, argument modalities, and judicial philosophies, and the chapter offers a new definition for the terms "legal rhetoric" and provides a new methodology for studying judicial discourse. The subsequent chapters comprise the core of the study. Chapter III examines Roberts' law review articles and the letters, memoranda, and position papers he wrote while working for the Reagan and Bush administrations, Chapter IV investigates Roberts' appellate court confirmation testimony and his published opinions, and Chapter V investigates Roberts' Supreme Court confirmation testimony and his published opinions. Following a chronological approach reveals that Roberts consistently used certain argument types within corresponding argument modalities to formulate his argumentative strategies, and each chapter demonstrates that Roberts' adhered to a prudentialist interpretive approach to resolve constitutional and statutory questions. Finally, Chapter VI argues that scholars should examine judicial discourse from an interdisciplinary perspective and reevaluate their conceptions about legal rhetoric and rhetorical criticism.

Thesis (Ph.D) -- University of Western Sydney, 2003. / Bibliography : leaves 206-229.

Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Faculty of Education) / Simon Fraser University.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1995. / Includes tables. Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Frank L. Smith Jr. Dissertation Committee: Susan Otterbourg. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-175).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Finance and Economics. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.