This paper develops an understanding of underlying influences shaping leadership learning within a single organization. It is not an exploration of leadership but rather an explanation of how individuals learn how to lead. Through in-depth interviews with six directors of a UK multinational public limited company and, using critical realist grounded-theory, underlying causes have been identified that build upon existing research but then goes further to provide a systemic and integrated explanation of leadership learning. A model is suggested to illustrate how causal influences, operating in a particular context, influence how people develop their ability to lead. I argue that the metaphor of apprenticeship captures the essence of how underlying influences shape the long-term process of leadership learning: an apprenticeship perspective has significant implications to the efficacy and effectiveness of leadership development interventions.

The paper reports the findings of thirteen interviews with prominent Sri Lankan business leaders drawn from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim religious traditions. The in-depth interviews with the leaders were supplemented by documentary sources. When the leaders were asked why they engaged in religion-based workplace spirituality, their responses were often associated with decision-making. Although they had an array of management tools with which to deal with day-to-day management situations, they all indicated that, in ‘difficult’ moments, these tools needed to be complemented by processes by which they connected with the ultimate – variously identified as the transcendent reality, god, or truth that is more powerful, better, and good. The outcomes of decisions, both good and bad, were usually attributed to that connecting experience. The findings suggest that religion plays a significant role in influencing the judgment, emotional and motivational qualities of Sri Lankan leaders' decision-making – in that a frame of reference based on a connection with a transcendent and ultimate reality is likely to be a source of solace, guidance, and inspiration to leaders' critical decision-making.

The literature on new organizational forms commonly stresses the key role of ‘collaborative individuals’ in delivering the challenging balance of creativity and productivity, vision and focus, openness and decisiveness critical to achieving coherence and responsiveness in the turbulent environment of the 21st Century. This paper reports a recent study that considers these requirements as expressed by competing psychological types/brain styles and assesses the impact of stressors within the task environment on the breadth of stylistic repertoire of high-potential managerial aspirants. It finds that stress significantly shrinks stylistic repertoire and, more critically, moves the focus away from creative, collaborative and ambiguity-tolerant styles towards performance-driven, control-oriented, and grounded styles. The implications of this finding for building the strategically coherent but flexible and developmental cultures advocated in the ‘new organization’ literature are discussed.

In this article Bill English, New Zealand's Shadow Minister for Education, tells the story of New Zealand's tertiary education policy development over the past several years. His perspective comes from time in government and from time in opposition. He concludes with the lessons to be learnt, and his prognosis of the main issues to be confronted by that tertiary sector, in the years to come. The lessons to be learnt are just as valuable for the Australian sector as they are for New Zealand academicians.

In this article, Polytechnics are the equivalent of the old Colleges of Advanced Education in Australia, or roughly between the TAFE and university sectors. MMP (mixed member proportional) is the proportional system of electing the New Zealand Parliament. This system is similar to the method by which Australians elect their federal Senate. A Wananga is a tertiary institution set up by statute to focus on the educational needs of Maori.