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The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on a longitudinal research study that examines the content delivery of courses provided by private training providers (PTPs) for first level managers (FLMs). It measures, against a contemporary soft skill model, the relevance of “off the shelf” training which is aimed at FLMs managerial soft skills, as opposed to “technical” or “hard skill” training. The research has been carried out over three phases. The paper will critically compare and contrast the results and determine if there are any prevailing management paradigms in the content of the courses.

There were three key phases undertaken during the research. Phase 1 involved developing a multi-dimensional best practise core soft skills framework for professional managers. The second phase involved a pilot study conducted as desk research using various online and direct marketing channels in researching 45 PTPs first line manager courses in the UK over a period of two months during October to November 2011, and this exercise was repeated in phase 3 during February and March 2015 using a sample (20) of the same 45 PTPs. Both exercises involved comparing and contrasting the Core Soft Skills Framework to the PTP courses using thematic and coding techniques.

The studies have revealed surprising omissions and contrary positions when it comes to teaching FLMs non-technical skills. On some PTP courses there appeared contrary positions taken up on key managerial concepts such as leadership. In both research phases, “delegation” is an area which FLMs receive significant training. The activity of delegation is an example of top down management used to demonstrate command and control paradigms within the workplace, and fails to take into account todays cultural behavioural shifts. There is also a total lack of acknowledgement on the impact technology is having on a younger generation of managers interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.

The best practise core soft skill framework is based on three key soft skill models which do not take into account soft skills for FLMs. These models do not presently exist. Both the initial study and 2015 follow-up are undertaken by desk research and the content marketing collateral as promoted by the PTPs. What actually happens on the courses themselves: broader management discussions, role play, sharing experiences, etc. cannot be evaluated as part of this research. No distinction has been made in the research with regard the length of the courses.

PTP FLM training is not irrelevant; it is necessary for managers. An issue is the training is pitched at concepts and skills which are too advanced for the FLM who are missing out on the basic non-technical skills. Without this fundamental introduction, it is teaching FLMs to run before they can walk. Of all the FLM courses now researched, there has only been one which covers all the soft skills identified in the framework. With so many core soft skills from the framework omitted from PTP FLM courses, how can FLMs be expected to grasp the basics of soft skills and apply them?

By breaking down the findings, this research can have considerable impact with regard the provision of training for new managers. It informs HR departments about the inconsistencies of new manager training between the providers, but it also highlights areas to new management which are not covered by the courses. For training providers it will act as a reminder that training courses need to be continually reviewed and redesigned to remain relevant as culture rapidly changes from a personal interaction society to a technology interaction society. As a result more emphasis needs to be placed on communication, teamwork, interaction type activities to build intuition and “nous”. Today’s young people are “streetwise” – in technology but not in personal relationships….

Faculties have a vital role to play in ensuring that their graduates are trained with relevant skills. Formally arranged capacity building programs (CBPs) can aid in training and retraining the faculties with relevant contemporary skills so that they in turn can do justice to their students. The purpose of this study is to analyze the efficacy of such public-funded online CBPs in enhancing faculties’ research and teaching capabilities.

Ascientifically designed questionnaire was sent to faculties who attended 12-day public-funded online capacity building workshop. Binomial logistic regression models were constructed to analyze as to how effective the online workshop was in enhancing teaching and research skills of the faculties involved.

From the research study, the authors were able to infer that although faculties were able to understand theoretical concepts of qualitative nature relatively easily, the authors felt that its value addition in enhancing the research output was rather limited. The study also found that the faculties felt teaching concepts outside their “syllabus” to be counterintuitive. A significant finding of the study was that research had an important role in enhancing their teaching efficacy.

Studies which are undertaken to test the efficacy of online capacity building workshops are scarce. This domain is going to gain importance in near future as technology is evolving at a rapid rate and online training of faculties helps in optimizing scarce resources.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree of satisfaction and perceived relevance of the Graduate Business Education (GBE) programme at the University of Botswana.

A self‐administered questionnaire and face to face interviews were used to collect data from Master of Business Administration (MBA) participants on their reason for studying MBA, level of satisfaction, and the extent to which the skills and experiences obtained correlate with those required by the corporate world. The data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics.

