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This paper aims to analyze the transferability of a conflict management model developed for business organizations to a temporary and international research project to serve as a support tool for internal communication and in case of conflict.

The authors analyze the transferability of a conflict management model that was initially developed for business organizations to an international, inter-organizational and temporary research project that is third-party funded. Using a case study, a participatory approach is applied with both qualitative and quantitative methods used.

The transferability is possible but only with the adaption of conflict prevention. The project’s international and inter-organizational structure further results in a need for decentralization of conflict management responsibilities and diversification of conflict management approaches. Time, financial resources and a high autonomy of cooperation partners limit the degree of participation in the design process.

The research is based on a case study. Research on comparative design processes are needed to verify or extrapolate findings and to help assess the impact of conflict management systems in other large research projects.

This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on conflict management systems. By implementing a conflict management system in a temporary, international and scientific project environment, this case study identifies contextual factors relevant for the system design and provides initial test results. As conflict management systems in research projects are not yet prominent, this adapted model of conflict prevention and management can benefit similar projects.

Wangari Maathai – environmentalist, political activist, human rights champion, and international spokesperson for environmental justice – combined scientific expertise with traditional African respect for the land and compassion for individual persons. She was thus able to build a movement to preserve the land, foster citizen empowerment, and inspire activism to effect systemic change. Her legacy is both local and international, with more than 5,000 active citizen networks in Kenya having planted more than 51 million trees.

As a child, Maathai was taught to revere the earth as infused with divine presence. Through study, she added knowledge of scientific principles that govern the natural world, as well as complex interactions between humans and earth. What she saw was the delicate and essential interdependence of environmental and social needs.

Over the course of 45 years of activism, in Kenya and on the world stage, she learned to address individual human suffering and challenge the systems responsible for the pain, including political and economic corruption. Maathai was, in many ways, a prototypical grassroots leader in the heroic vein. She insistently rebuffed attempts to romanticize poverty or consider it inevitable; she refused to surrender to oppression and exploitation – sometimes at significant personal risk.

Maathai left rich resources – a memoir and handbook, essays, speeches, papers, editorials – plus an active Movement. Emphasis in this essay, which draws on those resources plus insights of scholars, journalists, filmmakers, family, friends, and critics, some through personal interview, is what her strategies and achievements suggest for ongoing leadership for Africa.

This chapter explores the leadership role of Catholic Sisters in Africa and the changing understanding of their role in the larger society. The study draws on field research examining the impact of a leadership training program for women leaders of Catholic Sisters in East Africa. The chapter notes how the Sisters readily identified with how leadership among local women functions in a group-based and situational manner, rather than alone or in terms of clear hierarchical protocols more typical of men.

The program encouraged the women religious to become more active in the public sector to advocate for policies related to their experience of providing services to the people to have a multiplier effect. Some were initially not too open to the idea of their Sisters engaging with politicians.

However, after completing the training program many congregational leaders came to understand the importance of encouraging their more articulate members to become proactive in promoting public policies in the areas of basic education, health, and social development.

Along this line, Major Superiors of women's congregations quickly recognized that the UN-declared Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) not only describe much of the work that their Sisters have been doing for years but also the need to prod their governments to make good on their commitments to realize them. These opened the door both for advocacy and eventual partnerships in the service of the common good of their people.

Although managing global change is one of the key competencies demanded of global leaders, it is one of the most under-researched topics in the field (Lane, Spector, Osland, & Taylor, 2014). This chapter shares findings from a recent qualitative study that examined how global business leaders navigate complex global changes. Data were collected from 23 global business executives working for 20 unique global enterprises, in 12 different functions, through a pre-interview participant qualifying profile, an in-depth semi-structured interview, and follow-up verification. Findings reveal that global business executives are contextual leaders who juggle both global task and global relationship complexities. The paradox is the process they employ to navigate continuous change, enabled by sensemaking. Finally, as agile learners, they prove that the global leadership capabilities required to navigate paradox can be learned.