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Shareholder value must remain central to the attention of corporate real estate officers (CREOs), even though senior executives have a number of competing agendas. One reason for this is that shareholder value is a vital performance indicator for any important ancillary service; another is that CREOs can help to improve shareholder’s wealth in a unique way. It is well known that occupancy costs directly affect the net earnings of the firm and thus the extent of any surplus it can generate over the annual charge for the use of capital. Occupancy costs also influence how large that charge for resources should be in the first place. Firms pay investors for the use of capital but, in efficient capital markets, the cost is only related to the risk that investors cannot remove by holding a basket of shares. This risk is the intrinsic variability of the cashflows derived from the activities of the firm. This variability is in turn influenced by the amount of company borrowing and by the ratio of fixed to variable costs. Even after allowing for the effect of gearing, the investor’s likely returns are determined by the amount of fixed costs required to generate sales revenues. This is important to CREOs because occupancy costs are a large proportion of most fixed costs. CREOs can therefore influence shareholder value both by the volume of all occupancy costs and by the proportion of fixed costs or leverage that their decisions incur. An indicator of the degree of real estate leverage (DREL) could therefore be a very valuable tool for CREOs. It would also give them more influence in key financial decisions and should raise more interest in real estate issues among shareholders and senior executives.

Purpose – This chapter explores various approaches to historical methods as they relate to sport and physical culture research.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter discusses various paradigmatic approaches to historical methods (reconstructionist, constructionist and deconstructionist) and takes up current debates related to archives, newspapers, photographs and oral history as they relate to the method. Drawing on these discussions, I outline various approaches to designing a sport and physical culture project using historical methods, focusing on my work on women's industrial sport in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Findings – I discuss how data evolved from the method and how I made choices about the inclusion and exclusion of materials. The chapter concludes that historical methods are tedious, complex and messy but also exciting and insightful ways to do research. I also conclude by encouraging the researcher to be reflexive and aware of one's ‘positionality’ as a researcher and embrace the historical process.

Originality/value – The chapter is original work. It is not so much a prescriptive ‘how-to’ guide for historical research, but it works to take up current debates in historical methods. It also endeavours to engage students and scholars alike as they consider their research projects and the potential value of historical methods.

This paper uses ethnographic data from an Australian university to explore constructs of “otherness” focusing on women in lower‐level university work. The work of these women, who hold both academic and non‐academic staff positions, takes place in the spatial and symbolic locale we call the “ivory basement“. Poststructural feminism provides the basis for an examination of the contradictions and subtleties of their identity work as they respond to the pressures of restructuring and managerialism. Faced with a request from these women for certain aspects of their relational work to remain unseen, unrecognised and unspoken, this study assents to that request and focuses instead on options for how poststructural feminism might elaborate their identity work stories. The paper is concerned with the tensions between women's own struggle with being positioned as “other” and poststructural feminist theorizing of the same.

Ethics is an integral part of an organization's overall culture. Designing an ethical organization requires systematically analysing all aspects of the organization's culture and aligning them so that they support ethical behaviour and discourage unethical behaviour. This chapter considers issues related to establishing an ethical culture in an organization, through a case analysis of a major Australian private hospital and its approach to establishing and continuing to define an ethical culture. Key aims of the research were to identify the role of executive and senior management leadership in developing a values-based approach to ethical culture particularly regarding senior management’s own awareness, support and communication of the stated values. The chapter considers the theoretical approaches available to organizations in developing and sustaining ethical approaches in relation to organizational structures, systems and processes that inform cultural type. The paper also critically comments on the situation presented within the case analysis, providing conclusions and insights for further research initiatives related to such case-based field investigation.

The utterance at a recent council estimates meeting of an Alderman to the effect that he opposed increase of the book‐fund of the libraries in the town because, whenever he wanted a book, he bought it, was, we suspect, a vainglorious one used for a special purpose and time. It was obviously, too, that of a man who may read on occasion, but is not a regular user of books. There are many such and, no doubt, their limited point of view is to be encouraged, so far as book‐purchase is concerned. What it disregards, or does not understand, is that the real reader cannot easily contemplate life without books; he never has enough of them, even if he is not a hoarder of them. There are thousands such. Their homes are not large enough, and their purses are too limited, for them to buy everything they want to read. The “Alderman” can feel that books are cheap; he spends more, if he has the means, on a box of cigars, or a bottle of whiskey, than any ordinary book costs. A single visit to a theatre with his wife (with the inevitable accompanying dinner or supper and transport) costs him more than a shelf of them. If he throws away the book when read, or rejected—for only a few such books are read through by the type under consideration—that is of little more con‐sideration than his disposal of cigar ash or used theatre tickets. In this stringent time the greater part of the community depends upon the borrowed book. Inevitably this will increasingly be the case. Every man and woman, however, who loves books desires to possess them, and every wise librarian encourages that desire. It can reduce the use of libraries very little, if at all, and our business as librarians should be to provide for the literate nation, indeed to assist its making. There are many ways in which this might be done—the provision of lists on “Books for Every Home” with clear notes on why, for it must be realized that not every citizen knows the books that are commonplace tools. In how many homes, for instance, is Whittaker's Almanack to be found? A reference book, of course; but almost the first need of a household is a set of the best tools of this sort. Has any library yet issued a list with this special intention? Say, “Six Books necessary to Every Home”? We assume that when a reader is passionately drawn to a book he must buy it, but such attraction is mainly felt by those who are already book‐lovers. For others there are such questions as, where shall we put the books suggested? An answer may be that every librarian, in his own area, should urge that built‐in bookcases should be a feature in every house plan. He might do much to solve a real problem. He can continue, too, to assist book‐buying by his periodic exhibitions of books for prizes, presents (Christmas and birthday) and help to answer the question, “What books of great literature ought to be in every home for children and for life‐keeping?” His every convert would become also a life user of libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a typology of a profession and to then assess the circumstances under which management could be classified as a profession against such a typology.

The current paper is conceptual. The research approach consists of formulating a typology of a profession based on the literature research methodology. The resulting typology is applied to assess management as a profession.

Although there have been efforts in recent literature and media commentary to position management as a profession, no thorough conceptually based analysis to rigorously analyze nor test this claim against the dominant arguments in the literature has been undertaken. The typology presents comprehensive research and analysis across disciplines to identify the circumstances under which management could be considered a profession.

The paper offers a complete typology upon which to classify a profession. It provides highly supported arguments to discern elements of a profession. The key limitation lies in capturing and organizing extensive concepts and views across diverse literature disciplines to refine a holistic perspective (i.e. accountancy, business management, ethics, psychology and sociology).

This conceptual typology enables the design of a highly operable assessment system. It considers requisite standards for professions. It also informs potential professional bodies of the obligations to which they and their members must adhere to achieve and retain the status of a profession.

A comprehensive typology indicating the interdependent requirements and obligations required by a profession has not been espoused in either popular business journals or academic journals across the discipline areas now covered by this research investigation. The contribution provides a comprehensive academic argument to answer the question: can management be considered a profession?