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This paper aims to describe how structured on‐the‐job training (S‐OJT) was implemented to develop new‐hire engineers at the Kuwait National Petroleum Company.

The paper describes a case study on the development, implementation, and evaluation results of an extensive case study in an organization.

The results show a reduction in development time and increased confidence in the skills of the new‐hire engineers, among other outcomes reported.

The case study can assist other advanced training and human resource development practitioners to develop high‐skilled technical employees who may require different approaches to ensure a depth of conceptual and job‐related information.

The intent of the case study is to assist other advanced training and human resource development practitioners in developing high‐skilled technical employees. Such employees require different approaches to ensure a depth of conceptual and job‐related information. The case study shows how one organization addressed this issue.

What remains uncertain with corporate universities is the contribution they provide to their organizations, particularly when considered from the perspective of managers. Managers are important stakeholders, as they may participate in carrying out the mission and policies that govern the corporate university and participate in the programs offered. Organizations would benefit from knowing more about the perceptions of managers. The purpose of this paper is to study managers’ perceptions of the accountability of two corporate university programs in China and its relationship with the managers’ overall involvement in corporate university programs and their commitment to the organization.

The study was conducted in two state-owned organizations in China, a country in which many organizations have adopted corporate universities. A mixed-method approach was used to carry out the study.

The results showed that there was a moderate relationship between the managers’ perceptions of the accountability of corporate university programs, based on two management development programs and managers’ involvement in corporate university programs and their commitment to the organization. The results also showed a low relationship between managers’ involvement in their corporate university programs and commitment to the organization.

The findings provide implications for managing corporate universities in China and enhancing the accountability of these initiatives. The study serves as a basis for future studies involving corporate universities and on the accountability of and involvement in training.

Institutionalization of organizational change should be considered a part of the change process, regardless of the nature of the change. After initial success, many change efforts eventually fail. The article discusses a framework for institutionalizing change and introduces cascade training to ensure the employee competence to carry out the change. The article introduces four designs of cascade training based on the change target, change purpose, the training outcomes, organizational characteristics and characteristics of the intervention.

The push for ISO 9000 certification in Singapore can be viewed as a positive step towards enhancing training and development activities in the certified companies. This exploratory study examined the nature and extent of impact of ISO 9001 certification on training and development activities of organizations operating in Singapore. A survey approach was adopted. The respondents were asked to indicate the nature and extent of human resource development (HRD) activities three years before and three years after ISO certification. They were also asked to indicate whether the changes, if any, were due to the certification only or other reasons. The findings indicated improvements in training needs analysis, training design, training delivery, training evaluation and HRD activities in the sample organizations. The small sample size has constrained the authors’ ability to generalize the findings. Researchers interested in the topic may like to request a copy of the survey instrument that was used in this study and carry out similar studies in other ISO member countries to validate (or disprove) the findings of this study.

This is a comprehensive list of books, some pamphlets, and a few sound recordings about or by Ronald (and Nancy) Reagan. Collections of photographs and cartoons as well as biographies, political commentary, speeches, quotations and even recipes are represented. Omitted are books in which there is only brief mention of him. The bibliography was compiled in connection with a major exhibit on Ronald Reagan at the Colorado State University Library. It is the author's intention to continue to collect Reagan materials.

The purpose of this paper is to advance ongoing debates on the organizational impact of wider public sector reform in the field of organizational change management by presenting an analysis the regionalization of the fire service in the Netherlands. How regionalization has impacted the work floor of local fire stations, where the workplace majority comprises volunteers, requires further empirical investigation.

The authors apply an interpretive approach and qualitative methodology to study how volunteer firefighters and public management make sense of public reform and the ensuing organizational change.

Findings indicate that while the fire service has professionalized, notable tensions have emerged between public management and volunteers, the regional and local level of fire service and between professionalism and volunteerism which are problematised in the paper.

The originality of the paper is found in the insight it provides in the sensemaking of volunteer firefighters and public managers of diverse of change regions and fire stations during the regionalization process by applying an emergent perspective to change.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an international survey of hospital executives and administrators’ perspectives on the contributions of their affiliation with a Ronald McDonald House (RMH) as an example of accommodation in family-centered care to the hospital’s mission, operations and patient experience.

RMHs worldwide provided the names and e-mail addresses of the people holding key leadership positions in their main hospital partner, who in turn were invited to complete an internet-based survey (530 participants; response rate of 54.5 percent).

Hospital leaders reported very positive opinions about the contributions of their RMHs affiliation to their ability to serve seriously ill children and their families. This included such important outcomes as increasing family integrity and family participation in care decisions; and decreasing psychosocial stress and hospital social work resource burdens associated with lodging, food, transportation and sibling support. Hospital chief executive offices (CEOs) and medical directors reported very strong and positive opinions regarding the value-added of their RMHs affiliation in many areas, including enhanced marketing of hospital specialty services and reduced length of stay.

Survey response bias is a limitation, although the results are still useful in terms of identifying multiple ways in which RMHs are perceived as contributing to hospitals’ operations and provision of family-centered care.

Overall, the results suggest that, internationally, hospital leaders believe that RMHs play a key and valued role in their provision of family-centered care to seriously ill children and their families.

Family accommodation is more than the simple provision of lodging and plays an integral role how hospitals approach family-centered care.

This international study contributes to the general literature on the role of family accommodation in hospitals’ provision of family-centered care and the specific and very sparse literature on RMHs in particular.

Approaches to the sociology of culture have largely been constituted around the long tradition of functionalism in sociology. This has hampered the field greatly. Among other shortcomings, this intellectual foundation has led to a limited understanding of ideology and civil society, a conservative political orientation and an overdeterministic view of social action and the actor. In this paper, I explore and then apply a new approach to the sociology of culture, one that attempts to conceptualize more robustly the dynamics of ideology, ideological conflict and civil society. As part of this project, I endeavor to map out a critical cultural perspective that establishes a multidimensional understanding of the contingency of social action.

An overview is provided of the mentoring process and why it can be crucial to the success of women managers. Also explored are some of the reasons why it is more difficult for women to find mentors than for men, and a frank look is taken at the problems of cross‐sex mentoring. In conclusion an examination is made of what organisations can do to help and prospects for the future are assessed.