Leadership in organizations has been widely studied in the literature. However, scant research could be found exploring the critical personality characteristics business executives need to have in order to lead corporate organizations more effectively. This qualitative, phenomenological study was designed to investigate the lived experience of top-level business leaders in leadership roles. Ten Chief Executive Officers of Ghana Club 100 were interviewed and told their experience as leaders. The email and face-to-face interview transcripts were coded and analyzed for themes. The following personality attributes emerged from the study which were found to support and promote strong executive effectiveness: integrity, forward-looking, selfconfidence, emotional intelligence and maturity, and caring for others. The study significance provides information to Board of Directors of Ghanaian Corporations in the selection, promotion, and training of executive-level managers, and potentially lower the costs associated with losing highpotential executive leaders. The study findings could also help business schools and management consultants to focus better on preparing business leaders for the future. A major limitation of the study was the small sample size, which may require caution in generalizing the findings to the entire population. The current study is one of the first to be carried out in Ghana on leader personality traits.

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Ghana is relatively new to oil and gas extraction and there is little empirical knowledge about the key players in the oil and gas business, what they do to contribute to local socio-economic development, and the quandaries these firms struggle with while operating under difficult circumstances. The purpose of this study was to assess the contribution of international oil companies to local development in Ghana and to evaluate the challenges and dilemmas faced by these firms. The study adopted a qualitative, interpretive case study design that relied on face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions to gather primary data. Interview responses were analysed, compared, and categorised with the results of transcription of the focus group discussions, and later triangulated and interpreted to draw conclusions. The study revealed that most international oil companies in Ghana are transparent in reporting on their business activities and operations. Despite the efforts by these firms to support local development by funding developmental projects, paying taxes, and providing employment opportunities to local youth, international oil companies are still a target of criticism for unsatisfactory performance. Local populations would like to see extractive firms finance community infrastructural projects matching with local priority needs and focus more on impact rather than the quantity of money disbursed or the number of projects funded. International oil companies should change their engagement approach from a mere consultation to a realistic, democratic, and broad-based involvement of the publics. This study has enriched existing frameworks applied to evaluate business organisations’ contributions to local development.

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The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is one of the best-known strategic planning and evaluation tools that uses both monetary and non-monetary data. This paper focuses on empirically testing whether the four dimensions of the BSC predicts organizational performance of Ghanaian public universities. The study adopted a cross-sectional, descriptive survey design and the primary sources of data was gathered through hand-administered structured questionnaires from both academic and administrative staff of 10 accredited public universities in Ghana. The study also employed structural Equation Model (SEM) with SmartPLS to analyze 134 samples. Results of the boostrapping method for the structural model and the t-values of the four dimensions of the BSC were significantly and statistically different from each other, but all showed a positive relation on perceived organizational performance. The results showed that non-financial measures have better outcomes for employees’ performances which corroborates the central proposition of the Balanced Scorecard. It is recommended that public universities that want to maintain and improve organizational performance must pay attention to the customers’ perspective by providing relevant and high-quality education that acquaints students with knowledge and transferable basic skills and also identify opportunities for special initiatives, collaborative partnerships, and accountability to constituents.