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This is the title of an article by Sheila Rothwell in Vol. 91 No. 1 of the European Business Review. The developments in working trends, problems, legislation, and research in the context of equal opportunities in employment in the 1980s are examined. Attempted policy changes are detailed in the following areas: education, training, employment, trade unions, and social policy. There is discussion of three themes which have been the subject of debate: conforming to the male career model; obtaining greater recognition for “female” qualities, skills and attributes; and emphasis on a common humanity and maximising choices for both women and men. The likelihood of the success of each is discussed, and the third approach is supported. The implications for management development specialists are examined.

Examines the personal and situational factors that determine career progression for women in the accountancy profession within the context of the Big Six firms in Scotland from data generated by a postal questionnaire focusing specifically on both male and female senior managers within these firms. The results relating to person‐centred data indicate that the most common aspiration of the senior managers relates to the attainment of partnership status. Motherhood appears to modify career expectations and there is also evidence of a different gender attitude towards acceptability of long working hours with women indicating a general reluctance to match the number of hours worked by men. Analysis of situational factors revealed that men have moved into the new areas of work resulting in women being segregated into the less prestigious, more routine functions of the profession. The results also suggest that men are head‐hunted into senior management positions, while women remain loyal to their training firms in order to be promoted. Thus there appear to be both person and situational factors that determine the pace and structure of the careers and pace of senior managers in the accountancy profession when analysed from a gender perspective.

A three-year study of information technology and information systems management in South Africa has delivered (amongst other things) a bibliography and a new reference model. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The new reference model indicates the key informational components of the education “system” that education management must acknowledge, understand and deal with. This paper presents an overview of these two principal outcomes from that research, leading to a view as to how education can be improved through better information management.

There is some available reported work that addresses management, or information, or education, but relatively little that brings the essence of these three domains together. The derived reference model effectively addresses a number of set objectives, hence providing a basis for improved understanding of how information can be more effectively managed in education.

The new reference model comprises an arrangement of ideas that allows education managers to focus on a more strategic approach to their management challenges. It also provides foundations for further research. Although the study was undertaken in South Africa, it has relevance to all countries and regions where education needs improved management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of school governing bodies (SGBs) members’ role in financial management in no-fee schools so as to understand their compliance with policy frameworks when managing school finances. No-fee schools are schools in which the learners cannot be levied fees because of the poor socio-economic background of their parents, and are located in Quintiles 1-3 according to National Norms and Standards for School Funding Policy.

A qualitative research design/approach within the interpretive paradigm was adopted for the study. A sample of 22 participants from six selected no-fee schools was purposefully selected to participate in the study. The participants were principals, SGB chairpersons, SGB treasurers and finance officers. Data were collected through interviews and document analyses and were qualitatively analysed through coding and categorisation.

The findings reveal that the perceptions, experience and understanding of SGB members on their financial management roles differ. They lacked the proper knowledge to manage their funds effectively. This lack of knowledge is mainly because of the members’ literacy level and limited training.

This study offers a novel empirical and theoretical perspective on finance of no-fee schools and SGBs. This research subsequently recommends that rigorous training of chairpersons and treasurers should be done by department officials located in the finance section. Further, training should be conducted in a language that would be understood by the intended recipients.

This paper gives a bibliographical review of the finite element and boundary element parallel processing techniques from the theoretical and application points of view. Topics include: theory – domain decomposition/partitioning, load balancing, parallel solvers/algorithms, parallel mesh generation, adaptive methods, and visualization/graphics; applications – structural mechanics problems, dynamic problems, material/geometrical non‐linear problems, contact problems, fracture mechanics, field problems, coupled problems, sensitivity and optimization, and other problems; hardware and software environments – hardware environments, programming techniques, and software development and presentations. The bibliography at the end of this paper contains 850 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with presented subjects that were published between 1996 and 2002.

The Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria is working in the South African housing context while gaining knowledge of such issues worldwide. Various innovations are being carried out in terms of housing design and delivery methods in South Africa. Through a methodical approach to design, it is believed that future architects will be able to answer to contextual needs without compromising the high standard of design expected by the Department.

