Professor Millar is studying the ways in which tax systems are used to support children in Australia, Canada and the USA, and is briefing the Treasury and the Department of Social Security on her findings. Professor Millar has also been involved in evaluating the whole New Deal programme for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and has published a report which analyses its implications for young people, disabled people and the long-term unemployed as well as lone parents. This was the question that underpinned two unique ESRC-funded studies of corporate boards carried out by Dr. Annie Pye of the School of Management. She repeated the study in 1999, interviewing the same people or their current equivalents. The results reveal a host of significant changes.
Strategic focus is the first, reflecting rapid changes in the corporate world.
Providing shareholder value is another important theme, reflecting the growing power of institutional investors. Corporate governance has also become an imperative, following the Cadbury report and regulation to ensure greater transparency and integrity. Boards now tend to be smaller with relatively more non-executive directors. The non-executive role has changed considerably, although ability to be effective still depends to a large extent on the relationship between Chairman and Chief Executive and the board culture this engenders. Board performance, however, is rarely formally evaluated, revealing both opportunity and need for further research into board effectiveness.