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Contributors from five libraries address the expectations and realities of their automation projects, including: staff impact, costs and funding, time and schedules, users, computer support, vendors, and consultants. Some keys to success include: very clear political objectives at the beginning of the project; careful definition of the project structure; a well‐prepared automation plan; carefully‐considered, contractual commitments with a vendor; and flexibility and adaptability.

This study aims to describe the use of action‐learning projects in 14 regional leadership development programs called public health leadership institutes.

During the period of April through August 2009, directors of the public health leadership institutes were interviewed about the action‐learning project requirement in each of their programs. Notes from these interviews, as well as relevant program materials were reviewed and summarized.

Action‐learning projects are commonly used by the public health leadership institutes to build leadership skills. However, this component of these programs varies considerably across the institutes. Frequently mentioned challenges to using action‐learning projects include lack of time for participants to meet for project work, lack of resources available for team coaching and a perceived higher value of taking action over making time for learning by many participants.

Research shows that most people develop leadership skills from actual work experiences. Action‐learning which focuses on solving complex, real‐world challenges is a common component of leadership development programs. In this paper, the authors describe how this methodology is being carried out in public health leadership institutes and recommend ways to increase the developmental return on these work experiences in public health settings.

These public health leadership programs, partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reach health care practitioners in 46 states and the District of Columbia. The application of best practices from these initiatives could lead to increased understanding of how to maximize the return from experiential learning initiatives designed to promote life‐long learning.

A comprehensive and computationally efficient modeling strategy for the rapid and accurate simulation of implanted impurity distribution profiles in single‐crystal silicon has been developed. This modeling strategy exploits the advantages of both Monte Carlo simulation and semi‐empirical models by combining the two approaches in a complementary manner. The dual Pearson semi‐empirical model is used to accurately and efficiently model the dose and implant angle dependence of impurity profiles as well as the dependence on energy. This new comprehensive model allows convenient and accurate simulation of implanted boron distribution profiles in single‐crystal silicon as a function of dose, tilt angle, and rotation angle, in addition to ion energy, and it has been demonstrated by implementation in the process simulation code SUPREM III.

Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of learning through experience, “by doing”, where the task environment is the classroom, and the task the vehicle. Two previous reviews of the action learning literature by Alan Mumford respectively covered the field prior to 1985 and the period 1985‐1994. Both reviews included books as well as journal articles. This current review covers the period 1994‐2000 and is limited to publicly available journal articles. Part 1 of the Review was published in an earlier issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning (Vol. 15 No. 2) and included a bibliography and comments. Part 2 extends that introduction with a schema for categorizing action learning articles and with comments on representative articles from the bibliography.

Globalization is driving an increased need for leaders who possess global leadership competencies that enable them to lead effectively. The purpose of this paper is to explore the developmental experiences of global leaders in order to understand the experiences that they report to be developmental, to understand what they learned from their experiences, and to explore how the leaders learned and developed from the experiences.

For this study, the researcher used Moustakas's phenomenological research method.

Conclusions indicate that global leaders: develop through first-hand global leadership experience; learn the importance of cultural sensitivity, relationships and networks, and curiosity or desire to learn; require a unique set of global leadership competencies; are driven by curiosity, openness, and a desire to learn; and develop and learn intuitively.

Utilizing a phenomenological research approach yielded new insight, from the perspective of the global leader, into how global leaders learn and develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motives or values, and mindsets that are important to their role, and suggested areas for further research. The findings of the study are useful in identifying implications for improving or adding to the methods, approaches, and tools organizations use to develop global leadership competencies.

In case you haven't heard, strategy is back. According to a recent Business Week article, “Business strategy is now the single most important management issue and will remain so for the next five years.” Strategy has gone in and out of fashion more often than “top‐down leadership.” But these days, corporations are searching for new avenues of growth to recover from the questionable restructuring caused by downsizing, reengineering, and other cost‐cutting measures. The common thread for businesses and political and consulting experts is that they all believe long‐term, sustained economic growth demands innovative, aggressive, actionable strategies. Strategic planning has become the crucial tool that can help steer companies in the right direction.

Multiple stakeholders in the financial reporting process have articulated concerns over the rules-based orientation that U.S. accounting standards have adopted. Many argue that a more principles-based approach to standards setting, typified by international accounting standards, would improve the quality of financial reporting and strengthen the auditor's position when dealing with client pressure, thereby enabling a focus on transparency and fairness of financial reports. In early 2009, the U.S. appeared poised to transition U.S. accounting standards to international accounting standards. The transition decision was made after the recommendations of the SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting (i.e., SEC Pozen Committee) publicly expressed strong support in its final report (SEC, 2008a). The SEC in turn issued its “Roadmap for the Potential Use of Financial Statements Prepared in Accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards by U.S. Issuers on November 14, 2008” (SEC, 2008b) outlining the transition procedures. However, with Shapiro taking over as chairperson of the SEC, this move now appears less likely pending a stronger review of how principles-based international standards may impact the strength of financial regulatory oversight – a potential delay met with disdain by the pro principles-based European regulatory community (Doran, 2009). While transition to international standards continues to progress, little research examining whether principles-based standards affect auditor decision-making has been conducted. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of principles- vs. rules-based standards on auditors' willingness to allow preparers leeway in reporting practices and to consider how auditors' decision behavior is influenced by potential client pressure and/or opposing pressure from the SEC. Based on a sample of 114 experienced auditors, the results show that auditors are more willing to allow clients to manage earnings under rules-based standards; and, these results are persistent even under external pressure. Results also indicate that more experienced auditors are less willing to allow clients who exert high pressure to report earnings aggressively, while SEC pressure has more affect on less experienced auditors. These results provide important insights to the FASB, SEC, and IASB as they weigh arguments underlying the principles- vs. rules-based debate.

The purpose of this research is to present evaluation findings from the National Public Health Leadership Institute (PHLI) regarding how the curriculum's learning methods work singly and together to produce outcomes for learners and their organizations.

Six months after graduation from PHLI, four recent cohorts of PHLI graduates were asked to report overall reactions to PHLI by using an online survey. The survey consisted of quantitative questions about key leadership behaviors taught in the program and the usefulness of PHLI's five learning methods as well as qualitative questions about changes in understanding, skill, practices, and outcomes.

The evaluation survey yielded a 66 percent response rate (n=133). PHLI's learning methods are interrelated and lead to such outcomes as changed leadership understanding, knowledge and skill development, increased confidence, increased self‐awareness, leadership practice changes, and organizational results. The learning project was strongly associated with development of collaborations, whereas assessment tools and coaching were most often associated with increased self‐awareness.

These preliminary findings support the idea that particular learning methods are related to specific outcomes. However, graduates often integrate information and skills from multiple methods to achieve outcomes. Future research should investigate whether the associations identified in this evaluation are present in other leadership development programs.

This is the first published evaluation that has attempted to link specific learning methods with outcomes for participants of a public health leadership development program.

This paper aims to identify the ethical foundations and principles underpinning the learning organization (LO) concept.

By interviewing one thought leader in the field, Professor Robin Snell, this paper traces how his early days in academia shaped the development of an ethics-driven research agenda on LO.

An ethical perspective advocates the importance of establishing a covenant or constitutional foundation of rights that would enable and empower organizational members at all levels to enact the processes of LOs, thus signifying the importance of employee development and a more sustainable approach for developing LO.

A personal reflection of Robin Snell on his own academic career development and research trajectory offers some insights into how an ethical perspective of LO evolved and flourished as a field of study.