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Outlines the links between the three key concepts that come with power ‐ leadership, responsibility and learning ‐ and what they mean for learning organizations. Suggests that leadership needs to balance the interests of all stakeholders in any situation to be more effective; that a responsibility approach is inclusive and more concerned with long‐term issues; and finally that learning is the heart of the productive activity, quoting Revans ‐ “for any organization to survive, its rate of learning must be equal to, or greater than, the rate of change in the environment”.

This paper explores how consulting can contribute to the success of virtual teamwork. Based on an introduction to the concept of virtual teams, the potential of virtual teamwork for consultants and clients is outlined. Central questions are: “For which reasons do virtual teams deserve additional attention by business leaders?” and “What kind of services can be offered by consultants that cannot be performed by the client organisation itself?”. The paper finishes with a discussion of the qualifications and resources consultants should possess if they wish to consult on virtual teamwork, highlighting the broad range of requirements and the need to accumulate extensive experience.

The purpose of this book is to open a conversation on the idea of information experience, which we understand to be a complex, multidimensional engagement with information. In developing the book we invited colleagues to propose a chapter on any aspect of information experience, for example conceptual, methodological or empirical. We invited them to express their interpretation of information experience, to contribute to the development of this concept. The book has thus become a vehicle for interested researchers and practitioners to explore their thinking around information experience, including relationships between information experience, learning experience, user experience and similar constructs. It represents a collective awareness of information experience in contemporary research and practice. Through this sharing of multiple perspectives, our insights into possible ways of interpreting information experience, and its relationship to other concepts in information research and practice, is enhanced. In this chapter, we introduce the idea of information experience. We also outline the book and its chapters, and bring together some emerging alternative views and approaches to this important idea.

This article uses the idea of informed learning, an interpretation of information literacy that focuses on people’s information experiences rather than their skills or attributes, to analyse the character of using information to learn in diverse communities and settings, including digital, faith, indigenous and ethnic communities. While researchers of information behaviour or information seeking and use have investigated people’s information worlds in diverse contexts, this work is still at its earliest stages in the information literacy domain. To date, information literacy research has largely occurred in what might be considered mainstream educational and workplace contexts, with some emerging work in community settings. These have been mostly in academic libraries, schools and government workplaces. What does information literacy look like beyond these environments? How might we understand the experience of effective information use in a range of community settings, from the perspective of empirical research and other sources? The article concludes by commenting on the significance of diversifying the range of information experience contexts, for information literacy research and professional practice.

Sir Peter Parker has been a leading British figure in management, in management education and development for many years. In this conversation with Bruce Lloyd, Sir Peter reflects on the social, political, economic and international context of management and organizational development. His gentle, sometimes understated, commentary, masks a restless energy and an enthusiasm for change.

Fons Trompenaars is the Managing Director of the Centre for International Business and his book, Riding the Waves of Culture , is concerned with attempting to further the understanding of cultural diversity in business, particularly international business. His analysis is based on extensive research involving 15,000 employees in 50 countries, in which he explores the cultural extremes and incomprehension that can arise when doing business across cultures in different parts of the world – even when those involved are working for the same company. Explores in this discussion with Bruce Lloyd (Head of Strategic and International Management at South Bank University) some of the critical and sensitive areas, such as the underlying assumptions used in the analysis, stereotyping and equal opportunities.

In interview format, discusses Robert Waterman′s new book, Frontiers of Excellence. Discusses US productivity, competitiveness, employability, and self‐directed work.

In discussion with Bruce Lloyd, Lester Thurow, Professor of Management and Economics at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about his new book The Future of Capitalism. Despite the end of communism, or perhaps because of it, Thurow argues that capitalism will be under considerable pressure in the years ahead. These challenges arise from demographic factors, including increased trends for more global mobility; as well as the impact on the global economy of the new knowledge‐based industries, which are going to create both new opportunities for inequality at the same time as reinforcing old inequalities. Thurow argues strongly that we need to combine an understanding of these pressures and trends, with a willingness, and ability, to intervene effectively, if we are to be optimistic about the economic development of the world as a whole in the years ahead.

Henry Mintzberg, renowned for his work on managerial behaviour, is interviewed. As a pragmatist, he talks about strategies and management to Bruce Lloyd, Head of the Management Studies Centre at South Bank Polytechnic.

Bruce Lloyd, Professor of Strategic Management, South Bank University in discussion with Richard Koeh, author of the recent book The 80/20 Revolution. The author argues that the 80/20 Revolution is designed to encourage people to realise the power that they have as individuals, and to realise the creativity that I believe, is inherent in everyone – and that most people can develop to a much greater extent than is currently the case. The book explores the reason why things are changing and what we all need to do to keep ahead of the game; it also discusses the role of outsourcing and the changing relationship between individuals and the corporation, as well as the renewed emphasis on “The search for meaning.” The author concludes that individuals need to take more control of their lives and to recognise that we all find meaning and happiness from doing things for other people that they feel good about.