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The policy of radical devolution of responsibility for educational decision making is criticised. Current Western Australian and Victorian moves towards self‐governing public schools and earlier moves in that direction in the 1970s are briefly reviewed, and a wide agreement on the progressive nature of these changes is noted. That agreement is questioned. The potential of this policy shift to increase in several ways the inequalities between schools in affluent and poor areas is described. The tendency is noted for the policy to be propounded by reference to the values of diversity and freedom of choice rather than to egalitarian values. Devolution of power over schooling is placed in the context of a trend in Australian society since the 1970s towards increasing concentration of privilege and more extreme class stratification. Ideologically the period has been marked by a shift to the right, away from egalitarianism towards the ideology of individual freedom, competition and privatisation. The flight to private schools is presented as an aspect of this general trend in Australian society. It is argued that the trend towards diversity and local control in public schooling should be seen as another aspect of this shift to the right, which has, as its central social function, a sharpening of the differences between the schooling of the rich and the schooling of the poor, and therefore a facilitation of the inheritance of affluence and poverty.

The purpose of this paper is to describe co-devolutionary processes of multinational enterprise (MNE)/emerging economy institutional relationships utilizing concepts from “old” institutional theory as well as the institutional aspects of socially constructed realities.

The authors develop a set of propositions that explore the new concept of a co-devolutionary relationship between MNEs and emerging economy institutions. Guided by prior research, the paper investigates MNE/emerging economy institutional co-devolution at the macro-(MNE home and host countries), meso-(MNE industry/host country regulative and normative institutions) and micro-(MNE and host country institutional actors) levels.

MNE/emerging economy institutional co-devolution occurs at the macro-level via negative public communications in the MNE’s home and host countries, at the meso-level via host country corruption and MNE adaptation, and at the micro-level via pressures for individual actors to cognitively “take for granted” emerging economy corruption, leading to MNE divestment and a reduction in new MNE investment.

By characterizing co-devolutionary processes within MNE/emerging economy institutional relationships, the research augments co-evolutionary theory. It also assists in developing more accurate specification and measurement methods for the organizational co-evolution construct by using institutional theory’s foundational processes to discuss MNE/emerging economy institutional co-devolution.

The research suggests the use of enhanced regulation, bilateral investment treaties and MNE/local institution partnerships to stabilize MNE/emerging economy institutional relationships, leading to more robust progress in building emerging economy institutions.

The research posits that using the concepts of institutional theory as a foundation provides useful insights into the “stickiness” of institutional instability and corruption in emerging economies and into the resulting co-devolutionary MNE/emerging economy institutional relationships.

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of organisational restructuring on the devolution of HRM to middle managers in the Irish health service.

The study involved interviews with a cross‐section of 48 HR and line managers in one area of the Irish health service.

Decision making by both HR and middle managers was adversely affected by the increased layers of bureaucracy that had resulted from the restructuring process. HR managers were devolving HR activities but were still retaining control of information systems and this was both slowing down middle management decision making and leading to the creation of new databases by the managers themselves. HR managers were emerging as regulators of HR activities.

The study was conducted in only one area of the Irish health service and with a limited number of respondents.

The study examines the way in which organisational context impacts on the devolution of HR activities to line managers and adds to an understanding of the relationship between HR and middle managers in the devolution of HR activities to line managers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of governance reforms also called conceptual innovation for public hospitals in Malawi.

It focuses on the reforms for central and district hospitals. It uses semi-structured interviews to collect data and thematic approach to analyse it.

The results show that the reforms for central hospitals are structurally well characterised as aimed at corporatisation though they are termed as automatisation. The terminological seems not to pose any harm on the direction of the reforms due to the thorough structural characterisation. On the other hand, reforms for district hospitals are vague as such implementation is retrogressive, in that, instead of progressively moving the hospitals towards greater autonomy the opposite is happening.

The paper highlights the significance of characterisation of the intended outcome on the direction of the reforms and proposes a framework to guide conceptual innovation for public hospitals in a devolution-mediated environment.

Based on role theory, this paper seeks to investigate the impact of HR devolution characteristics (number of devolved HR tasks), characteristics of the HR devolution context (level of support from the HR department, and presence of institutionalised incentives to perform the allotted HR tasks well), and personal characteristics of the front‐line managers (HR competency) on front‐line managers' perceptions of two HR role stressors, i.e. HR role ambiguity and HR role overload.

The paper uses a sample of 169 front‐line managers from 47 organisations. The results are based on two moderation regression analyses, taking into account the nested nature of the observations.

