bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Collecting behavioural data
Authors: COLBERT BOAC MICHAEL J , MORRIS ICL MICHAEL , TRIBE BOAC STEVEN
Published: February 2008

AS TRAINING IS NOTHING LESS THAN A BID TO CONTROL learning, the implication for trainers is inescapable: if we want to establish control over the learning process, then we need, as a basic requirement, to measure what is being learned in any training situation we care to design — we need to measure as best we can the behaviour changes brought about by the training. Only when we have collected such behavioural data are we in any sort of position to start focusing the training towards meeting defined individual and organisational needs.
Rationalisation of higher education
Authors: GORE THOMAS
Published: February 2008

Advanced economies like our own require an increasing number of boys and girls to follow higher education. But will those qualified and desirous of following it find places available? It depends on the level of resources allotted to this sector of social expenditure and how they are used. Industry ensures the economic use of resources through rationalisation. Under‐utilisation of capital and labour and the overlapping of productive and service activities lead to reassessment and reorganisation. The strategy of optimising output is constantly attempted. Will the scarcity of resources in the seventies hasten a reassessment of higher education on the lines of the Report of the Percy Committee on Higher Technological Education (1946). The Minister of Education accepted its recommendations and issued Circular 87 (1946) entitled The Regional Organisation of Further Education. The circular is the first attempt by the government to state how the economic use of resources in higher education can be secured. Regional Advisory Councils, already existing in some parts of the country, were to be established to cover all parts. LEAs were asked to confer with universities and university colleges on setting up the councils and determining their constitution. Since the universities were then the major centres of higher education, although there were a few major technical colleges, this seemed an appropriate line of action.
New proposals from the wool, jute and flax ITB
Authors: WOOD RWJ
Published: February 2008

During the first six or seven years of operation of the Industrial Training Act, boards have been given freedom to develop their approach to encouraging training within fairly wide limits. Approval for their proposals has generally been forthcoming, and it has clearly been recognised that variations in approach are desirable, both as a means of identifying more effective methods of training, and as a necessity to meet the different needs of particular industries. The reasons for establishing boards have been stated many times, and are already well known. A number of industries recognised the need for an organised approach to industrial training prior to 1964, and had already in existence voluntary organisations concerned with training. The Wool Textile industry provides one example. The existing nucleus of training staff in the industry's Recruitment, Education and Training department became, in 1964, members of staff of the first Industry Training Board, and their work continued, but on a very much broader front. The voluntary training levy was replaced by a statutory one, and all firms were involved in a levy and grant system. As may be imagined, this met with something less than approval in many cases. Nevertheless, it did provide the incentive to improve the quantity and quality of training.
Introduction to decision‐making for graduate entrants
Authors: ELGOOD CHRIS
Published: February 2008

There is a lot of talk about participation and the discovery method of learning, but I have not found many people who actually put it into practice. I got on to my present line just by sitting through lectures and being bored: lectures which I had arranged myself and to which I was pretty sensitive. I used to hear the decibel count of coughs and shuffles mounting as the lecture went on, and I saw the glazed eyes and absent expressions multiplying. Yet I knew that much of what was being said was valuable. I got to thinking that there just had to be a better way of putting over the information. Then I noticed that the best parts of the lecture coincided with the illustrations, when the speaker used some practical example to explain his meaning in terms that everybody could understand. It came to me that perhaps I could take similar illustrations and build them up with realistic data so that course members could work their own way through them and discover their lessons for themselves. I did it, and it worked, and the exercises I build I now call models.
Mistakes in learning
Authors: DOWNS SYLVIA
Published: February 2008

Learning rarely happens without mistakes being made. In some trial and error situations, the mistakes form an integral part of the learning process. A simple example is making an unfamiliar journey without a map. Some guesses have to be made; inevitably, some wrong turnings are taken with consequent retracing of steps once the error is discovered. If the journey has to be repeated some time later, fewer wrong turnings will be taken as the corrections originally made are remembered. The older the traveller, however, the less likely is he to adopt the proven correct route. He is more likely to repeat his original mistakes.
Training for METRICATION
Authors: BADEN HELLARD R , CONNOLLY JV
Published: February 2008

