The truth about our norm core

Interesting article in today's FT by Tim Harford, pointing out that the classic studies of what has come to be called groupthink are too often quoted without mentioning the proportion of the subjects involved who did not follow the herd.

I'm still puzzled about the point at which consensus (considered good) becomes groupthink (considered bad). The evidence that board diversity will lead to less groupthink is very limited but this argument is frequently trotted out in support of board gender diversity.

And I'd like to see research on the relationship between consensus and diversity. In my research on audit committees, when I enquired about how contentious issues were resolved, board members told me repeatedly that dispute was minimal: many of their stories indicated that this was because consensus was achieved outside the board room through informal conversations. There have been many changes in the way boards work since I undertook that research but I doubt whether the importance of informal communication before and after meetings in achieving consensus has entirely diminished. How does that work for more diverse boards, I wonder?

Lots more interesting stuff to read:

A fascinating article by Paolo Quattrone on institutional logics: "Governing Social Orders, Unfolding Rationality, and Jesuit Accounting Practices: A Procedural Approach to Institutional Logics". A demanding read but worth getting to grips with.

Having read the sample chapter via Kindle, I was really keen to get hold of this and assumed that I would need to use the inter-library loan service, a ponderous process. The librarian who deals with ILL made my day when she told me that the Brookes library has it in ebook form!

I haven't read very far yet (and, because the author is a legal scholar, it has lengthy footnotes on every page so it's easy to lose track of citations, which I find very frustrating) but I like his initial analysis of the arguments which seems more comprehensive than anything else I've read. So far, there is almost no reference to non-US literature - I shall be ticking off citations against my lengthy bibliography on board gender diversity. I see that the empirical work was conducted in Norway: I hope he reflects on the difficulty of generalising from that special case.

Delighted with this, a freebie from OUP for reviewing a book proposal. It looks at accountability within everyday processes such as rubbish collection, traffic control and airport security, and how this relates to governance.

And a treat.










My other treat this week was listening to the wonderful Bob Monks speak at a CSFI roundtable event - always a pleasure to hear him speak, and I was able to give him a copy of the Cadbury book.