Research

Boards of directors have two jobs: oversight and advising. But can too much oversight lead to worse advice?

“Once upon a time, serving as a corporate board director was a prestigious thing. Today, thanks to the intense burdens of monitoring and governance we’ve piled onto boards generally and independent directors specifically, board service is more like a pain in the backside. And now some clever academics have tried to quantify precisely how much that pain costs corporate operations” (Compliance Week, November 15, 2010).

The Boston Globe's 11/19/12 feature on selling hospice care to the public focused on the most benign aspects of that process. While it is true that hospice care in America was built through the commendable efforts of committed volunteers and grossly underpaid health care professionals, the current industry has morphed into the fastest growing “product” purchased with Medicare dollars.

The cover of a recent Chronicle Review sums up academic reaction to a new book by linguist Dan Everett. Rendered in caricature, Bentley’s dean of arts and sciences exchanges scowls with the man who has dominated the field for some 50 years.

“Angry Words,” reads the headline. “Is Noam Chomsky’s reign over linguistics at an end?”

Everett chuckles at the illustration but answers the question with a serious “yes.”

Business ethicists are quick to comment on sensational cases of compensation involving very high pay for CEOs and very low pay for workers in overseas factories and sweatshops. But why do they rarely discuss the ethics of compensation in general, including for “ordinary” workers?

Freedom. One word suggesting a more just, humane society. Freedom lets us pick our religion, friends, and political leaders without fear of retribution. Freedom allows us to move within and across national borders and to express ourselves freely. Freedom is largely considered the cornerstone for building a successful democratic nation-state.

Today, the question of “freedom” is ever more relevant and multifaceted when seeking to understand the pro-democracy movements in North Africa, a place where I have nurtured a longtime research interest.

Sometimes, a hearty collaboration starts with something as simple as a good lunch.

Three years ago, Bentley Assistant Professor of Finance Irving Morgan (left) had a research paper starting to simmer. He ran into Fred Ledley in the faculty cafeteria and asked the professor of natural and applied sciences to review some initial findings. Ledley liked what he saw, and suggested working together at some point.

In the face of time constraints imposed by managed care, the best physicians recognize the merit of listening carefully to their patients.

Listening is at the heart of good medicine. Indeed, patients want their stories heard. It is a simple premise, but a challenge to put into place in medicine, where the average doctor’s appointment face-time lasts only about six minutes.

Books and more books are stacked on shelves and in piles around the office of Accountancy Department assistant Christine Nolder. But there is one she keeps close at hand: a tattered paperback copy of The Philosophy of Auditing, published in 1961 by the American Accounting Association.

One of the most inspiring moments in the American political process is the inauguration of a president, with its peaceful transfer of power and the president’s promise to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” I am unfailingly moved by the majesty and simplicity of the ceremony, and reminded how much students can learn from the study of our Constitution.

If you’re having problems with a piece of high-tech gear, the cliché is to enlist a child to help fix that troublesome computer or DVR. Funny thing, it’s true – to an extent. But it’s not experience with gadgetry that makes youngsters such worthy assistants. It’s their lack of preconceived ideas about how technology should operate.

Cynthia Kamishlian, a research associate at Bentley’s Design and Usability Center, is out to understand how the younger set behave around technology. And the knowledge may benefit more than children’s learning.