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This paper describes the ways in which the next decade will be different from the last. Times are becoming more and more turbulent and a new kind of organisation is needed to survive and thrive in these times ‐ what we call a purposeful self‐renewing organisation (PS‐RO). This, in turn, requires a different style of organisational leadership ‐ leadership as a quality that is dispersed across the organisation not confined solely to the cadre of senior managers listed on an organisational chart.

This chapter complements the one that appeared as “History of the AIB Fellows: 1975–2008” in Volume 14 of this series (International Business Scholarship: AIB Fellows on the First 50 Years and Beyond, Jean J. Boddewyn, Editor). It traces what happened under the deanship of Alan Rugman (2011–2014) who took many initiatives reported here while his death in July 2014 generated trenchant, funny, and loving comments from more than half of the AIB Fellows. The lives and contributions of many other major international business scholars who passed away from 2008 to 2014 are also evoked here: Endel Kolde, Lee Nehrt, Howard Perlmutter, Stefan Robock, John Ryans, Vern Terpstra, and Daniel Van Den Bulcke.

‘Countrymindedness’ is a resonant but perhaps manufactured term, given wide currency in a 1985 article by political scientist and historian Don Aitkin in the Annual, Australian Cultural History. Political ideology was his focus, as he charted the rise and fall ‐ from the late nineteenth century to around the 1970s ‐ of some ideological preconceptions of the Australian Country Party. These were physiocratic, populist, and decentralist ‐ physiocratic meaning, broadly, the rural way is best. Aitkin claimed the word was used in Country Party circles in the 1920s and 1930s, but gave no examples. Since the word is in no dictionary of Australian usage, or the Oxford Dictionary, coinage may be more recent. No matter. Countrymindedness is a richly evocative word, useful in analysing rural populism during the last Australian century. I suggest it can usefully be extended to analyzing aspects of the inner history of Euro‐settlement in recent centuries.

There is no exaggeration in the claim that abstract-deductive political economy in pre-Tractarian Oxford was driven by Richard Whately and hence centred at Oriel College. At this time Oriel was defined by a group of intellectuals now commonly referred to as the Oriel Noetics, of whom Whately was one, and the nature of Oxford political economy in the opening decades of the nineteenth century (including William F. Lloyd's contribution to it) cannot be understood outside the context of the intellectual tradition established by the Oriel Noetics. The Noetics were unconventional reformist clerics (one could not use the slippery mid-Victorian word ‘liberal’, as they were predominantly conservative Whigs or reform-minded Tories of the Pitt mould, in which order and tradition were maintained through moderate, but not radical, change); admired rational thought and absent-mindedly tested social conventions with their speech; were unafraid to question religious shibboleths if they deemed them bereft of scriptural foundation (such as Sabbatarianism); deployed logical processes to bolster their religious beliefs, which they held in an unsentimental fashion, and thereby to some extent practised that most contradictory of creeds, a logical faith; and, most importantly for this chapter, constructed a Christian Political Economy by dichotomising knowledge into a theological domain, in which they inferred from scriptural evidence that individuals should pursue the ends of attaining specific virtues (not utility!), and a scientific domain, in which they deduced scientific laws that would enable individuals to achieve the ends of attaining these virtues. They looked upon the rising Romantic Movement in general and the spiritualist yearnings of the Oxford Tractarians in particular with simple incomprehension, if not disgust. They deplored with equal measure the Evangelicals' enthusiasms, willing incogitency and lack of institutional anchor, yet sought to establish a broader national church that included dissenters (but not Catholics). They were most prominent in the 1810s and 1820s before colliding violently in the 1830s with, and being sidelined by, the Tractarians, many of whom they had, ironically enough, mentored and promoted.²

Researchers have written extensively on the partnering approach in project procurement. Some emphasize it as a process, i.e. how it works in terms of the project structure, signing of agreements, etc., and others emphasize the nature of the partnering culture dimensions, i.e. how it works in terms of operating in trust and harmony. It is postulated that the Confucian concept of self‐cultivation is central to the development of the values of trust and harmony. Western perspectives on the partnering culture are relatively abundant in writing; the intention of this paper is to complement existing literature with an Eastern perspective to develop a behavioural model of partnering. This paper examines the partnering dimensions and postulates that an understanding of (1) the Eastern concept of self and self‐cultivation, and (2) the central role of goal setting at strategic and project levels will enhance goal attainment in partnering.

