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The purpose of this paper is to find out whether and to what extent managerial skills are taught in Schools of Information globally, and whether these courses are sufficient preparation for management positions in information professions.

This is an exploratory research paper. Phase one included a literature review and a review of curricula in Schools of Information in 26 countries to see if management courses were given, as well as the type and number of courses. Phase two consisted semi‐structured interviews with 15 directors of information services in the international sector in the Geneva, Switzerland region.

The paper concludes that 73 per cent of the schools reviewed do offer management courses, although there is a wide variation between countries and schools. In the interviews it was found that 80 per cent of the directors learned their management skills on the job and 66 per cent in management development through their institutions. All interviewees said their academic courses, though relevant, were insufficient. They gave recommendations of which competencies were needed in curricula for information professionals.

Studies on management education have been done mostly in North American, ALA‐accredited information schools. The rest of the world needs to be researched and to find its voice. The paper is relevant to schools of information globally, as well as to information professionals in the field.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of human resource directors in the USA about online credentials earned by K‐12 school principals and principal candidates.

In this mixed methods study, a survey was sent to a random sample of 500 human resource directors in K‐12 school districts across the USA. Analysis was conducted on 105 surveys.

In contrast to a traditional face‐to‐face format, the majority of respondents reported beliefs that online courses and online degrees aimed at school principals required less work, were of lower quality, and could not adequately prepare leaders to tackle state‐specific issues. Human resource directors in rural districts had a more negative perception of online learning, in comparison to their counterparts in suburban or urban districts. All preparatory courses, except technology leadership, were reported to be easier taught face‐to‐face, than online.

Further research should be conducted to determine if and how these perceptions are shifting. Further research should also be conducted to determine the influence of location on perceptions of online credentials for school leaders. Comparing perceptions about online credentials cross‐nationally may provide interesting insights and new areas of research.

Implications are for school administration programs, both traditional and online, that desire to create and build more accepted school administration programs that include online components.

Students increasingly opt for online coursework; students in the field of school leadership and administration in the USA are no different. This shift to online learning must be juxtaposed with efforts to maintain quality, improve efficiency, and address the concerns of those persons who hire these candidates.

To date, no research has been published on the perceived acceptability of online degrees and online coursework for school principals in the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the lived experiences from the voice of the authors (a science professor, an instructional designer, a distance learning doctoral intern, and a distance learning director) in the process of transitioning a face-to-face science course to online modality at a large, research university.

The method of this qualitative inquiry involves a personal narrative approach in which the authors reflect on their experiences of this process and analyze it through writing.

The findings examine the challenges of moving a traditional course online and reiterate the value of a team approach to ensure its quality. The narrative offers clarity to the different phases of such a project and can enhance decision making among those involved in course design and delivery, as well as administrators incentivizing the conversion of traditional courses to the online modality.

Online education has emerged as a viable solution. The challenges and rewards of transitioning face-to-face courses to distance learning modalities are well documented, even for a senior science educator.

Universities face several modern day challenges, including reductions in state appropriations, lack of available space for classes, challenges of engaging a technologically savvy generation, and preparing students for a global marketplace.

To support faculty members’ transition to online education, universities offer instructional design support, where ideas are exchanged with faculty members to ensure pedagogically sound and engaging distance learning. The authors conclude with recommendations for both practice and future research in the area of practice and process improvement for diffusion of online courses at traditional universities, one course at a time. This is important to those beginning to transition course offerings online.

Although a number of studies have researched food firms’ unethical practices, the mechanisms used to prevent these practices remain underexplored from the perspective of corporate governance. As independent directors (IDs) have been viewed as a mechanism to deter corporate misconducts, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of the ratio of IDs on the board, IDs’ industrial experience and their participation in corporate governance training courses on food firms’ unethical production practices.

This study is based on a sample of 239 firm-year observations in Taiwanese food industries. The Poisson model with fixed effects was used to test the research hypotheses.

The results show that board independence and IDs with food industry expertise were not effective in deterring food firms from unethical production practices. The expected monitoring function of IDs would only realize when they complete a sufficient number of corporate governance training courses. These courses can make IDs aware of their responsibilities and roles in governing firms.

This study is the first to identify the effects of corporate governance practices on food firms’ unethical production practices. The value of this study may provide food firms practical solutions that enable corporate executives to behave ethically.

Making sure that a higher education distance learning course meets student expectations is critical to ensuring the quality of the student experience. Judging whether a course delivers to its promise is a particular challenge when the course is delivered by distance learning and there is no regular face‐to‐face contact with students, the more so when courses are faced with alternative conceptions, and external audits, of quality. The paper identifies the contested nature of quality, examines models of evaluation, relates them to existing forms of evaluation facing education courses, and offers an alternative constructivist approach based on the notion of a service template.

This paper aims to explore potential opportunities for corporate learning and development functions to play a strategic leadership role by meeting the professional development needs of company directors.

The authors conducted an interview with Mr Dmitriy Larionov, an independent director at Kazakhtelecom and Air Astana.

The interview revealed that, from the perspective of the interviewee, company directors do have important professional development needs. These needs, however, are not easily satisfied and can go unmet.

Learning and development professionals in listed companies can play a heightened strategic and influencing role in corporate governance by better equipping directors to perform their duties well.

Air Astana is a rapidly expanding company in a highly competitive and universally significant industry. Kazakhstan is a new country without a history of private companies. Kazakhstan is one of the world's fastest developing economies.

Takeovers create a potential conflict of interest between target shareholders and directors. While mergers generally create value for the target shareholders, their directors will typically lose their board seats and likely face a financial loss or loss of prestige. The purpose of this paper is to examine evidence to support or refute that directors may act in their own best interests at the expense of shareholders.

The authors reason that if directors act in their own best interests, then acquiring firms will seek targets with older board members who are closer to director retirement and are therefore less reluctant to give up their board seats. The paper uses data of 528 banks between 1999 and 2004 to estimate logistic regressions controlling for variables relevant to takeover probability. In the hypotheses, the authors test for the significance of the average director age on a board.

The paper finds a highly positive significant relation between the average age of a board of directors and the probability of takeover. Furthermore, this variable is more robust and has greater explanatory power in predicting takeover targets than all other financial, ownership and governance variables commonly controlled for and included in this study. This suggests that older directors are less prone to agency problems and more willing to make decisions that will likely result in the loss of their board seat.

These findings have important policy implications on director retirement policies such as director age versus term limits. The results also have implications on the use of director golden parachutes. Finally, the authors highlight a strategic consideration for acquiring firms seeking takeover targets.

This paper is the first, to the best of the authors' knowledge, to document board age as an important governance characteristic.

This paper describes the evolution of educational administration training for secondary school principals and teachers in New Zealand's Central Region, following a national pattern of short withdrawal courses to train trainers who would themselves be expected to train others. Problems associated with this approach are examined, especially massive client resistance to theoretical approaches. The value of theory in such courses is seen in its encouragement of role conceptualization, and acceptable teaching material is designed to achieve this end without theoretical exposition, through the development of techniques seen as answers to specific school‐based problems, but implying the development of skills and concepts on a broader base. The management of time is seen as the critical entry point. In this way resource groups of teachers are trained to continue the autonomous development of administrative training in their own in‐service areas.

Considers progress made in involving doctors in management, drawing on available ethnographies of local health‐care systems and a small‐scale study of consultants who have moved into clinical director roles or the equivalent. Specifically considers the extent to which the sample believes consultant roles have changed as a result of the recent reorganization of the NHS and general concerns about the involvement of doctors in management.