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The article's aim is to refine prospects for theorising in public sector accounting (PSA) research in order to capture the methodological benefits promised by its multi-disciplinarity.

The study primarily employs a bibliometric analysis of research outputs invoking New Public Management (NPM). Applying a content analysis to Hood (1991), as the most cited NPM source, bibliographic methods and citation/co-citation analysis for the period 1991 to 2018 are mobilised to identify the disciplinary evolution of the NPM knowledge base from a structural and longitudinal perspective.

The analysis exhibits disciplinary branching of NPM over time and its imprints on post-1990 PSA research. Given the discourse about origins of NPM-based accounting research, there are research domains behind the obvious that indicate disciplinary fragmentations. For instance, novelty of PSA research is found in public value accounting, continuity is evidenced by transcending contextual antecedents. Interestingly, these domains are loosely coupled. Exploring the role of disciplinary imprints designates prospects for post-NPM PSA research that acknowledges multi-disciplinarity and branching in order to deploy insularity as a building block for its inquiries.

Criteria for assessing the limitations and credibility of an explorative inquiry are used, especially on how the proposal to develop cumulative knowledge from post-1990 PSA research can be further developed.

A matrix suggesting a method of ordering disciplinary references enables positioning of research inquiries within PSA research.

By extending common taxonomies of PSA intellectual heritages, the study proposes the ‘inquiry-heritage’ matrix as a typology that displays patterns of theorisation for positioning an inquiry within PSA disciplinary groundings.

This paper aims to reflect education for sustainable development (ESD) principles and their manifestation in higher education (HE) in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries which share a similar policy situation owing to post-socialist transition processes.

Observations from comprehensive mapping of ESD in professional development of university educators in CEE within the University Educators for Sustainable Development project provided the initial input for this research. To justify the findings, a questionnaire was distributed among informed respondents and assessed qualitatively. ESD success factors were identified to support the interpretation of the results within the overall HE policy context.

Opportunities for educators’ competence development are lower and less diverse in the CEE region than in other parts of Europe. Historical reasons and the policy context may contribute to this situation; the most important factor being the underfinanced HE sector which is currently undergoing profound structural transformation.

The sample of respondents is not representative; they are informed experts in ESD. The results are of an illustrative nature; different sources of information are combined to draw a broad picture.

University educators in CEE have considerable know-how and experience in ESD and thus represent significant potential for the development of this field under more favourable conditions.

This research is based on more than two years of cooperation within a broad partnership of European universities; it represents a contribution to the debate from a specific regional perspective. It shows opportunities for critical, creative and participatory approaches in HE, analyses current trends in historical and policy contexts and provides impulses for theoretically and practically oriented efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and analyse the didactic model of a university course, which concerns an applied academic consultancy project and which focuses on skills related to crossing boundaries between disciplines and cultures, and between theory and practice. These boundary crossing skills are needed to develop sustainable solutions for complex environmental problems.

The paper evaluates the course based on recommendations for successful collaborative interdisciplinary research found in literature. Reflections of two cohorts of 30 students are used to analyse the four components that make up the didactic model of the course: organizational “matrix structure” in which students work, two week field‐trip, customized SharePoint web site, and teachers as facilitators rather than providers of information.

The course enhanced the students' awareness of disciplinary and cultural boundaries and added to their appreciation of using different disciplinary and cultural perspectives in developing sustainable solutions. Students learnt to deal with uncertainty in scientific research and realized that decisions in environmental management are based on partial knowledge. They also learnt how to overcome barriers in the design and implementation of interdisciplinary research projects.

The paper presents an innovative didactic model that proved to be successful in educating boundary crossing skills. It contributes to understanding how educational programmes at universities can better equip students to find sustainable solutions.

Fifteen schemes which in different ways help people to live and work more capably have been recognised by the Royal Society of Arts. The purpose is to encourage and promote Education for Capability. The Royal Society of Arts Education for Capability Recognition Scheme was launched during 1980 to publicise achievement in Education for Capability in order to influence others. Education for Capability was the title of a manifesto published in Feburary 1980 with over 140 names from the worlds of education and industry appended in support. The manifesto stated that the education and training process gives too much emphasis to analysis, criticism and the acquisition of knowledge and not enough to problem‐solving, doing, making and organising. ‘We believe’, the signatories declared, ‘that education should spend more time in teaching people skills and preparing them for life outside the education system; and that the country would benefit in economic terms from this re‐balancing towards education for capability’.

IT is well known that librarianship or library science and information work or information science as the common educational, professional and scientific discipline is everywhere undergoing great change and development. During its continual and relatively fast development, this discipline has at the same time to solve the increasing tasks connected with the problems of the so‐called information explosion.

