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The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of ideas and practice from Organisation Development to the creation of a leadership development programme, based in a UK Business School. When leadership development is constructed as a personal and relational endeavour, rather than using competences to create identikit heroes, faculty need to draw less on the espoused certainties of “expert” power and adapt their teaching style and language.

This case study of an ongoing Masters programme in health leadership, draws on external evaluation data and action research.

The paper’s prime contribution is as a conceptual stimulus to rethink leadership development programmes based on OD.

The practical implications could be far reaching if business schools want to offer an alternative to perpetuating heroic, individualist models of leadership.

As leaders take charge of their own learning, as much as their leading, faculty become powerful participants and draw on OD skills rather than those of expert knowledge.

The paper thus offers a practical example with evaluation of how leadership development can be redesigned congruent with seeing leadership as a socially constructed, relational, dynamic and context specific.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the widening of attention in healthcare improvement efforts, to include an awareness of the humanity of people who work in the sector and an appreciation of the part human connection plays in engagement around good quality work. Theoretical frameworks and research approaches which draw on action-based, interpretive and systemic thinking are proposed, as a complement to current practices.

The paper describes the early stages of an action research (AR) project, which used the appreciative inquiry “4D” framework to conduct participative inquiry in Hamad Medical Corporation’s ambulance service in Qatar, in which staff became co-researchers.

The co-researchers were highly motivated to work with improvement goals as a result of their participation in the AR. They, and their managers, saw each other and the work in new ways and discovered that they had much to offer.

This was a small-scale pilot project, from which findings must be considered tentative. The challenges of establishing good collaboration across language, culture and organisational divides are considerable.

Appreciative and action-oriented inquiry methods can serve not only to find things out, but also to highlight and give value to aspects of humanity in the workplace that are routinely left invisible in formal processes. This, in turn, can help with quality improvement.

This paper is a challenge to the orthodox way of viewing healthcare organisations, and improvement processes within them, as reliant on control rather than empowerment. An alternative is to actively include the agency, sense-making capacity and humanity of those involved.

Leader-centred teaching has often taken as normal a cyclical pattern of business, which Marques (2014) argues is no longer the appropriate model. The purpose of this paper is to examine the current leadership curriculum paradigm and the case for an alternative pedagogy which better caters for the messy reality – without recurrent patterns or historical certainties – that global organisations and their business leaders currently often have to deal with. In particular, it addresses implications for the “hero” model of leadership.

The empirical findings are elicited through a combination of case studies, qualitative surveys and action research methods which include organisational development which encourages leaders to develop skills and capability to enquire into and work with their own group processes and design. Arts-based methods, such as poetry, music, painting, sculpture or music are offered as a means to help cultivate the leader’s creative potential and reach into those vulnerable places which often remain hidden amongst traditional didactic methods of facilitation.

The empirical findings call for a deconstruction of the hero leader through increasing reflexivity to help leaders understand their own feelings, reactions and motives. It encourages bespoke leadership competencies which can be adapted for individuality. This suggests that contemporary leaders and managers first need to understand what capacities and deficiencies they have as individuals, and second how to build an appropriate mix of skills through understanding and reflecting on their own individual experiences and actions.

The paper introduces an approach to leadership training which takes account of the demand for organisations to serve a social purpose, and the need for effectively leading a workforce where the power of the individual is growing with millennials pushing this and questioning the very premises of corporate behaviour and economic and social principles which guide it. It acknowledges that the demands on leaders are shoulder-buckling at the best of times but proposes that business school teaching on leadership must address the messiness of reality and offer means and ways of thriving in spite of such chaos.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update of the Special Issue's field of research, give the structure of the Special Issue and introduce the papers in the collection, including management issues.

A review of the Call for Papers and further research and a presentation of papers in the Special Issue paying attention to original contribution, research and management recommendations.

This Special Issue is making a solid contribution to the field in not only addressing ageing and the ageing generation, but focusing strongly on the way both the ageing generation and other generations such as Gen Y and Gen X affect organisational dynamics, structure and career management.

Original research brought together in a multi-faceted way outlining the challenges as well as management agendas for the organisation.

The purpose of the study was to explore and articulate how Socratic seminar might be considered more completely as part of justice-focused social studies classroom disciplinary practices.

The authors reviewed the literature on Socratic seminar and developed a model for its practical use. The authors used the model to demonstrate its use in teaching civil rights history, as an example for implementation.

Socratic seminar is an instructional method that layers several disciplinary literacy skills within social studies that have the combined potential to create a transformative dialogue within the classroom and communities, especially when leveraged in more complex multi-text ways. Through the seminars, students can better understand what the authors name horizontal historical analysis, the perspective on concurrent social justice movements and vertical curricular analysis or how social justice movements experience continuity and change over time.

The authors provided an accessible model for teachers and students to use Socratic seminars as part of transformational social studies practices.

The authors demonstrate how the Socratic seminar model can provide students with the intellectual foundation for considering social action as more critically informed civic agents.

The authors examine and offer a model of how Socratic seminar can engage students in vertical and/or horizontal historical analysis for transformational purposes. Further, the authors identify how Socratic seminar can build the skills and dispositions of social studies, provide space for knowledge creation through critical historical inquiry and help reframe how teachers and students understand learning and human relationships by shifting the classroom power and promoting student agency through dialogue.

This paper explores the school leadership career outcomes, timing and educator evaluation of those who complete the Massachusetts Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL) in comparison with others who did not. It also compares outcomes for those with different PAL score completion requirements.

