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Women find it difficult to achieve promotion into senior administration positions in education systems throughout the Western world. This paper reports on interviews with 23 women who are employed by Education Queensland (Australia). These women, who were all participants in a Women in Management course offered by the Queensland University of Technology, have been successful in being promoted into administrative positions in schools and school support centres. The focus of the paper is on why these women have gone for promotion and the successful strategies that they employed to achieve promotion. These strategies included “putting runs on the board”, being persistent, networking, managing in their own way and accessing appropriate professional development. The paper concludes with the warning that the culture of the central bureaucracy, however, is perceived as overwhelmingly male and this acts as a significant barrier to further career progress.

To provide examples of qualitative research based on feminist epistemological assumptions. Such research re‐invents rather than recycles management theory, producing alternative understandings which speak to the demands of managing post‐corporate workplaces characterised by growing levels of diversity and rapid discontinuous change.

Reports on three feminist qualitative research projects. Describes research processes and outcomes which aim to reflexively attend to diverse voices and researcher and research participant subjectivities.

Provides tangible examples of empirical feminist qualitative research, including discussions of how the research was conducted, the nature of the findings and critical reflections on the extent to which the researchers' feminist epistemological assumptions were enacted.

The three research projects discussed have all been conducted within the Australian education sector. Accordingly, future research could focus on providing practical examples of feminist qualitative research approaches in the management field, in different international and industrial/sector contexts.

Provides management researchers with three examples of feminist qualitative research covering diverse topics including leadership, mentoring and ethics.

While there is a plethora of writing concerned with feminist research generally, there is a dearth of feminist research in the management field specifically. This paper's contribution therefore lies in providing tangible examples of feminist qualitative research in the management field.

The representation of women in management hierarchies in Australia, as throughout the world, is increasing. However, women are still not reaching top management levels and face a variety of pressures, both internal and external, to the organization in which they work. For women to operate at their optimum level of management skill it is important that they be encouraged to develop their management style within supportive learning cultures. Reports on the research leading up to and the establishment of a Women in Management Programme at the Queensland University of Technology. The rationale for such programmes is that the maximization of all our human resources is essential, if we are to manage effectively in the changing world of the twentieth century.

This paper aims to document women's reflections on their careers over a ten‐year period to provide quantitative baseline data on which to frame follow‐up in‐depth interviews. The participants work in the public service in Queensland (Australia) and had been recommended for, and participated in, women in management (WIM) courses conducted in the early 1990s.

Data were collected by means of a survey (containing closed and open items) which gathered demographic data and data related to employment history, perceptions of success and satisfaction, and the women's future career expectations.

Findings revealed that the percentage of women in middle and senior management had increased over the ten‐year period, although not to the extent one might have anticipated, given that the women had been targeted as high flyers by their supervisors. While not content with their classification levels (i.e. seniority), the majority of the cohort viewed their careers as being successful.

Questions arise from this study as to why women are still “not getting to the top”. There are also policy implications for the public service concerning women's possible “reinventive contribution” and training implications associated with women only courses.

The study is part of an Australian longitudinal study on the careers of women who attended a prestigious women‐only management course in the early 1990s in Queensland. This is now becoming a study of older women.

A number of writers argue that discussions around ethics and moral behavior have traditionally been gender blind, with ethical behavior being conceptualised from a masculine standpoint. This paper gives voice to a group of senior women in the Queensland, Australia public service as they reflect on what is needed to develop a more ethical public service. Four main themes emerged from the messages they wished to share with their colleagues concerning the on‐going process of developing a more ethical public service. These were: the importance of role‐modeling and community engagement where ethical behavior is concerned; the importance of encouraging dialogue and open debate about work practices; the importance of understanding and enacting the move to relationship‐based management; and the importance of reaffirming that public service is about service.

There are many different views and opinions held about the value of training. Some people, of course, reach the top without any formal training whatsoever and expect others to do the same. This is all well and good if, presumably, you are able to train yourself. Most need the support of formally organized training courses or continuous learning, working on the assumption that there are always things to learn. It does not matter how old or experienced you are, there will always be a gap in your knowledge that requires attention. Beware the people who know it all as they will be the ones who have the blind spots and just cannot see trouble ahead. If these people are at the top of the organization and just happened to be in the right place at the right time, which could happen if an organization has been particluarly successful, then this could have disastrous consequences on the business. Business means change, and if you cannot cope or are not prepared to accept or adapt to this change, the end result is inevitable.

The Sixteenth Annual Report of the Equal Opportunities Commission for Northern Ireland argues that the enforcement of individual rights is a crucial pre‐requisite for change. There was a 28% increase in the number of legal complaints and enquiries dealt with during the year under review. The most marked increase was in the area of employment (34%). With the increasing influence of European law many of these complaints have led to the commencement of very complex actions.

This paper explores the role of financial services brand values and compares the importance of process and outcome factors in terms of their impact on customer perceptions, behaviour and experience.

Building on exploratory managerial and consumer research, 50 in‐depth interviews were conducted with a quota sample of Irish consumers representing the desired range of demographic and product‐related characteristics, including income and financial experience.

Contrary to the literature, functional values are deemed by consumers to be significantly more important than emotional values. In addition, process factors, facilitated through positive interactions with staff, play a comparatively more salient role than outcome factors in building positive brand experience.

Further in‐depth qualitative and/or quantitative studies need to be conducted with larger sample sizes to address issues in terms of making inferences and generalisations from the research. As this study was conducted in an Irish context, further comparative research should be conducted with other similar financial markets to investigate any underlying cultural bias.

It is recommended that financial services providers design brand appeals and advertising messages that are targeted at consumers' functional financial needs. Furthermore, financial service providers can maximise superior brand experience through a successful integrated strategy of meeting customer functional brand needs in an outcome‐driven approach and exceeding customer expectations within a process‐driven service experience.

This paper broadens understanding and insight into the complex and evolving area of brand management within retail financial services and has far‐reaching theoretical and practical implications.

In the early to mid-twentieth century, psychiatrist-led occupational therapy departments emerged in Irish psychiatric hospitals. This marked a transition towards establishing rehabilitative services in institutional settings. This paper aims to examine the development of occupational therapy in Grangegorman Mental Hospital and its auxiliary hospital, Portrane Mental Hospital from 1934-1954.

Historical documentary research methods were used to analyse primary source data from Grangegorman Committee Minutes, Inspector of Mental Hospital Reports, Boroughs of Mental Hospitals, Department of Foreign Affairs documents and newspaper archives. The archival data was analysed using both a chronological and thematic approach.

The main key event emerged in 1935 when four Grangegorman nursing staff were sent to Cardiff Mental Hospital to undergo a six month training course in occupational therapy. The following themes emerged – “establishing occupational therapy in Grangegorman and Portrane”; “the role of short-course trained nursing staff in providing occupational therapy services” and “therapeutic rationales vs hospital management rationales”.

This study throws light on the early practitioners of occupational therapy in Grangegorman and highlights the complexities of occupational therapy’s role origins in mid-twentieth century Ireland. In line with contemporaneous psychiatric hospitals, the occupational therapy activities promoted in Grangegorman were mainly handicraft or productivity based. The absence of patients’ voices means there are limitations to determining the therapeutic nature of this early occupational therapy service.