The results suggest that the execution of a high number of HR tasks does not lead to the occurrence of HR role stressors among front‐line managers. However, for the HR department it is important to create an appropriate environment in terms of giving HR support and advice to line managers, and training line managers regarding their HR competencies.

This research opens up interesting lines of inquiry regarding the conditions under which the partnership between the HR department and line management can be successful.

The paper provides HR practitioners with insights into the conditions needed to avoid perceptions of HR role stressors among front‐line managers.

The paper applies role theory in a new context, i.e. the HR role of front‐line managers.

As part of the UK’s major policy of constitutional devolution, the first Scottish Parliament in 300 years was established in Summer 1999. This paper examines how that decentralisation of political decision making is connected to organisational excellence in the Scottish public sector via Governmental policy on public management. The paper focuses on both UK and Scottish Government management of the wider Scottish public sector. Some policies and practices arise from devolution; some are coincident with it. Overall, they comprise an unprecedented mix. The paper concludes that, following the establishment of the Parliament, no single policy promotes organisational excellence; devolution has already led to significant change; territorial policy discretion is an important factor; overall, the pursuit of organisational excellence in the Scottish public sector is enjoying considerable attention; existing discussion of “new public management” may have to be updated.

During the 2014 independence referendum in Scotland, there was much debate about the future broader political direction of the country but little discussion about its impact on Scottish tourism. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss the impact of the different future political options from a tourism perspective.

From the literature, four main political drivers were identified, and using Scotland as a reference, they were used in discussions with six experts to explore how tourism could develop under different political options. The outcomes from these discussions were combined by the researcher to develop in conjunction with the experts an agreed discussion note. This discussion note formed the basis for the exploration of the impact on tourism under four different future political options.

Of the four political options (devolution limited, devolution plus, devolution max/fiscal autonomy/federation and full independence), it is clear that all options had different positive and negative impacts for tourism. The devolution max option, however, was perceived as most damaging to tourism, because tourism would not be considered a priority, relative to other policy issues. The study concludes with six key lessons that destination management organisations (DMOs) should contemplate when considering the impacts of different political futures.

Being focussed on one country with a strong political party whose raison d'être is independence makes it difficult to extrapolate the results. Nevertheless, given the strong commonality of agreement of the impacts within the experts consulted, this study suggests that DMOs can and should engage in political debates about the future of tourism in their destination.

The 2014 independence referendum in Scotland failed to achieve its primary aim of independence for Scotland, but it did provide space for other political options to be explored. This paper provides a perspective on how tourism could develop under different political options, and so help raise its profile in any future debates, both in Scotland and other destinations.

Centres on difficulties that teachers experience in the movement of educational decision making from central bureaucracy to the district or school level. Devolution brings major changes to teachers′ roles and bears on underlying assumptions about education. Devolution in the USA, UK, and in New Zealand, parallels presuppositions about education within Australia. Tasmanian schools form the focus, as the author was conducting research in Tasmanian high schools when major transformation in school administration was occurring.

Considers the changing role of parents and the community within the framework of devolution and accountability in educational decision making in Australia. Calls on international literature to provide a global perspective for the changes currently under way. Considers the changing relationship between schools and their local communities since the Karmel report of 1973 and gives examples of some of the recent innovations at both state and federal level. Questions the processes being used for many of the restructuring activities and suggests that the current acceptance of the role of the community in educational decision making is not new, but is based on community education principles and practices. Concludes that the devolution of education may still have some way to go and that consideration of the needs of the whole community, rather than just the students of that community, might be one avenue for schools to consider.

The aim of the article is to analyse HR devolution from HR departments to the line. Two important problems are addressed. The first problem concerns the disregard for the changes in line management that comes with HR devolution. The second problem addressed deals with the lack of studies of organisational contingencies.

The paper presents and analyses an in‐depth case study of a radically projected firm within the Tetra Park group where a new HR‐oriented management role has been created to replace the traditional line management role. Based on the case study findings, the paper elaborates on the new approach to line management and how a new management role is moulded in the context of project‐based organisations.

Based on literature studies, the paper identifies four key challenges for HRM in project‐based organisations that are critical for the development of the new approach to line management in such settings. Based on case study observations, it analyses the creation of a new management role – the so called “competence coach” – in project‐based organisation within the Tetra Park group. It argues that the new approach adopted points to the need of breaking out of traditional conceptions of line management, and of developing the concept of an HR‐oriented management role that is a legitimate player in the HR organisation of a firm.

The paper provides a rich case description of a project‐based firm in a HRM perspective. The descriptions and the analysis give practical as well as theoretical implications of HRM issues that arise in project‐based firms, and of changes in line management as a way of developing the capabilities to handle these issues.