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This paper aims to present research‐based insight on the significance of building self‐awareness and self‐efficacy as foundation to other forms of leadership development

The research is taken from a two‐year interpretive study conducted in the Australian rail industry aimed at establishing a unified approach to developing rail leaders. Using mixed methods, seven major rail organizations contributed to detailed case studies, online surveys and in‐depth interviews at various levels of management.

The findings support a new variation of leadership capability that has emerged and is being applied in organizations where managers are empowered to create and define their own work roles. In order to achieve this autonomy, a higher level of self‐awareness and self‐efficacy is essential. Self‐awareness requires the leader to use a wide range of cognitive processes such as: focussing attention and evaluating current behaviour to internal standards and values; recognising their personality characteristics, strengths and weaknesses; and, having a clear perception of their emotions and self‐esteem. Importantly, leaders need to know how they relate to others, how they communicate and what makes them happy.

The findings are contextual and may not fit all settings, but they offer a comparative account of leadership development in an industry facing perpetual change, economic challenges and a shortage of leadership talent.

The paper has practical implications for human resource practitioners and professionals involved in the implementation of leadership development programs. Leadership is a global priority and organizations need to get much better spotting and developing leadership talent.

This paper will be of value to human resource professionals and managers, assisting them to think differently about leadership by focussing on an emerging underdeveloped area of leadership training and development

Describes research on the development of leaders in Australian rail organizations.

Details five areas where the “complementarity” contained in the Chinese yin and yang philosophy could help to restore balance in modern leadership.

Highlights the importance of balancing: principles and practices; technical and people skills; hard and soft skills; formal and informal learning; and self and others.

Advances the view that these five balances are relevant the world over; one aspect of leadership and management cannot live without the other, yet each aspect lives within the other.

Demonstrates a way forward for management development at a time when the need for leadership development, capability building and talent management have reached dangerously low levels across the world and the position will deteriorate as baby‐boomers retire and leave behind a leadership “black hole”.

Postulates that one aspect of leadership and management cannot live without the other, yet each aspect lives within the other.

This article is written in two parts and is presented as research-based insight on the growth of formal workplace mentoring programs and the alignment of mentoring with workforce development strategy.

The research is taken from a two-year study conducted in the Australian rail industry aimed at establishing a harmonized approach to the use of workplace mentoring. Using mixed-methods and an interpretive approach seven major rail organizations from Australia and New Zealand contributed to detailed case studies, on-line surveys and in-depth interviews. Responses were obtained from all levels and functional areas within the organizations.

Research findings support the literature and show a growing interest in the use of formal workplace mentoring to deal with a wide range of organizational issues such as employee retention, engagement, absence and turnover. Importantly, mentoring was found to be highly valued in the area of knowledge transfer and especially across multi-generational groups. In parallel with other traditional industries, rail organizations in Australia are about to lose large volumes of highly qualified and long-serving Baby-Boomers. Therefore, workforce development strategies will need to facilitate the transfer of tacit knowledge to a new generation of rail employees who are eager to learn, but less conformable with formal training courses. Mentoring is becoming an effective option for delivering this change.

The findings are contextual and may not fit all settings, but they offer a comparative account of workplace mentoring in an industry facing perpetual change, economic challenges and an impending shortage of skills in key areas.

These articles have practical implications for human resource practitioners and professionals involved in the implementation of workforce development projects. Mentoring is an old concept enjoying new fame, but the intrinsic nature of mentoring, such as the need for highly-trusted relationships and confidential meetings means that organizations should tread carefully as they can engage mentees at a deep psychological level.

These articles will be of value to human resource professionals and managers, assisting them to think differently about workplace mentoring and consider how the characteristics of mentoring are interdependent with the broader goals of workforce development.

Jim Adams posed proudly for news photographers in January 1963 beside a model of the $3 million continuous steel casting machine which he announced would be installed by June 1964, producing at a 200,000 ton per year capacity rate by December 1964, and would add $1.5 million to 1965 profits. He noted that $200,000 had been provided in the capital budget for contingencies. Contrasted to this proud announcement, the record showed, 4½ years later, that the first steel was cast in October 1964, capacity monthly production of 16,000 tons was first achieved in June 1967, startup modification costs totalled $1.7 million, while 80,000 tons of lost production caused a reduction in contribution to profit of $3.6 million during the startup period. This startup of a plant using new process technology had taken 2½ years longer and had cost $4 million more than Jim Adams expected. He felt defensive about the result and would have been much relieved to know that his startup, rather than being an isolated misfortune, was better than the average in such circumstances. Most startups using new technology take longer, and cost much more, than expected.

WORDS COINED BY IMAGINATIVE WRITERS are nothing more than highly cultured pearls of thought. Though they never come into existence spontaneously or naturally, they truly adorn the language and help to perpetuate the works of novelists, playwrights, and poets. Better still, they prolong indefinitely the popularity of many novels, plays and poems that probably would otherwise slip into oblivion. If Henry Carey had never nicknamed Ambrose Philips Namby Pamby, the two eighteenth century poets would probably long be forgotten, and the English language would lack a choice verbalism as well as the humorous lines:

Britain will be starved of highly qualified manpower unless more adults go back to college now. So warn two reports which have been sent to the Government, MPs, employers, trade unions and colleges. These reports, published by the Government's higher education advisers, highlight two reasons why employers could be short of highly skilled manpower in the next decade:

The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the professional press, and became the object of a study by Judith Collins and Janet Shuter who identified them as “information professionals working in isolation”. Many of the problems identified in the Collins/Shuter study remain — not least of these being the further education and training needs of OMBs. These needs are studied in this report. The author has firstly done an extensive survey of the literature to find what has been written about this branch of the profession. Then by means of a questionnaire sent to the Aslib OMB group and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (INVOG), training and education needs have been pinpointed. Some of these needs have then been explored in greater detail by means of case studies. The author found that the most common deterrents to continuing education and training were time, cost, location, finding suitable courses to cover the large variety of skills needed and lastly, lack of encouragement from employers. The author has concluded by recommending areas where further research is needed, and suggesting some solutions to the problems discussed.

Purpose – This chapter traces the creation of a market for strategy by management consulting firms during the second half of the twentieth century in order to demonstrate their impact in shaping debates in the subject and demand for their services by corporate executives.

Design/methodology/approach – Using historical analysis, the chapter draws on institutional theory, including institutional isomorphism. It uses both primary and secondary data from the leading consulting firms to describe how consultants shifted from offering advice on organizational structure to corporate strategy and eventually to corporate legitimacy as a result of the changing economic and regulatory environment of the time.

Findings/originality/value – This study provides a historical context for the emergence of corporate and competitive strategy as an institutional practice in both the United States and around the world, and provides insights into how important this history can be in understanding the debates among consultants and academics during strategy's emergence as an academic subject and practical application.

The aim of this education briefing is to comment upon how basic hedonic pricing models for the valuation of property can be expanded and developed. In this case, the briefing illustrates the use of the new economic approach to the analysis of housing markets, namely the search-and-matching models.

This education briefing discusses the connection of two important economic theories: the hedonic price theory and the search-and-matching theory.

This education briefing gives an example of a (non-linear) form of the hedonic price function.

In cases of mass appraisals, hedonic pricing models can provide a broad indication of value across submarkets and this education briefing demonstrates a theoretical model that can be used to provide a theoretical groundwork for the use of a concave hedonic price function in empirical estimates.

This education briefing shows how basic hedonic pricing models can be enhanced by a search-and-matching approach to determine property values.