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This article is written in two parts and is presented as research-based insight on the growth of formal workplace mentoring programs and the alignment of mentoring with workforce development strategy.

The research is taken from a two-year study conducted in the Australian rail industry aimed at establishing a harmonized approach to the use of workplace mentoring. Using mixed-methods and an interpretive approach seven major rail organizations from Australia and New Zealand contributed to detailed case studies, on-line surveys and in-depth interviews. Responses were obtained from all levels and functional areas within the organizations.

Research findings support the literature and show a growing interest in the use of formal workplace mentoring to deal with a wide range of organizational issues such as employee retention, engagement, absence and turnover. Importantly, mentoring was found to be highly valued in the area of knowledge transfer and especially across multi-generational groups. In parallel with other traditional industries, rail organizations in Australia are about to lose large volumes of highly qualified and long-serving Baby-Boomers. Therefore, workforce development strategies will need to facilitate the transfer of tacit knowledge to a new generation of rail employees who are eager to learn, but less conformable with formal training courses. Mentoring is becoming an effective option for delivering this change.

The findings are contextual and may not fit all settings, but they offer a comparative account of workplace mentoring in an industry facing perpetual change, economic challenges and an impending shortage of skills in key areas.

These articles have practical implications for human resource practitioners and professionals involved in the implementation of workforce development projects. Mentoring is an old concept enjoying new fame, but the intrinsic nature of mentoring, such as the need for highly-trusted relationships and confidential meetings means that organizations should tread carefully as they can engage mentees at a deep psychological level.

These articles will be of value to human resource professionals and managers, assisting them to think differently about workplace mentoring and consider how the characteristics of mentoring are interdependent with the broader goals of workforce development.

This exploratory paper discusses the undemocratic agenda setting of elites in Britain and how it has changed politics within a form of capitalism where much is left undisclosed in terms of mechanism and methods. It argues for a more radical exploratory strategy using C. Wright Mills’ understanding that what is left undisclosed is crucially important to elite existence and power, while recognising the limits on democratic accountability when debate, decision and action in complex capitalist societies can be frustrated or hijacked by small groups. Have British business elites, through their relation with political elites, used their power to constrain democratic citizenship? Our hypothesis is that the power of business elites is most likely conjuncturally specific and geographically bounded with distinct national differences. In the United Kingdom, the outcomes are often contingent and unstable as business elites try to manage democracy; moreover, the composition and organisation of business elites have changed through successive conjunctures.

The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities in which the firms are engaged are outlined to provide background information for the reader.

This study extends and refines the current knowledge on emerging supply chain designs (SCDs) for industrial additive manufacturing (AM) and manufacturing firms' rationales in selecting them.

Following an exploratory research design, a multiple-case study is conducted in the context of industrial AM. It focuses on two key dimensions of SCD, the geographic dispersion and governance structure. Four cohesive AM SCD configurations are characterized and form the basis for exploring the rationales for the SCD decision of manufacturing firms.

The findings indicate that manufacturing firms' SCD for industrial AM depends on the trade-off between economies of scale in a centralized setting and the market potential from customer proximity realized by decentral AM. Furthermore, the control of suppliers and the reevaluation of manufacturing firms' core competencies guide the governance choice. Many of the identified rationales currently drive manufacturing firms toward in-house AM at a centralized location or distributed AM in a secure, firm-owned network.

The arguments for the AM SCD choices are illustrated. They provide guidance for managers of manufacturing firms when implementing industrial AM.

The study reveals and enhances the understanding of why the extant academic expectation of decentralized and outsourced AM is not sufficiently reflected in current industry practice. Thereby, the study provides a basis for elaborative decision-support research on AM SCDs.

The term deregulation, in reference to the (US) Motor Carrier Act 1980, has been used to represent significant reductions in government economic restrictions and government agency involvement in the operations of the transportation industry. Although the Act was a giant step toward regulatory reform, a good deal of statutory regulation did initially remain in place. For the purposes of this article, the term deregulation will be used with the understanding that the deregulated industry is not completely without regulation.

The aim of this paper is to compare the railway and internet revolutions. What do they have in common and what is different between them, considering the 150‐year time difference in their occurrence? As time passes, can internet developers learn something from the railway industry?

The two industries have a lot of common. Both railways and the internet represent national infrastructures that cannot be managed just based on business management principles. As both are concerned with traffic, either that of physical goods or of messages, the two industries also seem to have a lot in technical terms when one takes a sufficiently abstract point of view. The main message is that in the long term, the railway revolution vanished and the industry turned into a low profit/interest field. The internet might follow the same path.

The paper in its current form is based on a literature review only. Its quality could be improved with a detailed empirical study. Other similar infrastructure‐type industries could also be involved.

There are several things that could be improved in the management of the internet, but they are large‐scale issues needing co‐operation between the many stakeholders in the internet. Examples are those of avoiding the digital divide and catering for critical “last mile” connections, as well as managing the diversity of different standards.

As far as the author knows this is the first paper of its kind comparing these two industries. The message is that more cross‐industrial studies need to be performed. Also, the message of the paper – that the internet might turn into a low‐interest business in the long run – has not been discussed sufficiently.