In July 1971 under the title ‘Task Analysis for SI Metric Training’ we published a skeleton of the training task for metric change. This analysis concluded that training for metrication presented the biggest single technical training task undertaken in British industry. We consider the task so important that, although essentially transient, it is worthy of closer attention. Over the next 12 months, therefore, we propose to deal with different aspects of metric change as they affect training, providing training officers with practical guidance in a readily usable form, in some cases with direct access to training material. Decimal Currency came and went and in many ways proved to be the biggest non‐event of the year. Whether this was largely because the training tasks were taken seriously and dealt with comprehensively, or whether it was really due to the inherent simplicity of the change can never be proved. This painless transition has already lulled some companies into a false sense of security over metric change, in the belief that changing to metric can and will be achieved with similar ease once a sufficient number of other companies have changed. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Management education
Authors: GORE THOMAS
Published: February 2008

At the present time there is, in many countries, a great questioning as to the place of formal management education in any total national framework for producing managers. At one time this route was almost the sole way of producing new managers, but as more realistic forms of in‐plant training are developed the need has arisen to consider the problem of how best to integrate management education, carried out entirely within some educational institution, with in‐plant methods of management development. In this article Thomas Gore examines the unsatisfactory position which has arisen in Britain with regard to management education courses in universities and colleges.
CONFLICT AT WORK
Authors: Hughes Alec
Published: February 2008

In the October 1971 edition of Industrial and Commercial Training Tony Matthews, producer of the new BBC series CONFLICT AT WORK, discussed the general scheme for the ten programmes and the philosophy behind them. I have now had a chance to view four of the programmes in film form, the format in which many are likely to see them once the second series of afternoon transmissions has been concluded by the BBC. Some, indeed, might well see them in film form during this period, either in order to fit them in to a more convenient time or as an opportunity to have a follow‐up viewing after one or more of the television transmissions.
Training for METRICATION
Authors: BADEN HELLARD R , CONNOLLY JV
Published: February 2008

The starting point for an action programme for the whole company has been mentioned in the first of the articles of this series in the January 1972 edition. It is, of course, the appropriate training of top management and those key executives who must make policy decisions affecting the whole structure of the change programme.
Not for Bread Alone
Authors: KING TAYLOR LYNDA
Published: February 2008

Job enrichment, as a concept, has been around for some time: it has enjoyed an enthusiastic and sympathetic reception amongst trainers everywhere. But what has been missing, so far, is hard information on how firms have put the principles into operation in practice. This book is important in that it presents exactly that type of hard information in the form of case studies drawn from eight companies — six British, one Swedish and one German. In addition there is brief reference to similar work carried out in a further six companies.
Training for the Future
Authors: Wellens John , Broadhurst Alison
Published: February 2008

a proposed strategy for training and manpower managers THE INDUSTRIAL TRAINING ACT HAS, WITHIN EIGHT YEARS, produced great and identifiable gains in the training of the national labout force. By 1972 we have enough experience of its working to be able to recognise certain weaknesses, too. The consultative document proposes wide‐sweeping changes in the system which are revolutionary rather than evolutionary. What training and manpower managers have to ensure is that the benefits which have accrued from the system will be preserved and that the shortcomings of the Act will be corrected. Any proposed new system ought to be judged on the extent to which it will enable us to hang on to our gains and free ourselves of the failings.
The dis technique
Authors: JOHNSON AB
Published: February 2008

Management has been defined as deciding what people should do and getting them to do it. Both aspects rely on interactive skill, since the information to decide must invariably be obtained from people and getting people to co‐operate can rarely be achieved today by a simple command. Indeed, depending on the nature of the decision, effectiveness may dictate that those who must carry it out, should be involved in deciding both what shall be done and also how it shall be achieved. It is not unusual therefore, to find that not only managers and supervisors but specialists and members of project teams, find the need to spend more than half their time in group work, for instance, in obtaining or giving information and in personnel matters involving interviews and appraisals.
Rapid Reading
Authors: WAINWRIGHT GORDON R
Published: February 2008

A progress report on the present state of the art in rapid reading Of all the personal skills that a manager needs to bring to his work, the one which is most widely neglected and yet which is capable of the most ready and the most dramatic improvement is the skill of rapid and efficient reading. Assuming that a manager can already read with a reasonable degree of fluency—say, that he can read an article such as this at a speed of 250 words per minute or thereabouts with good comprehension—evidence accumulated over the last ninety‐five years would indicate that a short course of training should enable him to increase his speed of reading, without loss of comprehension, by an average of 80 per cent. This percentage improvement will apply whatever the material or the purpose for which it is read, provided like is compared with like (see figure 1). Individual improvements on a course can range from 25 per cent to 250 per cent and more.
OPERATION VULCAN
Authors: WELLENS JOHN
Published: February 2008