This paper evaluates an exercise in open building principles, carried out in 2003, with post−graduate architecture and interior architecture students at the University. The focus was the application of open building principles from the urban design level to that of the building and the residential units. It involved the design of social housing and the upgrading of existing workers’ hostels into family units as well as the provision of social amenities. Students were to design various types of housing, showing alternative ways of ‘living’ and study housing in the area. The project involved close interaction with community representatives.

The area of study was located in Soshanguve, a township with predominantly black inhabitants, situated to the northwest of Pretoria. The previous political dispensation designated specific areas on the outskirts of the city as locations for black migrant workers, known as townships. Subsequently these townships have become cities in themselves, housing a large portion of the total population of Pretoria. It is here that there is a need for urban development and social housing.

Soshanguve offered an excellent opportunity for learning and the dissemination of good design principles in housing design. A debate on the relevance of open building to South Africa has been initiated. It is concluded that open building systems are an effective tool to achieve diversity and can accommodate for wider sectors of the population.

Cultures don’t clash … people do. Hidden below the veil of “incompatible cultures” is a complex network of human-to-human interaction involving information-exchange transactions that have gone awry. The multitude of these troubled exchanges results in what is often branded as “M&A failure, due to culture conflict.”

This chapter presents a theoretical discussion that features practical dynamics of the post-merger integration (PMI) process. The aim is to cultivate a deeper understanding of critical, less-acknowledged micro-level aspects of the post-merger integration stage, specifically, those which underlie the development and maintenance of an organization’s culture and lead to organization performance. It is the unseen information exchange among human actors that leads to the perceptible post-merger outcomes, such as cultural unity and task performance. The quality of these micro-exchanges leads to the value capture from the M&A transaction, thus determining the success – or not – of the combination.

Presented is a synthesis of numerous existing theories, perspectives, and ideas from various scholarly communities, combined with a drill-down to the basic human interactions that define a culture and lead to positive performance. Information flow is the sustenance of an organization, so when merging organizations restructure the information flow is abruptly disrupted, often at pronounced near-term cost. The information-flow channels must be mended for social unification and performance value goals of the combined organization to be realized. The information-transporting social networks of the organizational actors must therefore adapt and intermingle across the old-organizational faultlines. This is accomplished when individual actors alter their personal social networks and retool themselves for a new set of information-exchange interactions.

In closing, the author counsels managers to focus on the dyadic information exchange of their direct-reports as an actionable approach to PMI management. The chapter concludes by pointing researchers toward studying the micro-level aspects of PMI and offers computer modeling and simulation, and laboratory experiments as effective ways to study PMI dynamics at the micro-level of organization behavior. Such methods may also lead to an ability to forecast outcomes of specific post-merger integration scenarios.

This paper presents an alternative approach to the usual method of computing expected values of cash flows in capital budgeting situations. The approach is based on the more realistic notion that the cash flows, the probabilities assigned to the cash flows, or both are not always exactly known. Three cases representing different types of uncertainties relating to the cash flow prospects are presented and expected values are derived using the fuzzy set theory. The approach utilized in this paper provides an alternative to the prevalent methodology of estimating cash flows in capital budgeting. This approach offers greater flexibility in dealing with the complex issue of uncertainty than the prevalent probability‐based approach in cases where decisions are complex enough so that neither cash flows nor probability distributions are totally available.

Team performance frequently is not reached because of motivation losses. The individual identified motivation best fits in team contexts. However, management control systems research has mainly focused on the external motivation. This chapter analyses how identified motivation and team performance can be enhanced through the interactive use of management control systems and the team identity.

An experimental study is conducted among 144 postgraduate students. We manipulate the interactive use of management control systems and the team identity. We controlled its effects on team members’ motivation and performance.

The results show an indirect effect of the interactive control systems on team performance via team members’ identified motivation. Furthermore, the effect of team identity on team performance is also mediated by the identified motivation.

Managers can increase employees’ motivation by using the control information interactively. Controls focused on socialisation processes and shared values best fit with collaborative environments.

The results provide empirical support for the recent calls about the effect of interactive control systems at individual levels. Despite the considerable attention to the relation between the design of management control systems and team performance, this chapter provides empirical evidence of the positive relation between the style of use of management control systems and individual behaviour in team-based settings.