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Aims to extend internal labour market theory by identifying sub‐markets that influence administrative staffing decisions, and to test a theoretical model regarding the role of sub‐markets in explaining decisions to hire or promote. Hypothesizes that two latent dimensions (hierarchical and functional) of labour markets would explain these decisions. Analyses data from personnel records for position vacancies in a major university for three years 1982‐85 (n = 840), and confirms the fit of the theoretical model. Staffing decisions are directly influenced by characteristics associated with the sub‐markets of the position.

The purpose of this paper is to provide concepts and strategies to successfully introduce and implement curricular change; especially, related to incorporating diversity management into academic programs.

Utilizing documents and accounts from two agents involved in the change process and an outside observer, an inductive‐deductive approach is applied employing concepts of exploration and exploitation from the organizational innovation literature in order to describe a 12‐month process and the resultant curriculum at a major European university.

The paper demonstrates the importance of external conditions, organizational structures and their relationship to strategies that balance exploration and exploitation to graft a new academic concentration to existing academic programs.

The paper offers concepts, strategies, and lessons to assist colleges and universities to assess the internal and external organizational environment and the availability of resources and to plan approaches to successfully introduce and develop curricular change around sensitive topics such as diversity, gender, equality.

This paper is the first to apply George March's work on organizational exploration and exploitation to curricular change. It offers valuable information for those seeking to create a more inclusive curriculum.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if the existence of equal opportunity legislative frameworks and affirmative action programs make any difference to the way senior managers perceive the role of top university managers in influencing women's position in their institutions. A comparative study was therefore undertaken between a country with traditions in implementing AA in universities – Australia – and another which has no tradition in this domain – Portugal.

A qualitative methodology was chosen to collect and analyse data. A total of 44 interviews with male and female university senior managers – 21 in Australia and 23 in Portugal – were conducted by the principal researcher in each country.

When describing the role of top managers, gender equality was not often mentioned, suggesting that it may not be a topic on the current institutional political agenda either in Australia or in Portugal. When specifically asked about gender, respondents considered that Rectors and VCs in the two countries took opposite positions with Australian VCs being more aware of their role in improving gender equality. The study therefore concluded that the existence of equal opportunities frameworks and AA policies may have an influence in increasing top managers’ awareness of their roles in improving women's representation in management teams.

The research was restricted to public universities. In Portugal the system is more diverse and comparing HE with private and polytechnic institutions could provide important insights about senior managers’ roles in relation to improving women's position in HE. More in‐depth qualitative studies are needed, to obtain top managers’ perceptions of the variables that impact on their views and attitudes to women in senior management.

This study provides new and innovative contributions to knowledge about the perceptions of senior managers of their top managers and their roles in eliminating gender discrimination and the influence of affirmative action in HE in these perceptions.

This paper contributes to the discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of using affirmative action programmes by analyzing a dimension which has not been explored – its impact on senior managers’ perceptions of their role in promoting gender equality in HEIs.