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A series of seven empirical studies conducted in Sheffield lend support to the notion that learners do spontaneously display styles of information processing behaviour originally identified by Pask and Scott, that even versatile postgraduate students are susceptible to the effects of matching and mismatching of teaching and learning styles, and that the arena in which these learning styles may be observed extends beyond learning to information seeking activity including database searching. Much research is still to be done to resolve the enigma of learning styles. However, arguably Pask’s time has come in the sense that current computing software and educational infrastructure now allow with relative ease the testing of the potential of Pask’s constructs using large samples of students, and the realisation of this potential in the development and delivery of mainstream teaching and learning resources.

The inevitable change orders in construction projects have either direct or indirect impacts on a project’s duration. Reduced productivity is one of the indirect consequences that lead to major delays in the completion of the project. The purpose of this study is to develop a model that could quantify the impact of change orders on labor productivity and result in the establishment of policies to lessen their effects.

A model was developed to analyze the effects of change orders on labor productivity, then policies for managing their impacts on productivity and project duration were established. A water treatment case study was selected to serve as the scenario in which to implement and evaluate the model and policies.

The results of this study indicated that pressure to adhere to a schedule initially leads to an increase in labor productivity, but it is often followed by a significant drop that is a result of employee frustration. It was concluded that the pressure can be positive if it is applied for a short period of time; however, it continues for a significant length of time, the duration of the project will increase appreciably.

The proposed model can be implemented to identify the factors that affect labor productivity in a construction project. Its utilization will also help project managers assess when change orders occur and determine, which policies will be most effective in optimizing labor productivity.

Construction strategies for competitive bidding and operations are used to avoid the consequences of poor schedule performance such as delay penalties. Flexible strategies in the form of options can increase project value if uncertain conditions cannot be adequately forecast before operations begin. However, project management purposefully manipulates the project performance that drives the use of options and thereby the value added by options. Therefore project management quality may influence option values. Seeks to address this question.

This research investigates the interaction of project management and option value by operationalizing a common use of real options in construction and valuing the option with different levels of project management quality. A simple but realistic dynamic simulation model of a project is described and exercised to reveal some impacts of project management on option value.

The results support a hypothesis that increased project management quality decreases option value and that real options in managing construction projects can be explained with real options theory. The model structure suggests causal explanations that are consistent with real options theory.

The results suggest that practising managers can significantly increase project value by structuring managerial flexibility and thereby improving their evaluation, development, and use of flexibility. However, ignoring the multiple means of managing uncertainty that are often available can distort valuation. Results also suggest that researchers of strategic flexibility in projects should consider multiple forms of uncertainty in modeling options. Increasing the number of available options or the effectiveness of options in a multiple‐option environment can decrease individual option values.

The emergence of evidence‐based medicine has implications for the use and development of information retrieval systems which are not restricted to the area of medicine. ‘Evidence‐based’ practice emphasises the retrieval and application of high quality knowledge in order to solve real‐world problems. However, information seeking to support such evidence‐based approaches to decision making and problem solving makes demands on retrieval systems which they are not well suited at present to satisfy. A number of approaches have been developed in the field of medicine that seek to address these limitations. The extent to which such approaches may be applied to other areas is discussed, as are their limitations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between preferred choice of school subject and student information behaviour (IB).

Mixed methods were employed. In all, 152 students, teachers and librarians participated in interviews or focus groups. In total, 1,375 students, key stage 3 (11-14 years) to postgraduate, responded to a questionnaire. The research population was drawn from eight schools, two further education colleges and three universities. Insights from the literature review and the qualitative research phase led to a hypothesis which was investigated using the questionnaire: that students studying hard subjects are less likely to engage in deep IB than students studying soft subjects.

