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In times of deep political and religious division and limited resources, the need for developing leadership that influences and heals our communities is particularly critical. Using service- learning, combined with community engaged scholarship, this pedagogical approach enhanced student transformation, involved and benefited the community growing together, and explored potential contributions to literature in servant leadership. The collaboration involved designing and planning a three-hour event and data collection to address combatting hate and creating greater compassion. Student, faculty, and community worked together in this independent project and reflections indicate significant efficacy of servant leadership in the interfaith community with actionable and accessible outcomes.

Responses to diversity management have resulted in disappointment to many organizations (Cox, 2001). Previous work has situated rational for diversity in deontological ethics by equality scholars, while the business case for diversity has commonly rested on utilitarian ethics (van Dijk et al., 2012). The purpose of this paper is to examine a possible shift in rational for diversity – to explore if and how the ethic of care has been utilized in the diversity statements of companies earning recognition as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2012.

This study utilized visual rhetoric analysis and was designed to examine multiple elements of these diversity statements as published in the company web sites, including presence of the ethic of care, visual communication, and logistics.

Of note are the results of the presence of the ethic of care as a primary or secondary rationale in 70 percent of the statements studied. Statistically significant results were found in the number of images of people from diverse backgrounds, as well as levels pleasantness and activation of the tone of the ethics statements.

This study contributes to a better understanding of identifiable characteristics of these diversity statements at organizations which have been identified by their employees and the Great Place to Work Institute.

The purpose of this paper is to expand the understanding of outcomes of service‐learning/community engagement. The current study explored the efficacy of service‐learning as a pedagogical tool to support content mastery by undergraduates in a management class.

The study involved a classroom experiment with 120 students randomly assigned to complete a service‐learning or a research project as a class requirement. Data regarding mastery of course content was collected through a multiple‐choice assessment at the end of the course, and analyzed using statistical methods.

Results showed that service‐learning can be a better mechanism for student mastery of course concepts than a traditional research project. However, the benefits of service‐learning appeared to accrue disproportionately to women.

Results suggest that educators should incorporate service‐learning into their classrooms to enhance content mastery, and that future research should examine the specific elements of service‐learning that contribute to both female and male students' learning. The findings are limited to traditional undergraduate students in a face‐to‐face management course.

This research study directly addresses some of the tensions between service‐learning/student‐community engagement and traditional university education. Service‐learning has been shown to support student development of socially valuable outcomes. Inclusion of service‐learning in college curricula can be particularly challenging, when a desire for ethical development must be balanced with course content mastery. According to the findings of the current study, service‐learning produces both service to the community and service to the students, as an effective pedagogical tool for content mastery.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of human resource supply chain (HRSC) models that enable comparison of different models for making more informed strategic HR outsourcing decisions.

In the paper interviews and company documents were used to construct multiple comparative case studies.

The paper finds that five generic HRSC models were identified in two broad categories – two in‐sourcing models (local contracting and HR centralizing) and three outsourcing models (purchasing HR, non‐staffing HR, and staffing HR). Additional findings relate to the redistribution of power and competencies for managing HR within and between organizations.

The paper shows that future research should account for different HRSC models to address various dependent variables, especially distribution of power and HR competencies in managing HR supply chains and contribution to firm performance. Future studies on strategic alliances can benefit from building on the HRSC models in building different types of partnerships.

In this paper it is found that managers have a means for comparison of different HRSC models to make more fully informed strategic outsourcing decisions and to develop related HR competencies related to each one of the generic models.

This paper clarifies critical differences in five different generic HRSC models that must be accounted for in research on strategic HR and outsourcing. Without understanding the differences in HRSCs, managers often unwittingly relinquish power and control over critical HR functions to other organizational units or vendor organizations.

The purpose of this Editorial is to introduce key themes in the area of student‐community engagement (SCE) and the papers included in this special issue.

The paper discusses dominant trends in the current context.

The selection of papers in this issue represent the range of programmes that have been developed over the past five or so years and indicate what they have, and have not been able to achieve. However, the recent context indicates an acceleration of the expectations placed on higher education to develop socially responsible citizens and to create graduates who will be able to solve the complex problems of an increasingly complex world.

The paper provides a background to SCE and the changing role and context of higher education.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue, which brings together five papers exploring the changing anatomy of HRM at organisational level. Design/methodology/approach – This overarching paper briefly contextualises the theme and introduces the five selected empirical papers. Findings – The findings in this paper vary according to the core theme of each of the five contributions. The first paper highlights whether the mix of distributed HR activities between the HR department and internal/external agents may be understood to be less a product of contextual influences and more a matter of corporate choice. The second paper establishes that role dissonance is a very real issue for middle managers with HR responsibilities. The third paper unearths the complexities and challenges involved in changing existing HRM procedures and practices in a post‐merger scenario. The fourth paper provides an understanding of the management of human resource supply chains and outlines five, empirically derived, generic models of HR outsourcing. The final paper finds that human resource IT diffusion and take‐up is primarily fuelled by interpersonal communication and network interactions among potential adopters. Originality/value – Combined, the papers offer insights on the changing anatomy of the HRM function against the backdrop of a dynamic contemporary organisational landscape and showcase cross‐national research on the theme.

A controversial issue involving online searching is the presence of the patron during the search process. Searcher attitudes of patron presence were examined by use of a nationwide survey (N=198). It was found that 77% of the searchers preferred to have the patron present. Regression analysis indicated that two factors accounted for 72% of the variance of patron presence: the ability of the searcher to refine the search with the patron present and the searcher's time schedule allowing for patron presence. Only 16% of the searchers admitted to being nervous with the patron present. Concern about making spelling errors accounted for 44% of the variance of searcher nervousness.