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The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically the importance of context on participants' understanding of leadership behaviour in 12 companies in the German and UK chemical industries. In doing so, it also seeks to review existing literature on contextual influences on leadership and to look more closely at the possible conceptualisation of such contexts.

Findings are drawn from a wider study of 105 qualitative interviews conducted in the German and UK chemical industries in 2004/2005. Textual analyses of these research data have focused on the importance and nature of different contexts, such as the immediate social, cultural, institutional and historical.

The findings indicate that it is the immediate social context in the form of organisational departments that seems to influence leadership behaviour most. The influence of this context on leadership is further shaped by other contexts such as the education of employees, present occupations and national origin.

The findings support the usefulness of the conceptual framework introduced here and especially the assumption that different types and levels of context interact to shape the specific and continuously changing context in which individuals understand and enact leadership. Although clearly confined to the limits of the data set, the finding has potentially significant implications for the focus of leadership development for managers.

The paper responds to Berry and Cartwright's call for a wider contextualisation of leadership, which has so far remained unanswered in LODJ.

The purpose of this paper is to take a fresh look at the leadership and management debate through exploring underlying power assumptions in the literature.

The paper is a conceptual discussion that draws on the power-based literature to develop a framework to help conceptually understand leadership in relation to management.

The paper highlights the historically clichéd nature of comments regarding conceptual similarities and differences between leadership and management. The paper draws attention to a problem within this debate – a confusion regarding assumptions of power. As a result the paper brings to the forefront perspectives of management that are of an emergent and non-work perspective which enables the development of a framework of the literature that includes managers “doing” leadership, managers “becoming” leaders, “being” leaders and managers, and leaders “doing” management. The paper goes on to explore the meaning and potential behind each part of the framework and suggests a need to develop an understanding of “doing” leadership and management and “being” managers and leaders through an exploration of “becoming” in organisations.

This paper provides a new perspective on the leadership and management or leadership vs management question by introducing a non-work, emergent or personal perspective on management. Furthermore, this paper concludes that whether leadership and management are similar or different is dependent upon which power construct underlies each phenomenon, a consideration that has been neglected in the leadership and management debate for some time.

WE are happy to publish a very interesting and practical little article on a simplified system of borrowers' registration. Such a question may seem to have been settled long ago and not to deserve further discussion, but Miss Wileman makes it quite clear that there is still a little more to be said. Not all librarians will agree with her on one point, although recently it seems to be accepted by some librarians that the numbering of borrowers' tickets is unnecessary, and especially the decimal numbering of them. This matter has been discussed at various meetings of librarians who use these numbers, and they arc, we understand, unanimous in their desire to retain them. They are not intended for a single library such as is at present in operation at Hendon, from which our contributor writes. They are for a system of many branch libraries with a central registration department, and where there is telephone charge and discharge of books. The number is simply intended to give an accurate and rapid definition of an actual person. This we have said several times before, we think, and to dismiss a method which has been found successful with the statement that it is surely unnecessary rather implies that the writer has not fully understood the question. That, however, does not reduce the value of our article.