Results support the hypothesis that preferences for subjects at school affect choice of university degree. The hypothesis that a preference for hard or soft subjects affects IB is supported by results of an analysis in which like or dislike of maths/ICT is correlated with responses to the survey. Interviewees’ comments led to the proposal that academic subjects can be classified according to whether a subject helps students to acquire a “tool of the Mind” or to apply such a tool. A model suggesting how IB may differ depending on whether intellectual tools are being acquired or applied is proposed.

The “inner logic” of certain subjects and their pedagogies appears closely linked to IB. This should be considered when developing teaching programmes.

The findings offer a new perspective on subject classification and its association with IB, and a new model of the association between IB and tool acquisition or application is proposed, incorporating the perspectives of both teacher and student.

Critical management studies (CMS) has been criticised on a number of fronts, not the least of them being its poor track record of reflecting and challenging its internal mechanisms of hierarchy and exclusion. Acknowledging these issues, this chapter explores the role queer theory can play in developing a queer friendship with CMS, whereby CMS might be able to reflect on its normalising tendencies. This chapter does not claim that queer theory is a silver bullet which can deliver itself or otherwise work miracles for solving the complex problems that beset CMS. Rather, it seeks to fan the queer embers that already exist within CMS to spark queerer futures. Part of this endeavour involves bringing CMS and queer theory closer together, but not so close that the two become comfortable companions. As this chapter suggests, a queer friendship will involve antagonisms and tensions between queer and CMS help each other to refute the normative at every turn and gesture towards something more: queerness. Pursuing this project, this chapter provides a brief review of queer theory before outlining current queer stirrings within CMS. The remainder of the chapter focuses on what we might hope to happen from CMS and queer theory being yoked together in a queer friendship, such as bringing queers to the fore in business schools, queering management conferences and embracing forms of queer negativity that condition more radical conceptions of the future.

This chapter reviews the study of individual differences in information behaviour; those differences which are not due to demographic factors such as age, gender, education or occupation, but rather to personality factors and to learning and thinking styles. It examines studies of patterns in information behaviour and of personality and similar factors in groups of information-focused occupations, as well as studies which have explicitly sought to relate information behaviour to such factors. The aim of the chapter is to assess how far we have come in being able to identify and measure ‘information style’, a quality different from any other categorisation of personality or of intellectual styles. If this goal were achieved, it would be a valuable concept for the academic study of information-related behaviours, as well as being of practical usefulness for the design of information systems and services, the evaluation of the effectiveness of such systems and the training of users. It could also allow a tailored provision of information, particularly for creative or innovative purposes.

This research contributes to understanding emotional and political challenges experienced by middle managers as they work with contradictions inherent in leading change from the middle. Focus group data from 27 such middle managers based in the UK indicate that, once they have been assigned roles and tasks for leading change, underlying dynamics and processes influence the degree to which they become capable (or unable) to shape and navigate that change. A proposed conceptual framework, illustrated by a case vignette, provides a base of existing knowledge for understanding and explaining these dynamics. We also construct a model of the key tensions that are integral to middle managers leading change. A further contribution to practice involves elaborating the importance of collaborative effort across hierarchical and vertical boundaries, despite emotional and political tensions that undermine middle managers’ roles as change agents.

‘Information needs’ are defined in terms of conceptual incongruities, the paramaters of which are described by a number of constructs originating in the fields of cognitive and social psychology. The ‘satisfaction’ of such needs are discussed in terms of access to varying ranges of information sources, from individual learning resources to large‐scale data bases, which may contain information appropriate to the resolving of such conceptual incongruities. From a review of systems designated to satisfy information needs of higher education students, it is concluded that generally, the wider the range of of information that an individual has access to, (i) the more restricted to the names of ‘topics’ and ‘subjects’ have been the parameters of information needs catered for by the system; and (ii) the less the individual has been able to know about the suitability of the sources to other parameters of his information needs, as proposed, at the time of searching. Implications are drawn, for students working in the context of relatively independent access to wide ranges of information sources, in terms of the need to develop effective information handling skills; assessment procedures; and information accessing systems.