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The use of management consultants is an accepted fact in management practice — in all management functions and in all sectors of the economy. Indeed, a great deal of money is spent in the UK on management consultancy each year. Wood estimates that, in 1982, around £170 million was spent on management consultancy. Assignments carried out within the area of personnel management alone accounted for some 15–20 per cent of this total. Yet, the presence of management consultants within organisations is often overlooked. There is scant mention of consultants in the huge array of prescriptive and descriptive literature on management. (One exception within the realms of personnel management is Purcell.) This absence is both interesting and curious. It is curious because so many organisations — both public and private, large and small — use consultants in some form or another. The use of consultants ought, therefore, to be an accepted fact of life in the management of organisations and by those writing about management.

Globally, over 95% of fire related deaths and injuries occur in low- and middle-income countries. Within informal settlements, the risk of fire resulting in injury or death is particularly high. This paper examines fire risks in informal settlements in New Delhi and Cape Town, and tented informal settlements in Lebanon.

Our analysis draws on primary sources, secondary literature, statistical data and qualitative interviews.

The distribution of fire risk across urban societies is a fundamentally political issue. Residential fire risk can be tackled by accessible, affordable, safety-compliant housing. That said, important interim measures can be taken to mitigate fire risk. Some of the risks requiring attention are similar across our case studies, driven by high population densities; flammable housing materials; unreliable or inaccessible access to safe power sources; and – in the case of Cape Town and New Delhi particularly – the inability of fire services to reach sites of fire. However, these common risks are embedded in distinct social, economic and political contexts that must be placed at the center of any intervention. Interventions must also be aware that the risk of fire is not spread evenly within informal settlements, intersecting as it does with factors like gender, age, health and disability.

Informal settlement fires have been under-studied to date. The studies that do exist tend to operate within disciplinary silos. This paper represents an important interdisciplinary approach to fire within informal settlements, which grounds technical data, modeling and experiments in political, social and economic realities.

Computers and computer‐assisted instruction are being used with increasing frequency in the area of health science student education, yet students’ attitudes towards the use of e‐learning technology and computer‐assisted instruction have received limited attention to date. The purpose of this study was to investigate the significant predictors of health science students’ attitudes towards e‐learning and computer‐assisted instruction. All students enrolled in health science programmes (n=2885) at a large multi‐campus Australian university in 2006‐2007, were asked to complete a questionnaire. This included the Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES), the Computer Attitude Survey (CAS), and the Attitude Toward Computer‐Assisted Instruction Semantic Differential Scale (ATCAISDS). A multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the significant predictors of health science students’ attitudes to e‐learning. The Attitude Toward Computers in General (CASg) and the Attitude Toward Computers in Education (CASe) subscales from the CAS were the dependent (criterion) variables for the regression analysis. A total of 822 usable questionnaires were returned, accounting for a 29.5 per cent response rate. Three significant predictors of CASg and five significant predictors of CASe were found. Respondents’ age and OLES Equity were found to be predictors on both CAS scales. Health science educators need to take the age of students and the extent to which students perceive that they are treated equally by a teacher/tutor/instructor (equity) into consideration when looking at determinants of students’ attitudes towards e‐learning and technology.

Describes the efforts of the owner/directors of a private limited company to put into place a succession strategy. Considers three major themes: second generation entrepreneurs/management succession; action learning as a human resource development strategy and philosophy; and the learning organization. Concludes that people (and organizations) “learn” best from the priorities of the business, once they have been identified, and that organizational learning is really based on institutionalization of what has been learned – requisite learning.

At Shepparton in the Murray electorate of Victoria in 2007, the Federal Liberal Member, Sharman Stone, announced that under a returned Coalition Government, Shepparton ‘would get a stand‐alone technical college’. One year earlier, the Victorian Minister for Education, Lynn Kosky claimed that ‘We lost something when technical schools [the ‘techs’] were closed previously. Yes, the facilities were not great but we lost something that was important to young people’. This article explores the development and demise of ‘South Tech’, Shepparton South Technical School, 1966‐86 to identify the ‘something’ that Kosky claimed was lost, and to argue that technical education is essential in a reconstituted system.

