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The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of an experiential leader development course titled understanding group-and-leader (UGL).

The study sample consisted of 61 course participants (the managers) and 318 subordinate raters. The development leadership questionnaire (DLQ) was used to measure the results of the course. The measurements were made on three occasions: shortly before the course, one month after the course and six months after the course.

The managers’ self-evaluations did not change significantly after the course. However, the subordinate raters’ evaluations of their managers indicated a positive trend in the scales of developmental leadership and conventional-positive leadership one month and six months after the course.

The study was based on a comparatively small sample with a number of drop-outs. The study lacked a control condition.

From an organizational point of view, it could be argued that it is justifiable to send managers to such a course, as there is a good chance for an improvement in their leadership style as rated by subordinates.

The integration of group processes and leadership behavior in the context of experiential learning seems to be a fruitful path to leader development.

Longitudinal studies on the results of experiential learning for managers are sparse. This is the first quantitative evaluation of a course that more than 80,000 individuals have taken.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the influence of leadership programmes on leaders and co-workers, as well as which mechanisms are involved in the process.

An analysis was done into 431 free-text answers to questionnaires given to 120 participants in two different leadership programmes and their co-workers six months after their participation, using a grounded theory inspired approach.

The result is a model, linking internal psychological and external behavioural aspects, with the central outcome that leaders gained more confidence in their leadership role through theoretical models learned, and reflection.

The course participants as well as the co-workers seemed to experience a positive leadership development indicating a value of participating in the courses.

Confidence in leadership role seems important for having positive outcomes of leadership. Although this needs further research, it is something organisations should consider when working with leadership questions.

The co-workers perceived their leaders to be calmer, more open for discussions, and willing both to give and receive feedback post training. There appears to be an increase in trust both in the leader and reciprocally from the leader in the co-workers.

Until now there has not been any systematic research into the effects on participants and co-workers following the programmes, despite the fact that over 100,000 have participated in the courses.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible factors related to transfer of knowledge and skills from two leadership development courses to the work environment and its maintenance for two years post training.

A total of 12 leaders in two different types of courses were interviewed at least two years after their participation. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns within the data that explained if, how and why these leaders used this knowledge and these skills in their leadership practice.

The most influential themes identified were personalized feedback in the courses, increased confidence in leadership roles after the courses, the opportunity to use new knowledge and skills at work, employee feedback, management facilitation and continual reflection.

Leadership development programs should include personalized feedback and reinforce continual reflection on the feedback and course content. The short-term goal of such programs should be to increase leaders’ confidence in their leadership role. The employer must offer opportunities for continual reflection, facilitate dialogue with employees, peers or superiors for long-term maintenance of skills and knowledge.

Outcome studies of leadership development programs are scarce and long-term follow-up of transfer and maintenance of knowledge, as this one, even more unusual.

Citizen participation in urban governance has established itself as a paradigm, promising greater democracy, empowerment, and more cost-effective public service delivery against the backdrop of increased urban conflicts. The dominant focus on the “citizen” or even “smart citizen” in the context of smart cities and urban innovation is however a relatively recent phenomenon. A growing number of initiatives seek to revamp the smart city as a human smart city. Therein, design thinking and human-centered design have become the buzzwords of choice to describe “putting people first” approaches that promise to develop solutions tailored to citizens’ needs. What was previously known as user-centered design in the context of information and communication technology (ICT) product and service development now proliferates the urban through innovation labs or civic hackathons. But what are the implications of using design thinking in a smart city context? And moreover, how to unpack human-centered design and design thinking within urban scholarship? This chapter contextualizes the phenomenon of design thinking in cities and renders implicit design thinking processes more explicit. Drawing upon ongoing research in Manchester and Amsterdam since 2014, my work-in-progress suggests that governing through design thinking results in a designing of the social rather than for the social. This trend requires historically informed political analysis and alternative ways to govern if the “right to the smart city” is not to become yet another iteration of shape-shifting neoliberal strategies.

This paper aims to explore the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by megacities. Three dimensions were considered. First, what communication channels are used by world megacities to disclose their emissions reduction target (ERT) and emissions reduction actions (ERA)? Second, the consistency of disclosed ERT and ERA across different channels. Third, the quality of the disclosed ERA in different channels.

Ten megacities selected for review were in Australia, Europe, the USA, the UK and South Africa. First, ERT and ERA information was searched in different disclosure media to identify the common communication channels used by the megacities. Second, the documentary analysis was undertaken to assess the consistency of reported ERT and ERA information across the identified channels. Third, a scoring system was developed and applied to evaluate the quality of the disclosed ERA information, based on the extent to which megacities provided descriptions of emission reduction actions and reported the impact of the actions and the cost to implement them.