In Vulcan 2 and Vulcan 3 I established the fact that every physical skill is a job‐relevant sensori‐motor activity. Some confusion is introduced when people start talking about sensori‐motor skills. Not all people mean the same thing when they use the term sensori‐motor skill. The purist — a rare enough bird anyway in the training business — would mean any activity with sensory and motor elements, no matter how simple or common they were. However the term has come to have a special meaning: some skill with some advanced or unusual sensory element or some unusual, rare, refined motor element or both, not found in the normal domestic skill repertoire. On a strict use of words all skills are sensori‐motor but one has to bow before the storm of common usage and accept the term sensori‐motor skill as meaning a skill with advanced sensory and/or motor elements. In order to avoid confusion, as far as this is possible, I prefer to call this type of skill an advanced sensori‐motor skill to mean that it has something unusual in one or both of the elements.
Training for the future
Authors: Watson James , Jaap Tom
Published: February 2008

James Watson and Tom Jaap argue the merits of a National Manpower Coucil and a National Training Tax. In doing so they formally present the notion of a body to supervise and coordinate manpower matters on a national scale using the statistical manpower planning approach.
MbO
Authors: STEWART VALERIE , STEWART ANDREW
Published: February 2008

In our first article we discussed some of the difficulties that can happen when an MbO programme is installed in an organisation. We made a rough distinction between problems that are inherent in MbO as a system, and problems that are not necessarily part of MbO but which very often happen as a result of installing MbO. We made the assumption that the responsibility for the MbO programme has devolved on to someone in the personnel function, probably a trainer or management development officer, and that this person has to adapt an MbO programme so that his organisation can get the best use out of it. We are assuming that some fairly common problems have occurred and that these are restricting his operation — we are assuming that not all managers are committed to the programme, that its purposes are unclear, that ‘objectives’ are thought of as short‐term targets whose achievement is measurable in strictly numerical terms, and that the initial enthusiasm for MbO has worn off and the whole things is seen by many managers as being a paperwork exercise. We are also assuming that the loss of face and scrapping of forms which would result from abandoning MbO are unacceptable.
A facelift for executive development
Authors: PAGE DJ
Published: February 2008

The CEGB Executive Development Course at Electricity Hall, Buxton has now been running for over eight years, and during this time over 500 middle to senior managers have attended it for three weeks each. The main subject streams are concerned with: • The policy, structure and financial obligations of the CEGB. • Techniques of quantitative decision‐making and financial planning and control • Human behaviour in industry • Personal skills, eg, chairmanship, making a case • Management by Objectives • Miscellaneous talks such as ‘An Area Board Viewpoint’, ‘My Approach to Management’, by inside and outside speakers • Industrial relations, both inside and outside the industry • Project work in syndicates.
training needs of small firms
Authors: PERRIGO AEB
Published: February 2008

On the 8th August, 1972, Mr Maurice Macmillan, Secretary of State for Employment, made a statement in the House of Commons on the future of industrial training following his completion of the process of consultation on the proposals which were published on 1st February in the Government's Consultative Document, ‘Training for the Future’.
The dreadful story of what went wrong
Authors: STEWART VALERIE , STEWART ANDREW
Published: February 2008

This article is a humorous attempt to chronicle the progress of a fictitious course — in this case an assessment course, but many of the gaffes which we record are common to all kinds of courses and conferences. We have tried to include as many as possible of the avoidable errors which can be committed; we have footnoted some of the more obvious and common errors. The reader may find some that have slipped our net. As a rough distinction, there are four kinds of error illustrated here: administrative errors, errors in planning and design, errors arising from lack of interpersonal skills, and misalignments in the organisational climate. Some conference or course designs may be more robust than others in the degree to which they are affected aby these different kinds of error; an assessment course is probably more susceptible than most to most of them — which is why we chose it. The account is of course purely fictitious. We rather hope that this article will help to ensure that it stays that way. Any resemblance to persons living or dead should probably be a matter for regret.
A flexible approach to holidays in colleges
Authors: HICKS JOHN
Published: February 2008

Since I am well aware of the current areas of disagreement between employers and the professional associations on the question of the extended educational year (48 weeks) I should like to introduce the discussion of a related procedure for improving the efficiency of colleges which simply involves a redistribution of the vacation entitlement of senior staff and in no sense infringes any of the safeguards required by, for example, the ATTI (my own Union).
A new management diploma
Authors: BENSON C
Published: February 2008