The heightened state of flux in the construction industry in general and construction procurement strategies in particular, provides welcome opportunities to inject innovative improvements. While some improvements are generated from within the construction industry itself, these evolve sluggishly along prolonged learning curves. These are compared with lessons to be learnt and examples to be drawn from manufacturing in the development of a marketable product. A product development focus is thus advocated in re‐integrating segregated groups and in empowering and inspiring the innovations that are needed to achieve the dramatic productivity gains now demanded from the construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to compare teachers' organisational behaviour in publicly‐ and privately‐funded schools in the Dutch Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.

A percentage of all middle managers in publicly and privately funded schools (72 per cent and 43 per cent respectively) distributed self‐report questionnaires to their teachers measuring teachers' attitudes, sense of identification and perception of the school climate. The sample consisted of 705 teachers in publicly funded schools and 25 teachers in privately funded schools. Data were analysed through multilevel analysis accounting for the dependency of teachers working within the same teaching unit.

The analyses show that teachers in publicly funded schools report a less curriculum‐oriented attitude, a lower sense of identification, and perceive a less supportive school climate than teachers in privately funded schools. Funding did not have an effect on the extent to which teachers have a student‐oriented attitude. In addition, the analyses show significant effects of teacher characteristics, the disciplinary sector, and affiliation characteristics on teachers' organisational behaviour.

The paper clearly indicates differences in teachers' organisational behaviour in publicly and privately funded schools. Contrary to common beliefs, the institutional context hardly influences the extent to which teachers have a student‐oriented attitude.

The paper contributes to insights in behavioural aspects of the fading boundary between the public and private sector.

The purpose of this paper is to present analysis of the role of the branch librarian as a valuable paradigm for embedded librarianship. Branch librarians develop strong connections to specialized client groups and build programs and services in response to their unique environments.

A review of research in embedded librarianship was conducted with particular emphasis on branch librarians. This article provides critique of research on embedded librarianship from the perspectives of branch management and an overview of strategies typically employed.

In important ways, branch librarians present an ideal model for embedded librarianship. They work toward close communication with the faculty and students of their academic unit, and are on location, identifying the specific needs and customizing services for patron groups in their academic settings.

The authors are Coordinators of Branch Library Services at Mississippi State University for the College of Architecture, Art, and Design and the College of Veterinary Medicine. The authors’ experiences as branch managers and immersion within their academic units provide a unique and more comprehensive analysis of embedded librarianship, one that has been overlooked.

Role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy have developed through parallel literatures in sociology and psychology. All three concepts address the ways that people attune the self to others’ thoughts and feelings. Despite conceptual and operational overlap, researchers have yet to synthesize existing research across the three concepts. We undertake the task of theoretical synthesis, constructing a model in which role-taking emerges as a multidimensional process that includes perspective taking and empathy as component parts.

We review the literatures on role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy across disciplines. Focusing on definitions, measures, and interventions, we discern how the concepts overlap, how they are distinct, and how they work together in theoretically meaningful ways.

The review identifies two key axes on which each concept varies: the relative roles of affect and cognition, and the relative emphasis on self and structure. The review highlights the cognitive nature of perspective taking, the affective nature of empathy, and the structural nature of role-taking. In a move toward theoretical synthesis, we propose a definition that centers role-taking as a sociological construct, with perspective taking and empathy representing cognition and affect, respectively.

Role-taking is an important part of selfhood and community social life. It is a skill that varies in patterned ways, including along lines of status and power. Theoretical synthesis clarifies the process of role-taking and fosters the construction of effective interventions aimed at equalizing role-taking in interpersonal interaction.

This study is the first of a five‐phase research project sponsored by the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (CEDD), an organization of environmental program managers operating under the umbrella of the National Council for Science and the Environment. The purpose of the project is to determine if a consensus on core competencies for environmental program graduates is achievable, and if so, to make recommendations for consideration by program managers.

Q methodology was used to discern the perspectives of program managers at 42 CEDD member institutions on environmental curriculum design. An online survey preceded the Q sort exercise to elicit managers' curricular views and program characteristics. Survey responses were analyzed to select statements for the Q‐sorting exercise and categorized according to emergent themes. Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between perspectives (factor loadings) and host institution Carnegie classifications.

Three distinct, but not opposing, perspectives were identified from the initial Q‐factor rotation, which suggests the possibility of agreement on core competencies. The perspectives differ in their views of: curriculum orientation (professional training versus liberal arts), curriculum breadth versus depth, and flexible versus fixed core competencies. Host institution classification (Carnegie) is a small but significant predictor for two of the three perspectives. A second Q‐factor rotation reveals a consensus perspective that accommodates most respondents and aligns well with principles of sustainability, thus suggesting that sustainability may serve as a guiding paradigm for defining areas of core competence.

No national study of program managers' views of curriculum design and the identification of core competencies has been conducted in the USA.