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What would a library credit course look like if the syllabus and course content were based on the type of daily questions that undergraduate students regularly present to librarians at the reference desk? The scenario‐based approach to credit course instruction integrates such real‐life situations into its syllabus. Examples of such scenarios include determining if a library owns materials on a reading list or bibliography; using a subject‐specific database to find articles from peer‐reviewed journals; finding reviews of books on a reading list; “packaging” a list of citations and then sending it via e‐mail to a home account; and creating a personalized “library gateway” through a Web authoring exercise. This article includes the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, and student evaluations from such a course. A course Web page is available at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/subjguid/lib101/

In order to shorten the response time, two part-time fire departments (FDs) in Sweden initialize a first incident person (FIP) assignment. This is done by alarming the crew manager as an FIP, responding in a separate emergency vehicle, and by arriving at the scene before rest of the crew. The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe experiences of the FIP assignment within an FD.

A multimethod design was used, influenced by Creswell and Plano Clark’s (2011) explanatory sequential mixed method design including emergency reports, a questionnaire and interviews.

The results show that the FIP assignment was a function that secured an early presence at the scene of an accident or emergency situations, which is beneficial for society in the form of a safety factor, for the firefighters in the form of early prior information on what to expect at the scene and for the patient in the form of early existential support and increased chances of survival.

In order to prevent full scenarios to happen and get the chance to save lives, an early response must be ensured. Hence, studies must be made in different settings, based on its unique conditions. This study indicates that by implementing FIP in FDs placed in a rural area, the FIP can break the chain of events and becoming a new link in the chain of survival.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how dual career expatriates view their spouses' roles during international assignments.

In total, 39 interviews were carried out with expatriates who had a working spouse. The interview data were content analysed using replication logic.

The authors' findings indicate that the importance of spousal support increases among dual career couples during international assignments. Expatriates report their spouses as having supporting, flexible, determining, instrumental, restricting and equal partner spousal roles.

This study provides in‐depth understanding about multiple spousal roles during international assignments among dual career couples and contributes to the previous literature by showing how spousal roles appear in the international context, and by identifying two new spousal roles.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a technical consulting firm approaches the development of engineering consultants, to prepare them to deal with their liminal, i.e. mobile and transient work situation. More specifically, this paper addresses how a training program, designed for newly graduated engineers, can increase the consultants’ liminality competence.

This paper reports on a qualitative case study of an introductory development program in a Scandinavian technical consulting firm. The study is based on observations of training sessions and meetings, and interviews with developers, leaders and participants of the program.

This study identifies three processes, which develop the engineering consultants’ ability to master their mobile and transient work situation: identifying the core of an assignment, embracing “in-betweenness” and broadening the scope of action.

This paper enhances the understanding of formal training in the context of technical consulting and adds to the knowledge of how engineering consultants can master their liminal work positions; in particular, the study identifies how liminality competence can be elevated through formal training.

Despite more than 50 years of research into gender and work, the impact of female expatriates persists to be underrepresented in mainstream international human resource management (IHRM) literature. The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore the perceptions of married Indian information technology (IT) women regarding career and expatriating discussions they have with their husbands and its impact on their decision making to undertake international assignments.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 married Indian IT women who had undertaken international assignments after marriage. The study includes two data sets, 1: women on less than one-year assignment; 2: women on greater than one-year assignments.

The study found that women who went on short-term assignments of less than one year travelled alone and found it fortunate and convenient to leave their children in the care of their husbands, in-laws, parents and maids. While in the cases of women travelling for longer-term assignments, most husbands accompanied them. The study suggests that while spousal support was the key, having a shared purpose with husbands along with extended family support was equally significant to facilitate women undertaking an international assignment. As an impetus, the authors note a change within the Indian society where both partners come together to make decisions about expatriating.

The authors discuss the implications for IHRM as they relate to gender diversity within organisations.

The research, underpinned by the early workings of a theory of career hierarchy, explores the complexities in expatriation decision-making processes of married women from the emerging economy of India with traditional family values, who are working within a modern and liberal IT industry.

