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Both the criteria which can be used to assess the effectiveness of schools and the means by which effectiveness can be increased have received considerable attention during the last two decades. These criteria have usually been shown to revolve around school climate, leadership, shared decision making, effective teaching, and parental and community involvement. However, identification of universal criteria has been criticised on grounds such as poor methodology, differences in context and culture, assumptions of causality, and neglect of the influence of the external environment. Primary schools have goals and styles of operation which contrast markedly with those of secondary schools. Using approaches which differed from those commonly used in effectiveness studies, two Alberta studies asked principals (headteachers) to identify items which were (a) critical for planning and (b) important for judging the overall effectiveness of primary schools. Emphasis was placed on climate, high expectations for students, leadership, the morale and satisfaction of staff and students, effective teaching and student attitudes.

The area of leadership and management of the Indian college/university environment is discussed. The various styles of administration are referred to, with special emphasis on the need to build up a professional open relationship with the teachers. The need for special training to assist principals of educational institutions attain the leadership skills required is expressed.

This paper aims to address a central question in strategy: how do internal resources firms mediate the effect of the external resources on the firms' performance?

The research was conducted in a sample of 173 Spanish innovative firms located in the Valencia region. Following the literature, the growth of the firm has been used as the main performance indicator. The paper considers the application in this context of the particular and new analysis techniques to combine mediator and moderator effects.

The research shows firms with higher internal resources exploit better external resources. The results confirm that knowledge intensive business services providers, as a form of external resources, exercise a positive influence on innovative firms' performance through the mediating effect of firms' internal assets.

First, the study uses only two well‐known internal resources and capabilities indicators. Second, the paper applies a strict and simple measure to the growth of innovative firms. Third, another limitation of this research relates to the sample and population of companies.

The study shows that the partial mediating effect exercised by internal resources and capabilities on growth, becomes more intense when new firms benefit from cluster location.

This study represents a new step toward closing the analytical gap in the existing literature on the potential interactions between external resources and new firm's internal attributes, and their combined effects on performance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between environmental dynamism and supply chain flexibility (SCF) and to evaluate if two dynamic capabilities, i.e. operational absorptive capacity (OAC) and organisational learning (OL), are necessary competences for firms to develop such a responsive supply chain strategy as flexibility.

Hypothesised relationships are tested with survey data from 302 Spanish manufacturing firms using structural equations modelling.

Environmental dynamism is positively associated with both OAC and OL, and both dynamic capabilities enable SCF. The authors also find that the relationship between environmental dynamism and SCF is partially mediated by both dynamic capabilities.

The study contributes to the literature, for example, by determining when it is advantageous to develop SCF, by specifying what capabilities a firm needs to develop to align SCF with the environment, and by opening the black box that is the relationship between the environment and SCF.

Managers should develop SCF via OAC and OL when they detect a high degree of environmental dynamism. Knowing when this is necessary relies on a good understanding of the environment. OAC is found to be a stronger enabler of SCF than OL. The findings provide managers with an insight into why some firms are able to develop more effective responses to dynamic environments than others.

This study is one of only a limited number of studies that adopt a dynamic capabilities approach to supply chain management. Prior literature has shown that dynamic capabilities can aid in developing strategic, structural, and operational flexibility. The authors extend this literature by showing that OAC and OL have an effect on SCF.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the roles played by organizational learning (OL) and innovation in organizations immersed in the processes of adaptation and strategic fit in dynamic and turbulent environments. The authors analyze whether OL and innovation act as sources of strategic fit, and whether strategic fit positively affects performance.

The authors use data from a survey of a representative sample of 204 respondents from European firms active in high-technology sectors (response rate: 10.42 percent) and structural equation modeling (using the EQS 6.1 program) to undertake a transversal study.

The model confirms that OL and the capacity to innovate positively influence managers’ decisions to adapt their organizations to changes in dynamic environments. The achievement of strategic fit, in turn, improves organizational performance. The authors propose considering the innovation climate as a facilitator of new product and process development, although the innovation climate is not a direct antecedent of fit.

