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Traditional approaches to the management of change are failing to produce lasting benefit and are more likely to engender demotivation and feelings of insecurity than tightly integrated and focused strategy implementation. These traditional approaches seldom take full account of the positive role of political fluency in the effective management of such change. This paper examines this political dimension for a collection of senior managers implementing change following two intensive public management development programmes. The findings show that managing political agendas was central to their success in making things happen and therefore postulates whether political awareness should be taught as a mainstream management discipline.

Library managers are often concerned to assess the most cost effective means of access to bibliographic data. This article considers comparative prices for bibliographic data on CDROM and in print form. In many instances, CDROM offers added value and easier access to data, but the relative cost is important. Library managers need not only to compare prices but to consider cost effectiveness. Differences between the nature of bibliographic data on CDROM and in a printed bibliography or abstracting and indexing service, and the relative complexities of pricing structures for bibliographic data in both CDROM and print form, both hinder comparisons. Varying policies on network pricing are an added complication when assessing a CDROM service. Some standardisation of aspects of the licensing arrangements would be welcome.

Government appointed and sponsored committees of every description—select, ad hoc, advisory, inquiry—such a prominent feature of the public scene since the last War, are understandable, even acceptable, reflect the urgency of the times in which we live. In the gathering gloom of more recent twilight years, they have flourished inordinately, especially in the socio‐political field, where most of their researches have been conducted. Usually embellished with the name of the figure‐head chairman, almost always expensively financed, they have one thing in common—an enormous output of words, telling us much of what we already know. So much of it seems dull, meaningless jargon, reflecting attitudes rather than sound, general principles.

There is currently a general air of euphoria concerning the potential for electronic publishing on CD‐ROM and over the Internet. Yet many publishers are proceeding cautiously and are supplementing their print products with CD‐ROM or online full text products. Most publishers view the future for electronic publishing as uncertain, not because they can not see the potential of the technology, but because they are unsure of the extent of acceptance of electronic information products in the marketplace.

Questions whether current management development programmes do or can have any lasting value. Suggests that many are inappropriately focused, seriously limited in their content and unambitious for their recipients. Argues that management development itself needs to change: clients have a right to expect a service which has useful, measurable and lasting effects. The onus is on the providers – internal and external consultants, and business schools – to deliver this.

The aim of this paper is to promote the concept of organizational voluntarism, borrowed from political philosophy and to stimulate feedback and debate as to its efficacy in furthering the discourse on corporate responsibility.

The paper examines a range of current theories that address the issue of balancing organizational plurality and coherence. It identifies both shortfalls in current research and provides criteria for developing new theory in this area. The concept of organizational voluntarism is developed and these criteria used to test the robustness of the model and to explore future areas of research.

The criteria used to assess the voluntarism model are: the centrality of organizational plurality, the embeddedness of social relations and power in organization working, accounting for the motivations of managers to work this way; and the need for clear organizational benefits. Four potential cognitions are proposed that define a voluntaristic mindset.

The aim is only to develop the concept of voluntarism and promote debate about its value as an organizing principle in multi stakeholder settings.

The paper offers a research proposition that managers who pursue voluntaristic behaviour will be influenced by cognitions that reflect plurality of interests, the value of personal interest, the need to “take” authority and who value political models of working in the reconciliation of competing interests.

The paper provides an additional perspective that can further the development of corporate responsibility by mediating the demands for corporate control and efficiency and the calls for greater inclusion.

Whilst language is recognised as playing a key role in the shaping of organisational phenomena, the importance of managing language actively in the context of change has received less attention. The particular relevance of the active management of language in changing the mindsets that underpin models of organisational change is discussed, leading to the conclusion that language has a key role in making apparent and legitimising emerging models that challenge the conventional “top‐down” paradigm.

Considers the idea of taking personal responsibility for career development and contributing to the organization via the development of meta‐abilities. Provides an explanation of meta‐abilities and examines the implications for the way they are developed. The results of research into the role of meta‐abilities in the achievement of organizational change are reported. Concludes that meta‐abilities are necessary to take personal career actions and decisions within an uncertain organizational framework.

The whole kingdom from north to south at the time of writing is enveloped in freezing Arctic weather, reminiscent of the North Russian campaign of long ago. The normal winter is relatively mild, mainly a Westerly pattern, occasionally wild and windy, wet with a rare cold “snap”. There are variations in the pattern, damp and warm in the south‐west, few frosts and rarely any snow; in the north of the country, Scotland, much colder, with the south‐east partaking of the weather pattern of the land mass of the Continent. The variations appear more of the mild weather in the South and colder, appreciably, in the North; recalling service personnel stationed at Gosport who did not need an overcoat all winter, whereas in the North, many found it necessary to wear a light overcoat tor most of the year, the south‐east corner of England, obtaining no help from the warming Gulf Stream, often gets the worst of the weather, which it has done to a very considerable extent in this winter.

An examination of the work of Consumer Advice Centres and of the information sources and support activities that public libraries can offer. CAC's have dealt with pre‐shopping advice, education on consumers' rights and complaints about goods and services, advising the client and often obtaining expert assessments. They have drawn on a wide range of information sources including case records, trade literature, contact files and external links. The recent closure of many CAC's has seriously affected the availability of consumer information and advice. Public libraries can make many kinds of information sources more widely available, both to the public and to the agencies now supplying consumer information and advice. Libraries can co‐operate closely with advice agencies through local co‐ordinating committees, shared premises, joint publicity, referral and the sharing of professional expertise.