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Notwithstanding that evidence-based human resource management (EBHRM) is gaining more ground in governmental institutions, it is still lacking a clear and research-driven conceptualisation (Marler and Fisher, 2013). Therefore, this study seeks to establish a fundamental clarifying concept of EBHRM by using a systematic literature review.

This method builds on an intensive scanning of 2,584 (interdisciplinary) articles, collected from Web of Science and Scopus. Eventually, 50 articles met the predetermined inclusion criteria and were analysed. The most recent conceptualisation of evidence-based management in the literature has served as a guideline to compare the review results and further scrutinise the differences and similarities (Barends et al., 2014; Barends and Rousseau, 2018; Rynes and Bartunek, 2017).

This has enabled us to elaborate a comprehensive conceptualisation. The articles were divided into two groups, one group (n = 31) has Rousseau et al. as a reference, the other (n = 19) did not, and used various definitions. Three themes were identified: evidence-based research methods (n = 30), specific skills (n = 36) necessary to apply an evidence-based strategy and a link with the academic-practice gap (n = 25).

Based on the results, we recommend adding two dimensions to strengthen the current conceptualisation: a first dimension referring to how evidence-based management can be established (i.e. which methods and skills are necessary) and a second dimension referring to the why of evidence-based management in an organisation (reducing the academic-practice gap).

This paper starts from a systematic review approach unlike previous research in the field to contribute to the further conceptualisation of EBHRM (Rynes and Bartunek, 2017).

The purpose of this paper is to offer insight into school leaders' and teachers' perspectives on leadership behaviour and its impact on their mutual relationships. Research papers that include perspectives from both school leaders and teachers are relatively scarce in the field of education. However, it is important to take account of both perspectives because if they align, school leaders can be expected to be more successful. Moreover, positive teacher perceptions about school leaders result in lower levels of teacher burnout and enhanced teacher collaboration.

The current study employed qualitative data drawn from 24 primary schools in Belgium. The data set was assembled from 24 interviews with school leaders and 22 focus groups with teachers. The research analyses the interviews and focus groups from an inductive approach in order to let theory emerge, to refine existing theories in the field of education and to get an in-depth understanding of agreements and disagreements in the perspectives of school leaders and teachers.

The results show that school leaders and teachers perceive school leadership principally as relation- and task-oriented. However, there are differences in the perceptions about the subcategories of relation-oriented behaviour between school leaders and teachers. School leaders refer to consulting with members when making decisions and providing feedback. On the other hand, teachers indicate the importance of support and encouragement and recognition. The perceptions of the relationships between school leaders and teachers seem to match, with both valuing trust, openness and contribution.

This study addresses the relative scarcity of research relating to school leaders’ and teachers’ perspectives regarding school leadership. The study clarifies concepts in order to facilitate further research on school leaders' effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the leadership roles the Ethiopian civil service managers preferably embody in their setting. As such, contextually preferred roles were identified and briefly contrasted with the leadership literature. It also outlined the directions for the future research agenda.

Q-methodology, an approach reasonably like “grounded-theory” was used. It is suited to embrace life as lived by the actors themselves. In this specific case, Q-methodology allows the managers to conceptualize their definitions or preferences of leadership roles. The data were obtained from 51 managers working in the federal civil service organizations covering a broad range of public policy and service fields.

Based on the Q-sorts of 51 managers, the authors found three distinct yet interrelated archetypes of role preferences, which the authors labeled as the change agents, affective leaders and result-oriented realists. The study, however, demonstrates that although the ostensible echoes of each of these perspectives were professed, there were overlooked functions that are needed to be performed for full practice of each.

Understanding the contextually preferred leadership roles, if considered in designing the management training and development programs, could prove productive. It also informs the staff recruitment and promotion activities of the civil service organizations.

Conceptualizations of public leadership roles are abound in the literature. As they mostly emerged in a Western context, their applicability to other settings is questionable. Studying the subject in the context of Ethiopia, this paper contributes to the growing body of African literature on administrative leadership and informs the practice as well as the scholarship in this area.

Competency management has become a new trend in the public sector. There is some doubt, however, if competency management is really something new or whether it is just old wine in new bottles. Academics seem to be more sceptical about its novelty than practitioners. This article attempts to combine theory and practice. Some theoretical aspects of competency management are explored and definitions, reasons for implementation, novelty and implications for the HRM function are discussed. The theory is then confronted with two cases of competency management in the public sector. The first deals with the appraisal system in the Flemish administration and the second with the HR‐policy towards public managers in the Dutch civil service. The research material for the case studies was collected during a research project on international perspectives for HRM in the Flemish government.

Introduces the special issue, which looks at the changes experienced by public sector organisations during the last 20 years of the twentieth century, when they were being transformed from a bureaucratic system to a market‐oriented results‐driven system. States that during the 1990s the need for participation, involvement and empowerment of staff began to pervade the thinking of public managers and there was a move away from the old hierarchical command structures in the public sector in order to create more fluid responsive organisations. The issue looks at some of the negative and unanticipated effects of these changes.

This introduction seeks to locate the origins of the competency management in American and British management concerns with declining international competitiveness and the need for more efficient and effective managers. It examines the distinctive American and British approaches and identifies and defines the ideas, concepts and techniques associated with competency in each country. The transfer of these ideas and practices into the public sector accompanied the spread of new public management, which has increased throughout the 1990s. The movement is now an international one prompted by both the OECD and the management consultancy industry. The process of adoption and implementation has tended to be pragmatic and ad hoc but evidence suggests it is now becoming an important vehicle for organisational cultural change. This introduction provides the backdrop for the remaining five articles in this special issue of the journal, which illustrate both developments in theory and practice of competency‐based management within public services.

The purpose of this paper is to preview contributions on leadership and organizational development in the African context, covered in this special issue of the African Journal of Business and Economic Studies.

Summaries of the underlying theoretical/conceptual and/or empirical frameworks, as well as key findings for each paper, were outlined in order to provide insights of each paper’s thematic contribution.

Paper 1 identified four basic modes of understanding organizational culture which provides a unique and expanded view on pursuing research in the field. Paper 2 found that managers use authentic and transactional leadership skills to cultivate and nurture the creativities of employees toward increased performances. Paper 3 found the interaction between authentic leaders and followers as inducing high levels of moral and ethical behaviors in followers. Paper 4 found that employee engagement and affective commitment minimize employees’ attrition, irrespective of leadership styles. Paper 5 found that, managers can enhance organizational development by creating an atmosphere for innovation development, and being involved in its implementation. Paper 6 found that leaders who are emotionally intelligent positively evoke subordinates’ citizenship behaviors. Paper 7 identified three distinct and interrelated archetypes of managerial role preferences (i.e. change agents, affective leaders, and result-oriented realists) needed by leaders in their administrative practices.

The papers provide new insights, in terms of thematic learning and knowledge, which add to the understanding of the contemporary Afrocentric perspective on leadership and organizational development, especially, the dialogue of management activities that promote the relational, critical and constructionist perspectives on leadership and organizational development.

The purpose of this article is to study the overall development of public sector industrial relations in The Netherlands.

The paper reviews the main literature on the topic and relevant policy texts. There are interviews with key individuals referenced and utilised.

Although the direction of change in Dutch public sector employment relations is towards private sector norms, it is unclear whether this will lead to a complete withering away of the traditional characteristics of public sector employment relations.

It is a general overview of key developments.

It is relevant for a discussion of the general trends and dynamic of public sector industrial relations in The Netherlands.

This article manages to take an overview of developments and point to the uncertain nature of a new market approach.