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While the mid seventies to the early Eighties were a boom time for engineering and construction firms engaged in mega‐project construction, the past few years have seen a worldwide decline in contracts awarded for giant generating units for the power industry, petroleum refineries, and nickel, copper, and other mineral extraction and refining projects. However, in their place, new sources of work are emerging in hazardous waste disposal or storage, robotics, and other advanced technologies.

In the continuing endeavour to work towards ever better management, the project manager has a crucial role to play. This monograph assesses the requirements of project management in terms of training and experience, demonstrates what sort of person the project manager should be, and also the role that should be played by the project team. In order to illustrate the manner in which the essential qualities in both the project manager and his team are displayed in action a number of completed projects worldwide are reviewed. Both successful projects and disastrous projects are used to demonstrate the way in which the problems encountered in real life can be met and overcome. In conclusion both the prospects and the problems that the future may hold for the project manager are assessed.

This paper seeks to develop a theoretical explanation of conflicts and incompatible interpretations of events between agents of multinational corporations (MNCs) and actors present in certain host countries. It aims to situate the argument in comparative economic systems as a part of a broader social system. The socio‐economic system can be modeled using institutional theory, particularly using Scott's three pillars and the concept of formal and informal institutions. Within different socio‐economic systems a dominant logic is developed, and this becomes internalized among actors and agents as behavioral scripts.

The paper uses a multi‐level and multi‐disciplinary conceptual analysis, developing a model of dominant logic and behavioral scripts with MNC agents and traditional emerging economy actors.

MNC agents and traditional emerging economy actors have difficulty comprehending the logic of the other, creating a fertile context for conflict.

An ideal type template is developed that can be used for empirical investigations focusing on situations where disagreement and conflict occur when MNCs operate in traditional emerging economies.

By integrating the authors' conceptualization into training for expatriate managers, the potential for conflict can be reduced.

This multi‐level and multi‐disciplinary model allows grounded development of understanding of conflicts or potential conflicts in the MNC agent‐traditional emerging economy actor context.

As their domestic markets have declined, many multinational and domestic American corporations have begun to emerge as new providers of training and development services to Third World technical assistance programmes. These activities have been sponsored by direct contracts with developing nations or through governmental organisations such as the Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and others. Distinguished from consultant firms and private voluntary organisations, American corporations such as Bechtel, Singer, RCA, and Westinghouse have become a new provider constituency in foreign aid.

The transformation of Manders plc from a paints, property and printing inks company to a leading world player in printing inks began in January 1994 when it sold its decorative paints business to Johnstone's Paints plc (part of the Total group) for £52 million. It then acquired the inks and coatings business from Croda for £27 million and sold Croda its industrial coatings business. This deal included the new state‐of‐the‐art water‐based liquid ink plant in Winschoten, The Netherlands. In June 1994 this was followed by the £38 million purchase of Premier Inks in 's‐Gravenzande and Deurne, The Netherlands. The result has been to make Manders plc the fastest growing ‘ink company in the world, according to chief executive Roger Akers, and Manders Premier the European market leader in the technology, of heatset inks. Pigment & Resin Technology's technical editor, John Bean, recently visited the 's‐Gravenzande factory and R&D centre to bring back this report.