Thursday

Early start - finally manage to scan all receipts and submit expenses claim to ICAEW, much quicker with a clear head.  Follow up some alerts and forward useful links to colleagues. A PhD enquiry - these have tailed off lately, possibly because we have provided some very specific areas of study on the web site. Only one enquiry so far about the post doc advert and the topic of interest would be stretching the interpretation of our research focus somewhat. Confirmation that the funding proposal has achieved Faculty approval - now waiting for university approval before I can send off all the documents. Message from Google Scholar telling me that the Arthur Andersen paper has been cited: seems to be in a paper by one of my co-author's students so hardly surprising!

 Check on my literature search on board gender diversity via Google Scholar. Thankfully nothing seems to have been published lately that I haven't already picked up but following up the citations (such a useful feature!) I find an article by a professor of psychology at Hertfordshire which provides references for some of the material that is so frequently cited as showing the benefits of women on boards. Very tempted to write to the author pointing out that the article perpetuates a growing myth by conflating correlation with causality.

Back to chapter 6. Read through file of material I have collected on early compliance with the Code - a big file but some of contents are not directly relevant so I can clear a bit of space on my desk. I find some previous notes I had made about how to structure the discussion of compliance. Wish I could read my handwriting...

Window cleaner appears suddenly giving both me and Beanie a bit of a fright. We don't expect to be disturbed up here in the study.

Complete draft of report of the "professorial task group" I've been chairing. My group was responsible for looking at the UN Principles of Responsible Management Education. The main issue is whether we commit to this whole-heartedly through a process of "critical engagement" with the principles or superficially, just ticking the boxes where our current activities match. There is a lot already going on in the Faculty which relates to the Principles, some of which is really innovative. The group has had fluctuating membership: some colleagues are really committed to this initiative and have been very helpful. Others, having expressed an interest initially, haven't come to any of the meetings or responded to emails asking for input. I've circulated the draft and asked for comment by tomorrow afternoon so that I can send it to the dean next week.

A tweeted link to Andy Haldane's recent lecture on the Gresham College site is disappointing because it only gives his slides (he is an economist at the Bank of England and has written some excellent papers on the financial crisis: he is speaking at the ICAEW conference next month) but by happy chance I find a pdf of Adrian Cadbury's 1998 lecture and read it over lunch. Some quotable bits and a very useful addition to my collection of his reflections after the report and Code were published.

Quick trip out to the shops. In a North Oxford supermarket I find a lost shopping list which begins "Venison, Chantenay carrots..".  Succumb to temptation of 3 for 2 offers on frozen petit fours. Visit newly opened shop selling upmarket frozen meals. The packaging is good because you can see the food inside but it's all very expensive. A big range of types and sizes but a three course meal would cost just as much as a meal out in a medium-priced restaurant. Assistant tells us that it's all cooked as if home-made with no preservatives or additives. I see that the names of the cooks are shown on the packaging: not sure I'd want to eat anything cooked by a Mr Piles, though. Wonder how long the shop will last.

Back to find funding proposal has been approved - off it goes and shortly I receive confirmation that it has arrived safely. Request arrives to update the departmental entry in the British Accounting Review Research Register. This is published every two years and lists all the accounting and finance academics at every British university with a note of their teaching and research interests and publications so it is a very useful resource, but completing the return required is a pain. Much less of a pain, though, than when it was all paper based, but still a couple of hours work assembling all the information for the last two years.

Dentist first thing tomorrow, not looking forward to it.