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This study explores the relationship between Earnings Management and Impression Management in the context of some European listed companies. The analysis focuses on the readability of annual reports, measured by the file size. Earnings management is assessed using the modified Jones model. The sample consists of 2,953 listed companies from 17 industries of 24 European countries between 2012 and 2018 resulting in 13,020 firm-year observations. It has been found that one standard deviation increase in financial reports file size increases discretionary accruals in around 4%. These results are robust across different sample specifications in terms of firms' size, industry and country. The findings show that increased intensity in the use of discretionary accruals is obfuscated by the disclosure of less readable annual reports, implying that Earnings Management and Impression Management are used complementarily. The conclusions have impact both for investment management and for policy, preventing inefficient allocation of capital budgeting and providing additional information that improves regulation on financial reporting transparency.
AcknowledgmentThe authors are grateful to financial support from FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), national funding through research grant (UID/SOC/04521/2020).

Reports a series of action projects in UK manufacturing companies which
found that formal planning and control activity was less evident than
the management of priorities. The reasons for this were found in the
innate instability of these companies′ operations. This finding
provokes a fresh look at two themes which formerly produced much
literature: the relative failure of computers in production management;
and the gap between OM academics and practitioners. A third theme, taken
from the OB literature on the reactive nature of managerial work, throws
light on both these issues. The instability of batch manufacturing
operations can thus be seen as a norm, not a departure from a norm of
stability. The assumption of a stable environment helps to explain why
the formal MPC systems had often disappointed, and why the practitioners
had made little use of OM academic work. Explores the nature of the
instability as being principally concerned with the three dimensions of
variety, variation and volume. Defines priority management, and
positions it in relation to manufacturing strategy and to more technical
approaches to OM. Develops a general theory of priority management which
draws together various mid‐range theories and empirical studies.

Economic globalization, growingly differentiated and unstable markets, fiscal crises in light of increasing public expenditure are the elements of an uncertain future for local communities. The latter are captured in the growing demand of users or citizens for quality in public services and in the regulation of the state that (sometimes) limits the creative development and competition on a global market of local communities. In the context of this ever demanding environment functions local administration that has to be reformed in order to conform with the elements of this environment. The article presents the specifics of local management and alongside its reform process by the principles of new public management. Empirical part of the article explains findings of an extensive study of local administrations in the European Union and their reforms with implications that show the effects of reformed local administration on the effectiveness of the entire local community.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationships between governance and a variety of approaches to public administration, especially New Public Management.Design/methodology/approachThe study provides a conceptual review of the various approaches to public management and governance.FindingsMany approaches to public administration, especially New Public Management, place excessive emphasis on quotidian management issues and insufficient attention to broader issues of governance.Originality/valueI liked it.

Master i styring og ledelse ; This thesis is based on explorative empirical research on the use of strategic management and performance management in central-administrative governmental agencies in Norway. Employing document analysis, the whole population of 61 central administrative agencies in Norway (the year 2017) – including directorates, inspectorates and oversight bodies, was examined. These are organizationally independent units but are exposed to politically based ministerial governance, including performance budgeting and performance management. Strategic management and performance management are therefore not inherently integrated processes in Norwegian government agencies. Key questions were how performance management interacts with strategic management in governmental agencies, do ministries' various use of performance management affect whether agencies develop strategies or how they design their strategy, and are (long term) strategies dormant documents or actively used as steering instruments in agencies alongside (short term) performance management? Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from our source documents. Poister et al.'s (2010) strategic management framework was used as an integrative perspective. The relationship between agency and parent ministry was interpreted as defining important contextual determinants described by Ferlie and Ongaro (2015). Strategies were analysed with various approaches such as strategic stance (Boyne and Walker 2004) and institutional "administrative values" and vision (Bozeman 2007, Hood 1991). The quantitative data were analysed with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) (Hair et al. 2017). Key findings: In a supposedly low-NPM affected tier of government, two-thirds of agencies had agency-wide strategies. Strategic management seems to have a stronger identity forming function, while performance management dominates aim-setting in agencies. Depending on variables like size, organisation structure, policy area and ministry-affiliation, the interaction between performance management and strategic management showed non-linear variations suggesting they function as separate, but interconnected steering-instruments in government agencies in Norway. ; Denne masteroppgaven er en utforskende studie av bruk av strategisk styring og mål- og resultatstyring i sentral-administrative statlige virksomheter i Norge. Jeg brukte dokumentanalyse av tre dokumentkilder: tildelingsbrev, virksomhetenes strategidokumenter og virksomhetens årsmeldinger. Jeg studerte hele populasjonen av 61 sentraladministrative enheter, deriblant direktorater og tilsyn. Disse virksomhetene er autonome enheter, men er underlagt ytre styring gjennom tildelingsbrevenes mål- og resultatstyring og budsjettstyring. Strategisk styring og mål- og resultatstyring er derfor i disse virksomhetene strukturelt løsrevet fra hverandre. Nøkkelspørsmål har vært hvordan mål- og resultatstyringen og den strategiske styringen interagerer, hvorfor noen statlige virksomheter utvikler strategier og hvordan styrken og detaljorienteringen i tildelingsbrev påvirker utviklingen og bruken av strategier. Jeg innhentet både kvantitative og kvalitative data fra våre kilder. Ved hjelp av det strategiske rammeverket til Poister et al. (2010) tolket jeg bruk av tildelingsbrev som kontekstuelle determinanter som beskrevet av Ferlie og Ongaro (2015). Tildelingsbrev ble analysert med henblikk på kvantitativ måling av ulike styringsvirkemidler. Strategier ble analysert fra flere perspektiver, bl.a. strategisk ståsted (Boyne and Walker 2004) og verdier og visjoner (Bozeman 2007, Hood 1991). De kvantitative dataene ble analysert med Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) (Hair et al. 2017). Nøkkelfunn: I statlige virksomheter på sentral-administativt nivå hadde 41 av 61 virksomheter utviklet strategier. Et stort flertall (78%) refererte til sin strategi i sine årsrapporter, men kun et mindretall (37%) refererte til konkrete strategiske mål. Dette bidrar til et bilde av at strategier hos mange ikke er sovende dokumenter. Strategier ser ut til å ha en mer identitets-markerende funksjon i styringen av virksomheter, mens mål- og resultatstyringen i tildelingsbrev dominerer den kortsiktige målsettingsfunksjonen. Når strategier blir for detaljerte i sine mål, ser det ut til at de raskere blir irrellevante for virksomheten. Avhengig av variabler som virksomhetens størrelse, organisasjonsstruktur, politikkområde og tilhørighet til departement, viste virksomhetene store variasjoner i strategisk styring og mål- og resultatstyring. Dette tolkes i denne oppgaven som at mål- og resultatstyring og strategisk styring synes å brukes som separate, men likevel sammenvevde redskaper i styringen av statlige virksomheter i Norge. ; publishedVersion