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Describes the process of change at Birmingham City Council to cope with new legislation including compulsory competitive tendering. Achieving the strategic objectives of the City Council needed key elements of education, training and development for all employees and Members. Describes the design and development of the training programmes and considers the client/consultant relationship. Concludes that a key lesson is of the joint involvement in developing not only participant skills and knowledge but the training skills of the client.

Discusses one Council′s introduction of an innovative compulsory competitive tendering scheme. Goes on to show that with self‐assessment exercises, in addition to reorganization of all the various members′ departments, even the biggest local authority can make major improvements in its managerial training and operational arrangements. Explains the various personnel training methods and looks at the training programme′s design and development which involved KPMG Peat Marwick and the Birmingham City Council, which has one million customers under its umbrella. Shows how both parties can gain from the client/consultant relationship and concludes that the 200 managers who have been through the programmes have rated highly the experience, which involved new ideas and methods.

Efforts to create a scientific base for the health‐promoting school approach have so far not articulated a clear “Science of Delivery”. There is thus a need for systematic identification of clearly operationalised implementation components. To address a next step in the refinement of the health‐promoting schools' work, this paper sets out to delineate implementation components of health‐promoting schools and to identify their mechanisms.

The implementation components were identified through a narrative synthesis of documents describing implementation of health‐promoting school approaches. Studies were included if they were published between 1995 and June 2010 and could be identified in publicly accessible peer‐reviewed articles and grey literature, published in English. Eight sources were extracted, representing reports from all continents with the exception of Africa.

Eight components were identified: preparing and planning for school development; policy and institutional anchoring; professional development and learning; leadership and management practices; relational and organisational support context; student participation; partnerships and networking; and sustainability.

The components provide a practical tool/guide for schools to use in the implementation of health‐promoting schools. In a parallel paper theoretically and empirically based practice guidelines for the actual implementation of the components are articulated (“Filling the black box of implementation for health‐promoting schools”, this issue).

The identification of specified theory‐driven implementation components for health‐promoting schools aims will help practitioners to understand the function of each component, so they can execute them with fidelity and thus contribute to rigorous implementation of the health‐promoting school initiative.

This qualitative exploratory study focuses on the leadership experiences of college men who held leadership roles in campus organizations. The researchers examined the students’ experiences of leading their organizations and group members and the students’ perceptions of gender roles influencing their leadership practice. Four male participants at a medium-sized, religiously-affiliated university engaged in in-depth interviews and a focus group with the researchers, who used a blend of qualitative approaches to conduct the study and analyze the data. Key themes emerged around a balance between task and relationship-building; the distinction between power and influence; a desire to do better; understanding leadership as generative; and resisting the masculine/feminine leadership dichotomies. Implications are presented for professional practice and research.

When making going concern assessments, Statement on Auditing Standards No. 59 (Auditing Standards Board 1988) directs auditors to consider the nature of management's plans and ability to mitigate periods of financial distress successfully. Corporate governance factors reflect attributes of control, oversight, and/or support of management's plans and actions intended to overcome financial distress. Correspondingly, this study investigates the impact of certain corporate governance factors on the likelihood of a going concern modification. Using survival analysis techniques, we examine a sample of 161 financially distressed firms for the time period 1988–1996. We find that auditors are twice as likely to issue a going concern modification when the CEO is replaced. We also find that going concern modifications are inversely associated with blockholder ownership. We also confirm Carcello and Neal's (2000) findings with respect to the association between an independent audit committee and an increased likelihood of modification. In a repeated events setting, we find that insider ownership and board independence are inversely associated with repeated going concern modifications. Our study concludes by proposing implications for the current financial reporting environment (including the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002) and future research avenues.

This research examined the relationships among a number of outcomes of mediation. The sample consisted of 73 hearings at two dispute settlement centers in New York State. Predictions from goal achievement theory were contrasted with predictions from procedural justice theory. In accordance with goal achievement theory, disputants who attained their goals in the agreement indicated immediate satisfaction with that agreement and with the conduct of the hearing. However, goal achievement was unrelated to long‐run success or long‐run satisfaction with the agreement, a result which may apply primarily to the mediation of interpersonal disputes. The predictions from procedural justice theory were more successful. Disputants who perceived that the underlying problems had been aired, that the mediator had understood what they said and that they had received a fair hearing also showed immediate satisfaction with the agreement and with the conduct of the hearing. In addition, these and related perceptions—especially in the eyes of the respondent—were predictive of several aspects of long‐run success.

