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Leaders are important social actors in organizations, centrally involved in establishing and maintaining institutional values, a view that was articulated by Philip Selznick (1957) nearly a half-century ago, but often overlooked in institutionalists’ accounts. Our objective is to build on Selznick’s seminal work to investigate the value proposition of leadership consistent with institutional theory. We examine public interview transcripts from 52 senior executives and discover that leaders’ conceptualizations of their entities align with the archetypes of organization (i.e., economic, hierarchical, and power oriented) and institution (i.e., ideological, creative and collectivist) and cohere around a set of relevant values. Extrapolating from this, we advance a theoretical framework of the process whereby leaders’ claims function as transformational mechanisms of value infusion in the institutionalization of organizations.

James G. March rejected relevance as a criterion for social science research, but he was concerned about the social implications of social science models. He argued that a focus on truth alone as a criterion for evaluating models meant that social scientists miss the implications of their models for beauty and justice. Here, we explore all three criteria to see what they bring to the practice of building social science models and how they interact in the models and in the world. We argue that the choices that social scientists make about these three criteria shape what they select to study in the models, what they see in the world, and what they imagine for the world. We also argue that how social scientists approach truth, beauty, and justice has implications for how they understand and engage the world.

For western companies pursuing, or considering pursuing competitive strategy through Keiretsus recent indications from Japan of problems between Keiretsu partners will provide food for thought.

A year or two ago the Library Association established what was called, a Press Committee, having as its objects the correcting of misstatements and the replying to attacks on public libraries in the newspapers. Our press‐cuttings have not given us many examples of the Committee's activity, and we fear it never did much if any work. This has no doubt been because the library profession is so small that the number of men able and willing to further its purposes is necessarily too limited to carry through a vigorous policy. The article in The Daily Mail to which Eratosthenes refers in characteristic fashion this month is an example of the sort of thing which ought to have been met immediately by the Press Committee. We need a few men with level heads and facile pens promptly to challenge any plea for such misapplied public economy. Plausible suggestions that public libraries are of secondary importance are made every day, and so deeply is this opinion rooted in the minds of some of our public leaders that any opposition to it needs to be both practical and wise. To all who have considered social and economic questions at all the strength of the case for the public library has never been more strong than it is at present. But men who believe that economy will be served by stopping the medical inspection of school children and by the abolition of technical education—and such suggestions were actually made in the article we have mentioned—would certainly not spare the university of the people. Indeed, the author bluntly suggested that the libraries should be closed and the officials dismissed! A writer in the Sunday Chronicle sanely declares the closing suggested to be “not only not economy; it is anti‐patriotic.” Under these circumstances a vigorous publicity committee of librarians and library experts like Aldermen Abbott, Brittain, Leslie and Plummer, might do invaluable service.

Construction professionals are the major contributors to developing a sustainable construction industry, whereas architects, engineers and quantity surveyors are the key construction professionals who must play extraordinary roles in achieving better sustainable construction. Therefore, this study aims to identify the job attributes of key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing challenges associated with climate change.

The study adopted a mixed research approach. A literature review and preliminary semi-structured interviews were used to appraise the job roles of architects, engineers and quantity surveyors in addressing challenges associated with climate change. The data collected through the qualitative approach were used in an online questionnaire survey, and the findings were analysed using the relative index method.

The findings highlight that regardless of the knowledge of the professional category on green rating tools, carbon footprint, adaptation of renewable energies for the reduction of energy consumption, building information modelling-related applications and waste management concepts/practices are the foremost job attributes required for the key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing challenges associated with climate change.

The results from this study provide a handful of guidance to construction industry professionals, national and international professional institutions, non-governmental organisations and other relevant authorities to address climate change within the built environment by identifying ways for improving the relevant key job attributes of construction industry professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the job attributes of key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing the challenges associated with climate change.

Purpose – To investigate the potential impacts of future climate change in the United Kingdom on its road and rail networks.

Methodology/approach – The climate change impacts of increasing summer temperatures, decreasing winter temperatures, increased heavy precipitation, greater numbers of extreme weather events and rises in sea level are reviewed.

Findings – Surface transportation is the most exposed element to the localised impacts of climate change. High summer temperatures will result in road rutting, rail buckling and decreased thermal comfort, whereas more intense winter precipitation will cause flooding, landslips and bridge scour across all modes. For all impacts, it is the extreme events (e.g. heat waves and storms) that are potentially the most devastating. As shown, there are some positive climate change impacts. For example, in the case of winter maintenance, all transport networks stand to benefit.

Originality/value – In order for transport to react appropriately to the potential changes in climate, it is essential to understand how the road and rail networks may be affected and to build strategies for both adaptation and mitigation into plans for future developments for both modes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for education delivery, attainment, attitude, behaviour and attendance. Partnership success factors are identified, and transferable lessons extracted. Barriers to the success of the partnership are explored and suggestions for improvement are made.

Case study of the first PFI school in the UK. This involved a systematic literature review and collation of data on impact on Victoria Dock Primary School, four face‐to‐face in‐depth interviews with Sewell Group Plc and Victoria Dock Primary School staff, and three face‐to‐face in‐depth interviews with experts in the education sector.

Findings suggest that the impact of the partnership on education is positive. Pupils perform significantly better than both the average Hull and national primary schools. There appears to be a positive impact on attitude, behaviour and attendance.

Caution is issued regarding generalisability of findings on account of this being a single case study.

The findings have implications for those involved in PPPs, or those considering entering such a partnership. A very useful source of information and advice about the ingredients required for successful partnerships.

This study adds evidence to the existing limited evaluative work that has been completed on PPPs with regard to their impact on education. This includes delivery, attainment, behaviour and attitude, and attendance.