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After it introduced the extremely successful Droid smartphone into the market in 2009, Motorola quickly moved to develop the next-generation Droid 2 before the next wave of smartphones (including the rumored iPhone 4) flooded the market. The development process was moving smoothly for the company when Verizon, its biggest partner, dropped a bombshell. It wasn't happy with the mechanical camera button on the Droid 2 (citing customer feedback) and wanted it to be changed to a software button like the iPhone's. This request immediately placed Motorola in the proverbial horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, it couldn't brush away the request of its biggest and most important partner. On the other hand, changing the camera button now would mean delaying the Droid 2's entry into the market. Should the Droid 2 team remove the camera's hardware button in favor of a software button per Verizon's request, or not?

John Smith, the product manager, leads the cross-functional Droid 2 team. The case setting is an emergency “war room” meeting to address this critical issue, just weeks prior to launch. John's objective is to obtain the salient facts and opinions of team members quickly so he can make an informed recommendation to his boss by the end of the day. He is concerned that this last-minute request for a design change will not only threaten to delay the launch, which would have significant financial implications, but could potentially create deep fissures in a hitherto effective team that had been running like a well-oiled machine.

The case puts students in a situation that simulates a real-world discussion and allows them to experience what it is like, as a product manager, to orchestrate a meeting with cross-functional teams that have conflicting priorities and agendas. It illustrates the challenges a product manager faces while striving to make important decisions with little or no direct authority over the various teams.

After reading and analyzing this case, students will be able to:

• Experience the dynamics of cross-functional teams in product management

• Practice running effective and productive meetings

• Practice bringing together various personalities and points of view

• Understand the importance of setting goals and clear expectations

• Internalize the importance of building relationships and influencing teams, even when you do not have direct authority

Experience the dynamics of cross-functional teams in product management

Practice running effective and productive meetings

Practice bringing together various personalities and points of view

Understand the importance of setting goals and clear expectations

Internalize the importance of building relationships and influencing teams, even when you do not have direct authority

Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of learning through experience, “by doing”, where the task environment is the classroom, and the task the vehicle. Two previous reviews of the action learning literature by Alan Mumford respectively covered the field prior to 1985 and the period 1985‐1994. Both reviews included books as well as journal articles. This current review covers the period 1994‐2000 and is limited to publicly available journal articles. Part 1 of the Review was published in an earlier issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning (Vol. 15 No. 2) and included a bibliography and comments. Part 2 extends that introduction with a schema for categorizing action learning articles and with comments on representative articles from the bibliography.

Political dissent threads through the history of the Olympic Games. Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) openly prohibits athletes from injecting politics into the Games, Olympians have nevertheless staged protests, using the Olympics to challenge the predominant power structures and institutions. This chapter analyzes outbursts of athlete activism in the context of wider social movements that make these political paroxysms more viable. Social movements scythe political space for athletes, spark athletes' political imaginary, and provide support and cover. From the early days of the Games, Olympic athletes have expressed dissent, as when Irish track-and-field athlete Peter O'Connor rebelled against British colonialism at the 1906 Olympics in Athens. At the Mexico City 1968 Games, Czech gymnast Vera Čáslavská carried out a politically symbolic acts as did US sprinters John Carlos, Tommie Smith, and Wyomia Tyus. At the 1972 Munich Games, US track medalists Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett protested in nonchalant fashion on the medal stand. At the 1980 Olympics, Polish Olympian Władysław Kozakiewicz issued politically provocative symbology on the pole vault mat that challenged Soviet hegemony. In the twenty-first century, numerous Olympians have made political statements, despite a rule in the Olympic Charter that forbids such activity. In each case, athlete activists were bolstered by vibrant political movements in their home country. In this chapter, I trace the relationship between political Olympians and social movements as well as the wider dialectic of resistance and restriction that encompasses the interplay between dissident Olympians and the IOC.