This study is limited by the fact that the analysis is cross-sectional and by the fact that all measures used are based on managers’ perceptions.

Managers should create and support an entrepreneurial culture that stresses continuous learning. They should also foster programs aimed at developing abilities, and promote the development of capabilities that facilitate acceptance of organizational change. Investments in building certain capabilities, such as OL and the capacity to innovate, are strategically justified, especially in turbulent environments.

This study is one of the first to investigate the complex interactions among OL, innovation, strategic fit, and performance. The results improve our understanding of the links between strategic fit and performance.

The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).

This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.

The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.

This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.

This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better methodology for evaluating the value of corporate training to make it easier to compare with other organizational investments. The paper also seeks to propose and demonstrate how “time value of money” and “hurdle rate”, which are significant components of traditional investment valuation methods, can and should be incorporated into the valuation of organization training.

The training investment evaluation methods most commonly used by the training professionals were identified and compared to investment evaluation techniques used to measure the value of other investments made to improve and expand business activities.

The survey of training investment evaluation literature showed that there are two major problems in the methods utilized by the training professionals. One of the problems was associated with the measurement and monetization of costs and benefits of the training activity. The other was the non‐comparable return values’ generated by the non‐uniform methodologies used by the training professionals. Both of these issues were addressed and shortcomings of the currently used methodologies where changes should be made to improve this process were identified. A new methodology, which will make the evaluation process more acceptable to the company management, was developed and its use was demonstrated.

Unfortunately, the issues associated with monetization of costs and benefits could not be fully addressed. This is much more organization specific and specific to the type of training provided. However, some examples were provided of how this activity could be uniformly applied.

The paper provides a new and more acceptable methodology for the use of training professionals and organizations to evaluate the value of training.

This paper applies a “financial analyst” or a Chief Financial Officer perspective to organizational investment in training and provides a tool for evaluating its value the same way organizations evaluate their other investments (e.g. acquisitions, factory expansions, product development).

Previous research has shown that diversity is related to both task and relationship conflict in groups. The purpose of this paper is to posit that leadership is an important factor for maintaining high group performance and morale under conditions of conflict. Specifically, the paper argues that leader conflict management, emotion management, and transformational behaviors determine the impact of conflict on group outcomes.

Data were collected from 585 people in 89 workgroups from eight public service organizations in Australia. The authors used hierarchical regression to test the hypotheses regarding group performance and morale. To test mediation and moderation, the authors followed the procedure outlined by Baron and Kenny. Finally, they used the formulas provided by Preacher, Rucker and Hayes to test for moderated mediation.

Results showed that diversity increased task conflict but was unrelated to relationship conflict. Both task and relationship conflict were negatively associated with group performance and morale, and effective leadership reduced these negative effects to zero. There was also a partial support for the authors’ theoretical model predicting that leadership moderates the indirect effect of diversity on group outcomes occurring through the mediator of conflict.

A greater amount of variation in the diversity of work groups included in the sample would have been useful for overcoming problems of restriction of range, which likely reduced ability to observe an association between diversity and group outcomes. Based on the results, in order to prevent negative emotions from task and relationship conflict from damaging group performance, leaders of diverse groups can act to manage those emotions among their group members. Results from this study implicate conflict management training. While training for conflict management is beyond the scope of this research, further research should examine this issue.

The study extends research in the area of diversity, leadership and group work. In particular, it demonstrates that transformational leadership is an important factor for maintaining high group performance and morale under conditions of conflict. It also offers practical assistance to individuals entrusted with the responsibility of managing culturally diverse workgroups.

Reports results from an extensive survey of major American change programmes which revealed a set of clusters of interventions. Most typically, the change programmes involved combinations of intervention techniques. Team‐building, strategic planning, skill building and restructuring were the most common interventions. Success, however, appeared to depend on complex interactions amongst individual, organizational and change process variables.