This paper reviews literature on interim leadership and management through the lens of effective interim performance. The purpose of this review is to advance understanding of interim assignment performance and the antecedent individual psychological characteristics of effective interim leaders and managers, to improve the practice of managing interim leaders from a human resources (HR) perspective.

The paper reports a targeted review of the literature on interim leadership and management.

The main proposition from this review is that the influence of individual factors on interim performance operates within the stages and contexts of assignments. Accordingly, the authors propose a framework of the demands on interim assignments (the interim assignment cycle), comprising stages of preparation, entry, delivery and exit. The paper subsequently reviews evidence of the potential individual characteristics (focussing on individual differences in personality, leadership approach, motivation and competencies) of effective preparation and entry to an assignment, actions and performance during an assignment and exit/disengagement.

The findings of the review have implications for the selection and placement of interims into organizations and their management once appointed.

The main original contribution of the paper is to provide a framework around which interim assignments can be modelled and better understood. The paper discusses implications for future research, theory and human resource management practice and calls for a renewed research effort in this critical area of management and leadership.

Drawing on an institutional perspective, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on mobility patterns and assignment situations in 15 German non-profit organizations (NPOs) in the public diplomacy and international aid sectors. Its aim is to explore how differing field logics are related to international staffing practices in the different sectors.

A multiple case study approach was employed, based on 51 expert interviews and corresponding document analysis.

The findings display similarities between NPOs of the same sector but differences between the sectors with regard to numbers of “expensive” expatriates and the assignment situation; this is a result of the intersection of different institutional pressures in the respective fields.

The article is based on a limited number of cases in the German context and does not allow for generalization. The results may be NPO specific; further research is necessary to compare the institutional embeddedness of staffing decisions in MNCs, other NPO sectors and country contexts.

Organizations in both fields find different answers to similar external pressures, which may encourage mutual learning.

This article highlights the neglected research topic of expatriation in non-corporate assignment settings and offers an alternative view on staffing decisions than the previously predominant rational one.

Globalization requires business leaders who can manage effectively in multicultural environments. Although many organizations assume leaders will enhance their multicultural skills through international assignments, it is unclear how leaders translate these international experiences into knowledge and skills that enhance their effectiveness. Based on experiential learning theory (ELT), we propose that cultural intelligence (CQ) is an essential learning capability that leaders can use to translate their international experiences into effective experiential learning in culturally diverse contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to call into question the most longstanding pedagogical practices in academia while analyzing their potential to foster student creativity and innovation in the classroom. While some suggestions advanced in this paper may not have the same importance in other fields and disciplines, they are highly relevant in the applied, interdisciplinary, and very fast moving field of Library and Information Science (LIS).

Positioning creativity as a teachable skill and relying on the learner-centered pedagogy of Carl Rogers, the paper presents a model that can serve as a litmus test for the creative potential of graduate-level assignments in LIS programs. The model is called “Walls,” “Doors,” and “Fences” (WalDorF); these terms refer to specific statements in graduate assignment descriptions that are necessary (“Walls”); conducive to creative expression (“Doors”); or unjustifiably restrictive (“Fences”). The paper uses a sample assignment from a “Foundations of LIS” course to illustrate the model; it also provides several examples of the WalDorF model application in other LIS courses.

Using the WalDorF model, the paper revisits and challenges some of the most common pedagogical practices in graduate LIS teaching, including the prevalence of written papers as course assignments; the implications of equating “research” with an overview of secondary literature; the need for professors’ approvals of research topics; the meaning of the “quality of writing;” the imperative of “academic” writing as opposed to other types of writing; the word/page limit; the use of standardized reference styles; the class participation requirement; and the late assignment policies, among others.

The real change in education is foundational and goes beyond cosmetic improvements. If we want to develop learning experiences that tap into students’ creative potential, the very core of our approaches needs to be scrutinized and questioned, even the centuries-old staples of academic teaching. At the end of the day, we may decide that changing things is not in the best interests of learning. However, a complete critical analytical work must be done to convince and reassure ourselves that tried-and-true methods are the best way to go. The proposed WalDorF model presents one possible frame for critical revision.