The Milk (Special Designations) Order, 1936, which with its associated circular letter No. 1533, both dated April of this year, are the two latest issues by the Ministry of Health in relation to the purity of the milk supplies of this country. The whole tendency of modern legislation, so far as it relates to the production and the sale of milk, is to bring the trade in milk in all its branches within the compass of legislation based on scientific principles; and these principles in their turn have been derived from extensive experiment and observation in the regions of chemistry, physics, bacteriology, veterinary practice, and medicine, all of which have vastly extended their scope during the present century. The Ministry of Health, as the central authority, acting through the county councils and sanitary authorities in England and Wales, seeks to control in the interest of consumers and producer alike every detail of the production of milk from cow byre to shop counter. The bovines themselves, premises, plant, vessels, methods of transport, nothing is foreign to its purpose. These and similar regulations point to a general tightening up of the conditions under which milk may be sold. The control of a trade that is in some respects the most important in the country. The Ministries of Health and of Agriculture have tried to do not only much but many things, and the measure of control that they exercise at present has only been obtained by overcoming the inertia of ignorance and prejudice, and in many cases the active opposition of vested interests.

The Web is a communication and information technology that is often used for the distribution and retrieval of personal information. Many people and organizations mount Web sites containing large amounts of information on individuals, particularly about celebrities. However, limited studies have examined how people search for information on other people, using personal names, via Web search engines. Explores the nature of personal name searching on Web search engines. The specific research questions addressed in the study are: “Do personal names form a major part of queries to Web search engines?”; “What are the characteristics of personal name Web searching?”; and “How effective is personal name Web searching?”. Random samples of queries from two Web search engines were analyzed. The findings show that: personal name searching is a common but not a major part of Web searching with few people seeking information on celebrities via Web search engines; few personal name queries include double quotations or additional identifying terms; and name searches on Alta Vista included more advanced search features relative to those on AlltheWeb.com. Discusses the implications of the findings for Web searching and search engines, and further research.

A conference can range from good to bad. It can be well or poorly organized, comfortably or indifferently housed, a profitable or wasted use of time. If conferences were rated like hotels and stars indicated their merit, the one held in Munich at the end of October should be awarded the maximum number.

The study measures business leaders’ perceptions of the likelihood of recovery, the competency of business rescue practitioners and the level of support they are expected to provide to businesses in rescue. By examining these three facets of confidence, using expectancy theory, the study seeks to reveal the perceptions of directors as decision-makers in commencing proceedings by inferring their level of confidence in the business rescue process to the likelihood of directors initiating business rescue proceedings timeously.

An online survey targeted South African business leaders, especially directors, was developed to recognise the confidence in the business rescue process. The study combined quantitative (Likert scale) and qualitative (open-ended questions) methods. Data were analysed using the expectancy theory, linking behaviour to anticipated outcomes, to derive confidence in the rescue process. Limitations such as the sensitive nature of insolvency and its inherence negative inclinations should be noted.

The study revealed some complex sentiments surrounding the business rescue proceedings. The responses are indicative of both confidence in and scepticism of the process, offering a nuanced look at South Africa’s insolvency proceedings from outside the confines of the industry itself.

The limitations of the study are notably reflected in its reliance on qualitative insights, which may inherently skew towards negative perceptions due to the nature of the subject – business rescue proceedings. Moreover, despite the anonymity of the survey, there remains a possibility that respondents, who are directors with fiduciary duties, may not have been completely forthcoming. This reticence could stem from an unconscious bias to present themselves and the decisions they make in a more favourable light, thus potentially downplaying or overlooking their own hesitations or misgivings about the business rescue process. This may lead to an underrepresentation of both the depth of scepticism and the complexity of the challenges faced in initiating business rescue proceedings.

The originality of this paper lies in investigating the confidence business leaders have in the business rescue process in the context of South Africa derived from a survey instrument.

More than half a century ago, glucose was “making the headlines” in connection with its use in brewing; it was conferring on beers derived from it properties not anticipated by the brewers and certainly not appreciated by the unfortunate consumers. Arsenic present in the sulphuric acid used in the hydrolysis of starch being converted into glucose passed through into the final product and there was a very unpleasant epidemic of arsenical poisoning, particularly in the Manchester area. There were many repercussions, lasting right up to the present time. One of our early recollections was of long rows of Gutzeit bottles emitting the rather unpleasant odour produced by the action of hydrochloric acid and granulated zinc on beers and ales, although, if memory can be relied upon, we were never successful in finding any significant amounts of arsenic.