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Too few programmes of management development seek to evaluate their hard ROI for the enterprise. Describes how action learning’s focus on company‐specific issues makes this more feasible. Reports on a four‐year impact analysis from MBA programmes showing that employing organizations benefited greatly and that the individual managers also gained a host of soft benefits. The endemic problems of action learning are also identified but the contribution of the Set (fellow members of a small learning cell) again stands out as most vital.

An investigation into the process of cross‐fertilisation on MBA programmes is reported. An interview schedule was devised as a basis for discussions with a sample from each of three MBA programme types: open, in‐company and consortial. It was concluded that: learning from and acting upon ideas gained from fellow set members is seen as an important element in the MBA programme by associates: cross‐fertilisation tends to be recognised and recalled mainly in terms of personal skills; open sets would potentially appear to be a better medium for fostering cross‐fertilisation, but in‐company sets are more empowering in ensuring the implementation of ideas from such cross‐fertilisation as does occur, while consortial sets would appear to combine the best of both worlds – though no evidence emerged to support this last contention. Recommendations are made for further research.

A questionnaire‐based survey of a business school′s MBA graduates draws conclusions on their entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial leanings. The authors suggest that specific combinations of personal characteristics and support systems will make implementation of MBA project findings more likely.

The purpose of this article is to outline possibilities for the integration of text mining and other digital humanities computing techniques into library catalogs and “discovery systems”.

The approach has been to survey existing text mining apparatus and apply this to traditional library systems.

Through this process it is found that there are many ways library interfaces can be augmented to go beyond the processes of find and get and evolve to include processes of use and understand.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this type of augmentation has yet to be suggested or implemented across libraries.

A short case study which discusses the development of a quality assurance system to ISO 9002 standards of an Internet service provider and the issues in so doing. Reviews benefits and barriers. Concludes with a review of lessons learned.

Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of learning through experience, “by doing”, where the task environment is the classroom, and the task the vehicle. Two previous reviews of the action learning literature by Alan Mumford respectively covered the field prior to 1985 and the period 1985‐1994. Both reviews included books as well as journal articles. This current review covers the period 1994‐2000 and is limited to publicly available journal articles. Part 1 of the Review was published in an earlier issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning (Vol. 15 No. 2) and included a bibliography and comments. Part 2 extends that introduction with a schema for categorizing action learning articles and with comments on representative articles from the bibliography.

Reviews how International Management Centres (IMC) have used their world wide network to facilitate managerial learning in corporations, and points out how the Internet is now used to provide courseware, set up interactive groups of students and to access an on‐line library; outlines how in 1995 IMC’s information dissemination systems was improved by seeking certification under ISO 9002, and itemizes how the process itself galvanized the organization. Discusses the benefits that have accrued since certification was granted in November 1996, and notes how it has facilitated joint‐venture discussions with partner universities.

It is all too easy in the hectic world of business to get too involved with the day‐to‐day managing of processes and events. When this happens it is difficult to see the wood for the trees and the automatic pilot syndrome takes over. This does not suggest that you do not know what you are doing ‐ on the contrary you are probably as switched on to whatever activity you are managing as anyone could be. What you could be missing, however, is the explanation as to why you are doing it. If this sounds familiar to you, what might be needed is a detached period from your work. By this I mean stay on the high ground for a while so you can get an overview of what you are doing and, more importantly, why you are doing it. How many managers, I wonder, get the opportunity to question what they are doing? If you allow yourself to slip into complacency then you and your organization will soon lose competitive advantage.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the International Journal of Bank Marketing is split into five sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing Strategy; Customer Service; Sales and Promotion; Product Development; Information Technology Strategies.

The purpose of this chapter was to examine the implementation of a flexible work initiative that attempted to challenge two institutionalized precepts of contemporary white-collar workplaces: the gendered ideal worker norm, with its expectation of the primacy of paid work over family and personal life, and the assumption of managerial control over employees’ schedules and work location.

Using ethnographic and interview data, how the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) was experienced by employees in four different teams within the Best Buy, Co., Inc. corporate headquarters was explored.

Comparing more and less successful implementation across teams, results suggested that collective institutional work is required for the emergence of new norms, expectations, and legitimated practices. Findings indicated that managers’ task-specific knowledge – their deep experience with the tasks that the team is charged with completing – is a structural condition that facilitates managers’ trust in employees and encourages team experimentation with new practices.

Data for this study was limited to one organization and four teams. Future research should include similar organizational change efforts in other organizations and in larger teams.

These findings may promote a better understanding, among researchers and practitioners, of the importance of manager knowledge and background and how this appears to be key to achieving institutional change.

This research is an example of an innovative approach to workplace flexibility and applies an institutional theory lens to investigate variation in the implementation of organizational change.