This paper supplements and extends consideration of quantitative models with application to building (costs and) prices by examining human elements inherent in modelling. In considering the concepts of modelling, attention is focused on the recently developed sociology of science, which questions the traditional perspective of total separation of a reality from the observer—the ‘objective’ basis of scientific positivism. It is argued that human activities are fundamental in, and inseparable from, reality and so, they are integral in modelling. The aim of modelling should be to enhance understanding and knowledge rather than to secure inert objectivity. Application to modelling of prices of building projects investigates how prices are formulated, which prices are commonly modelled and the impact of the decision‐makers involved. It is concluded that new models are required, perhaps developed through methodological pluralism, which identify people‐oriented variables and assumptions explicitly. Further, the models should be stochastic and with sound bases in theories of economics and human behaviour to ensure that users are aware of the major variabilities in the processes modelled and so, by realistically informing, promote better decision making.

Innovation processes within a company are increasingly important to its strategic management. In generating a greater variety of options for innovation, knowledge management practices (KMPs) are key enablers; mapping them within a unit can pinpoint the most beneficial innovation options. Case study research in five UK companies has developed a set of generic ‘attributes’ for that purpose.

Based on reports of eighteen international committees set up to examine the evidence, there is a general consensus of opinion among doctors working in the field of coronary prevention that a high consumption of saturated animal fats is the main contributory factor in heart disease. Most of the causes of heart disease are environmental, that is, they are due to changes we have made in the life we lead. Most countries, and not only the underdeveloped ones, do not suffer from heart disease. The countries who are free from the complaint have not changed their life styles.

This paper aims to show agential realism as the basis for a pertinent framework with regard to the entwined, on-going and interpretative aspects of knowledge.

The knowledge flow phenomenon in the form of entanglement and agential “cuts” within the workplace is studied and described across a phenomenological ethnographic case study of two workgroups within an aircraft engine manufacturing context.

The boundary construction phenomenon is a key process helping us to depict knowledge entanglement (tacit and explicit) across dialogue and non-verbal actions. Dialogue brings forth the aspect of knowledge as interpretations or “cuts.” A phenomenological analysis allows us to identify and describe various levels of tacit–explicit knowledge entanglement depending on the mode of coping at hand. Also highlighted was the importance of heuristics carried out by knowledge experts, often in the form of abduction (i.e. leading to rules of thumb).

It is acknowledged that the relatively narrow context of the empirical work limits the ability to generalize the findings and arguments. As such, additional work is required to investigate the validity of the findings across a wider spectrum of workgroup contexts.

Agential realism allows for the analysis of organizations as a world of practice and actions, whereby long-established categories can be requestioned and challenged with the aim of sharing the full richness and benefit of embodied knowledge between human actors.

Ethnographic descriptions of the entwined nature of tacit and explicit knowledge, the embodied and activity-based dimension of knowledge and learning, as well as the characteristic of knowledge as possession, correspond well to an agential realist concept of phenomenon, entanglement and cuts. Furthermore, agential realism offers the opportunity to view the workplace as individuals (or groups) who act out embodied tacit-explicit knowledge in conjunction with non-human entities (such as objects, as well as communication and information technologies), with the latter acting as enhancers of knowledge creation and sharing.

This paper aims to examine the role of health and wellbeing boards in the context of the Government's reforms introduced by the Health and Social Act 2012 and the fundamental challenges facing the NHS and local government; it also aims to assess evidence from the early experience of shadow boards and considers what factors will most influence their success.

The paper draws on an analysis of the policy literature and on structured telephone interviews with lead representatives of 50 health and wellbeing boards randomly selected from a representative cross section of English local authorities; it also draws on case study material, some of which has been written up for other articles in this Special Issue.

Early experience of the boards in shadow form indicates there is considerable optimism about their prospects to achieve greater success in achieving integrated services but they face formidable challenges arising from a hostile financial climate and unchanged national policy fault lines that have hindered effective integration to date. Poor engagement with providers will limit progress. Five factors that are likely to determine the effectiveness of boards are identified. Their biggest single challenge arises from the role of local government in delivering strong, credible and shared leadership which engages people in transforming local services.

Current knowledge is based on the operation of shadow boards at a very early stage in their development and in the context of complex organisational change in which there is major uncertainty about emerging roles of new bodies.

There is very little systematic research evidence about the development of health and wellbeing boards other than the work reported in this paper, illustrated by the linked articles which follow it.