This study examined next generation business officers' (NGBOs) perceptions of their readiness for assuming the chief business officer role (CBO). Originally created in 1920, the CBO role has changed over the decades in response to changes in the higher education landscape. Once thought of as the person in the back office keeping the books, the CBO…

Purpose: Marks and Spencer's Plan A environmental strategy is an ambitious one which addresses economic, social and environmental considerations. As part of this process it recently used a sustainable learning store strategy to develop, capture and disseminate learning before, during and after construction so that learning could be transferred to…

From the perspective of organizational behavior, mentoring received little attention until the mid 1970s. Since that time, the topic has been praised, criticized, analyzed, and in some organizations formally endorsed. A survey of 1,200 leading corporate executives found that two thirds of those surveyed had a mentor, that the number of these…

Purpose: In this paper empirical research is presented that investigates managers' perceptions of a variety of component management skills and techniques. The aim is to identify which management development needs manufacturing SME managers perceive as most important for their continued development, and to consider contextual factors that might…

Research on motivation to manage can be summarized in five points: (1) motivation to manage is a major factor for success; (2) motivation to manage declined in students from the 1960's to the 1970's; (3) this decline is evident in the relevant age groups; (4) differences between United States students and foreign students place the United States…

This paper defines and explains action learning and suggests some ideas and resources for putting action learning into practice. The paper is organized in eight sections of about one page each. The sections cover the following topics: (1) what action learning is; (2) how action learning works; (3) action learning and training--key differences; (4)…

This packet contains four papers on organizational structure and strategy from a symposium on human resource development (HRD). The first paper, "Exploring Alignment: A Comparative Case Study of Alignment in Two Organizations" (Steven W. Semler), reports on a case study that compared the results of an alignment measurement instrument…

Although self-directed learning (SDL) has been promoted by businesses as being needed by managers, traditional business schools have not promoted this type of learning. In addition, some adult learners are not ready for SDL, and some subjects (such as accounting) are not suitable for SDL. The concept of self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) can…