The majority of the respondents are male adults attending part time MBA classes and working full time in administrative positions in the public and private sectors. The study found that improved managerial skills, career development and broader business insights are major reasons for joining the MBA programme, while employability and economic gains were ranked low as driving forces. Even though the overall satisfaction with the programme is mixed and inconclusive, the MBA programme has assisted participants to develop basic management and administration skills. However, the programme puts greater emphasis on conceptual, technical and analytical skills than on problem solving, innovation, communication and entrepreneurial skills which are perceived to be most needed by employers, implying a relevance gap. What the MBA participants learnt does not correlate with what they perceived to be most needed by employers.

Since the findings are based on perceptions of MBA participants, the conclusions drawn from these findings must be considered tentative and interpreted with care. Future research must include representative sample of all MBA stakeholders such as faculty, students, graduates, employers and administrators to get rich information about quality of inputs, processes and products of MBA programme.

There is strong need for the MBA programme to integrate traditional management and administrative skills with experiences and skills relevant for today's world of work. Bridging the growing theory‐practice gap requires attracting professors with practical business experience, revising staff recruitment policies and procedures, establishing formal partnership with external organization, and develop long‐term strategies to reduce teaching load and staff turnover.

Most of the studies on the relevance and quality of GBE programmes are conducted in western higher education institutions, very little has been done in African universities. This is the first of its kind in the context of Botswana, an important contribution to existing literature and foundation for further advanced studies in the area.

In a globalized world, consumers embrace mutually conflicting cultural values rather than making exclusive, either/or choices. As a result, they experience multiple tensions, a phenomenon that can be identified as the consumer cultural paradox. Despite clear interest in the influence of local/global culture on consumers, knowledge of how conflicting cultural elements shape consumer behavior remains limited. To address these issues, the current article seeks to identify higher- and lower-level tensions inherent in the consumer cultural paradox.

Using in-depth interviews, the authors investigate tensions experienced by Chinese consumers of international private education services. This study applies a paradox lens, a tension-based conceptual approach that is well suited for studying consumer paradoxes.

Ten lower-level tensions of the consumer cultural paradox arise in the focal international service context; these tensions in turn form three higher-level tensions.

The study is among the first in marketing to use a paradox lens and empirical research to delineate multiple dimensions of the consumer cultural paradox, then categorize them into lower and higher-level tensions. The findings offer theoretical and managerial implications, in that recognizing the multiple tensions experienced by consumers allows scholars and marketers to gain a better understanding of how consumers perceive and evaluate services from different cultures.

This study examines the working skills of Vietnamese librarians in terms of technical, human and conceptual skills. Then, this study suggests recommendations to improve their working skills.

To attain this objective, the study surveyed 243 Vietnamese librarians. Several statistical tests, including analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the paired t-test, were used to investigate differences in respondents' responses based on demographic variables such as gender, age, education and managerial level.

Gender appears to impact the working skill of Vietnamese librarians. In detail, the findings indicate that male librarians have higher technical skills than female librarians.

This study opens the scope of working skill literature, particularly in the library sector. Notably, this is the first study investigating this issue in Vietnam. Given the current circumstances, suggesting practical recommendations to enhance the working skills of Vietnamese libraries is essential.

This is the first study examining Vietnamese librarians in technical, human and conceptual skills. Therefore, this research is essential in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to identify insightfully future roles and skills required by librarians to meet the ever changing users’ need in the modern library landscape.

The study adopted a qualitative approach. It deployed the Delphi technique and other knowledge elicitation techniques, such as systematic literature review, in-depth key informants interviews, formal and informal discussions, and own experience. Data collection was quitted when it reached to the theoretical saturation. Content analysis was used to analyze the gathered data. Triangulation of methods was also employed to complement one another, and enhance the credibility and validity of the results.

The findings of the study revealed that some of the roles and skills required by librarians are evolutionary, while others are revolutionary, but the ultimate future role of librarians is to change knowledge revolution into society (to create informed society) through re-socializing and shaping the young generations. The result also confirmed that a synergy of passion, knowledge, skills and cultural intelligence yield blended librarians that fit the future library landscape. To be a librarian is more than just equipped with knowledge and skills; it requires passion and solid discipline. For librarians, unlearning is equally relevant skills like learning.