A new diploma in industrial management — which is expected to receive AI grading — is to be introduced by the Institution of Works Managers, following a fundamental re‐shaping of its existing two‐stage management education scheme. The first courses leading to the new qualification are scheduled to begin at Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in the 1974–75 academic year, with the first diplomas being awarded in 1979.
Business studies in sixth forms
Authors: GRADDON JOHN
Published: February 2008

The chief marketing executive rises to deliver his report to the Board on his activities over the last year. ‘Twelve months ago it had been agreed to go for a higher quality market, and that adjustments must be made to the advertising and sales budgets. The initial advertising budget of £10,000 was spread evenly over all four major sales areas, and salesmen were employed according to the demand forecast by our market research unit … We are pleased to record a 70 per cent increase in sales over the year with total sales cost per unit being reduced from £30 to £20’. He sounds impressive, he should go far. In fact, immediately, he is not likely to go further than the next classroom to resume study of an A‐Level subject, because his role of marketing man has been a part of a school general studies sixth form course about business.
Business studies in sixth forms
Authors: CLIFFORD JAMES H
Published: February 2008

One of the interesting characteristics of British life is the way that various groups in society view each other's roles. How often have we heard people in business described as shrewd and hard, people in the academic world described as idealistic and intellectual, and people in the arts described as aesthetic and emotional. Of course, the unrealistic impression created by such generalisations is that few have the ability to operate in the other's domain or even share in each other's work. Such a criticism is often levelled at those of us in education as if we were unaware of the need to examine other people's roles.
Giving workers a say in running the firm
Authors: ROBINSON JOHN
Published: February 2008

DESPITE THEIR DIFFERENT TRADITIONS, THE WORKS COUNCIL IS common to all nine countries. Basically works councils are consultative committees composed of workers' and management's representatives, with the important exception of Germany, where they are exclusively employee bodies. However, they have evolved from differing national social traditions, exist in differing social contexts and are regarded with varying degrees of appreciation by labour and industry from one member state to the next.
Flexible working hours
Authors: Greer IB
Published: February 2008

At the end of 1971 there was not a single company in Britain on flexible working hours. In Germany there were in the region of 2 000 organisations representing a million employees, with France, Switzerland and Sweden enthusiastically following their lead. When the British press became aware at that time of the situation in Germany and reported on it at length, there was still only a handful of pioneers who took up the subject in earnest. In the early months of 1972 a number of companies began Flextime experiments including ICI, Pilkington, Allen & Hanburys, Wiggins Teape, Lloyds Life, Norwich Union, Thorntons, a Manchester import firm and Tullos Cold Storage, a firm of Aberdeen shellfish processors, and of course, the civil service. In the autumn of 1972 the action speeded up with Legal & General and London & Manchester starting the rush, and now there are 150 or so organisations in the UK working flexibility representing more than 20 000 employees.
The impact of Europe on industrial relations in the UK
Authors: COWAN LD
Published: February 2008

Any assessment of the Impact of Europe on industrial relations in the UK needs to take account of three factors: • the current situation in Europe and the direction of present trends, compared with the UK • the International Trade Union Movement • the effect of British entry on the balance of power in Europe, particularly in the Trade Union movement.
Recruiting School Mums
Authors: HAGGER ANNE
Published: February 2008

Gone for a year, because of the raising of the school leaving age, are the school leavers—the traditional trainees in the clothing industry. But, even before 1973, the lure of life as a sewing machinest was proving less and less attractive to young girls and fewer and fewer were remaining in the industry.
Dealing with shopfloor pilfering
Authors: STEWART J
Published: February 2008

Worker participation in management is an attractive catch‐phrase and very much the in‐thing. But unless it can be translated into realistic forms of activity it is meaningless and a waste of effort. Here is one example which shows how worker participation can offer something positive, definite and credible.
OPERATION VULCAN
Authors: WELLENS JOHN
Published: February 2008

In Vulcan 13 I considered the mental component of two manual tasks, one a carpentry job of cladding a wall with pine match‐boards and the other the laying of a random pavement. I referred to the mental component as the experience factor. This study is of recent development in the training business. Our main interest is that if the experience factor could be identified for any job it could be taught directly and, if we could manage to do this, we should be able to reduce considerably present learning times.
Films the Rank management interviews
Authors: HUGHES ALEC M
Published: February 2008

