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Participative management is still hard to sell in the post‐Soviet world with its 50‐year tradition of ruthless authoritiarianism, fear and mistrust. The authors heard repeatedly that what Western consultancies offered was often rejected outright because there are too few antecedents in the Central and Eastern European experience for people to find Western management techniques credible or culturally congruent. Consequently, an attempt is made to cull from 100 years of management theory “conceptual stepping stones” that could lead to the accommodation of the participative methods that have proved to be success‐ and profit‐producing. Recommendations are presented for a CEE‐specific manager development model.

The cost of money has changed the organisational world in very fundamental ways. Management practice too often fails to reflect those changes. Until managers begin to understand the magnitude of these changes America will continue to be marginally productive in the face of economic competitors. American managers should make non‐managerial employees partners in an effort to create productive, effective organisations. Work must be planned at levels of detail which allow individuals and groups to know precisely what is expected of them, and what conditions will exist when they have performed them satisfactorily. Major challenges for human resource development and a new paradigm for workplace leadership are discussed.

For the European Union to continue to succeed leaders in all 25 member countries have to devote more attention to the factors of culture and business. However, the key to successful business enterprise across Europe is not only understanding the impact of culture on human behavior and organizations, but for managers and other professionals to develop skills in coping with multiculturalism and diversity within the EU populations.

This piece is a republished autobiography of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.

Chandler reflects on his life and career as a management historian.

Chandler reflects on his life and career, in particular how he came to write Strategy and Structure and its impact on him as a historian. He also discusses his life at Harvard Business School, the editing of the Roosevelt letters, and the writing of The Visible Hand.

This is excellent background material for the other papers in the issue, as well as a valuable personal insight into Chandler's own thinking.

By adopting the dictum that all knowledge is knowledge from a point of view, educators can arrange the literature on leadership into nine categories from three conceptually distinct points of view, namely the Leader, the Follower, and the Investigator. Students who come to appreciate and account for point of view not only increase their understanding of leadership, but also prepare to compensate, if not transcend their own point of view – a skill that successful participants in leadership will increasingly require.