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Responding to a call from the conference “Becoming a leader: A matter of education?”, this paper aims to raise awareness of the challenge for individuals of performing both leadership and management activities and draws attention to the need for a new approach to educating and training leader-managers.

Based on the existing literature and discussions from the abovementioned conference, the paper questions the current approaches which either merge the leadership and management functions or treat them as mutually exclusive roles and offers instead a dual approach that emphasizes the capacity of individuals to switch mindsets.

Managing and leading are distinct activities with different goals and means that need to co-exist. Individuals should be prepared to either manage or lead depending on the situation and to change their mindset accordingly. Education and training programs should be designed for this purpose.

The paper proposes a dual “leading-managing mix” and discusses the challenges of its implementation by individuals. The discussion of the implications for training and education will be of value to practitioners as well as educators and training specialists.

The spirit of our times is uncertain with scholars and practitioners agreeing that complex problems need more innovative multifaceted solutions. Now as we witness the potential demise of the political classes in the chaos that is Brexit, the challenges in the North East are unprecedented, unpredictable and difficult to untangle. It’s time for a different way of leading, managing and even thinking.

This chapter advocates a stronger Entrepreneurial Leadership for the development of bespoke North East strategies and argues we need to build capacity through collaboration across sectors to achieve better results in the decade ahead. This chapter presents a view of how the agenda for SME growth and development needs to change in the region in the period ahead. It suggests a stronger collaboration between the North East and northern universities could help to build a better Brexit strategy and more appropriate interventions.

This study aims to develop and test a model of the antecedents, mediators and consequences of the glass cliff phenomenon through public sector service organizations in Iran to explore more insights on gender inequality in managerial positions.

The current research was conducted based on a mixed-method approach, using both qualitative and quantitative research designs. First, the qualitative method includes content analysis by conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 university professors and expert managers working in public sector service organizations in Iran. The outcomes of the qualitative phase lead to designing the conceptual framework and research hypothesis. Then, through a quantitative phase, 384 female managers working in public sector service organizations in Iran are selected using stratified random sampling and fill out the research questionnaire. The exploratory factor analysis was used to verify the model. Moreover, structural equation modeling, using AMOS 24, was used to test the research hypothesis.

The findings of the qualitative phase were represented in three categories including antecedents (e.g. the characteristics of women’s leadership, the selection of women based on meritocracy criteria, women’s preferences and organizational factors), mediation effect (e.g. succession planning, personal development planning and support networks) and consequences of the glass cliff phenomenon (e.g. positive and negative consequences). The results of the exploratory factor analysis show there are ten components, explaining 88.5% of variances. Moreover, the test of the structural model supports the direct effect of antecedents on the glass cliff phenomenon. The results also show the effect of the glass cliff phenomenon on consequences through mediation effects.

There are some limitations that can be addressed by other researchers. Accordingly, the limited number of female managers in Iran prevented larger quantitative research. Moreover, the current research only found casual and mediation consequences of the glass cliff phenomenon, and potential moderators were not considered in this study.

The present study’s innovations may include using a mixed-method approach to investigate the antecedents, mediators and consequences of the glass cliff phenomenon in this study and examining the model constructs in some public sector service organizations. This research may provide a deep understanding of the antecedents, mediators and consequences of the glass cliff phenomenon by finding new factors using a mixed-method approach.

Until recently the role of non executive directors (NEDs) in small and medium firms (SMEs) was fairly easy to understand. Such directors were usually imposed by venture capital firms as part of the “price” of getting financial backing. Very often, if or when the business became profitable, no such imposition was made. The role of the NED was simply to see that the money provided by the venture capitalist was spent in the manner prescribed in the business plan or to ensure timely and correct financial information was available to both operating management and the investor. Neither of these roles would feature high on the agenda of a big firm’s non‐executive directors. But with the advent of early initial public offerings (IPOs), perhaps just into the second or third year of an SME’s existence, the role of the NED is set to change. A range of new responsibilities are coming into play. This article reviews the range of responsibilities a NED of a high tech SME must expect to take on.

