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Recent literature on management underscores how new people‐centred management policies help to deal with new uncertainties. This article reviews recent findings which advocate wider support for post‐bureaucratic entrepreneurial management environments, focusing on respect for the dignity of individuals and for proactively developing individual skills and self esteem. A new moral contract among employees and their organization is shown to be essential for fundamental change, which can be fostered in an organization where there is a genuine belief in the ability of the individual, rather than in the organization per se. New relationships based on strong emotional commitments can release enormous entrepreneurial potential. Older bureaucratic styles of management exerting excessive control over individuals cannot cope with the increasing pace of unpredictable and ever‐changing demands. Psychological pacts between management and frontline staff, founded on trust and intra‐organizational relationships, result in greater organizational commitment from all staff.

The focus of this paper is on the senior female international managerial career move in Europe. The study assesses an exclusively senior sample of 50 female managers who have made at least one international career move. It has taken as its starting point the unique perspectives and experiences of these senior female international managers. From their different perspectives and experiences, different assumptions about women in international management and female life‐style choices are arrived at. This study of senior females in international management makes a theoretical contribution to the analysis of gender and international human resource management, and to wider debates within the contemporary women in management and career theory literatures. The aims of the study were to develop an understanding of the senior female international career move in a European context in order to more fully understand both the covert and overt barriers that may limit women’s international career opportunities.

Aims to explore the topic of leadership as perceived and practised by public library leaders. Library leaders have a wide‐ranging impact on society but have been largely overlooked as the subject of serious study. The current study seeks to investigate the perspectives of public library leaders beyond national boundaries in order to develop an understanding of the perceptions of current leaders in the field of public librarianship.

A total of 30 senior public library leaders were selected for in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews in three national jurisdictions – Ireland, the UK, and the USA.

The study of the perceptions of senior public library leaders, across national boundaries, makes a theoretical contribution not just to leadership in librarianship, but also to the broader literature on organizational leadership. Nine main thematic areas emerged from the findings. One of these themes, the centrality of leadership to librarianship, is the particular focus of this paper.

The findings support the centrality of leadership for optimal strategic and operational practices in the field of public librarianship. The challenge for the public library sector is to identify and consider the leadership skills and personal attributes that are essential to success.

Presents a representative sample of insights, reflections and assessments from participating public library leaders regarding the centrality of leadership to librarianship.

Previous research has estimated that only 3 percent of international managers are women. From the limited extant research in international human resource management in Europe it is evident that female managers are not progressing to senior management positions at comparable rates to their male counterparts. This paper highlights the additional challenges (or barriers) that female managers are faced with in their career progression to international managerial positions. Based on extensive empirical research, the paper illustrates the barriers which the interviewees believe limit women’s international career opportunities. The paper also outlines the implications these barriers have for international human resource management in practice and makes some recommendations for future international human resource management policies.

The purpose of the paper is to introduce the special issue that brings together six papers exploring aspects of person‐organization fit.

This overarching paper contextualizes the theme and introduces the selected papers.

The findings in this paper vary according to the core theme of each of the six contributions.

Combined the papers explore new avenues of enquiry in the person‐organization (P‐O) fit domain and showcase international theoretical and empirical work on the P‐O fit construct.