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This paper defines the agile enterprise as one which is able to both manage and apply knowledge effectively, and suggests that value from either capability is impeded if they are not in balance. It looks at the application of knowledge as requiring a change, and overviews a body of analytical work on change proficiency in business systems and processes. It looks at knowledge management as a strategic portfolio management responsibility based on learning functionality, and shares knowledge and experience in organizational collaborative learning mechanisms. It introduces the concept of plug‐compatible knowledge packaging as a means for increasing the velocity of knowledge diffusion and the likelihood of knowledge understood at the depth of insight. Finally, it reviews a knowledge portfolio management and collaborative knowledge development architecture used successfully in a sizable cross‐industry informal‐consortia activity, and suggests that it is a good model for a corporate university architecture.

Lisa and Rick Agee of New Milford, Connecticut, are in their second full year of trying to turn their lifelong dream of being financially independent from corporate life into a reality.They are placing their bets on their product line of goat's milk based soap products (www.Goatboy.us). Goat's milk is said to have important skin benefits for the user over commercially made bar soap products such as Dove, Ivory, Dial, Olay, Zest and Irish Spring.

Rapid manufacturing – defined as the direct production of finished goods from a rapid prototyping device – remains at present more a goal than reality for industry. The application of 3D printing technologies, however, promises to merge rapid prototyping capabilities with the high‐volume throughput of conventional manufacturing. Proponents believe that these processes may soon lead to the tooless production of finished goods and the mass production of individually customized parts.

Success today is determined by the agility, flexibility, and versatility with which a company meets its customers' individual requirements. Here's how technology has fueled the shift from mass manufacturing to smaller scale, modular, information‐rich production.

Sitting around the kitchen table one late-winter morning, Lisa and Rick Agee were discussing which direction to take their small, home-based business located in rural New Milford, Connecticut, over the next three to five years. The couple was making and selling “Goatboy” brand bathroom soap using goatʼs milk as the key ingredient, and they were now trying to reconcile very different points of view on how to grow the business in early March 2006.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the leadership behaviors of managers of virtual teams (VTs), particularly in the areas of trust building and conflict management. This study aims to expand the research of VT performance by offering first-person accounts from VT leaders on the strategies implemented to drive VT performance.

This study used a grounded theory approach to examine the leadership behaviors through in-depth interviews with eight field managers of VTs employed by different technology companies. Interview questions focused on trust-building and conflict management techniques. This structured qualitative study incorporates elements of narrative inquiry interwoven in the findings.

Building a high-trust environment was found to be critical to VT performance. VT managers indicated that effective conflict resolution skills were also important.

Although the sample size is within the suggested range for a valid phenomenological study, the results may lack generalizability. Participants were limited to the technology industry; leaders of high-performing VTs in other industries could offer differing results.

This study’s contribution is the exploration and identification of innovative techniques that VT managers implemented to build trust and resolve conflict. A lack of holistic training programs for the VT leader is also considered along with suggestions for future research and implications for the VT managers.

This study’s contribution is the exploration and identification of innovative techniques that VT managers implemented that drive VT performance, particularly related to building high levels of trust and managing conflict effectively. Practices are suggested whereby both the VT leader and the organization take an active role in ensuring that the VT has the opportunity to perform optimally.

PA scholars argue that two gaps are present in the stress literature: (1) “stress” is too simply treated as deleterious and (2) insufficient efforts are made to capture public servants' stress appraisal, i.e. the degree to which stressors are appraised as hindering or challenging. Overcoming Gap 1, this study aims to study stress as a continuum; from distress to eustress. Overcoming Gap 2, stress appraisal is studied through testing the interaction of PsyCap with the two most common clusters of public servants' job stressors: emotional and psychological stressors.

Hypotheses are tested through structural equation modeling. A sample is used in this study of 1,853 Dutch public servants.

The results show that emotional and psychological stressors are high, but public servants often appraise them as challenging or as “part of the job”, with consequently no increased distress or decreased eustress. Moreover, psychological capital helps public servants to appraise some of the negative effects of emotional, but not psychological, stressors as less deleterious.

By approaching stress as a continuum, the authors bring in a more complete picture of public servants' stress in PA literature. Moreover, this research shows that the ambiguous results in the existing stress literature about the consequences of emotional and psychological stressors on distress/eustress can partially be explained by sector differences as well as personality differences (i.e. PsyCap). Finally, this study criticizes the one-sided attention to PsyCap as purely positive. PsyCap is not only unhelpful in coping with psychological stressors, it also drains the challenging properties of psychological stressors for dedication.

Effective and robust governance of major projects and programmes in the public sector is crucial to the accountability of the state and the transparency of state spending. The theoretical discourse on governance, in the context of projects and programmes, is not fully mature, although is now sufficiently well developed to warrant an increased scholarly focus on practice. This paper aims to contribute to the empirical literature through a study of assurance routines in the UK Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP).

A framework analysis approach to the evaluation of a subset of GMPP database generates original insights into (1) the framing of assurance review recommendations, (2) the treatment of assurance review data and (3) the subsequent tracking of the implementation of actions arising from the assurance review process.

The analysis reveals that the “delivery confidence” of the major projects and programmes included in this study improves during the time that they are assured on the GMPP. This would suggest that “enhanced” governance routines are desirable in programmes and projects that exhibit high degrees of complexity and scale.

The research findings contribute to the wider conversations in this journal and elsewhere on project governance routines and governance-as-practice in the context of government and public services.

Gives an in depth view of the strategies pursued by the world’s leading chief executive officers in an attempt to provide guidance to new chief executives of today. Considers the marketing strategies employed, together with the organizational structures used and looks at the universal concepts that can be applied to any product. Uses anecdotal evidence to formulate a number of theories which can be used to compare your company with the best in the world. Presents initial survival strategies and then looks at ways companies can broaden their boundaries through manipulation and choice. Covers a huge variety of case studies and examples together with a substantial question and answer section.

A strategy of developing key vertical markets resulted in rapid early growth for this document management software firm. Now what will they do?