The study describes the implementation of a novel strategy, entitled the Action Learning Set Facilitation Model, to develop internal facilitation capability to lead change. The Model incorporated the Novice-Experienced-Expert pathway, a facilitation development approach underpinning the integrated-Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services Implementation Framework, with action learning methodology.

A mixed-methods descriptive approach reports the results of 22 interviews, 182 Action Learning Sets and 159 post program survey data sets to explore facilitator experiences, strengths and potential application of the Model.

At program completion, five novice (of 174) and one experienced (of 27) facilitator transitioned to the next facilitation level. The three groups of facilitators described positive change in confidence and facilitation skill, and experience of action learning sets. Inconsistencies between self-report competence and observed practice amongst novices was reported. Novices had decreasing exposure to the Model due to factors related to ongoing organisational change. Internal facilitators were considered trusted and credible facilitators.

There are practical and resource implications in investing in internal facilitation capability, noting proposed and real benefits of similar development programs may be compromised during, or as a consequence of organisational change. Further research describing application of the facilitation model, strategies to enhance multisystemic support for programs and evaluation support are suggested.

The Action Learning Set Facilitation Model offers promise in developing internal facilitation capability supporting change in organisations. Critical success factors include building broad scale internal capability, stable leadership and longitudinal support to embed practice.

This is the first application of the facilitation component of the integrated-Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services implementation framework embedded to action learning sets as an implementation science strategy for leader development supporting organisational change.

School principals have difficulty embracing the competing demands of school restructuring. These demands include being accountable for the outcomes of other decision‐making groups within, or external to, the school community; having strong views while making decisions collaboratively; and using group processes without wasting the time, commitment, motivation and goodwill of those involved. The three sets of tensions were named the accountability, autonomy, and efficiency dilemmas, respectively. This paper outlines the development of an instrument to determine the saliency of particular domains of decision making in which these dilemmas are experienced by school principals. The instrument was trialled in Australia and New Zealand using Rasch analysis to check the fit of items. The instrument is currently being applied in The Netherlands, Australia and Taiwan, with other countries to follow.

A low cost two dimensional pyroelectric array technology has been developed, together with advanced signal processing algorithms. This enables the availability of intelligent passive infrared detector systems for surveillance, counting, and related applications. The technology has also made possible for the first time a truly affordable low‐resolution thermal imager for condition monitoring, plant maintenance, and process control.

The purpose of this paper is to test the potential of an innovative technology-mediated mental training protocol for the empowerment of stress management and neurocognitive efficiency in highly stressful professional contexts, with people who occupy top management positions. The innovative protocol specifically combines mindfulness practice and a wearable neurofeedback system managed via smartphone.

The longitudinal research included pre- and post-training assessment steps in order to test training effects with respect to subjective level and physiological markers of stress, anxiety and mood profiles, cognitive abilities and markers of neurocognitive efficiency.

Results showed decreased stress, anxiety, anger and mental fatigue; increased participants’ information-processing efficiency; increased electrophysiological markers concerning the balance and reactivity of the mind-brain system; and improved physiological markers of vagal tone.

Though further investigation and replication with larger samples would strengthen present findings, the authors suggest that observed outcomes, together with the limited duration of the overall protocol and of daily practices, make the training a potentially valuable tool especially for people whose professional position imposes time limitations and elevated job duties, thus increasing the risk of drop-out from traditional stress management programs.

The combination of mindfulness-based mental training with the advantages offered by a novel brain-sensing wearable technology allows for overcoming the weak points of traditional approaches (e.g. notable time expense) and optimizing training opportunities and outcomes. Furthermore, this is, to the authors’ best knowledge, the first systematic report of the application of such methodology in an organization and with top management professionals.