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A multi‐hospital health system was facing urgent new demands related to staff development, driven by internal and external factors. To improve the standard of care, and to counter increasing public criticism, its leaders wanted to offer more effective skill development opportunities for employees. At the same time, they needed to respond to governing bodies which had begun to demand more data about the levels of staff competency.

Cafés are becoming a key aspect in the renaissance of urban living. They are often the key element in the gentrification of urban neighbourhoods, and their role as the ‘third place’ is becoming fundamental to many people’s lives. They are where people go to socialize, sip coffee and watch the world go by. Several studies have considered this phenomenon, often linking the renaissance of café culture to their former role, in their perceived ‘heyday’, as locations of development of political and philosophical ideas. In this chapter, we explore the growth of the small, independent cafés which are becoming the homes of micro-communities and where a range of social interchange take place, as well as the consumption of food and beverage.

From our research, adopting the role of flaneurs to observe and experience the atmosphere of a number of independent cafés, we identify and classify some of these micro-communities by identifying the bonds that hold them together. The essential feature underlying the success of these independent cafés is much more than the food and beverage, it is also the environment, a place where customers feel comfortable socializing in an active or, in many cases, passive, way – for example, drinking coffee and reading the paper in a comfortable environment.

We also observe that many independent cafés have a loyal following which compose their regular customers. We have referred to these micro-communities as ‘tribes’. From our observations, it appears that they are growing and that for many in society they are becoming an important part of daily life.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the aims, objectives and approach to change adopted by the e3i CETL for Employability at Sheffield Hallam University and illustrates the impact of change via three thematic case studies and an organising framework for understanding the locus of change with respect to work‐related learning: module curriculum and pedagogy (micro level), Faculty and Departmental strategies and operations, course design, structure and delivery (meso level), and institutional policies and processes (the macro level). These experiences are distilled to formulate recommendations for a modus operandi for those interested or involved with transforming higher education institutions (HEIs) to create a greater emphasis on and enhanced opportunities for students to engage with work‐related learning.

A case studies approach is utilised to illustrate the work of the CETL in practice and generate insights.

Findings suggest that HEIs can successfully embrace the WRL agenda and make a significant contribution to achieving its aims and objectives. Central to this success is encouraging institutions to absorb WRL into their mission in an overt manner, providing guidance, support, encouragement, inspiration, resources and reward to colleagues involved in creating and facilitating WRL, and adopting a modus operandi with regards to change that resonates with institutional academic culture.

The paper suggests an approach to strategic and transformative change in HEIs that will be of interest to change agents across the sector.

The paper adds insights to the expanding literature on managing large‐scale change initiatives in HEIs.

Reports the findings of a research project into the development of a total quality methodology for strategic use by senior management teams aimed at enabling them to audit current approaches, revise where necessary, and then implement in order to produce TQM programmes which are resilient in the medium/long term. Recounts the empirical and theoretical work underpinning a partially inductively derived map of approaches to TQM, comprising four TQM paradigms which are postulated to be the product of managerial mindsets and which result in predominant and implicit TQM cultures in management teams. Explores the role of TQM in strategic cultural change. Finally details the development of a methodology (TQM2) based on the research findings.

University teaching involves delivering resource intensive subjects that have practical components, such as a science laboratory, hospitality practical, computer laboratory, or simulated clinical setting. Teaching practical subjects in the non-traditional, virtual classroom requires careful decisions about the methods of teaching that kind of knowledge. The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and the subsequent hurried closure of the traditional campus that disrupted in-person teaching, led many higher education lecturers and professors who teach practical subjects to reflect deeply on their practice by thinking how to replicate the teaching of virtual culinary classes when students are not on campus. In an outcome-based learning dispensation, students’ learning outcomes precede consideration of the mode of delivery or the structure of teaching content. This chapter reflects on a case study involving the teaching of subjects in hospitality and culinary arts through gamification, both of which having learning outcomes grounded in practice. The chapter explores the seemingly impossible world of taking practical based subjects and making them work in an online space. It describes and offers a measure by which to justify a pedagogy for teaching the practical in a virtual context. The chapter offers important initial conceptualisations that challenge assumptions of virtual meaningful learning design for practical module delivery.

Uses theory and empirical data to develop further the understanding of the strategic regeneration of manufacturing companies. Reviews literature relevant to the areas of management and manufacturing strategy and organisational learning, identifying the importance of taking “resource based” views of strategy as a point of departure for aiding understanding of the process of manufacturing regeneration. Argues that regeneration can be understood from a change management perspective as a redefinition of tacit and explicit organisational routines. Reports the further development of earlier work and uses one exemplar case to describe and help begin understanding the complex process of strategic regeneration using an ecological, perceptual/cognitive, and structural analytical framework. Finally, draws some tentative conclusions on the nature and process of strategic regeneration and regenerative strategy, and notes the value and potential of taking a perspective based on the notion of “organisational routines” in attempting to understand this complex phenomenon.

To examine the attitudes of small‐to‐medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, in order to identify obstacles to employment of marketing‐qualified graduates and devise strategies for improving the rate of graduate recruitment in the sector.

Focus groups, semi‐structured interviews and a postal questionnaire survey, yielding responses from 260 SMEs and 130 graduates, was built upon focus group discussions and semi‐structured interviews, and selectively followed up by in‐depth interviews.

There is a significant supply‐demand imbalance and a mismatch between the skills demanded by SME owner‐managers versus those taught in typical marketing syllabuses. Graduates' frame of reference is the world of big FMCG business; they do not understand the modus operandi of SMEs. Proposals are made for dealing with the resulting problems.

The sample is limited geographically and the response rate among SMEs characteristically low. A broader‐based extension of the study is indicated.

The findings provide a recipe for the redesign of syllabuses and curricula to narrow the skills identified, to educate SME owner‐managers in the benefits of employing graduates, and to stimulate graduates to take more responsibility for their own development.

Empirical research of interest to policy makers, marketing educators and small‐business leaders.

The social services have seen big developments in recent years. The reorganization of local authority departments and the concept of corporate planning as outlined by the Bains report have created situations of growth and organizational change, and these in turn have given rise to new information problems.

David Megginson is Visiting Professor of HRD at Sheffield Hallam University and founder of the Mentoring and Coaching Research Unit in the University. He has written and researched extensively about coaching, mentoring and other topics. Two books, Techniques for Coaching and Mentoring, and Creating a Coaching Culture (written jointly with David Clutterbuck) are to be published shortly. Two further books, Mentoring in Action and Mentoring Executives and Directors, have also been written with David Clutterbuck. The two Davids founded the European Mentoring and Coaching Council in 1992, and David Megginson now co‐chairs it, with Sir John Whitmore. He is also Chairman of strategy consultancy The idm Group, and an executive coach. Here he answers questions about his work.