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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/02683949610148856. When citing the article, please cite: Veronica Mole, Sandra Dawson, Diana Winstanley, Jim Sherval, (1996), “Transforming the National Health Service: The challenge for career management”, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 11 Iss: 7, pp. 40 - 50.

This paper draws on primary research from two sources. First a major research project begun December 1991 on ‘Senior Managerial Competencies, Succession Planning and Organisation Development in the NHS’. The research aims to identify possible competence gaps between competences demonstrated and competences required in the light of restructuring the National Health Service. It therefore examines management development and organisation development in parallel at the strategic and operational levels. This is a two year project funded by the Department of Health. The second source is other research being undertaken within the new ‘Public Service Strategy and Organisation Group’ based at the Management School, Imperial College. Although the group are researching a variety of public sector organisations, including local authorities and education, this research paper focuses on the restructuring taking place in the health service.

Women hold only two per cent of the senior management positions in American companies. What special qualities do these two per cent of women have which have helped them make it to the executive level?

Imperial College in 1969 looked like a man's world; it was certainly difficult to locate a ladies’ room which was not apparently hastily constructed in a tight space as an afterthought to a great design. Yet I joined a powerhouse of women. Joan Woodward had already tempted Dorothy Wedderburn from Cambridge and together they had secured large sums of research monies from the Research Councils, Fords, Pilkingtons, ICI, the Post Office, the Coal Board, government departments, and other supporters who were each captivated by the promise of the work and rare combination of intellectual strength and practical concerns of its leader. With research funds flowing in abundance, driving passions to explore further the relationship between structure, technology, and performance, and very few specific commitments, Joan and Dorothy set about recruiting what was to be one of the largest groups of young researchers in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s.

Claims that, for the 1990s, images of careers are multidimensional and individualistic. Notes that employees are encouraged to take responsibility for their own self‐development, incorporate horizontal as well as vertical moves, and forge careers based on “employability”, i.e. learning, networking and reputation. Bases its arguments on the findings of a study into senior executives in the NHS, and explores the consequences of organizational restructuring for the careers of clinical, general and functional managers. Suggests that organizational and professional barriers exist to undermine the notion of the multidimensional career. Argues that prescriptive approaches to career self‐development need to take account of organizational context and that, to meet the challenges of careers in the 1990s, both the organization and the individual need to become more willing to take risks.

This paper aims to offer a critical biography of Joan Woodward, often considered the founder of contingency theory. This paper examines Woodward’s background to develop a more complete understanding of the factors that influenced her work.

This paper draws on insights gained from personal correspondence with two colleagues of Woodward, one who recruited her to the Imperial College where she conducted her most prominent work and one whom she recruited while at the college. In addition, Woodward’s original work, academic literature, published remembrances and a plethora of other secondary sources are reviewed.

By connecting these otherwise disparate sources of information, a more complete understanding of Woodward’s work and its context is provided. It is argued that Woodward’s education, training, brilliance, values, the relative weakness of British sociology and the need to improve the economy helped to make Woodward’s work both original and practical.

The originality of this work is to examine the work of Woodward through the lens of critical biography. Despite Woodward’s contributions, Woodward remains an underappreciated figure. The purpose is to provide her contribution against the backdrop of the British industrial and educational sphere.

This article reports on a research project, established to explore future trends and issues in population health and health care in the UK forward to 2015. The aim of the project is to explore how futures thinking can aid policy development in the health sector. The methods adopted in the study are outlined and initial findings are reported. The project, which has already produced several papers, published its policy report, Policy Futures for UK Health: 2000 Report in May.

This article offers some brief reflections on the relationship between culture and the potential development within the field of Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico. Thoughts expressed are necessarily subjective and set within the wider context of organisational communication and community relations in Mexico City. The focus is on the significance of open communication, participation and closer relationships with the Other.

When Joan Woodward died in 1971 at the age of 54, she left behind an enormous professional and personal legacy. This volume is a tribute to her work and life, to the profound effect she had on those she worked with, and to the important impact her work has had on how we think about organizations. It is also a tribute to a woman who succeeded in what was, at the time, overwhelmingly a man's world. That she was only the second woman appointed as a full professor at Imperial College London provides ample evidence of her success in the unlikely and very masculine setting of post-war Britain.