The three reviews which follow are about the first of what will be a longer series of filmed interviews with leading figures in industry and commerce. Ian Latimer, producer of the series, says that the idea for the series came to him after a screening of one of the earlier Rank management films to some senior executives. One man, who had built up a large organisation confided to Latimer that the turning point in his career came when one morning, as a young ambitious executive he decided that he must organise his own time much better if he were to get anywhere. He did so and did get somewhere! The film he had just seen was TIME TO THINK! Latimer thought, therefore, that interviews with successful senior managers might provide not only interesting material in its own right but also some valuable advice for middle management.
Recruitment and Selection of Typists and Secretaries
Authors: ROMAN EVA , GOULD DEREK
Published: February 2008

The extracts describe candidates’ reactions to their selection interviews.
The learning resources unit
Authors: HUDSON HENRY
Published: February 2008

In 1967 two research and development units were established in the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield. The first was the Programmed Instruction Centre for Industry (PICI) supported by an award of £10,000 per annum from the Department of Employment, and grants from all the industrial training boards which, in total, generated a similar amount. The Programmed Instruction Centre for the National Health Service (PICNHS), housed with the PICI, was originally funded by the Sheffield Regional Hospital Board, the United Sheffield Hospitals and the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust. In April 1972 the Department of Health and Social Security assumed the support of the Centre and awarded a grant for three years.
Customer contact skills
Authors: NIXON KEN
Published: February 2008

The first article on the subject, which appeared in the August issue of Industrial and Commercial Training, described the development of a training course in BEA for Passenger Services Staff. The aim of this training is to improve personal service. Its most important element is role‐playing of typical interactions between staff and passengers; these are recorded on video‐tape and replayed for viewing and discussion. A good deal of reading, thinking and research was done before and during the training development. Visits were made to the training centres of several airlines, in Britain and the USA; research workers in both countries were also consulted. Five relevant views of the subject will be examined. These are: • the concept of social skill — Michael Argyle • the analysis of verbal behaviours — Neil Rackham • T‐group training — particularly the research by Cary Cooper and Henry Odie for the Hotel and Catering ITB • transactional analysis — work in Pan American Airways and American Airlines • applied learning in management training — by Mel Sorcher and Arnold Goldstein of Syracuse, USA A reading list giving references to these ideas and authors is given at the end of the article. The intention here is briefly to describe these views, evaluate their relevance to Customer Service Training generally, and show how they have influenced the philosophy and the design of the BEA training. Naturally, more weight will be given to one view than to another in the analysis that follows, but it should be emphasised that there is no intention to choose nor to reject any particular theory or training development. The different approaches are often complementary, each provides insight into the problems of human interaction.
Communicating
Authors: Hughes Alec M
Published: February 2008

A feature of specialised film production in the last few years has been the move made by a few major industrial film sponsoring organisations to transform their internal film units into production companies catering for other sponsors besides the host company. British Rail made this change with British Transport Films — although the new policy has kept the unit still working within the transport field. ICI, in creating Millbank Films as the successor to ICI Film Unit, have undertaken a similar move and, whilst the bulk of the unit's output has been concerned with different aspects of ICI's public relations and commercial interests, the latest series of films to be produced has introduced a significant newcomer to management film making. In this instance Millbank Films has cooperated with Sheppard Moscow and Associates Ltd, management consultants, in the production of a film series with associated publications designed for use in management training, and the films themselves are being distributed by Guild Sound and Vision, one of Britain's three major industrial film libraries with a rapidly expanding catalogue of management training material.
Industrial relations the trainer's role
Authors: LEARY MALCOLM
Published: February 2008

Industrial relations on the British pattern have always been, and probably always will be, a messy area — a complex mish mash of institutions, systems and procedures interlaced with the variances of human behaviour and organisational structure and control. And this situation persists even though it is becoming increasingly apparent that successful industrial relations are vital to British industry. Already well aware of the urgent need for clarity many trainers, like others concerned with industrial relations, are now extremely concerned about their own role in terms of recent developments in industrial relations, especially relating to worker participation, codetermination and the control of industry. It seems to me that such a trainer has two options. Either he can try to ignore the changes until the day when he finds himself in a situation he can neither control nor avoid, or he can forearm himself before entering the arena. It is the aim of this article, the first of a series, to pose a few of the fundamental questions that trainers should be asking themselves if they are to make a positive contribution to industrial relations developments. Subsequent articles will discuss how the trainer can make a start by formulating an appropriate overall strategy, and will describe some of the techniques the trainer can use.
The quality of working life
Authors: TERRY PAT
Published: February 2008

