Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between selected board characteristics and ownership elements and the performance of firms listed in the Muscat Securities Market (MSM30). The examination focused on how the firm financial performance was affected by the board size, the number of board meetings and the ratio of the independent board of directors along to the ownership concentration types (i.e. institutional, state and concentrated individual ownership). Design/methodology/approach Data were extracted from the annual reports available online on the MSM30 website over a period of seven years (2009–2015). The sample consisted of 14 firms belonging to the non-financial sector. The data were of a balanced type and there were 98 observations. The analysis was conducted using the ordinary least square in STATA with the use of the robustness technique of standard error. Findings The findings of this study provide evidence that the selected elements for board characteristics and ownership influence firm performance. Nevertheless, such influence has its interpretation that differs to some extent from other securities markets in the developing countries. For instance, the ratio of the independent board of directors, the number of board director’s meetings, state ownership and concentrated individual ownership were inversely affecting the firm performance. However, institutional ownership and board size were found to have a positive effect on firm performance. Originality/value Studies on the influence of corporate governance and ownership structures in the context of Oman are still scarce. MSM30 received little attention, even though such an index encompasses the most liquid and the most profitable firms. MSM30 is an important index for investors in Oman looking for capital gains. Accordingly, this present study contributes to the knowledge body by providing new findings related to Oman and compares it with the other markets within Gulf Council Countries (GCC) and around the world. This will provide more understanding of the Omani context. Moreover, the authors anticipate that the outcomes of this research, which so far is the most comprehensive study in the Omani context in terms of the impact of corporate governance and ownership structure on firm financial performance can significantly shape corporate governance discourse, practices and policies in Oman, in particular, and in other GCC countries in general, to improve financial performance and corporate sustainability.

Among the various speculation published in media reports about the reasons why generation-Y workforce in Malaysia changes job frequently include dissatisfaction with pay and fringe benefits, seeking work-life balance, perceived status work-values fit, normative commitment, perceived availability of alternative job and job hopping, This study aims to empirically justify or refute some of the anecdotal information about generation-Y employees' decision to leave an organisation in the context of Malaysia. Using structural equation modelling with a sample size of 150 respondents, this study revealed that satisfaction with payment and fringe, perceived availability of alternative job and job hopping are significant to generation-Y employees' intention to quit. Additionally, normative commitment as part of employees' loyalty is insignificant to generation-Y employees' intention to quit. This study provides implication to human resource (HR) managers that generation-Y employees' intention to quit may not be entirely due to HR strategies. Instead, cultural and economic factors play an important role in such decisions. However, there are other reasons that are widely held about generation-Y employees' intention to quit, which may not be held true or empirically validated. Lastly, normative commitment does not influence their intention to stay or to leave an organisation, as their loyalty is to their personal lives.

This paper investigates the factors contributing to Generation Y employees' intention to quit in the business process outsourcing sector (BPO) in Malaysia from four different perspectives: personnel dimensions (work overload, role ambiguity and job stress), job attitudes (satisfaction with pay and organizational commitment), work-life conflict and organizational strategies (training, career planning and empowerment). A structural equation modelling approach was employed to identify the variables that significantly affect the intention to quit. Using Amos 18, data collected from 164 Generation Y employees in the BPO sector were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that intention to quit one's job is explained by lack of training, lack of empowerment, organizational commitment, and lack of career planning. Also, role ambiguity and satisfaction with pay exert negative indirect effects on the intention to quit one's job through organizational commitment. Additionally, job stress has no impact on the intention to quit one's job. This study is considered to be among the few attempts to address the reasons behind Generation Y employees' intention to quit.

With the increased acceptability of generational differences at the workplace, generation-Y employees are beginning to become featured at the workplace, with radical changes in their work values. In the case of Malaysia, theorists and practitioners are keenly interested to investigate the reasons behind one of this workplace related behaviours, which is high turnover stemming, particularly from this cohort, due to organisational and economic benefits of retaining such employees. This conceptual paper attempts to address generation-Y's high turnover intention from the perspective of Person-Environment fit. This generation may experience lack of fit with communicated or supplied work values, as many of its work values are not well known to employers. However, it is not substantiated which type of work values fit may impact the behavioural intention for the generation Y workforce. However, this paper elaborates how each work values fit may or may not affect the decision to quit.

This study aims to examine the impact of gender diversity in the Board of Directors (BOD) on the firm performance-return of assets (ROA) and return of equity (ROE)-using a sample of Palestinian non-financial companies for the period 2008-2015. Gender diversity was measured as a percentage of women in the BOD, and dummy variable for the existence of at least one woman in the BOD. The study employed method of two-stage least squares (2SLS) to address endogeneity issues in the relationship between gender diversity and company performance. The findings show that women still exist modestly in the BOD, women exist more in the BOD of industrial firms than in the BOD of service firms. Furthermore, firms with at least one woman in the BOD have a large debt ratio, independence of BOD, better ROA performance, less size, and no difference in BOD size. The results of 2sls show that gender diversity has a positive and statistically significant impact on firm performance.