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What triggers organisational change? A recent UK survey of 200 companies suggests that the trigger is more likely to be a crisis than a positive response to a perceived opportunity, or in order to pre‐empt threats. The observed change initiatives did, however, follow current wisdom associated with total quality management perspectives, and customer awareness. A minority of the changes focused on “siege mentality” strategies, slimming the company to its barest core. The authors conclude by asking whether UK companies have the courage, while dealing with present crises, not to destroy the “excellence” path to a profitable long‐term future.

Report of a study tour to examine MBA and executive programmes offered by US business schools. Comments on their international activity, learning methods and the place of the case study. Examines the role of research and touches on the course environments. Concludes that US business schools are placing less emphasis on the statistical and scientific approaches to management and more on the global business environment.

If clinical audit revolves around concepts of quality, then there is need to examine the basis of quality and thereby clinical audit as traditionally defined by health‐care organizations. Basing quality on patients’ stated needs is often insufficient. Gives an expanded view. Health‐care consumers should not be confused with the term customers, and professional staff should be ready to consider patients’ needs before those of any organization. In order to handle this wider view of quality in health care, describes the concept and construction of a quality web. Suggests that either by constructing their own quality web, or adapting the model given, clinical managers could adopt a broader perspective to quality and audit in the service they provide.

Briefly reviews 20 books concerned with all aspects of management including studying for a management qualification, as in S. Cameron′s The MBA Handbook, which offers practical advice on how to study for an MBA. Applies the relevance of such books to the concerns of the library manager and indicates how such publications could help the manager to provide a better library service, improve interpersonal skills and generally overcome most of the hurdles which managers have to surmount.

Briefly reviews 20 books concerned with all aspects of management including studying for a management qualification, as in S. Cameron′s The MBA Handbook, which offers practical advice on how to study for an MBA. Applies the relevance of such books to the concerns of the library manager and indicates how such publications could help the manager to provide a better library service, improve interpersonal skills and generally overcome most of the hurdles which managers have to surmount.

The number of women at work in the UK has increased significantly over the past 20–30 years. Women now constitute a substantial proportion of the total labour force. This increase has not been accompanied by a corresponding widening in the range of occupations typically followed by women. Most women professionals are still in traditional caring jobs although some are beginning to enter other professions in larger numbers. However the spread is still small and women are over‐represented in the junior grades of all professions. The equal opportunities legislation has created a climate for progress but has not brought dramatic changes in women's share of professional/top jobs. Women themselves and individual employers have had to create pressure for change. Women have reacted due to economic need as well as aspirations, whereas employers have reacted due to the skilled labour shortage. Major changes in equal opportunities legislation are unlikely in the foreseeable future because social issues concerning equality for women are not a high priority for this government. More effective is the European Economic Community Parliament. The EEC has put pressure on Britain to improve equality. To improve the situation in the short term different initiatives (e.g. equal opportunity, employment legislation, education) need to work together.

The author argues and explains that the indigenous Eastern epistemological frame of yin-yang balancing can be taken as a unique system of thinking toward a meta-perspective. It is not only deeply rooted in the indigenous Eastern culture traditions, but also bears salient global implications, especially in the domain of paradox management. The purpose and contribution of this chapter are twofold: (1) to explain the unique and salient features of yin-yang balancing (the “either/and” system to reframe paradox into duality as partially conflicting and partially complementary, both spatially and temporarily) as compared with the Western logic systems (the “either/or” and “both/or” or “both/and” systems); and (2) to explore the global implications of the “either/and” system for future paradox research, including the three unique themes of overlap between opposites with the “seed” of one opposite inside the other; threshold from the contingent balance between partial separation and partial integration in line with specific contexts through three operating mechanisms, and knot for the special role of third-party to shift paradox from a dyadic level to a triadic and even a multiplex level.

At a recent inquest upon the body of a woman who was alleged to have died as the result of taking certain drugs for an improper purpose, one of the witnesses described himself as “an analyst and manufacturing chemist,” but when asked by the coroner what qualifications he had, he replied : “I have no qualifications whatever. What I know I learned from my father, who was a well‐known ‘F.C.S.’” Comment on the “F.C.S.” is needless.

The chapter furnishes empirical evidence about the extent and profiles of autonomy of EU agencies, the modalities whereby they are steered and controlled, and the interactions they have in EU policy networks. It thus provides the bases for a more complete picture of the EU multi-level administration.

The research is a survey-based design. A questionnaire was administered between July 2009 and April 2010 to 30 EU agencies included in the study population. The questionnaire was sent to the executive director of all the agencies included in the study. Questions were closed-ended, either in the form of multiple choices – with one answer or with check-all-that-apply and an option for ‘other’ to be filled – or in scale format. The resulting data set included ratio, interval, ordinal, and nominal scales. The reference model employed for the investigation relies on the analytical model developed within the framework of the research project COST Action IS0651 CRIPO (Comparative Research into Current Trends in Public Sector Organization – see also ‘Acknowledgements’) for the study of public agencies in Europe (Verhoest, Van Thiel, Bouckaert, & Lægreid, 2012).

EU agencies display a rather low level of managerial, especially financial, autonomy; conversely, they enjoy relatively high policy autonomy. As to the way in which multiple ‘parent’ administration steer EU agencies, it emerges a composite picture, in which the crossroads of steering and control by the parent administrations and accountability by the agency lies in the executive director. In terms of interactions within policy networks, EU agencies interact in a significant way with the European Commission, with national-level agencies in the pertinent policy field, and with specific technical bodies where they are part of the configuration of the policy sector, whilst interactions with national ministries as well as with other EU agencies are rare. No single model can capture in full the overall features of EU agencies, although the ‘community level institution’ model seems to capture a number of the profiles of these agencies.

Both the literature on EU multi-level administration and research agendas in public management can benefit from inclusion of – and in-depth empirical knowledge about – EU agencies. The chapter provides important empirical evidence to these purposes.

EU agencies are actors in European public policy-making, albeit to a varied extent depending on the sector. The extent of autonomy and the way in which they are held to account are crucial aspects for an enhanced understanding of their influence on European public policy-making, as is their location in European policy networks.

Research presented in this chapter is the first systematic empirical investigation of EU agencies encompassing networking, steering and control and autonomy of EU agencies, based on primary data.