Isomorphic effects of managerial and directoral career paths

The extensive array of interlocking directorate research remains near-exclusively cross-sectional or comparative cross-sectional in nature. While this has been fruitful in identifying persistent structures of inter-organisational relationships evidence of the impact of these structures on organisational performance or activity has been more limited. This should not be surprising because, by their nature, relationships have strong longitudinal and dynamic qualities that are likely to be difficult to isolate through cross-sectional approaches. Clearly, managerial practice is inevitably strongly conditioned by the specific contingencies of the time and the information available through networks of colleagues and advisers (particularly at board level) at the time. But managerial and directoral capabilities and mental sets are also developed over time, particularly through previous experiences in these roles and the formation of long-lasting 'strong' and 'weak' relationships. This paper tests the influence of three longitudinal dimensions of managers and directors' relationships on a set of indicators of financial performance, drawing from a large dataset of detailing historic board membership of UK firms. It finds evidence of isomorphic processes through these channels and establishes that the longitudinal design considerably enhances the detection of performance effects from directorate interlocks. More broadly, the research has implications for the conception of collective action and the constitution of 'community'.

Signposts in the sand: Key issues for e-moderators

E-learning is a vision that has sparked a wide-ranging enthusiasm for moderators, course designers and learners. Asynchronous conferencing is currently central to this vision. Some educators assume that supporting learners who use this medium is the same as supporting them in the classroom. However, this is not the case. This paper outlines the current research into providing signposts that enable us to improve the training and support offered to new e-moderators and e-course designers. It suggests a classification of roles and tasks that together with an e-course framework will help to maximize the benefits of e-learning and enable all participants to migrate successfully to the new environment.