This article examines transnational social engineering through a biographical study of Alfred Zander, a Swiss member of a humanist and internationalist pedagogical movement known as New Education and later a founding member of Swiss fascism and a volunteer to the German Waffen-SS during the Second World War. The bridging concept that allowed Zander's seemingly contradictory transformation was his belief in the necessity of a return in the classroom, as in politics, to a previously existing ‘organic’ state: a Volksgemeinschaft. Zander's case suggests a broader view of social engineering as his stated goal and methods relied little on data and science. Moreover his case illustrates a unique directionality among transnational actors, that from a transnational methodology and rationale toward a transnational goal.

Historical figures have long served as case studies for leadership lessons. The current article argues that authors of such works—whether leadership academics or popular writers—can neglect to consult the findings of professional historians and thus fail to contextualize their historical subjects appropriately. The current article highlights this phenomenon through an examination of two of the most popular historical leaders: Ernest Shackleton and Erwin Rommel.

This article explores the pre-war background of the Swiss, Swedish and Danish men who volunteered for the Nazi Waffen-SS combat formation during the Second World War. Through a detailed biographical examination of officer corps volunteers, this article contradicts what I call the myth of the volunteers -a long-standing popular and to some extent scholarly interpretation that perceives the volunteers as lower-class, social outsiders of a criminally inclined or mentally unstable nature. Instead this article demonstrates that these men held a distinctly European outlook and were characterised by a high level of education, intellect and their strong personal character. Moreover, they had with few exceptions developed a longing for a radical reorganisation

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COVID-19 has affected university assessment procedures on a large scale. This empirical study aims to understand the types of high-stakes exams delivered online at the Lucerne School of Business in Switzerland during the “Corona Semesters” of 2020 and 2021 and the decision-making factors that influenced their implementation. To do so, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with eight faculty members across a variety of disciplines. Requirements from the exam workflow (preparation, proctoring, grading) were identified and analyzed by course type. Four factors emerged that significantly impacted design and delivery for high-stakes exams online: 1) Digital exam formats significantly impact the nature of exams for procedural subjects such as mathematics; 2) “Group Exams” are not the answer to preventing student collusion on online exams; 3) interrater reliability and low answer variance are considered a central factor for exam quality assurance; 4) second-order effects such as stable wifi and device compatibility will continue to hinder widescale adoption of digital exams. The findings suggest that online exam delivery significantly affects institutional exam practice beyond mere consideration of learning outcomes. The authors conclude by speculating that similar dynamics may have impacted other business schools during their Corona semesters and invite future research on whether the findings from this article can spark discussion and reflection for policy makers in other institutions on post-pandemic legacies.