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This study investigates critical success factors which are impacting on the performance of NZ public library managers in generating extra revenue for their organisations. It identifies a number of ways in which the owning authority and the library manager/entrepreneur can increase the chances of success in raising revenue by non‐traditional means. It focuses on four main areas: organisational, characteristics of local government, characteristics of public libraries and library managers, and the external environment.

Organizational innovation is a difficult process. Most innovations fail. If an innovation fails there is a high probability the organization will be fractured. It is easy to break apart an organization. It is much more difficult to build it back up. This is a case study of an innovation in a branch of a large private English language school in Japan. The head teacher decided to improve a portion of the educational system using a fidelity approach. She felt the innovation was entirely technical. Consequently, she thought she could achieve her objectives without the help of the teachers. Her approach failed and caused deep fractures in the branch’s social and work systems. This paper outlines the innovation plan. It shows why it failed, and suggests strategies the head teacher could have used to increase the likelihood of a positive outcome.

The parenting styles, or perhaps lack thereof, of Ambridge families is a much-talked about topic among The Archers listeners. This has been brought into keen focus recently with the parental role in, and reaction to, Ed and Emma Grundy's separation, and the intra- and inter-family dynamics of the Archers clans brought about by Peggy Woolley's Ambridge Conservation Trust. This chapter presents an Archers Assembly, based on the Citizens’ Assembly model, to pass judgement on the parenting styles of the matriarchs and family heads of key Ambridge clans. The Archers Assembly crowdsourced (through the Academic Archers Facebook group) considerations on: The Matriarchs, Peggy and Gill Archer; David and Ruth Archer; Pat and Tony Archer; Susan and Neil Carter; Jenny and Brian Aldridge; and Clarrie and Eddy Grundy. The chapter offers the evidence on each set, with a list of ‘for’ and ‘against’ cases, and quotes, from respondents.

Posits that everyone has certain habits and preferences (pet peeves) for coping in today’s world, Bosses too! Recognizing and identifying your boss’s pet peeves is essential to developing a strategy to satisfy the boss’s desire while keeping your sanity.

Coaching in higher education has become increasingly common across the United States. Our qualitative study explores the perceptions of coaches and advisors, as they consider academic coaching as a role distinct from academic advising.

Our study adopts a qualitative research approach. Two focus groups were conducted with 14 coaching and academic advising professionals.

Our findings identify at least three major themes when considering academic coaching as a role distinct from academic advising: (1) Potential role overlap, (2) Caseload disparities and (3) Philosophical differences. The indiscriminate use of the title of “coach” contributed to confusion, ambiguity and tension.

Without a clear understanding of the coach role as a distinct type of support in higher education, confusion and ambiguity are likely to continue.

No studies have explored the perceptions of coaches and advisors, as they consider academic coaching as a role distinct in the United States.

This paper identifies ways in which community action can enhance the quality of life of older residents and reports specifically on four community gardening initiatives developed with older people living in disadvantaged communities in Manchester.

The Community Action in Later Life – Manchester Engagement (CALL_ME) project used an action research approach to engage older people. Older people and other stakeholders were actively involved in designing, planning and implementing the projects.

Drawing on a range of qualitative data, the paper provides evidence of how older people can be actively engaged in community projects, and explores the benefits of involvement including: enhanced well‐being, and increased socialisation, learning and empowerment. The challenges faced by the older people are also reported which include maintaining interest, recruiting new members and needing external support.

The paper also reports the implications for practice, discussing how gardening initiatives can involve and benefit older people and the wider community and the value of an action oriented approach in disadvantaged communities. Recommendations are made regarding ensuring sustainability of such projects by providing education and training to enhance participants' skills and build their confidence.

Whilst recognising the problems associated with living in disadvantaged communities, the CALL‐ME project takes a new approach and moves the focus to ways in which older people can become engaged in and benefit from community action, and empowered to sustain the projects they develop.

We school administrators, like “practical” men everywhere, claim to have little use for theory. In this we delude ourselves, for we all theorize. The real distinction lies not between theory and practice, but between good theory and bad theory. Good theory is a hypothesis which has undergone verification and which has potential for explaining and predicting events, and for the production of new knowledge. The development of theory, with its constant demand for semantic accuracy and simplicity, is essential as a guide to research, and as a guide to action (e.g. in administration) where it should be regarded as a relational map rather than as an itinerary. The work of Halpin, Guba and Getzels, for example, illustrates that no theory is likely to be the theory. The development of a science of administration is dependent upon such theories. The alchemist described his observations in a half‐mythical language full of metaphors and allegories, not In scientific concepts. Today we appear to live only in an age of educational alchemy.