In May 1973 the Department of Employment published Manpower Paper number 7, ‘The Quality of Working Life’. This paper aroused considerable interest within the Chemical and Allied Products Industry Training Board, as its publication coincided with the completion of two years' work by a board working party on Organisation Development. Much of the work of this working party had impinged upon subjects which come under the heading of The Quality of Working Life. The board decided, therefore, to continue the working party so that it could examine the board's possible contribution to an improved quality of working life in the industry. To support the working party, the author, as part of a study tour in the USA, was asked to look at what was being done and said about the quality of working life in the USA. These are the impressions he gathered from a variety of people with different interests in the subject.
After vulcan
Authors: JONES FG , WESTLEY KH
Published: February 2008

During the Vulcan Series last year, a number of points were explored which attempted to extend current thinking and methods in the traditional training man's area of work. Some examples were given of approaches which are finding favour in certain applications. The following article describes the extension and combination of several training approaches as applied to a practical, highly skilled operator training problem.
A training approach to bringing about an improvement in systems performance
Authors: JAMES MIKE , DRAKE PETER
Published: February 2008

The most common approach to the identification of training needs and the preparation of training programmes and material is through a process of individual job analysis. Individual job analysis has been used successfully for a wide range of occupations including managers, supervisors and shop floor employees, and whilst it has also been used for clerical occupations, it has in practice, presented difficulties. These difficulties arise because clerical jobs, whilst being numerous, are less homogeneous than those of production workers. There is also normally a greater degree of job flexibility. To overcome these difficulties two broad approaches have been used: • identification of common basic skills • analysis of systems. It is with the developments which have flowed from the analysis of systems that this article is concerned. These developments have led us to three broad conclusions: • the need for systems training extends beyond what are normally regarded as administrative and clerical jobs • the training needs identified as a result of analysing systems differ from those identified when the approach is through individual job analysis • using the systems approach training material is quicker to produce, more flexible and probably reduces training times.
Skills training for personnel management
Authors: PAMPLIN ELIZABETH
Published: February 2008

Training courses for personnel managers currently consist of Post Graduate Diplomas in Personnel Management for those with a first degree or similarly qualified and courses leading to Membership of the Institution of Personnel Management whose examinations are recognised to be of pass degree standard. Fine, if you are academically qualified and wish to make a career in personnel management leading to the top of the tree, with a seat on the board, as personnel director. At policy making and senior executive level the knowledge thus acquired can probably be used in full for the first time.
How to provide a motivating environment for DP keyboard operators
Authors: MALT LILLIAN
Published: February 2008

Like justice which must be fair and be seen to be fair, job interest should be inherent within the job and be seen to be there. Peter Drucker says ‘one can't create job interest, it must be in the job. What we can do is to avoid suppressing the job interest which is there’. Before we talk about keyboard operators, it would be helpful if we agreed some ideas about the importance, function, aims and objectives of a DP department. What is its function? What part does your DP department play in the total corporate structure of your company? In short why are there DP departments? DP = Data Preparation
Participation in action at Fry's
Authors: SMITH GEOFF
Published: February 2008

Amongst one of the most progressive worker participation programmes currently being developed is the one by the Cadbury‐Schweppes group. Much has been written elsewhere about the philosophy and approach being used. ICT were recently able to discuss the training and people development approaches that have been adopted by one of the Cadbury‐Schweppes group operating units — Fry's at Somerdale.
Better meetings
Authors: MAUDE BARRY
Published: February 2008

The efficiency of meetings is boosted by providing a good working environment. The right size of room, suitable seating arrangements, and even the size and shape of the table can lead to better decisions — and happier decision‐makers.
Dissmissal without warning
Authors: BROADHURST ALISON
Published: February 2008

THE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT 1971, hurriedly if not indecently buried, introduced a major innovation into the law relating to dismissal; the notion of unfair dismissal was something entirely new to English law although there had long been (and still is) common law relating to wrongful dismissal, a very different matter. The latter illustrates the general legal rule that where a contract is unjustifiably repudiated, an action will lie. Thus when an employer dismisses an employee without proper notice and without good reason according to the law, this amounts to repudiation of the contract between them. Rights under this heading are founded in the law of contract.
The management of training
Authors: PRESCOTT BD
Published: February 2008

Training, it is often said, is the responsibility of management. In 1964, however, it was necessary to introduce the Industrial Training Act in an attempt to remedy the known deficiencies in industrial training. One reason for the Act, and the establishment of the Industrial Training Board system, was that management had failed to accept its responsibility for training. There is a growing awareness of the need to integrate training into the management function in order to create effective learning conditions at all levels and for all personnel. If this aim is to be achieved, it is necessary to have effective management of training. The question to be answered, however, is what does the management of training mean?
Trade unions and the social contract
Authors: GORE TOM
Published: February 2008

