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HR and people management have become increasingly important in the current economic climate. This paper examines how these key issues are approached.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the article in context

The study confirmed that well‐managed talent is crucial for success in the highly competitive global drugs market.

Assessing leadership potential, retaining talent and evaluating the cost of recruiting senior executives were all identified as key issues for today's life sciences executives.

The purpose of this paper is to use new research in the life‐sciences sector to explain how the active management of high‐potential individuals and leadership development will be the key to success.

It draws on research conducted among 203 senior executives and HR directors working in the global life‐sciences industry. Some 70 per cent of respondents are either chief executives or senior members of their organization's leadership team.

The paper reveals that more than 90 per cent of interviewees identified talent management as a key priority, but 72 per cent of their organizations are failing to deliver this in practice, operating without an active strategy in place.

The paper highlights a trend, over the past three years, for talent management to be less well planned and more ad hoc, mainly because of the continuing impact of market change and the double‐dip recession.

It argues that the current economic conditions are ideal for organizations to execute effective talent‐management strategies, as most organizations are looking to optimize the performance of existing talent, generate efficiencies and reduce costs.

This paper advances the view that companies most able to attract, retain and develop top talent will be the most likely to achieve success.

The purpose of this paper is to present the main findings and recommendations from a study into women on boards in the life‐sciences industry.

The paper focuses on such questions as: Does the gender imbalance mirror UK plc and if so, what can be done to improve conditions? Is the life‐sciences industry a more favorable place for women to progress to the most senior positions and do senior managers believe more balanced boards bring a competitive edge?

The paper highlights three major barriers to change: the different work‐life choices facing women; the dominant male culture of the boardroom; and the number of qualified female executives in functions represented on the board.

The paper urges the need to: promote a more empathic business culture and working environment; undertake appropriate and sustained learning and development; and coach female candidates to succeed in the boardroom.

The paper highlights the benefits to society as a whole, as well as to organizations and individual women, of having more females on boards of directors.

The paper argues that executive searchers should: always look for female candidates and ensure that they are brought into the process; scout harder for female talent; and promote the benefits of a mixed board and mentor the business around getting the best mix for their organization.

The purpose of this paper is to trace debates between state and federal governments, and community stakeholders, leading to the establishment and abolition of the first attempt at a university for Western Sydney, established as Chifley University Interim Council.

The historical analysis draws from published papers, oral history accounts, and original documents in archives of the University of Sydney and the University of Western Sydney.

Higher education reform in the 1980s in Australia was fought out as an extension of broader issues such as “States rights”, the rising political power of peri‐urban regions, long‐standing tensions between state and Commonwealth bureaucracies, and the vested interests of existing tertiary education and community groups.

This is the only existing study of attempts to found Chifley University, and one of the few available studies which take a social and contextual approach to understanding the critical reforms of the 1980s leading up to the Dawkins Reforms of 1988‐1990.

Being the most powerful creatures on the planet, we humans should carefully consider our beliefs for the simple reason that the way in which we think influences our behaviors; this in turn can either transform the world or negatively affect the world. Our mores, paradigms, and worldviews translate into behaviors (e.g., factory farming for meat production and consumption) that in turn modify the environment. In general, much of our thinking system is backed up by some concept, theory, paradigm, or ideology. Our thinking systems generate our belief systems of goals and mission statements; our belief systems, in turn, determine our behavior systems (e.g., our strategies, choices, commissions, omissions as implementation systems); our behavior systems determine our impact systems (e.g., impact on us, our families and neighborhoods, our cities and villages, our state and our country, our globe and sometimes our cosmos). Thus, our behavior systems eventually impact our thinking systems, which we started with, thus completing a circular or spiral loop. This chapter examines the thinking–beliefs–behaviors–impact loop, exploring its internal and external dynamics and validities. Specifically, in Part I, we examine the structure of our belief systems in business; in Part II, we explore the power of our structured belief systems in business; in Part III, we apply critical thinking that systematically questions and seeks to redesign our presumed thinking and belief systems.

This paper reviews literature on interim leadership and management through the lens of effective interim performance. The purpose of this review is to advance understanding of interim assignment performance and the antecedent individual psychological characteristics of effective interim leaders and managers, to improve the practice of managing interim leaders from a human resources (HR) perspective.

The paper reports a targeted review of the literature on interim leadership and management.

The main proposition from this review is that the influence of individual factors on interim performance operates within the stages and contexts of assignments. Accordingly, the authors propose a framework of the demands on interim assignments (the interim assignment cycle), comprising stages of preparation, entry, delivery and exit. The paper subsequently reviews evidence of the potential individual characteristics (focussing on individual differences in personality, leadership approach, motivation and competencies) of effective preparation and entry to an assignment, actions and performance during an assignment and exit/disengagement.

The findings of the review have implications for the selection and placement of interims into organizations and their management once appointed.

The main original contribution of the paper is to provide a framework around which interim assignments can be modelled and better understood. The paper discusses implications for future research, theory and human resource management practice and calls for a renewed research effort in this critical area of management and leadership.

Research in care homes requires the co-operation of care home managers. Noting the challenges faced by the care home sector, the purpose of this paper is to consider ways in which research studies can encourage care home managers and their homes to participate in research.

The discussion is informed by two research projects which are used to explore methods of encouraging managers of care homes to participate in research. One of the studies included interviews with care home managers to understand their reasons for taking part in research.

This paper outlines and assesses three strategies for encouraging care home managers to participate in research: working in partnership, providing payment and providing personalised feedback on findings. Whereas all the strategies have the potential to encourage care home managers’ participation in research, partnership working in particular was found to be fraught with difficulties.

This paper suggests that the research projects could employ any of these strategies to encourage managers of care homes to participate in research. It also suggests that proactive measures could help ameliorate the pitfalls of partnership working.

This paper shows the advantages and disadvantages of using a combination of strategies for encouraging the participation of care home managers in research.

This study aims to measure the association between local retail grocery provision and private residential rental prices in England. Renting is an important sector of the housing market in England and local grocery provision is an important aspect of service provision and consumers are known to be highly sensitive to the branding of this type of retailing.

This research uses a novel data source from a property rental Web platform to estimate a hedonic model for the rental market. These models incorporate information on the nature of the properties and their neighbourhoods, with an emphasis on how different retail brands are associated with rental prices. This retail brand is captured on two scales: the provision of local branded convenience stores and the provision of larger stores.

The study finds clear differentials in how the local grocery brand is associated with rental prices. When controlling for commonly explored confounding factors, “Luxury” retailers such as Waitrose and Marks and Spencer are associated with higher rental prices, while “Discounter” retailers are associated with lower rental prices. This finding has many implications, particularly in relation to potential price changes in an already challenging housing market for many people.

This is an observational study and as such only associations (not causation) can be implied by these findings.

The focus of this research is on the private residential property market, an important market in England but one that has enjoyed less scrutiny than the sales or socially rented markets. Rather than using general accessibility to retail, this research has differentiated the association by the retail brand and store size, two very important aspects of consumer choice.