Nevertheless these NEDs still retained a 'non-executive' attitude in these discussions in that they did not become defensive of Trust actions in their discussions at the board.
But it did show a change in executives' attitudes late last year, before the government first reported a decline in technology spending.
In a new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of Fortune 1000 executives' attitudes toward sustainable development, one corporate vice president for environmental affairs called the concept "a pernicious fad".
She subsequently returned to the BBC, only to leave again less than a year later complaining of executives' hostile attitude towards her.
The chief executive's attitudes can trickle down to the rest of the country and set a toxic tone.
In some cases this may require a paradigm shift in local middle management and executive level attitudes and behaviours towards improving patient safety that goes beyond purely rhetorical endorsement of this concept as the single most important healthcare priority.
The Meijer executive added: "The attitude is, 'I'm the buyer.
Another former executive said, "His attitude was basically, 'You guys will never be able to make it work, so why don't you just hand over the company.' He was a bit pompous".
Speaking in December, Haroon Lorgat, CSA's chief executive, said: "Our attitude to corruption will always be one of zero tolerance and we are confident that we have the necessary structures in place to effectively deal with any corrupt activity.
Based on the Gender-GEDI Executive Report (2013) attitudes also play a crucial role in forming opinions that create a country's "entrepreneurial culture", meaning how the general population views entrepreneurial endeavors, risk assessment, and acceptance of business ownership as a viable career option.
The results of this survey support those of an earlier Scottish Executive survey 'Public attitudes to the Environment in Scotland 2002', which found that the Scottish public would prefer the majority of their electricity to come from renewables, and which rated wind power as the cleanest source of renewable energy.