The problem facing the British economy is to curb inflation, reduce the deficit on the balance of payments, now running at £4,000 million a year, raise company profits to improve new capital investment, improve efficiency and productivity and to contain wage demands. The competitive power of British exports in the world will depend to a large extent on labour costs and managerial competence. Labour costs largely depend on the attitudes and actions of the trade unions, and in full employment their power is considerable. It can have far reaching social and economic effects. Their failure in the past two decades to readjust their philosophy, their organisations and institutional arrangements, created in times of mass unemployment, to conditions of full employment is partly the reason for the present state of industrial relations: backward, inward looking and divisive.
The consumer and the box
Authors: HUGHES ALEC M
Published: February 2008

The EEC conducted in 1974 a survey among its nine members of the consumer information and protection programmes presented on their various television networks. The results are of general interest, with some significance for managements everywhere.
No Truck with the unions
Authors: BROADHURST ALISON
Published: February 2008

A recent case in the High Court has drawn attention to some legislation which, whilst it has been in force for a very long time, is rarely invoked in the courts today: the Truck Acts, particularly that of 1831. The author examines some facets of this area of the law but stresses that this article is not advisory but informative and, if problems arise in practice, legal advice should be sought.
Supervisory training and development in Holland and Denmark
Authors: LOWNDES RICHARD
Published: February 2008

The overriding impression left from observing a limited and small sample of activity in Danish industry in the area of management education and training, is that that activity is being undertaken for definite functional purposes.
Effective practical information systems
Authors: SMITH GEOFF
Published: February 2008

The previous articles have outlined the need for and approaches to presenting information to employees. The questions continually asked are — why do it? — what can we use the information for? — do employees really understand and want to know anyway? In the first article information needs were identified and linked with security, improvement and comparability factors for all the participants in any business. So the obvious approach in using information is to meet these real needs whether for groups or individuals, ie the company or its employees. The one area where these needs are mutual is that the continuous economic survival of the business is essential if there is to be security of income whether wages or profits. This can be achieved only through effective, efficient business performance being continuously maintained and improved to meet growing economic pressures brought about by inflation.
Training development with limited resources
Authors: RICHARDSON KG
Published: February 2008

For training plans to be truly effective they must be capable of not only achieving their training objectives but of implementation within the constraints of their particular situations. Increased training expertise in most industries has succeeded in developing training programmes which fulfil their stated aims. Yet many schemes fail to become operational, or degenerate after short periods because of lack of attention to the limitations surrounding them. These limiting factors, the boundaries of the resources available, need to be carefully studied and considered at early stages of planning the training strategy if we are not to waste considerable effort in training developments. Finance is the oft quoted limitation, but in many cases manpower resources can be more serious and a major factor in determining an acceptable programme. Certainly the smaller firms have always been in the position of tailoring their training to their resources even if this does not completely satisfy their needs nor employ the best possible training methods. In today's depressed economic climate many firms are having to rethink their training policies to meet the new constraints. Trainers unaccustomed to this change of emphasis in the approach may find the following case studies of both interest and value.
Effective practical information systems
Authors: SMITH GEOFF
Published: February 2008

The Corporate Report is the title of a discussion paper recently published by the Accountant's Standards Steering Committee. As custodians of our business information systems, the accountants have prepared a most significant report. They have joined us in highlighting the need for better communication of information amongst the participants in industry and commerce, and in advocating the adoption of a system based on the concept of added value, for which we have been pressing since August 1973.
A question of organisation
Authors: HARRIS NEVILLE , PALMER EDDIE
Published: February 2008

‘Help social workers to organise themselves? You must be mad!’ ‘It can't be done — there are too many imponderables!’ ‘Why bother to plan when the majority of it is going to be altered?’ These were some of the typical responses that we received when we embarked about a year ago on a trail that has been fascinating, aggravating, often difficult—but always worthwhile. The story, in fact, starts about six months before that, and the tale is not one of unqualified success, but a mixture of responses, all significant.
Some implications of tec policy
Authors: BEAUMONT T , TAYLOR HT
Published: February 2008

