Evaluation of an action learning programme for leadership development of SME leaders in the UK

This paper presents the findings from an evaluation research project undertaken by Henley Management College in 2006. This project followed an earlier research study that focused on identifying the leadership development needs for leaders of small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, developed a leadership development model and made recommendations for a leadership development programme. The principle challenges facing the SME organisations overwhelmingly concerned leading change in their organisation. Their personal challenges concerned implementing change initiatives, communicating these and motivating the people in their organisation. In consideration of the challenges identified, one of the key recommendations was to pilot an action learning programme and evaluate the effectiveness of action learning to develop leadership skills in SME leaders. Henley Management College then conducted a research project to evaluate the pilot programme. This pilot consisted of three learning sets, run in three geographical areas in the UK and facilitated using three very different styles. Following the pilot programme, there were several wider reviews by academics, advisors and representatives of relevant government boards. This has since resulted in a significant programme of action learning for SME leadership development being implemented. This paper provides an overview of the relevant literature and research methodology and then presents the evaluation results from the pilot programme. The dominant theme was that action learning does indeed deliver significant business benefits and provides a real opportunity for SME leaders to develop their leadership skills.     

External stakeholders’ roles and factors influencing their participation in developing generic skills for students in Vietnamese universities

External stakeholders have increasingly participated in instructional and training activities in higher education; however, their contribution has not yet been adequately documented, especially in non-Western university contexts. This article reports a study that examined external stakeholders’ roles and factors influencing their participation in these roles in developing generic skills (GS) for students at six Vietnamese universities of different institutional contexts. Data, which were primarily collected by semi-structured interviews with 69 university leaders, academics and staff members of the Youth Union and its associates, were analysed using a content analysis approach. The analysis showed that external stakeholders participated in multiple roles in executing GS policy, including consulting relevant GS for curriculum modification, training students in these skills, providing and supervising student internships, and evaluating the effectiveness of the skills development programmes. The analysis indicated that their participation was influenced by their interests in these roles, university location and university status. University leadership, which appeared to be driven by contextual factors such as several reforms concurrently taking place, curriculum autonomy, and regulations about staff appointment, was also found to influence extremal stakeholders’ participation.     

组织学习的前因后果研究:基于二元视角

目前对组织学习的研究忽略了高层领导者在其中所扮演的角色与作用,本文基于二元研究视角,结合领导理论、组织学习理论和创新理论的研究成果,构建了二元式组织学习的前因后果影响模型,以中国企业为样本对所提出的假设进行了实证检验。研究结果发现:二元领导行为是实现二元式组织学习的一个关键前因,并且二元领导行为通过二元式组织学习的中介作用影响协同性技术创新,二元环境在二元领导行为对二元式组织学习的影响过程中起着正向调节作用,当组织处于二元性程度高的外部环境中时,二元领导行为有利于提升二元式组织学习。当组织处于二元性程度低的外部环境中时,二元领导行为不利于提升二元式组织学习。最后讨论了本文的研究结论、意义和贡献。     

A theory of change for student-led academic integrity

Breaches in academic integrity are a pervasive and enduring international concern to the overall quality of higher education. Despite students being the group most affected by academic integrity policies, organisational culture is such that students tend to be passive recipients of change initiatives, rather than the drivers. To deliver a paradigm change, a theory of change framework was designed, implemented and applied to explore the viability of a student-led academic integrity society. To achieve this, a national research project involving three stages of data collection (surveys, interviews and focus groups) was conducted to obtain the perspectives of students and student representatives. The key outcome of the project has been the recent launch of an academic integrity student society, a novel initiative outside the United States of America. The theory of change framework presented here seeks to offer guidance to other institutions contemplating the viability of student-led change to academic integrity and the establishment of academic integrity student societies, in particular.     

Students’ awareness of science teachers’ leadership,attitudes toward science,and positive thinking

There appears to be a complex network of cognitive and affective factors that influence students’ decisions to study science and motivate their choices to engage in science-oriented careers. This study explored 330 Taiwanese senior high school students’ awareness of their science teacher’s learning leadership and how it relates to the students’ attitudes toward science and positive thinking. Initial results revealed that the optimism of positive thinking is highly and positively correlated with the future participation in science and learning science in school attitudes toward science and self-concept in science. Moreover, structural equation modelling (SEM) results indicated that the subscale of teachers’ leadership with idealised influence was the most predictive of students’ attitudes toward science (β = .37), and the leadership with laissez-faire was predictive of students’ positive thinking (β = .21). In addition, the interview results were consistent with the quantitative findings. The correlation and SEM results indicate some of the associations and potential relationships amongst the motivational and affective factors studied and students’ attitudes toward and intentions to study science, which will increase their likelihood of future involvement in science careers.     

‘It's almost like a White school now’: racialised complexities,Indigenous representation and school leadership

Drawing on a broader study that focused on examining principal leadership for equity and diversity, this paper presents the leadership experiences of ‘Jane’, a White, middle-class principal of a rural Indigenous school. The paper highlights how Jane's leadership is inextricably shaped by her assumptions about race and the political dynamics and historical specificities of her school community. A central focus is on Jane's tendency to deploy culturally reductionist understandings of Indigeneity that position it as incompatible or incommensurable with White culture/western schooling. The paper argues the central imperative of a leadership that rejects these understandings and engages in a critical situational analysis of Indigenous politics, relations and experience. Such an analysis is presented as imperative to supporting representative justice in that it moves beyond merely according a voice to Indigenous people to a focus on better understanding, problematising and remedying the racial relations that contribute to Indigenous oppression.     

非伦理领导与员工创新越轨行为:多重中介效应分析

以资源保存理论和情感事件理论为理论基础，以316名员工为被试，运用非伦理领导、情绪耗竭、内在动机和创新越轨行为等量表，对非伦理领导通过情绪耗竭和内在动机两个中介变量影响员工职场创新越轨行为的作用机制进行了探讨。研究结果表明：（1）非伦理领导、情绪耗竭、内在动机和职场创新越轨行为彼此显著相关；（2）情绪耗竭和内在动机的链式多重中介效应在非伦理领导与员工职场创新越轨行为之间起完全中介作用，非伦理领导不但分别以情绪耗竭和内在动机两个独立中介变量影响员工职场创新越轨行为，还可以通过“非伦理领导→情绪耗竭→内在动机→创新越轨行为”的路径影响员工职场创新越轨行为。     

团队交互记忆系统对群体智力的影响

摘要：团队交互记忆系统是影响团队知识分享与群体智力的重要因素。本文通过58个工作团队310名成员的调查,检验了交互记忆系统的三维模型与群体智力的四维结构,分析了交互记忆与群体智力中自组织性、稳健性、灵活性和规则有效性的关系,并通过结构方程建模验证了交互记忆系统与群体智力的关系模型,团队交互记忆系统对群体智力发展具有重要影响。研究结论对深入理解团队学习和知识管理机制具有重要理论意义。     

教师领导力:理解与启示

当前教师领导力概念在英美等国十分流行。学者纷纷从建构主义、组织变革理论、批判理论、社会交换理论、社会行动理论等视角对这一概念进行了解读和描述。尽管他们的理解视角不同,但我们从中仍然可以找到一些共同的反复强调的重点,这对于我国学校改革和教师专业发展具有重要的借鉴意义。