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The learning problems of unemployed executives (which, in this article, is a term used loosely to cover managerial, professional, administrative and technical personnel) are attracting increasing attention from trainers and researchers. Particularly noteworthy are the publications and projects sponsored by the Cambridge Industrial Training Research Unit. Several suggestions have recently been made about how these problems might be tackled, and a number of innovatory courses have been organised which specifically recognise the problems and are intended to reduce them, e.g.

The second part of a two‐part article, the first part of which described the clinical directors′ management devel‐opment programme designed and run during 1991‐93 by the Northern Health Authority and Durham University Business School. Focuses on the second, action learning, period of the course. Describes the action learning model used in the programme, includes a member′s description of his set′s experiences, and draws conclusions about the programme′s reception and achievements.

Describes a three‐year collaborative initiative between Northern Regional Health Authority and Durham University Business School which seeks to help 24 clinical directors, already heavily burdened with professional responsibilities, to assume quickly and perform effectively in new strategic management roles. The programme, one of half‐a‐dozen such joint projects across the UK, all different in design, won substantial funding from the NHS Management Executive and is being nationally evaluated by Middlesex Business School.

Many claims have been made over the years for the superiority of action learning (AL). One of the most significant is that it provides a model of the learning organization. Given the importance of an organizational learning climate that can result in the acquisition of strategically valuable knowledge and insights, critically examines concepts of AL and the learning organization in the literature; and explores some of the issues thus identified by reference to AL in a management development programme for clinical directors working in the National Health Service. Conclusions underline the poorly tested theoretical and empirical base of both AL and of the learning organization and demonstrate the need for more rigorous evaluation of the practice of AL. Suggests that although there is substance to the claim that AL models the learning organization, its learning processes are unlikely in most situations to produce challenges to the dominant managerial logic of the organization. AL appears to have the potential, however, to develop strategic awareness and thinking even in turbulent environmental conditions, with particular value for managers in middle‐level strategic roles. It may also have a significant “sleeper effect”, linked to ongoing organizational context and only manifest over the longer term.

This paper aims to provide an introductory overview of internal business intelligence (BI) and the role that technology plays in its management and exploitation. BI represents the tools and systems that play a key role in the strategic planning process of a corporation, allowing the integration of applications, databases, software and hardware essential to users and enabling the analysis of information to optimise decision-making.

In reviewing the existing literature, this paper examines the core components, current trends and operational issues of a typical internal BI system architecture. The implications of these trends and their effects on business processes and culture are also explored.

The successful implementation of an internal BI system should include the core components and address operational issues, whilst also providing meaningful output to the organisation. It is contended, however, that to be truly successful, the internal BI system must be embedded within organisational processes and be adaptable to changing technologies, allowing the exploitation of the organisation’s internal BI.

This general review is the first to provide a high-level overview of internal BI and explores the role of technology in the management and exploitation of internal BI.