Instead of the usual skills assessment, this study approached it in a new perspective and divulged a synergy of passion, knowledge, skills, cultural intelligence, professionalism, and discipline as essential assets for the twenty-first century librarians.

This paper aims to assess the actual contribution to organisational change of management and leadership development (MLD) activity for middle managers (MMs) in public service organisations (PSOs).

Using the case study approach, the paper compares the content and outcomes of management and leadership training interventions for MMs in two large PSOs. The organisations, a fire brigade and a train operating company, are leaders in their sectors with respect to management development and “modernisation” of their services.

The paper demonstrates how, in one case, MM development was largely an exercise in regulatory compliance, with little effect on individual MMs' performance or organisational outcomes. The second case demonstrates how MMs were effectively trained to enforce specific human resource policies which contributed to the successful implementation of top‐down strategy yet paid little attention to the potential leadership role of MMs.

The paper highlights the need for further contextualised research at organisational level into the outcomes of MLD, especially in terms of different public service contexts.

The paper demonstrates the dangers of designing and implementing development programmes without sufficient regard to professional practice and the realities of managerial discretion in PSOs.

The paper provides an in‐depth and contextualised insight into the conditions for success and failure in management development interventions in PSOs.

The purpose of this paper is to ground contemporary sustainability education in John Dewey’s democratic pedagogy. Specifically, the authors argue that Dewey’s thought anticipates, and theoretically informs, the sustainability skill set required of contemporary citizens in a complex and changing world.

For illustrative purposes, the authors consider how these skills are at work in current approaches to the adaptive co-management of ecosystems, and they argue that these same skills are at work across professional and cultural contexts, toward the achievement of sustainable societies. In turn, the authors situate Dewey’s relevance to contemporary sustainability education in his writing on interdependence, fallibilism and experimentalism.

Dewey’s writings provide both a historical antecedent and still valid moral and practical justification for sustainability education’s emphasis on integrated and adaptive learning.

Grounding sustainability education in Dewey’s democratic pedagogy underlines its capacity and obligation to develop critical thinking and systems thinking skills, communication skills and collaboration skills in students.

The paper acknowledges the many ways Dewey has been incorporated into environmental philosophy, experiential pedagogy and sustainability theory. But Dewey’s role in the historical development of skills-based pedagogy and, more specifically, his continuing contribution to contemporary practices of sustainability education has yet to be explored. By grounding sustainability education in Dewey’s democratic pedagogy, the authors underline its civic mandate to empower citizens to become lifelong learners and skillful stewards.

With logistics increasingly adopting a strategic orientation in many firms, senior‐level logisticians must possess certain skills in order to successfully manage the logistics function. This article argues that the contemporary senior‐level logistics manager needs to be proficient in three categories namely: business, logistics and management skills. The purpose of this research is to report the results of a survey of US logistics managers designed to assess the importance of business, logistics, and management skills. Management skills emerged as the most important of the three, followed by logistics and business skills. These findings suggest that contemporary senior‐level logistics executives must be managers first and logisticians second. In addition, the emphasis on management skills suggests that high‐ranking logistics executives may have the opportunity of rising to top management positions such as the Chief Executive Officer – a career path unheard of two decades ago.

The logistics discipline has been characterized by tremendous change since the early 1990s. One result is that the logistician's relevant skill set has likely changed as well. To this end, the present paper aims both to update, and to provide a longitudinal perspective of, a 1991 study that investigated the skill requirements of senior‐level logistics managers using the business, logistics, management (BLM) framework.

Both studies used survey research of executive search firms to collect the relevant data. The surveys were transmitted via postal mail in the 1991 study and were transmitted electronically in the present study.

The results from the current study reinforce the 1991 study, which suggested that logisticians should be managers first and logisticians second. Comparison between the earlier and current study suggest a high degree of similarity in terms of the most important logistics skills, with less similarity in terms of business and management skills. The comparison also suggests that the contemporary logistician has more of a supply chain orientation than was the case in the early 1990s.

The manuscript discusses implications for various logistical constituencies. For example, educators could use the findings to plan and design continuing education programs.

The update to the original study should prove valuable by highlighting the relevant skills associated with successful logisticians in the contemporary business environment. The longitudinal comparison provides insights into the logistician's skill set in the early 1990s and today.