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The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the development process and outcomes from a six-year collaboration between Halifax Bank (part of the Lloyds Banking Group) and Middlesex University between 2010 and 2016 in the UK. The collaboration involved the construction of work-integrated higher education programmes that were, from the outset, predicated on clear return on investment criteria for the Bank. One unexpected outcome from the collaboration was the emergence of critical reflection as a valued business benefit that, it is argued, has the potential for significant cultural change within the organisation.

This case study discuses how “productive reflection” can lead to an integrated approach to organisational learning. The study is located in the context of Halifax’s specific organisational objectives established following the banking crash of 2008. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is considered to illustrate the extent to which the “return on investment” criteria established by Halifax have been achieved.

The case study indicates that the challenging business context of the financial crash of 2008 provided the impetus for a sustained collaborative development that allowed the potential pitfalls of restricted learning opportunities to be addressed resulting in an integrated approach to organisational learning. In addition to the organisation’s return on investment criteria being met, there is evidence that the work-integrated approach has raised the prospect of productive reflection becoming part of an emerging learning culture.

The scale and sustained period of the university-business collaboration is unique and provides valuable insight into how an organisation’s learning culture can be affected by a work-integrated approach. In demonstrating the perceived business value of productive reflection, the case presented illustrates how learning can start to become considered as a normal aspect of working life.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of history in the creation of gender dynamics at work.

Drawing on an ANTi‐history – which draws on actor‐network theory (ANT) – and critical sensemaking framework, the authors analyze a written history of a teachers' union to examine how historically contextualized networks of actors shape notions of gender.

The findings support the notion of history as socially constructed story telling, which serves to shape rather than describe gendered relations at work.

The research is limited to archival materials as the participants are not available as direct informants. Archives by their nature are incomplete and some accounts are summaries.

Understanding the socially constructed role of history will help management educators and practitioners to examine historical accounts as part of the problem of gendered relations. The paper reinforces the notion that understanding of discrimination may be lost as power imbalances are written out of historical accounts in the attempt to be politically correct.

The paper's contribution to research lies in its application of new methods of historical analysis (namely, ANTi‐history and critical sensemaking) and a focus on history as a powerful sensemaking device that shapes on‐going sensemaking.

The literature available on how communities deal with mass death, in particular body handling procedures, is sparse. Describes the actions of the various people involved in the immediate aftermath of the Halifax (Nova Scotia) 1917 explosion. Also, but in less detail, examples the Rapid City flood, the Gander air crash, the Zeebrugge ferry disaster, the Tangsham earthquake, the Texas City explosion and the Kobe earthquake. Highlights the problems of handling bodies after a mass fatality incident: respect accorded to the dead individual; whether skilled individuals are there to take on the tasks, the tagging and identification procedures required and the setting up of temporary morgue facilities.

UK bank Halifax plc knew what it wanted from its corporate‐leadership program – strong leaders who not only had the thinking skills and concepts, but could also make things happen through their people. This meant giving participants a strong theoretical base and backing it up with the practical skills to make the theories work. Halifax also recognized the value of outdoor training for leadership development, and wanted this included, too. The problem was that traditional providers of training would probably be able to offer excellence in one or possibly two of these areas, but not all three. Halifax’s solution was therefore to opt for three separate organizations, each with an excellent track record in one of the areas of the program.

Students investigated whether the commonly accepted net promoter score was an accurate way of measuring the quality of service, whether presenteeism was just as corrosive as absenteeism and what internal and external factors contributed to business success or failure. What the paper tried to foster from the outset was the concept of a learning society in order to gauge how students experienced the need to reinforce their arguments with theory. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The author's interest focused on the link between business and academia, what constituted an academic presence in the workplace and whether or not this academic input helped students to become more effective members of their organisation. The author surveyed 30 students for this qualitative study.

Students welcomed clear direction and an opportunity to translate their experience into a problem-solving exercise. They realised they were in the business of developing themselves and strove to bring clarity to their life and work and to demystify their own texts.

This is not a longitudinal study but a sample of questionnaire responses from 30 out of a possible 150 students. The “measurement” is broad, rather than precise.

By engaging in a partnership with Middlesex University, the Halifax Community Bank appeared to want to effect radical change in its organisational culture. To the students this was no vacuous public relations exercise but a commitment to getting staff/students to re-examine the contingencies of contemporary business and come up with solutions to a range of business problems.

An integrated Web engine (IWE) has been developed by the Internetworking program at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada to deliver remote learning experience to geographically remote Master's students. The University intends to increase its student base through online education, retaining the same quality of interactions as the onsite program. To this end, the IWE accommodates three technology‐enabled learning environments that correlate with the three pedagogical approaches and types of onsite interaction. Discusses the e‐learning metrics, pedagogical and technical considerations that influence the design and implementation of the IWE environment. The IWE uses de facto networking standards, commercial and broadband Internet connectivity to ensure real‐time secure interaction with equipment and deliver lectures respectively. A four‐tier role architecture, consisting of faculty, local, remote facilitators, and students, has been determined to be appropriate and adapted to maintain academic integrity and offer the same quality of interaction as the onsite program.

Within Calderdale and Kirklees Health Authority area there are two distinct groups of general practitioners (GPs) ‐Huddersfield and Halifax. Following a small pilot study, a modified X‐ray request form was developed for sole use by the Huddersfield GPs. This X‐ray request form encouraged the local GPs to specify their reasons for referral. During the year in which the modified X‐ray request form was circulating within Huddersfield, the GP community was 0.66 times as likely (less likely) to request lumbar spine X‐rays in comparison with the community in Halifax. The 95% confidence intervals were 0.57–0.77, indicating that this is a highly‐significant result.

A group of talented young people at the former Halifax plc have been helped to make the challenging transition from trainee to manager thanks to the introduction of mentoring, which is becoming recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as a highly effective human‐resource‐development process.

Describes the co‐operation between Cranfield University, Trans4mation management consultancy and ProActive outdoor activities provider, in a new leadership programme for UK bank Halifax plc. Shows that the three organizations, which might normally have been competing against each other, had to devise ways of tearing down barriers, communicating openly, learning from each other and adapting their practices accordingly. Considers that this new way of working, involving a mixture of co‐operation and competition, is likely to be the way of the future, since if secrets are not shared they are unlikely to develop at the pace required to become commercial realities.