Megacities primarily used third-party channels and their channels to disclose ERT- and ERA-related information. Social media use to provide climate change information is also growing. The study also finds that ERT information is consistent between third-party channels and megacities’ channels. However, around half of the disclosed ERA between third-party and megacities’ channels are not consistent. Quality assessment for the disclosed ERA in different channels shows that megacities have provided limited information regarding the impacts and the cost of their ERA, which raises a question about the usefulness of disclosure.

The findings are important for policymakers and city officials designing cities’ GHG reporting standards and developing policies for programs to reduce emissions. Also, for stakeholders’ understanding of cities’ commitment and actions to reduce emissions, as well as the impact of their actions, and for managers responsible for measuring, reporting and mitigating emissions from current and future actions.

Prior studies primarily focused on corporate greenhouse emissions disclosure to the carbon disclosure project, whereas this paper examines emissions disclosure at the geographic level. Moreover, prior studies of the public sector focused on the scope of climate change disclosure but did not evaluate the consistency and quality of the disclosure. However, this study explores three different disclosure channels and assesses consistency and quality. A further novel aspect of the study is its focus on the disclosure of emissions reduction targets and actions.

This paper aims to provide details of a collaborative campus effort that created a Media Commons at an undergraduate library at a major research university to provide students and faculty opportunities to experiment with emerging technologies, with expanded opportunities to learn of best practices in educational technology.

This is a case study that used a web survey, focus groups, usage statistics, and interviews to determine the needs and best practices for creating and maintaining the Media Commons.

Preliminary results indicate that this program provides value to students and faculty seeking to learn about and use multimedia for coursework and projects. It confirms the gap on campus for places students can go for loanable technology and consultation services in the production and editing of multimedia.

Because the Media Commons just launched there has not had a programmatic evaluation yet to assess the impact of this program. However, based on initial feedback, suggestions for improvements in the program are included.

The rationale, process and efforts described in this paper can be replicated by other institutions that are interested in creating a Media Commons.

Although there are many articles written about Learning Commons and Information Commons, there is not much available that documents the efforts of creating a Media Commons at a library and the rationale for centralizing and freely making available campus multimedia expertise and equipment.

Italian trade unions have long since promoted the defense and inclusion of immigrant workers through the promotion, within their organizations, of specific services for immigrants providing information, guidance, and bureaucratic assistance, thus enhancing the growth of immigrant members within the unions. However, only recently unions have started to promote the direct participation of immigrants in their organization. This chapter focuses on the chances of mobility and career of immigrant workers offered by unions, starting from the role of union delegate. The analysis is based on empirical research, conducted in Lombardy between 2011 and 2013, on Cgil and Cisl, the two major Italian unions. The attention to the active participation of foreign workers within the organization is still low and not widespread, but mostly limited to categories with higher presence of immigrant workers and where the board is ready to grab the opportunities offered by the appointment of immigrant unionists and to guarantee them equal chances of union career. This situation, in our opinion, promotes immigrants’ acquisition of union roles and credibility, thus paving the way of internal mobility and career opportunities in the union.

The purpose of the study was to find out about: significance and understanding of corporate identity, its elements and CI management in Slovenian companies/Slovenian and international companies with exemplary and successful corporate identity and their characteristics.

A survey was conducted among the most successful Slovenian companies (by income and by profit). A total of 44 people, from 36 companies, who are responsible for managing corporate identity were interviewed.

The main finding is that managing corporate identity is of great importance for company success. Although there is no general definition of corporate identity at theoretical level, the understanding of corporate identity is quite homogeneous – the most common definition according to the research is: corporate identity is a mix of characteristics that organization possesses as a subject. Successful managing of corporate identity, has many positive effects on company's acceptation in a role of subject in the society.

Future research in determining the influence of the chairman and his personality as well as the board and employees' personality on corporate identity would be important. It is recommended that in future, in similar studies, an even larger sample is included and the thought of comparing future studies with the present study should not be excluded.

The main practical implication of this paper is to raise the awareness of how important the local culture is when dealing with corporate identity management.

A brief literature review of Slovenian authors from the corporate identity field has been made and presented on an international level for the first time. Also, the empirical research on the question of how managers in Slovenian companies understand and manage corporate identity in their organizations is new. The main contribution is that results acquired in Slovenia can be partly compared with other similar researches in the EU.

The present review seeks to stimulate thinking about transforming the undergraduate library, both conceptually and in reality, for the future as it continues its search for the best ways to address the library needs of undergraduate students attending a large research university. The review focuses on what has emerged from, been consequential to, and poses challenges for the undergraduate library concept. The author conducted searches in the Library Literature and Information Science database, WorldCat database, the Melvyl^® The Catalog of the University of California Libraries, and the Google™ search engine for information related to the separate undergraduate library in the large research university. Pertinent abstracts, literature, and Web documents were reviewed for references. The search period was from October 2005 to March 2006.