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The best way to neutralize a competitor's strategic heart‐beat, said the great General George Smith Patton, is to change the rules of play.

Evidence from the USA/Australia suggests whole‐school interventions designed to increase social inclusion/engagement can reduce substance use. Completeness of implementation varies but contextual determinants have not been fully explored. Informed by previous interventions, the paper aims to examine these topics in an English pilot of the Healthy School Ethos intervention.

This intervention, like previous interventions, balanced standardization of inputs/process (external facilitator, manual, needs‐survey and staff‐training delivered over one year to enable schools to convene action‐teams) with local flexibility regarding actions to improve social inclusion. Evaluation was via a pilot trial comprising: baseline/follow‐up surveys with year‐7 students in two intervention/comparison schools; semi‐structured interviews with staff, students and facilitators; and observations.

The intervention was delivered as intended with components implemented as in the USA/Australian studies. The external facilitator enabled schools to convene an action‐team involving staff/students. Inputs were feasible and acceptable and enabled similar actions in both schools. Locally determined actions (e.g. peer‐mediators) were generally more feasible/acceptable than pre‐set actions (e.g. modified pastoral care). Implementation was facilitated where it built on aspects of schools' baseline ethos (e.g. a focus on engaging all students, formalized student participation in decisions) and where senior staff led actions. Student awareness of the intervention was high.

Key factors affecting feasibility were: flexibility to allow local innovation, but structure to ensure consistency; intervention aims resonating with at least some aspects of school baseline ethos; and involvement of staff with the capacity to deliver. The intervention should be refined and its health/educational outcomes evaluated.

Management means “getting things done effectively through people”. This implies the importance of leadership and people skills in management practice to achieve optimal results. Great managers usually succeed for a number of reasons. They usually possess nine common management practices. This paper aims to identify these common denominators in their character and management practice that define them.

Case examples are used to illustrate the application of those management practices. Successful managers from well‐known industry giants such as IBM, Nestle's, P&G, Apple, Loews', GE and PepsiCo are profiled to demonstrate how their success can be traced back to those practices.

The paper demonstrates that every manager can easily apply the nine management practices daily to achieve a successful outcome. While some of these traits appear to be personal habits, it is these simple management habits that influence subordinates to perform their best.

Most good managers are trained, not born. The nine personal practices identified in this paper can be easily adopted on a daily basis. With consistent practice, the nine personal traits help train managers to become more effective leaders in driving optimal performance and motivating subordinates to “get things done effectively”.

The Godfather theory of management is a power and control model of leadership. Explains a process whereby leaders can move a dysfunctional and subversive organization into the realm of a quality organization. Although the theme of the article is based on the Godfather series of motion pictures, the reality of the management style focuses on principles of organizational behaviour. The author continually stresses that Godfather Management is transitional management and cannot sustain itself over an extended period of time. Provides a model to assist leaders in the retention, the selection, and the elimination of individuals within either the organizational structure or the leadership team. Discusses a systematic method for new leaders to initially assess the organizational culture and to make the changes necessary for long‐term success.

Approaches to the sociology of culture have largely been constituted around the long tradition of functionalism in sociology. This has hampered the field greatly. Among other shortcomings, this intellectual foundation has led to a limited understanding of ideology and civil society, a conservative political orientation and an overdeterministic view of social action and the actor. In this paper, I explore and then apply a new approach to the sociology of culture, one that attempts to conceptualize more robustly the dynamics of ideology, ideological conflict and civil society. As part of this project, I endeavor to map out a critical cultural perspective that establishes a multidimensional understanding of the contingency of social action.

The study’s purpose was to determine Extension agents’ (n= 111) perceived level of importance, knowledge, and training needs for leadership skills. Mean Weighted Discrepancy Scores were calculated to determine training needs. Participants’ perceived responses were average to above average importance for all skills; however, the participants’ perceived responses were varied concerning knowledge for most skills. The five highest rated training needs were resolve conflict, efficiently manage time, assess community needs, effectively lead a team, and prioritize tasks. The only common training need by Agriculture & Natural Resources (ANR), Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS), and 4-H agents was resolve conflict. Create vision was a training need only identified by FCS agents. The 4-H role needs were handle emotions and handle criticism.

This article seeks to provide a perspective on a future pathway for records management that is based on taking a proportionate approach rather than striving for perfection. This approach requires a re‐interpretation of traditional principles and their application in practice and recognition of the predominance of people in successful information and records management in the digital domain.

The views are the author's based on the headline findings of a major research project (AC+erm) which investigated issues and practical strategies for accelerating positive change in electronic records management. They incorporate views on contextual developments since the project, in particular the characteristics of today's hybrid and increasingly mobile office environment such as the use of recognition technologies.

The ten headline findings of the AC+erm project are shared. Two strategic findings are highlighted, namely, articulating a vision of successful electronic records management and the approach to applying records management principles in order to realise that vision of success. The article then focuses on two of the other findings, about the need for information and records professionals to adopt proportionate and risk based approaches and to ensure they (the records professionals) are an essential part of the solution not the problem. Post the project, views on these and tactics for addressing them are discussed with reference to real examples and potential future research and development.

The research that provides the context for the article was qualitative and therefore its findings transferrable rather than generalisable. The views expressed about tactics for moving forward are intended to contribute to the debate about approaches to managing records in the democratic, digital domain.

A proportionate approach to managing records by definition implies a risk‐based approach. This may prove challenging in organizational, societal and cultural contexts that are risk averse.

The research which underpins this article was the first on the subject to be conducted in the UK and adopted a unique evidence‐based approach. Undertaken in the context of the “promise” of electronic document and records management systems, its findings are relevant in the broader systems solutions. They provide a context for this perspective on current and potential tactics for addressing strategic issues for managing records in the digital domain. This provides a significant contribution to knowledge and debate in this field.

“You can't manage what you can't measure” is the mantra of the 90s. It's hardly a new concept. The need for a means to measure achievement appears to have been with us since the dawn of time.