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Based on research at Cranfield School of Management, involving 36 organizations in the UK, USA, Ireland, Greece and France and thousands of European executives, addresses such questions as: What does vision mean at the top? What is required for consistent success as a top manager? What does the word “team” really mean at the top? What does it take to perform well as a top team and as an individual in a top team? Indicates that the top team is crucial to strategic decision making and change, and to moulding effective teams and sharing organizational visions, and gives suggestions for individual team executive development.

Reports a review of the Irish economic and political scene as background to a survey of best practice in Irish top management. Addresses issues of the competences required to induce added value performance from total organization. Four long‐term consultancy assignments in different sectors led to the drafting of a questionnaire distributed by the Irish Management Institute; 96 companies took part. Key competences emerged as: vision; team building; practising appropriate personal skills; communication; and generating a success‐oriented culture. Recommendations are given for top level management development.

Presents an original top management team‐based approach to management competences. Based on the results of a survey of thousands of top executives across Europe and many years of in‐depth consultancy and research with top executives, presents a practical guide to the key top management team competences identified by top executives as essential to success and to the impact of poor performance in these key competence areas. Additionally, presents the results in a cross‐cultural framework and outlines the need, in an international business environment, for a heightened understanding of the impact of cultural differences in management behaviour, performance, and expectations. Also considers the management development implications of the findings.

Presents an analysis of Austrian top managers and top management teams based on data gathered from Austrian managers in 301 separate organizations. Through the data collected, builds and presents a comprehensive picture of the current state of Austrian management. Also gives a profile of how Austrian managers compare in certain key competence areas with managers from some of the other European countries in which similar research has been conducted. Shows that in general, Austrian management teams have few interpersonal or value‐based interaction difficulties, but that their key problems, and the key development issues facing them, lie in their ability to understand and manage the structure of their organizations, long‐term issues, and the increasingly competitive and global markets and environments into which their companies are entering. Shows that it is these key areas which are the major sources of conflict, sensitivity, and difficulty within Austrian top management teams. Based on these findings, presents some management development recommendations for Austrian managers to assist in broadening their management competences and thus enhancing their personal, organizational, and business success.

Asylum seekers and refugees experience substantial barriers to successful transition to a new society. The purpose of this paper is to explore the value and meaning of a community drop-in service offering social support for refugees and asylum seekers in the northeast of England and to identify the occupational preferences of the service users.

A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was conducted with refugees and asylum seekers using a community drop-in service. In total, 18 people participated from ten countries. Data were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis.

The value and meaning of the service was expressed through four key areas: the need to experience a sense of community; being able to make an altruistic contribution within the community; the need for societal integration; and having the opportunity to engage in meaningful and productive occupations.

Community and altruism have profound cultural meaning for asylum seekers and refugees and the need to integrate, belong and contribute is paramount to successful resettlement. Community-based drop-in services can aid this at deep, culturally relevant levels. This study may inform policy and practice development, future service development and highlight potential opportunities for health and social care services provision amongst this growing population.

To date there are no studies that provide empirical evidence on how community-based drop-in services for refugees and asylum seekers are received. This study provides a cultural insight into the deeper value and meaning of such services, and is particularly relevant for professionals in all sectors who are working with asylum seekers and refugees.

The shared language of youth includes understandings of concepts that can be different from those of adults. Researchers, in their efforts to explore and illuminate the health behaviours and decision‐making processes of young people, use generic terms in their data collecting protocols. This study aims to explore what adolescents understand by the words “healthy” and “happy”.

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted in three post‐primary schools with 31 students aged 12 and 13 years. Drawing on a grounded theory approach, interviews were transcribed and subjected to thematic content analysis.

The students provided a description and explanation of what health and happiness meant to them and how they intended to maintain both as they grew older. Perceptions of these two concepts were found to contain gendered nuances. This was clear in relation to descriptions of how friends were part of well‐being; the girls were more likely to talk about feeling restricted and resentment at being treated like children and only the boys talked of looking forward to things.

In order to gain an understanding of young people's perspectives about what matters and what influences their health behaviour, a clearer view of the different perspectives held by researcher and researched needs to be established so that more accurate conclusions can be drawn from data generated by young people.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a three‐stage process for engaging with students to develop school level indicators of health; in sequential class groups students first generated, then categorised indicators and finally developed schematic representations of their analyses. There is a political and practical need to develop appropriate indicators for health‐promoting schools. As key stakeholders in education, students have the right to be fully engaged in this process.

The sample in this paper comprised 164 students aged 16‐17 years in three medium‐sized Dublin schools. In the first classroom, students answered the question “If you moved to a new school, what would it need to have to be a healthy place?” on individual flashcards. In the second classroom students classified the flashcards into groups using a variation of the card game “snap”. In the third classroom, students discussed the relationships between the developed categories and determined how the categories should be presented. These procedures were repeated twice in three schools, resulting in six developed schemata.

The paper finds that the six sets of categories showed remarkable similarity – physical aspects of the school predominated but emotional and social health issues also emerged as potential indicators. The schema demonstrated the holistic perspectives of students. They illustrate the importance of relationships and the physical and psycho‐social environment within schools.

The paper illustrates that students can productively engage in the process of indicator development and have the potential to act as full stakeholders in health‐promoting schools. The methods enabled student control over the data generation, analysis and presentation phases of the research, and provided a positive, fun experience for both students and researchers.

The personalities, style and job demands of top ranking police officers have never before been seriously analysed. Here, by using a management development survey, key personality characteristics and the management and interpersonal styles of top ranking officers are identified. The views of chief officers are discussed, together with an examination of the necessary qualities required. Ways in which senior officers can improve their performance through management training and development and how this can assist their professional growth and development, are emphasised.