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Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

There is ample anecdotal evidence, as well as an emergent body of literature, which examines the role of entrepreneurial teams in the success and growth of businesses. Earlier research by the authors has demonstrated that the core competence required by founding entrepreneurs is the ability to build and manage relationships. Their more recent work suggests that this core competence must be based around a clear vision for the business. In other words, the founding entrepreneur must be able to build a team to deliver the business vision. A review of literature is provided in this paper, offering a definition of the concept and some of the core issues that have to be addressed by entrepreneurs and small firm policies if businesses are to continue growing. This is supported by some preliminary findings from empirical research into how entrepreneurial teams are formed. The paper continues with propositions that can lead to further research in this relatively unexplored field.

Considers some recent research on understanding and improving managerial performance. Reports on findings of a recent survey that asked executive managers what it is that distinguishes the excellent or effective performer from the merely average or ineffective performer. Examines competency based assessments, and the Ashridge Survey covering 500 UK organizations in both the private and public sectors which aimed to find out just how much the management competency idea has taken hold in the UK. Finally, considers the future of competency based assessments.

A review of the approach adopted by the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) towards the use of management competences, drawing on contemporary research and journal articles, is made. In addition, use is made of insights and experience gained through involvement in the MCI Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) pilot project conducted at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education. Three major assumptions associated with the MCI competence approach are evaluated and a specific facet of the Cheltenham and Gloucester College APL experience, that of high delegate wastage, is examined. An expectancy model of motivation is used along with an action feedback model to illustrate and explain some of the potential reasons for a high drop‐out rate. The model affords an opportunity to provide a rationale to underpin needed action on the part of the major actors within the APL management competence approach. In conclusion, a number of summary propositions predicated by the review are given.

The Management Charter Initiative (MCI) has now been in existence for several years. Its major objective is to promote the notion of “competency” and facilitate the introduction of a list of generic management standards into British organizations. In the light of the debate which this movement has provoked, attempts to summarize the major conceptual issues. Takes a big picture overview of the major advantages, disadvantages and “grey” areas as they are perceived by British management generally (i.e. organizations and academia). As far as possible, it is a balanced review, which it is hoped will assist human resource practitioners in the area of strategy formulation.

Highly educated and skilled contract workers come from a range of occupations, have different worker characteristics, and work under organizational practices that are precarious in varied ways. Our current understanding of the experience of contract work does not fully encompass this diversity. This chapter focuses on early-career contract workers who contract across national borders – an increasingly prevalent but little understood phenomenon – to broaden our understanding of contract work. I draw on an analysis of 38 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 30 international and early-career contract workers in the United Nations (UN) system in Geneva, Switzerland. Eight participants were included in follow-up interviews. I find that my participants demonstrate flexibility to their employer. They accept uncertain and short-term contracts, because they hope to secure longer-term positions within the prestigious UN system. Demonstrating flexibility impacts them, their relationships, and has financial implications as participants center the demands of their contracts. At times, participants place limits on how much uncertainty they will bear. This chapter thus illuminates the experiences of an understudied group of contract workers – early-career workers in transnational settings – who fall within the broad umbrella of contract workers. It highlights how even elite workers experience challenges as they engage in contract work.

The purpose of this study is to introduce the reproducing kernel algorithm for treating classes of time-fractional partial differential equations subject to Robin boundary conditions with parameters derivative arising in fluid flows, fluid dynamics, groundwater hydrology, conservation of energy, heat conduction and electric circuit.

The method provides appropriate representation of the solutions in convergent series formula with accurately computable components. This representation is given in the W(Ω) and H(Ω) inner product spaces, while the computation of the required grid points relies on the R_(y,s) (x, t) and r_(y,s) (x, t) reproducing kernel functions.

Numerical simulation with different order derivatives degree is done including linear and nonlinear terms that are acquired by interrupting the n-term of the exact solutions. Computational results showed that the proposed algorithm is competitive in terms of the quality of the solutions found and is very valid for solving such time-fractional models.

Future work includes the application of the reproducing kernel algorithm to highly nonlinear time-fractional partial differential equations such as those arising in single and multiphase flows. The results will be published in forthcoming papers.

The study included a description of fundamental reproducing kernel algorithm and the concepts of convergence, and error behavior for the reproducing kernel algorithm solvers. Results obtained by the proposed algorithm are found to outperform in terms of accuracy, generality and applicability.

Developing analytical and numerical methods for the solutions of time-fractional partial differential equations is a very important task owing to their practical interest.

This study, for the first time, presents reproducing kernel algorithm for obtaining the numerical solutions of some certain classes of Robin time-fractional partial differential equations. An efficient construction is provided to obtain the numerical solutions for the equations, along with an existence proof of the exact solutions based upon the reproducing kernel theory.

A reason why industry incumbents seldom survive technology transitions is their strong reliance on an efficient, but inflexible organizational system. We studied three digital transformation initiatives that created fast progress in a struggling newspaper group by working against the industry logic and established thinking in the area. This chapter argues that management succeeded in introducing a new strategic practice through these transformation initiatives. We focus on three factors contributing to the success: complexity management, short time development of a long-term vision, and the introduction of impossible goals.

Artifacts are rarely used today to visualize thoughts, insights, and ideas in strategy work. Rather, textual and verbal communication dominates. This is despite artifacts and visual representations holding many advantages as tools to create and make sense of strategy in teamwork. To advance our understanding of the benefits of visual aids in strategy work, I synthesize insights from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and management research. My analysis exposes distinct neurocognitive advantages concerning attention, emotion, learning, memory, intuition, and creativity from visual sense-building. These advantages increase when sense-building activities are playful and storytelling is used.

Why is it that highly trained and seasoned executives fail? On the surface, this doesn’t make sense because they are very successful; yet research in the organization sciences provides no shortage of evidence to prove just that. From the classic Mann Gulch fire disaster of Weick’s famous collapse of sensemaking study, to studies of myopia of learning, escalation of commitment, threat-rigidity, dominant logic, the architecture of simplicity, the Icarus Paradox, to core competencies turning into core rigidities, and navigating new competitive markets using “old” cognitive maps, and many more such examples point to a ubiquitous phenomenon where highly trained and experienced professionals find themselves “stuck” in the heat of battle, unable to move and progress. On the one hand, for some, there is a desperate need for change, but are unable to do so, due to their trained incapacities. On the other hand, some simply cannot see the need for change, and continue with their “business as usual” mentality. For both, their visions of the world shrink, they have a tendency to cling onto their past habitual practices and oversimplify the complexity of the situation. In moments like these: DROP YOUR TOOLS and UNLEARN! This book chapter introduces a framework (grounded in clinical psychology) that has had consistent success in helping seasoned executives and key decision-makers open up the alternatives whenever they find themselves stuck with complexity.