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The results of a study designed to investigate issues in large‐scale change efforts are presented. The sample for this study consisted of 398 individuals with expertise in the area of planned change. Individuals were asked to indicate the types of issues they perceived as having a positive or negative impact on large‐scale change programs in general. Respondents also provided data on 312 specific change efforts. Results indicate that several variables, including high industry competition, a high percentage of employee participation and the participation of employees from many organizational levels, may have a significant positive impact on the success of large‐scale change programs.

Reports results from an extensive survey of major American change programmes which revealed a set of clusters of interventions. Most typically, the change programmes involved combinations of intervention techniques. Team‐building, strategic planning, skill building and restructuring were the most common interventions. Success, however, appeared to depend on complex interactions amongst individual, organizational and change process variables.

Introduces the articles selected for the special issue and their purpose. Over the next decade, consulting is likely to become an increasingly attractive career option for many women. Reviews research related to the topic of women in consulting and highlights some of the critical opportunities and challenges facing women in the consulting industry. The five articles selected for the issue provide multiple perspectives on the unique experiences and contributions of women in the field of consulting.

Explores the relationship between leadership style and post‐merger satisfaction, noting from the results that leadership style is significantly related to merger satisfaction for both acquiring and acquired firm employees, but that effective leadership style profiles vary for these two groups of employees. Shows that, for acquiring firm employees, the use of reward power is the strongest predictor of merger satisfaction, while merger satisfaction for acquired firm employees is most closely associated with transformational leadership. Suggests that appropriate leadership style can greatly enhance merger effectiveness.

In addition to facing a number of special management challenges, the family company, defined as a business owned and operated by a family that employs several family members, must pay special attention to communicating with its stakeholders. Family companies share many stakeholder groups with all other companies. These include the communities in which they are based or maintain a significant presence as an employer; law makers and regulators who are influential in those communities or in the sectors of industry or commerce of importance; suppliers of raw materials, goods and services essential to the activities of the company; partners of various kinds in distribution, production or joint ventures; customers and consumers; employees and potential employees; and non‐family members of management. In addition, the family company has to ensure it maintains communications with certain specific groups. These are the family executives working in the company; family shareholders who are not employed by the company; and banks and financial institutions whose confidence in the company is essential as a source of capital. With all stakeholders in the first group, the company must seek to develop a positioning and communications programme that stresses the advantages of its status as family‐owned while countering any possible negative perceptions stemming from the same heritage. For the larger, longer‐established family companies which now have a large group of related shareholders and members of different branches of the founding family at work in the firm, systematic and effective family communications are of the highest importance.