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This paper outlines the results of research currently being carried out at Victoria University, Australia, into what is a learning organization, how organizations learn, and how to develop a learning organization. The objective of the present study was to identify the components that underpin the development and operation of a learning organization, i.e. the foundations, or organizational learning mechanisms, that support the development and maintenance of a learning organization. The study identified four facilitating mechanisms: the learning environment, identifying learning and development needs, meeting learning and development needs and applying learning in the workplace. Factor analysis of the learning environment questionnaire identified 12 scales that supported the structural hypotheses, 11 of which had minimum reliability coefficients of 0.70 and above. This research provides an instrument for systematically measuring and monitoring progress towards achieving a learning organization.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether business students' gender, age and culturally‐anchored values affect their perceptions of their university course experience.

Culturally diverse business students (n=548) studying at an Australian university were surveyed using previously established scales. Multivariate analysis was used to test six hypotheses.

High uncertainty avoidance explained unique variation in the six dependent variables analysed using OLS regressions. These dependent variables were: goals, generic skills, good teaching, intellectual motivation, learning community and learning resources. Each of these variables identified different dimensions of a students' university education experience. High collectivism also explained unique variation for all except for goals. High masculinity only explained unique variation for learning resources. Age only produced a unique variance explanation for good teaching, and gender did not produce any. Nevertheless, most of the six independent variables had significant zero‐order correlations with the six dimensions of university experience examined in this study.

Changes in business students' perceptions over time is a limitation of this study, as it was an exploratory cross‐sectional one.

This study's findings may help universities improve their relationship with their total student population by recognising the non‐homogeneous nature of this business student cohort, especially their culturally‐anchored values.

This paper suggests that it may be both possible and useful to identify different student customer segments based on students' culturally‐anchored value orientations, which may be valuable to universities in their efforts to attract, retain and grow an ongoing relationship with students, especially international full‐fee paying students.

While larger tourism enterprises benefit from a graduate management intake and continuing executive development, the owner of the small tourism operation is limited in continuing education and professional development opportunities due to resource poverty, lack of appropriate and available tertiary tourism education. This chapter details the pedagogical and technological challenges faced by the education team at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in developing and implementing an innovative blended learning degree, customised to meet the requirements of the entrepreneur for a sense of involvement, relevance and flexibility. Understanding how to harmonise blended learning with face-to-face PBL was the cornerstone of success in the design and implementation of the programme and the insights gained will provide guidelines to educators who are responsible for the development of relevant and accessible business degree programmes for owner/managers of micro/small business enterprises.

This paper examines the corporate policies on workplace relationships in the insurance industry. It consists of identifying whether the 48 insurance companies found in the Fortune 500 have any policies that restrict employees from dating each other within their organization and if so, what were these restrictions. In addition, 235 employees in the insurance field were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the positive and/or negative effects of romantic relationships had in their workplace environment. These results were examined from a Platonic perspective with a recommendation for a code of ethics developed from policies existing in other insurance companies and suggested by the current literature.

This case study delves into the evolving landscape of equity, inclusion and diversity (EID) initiatives within the health-care sector, with a specific focus on the “EverybodyIN” program implemented at the Mayo Clinic, a large academic Medical Center in the USA. Against the backdrop of growing awareness catalyzed by societal events, this case study aims to explore the multifaceted aspects of workplace conversations aimed at addressing racial disparities and fostering a more inclusive environment.

The case study relies on the application of critical race theory and a social constructionist approach to investigate the impact of a subset of voluntary educational conversations that were centered on the Black/African-American experience, on staff members’ racial understanding and allyship within the health-care organization. Through thematic analysis of postevent surveys and participant sentiments, three overarching themes emerged: appreciation, education and validation.

Through thematic analysis of postevent surveys and participant sentiments, three overarching themes emerged: appreciation, education and validation. The findings underscore the pivotal role of leadership buy-in, evidence-based practices, health equity and an ongoing commitment to “the journey” in successful EID efforts. The results highlight the significance of integrating EID into health-care organizations as a continuous endeavor that aligns with organizational values and mission.

The findings underscore the pivotal role that theory and practice play through a newly described framework that includes leadership buy-in, evidence-based practices, health equity and an ongoing commitment to “the journey” for successful EID efforts.

The results highlight the significance of integrating EID into health-care organizations as a continuous endeavor that aligns with organizational values and mission.

By fostering a safe and informed space for dialogue, organizations can empower staff to engage authentically and acquire cultural competence that may contribute to advancing health equity.

WE are pleased to devote this Special Number of THE LIBRARY WORLD to a discussion of Irish libraries and librarianship. Our contributors are all distinguished members of the profession in Ireland, none more so than Dermot Foley, to whom we are greatly indebted for having convened this issue.

This systematic literature review analyses the determinants and consequences of executive compensation-related shareholder activism and say-on-pay (SOP) votes. The review covers 71 empirical articles published between January 1995 and September 2017. The studies are reviewed within an empirical research framework that separates the reasons for shareholder activism and SOP voting dissent as input factor on the one hand and the consequences of shareholder pressure as output factor on the other. This procedure identifies the five most important groups of factors in the literature: the level and structure of executive compensation, firm characteristics, corporate governance mechanisms, shareholder structure and stakeholders. Of these, executive compensation and firm characteristics are the most frequently examined. Further examination reveals that the key assumptions of neoclassical principal agent theory for both managers and shareholders are not always consistent with recent empirical evidence. First, behavioral aspects (such as the perception of fairness) influence compensation activism and SOP votes. Second, non-financial interests significantly moderate shareholder activism. Insofar, we recommend integrating behavioral and non-financial aspects into the existing research. The implications are analyzed, and new directions for further research are discussed by proposing 19 different research questions.