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This paper aims to report the personal experiences of an adult male diagnosed with autism at the age of 48 years.

A personal case study methodology was used to illustrate the journey to autism diagnosis, the experience of diagnosis and post-diagnosis support.

This case study illustrates how stress and mental health difficulties can precede autism diagnosis in adults. The personal experiences detailed highlight how an adult autism diagnosis can bring about positive change, prompting increased self-knowledge and coping skills, improved relationships and. Furthermore, it highlights how a supportive employer can make reasonable adjustments in the workplace to improve productivity of an autistic employee.

This case study has implications for various practice issues, including post-diagnosis counselling and access to support for autistic adults nationally.

This paper provides an original case study highlighting the personal experiences of an adult diagnosed with autism.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “being diagnosed with autism in adulthood: a personal case study”.

A commentary on an individual’s personal experiences of being referred to autism assessment services and subsequently receiving a diagnosis of autism in adulthood.

Many individuals are not diagnosed with autism until their adult life, and as a result, miss the benefits of timely introduction of sources of support, such as during their schooling. Receiving an autism diagnosis can come as a relief and promote self-understanding, but availability of high-quality post-diagnostic support services and accommodating employers are both highly important.

A commentary on an original viewpoint is published in this special edition on gender and diversity.

Titles marked with an asterisk have restricted availability. Source: Selected List of U.K. Theses and Dissertations in Management Studies, compiled by Gail Thomas, available from The Management College, Henley, price £2.

The need for effective leadership has become paramount to meet the challenges of the 21st Century and a growing number of academics and senior managers have recently come to recognize the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) for effective leadership. Furthermore, Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee (2002) have contended that the higher up one advances in an organization, the more important EI becomes. In this paper the authors have focused on evidence at the very top of the organization, the Board. They review the findings from a major study of UK boards and re‐analyze the data on tasks and competencies relating to EI constructs. Their results show that EI competencies are considered to be extremely important according to the majority of a large sample of UK directors in a survey and they go on to argue that many of the tasks (outputs) of the Board require EI competencies, as well as many aspects of Team Process (for Organizing and Running the Board). The authors also produce new findings which support Goleman's hypothesis that the higher one advances, the more important EI becomes. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed and the paper concludes with a review of important current and future research such as the full integration of EI elements into instruments to assess leadership competence and style, and the effect that organization culture has on these constructs.

This chapter explores the way teaching music lends itself to the inclusive pedagogical approach in action framework, focusing on four key areas: working outside of ability groups, using what learners can do as their starting point, engaging in learning at their own level whilst contributing to a collaborative outcome and developing the whole creative child rather than just a skillset.

Decisions are integral to daily business practice. Sound and agile decision making is argued to be a core strategic capability. Knowledge helps avoid the consequences of ill‐informed decisions. Facts and expertise provide content; know‐how about the pitfalls and requirements of thinking through problems in different contexts contributes to sound process. This paper seeks to offer a staged framework to guide organisational discussions about how knowledge management (KM) can contribute to better decision‐making capability.

Consistent with a maturity model approach, the study used an interactive multi‐method design to explore knowledge and decision making with experienced practitioners. Guided by the literature the authors collected input via three focus groups and eight interviews with KM practitioners plus 19 interviews with senior decision makers chosen for their good track record. From the combination of input five stages of capability building in five key areas of intellectual capital development were identified.

The output is a maturity model that can be used to assess organisational status in knowledge‐enabled decision making and plan for relevant KM interventions to improve organisational capability across a range of contexts.

A discussion around current status raises awareness of the pitfalls that can lead to poor or unsound decisions. This can help individuals reflect on how to improve their practice, and organisations to learn systematically from past experience, improve governance of the decision‐making process and progressively improve capability by planning deliberate developmental action.

The paper provides a rigorously developed tool for systematic evaluation and planning about a critical business capability.

Despite, or perhaps even because of, the economic uncertainties of the period, the 1970s witnessed a radical transformation of the British distributive system. Most of the changes which occurred were similar to those experienced elsewhere in the Western world, and in a review of developments in EEC countries, Dawson has suggested that the impact of these changes on society could be similar to that produced by the Industrial Revolution. In Britain at least, the changes in distribution were, and remain, a result of very marked changes in society: most notably the change in consumption patterns brought about by endemic inflation, increasing unemployment and periodic world energy crises. The result has been increased competition, a search for greater efficiency and diversification of traditional product lines. Thus the British distribution system throughout the 1970s was dominated by the trend to mass merchandising, by the emergence of large firms and a consequent increase of corporate power and by the appearance of new distribution forms. While many of the conditions and developments experienced in the 1970s are expected to continue into the 1980s, it has been predicted (Distributive Industry Training Board 1980) that by the 1990s further revolutionary changes are likely to have occurred, particularly as a result of widespread automation involving new technology. The industry is, therefore, in the middle of a period of very rapid change.

Despite growing recognition of the importance of consumer engagement with new technologies, a gap remains in terms of understanding the antecedents, consequences and moderators of online consumer engagement (OCE). This paper aims to address this gap by exploring the relationship between personality traits, OCE, perceived value and the moderating role of personal values.

A theoretical framework anchored in the extant OCE literature is tested through a study of 559 users of two distinct firm-hosted online brand communities (FHOBCs).

Findings suggest that three personality traits – extraversion, openness to experiences and altruism – are positively correlated with OCE. OCE is related to two types of perceived value, namely, social value and aesthetic value. The personal values of conservation and self-enhancement moderate the relationships between the three identified personality traits and OCE.

Future research into OCE should consider the application of this study’s conceptual framework across different cultures to account for the fast-changing nature of online communities.

Understanding how personality traits drive OCE and what value consumers receive from engagement in online communities can help managers to better segment and evaluate consumers. Engagement and levels of activity within these online communities can be improved accordingly.

This study’s contribution to the OCE literature is threefold. First, the study provides new insights regarding personality traits as antecedents of consumer engagement with FHOBCs. Second, the study reveals the first insights into the role of personal values in the relationship between personality traits and OCE. Specifically, conservation and self-enhancement emerged as moderators of the relationship between three personality traits (extraversion, openness to experiences, altruism) and OCE. Third, the study yields support for perceived value types (social value and aesthetic value) that emerge as consequences of consumer engagement in FHOBCs.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.