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The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to explain the link between traditional same-age school structure and the impact this has on a school’s capacity for individual and organisational learning; second, to explain why attempts to develop schools as learning organisations (LOs) invariably reify existing structures and practice, and finally, to provide an example of how and why schools that have adopted a multi-age form of organisation, a vertical tutoring (VT) system, have stumbled upon an embryonic form of LO.

This conceptual paper draws on a critical review of the LO literature and its defining characteristics. The paper adopts a multi-disciplinary approach combining autopoiesis and complexity science to explore differences in learning capacity between traditional same-age schools (year or grade-based structure) and schools that have transitioned to multi-age organisation (vertical tutoring system).

The traditional form of same-age organisational “grammar” used in secondary schools is highly resistant to change, and any attempts at reform that fail to focus on organisation only reify existing systemic behaviour. VT schools change their form of organisation enabling them to create the capacity needed to absorb the unheard voices of participant actors (staff, students, and parents) and promote individual and organisational learning (constituent features of the LO).

This conceptual paper argues that for secondary schools to develop any semblance of an LO, they must abandon the restrictions on learning caused by their same-age form of organisation. The VT system provides the kind of organisational template needed.

This conceptual paper explores the relationship between school structure, organisation, and home–school collaboration. It argues that the traditional and dominant secondary school model based on same-age organisation acts in ways that constrain home–school collaboration while claiming to value it. The paper proposes an alternative model (vertical tutoring), one that relies on home–school collaboration and developing the capacity to absorb the complexity that collaboration creates

Models of home–school collaboration abstracted from the research literature are set within a framework of organisational studies, complexity science, and systemic thinking, revealing incongruities between claimed values and operational practices. The paper contrasts the frailties endemic to same-age organisation with the advantages claimed by schools that have adopted a vertical tutoring (VT) system

The choice of organisational structure is a major influence on a school's capacity to develop the home–school collaboration needed to liberate individual and organisational learning. Same-age organisational structure has a reduced capacity for building the collaborative partnerships needed to engage parents in their child's learning process. Multi-age organisation matches capacity with learning demand, enabling agency and liberating management.

Current approaches to modelling rarely consider same-age operative structure and so are destined to restrict rather than enable home–school collaboration. The adoption of VT by schools broadens the scope of organisational analysis, positing a need for multi-disciplinary research able to link the form of school organisation to individual and organisational learning.

VT is rarely mentioned in the research literature as an alternative to same-age structuration. This paper addresses this issue and draws upon complexity science, autopoietic theory, and systemic thinking to explain why current models of home–school collaboration are insufficiently situated in organisational practice.

At a time when many education systems are grappling with the issue of school reform, there is a concern that traditional UK secondary schools are organised in a way that makes them unable to respond to increasingly complex environmental demands. This research-based paper uses complexity theory to gauge the organisational differences between (1) the traditional model of schooling based on same-age organisation and (2) a form of organisation based on multi-age tutor groups, one that schools call a vertical tutoring (VT) system. The intention is to highlight the organisational changes made by schools that choose to transition from their same-age iteration to the VT system, and expose organisational assumptions in the dominant same-age structure that may account for the failure of reform.

The author's consultancy and research work spans two decades, and includes around 200 UK secondary schools, and others in China, Japan, South Africa, Australia, Qatar, Germany and Colombia. This conceptual paper draws on the recorded discourse and critical reflections of leadership teams during programmes of transformative learning, the process involved in the transition from one system to another. Using descriptions of school organisation abstracted from the complexity literature, differences in the two models not otherwise apparent, come into sharp focus. These not only reveal a substantive connection between organisation, complexity, and individual and organisational learning, but offer insights into the challenge of school reform.

Same-age organisations act in ways that regulate and restrict the agency of participating actors (staff, students and parents). The effect is to reduce a school’s learning capacity and ability to absorb the value demand on its system. Such a system is closed and non-complex. VT schools construct an open and fluid learning system from the base, deregulating agency. By unfreezing their structure, they intervene in processes of power, necessitating the distribution of leadership to the organisational edge, a process of complexification. The form of organisation chosen by a school explains the failure of reform.

Insights from VT schools cast considerable doubt on the viability of traditional same-age structures to serve complex societies and communities, while highlighting the critical role played by complexity theory in organisational praxis. If correct, the current emphasis on teacher “will and skill”, curricular editing, pedagogy and the “what works agenda” will be insufficient to bring about reformational change and more likely to contribute to systemic stasis.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the influence of a school's operational structure on organisational learning capacity (OLC), and how this either supports or disables any aspiration as a learning organisation.

Two organisational working models are described, one based on same-age structure and another that uses multi-age organisation. These are systemically examined to test for OLC and subsequent potential to develop as learning organisations.

Schools using same-age organisational structure have restricted feedback mechanisms that inhibit their ability to develop OLC. Schools that have adopted multi-age structures have extensive information feedback mechanisms; consequently, they have a higher OLC and the potential to develop as a quasi learning organisation.

This paper intervenes at a time when interest in the concepts of OLC, transformative learning, and the idea developing schools as learning organisations is increasing. The danger of this development is to repeat the reformational mistakes of the past by failing to reflect on ingrained organisational assumptions. This paper encourages schools to reflect on their organisational strategy.

This paper fills a gap in the research literature by offering a practical analysis of two organisational systems, to show how structure impacts on OLC and aspirations to develop as a learning organisation.

