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Reports on the use of benchmarking at ICL plc, and how it has been incorporated into the company′s routine processes. States that the key element in the implementation of change is measurement; ICL have chosen cycle time, inventory turns, customer lead times and delivery performance, delivered quality and product cost reduction as some of their principal measures of success. Examines the “Invest in People” package, which includes Training, objective setting and review, appraisal and pay for performance. Assesses the various groups and teams that make up the TQM programme, and the policy of continuous performance measurement.

Many companies are spending large sums of money and considerable management effort in pursuit of one or more of the recognized quality awards. There are, however, critics who question whether it is all worthwhile. Reviews the experiences of speakers at the BPICS Conference, relating their approaches to and rewards from, BS 5750, the Baldrige Award, the European Quality Award and the UK Best Factory Awards to determine whether the payback justifies the effort. While winning awards is a measure of success, it is recognized as no substitute for achieving both profit and delighted customers. However, it appears that the process of taking part does deliver worthwhile benefits to the companies.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an examination of the perceptions of two principals and two lead teachers regarding their own leadership styles, including how they define and perform their roles as leaders.

The research employed a case study design whereby two principals and two lead teachers (one of each from a government school (GS) and a private school in Abu Dhabi UAE) were interviewed over the course of one semester.

Results suggest that the two principals viewed themselves as succeeding in six domains – school climate, school leadership, personnel management, administration and school management, student management, and relationships with parents and the community – but that they desired to improve with regard to curriculum development and professional and in-service development. The two lead teachers primarily defined their leadership roles as providing assistance to others and modeling best practice and flexibility, and considered themselves bridges between other teachers and the administration, as well as task facilitators and task achievers.

The paper reveals that both principals and teachers in Abu Dhabi engage in a number of activities consistent with much of the literature on effective school leadership styles. However, the findings also shed light on several marked differences between private and GSs in the Emirate, a lack of genuine collaboration between principals and teachers, and possible constraints on school leadership caused by top-down administrative practices.

This paper aims to investigate how and why German cost accounting prevails and develops in German multinational organisations despite the various indications in the literature that it will converge towards an anglophone system over time. To analyse this, the authors draw on the ideas of professional practices (Jarzabkowski et al., 2016) and their path dependency (Schreyögg and Sydow, 2011) as a method theory.

The authors deploy an exploratory method using multiple case studies to determine similarities and differences between organisations concerning how cost accounting practices developed over time. They conducted interviews with cost accountants, group controllers and managers of German multinational organisations as well as experts from higher education institutions and consultancies.

This paper shows the path-dependent development of German cost accounting. It identifies self-reinforcing learning and complementary effects that seem to make it inefficient for organisations to deviate from the learned path as well as economic and normative pressures that affect the design of cost accounting systems.

By considering German cost accounting a path-dependent professional practice, this paper illustrates how and why the core of German cost accounting prevails, although organisations make adjustments within the existing structures to respond to the pressures they face. This paper hereby highlights the role of cost accountants in defining (and consequently bringing about or preventing changes to) the design of cost accounting systems.