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Firms which evolve good marketing accountancy information systems will have an additional and vital tool with which to manage marketing. It is a developing section concerning the information needed by marketing managers to optimise planning and decision making and to achieve adequate control measures. Marketing accountancy has developed from strategic planning (which caused businesses to review their practices), and pressure from marketing managers who have felt poorly serviced by accountants and who need to defend the small proportion of total expenditure which marketing often represents. New cost classification and better presentation of information will improve the standard of marketing accountancy, as will new information technology.

The paper presents the results of a study based on an extensive number of interviews and focus group discussions conducted with non‐executive directors (NEDs), executive and non‐executive chairmen, chief executive officers (CEOs) and other key line and functional directors within UK corporations. Four critical issues concerning NEDs’ performance are identified, namely the need to be responsive to boardroom dynamics, the need to be multi‐competent in response to the various challenges NEDs face, the need to have the capability to address governance issues which are increasingly identified as predominating boardroom debate and the need to be sensitive to the context within which the company finds itself. Overall, NEDs are considered to provide a valuable contribution to the progress of the enterprise. However, the question that remains unanswered is what motivates NEDs to continue to address such challenges as, in the UK context, NEDs’ rewards are seen to be particularly low.

The study investigated the relevance of psychosocial variables and how they interact with socio economic status (SES) as it relates to the persistence of African-American students at the major US public universities. The study analyzed the responses of 327 web survey participants attending a major public university in the eastern region of the United States. The results suggest that students from higher SES backgrounds, more than likely, have already acquired or are more easily able to adopt characteristics that are ideal for persistence (e.g., commitment to personal goals, and biculturalism) than students from lower SES backgrounds.

Previous studies have shown that – even after controlling for precollege performance – students who come from families with higher-income levels and parental education persist to graduate at higher rates and earn higher-grade point averages (Bowen & Bok, 1998; Pascarella, 1985). This study purports to provide the context for reflecting on the ways in which current student persistence theories might be modified to account more directly for how SES may influence psychosocial variables that contribute to the process of African-American student persistence in major US universities.

The chapters in this book focus on student experiences in higher education and how those experiences shape their identity and influence their academic success. This volume focuses on the key factors in identity development and how student experiences in formal, nonformal, and informal learning activities help shape their identities. This volume discusses the main theories and concepts involved in identity formation and how educators can increase their understanding and importance of identity in education. This volume argues that all forms of learning can create a more engaging and democratically oriented student experience. This volume also argues that inclusive leadership is an important factor in cultivating a rich and dynamic learning environment and bringing about greater equity and inclusion in teaching and learning.

At Shepparton in the Murray electorate of Victoria in 2007, the Federal Liberal Member, Sharman Stone, announced that under a returned Coalition Government, Shepparton ‘would get a stand‐alone technical college’. One year earlier, the Victorian Minister for Education, Lynn Kosky claimed that ‘We lost something when technical schools [the ‘techs’] were closed previously. Yes, the facilities were not great but we lost something that was important to young people’. This article explores the development and demise of ‘South Tech’, Shepparton South Technical School, 1966‐86 to identify the ‘something’ that Kosky claimed was lost, and to argue that technical education is essential in a reconstituted system.

The importance of an error management culture (EMC) that integrates error prevention with error management after errors occur has been highlighted in the existing literature. However, few empirical studies currently support the relationship between EMC and errors, while the factors that affect EMC remain underexplored. Drawing on the conceptualisation of organisational cultures, the purpose of this paper is to verify the contribution of authentic leadership in steering EMC, thereby leading to reduced errors.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey study. The sample included 280 nurses.

Results of a full structural equation model supported the hypothesised model, showing that authentic leadership is positively associated with EMC, which in turn is negatively associated with the frequency of errors.

These results provide initial evidence for the role of authentic leadership in enhancing EMC and consequently, fostering error reduction in the workplace. The tested model suggests that the adoption of an authentic style can promote policies and practices to proactively manage errors, paving the way to error reduction in the workplace.

This study was one of the first to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership, error culture and errors. Further, it contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating both the importance of cultural orientation in protecting the organisation from error occurrence and the key role of authentic leaders in creating an environment for EMC development, thus permitting the organisation to learn from errors and reduce their negative consequences.

This paper aims to explains how relatively simple nurse staffing formulas from “best practice” ward dependency‐acuity data can be used for nursing workforce planning and development.

The paper combines literature, detailed ward surveys, workshop and expert group/stakeholder information to generate and test care levels/nurse multipliers for setting ward establishments.

The paper finds that professional‐judgement based ward staffing can be abandoned, while complex acuity‐quality, timed‐task and regression‐based nurse staffing algorithms for setting ward establishments may be unnecessary since the new multipliers, underpinned by robust validity and reliability testing, seem to be remarkably accurate nurse‐staffing determiners at a fraction of the cost.

As care levels and multipliers stand they are suitable only for UK National Health Service acute wards. Primary care, mental health, learning disability and other specialist group care levels and multipliers need developing.

Users, at a minimum, can adopt care level data and multiplier staffing recommendations for benchmarking purposes. Ultimately, the algorithms can be used to: adjust ward establishments according to workload; or set staffing for new, inpatient services.

The paper offers a simple system for assessing patients' nursing needs and setting ward staffing accordingly.