This paper aims to examine coping approaches used by receivers to deal with failed gift experiences, thereby dealing with misperceptions between givers and receivers that could affect their relationship.

This study uses a sequential, multimethod methodology using background questionnaires, online diary method and 27 semi-structured interviews.

Receivers cope with failed gift experiences through concealing, disclosing or re-evaluating the gift experience. These approaches encompass several coping strategies, allowing receivers to deal with their experiences in ways that help them manage their relationships with givers.

Informants described gift experiences in their own terms without being prompted to talk about coping, thus some insights of coping with failed gifts may have been missed. Multiple data collection methods were used to minimise this limitation, and the research findings suggest new avenues for future research.

The present research helps retailers and brands to minimise gift failure by promoting gifts that emphasise aspects of the giver–receiver relationship, assists givers in their learning from gift failure by making them aware of the receiver’s preferences and reduces the cost of gift failure by offering further opportunities to dispose of unwanted gifts.

This paper contributes to the emerging topic of consumer coping by providing a novel and rounded understanding of coping in the context of failed gift events, identifying new reasons for gift failure, highlighting receivers’ ethical considerations when responding to failed gifts and proposing new insights for the coping literature.

The aim of this paper is to examine the provision of education and training programmes for young people in Scotland for work and lifelong learning within the context of the skills ecosystem approach adopted by the Scottish Government.

The research drew upon findings from a large EU-funded multi-country project which ran from 2016 to 2019 that comprised experiences and perspectives with young people who were affected by these programmes as well as the managers and practitioners tasked with delivering them. The work was conducted in Aberdeenshire and Glasgow and included in-depth interviews with young people and programme managers and practitioners.

The research showed that there is a gap between the rhetoric of the intentions of the policies and how those involved at ground level experience the programmes enacted under policies which draw on a skill ecosystem approach. Whilst there was public funding for training, it was not clear from the enactment of the relevant policies where employers' responsibilities lie. Locating the findings in the skills ecosystem model highlights the weak engagement of employers in their pivotal role in the education and training system and the resulting increased precarity of the young people's futures.

The paper sheds light on the shape of education and training provision in Scotland, the range of participants engaged in the provision and the commitment of providers in comparison to policy language and intentions.

Through the skill ecosystem approach, this paper draws together policy narratives and the experiences of young people.

The purpose of this paper is to outline and reflect on the new research agenda for the Great Zimbabwe World Heritage property. This research agenda was jointly developed by academics and practitioners from Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) and the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) respectively. This Research-Practice Team was put together for the Heritage Place Lab (HPL), a pilot project of the ICCROM-IUCN World Heritage Leadership programme.

A series of steps were undertaken to come up with research priorities and a new research agenda that are presented in this paper. The HPL project involved online workshops, due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions, that were held between September 2021 and April 2022. The HPL methodology involved six assignments that were based on the Enhancing Our Heritage Toolkit 2.0 (EOH) which was being designed by UNESCO and its Advisory Bodies. This toolkit encouraged the team to establish site-specific management issues and research needs. The toolkit helped the team to have a detailed appreciation of the site's Outstanding Universal Value as well as other heritage values of national and local importance. The toolkit also involved the mapping of site attributes and multiple actors as well as the analysis of governance and legal frameworks. The toolkit also required the team to identify factors affecting the heritage property.

The Research-Practice Team highlighted challenges that resulted from the legacy of ill-informed research activities and conservation efforts at the World Heritage property. It became more apparent that the site managers were prioritizing the physical fabric of the site at the expense of the spiritual aspects. Lack of coordination among the actors was also undermining the governance structure. Four thematic strands which included local values and intangible cultural heritage elements; heritage governance; climate change and environmental sustainability and incorporation of local knowledge systems were identified for further research.

The paper is an outcome of collaborative efforts that were done by academics and practitioners. Researchers and site managers at Great Zimbabwe had hitherto worked in silos. The majority of previous and ongoing research on the World Heritage property falls short of addressing the dire management challenges. The paper is an attempt to broaden the scope in terms of the management of the site. In the past focus has been on the monumental aspects of the site with specific reference to the dry-stone walled structures. However, in this instance, the Research-Practice Team has integrated new interests such as the intangible aspects of Great Zimbabwe, spirituality and community beneficiation.