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Management education and training needs to be specific to strategic aims of organizations. Considers the advantages of company programmes and examines the experience of Manchester Business School in using real consultancy assignments for students. Presents a strategic assessment of the management education sector.

A review of the approach adopted by the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) towards the use of management competences, drawing on contemporary research and journal articles, is made. In addition, use is made of insights and experience gained through involvement in the MCI Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) pilot project conducted at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education. Three major assumptions associated with the MCI competence approach are evaluated and a specific facet of the Cheltenham and Gloucester College APL experience, that of high delegate wastage, is examined. An expectancy model of motivation is used along with an action feedback model to illustrate and explain some of the potential reasons for a high drop‐out rate. The model affords an opportunity to provide a rationale to underpin needed action on the part of the major actors within the APL management competence approach. In conclusion, a number of summary propositions predicated by the review are given.

Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of learning through experience, “by doing”, where the task environment is the classroom, and the task the vehicle. Two previous reviews of the action learning literature by Alan Mumford respectively covered the field prior to 1985 and the period 1985‐1994. Both reviews included books as well as journal articles. This current review covers the period 1994‐2000 and is limited to publicly available journal articles. Part 1 of the Review was published in an earlier issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning (Vol. 15 No. 2) and included a bibliography and comments. Part 2 extends that introduction with a schema for categorizing action learning articles and with comments on representative articles from the bibliography.

Today, technology is preeminent. But in a ‘quick and the dead’ world, Britain seems unable to turn ideas into profits. Richard Brooks examines the increasing complexities from the drawing board stage to the often‐neglected marketing end.

Much has been written about the role of information and communications technology (ICTs) as a principled input of the “new economy”. Much has also been written about the demise of older industrial regions and local economies. In a populist narrative about contemporary society it seems that the world of the new entrepreneurial dot.com businesses is in the ascendancy, while the older industries of steel, shipbuilding and general manufacturing reflect some bygone time of mass employment and standardised production. But does the logic of the industrial age necessarily feed into the logic of the new economy? Perhaps, despite the rhetoric of the knowledge driven economy, the informational age and the network society, there is nothing inevitable in such development. However, there is evidence of a concerted effort by local and regional governance agencies to initiate planning and policy for ICTs as a regeneration tool. This is, in fact, an empirical study of how, why and when places pursue strategies for ICTs. The locus of study is the North East region of the UK. This is a region built on the heavy industries of deep coal‐mining, shipbuilding, steel‐making and engineering. In this region manufacturing still makes a greater contribution to regional GDP than the service sector. Yet, here, there are clear examples of attempts to stimulate new types of economic activity based on ICTs. The region, it is argued, must engage with the new knowledge economy if it is to survive the myriad social relations thrown up through the unrelenting processes of globalisation. To do this, so the discussion follows, public and private must come together to enable businesses, large and small, community groups and government to play a full role in the new economy; by becoming more knowledge driven and through raising information processing capabilities. Adopts a critical stance towards the idea of ICTs as a tool for regeneration but shows how efforts to establish the correct enabling mechanisms are in fact grounded in the promise of new technologies held by key local and regional players.

The purpose of this paper is to review the cancellation of Australia's National Soccer League (NSL) competition and its replacement in 2004 with the corporatist A‐League which is based on the North American model of “one team one city”, no promotion and relegation, and private‐equity clubs. The authors believe that one of the aims of the A‐League and its “ground‐zero” ideology was to institute exclusion of the ethnic clubs that had formed the backbone of the NSL for 30 years.

Extensive literature search, participant‐observation, one personal interview and two group interviews were employed. People interviewed were the President of the Croatian community's Melbourne Knights Football Club, the Club Secretary of Melbourne Knights, and three leaders of Melbourne Knights’ MCF hooligan firm.

The authors observe the Football Federation Australia hiding behind the perceived scientific nature and technical veracity of budgeted accounting numbers to set the financial bar too high for the ethnic clubs to find a place in the brave new world that has been called “Modern Football”. However, capitalism creates its own discontents. Online forums and homemade fence banners are the new vehicles for dissent for the supporters of “Old Soccer”.

There is still only a small academic literature on Australian football and most of this has been written by humanities lecturers. The paper offers a business school perspective.

In order to bridge the gap and provide organizations with practical assistance in dealing with the effectiveness of executive coaching. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between coaching relationship which constitutes of rapport, trust, commitment and match with coaching effectiveness in Malaysia using a quantitative research method.

Based on the extensive review of the current literature, rapport, trust, commitment and coach-coachee match with coaching effectiveness are investigated through questionnaire. Objective-driven model which focuses on the extent to which coaching objectives have been met, is used to measure the effectiveness of executive coaching.

The main results of the multiple regressions demonstrate that both rapport and commitment significantly influence coaching effectiveness. These findings provide a basis for developing a quality relationship to advance the executive coaching and HRM research literature.

The practical implication of this study could be useful for HCM managers, who want to enhance leadership capabilities through executive coaching engagement that support their organizations performance.

This Malaysian study will build upon the existing knowledge by investigating the factors contributing to quality coaching relationship from the coachee’s viewpoint.

The introduction, implementation and enforcement of new laws governing the conduct of business can result in substantial additional costs to retailers. Focusing on small to medium sized (SME) retailers in rural areas and market towns, the study reported here aims to provide an understanding of perceptions of potentially disproportionate implementation costs and the resulting consequences.

A three‐stage design was used. An exploratory focus group with representatives of the Rural Shop Alliance was followed by seven semi‐structured depth‐interviews with SME retail representatives. Thematic analysis of the qualitative findings formed the basis for a survey of SME retailers in five market towns.

Findings show SME retailers' perceptions of the differential burden related to the impact of new legislation, with the key factors of direct cost, time costs and information costs. Consequently, business growth and the formalisation of staffing arrangements, in particular, can be obstructed. Generally, good relationships with Trading Standards and Environmental Health Officers are often driven by a need for reactive compliance rather than offering a proactive information and support mechanism.

Findings clarify the nature of the differential burden of legislation to retail SMEs. The need for an “outcomes‐for‐business” driven proactive stance by local delivery agencies is highlighted. Ongoing support visits, telephone help lines and leaflets and the press rather than the internet are identified as key information sources.

Both qualitative and quantitative evidence is brought together in the assessment of an area of concern to retail SMEs.