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Megaprojects present an intricated pattern of leadership activities, which evolve over their planning and delivery and comprises several stakeholders. A framework is useful to navigate this complexity; it allows to identify and cluster the key elements. This paper aims to introduce a novel framework based on boundary spanners to describe the structural pattern of shared leadership in megaprojects.

A systematic literature review about boundary spanning and shared leadership is used to identify and cluster the key elements of shared leadership in megaprojects. The systematic literature review provides a rich theoretical background to develop the novel shared leadership framework based on boundary spanners.

There are three key dimensions characterizing shared leadership topology in megaprojects: stakeholders, boundary spanning leadership roles and project phases. The novel framework shows how project leadership dynamically transfers among different stakeholders, showing the importance of shared leadership as a leadership paradigm in megaprojects.

The novel framework epitomizes shared leadership in megaprojects by exploring its antecedents with social network metrics. This paper stresses that shared leadership is the envisaged form of leadership in megaprojects. By modeling complex project leadership in a simple, yet effective way, the framework fosters critical thinking for future research. The modeling introduced by this framework would also benefit practitioners in charge of megaprojects.

The paper moves the project leadership research to the network-level by taking boundary spanners as shared leadership roles in megaprojects. It shows how shared leadership is a valuable management tool for planning and delivery megaprojects.

Macpherson Industrial Coatings of Leyton, London, have appointed Nigel Smith as national sales manager.

Newly appointed as director of technology for the Aerospace & Defence group of Smiths Industries is Nigel Hughes, who joins the company from the Defence Research Agency. Mr. Hughes succeeds John Hollington, who retires at the end of September after 36 years service, a period which has seen a considerable enhancement in the company's reputation as a leader in technological development.

Concession contracts provide a mechanism for transferring the traditional public sector client roles of market research, project appraisal, project financing, operation and maintenance, and revenue generation associated with power station projects to the private sector organizations, formerly only responsible for turnkey design and construction. The recent research work undertaken in the Project Management Group, UMIST, has developed and validated a mechanism for the rapid appraisal of concession contracts. A case study example is presented to illustrate the significant features of the procurement of power projects using concession contracts.

Men are still cast as the macho breadwinners and women in a caring, supportive role. This gender conditioning has become part of the company culture and tends to perpetuate the stereotype. Seeks to re‐form this conditioning and reinject the “softer” side of men, just as in a different way female gender conditioning must also be re‐formed. Concludes that equality of opportunity may be thus achieved, with equal benefits for both men and women.

Contractor prequalification involves the establishment of a standard for measuring and assessing the capabilities of potential tenderers. The required standard is based on a set of prequalification criteria (PQC) that is intended to reflect the objectives of the client and the requirements of the project. However, many pre‐qualifiers compile a set of PQC according to their own idiosyncratic perceptions of the importance of individual PQC. As a result, sets of PQC, and hence prequalification standards, vary between prequalifiers. This paper reports on an investigation of the nature of the divergencies of the perceived importance of individual PQC by different groups of prequalifiers via a large‐scale empirical survey conducted in the UK. The results support the conclusion that there are significant systematic differences between groups of prequalifiers, with the individual PQC that contribute most to the differences being the method of procurement, size of project, standard of quality, financial stability, project complexity, claim and contractual dispute and length of time in business.

Haverhill‐based Kemira Coatings, a leading manufacturer of factory applied coatings for wood, has been awarded four stars under the British Safety Council Five Star rating for safety in the workplace, by the Council's director general, James Tye.