"What’s the difference between God and Larry Ellison" asks an old software industry joke. Answer: God doesn’t think he’s Larry Ellison. The boss of Oracle is hardly alone among corporate chiefs in having a reputation for being rather keen on himself. Indeed, until the bubble burst and the public turned nasty at the start of the decade, the cult of the celebrity chief executive seemed to demand bossly narcissism, as evidence that a firm was being led by an all-conquering hero. Narcissus in Greek myth met a nasty end, of course. And in recent years, boss-worship has come to be seen as bad for business. In his management besteller, Good to Great, Jim Collins argued that the truly successful bosses were not the self-proclaimed stars who adorn the covers of Forbes and Fortune, but instead self-effacing, thoughtful, monkish sorts who lead by inspiring example. A statistical answer may be at hand. For the first time, a new study, "It’s All About Me", to be presented next week at the annual gathering of the American Academy of Management, offers a systematic, empirical analysis of what effect narcissistic bosses have on the firms they run. The authors, Arijit Chatterjee and Donald Hambriek, of Pennsylvania State University, examined narcissism in the upper echelons of 105 firms in the computer, and software industries. To do this, they had to solve a practical problem: studies of narcissism have hitherto relied on surveying individuals personally, something for which few chief executives are likely to have time or inclination. So the authors devised an index of narcissism using six publicly available indicators obtainable without the co-operation of the boss. These are: the prominence of the boss’s photo in the annual report; his prominence in company press releases; the length of his "Who’s Who" entry; the frequency of his use of the first person singular in interviews; and the ratios of his cash and non-cash compensation to those of the firm’s second-highest paid executive. Narcissism naturally drives people to seek positions of power and influence, and because great self-esteem helps your professional advance, say the authors, chief executives will tend on average to be more narcissistic than the general population. How does that affect a firm Messrs Chatterjee and Hambrick found that highly narcissistic bosses tended to make bigger changes in the use of important resources, such as research and development, or in spending and leverage; they carried out more and bigger mergers and acquisitions; and their results were both more extreme (more big wins or big losses) and more volatile than those of firms run by their humbler peers. For shareholders, that could be good or bad. Which of the following is NOT the feature of the boss’s narcissism
A. The ratios of his cash and non-cash compensation to those of the firm’s second-highest paid executive.
B. The kind of people in his "Who’s Who" entry.
C. The rate of occurrence of his use of the first person singular in interviews.
D. The conspicuousness of the boss’s photo in the annual report.
What impact can mobile phones have on their users’ health Many people worry about the supposed ill effects caused by radiation from handsets and base stations, (1) the lack of credible evidence of any harm. But evidence for the beneficial effects of mobile phones on health is rather more (2) Indeed, a systematic review (3) out by Rifat Atun and his colleagues at Imperial College, rounds up 150 (4) of the use of text-messaging in the (5) of health care. These uses (6) three categories: efficiency gains; public-health gains; and direct benefits to patients by (7) text-messaging into treatment regimes.Using texting to (8) efficiency is not profound science, but big savings can be achieved. Several (9) carried out in England have found that the use of text-messaging reminders (10) the number of missed appointments with family doctors by 26-39%, and the number of missed hospital appointments by 33-50%. If such schemes were (11) nationally, this would translate (12) annual savings of £256-364 million.Text messages can also be a good way to deliver public-health information, particularly to groups (13) are hard to reach by other means. Text messages have been used in India to (14) people about the World Health Organization’s strategy to control lung disease. In Iraq, text messages were used to support a (15) to immunize nearly 5 million children (16) paralysis.(17) , there are the uses of text-messaging as part of a treatment regime. These involve sending reminders to patients to (18) their medicine, or to encourage accordance with exercise regimes. However, Dr. Rifat notes that the evidence for the effectiveness of such schemes is generally (19) , and more quantitative research is (20) 17()
A. Finally
B. However
C. Usually
D. Obviously