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Reflects on different qualities of mind that organizations can develop. Suggests that some previously muted ways of knowing – including more appreciation of interdependence, system patterns, contexts and emotions – are now being developed, expanding learning capacities. Argues that there are constraints on these developments because some changes are happening more in name than in practice, and because system resilience is maintaining preferences for control and action. Offers reformulated visions of leadership which might enhance organizational learning in the face of such restrictions; points to needs for congruence of approach and intention. Challenges traditional notions of leadership as hierarchical.

The acceptance of male as the norm within much literature about women managers is paralleled in individuals' estrangement from their own female qualities.

“The dark” has long been associated with women. An attempt is made here to show how the “dark” can be seen as a valuable and significant concept for women understanding themselves as women and their situation for developing a view towards the concept of “power”. Women, as women, have a responsibility to themselves and others to make their voices heard and to become aware of their particular strengths and to develop these strengths both inside and outside existing organisations. Most current organisations are “male‐dominated” and “male” in approach. Both men and women are frequently unaware of the extent to which they are influenced and operating from a gender‐specific approach. Men and women can equally shape their organisations when women reclaim their strengths and refuse their position as a less important, less informed, “minority” status. The issues of conflict and trust in organisations and problem areas in relationships between women are explored.

The purpose of this paper is to revisit earlier predictions by Judi Marshall in 1991 to explore whether similar issues were evident in a sample of contemporary female managers.

Qualitative data from six Australian female managers who had participated in a longitudinal study over a period of ten years were examined. Career advancement aspirations and outcomes were compared with those of male managers, and reflections on the managerial role, and organisational practices were sought.

Examples of organisational resilience “to involve women in organisations on equal terms” were evident in all the six female managers in the study. In addition, even when levels of success were achieved, it could be questioned whether these women could be seen as “definers of meaning (or culture)”.

Organisational culture appears to continue to create difficulties for contemporary women in management. A system of accountability is strongly recommended, based on a similar reporting programme adopted by the Equal Opportunity for Woment in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) to measure the equal opportunity programmes on offer in the workplaces of organisations with 100 or more employees.

The paper is highly original as it seeks to compare predictions made by an eminent UK scholar in the field of women in management in 1991 with the experiences of a small sample of contemporary Australian female managers over a ten‐year period in their management roles.

Women's collaborative, nurturing management styles are often seen as non‐managerial where an authoritarian, militaristic approach is the dominant style, as authors like Judi Marshall (WiMR Vol 1 No 1) have pointed out. In a Middle‐Eastern nation modelled on Western European lines, bringing together heterogeneous ethnic and cultural groups, Israeli women are now rapidly entering management, and the factors responsible for this change are analysed here. Girls are conscripted at 18 for compulsory military service, and Yehudit Har‐Gad, herself a career soldier and currently a colonel in the Israeli army, investigated military service as a factor—along with race and domestic responsibility—in increasing the proportion of managers in Israel who are women. The career development of women and men with the same educational background and qualifications are compared. Professor Teddy Weinshall reports.

Their reluctance to engage in politics often deters women from moving into senior management. “Many women's reluctance to work at making the right impression and to engage in politics holds them back”, says Judi Marshall, who draws this conclusion from a study of 30 senior women managers.1 It highlights one of the main reasons for political skills being a key area for women managers. The purpose of this article is to encourage women to overcome this reluctance and acquire these skills in order to enable them to reach their full potential.

The ethnographic data obtained from in‐depth evaluations carried out in three leading European business schools were used to study women′s experience of management education. There were several structural differences between the three programmes, one of which was the number of women present. For example, one was an all‐male programme; the second was predominantly attended by males and the third programme had equal numbers of males and females. The findings precipitated the development of a model which suggests that only when equal numbers of women and men attend programmes for management development will women (and men?) feel able to express their authenticity in these settings.

Stress is a topical subject. There is no escaping its increasing coverage in both popular and academic literature. Both public and government concern is growing as the short‐and long‐term effects of stress for the individual, his family, the company he works for and even the national economy are being realised. As a researcher in the area, I am glad to see this surge of interest and although action to do something about stress is lagging behind, there are signs that this too is developing.

The purpose of this paper is to review action research approaches to changing practice through reflection, identifying themes, issues and questions relevant to a broader community of research practitioners. It invites additional layering in concept, enactment and account.

A framework for considering interwoven dimensions of action research as first‐, second‐ and third‐person inquiry is presented. The paper then works through stories to explore the complementarities of action research with other genres of research, addressing developments of practice through reflection. Questions of general relevance are identified.

Action research is a richly diverse range of approaches having much in common with a broader community who seek to develop embodied practice and practical knowing, work in collaboration, respect multiple ways of knowing, and influence change in social systems. Frames, approaches, practices and questions from action research can be applied more generally. The paper articulates a profusion of questions. These include inviting attention to researchers' reflective practices, to different ways of exploring issues of power, and to questioning (organizational) contexts in which interventions are set.

Practices of inquiry and intervention for social and organizational change are explored. Attention is drawn to issues of power and how they might affect action with a participatory intent. Ways of developing understandings and enactments are offered.

This paper offers a companion language and set of practices from which to view other genres of research/intervention interested in developing practice through reflection.