Megaprojects are seen as vehicles for delivering significant social value. However, megaproject decision-making, which is deeply embedded in networks comprising formal and informal practices involving the exercise of power, can facilitate or hinder social value delivery. Moreover, these decision-making practices are often intentionally designed and executed to remain hidden and so are not easily identifiable but have implications for maximising social value. This paper aims to identify the hidden barriers to social value delivery on megaprojects resulting from the decision-making environment.

Governmentality theory was used to deconstruct the megaproject decision-making environment. The critical realism philosophy was merged with a narrative inquiry approach to analyse the everyday, taken-for-granted practices that resulted in the decision-making outcomes. Data were collected through 22 in-depth semi-structured interviews to uncover stories highlighting the nature of power relations underpinning the decision-making environment of one megaproject in the Asia Pacific region.

Governmentality theory as a lens showed that emergent, informal governing practices blend with formal governance mechanisms, creating a complex mix of overt and covert power dynamics. The findings suggest that the exercise of covert power by project team members through deviant tactics hinders social value delivery. Therefore, understanding the power dynamics that influence the decision-making of project team members is key for maximising social value delivery.

Originality stems from the use of governmentality theory and critical realism to deconstruct and explain the megaproject decision-making environment, enabling observation of otherwise challenging-to-understand, complex and hidden barriers to the delivery of social value. This paper offers a novel way of explaining social value delivery through megaproject decision-making.

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

Construction organizations' investment in effective talent-development programs is a key strategy in attracting, developing and retaining staff. Such programs are especially important given the current challenges in the construction workforce, including labor shortages, an aging workforce, generational differences in the workforce, supply chain disruptions and the need to effectively train staff in the skills that are essential in a constrained labor environment. To address these challenges, this study proposes a performance measurement strategy that construction companies can use as input to design their talent development programs.

The strategy intends to assess the performance of project managers and develop criteria that define categories of their performance, including the top performers' category. This enables construction organizations to provide each project manager with individualized training that addresses areas of weakness and in turn, develops the skills that correspond with being top performers. The proposed strategy was developed and tested by surveying the immediate supervisors of 187 project managers working for general and specialty contractors in the United States. Principal component analysis was used to develop a single performance construct from seven performance criteria.

This construct was used to organize the project managers into the categories of top, above-average and below-average performers. According to the findings, top-performing project managers have well-rounded skills in the areas of leadership, communication, technical proficiency and overall job knowledge.

The outcomes of this study can help construction organizations focus their talent-development programs on the skills most associated with PMs being top performers.

This study provides construction organizations with a comprehensive performance-measuring construct to focus their talent-development programs on the skills most associated with top-performing project managers. Researchers can use this study as a foundation for further understanding how performance is related to various construction professions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify from the literature the successful R&D management cooperation factors and then examine their relevance to R&D management cooperation efforts between China and Australia.

The case study method is used to encourage a deeper appreciation of the dynamics of R&D management projects. A theoretical framework is constructed based on the literature to highlight factors of successful R&D management, and this framework is then applied to a case study involving the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

The result is a hybrid multi‐dimensional model incorporating cultural and social capital variables. Several critical success factors were found to exist: funding, government support, institutional support, complementary technology and expertise, mutual respect and strong commitment from leadership. One additional critical success factor was the bilingual expertise of facilitators who manage to help bridge the gaps between both intellectual capital (technical expertise) and cultural differences.

The framework of successful R&D cooperation identified in this study can act as a springboard for applying the successful principles in broader cases of R&D management cooperation.

The value of this study lies in the development of a model for successful cross‐cultural application of R&D management cooperation between China, Australia and (by extension) other countries that may foster successful cooperation, build global empathy and create inclusive competitive advantage.