Measurement of financial well-being has remained a challenge for the governments for a long time. This paper responds to this challenge by taking an integrative approach, whereby the previous conceptualizations of financial well-being are examined. Further, we propose a new conceptualization of financial well-being using the parameters of objective and subjective well-being.

We conduct a widespread review of the literature with regard to the linkage between financial literacy and financial capability.

Numerous studies report the pertinent role of behavioural economics in rational decision making. This paper understands the role of behavioural economics in regard to financial well-being.

Empirical investigation in measuring the linkage between financial literacy and financial capability needs to be developed to achieve the goal of financial well-being.

This paper makes a noble contribution to the literature by proposing a new conceptualization of financial well-being spread over financial literacy, financial capability and psychological factors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current gap between the subjects of business ethics and pre‐1960 management theory.

In an attempt to achieve the objective of the paper, the business ethics content of three leading management theorists during the first half of the 1900s is examined: Frederick Taylor; Chester Barnard; and Peter Drucker.

The paper concludes that there are significant business ethics content as well as ethical implications in the writings of each of the three management theorists.

The analysis focused on only three, albeit significant, management theorists. A more complete discussion would have included other important management theorists as well.

The analysis suggests that management theory should not be taught without discussing both the business ethics implications and the business ethics content inherent in the theory. In addition, failure on the part of business ethics academics to understand early management theory, the ethical ramifications of such theory, and the business ethics issues explicitly discussed by leading management theorists, may lead to teaching and research in a subject without a proper theoretical foundation.

The paper attempts to address a gap in management literature by demonstrating some of the linkages between business ethics and business management thought, and thereby be of value to management theorists as well as business ethicists in their teaching and research efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why outsiders, rather than incumbents, are able to take advantage of technological discontinuities.

The paper employs a case study of a single innovation that transformed the technology of Formula 1 motor racing.

The findings show how social capital made up of “weak ties” in the form of informal personal networks, enabled an outsider to successfully make the leap to a new technological regime.

The findings show that where new product development involves a shift to new technologies, social capital can have an important part to play.

It is widely accepted that radical innovations are often competence destroying, making it difficult for incumbents to make the transition to a new technology. The paper's findings show how the social capital of outsiders can place them at a particular advantage in utilizing new technologies.

Presents anecdotes in the development of aspects of the field of management, relating to Lawrence J. Henderson, Chester I. Barnard, Peter Drucker, Kurt Lewin and J.B. Rhine. These suggest that history needs to be viewed in a hermeneutical philosophy where it is seen as presenting the Zeitgeist of its period rather than describing facts or causal relations.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight Barnard's groundbreaking ideas, and to interpret his contributions to the philosophy and practice of business as they apply to the twenty‐first century executive.

The paper makes use of primary data by focusing on Barnard's The Functions of the Executive, as well as other material written by, and about, him. Barnard's insights on executive management are then reinterpreted in light of Ramey's Leadership Quality Commitments, whose balance is deemed an essential marker of success for twenty‐first century leaders.

The paper presents Barnard as a pioneer philosopher in the field of management, whose rich contributions have permeated management theory and practice since he first published his seminal work 71 years ago. Barnard's concept of cooperation is re‐discovered as the basis of a leadership framework that places the executive at the center of a system responsible for balancing an unstable equilibrium among life, work, and society.

The paper suggests that Barnard's contributions are as relevant now as they were 71 years ago. Exploring the competencies that make executives effective and efficient, for example, provides insights regarding the combined roles of the executive as leader and manager.

The bulk of Barnard's contributions is found in the field of management, yet his views on cooperation, moral responsibility, motivation, positive interdependence, decision making, authentic self‐hood, strategy and legacy seem incredibly in line with leadership theory. Re‐discovering him as a leadership thinker may help to bridge the conceptual gap that is perceived to exist between management and leadership literature.

The purpose of the paper is to position Chester I. Barnard as a “management pioneer,” someone who offers an example of management theory through moral persuasion, authenticity, and trust in his “acceptance view of authority” and “zone of indifference.” The work of Barnard is supported by philosophical foundations that provide prophetic lessons for present day leaders.

The approach used to research the topic was inductive reasoning and constructive hermeneutics. Primary resources relied upon Barnard's foundational work in The Functions of the Executive as well as books and journal publications by scholars such as Isocrates, Aristotle, Smith, Kant, Weber, Follett, Gadamer, Bennis, Drucker, Cartwright, Heames, Harvey, Lamond, Wolfe, and Wren.

The research demonstrates the significance of Chester I. Barnard as a “management pioneer.” Barnard provides wisdom for effectively navigating the twenty‐first century organization under the auspices of the “acceptance view of authority” and “zone of indifference.” These concepts are predicated on Barnard's moral persuasion, authenticity, and trust as foundations for leadership. His work is a testament for bridging the gap between theory and practice and provides a model from which business schools can educate present and future leaders.

The paper examines the underpinnings of Barnard's “acceptance view of authority” and his “zone of indifference” as predicated on morality, authenticity, and trust in creating effective organizational leadership for the twenty‐first century. The work has practical applications in the education of present and future business leaders by academic institutions.

In support of Chester I. Barnard as a “management pioneer,” this paper explores some of the less commonly discussed implicit qualities and philosophical foundations for Barnard's moral persuasion, authenticity, and trust that promote the success of his “acceptance view of authority” and “zone of indifference” in the twenty‐first century. The timeless quality, application, and potential for leadership education, ensure Barnard's position as a “management pioneer.”