Using PAL assessment results and state employment data for years 2015 through 2019, the authors examined trends and timing in PAL completers' career advancement into an initial school leader position (assistant principal or principal), by assessment cohort (based on assessment year and passing (cut) score requirements) and with who never had to complete the assessment for licensure (non-PAL completers). Using regression analysis, the authors evaluated potential race/ethnicity and gender differences in advancement. Using chi-square tests of association, the authors compared non-PAL and PAL completers on their demographic attributes and on retention and promotion from assistant principal and on their educator evaluation scores. The authors also examined differences in advancement based on the cut score requirements and preparation pathways.

PAL completers made steady career advances over time and at faster rates than non-PAL completers. Further, PAL completers subject to higher cut score requirements advanced more quickly than those with lower or no score requirements. PAL completers' gender and race/ethnicity seemed to matter less in career advancement than was found in other studies. In 2019, almost half who advanced were employed in the same districts as they had been in 2014 and were more likely to be new leaders in urban districts. When compared with other career-related measures, PAL completers outperformed non-PAL completers who first became school leaders since 2014: they were more likely to be rated as exemplary on educator evaluation and more likely to be retained or promoted after two years in their first school leader position.

Until now little research has existed on the career effects of licensure assessments. Because it requires candidates to demonstrate proficiency in core areas of school leadership work, the PAL assessment appears to be a superior means of screening initial school leaders (based on rate of hiring) and of signaling future performance (based on subsequent educator evaluation ratings) than other assessment forms (such as the School Leader Licensure Assessment [SLLA] exam).

This paper aims to investigate the mathematics self-efficacy of students who are non-maths specialists. The project explores the student experience in the context of a maths module with a blended design, comprising both online content and face-to-face teaching. The aim was to reflect on the role of blended learning in this context.

Using a mixed-method analysis, the study uses data gathered via student surveys and discussion forums, as well as module grades, to provide evidence regarding whether the online component of the module enables students to master the required maths skills. The data are examined under four themes that emerged as critical to improving the self-efficacy of students: flexibility, the interactivity of the online platform, the module's blended design and the functionality of the platform.

The findings are that the blended approach increases academic self-efficacy in the area of mathematics, also enhancing the student experience. These benefits arise from the combination of allowing the individual mastery of technical skills in the private and stress-free environment provided by the online platform and access to social resources in the classroom setting.

The paper details the influence of self-efficacy on academic performance and the effectiveness of a blended learning approach, in the area of mathematics. It provides insight into the importance of providing multiple opportunities for students to become autonomous as they develop academic self-confidence through the mastery of maths skills.

The marriage between information and communication technology (ICT) and law has brought forward a significant change in the administration of justice. This paper aims to present the scenario of technology adoption in the court of law with special reference to Malaysia. It also aims to illustrate the intelligent use of technology to advance the pace of the administration of court reflected in w‐Shariah project in Shariah Court systems in Malaysia through various electronic applications, and finally propose an ICT adoption framework based on an information systems (IS) theory.

This research adopts a qualitative case study approach to explore the scenario of information technology (IT) adoption in the court of law in Malaysia through semi‐structured interviews, observation and document reviews. Data gathered provide an understanding of how technology is used in the court workflow as well as the whole life‐cycle management of records in Shariah Court. This case study covers the management of records in Shariah courts of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. It involves personal observations on the whole life‐cycle of court room technology management.

Five e‐Shariah modules were applied in 110 Shariah courts in Malaysia in 102 locations nationwide, using the electronic government network called EG*Net. E‐Shariah applications managed to standardize work environment in Shariah courts and link all the business processes on a single channel. Case clearance rate has risen significantly since then.

This research is limited to the electronic applications in Shariah Court system, the secondary legal system in Malaysia after the Civil Court system. It is suggested that the future research is done to the Civil Court system, to complement the current research; in order to have a complete IS perspective on the overall legal system in Malaysia.

This paper proposed a technology adoption framework for electronic court management, which can be used by the policy makers for the enhancement of justice system. This research provides a foundation for practical technology adoption in courts.

This paper demonstrates how ICT allow for better management of court management within institutionalization theory. It presents various kind of technology adoption in courts, including video conferencing with high‐tech video presenters and monitors, recreation of crime scene, electronic filing system, electronic case management and electronic court records management and systematic information storage and retrieval system. It discusses the three isomorphic pressures (coercive, normative and mimetic) that influence the technology adoption process. A research framework is presented which is expected to benefit the policy makers and judicial practitioners.

Contends that information should be added to the six management functions enunciated by Henri Fayol in 1916. Considers some problems of information: the awareness problem; government neglect of the information function; inadequate indexing; poor administration in libraries; and information overload. Discusses the potential of information technology and pays attention to the difficulties experienced by developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how two kinds of UK-based media positioned investment banking as dirty work during the financial crisis, thereby engaging in moral enterprise (Becker, 1963) and contributing to the shaping of society's normative contours (Cohen, 1972).

The authors employ rhetorical analysis to explore how newspaper editorials and an online blog portray investment banking as tainted between April 2008 and October 2009.

These media sources construct the values and behaviours of investment bankers, rather than the tasks of their occupation, as morally tainted. Through specific rhetorical strategies the authors advance three key arguments: bankers are morally tainted because their wealth is excessive; because their wealth is not earned; and because they are selfish and materialist.

In investigating media designations of investment banking as dirty work, the paper addresses two aspects of dirty work which are underexplored. First, it examines a high-prestige occupation and second, investigates the construction and attribution of taint to a previously untainted occupation. It makes two methodological contributions to the literature: contributing to the nascent interest in the media's construction of dirty work (e.g. Grandy and Mavin, 2012); and using rhetorical analysis to study the construction of taint.