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Women are failing to enter senior management levels across all occupational groupings. Barriers to the progression of women into nurse management (NHS) are examined. Substantial evidence of gender‐based disadvantage is found. Women with dependent children, especially those working part‐time, are located in the lower nurse grades irrespective of their qualifications and experience. The resultant outcome is one where otherwise comparable groups of female nurses experience unequal access to the nurse management grades. Three problems are identified: the low status of part‐time work; inflexible working practices and management inertia. Therefore, despite rhetorical support for the introduction of initiatives which would overcome some of these barriers, little has materialised by way of introducing such initiatives.

The British labour market is characterised by patterns of occupational job segregation with a concentration of women within particular sectors, and at certain levels within these sectors. The types of employment in which women predominate tend to be lower paid, with less opportunity for career progression, than those occupied by men. This suggests that there is an under‐utilisation of female labour power within many sectors of the economy.

While evidence of the existence of gender‐based inequality in employment outcomes such as career grade and pay, abounds, theoretical disputes over the explanation for this phenomenon remain unresolved. Broadly, writers are divided over those who believe that unequal employment outcomes for women are the result of their individual choice (for example see Becker, 1975 and 1985; Lord, 1979; Hakim, 1991, 1993 and 1996), and those who believe this to be the result of the constraints placed on women (for example see Davies and Rosser, 1986;Curran, 1985and 1988; Collinson et.al., 1990; Vogler, 1994).

Increases in female employment in post‐war Britain are characterized by the concentration of women in low‐paid and low status occupations. Demographic change in the late 1980s and early 1990s could have improved the employment status of women, with employers devising “women friendly” initiatives to deal with the accompanying predicted skill and labour shortages. Discusses research undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s to examine the extent to which some of the major employers of women (public and private sector) were responding to the threat of demographic change. It was found that only a small number of employers provided “women friendly” initiatives. These initiatives, however, only eased access into the existing low‐paid occupations in which women already predominated.

Harsh economic conditions have put pricing higher on the agenda but responses to pricing challenges have frequently been tactical. The intent is to build on basic pricing principles to emphasize a strategic perspective on pricing built around opportunities to deliver superior customer value.

Our logic is drawn from the observation of company pricing practices and interesting moves from conventional to innovative pricing strategies.

Our observations underline the need for executives to adopt a more strategic view of price and to examine the scope for raising prices, especially in a post‐recession economic scenario.

Our action agenda addresses: why there is an urgent need to make pricing decisions strategically, particularly as economic recovery occurs, with important insights coming from innovative pricing models designed to deliver superior customer value; the role of price in strategic positioning – key management considerations are whether price is to play an active or passive role in marketing the product or service, and whether price is high or low compared to alternatives; the challenges of raising prices in recession and recovery conditions, where analysis underlines the importance of considering product differentiation from a customer perspective and comparing this with how strongly the customer needs the product; and the need to design a value‐based pricing strategy which integrates the conclusions reached about the strategic role of price.

Viewing pricing as a “quick fix” and the only route to maintaining sales or protecting market share underplays the strategic importance of pricing and its long‐term strategic implications. We propose a management action agenda for making pricing decisions strategically.

Despite the numerical predominance of women in nursing there is a marked concentration of women, especially those working part‐time, in the lower echelons of the profession. The paper presents survey data and interview material from a study of qualified nurses in NHS Wales. By controlling for differences in education and experience in nursing work, it was found that comparable groups of female nurses received unequal employment opportunities. Women with dependent children were primarily located in the lower nurse grades irrespective of their qualifications and experience. Much of this was associated with inflexible working practices, and the low status of part‐time work. Occupational downgrading for female returners was also a significant barrier to career advancement. However, these problems were not recognised by management. Management failed to evaluate the mechanics of their human resource policies in terms which matter to many nurses, in particular with regard to the management of diversity.

Despite the numerical predominance of women in nursing there is a marked concentration of women, especially those working part‐time, in the lower echelons of the profession. The paper presents survey data and interview material from a study of qualified nurses in NHS Wales. By controlling for differences in education and experience in nursing work, it was found that comparable groups of female nurses received unequal employment opportunities. Women with dependent children were primarily located in the lower nurse grades irrespective of their qualifications and experience. Much of this was associated with inflexible working practices, and the low status of part‐time work. Occupational downgrading for female returners was also a significant barrier to career advancement. However, these problems were not recognised by management. Management failed to evaluate the mechanics of their human resource policies in terms which matter to many nurses, in particular with regard to the management of diversity.

Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is discretionary employee behaviour that promotes organizational effectiveness, and has become recognized as an issue of potentially substantial importance in the management of sales operations. Identifies sales management control strategy as an important antecedent to salesperson OCB, which has been neglected in prior OCB research. Uncovers an important gender dimension in the display of OCB by salespeople, not previously investigated, and identifies an important relationship between sales manager gender and the OCB displayed by a sales unit or team, which is associated with the effectiveness of the sales unit. The findings have a number of important implications for managers concerned with enhancing sales organization effectiveness, as well as identifying a number of promising research directions.

To provide a critical perspective on the robustness of strategic account management (sometimes called key account management) strategies as an approach to managing relationships with large and very large customers.

The paper is based on exploratory interviews and management workshop discussions and the observation of the operation of strategic account management approaches in practice, and is illustrated with cases drawn from secondary sources.

Suggests that SAM may amount to investment in strategic weakness that enhances dependencies and limits the scope for superior supplier performance; a customer portfolio analysis of all accounts identifies where the best prospects for long‐term profit exist; many strategic account relationships are based on exaggerated estimates of customer relationship requirements and customer loyalty. We conclude that strategy analysts should be concerned with developing new business models that avoid the trap of dependence on powerful, major customers, rather than pursuing business strategies like SAM that reinforce dependencies.

There are a number of research opportunities in examining the long‐term impact of formalizing strategic account management systems in supplier organizations.

We aim to provide managers and analysts with a different perspective on strategic account management strategy that considers the potential weaknesses and vulnerabilities created through the strategy, to be compared to the attractions of this strategy.

Our goal is to add to understanding of strategic relationships between buyers and sellers. We do not believe that the downside to strategic account management strategy has received adequate recognition in existing treatments of the topic.