The announcement by TEC that they expect that their new courses will commence, at least for Sectors A and B (Engineering and Construction), in September 1976, has produced surprisingly little reaction from those most vitally affected—the colleges. Have the full implications of TEC policy been understood by all those involved? we would start by posing three questions:‐ Are the problems of the 1960s, which led to the establishment of TEC in the 1970s, going to be valid for the 1980s and beyond? Whilst recognising the need to rationalise the organisation and administration of technician level courses, does it automatically follow that the courses themselves also need the same treatment. Why the rush?
Organisation behaviour
Authors: Terry Pat
Published: February 2008

This series of articles has developed a number of views on organisation behaviour and how current knowledge on the subject can be used to improve training and development in industrial organisations. The series has been an attempt to focus the reader's attention towards the critical need for us as trainers to understand why organisations are as they are and what causes them to behave as they do. Organisation behaviour as a subject is therefore about understanding, or attempting to understand, the complexity of the relationships that exist in the collectivity of people and things that we call ‘organisation’. To achieve full understanding is, I am afraid, as hopeless as expecting to understand why our fellow men (or women) behave as they do, for organisations like all living things change as we examine them. What the theories and hypotheses on organisation behaviour can do for us is give us some idea of organisational change and the links between these causes and their manifestations in terms of behaviour. This knowledge gives us a map, however fragmented, on which we can plot bearings to indicate the course our actions should follow if they are to influence and change the reality of the organisational situation.
More thoughts on TEC
Authors: BEAUMONT T , TAYLOR HT
Published: February 2008

We have been sufficiently encouraged by the interest taken in our article published last November to add some further comments about the implications of evolving TEC policy. We would like to stress that our considerable concern is shared by many others, both in colleges and in industry. Our attention has been drawn to the close parallel that exists between the concept of TEC to provide a common scheme for National Certificate and City & Guilds technician courses and those of the Schools Council (Examinations at 16+: proposals for the future) to provide a common scheme for GCE ‘O’ and CSE levels. But what a difference in approach!
Can you understand what you are reading?
Authors: OWEN DAVID
Published: February 2008

When you read an article in ICT, can you easily understand what the writer is saying? Or do you have to struggle through it, wringing the meaning out of each complex sentence, one by one? When someone in the training world writes an article for publishing it is generally because he has something to communicate—some message that he wants to get across to fellow workers in the field of training. (It may just be that this month he needs the money, but let's ignore that reason.) If he has a message to convey, then it is reasonable to expect him to write the article in as clear a manner as possible to make sure that you can understand and remember it. In other words, you might expect the article to be readable!
Woman and work — two extracts from an EEC bulletin
Authors: King Deborah
Published: February 2008

The current issue of Vocational Training, Information Bulletin No 2/3, published by the Commission of the European Communities, contains two interesting items on women's employment. The first of these, by Deborah King, is reproduced in full below. The second item appears on page 15 under the heading ‘A survey of the situation and problems concerning the education, training and employment of women in the EEC’. This is a lengthy treatment of the subject, running to 18 pages of A4, of which we have reproduced the summary here. Although we now have equal opportunities legislation and sex discrimination legislation, the reports highlight areas in which there is much room for improvement — for example in the provision of day care facilities for children. Lack of this provision can be one of the main factors preventing a woman from returning to work while her family is young, yet where is the lobby for day nurseries in the UK? The report also draws attention to the hidden pool of female unemployment. Many married women who would enter employment if suitable job opportunities existed are unemployed, yet they do not claim unemployment benefit and so do not appear in the statistics. Readers wishing to read this report in full can obtain single copies of the Bulletin, price 65p, from HMSO, PO Box 569, London SE1 9NH. 01–928 6977, ext 365. The Bulletin appears four times a year and a subscription costs £2.00. When ordering, it is necessary to specify in which language you wish to receive the publication.
Who's in Charge?
Authors: HEMINGWAY JOHN , KEYSER WILLIAM
Published: February 2008

This study took a sample of every traceable occupation which occurred in Britain in the six months 1 January to 30 June 1975. These findings were supplemented by a postal survey of 100 of the ‘top 400’ companies, to obtain a more general view of attitudes towards occupations — replies were obtained from about 40 companies.
How to launch an effective project group
Authors: HONEY PETER
Published: February 2008

Recently I was involved in an assignment which worked out so beautifully in practice that I am encouraged to pass on the experience to others so that they may, if appropriate, use some of the ideas and build upon success.
A systems approach to training
Authors: Milutinovich Jugoslav S , Battjer Brian R
Published: February 2008

Systems approach to training is in the UK essentially a training board technique. In the USA, in the absence of ITBs, this technique has been introduced by the companies themselves. This article describes how a large company, widely dispersed across the country, has introduced systems training.