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Information overload is by no means a new concept, but has come to prominence during the last decade. This paper reviews the nature and causes of overload, and considers possible solutions, both organisational and technical, and its relevance to the information professional.

All sectors of the economy have shortfalls in the quantity and quality of management development, but a notably large skills gap is in the not‐for‐profit sector, compounded by a reluctance among many managers in the sector to engage with learning management skills. The purpose of this paper is to report on a novel approach which has successfully deployed web technology to create a soap‐opera style of material for the purposes of informal experiential learning for managers in that sector.

An action learning approach was used.

It has proved feasible to deploy the processes and style of soap‐opera (continuing drama) to the development of non‐formal management development materials. It has also been feasible to find and develop a team of authors with suitable management experience and fiction‐writing skills.

This is based on a single case study developed in a particular set of circumstances, so its generalisability has not been fully evaluated.

Significant appropriate management and technical resources are needed to set up and produce this type of material on a continuing basis.

Many managers are unable to participate in formal management education, but are hard to reach. Their needs are not simply for information, but also for a sense of a learning community and for engaging material, communicated with some drama and clearly relevant to their everyday experience.

The project relates to a unique large‐scale initiative to address hard‐to‐reach groups in need of management development.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a new undergraduate one-term double module called management practice and skills – which sought to change the learning environment for the new intake of undergraduate students based on constructivist ideas aimed at creating a high level of student engagement.

Action research focusing on the evaluation stage of the first cycle of an intervention. The intervention is described in a case study explaining the features of the new module combined with the statistical analysis of the hard data collected on the first cohort of students taking the module using mainly correlation techniques.

The module design did achieve to a great extent the objective of catering to all learning styles and personalities within the cohort. The results from the first cohort established the elusive nature of the concept of student engagement and the challenge in measuring it quantitatively.

This is an evaluation of one case example of the application of constructivist ideas in teaching and hence can make no claim to generalisability. The quantitative measure of student engagement was developed for this study – hence it needs to be applied in other situations and tested for credibility. The student data did not include any measures of their views on the module. The collection of their levels of satisfaction at the end of the module and again after two more years at university would offer a richer view of student engagement.

This type of module makes high demands on the teaching staff. It requires, for example – design effort, tutors with both business and teaching experience, administration of the logistics, expertise in handling moodle. The role of the moodle virtual learning environment is key to delivering the module and to collecting much of the data.

The module design explicitly aims to foster students’ social interaction and create a community of learning among them. It supports students’ personal development, development of individual business and team working skills as well as relevant management theory.

The paper describes an unusual application of constructivist concepts to teaching in a business degree and the development of an innovative and distinctive approach to the creation of a quantitative measure of student engagement.

Prologue: a fairy tale– Once upon a time there were four Goblins who were, of course, chartered accountants. They became tired of counting hoards of gold for the Gnomes so they sought help from the Wizard of Ecognomeics. “We want our own treasure chests,” they pleaded. “That’s easy,” said the Wizard “Human beings have the idea that information technology will solve all their work problems. I’ll turn you into Management Consultancy Goblins. Then you can each take one idea from the Academic Ivory Tower and that should make you piles of gold.” After 5,000 days the four met up at the International Goblin Warming Conference and compared experiences. “I chose Corporate Management Information Systems,” said Goblin 1, “and I was selling loads of mainframes. Then the Gnome Computers Wizard invented the personal computer and everyone started networking instead.” Goblin 2 had taken the software route. “My Computer‐Assisted Management Systems were selling like hot cakes until somebody noticed that they were only doing administration. Then it all went pear‐shaped.” “I chose fear,” said Goblin 3, “All the companies were latching on to my ‘Information for Competitive Advantage’ until someone asked ‘What happens when everyone is doing it?” The fourth Goblin adjusted position on his platinum toadstool, glanced at his Cartier watch and asked, “Have you sad Goblins ever heard of my Knowledge Management?”

Many public service institutions are constrained by their own routines and past practices, which in time affects the internal audit function. In the interests of service effectiveness recommends establishing an overseer of internal auditing matters to take the place of the statutory shackles which are currently binding. First, organizations must clarify their individual missions, if internal audit is to confirm its position as a constructive and purposeful function. Sees a need for market research and intelligence gathering and a widening of internal audit′s horizons. Concludes that public authorities must address the question of whose needs to assess and how.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a method of incorporating on-line role play in mental health nursing education. Recreation of meaningful and realistic simulations for mental health nurses is challenging. Examination of the literature reveals there is a gap in the provision of simulations that replicate practice, encourage the development of skills and promote responsibility. Those that exist may require significant investment in complex technologies or a high degree of planning and time commitment.

An evaluation of a pedagogical design that used an on-line survey to gather responses and thematic analysis was undertaken.

The findings identified that students engaged with the case leading to a realistic experience of case management and development of professional communication skills.

This evaluation could be expanded further to a more formal study examining the students’ emotional responses and learning as they progress through the activity.

The activity outlined in this paper demonstrates that a relatively simple approach can result in deep learning whereby the student can fully experience the role of a qualified practitioner. This model could easily be adopted by other higher education institutions or as a part of continuing professional development.

This paper combines previously researched methods of providing role play to mental health nursing students. It has addressed the critiques of other methodologies such as being time consuming, expensive or lacking in realism. The end product, is low cost, manageable from the lecturers perspective and delivers important learning outcomes to the students.

CSR in water utilities in Denmark faces various challenges in getting to the same level as in private organisations. The water utilities are newly privatised, hybrid organisations that are both professionally and politically driven. The purpose of this paper is an examination of the opportunities and barriers in CSR in these publicly owned enterprises (POEs). The research question is: why do the opportunities of CSR in POEs seem more beneficial than for normal private businesses, while the barriers seem to slow the progression? The opportunities lie in the closeness to and willingness of the political decision‐makers of the city. The barriers to CSR in POEs stem from the legal regulatory framework, which dictates efficiencies, price and cost reductions and limits the ethical investments of the POEs.

The methodology of the paper is a comparative study and analysis of the current legislative and organisational framework for the POEs compared to the contemporary CSR approaches of Matten and Moon, Wartick and Wood, and Mitchell et al.

The findings show that a schism seems to exist in CSR of hybrid organisations, which is hard to overcome.

The originality of the paper and its contribution to the CSR literature lies in its pointing out the issues in opportunities and barriers in CSR in public, hybrid organisations that need to be solved before CSR can be fully implemented in public service companies at the same level as in private businesses.