The Path for Top Management Teams to Achieve High-Performing Council Organisations

This article examines what management practices top management teams should pursue to achieve high-performing council organisations. It reports on the findings of a study into the practices of top management teams at three high-performing and three low-performing Melbourne councils. The study makes two important findings. First, there is no one path for top management teams to achieve a high-performance council. Second, the capacity of top management teams to work effectively with the elected members is the only factor that distinguishes high-performing from low-performing councils. The only features all high-performing and all low-performing councils do well in are financial monitoring and nurturing teamwork within business/operating units. But these are insufficient by themselves to provide success, and may simply be regarded as the basics of management practice.     

The relation of personality functions and adaptive skills to self-esteem in early adolescence

This paper examines the relation, in early adolescence, of competence in personality functions and adaptive skills to self-esteem. As part of a longitudinal study of adolescent personality development, a nonclinical group of 63 adolescents underwent a comprehensive assessment at age 13. Their personality functioning status was assessed by means of a semistructured psychiatric interview. A psychometric battery was administered to assess verbal and nonverbal adaptive skills. In addition, global self-esteem was assessed. The findings indicate that positive self-esteem was associated with competence in both personality functions and in adaptive skills. Both domains contributed to self-esteem to a similar degree.This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Community and Social Services of the Province of Ontario, Canada. This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Academy of Child Psychiatry, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 1985.Received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Research Interests include adolescent personality development and the effects of affective disorders on development.Received his M.D. from the University of Toronto. Research interests include mood disorders, personality development in adolescence, and preventive psychiatry.Received his M.D. from the University of Toronto. Research interests include adolescent personality development, effects of psychosis on personality, and psychophysiology of schizophrenia.Received his M.D. from the University of Toronto. Research interests include affective disorders in adolescence and individual psychotherapy.