Management developers often undermine their own objectives through inconsistent, paradoxical behavior. Paradoxes are a normal by-product of the way people assign meaning to interpersonal action. Case studies illustrate four paradoxes affecting human resource developers. (JOW)

Focus groups with British school and college headteachers (n=12) holding degrees in educational management identified important management competencies (ability to learn, to act decisively, to think globally). Managerial knowledge, skills, and higher order capacities need to be targeted specifically as each requires a difference development…