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This paper uses a developmental perspective to characterise quality initiatives in the higher education systems of four countries: Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and North America. Each country demonstrates variety in its practices, as well as consistent patterns of environment, policy and institutional response. Survey data support a continuum of quality evolution from a low quality, low organisational learning environment toward organisational learning capabilities. The three stages of learning proposed by both Senge and McKay and Kember are also reflected in the study’s findings. Drawing on these findings, implications for managers are outlined focusing on areas of key organisational transformation such as leadership, culture and infrastructure.

Library automation has both tested the educational preparation of librarians and created new educational demands. Four major consultants—James E. Rush, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Wilson M. Stahl, and Rob McGee—discuss the competencies currently required of professional librarians, consider the extent to which new graduates and working librarians possess these qualifications, and identify methods by which organizations and individuals can realize the goal of professional competence. In addition to addressing formal educational programs, the consultants place a great deal of emphasis on continuing education. Continuing education must become a job requirement; library managers must be responsible for creating, encouraging, and supporting such opportunities for individuals and the total organization.

A qualitative, feminist, case study methodology was used to research the feminist leadership of three women principals of coeducational secondary schools. Information was collected by interviewing and observing the three feminist principals, interviewing 24 staff, and collecting documents. Research indicated that being student focused was central to the practice of feminist educational leaders. This thesis explored how they were able to remain student focused in a New Zealand, neo‐liberal, education context with increased financial, accountability and marketing responsibilities. By resisting and appropriating the opportunities and demands created by the reforms, the feminist principals were, to some extent, able to resist the pressure to be less student focused. However, in doing so they worked very long hours. Their personal value systems and the school context were also important influences on their practice. There were both commonalities and diversity among the women’s leadership.

Studies various approaches used in total quality management (TQM) implementation in four mid to large service organizations in New Zealand. The research was conducted through a qualitative field study, using in‐depth interviews of in‐house trainers and internal and external quality consultants, as well as structured questionnaire responses from employees within the service organizations. Finds the existence of certain unique New Zealand workplace variables that influence the effectiveness of TQM implementation when foreign‐based implementation literature is followed. The extent to which Deming’s philosophies and principles are practised in New Zealand is decreasing as more prescriptive and contemporary approaches to TQM implementation have become available. In practice, the role of training is not the main tool for implementation in the organizations studied, however, it does have a key role to play. Finds that experiential applied learning methods are predominant in New Zealand TQM implementations, as opposed to the traditional classroom‐style training.

This study aims to demonstrate the interaction of the regulatory environment and market forces with rapid technological change in the transformation of SOEs, as exemplified by Telecom NZ.

This case study analysis explicates resource dependency and institutional forces in the process of SOE privatisation, in the first ten years of transformation, through textual analysis of data collected from company annual reports and interviews.

It is demonstrated that resource dependencies on technology and capital, market forces, and the institutionalization of new structures and relationships, are as important as regulatory changes in the analysis of SOE restructuring. It is also documented that the regulatory transitions are not as clear‐cut as the legislative dates and economic analyses suggest.

The research focuses on a single exemplar to explicate key interactions. While generalizable to theory, the use of in‐depth case studies is context‐specific.

Both technology and market forces must be incorporated in models of public sector transformations to fully capture resource dependence and institutional effects.

The value of the paper to academics is its integration and application of institutional theory and resource dependence theory to issues that have previously been explored primarily through economic lens. Methodologically, this paper provides an original insight into organisational change. The content analysis of annual reports, supported by interview records, reflects the importance of certain themes in organisational documents for organisational actors. To practitioners, this presents an in‐depth “portrait” of one of the largest and most successful public sector transformations of its era.

This research aims to investigate the efficacy of family involvement in shift work training targeting both physiological and social coping strategies.

The study utilized repeated surveys of work‐family conflict (WFC) and family‐work conflict (FWC) in a naturally occurring field experiment. Three small process manufacturing sites introduced training for shift workers, with or without family involvement, and with or without training on managing relational aspects of shift‐work.

The inclusion of social coping strategies combined with family involvement significantly reduced work‐family conflict. Open response categories on the survey suggest that these reductions were due to the facilitation of a joint problem solving approach by family members. In contrast, employee focused training on physiological coping alone appears to increase family conflicts.

As a field study, this paper cannot control for the particularities of family situations. It should also be noted that the participants were all male, and results may have differed for female shift workers given differing family and work expectations.

For employers and OSH officers, this research suggests that broader spectrum training may assist shift workers in managing the requirements and impact of unsociable hours of work. For the shift worker, the research reinforces the importance of family support and family involvement in moderating shift work's potentially negative effects.

This is the first study to assess the impact of family involvement in training and development‐based interventions. This paper provides a unique perspective on shift work interventions by documenting both content and process effects for shift work support.

Most research in managerial effectiveness, or competence, focuses upon personal attributes of the individual. This understates the impact of context, which can assist or hinder job performance. A national (New Zealand) survey assessed the impact of 16 environmental variables, four management development variables and two variables reflecting personal skills and abilities, on the ability to be effective as a manager. Analysis revealed eight factors explaining the majority of perceived management effectiveness. The results suggest that support in a variety of forms is a key influence on the ability to be effective as a manager, with particular emphasis on the role of supervisors and subordinates, as well as organisational culture. Organisational level and organisational size interacted with contextual factors. The overall results suggest that, like other employees, managers are more likely to see both their success and hindrances as a function of their environment.

Examines the power‐related properties of professional and organizational systems and considers their influence on reactions to sexual harassment. It is argued that, when the socio‐cultural power model of male dominance operates within pluralistic/political professional and organizational systems, these systems can become breeding‐grounds for sexual harassment behaviours that are tolerated rather than told on. A contrast between careers within systems and less systems bound jobs illustrates the influence of context on decisions to tell or tolerate.

Complexity science may be described as a feminine science because it demands holistic thinking, something that women are generally better at than men. A total of 50 women leaders in the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK were interviewed, women who displayed what is called “third possibility leadership”, that is they were able to hold masculine and feminine values and behaviors in dynamic balance. Finds that they displayed characteristics in common: they were “paradoxical”, they gathered people together, they were “wholistic” thinkers, and they displayed well‐developed “relational intelligence”. Although they were effective leaders, their style of leadership was often invisible, and even demeaned, for socio‐cultural reasons.

In this study, the process and effects of integrating an innovative technology were examined in one U.S. history teacher’s classroom. Specifically, the impact on the teacher and the students from using digital timelines to understand history are presented. Recommendations from this study include: (a) the importance of examining and including a variety of documents to present multiple perspectives and to portray different voices in a digital timeline, (b) the need for the teacher to articulate and describe the how and the why of the digital timeline assignments as it relates to understanding historical content knowledge, and (c) the need for students to think critically about the dates, events, and figures included in their timelines.