bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Enlisting management support
Authors: COLQUHOUN JC
Published: February 2008

Despite all the talk and activity of the past ten years or so, training and development continues to be regarded by many managers as a fringe benefit—a very fringe benefit! It is still rarely viewed by them as a problem solving tool which can speed the removal of whole groups of problems, prevent the occurrence of potential problems and allow opportunities to be seized and exploited. There are two schools of thought about how this situation might be tackled: the first assumes that nothing of importance can be achieved until the training officer has attained a certain status level within his organisation (. . and some have greatness thrust upon them) while the other school argues that the training officer can influence events to the extent that he is perceived as having knowledge and expertise which are both relevant and appropriate to the situation. It is this latter viewpoint which seems to offer most hope and which forms the raison d'etre for this article.
Understanding Industrial Society
Authors: Sanday AP , WATTS PG , Dobinson
Published: February 2008

The Schools Council Enquiry No 1 (HMSO) published in 1968 revealed that employers, parents, teachers and the pupils themselves considerd the preparation of pupils to cope with the demands of the adult world of work in social and economic terms to be a major responsibility of the school. However it was equally apparent that little of what was done as a specific part of the curriculum in schools was designed to meet this aim, and at meetings of teachers and advisers at Teachers' Centres in Warwickshire, Coventry and Staffordshire it was decided to devise a course to fulfil this need.
Career Planning & Development
Authors: HORVATH LASZLO
Published: February 2008

In April 1975 a Round Table on Career Development in European Enterprises was organised by the International Labour Office, in collaboration with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce. In mid‐1976 ILO published the main papers in a report called Career Planning and Development. Last month we published two extracts from this report. The second extract was from a case study of Hungary and this month we continue Dr Horvath's illustration of a socialist career development system. The report of 140 pages is available from ILO, CH‐1211, Geneva 22 or from local branches at 15 Swiss Francs or equivalent. ISBN 92–2–101447–9
ARC in Scotland
Authors: BURT GEORGE
Published: February 2008

From computers in Scotland to unemployment problems in South London is not the most obvious progression, which occasioned numerous explanations during the year I've just spent on secondment. The connection became more obvious to most people (though not all) when I explained that it was my business and management skills which were to be brought to bear in the setting up and running of a project to employ young West Indians.
Experiential learning
Authors: ELGOOD ASSOCIATES CHRIS
Published: February 2008

In an article in the October issue I described the Four Letter Word Game as a ‘structured experience’, and such devices in general were spoken of as a half‐way‐house on the road to experiential learning proper. Their great benefit is that they get students accustomed to certain ideas, these are: • That every individual has a personal collection of values, attitudes and beliefs of which he is largely unaware but which exert a great influence upon his behaviour. • That these things can be consciously studied, provided that the climate of opinion is right. • That there can be major advantages following from such study. Structured experiences are one method of introducing students to what could be called ‘the submerged world of behaviour’.
Video recording in management training
Authors: HYETT KEN
Published: February 2008

Over the past few years management training centres have acquired CCTV and video tape recording systems, and as a result many management training specialists have had to develop skills in using these aids properly. The ability to use these devices in a technically proficient manner is easy to develop, but what is more important is the skill to use them in the most educationally appropriate way. The purpose of this article is to examine the educational issues involved in the effective use of video recording in management training.
Training to improve salesmen's performance
Authors: RYAN JOHN F
Published: February 2008

Traditional sales training has concentrated primarily on the sales interview and has given salesmen a series of behavioural guidelines to use in that situation. Sometimes these have been in the form of such mnemonics as AIDA — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action; sometimes as in the rather better Rank ‘Customer and You’ films they have consisted of a series of relatively simple rules of thumb. Another approach has worked through giving the salesman some idea of the customers' motivation. Our approach to salesmen training has started at a different point — the motivation of the salesman himself. Professor David McClelland of Havard has over the past 30 years or so been researching the relationship between the level of achievement, affiliation and power motivation, on the one hand and the level of success in various occupations on the other. He found that salesmen, like entrepreneurs, they work on their own to a marked degree and have the opportunity to get quick feedback on results of their work — they either make a sale or fail to do so — are successful if they have a high level of achievement motivation. He also managed to isolate the strategies and behavioural characteristics of people with such a high level. Finally he proved that the level of achievement motivation can be developed by training.
New laws — new managers?
Authors: TOWERS MAX
Published: February 2008

This series of case studies, drawn from a wide range of commerical and industrial activity, is intended to illustrate the impact of industrial relations legislation on a sample of British managers during the decade 1966/1976. The six statutes dealt with concern Redundancy Payments (1965 and 1969), Race Relations (1968 and 1976), Equal Pay (1970), Trade Union and Labour Relations (1974 and 1976), Employment Protection (1975) and Sex Discrimination (1975). When, as happens in certain cases, the same statute appears in more than one case study, quite different problems will be involved.
Vocational education and training in the Federal Republic of Germany
Authors: DYER NADINE
Published: February 2008

The highly organised system of vocational education and training in Germany is often held up to Britain as an example worthy of emulation. In this article, Nadine Dyer, an industrial sociologist working for the Training Services Agency, describes the German System, and the way it fits into German society. She points out what could be regarded as some of the shortcomings of this system of vocational education and training and poses the question whether, in view of the fact that Germany and Britain are experiencing similar manpower problems, we in Britain would gain anything by adopting their system. Finally some further questions are asked about the effects and value of the German system.
Worker participation in Sweden
Authors: GORE TOM
Published: February 2008

One of the last actions of the Social Democratic Government in Sweden, before its 44 year rule ended in September 1976, was to place a new industrial law on the statute book. It is called Medbestämmandelagen or MBL for short, which gives employees in Sweden — private and public — new rights of participation in decision making. It came into force on January 1st 1977. The recent publication of the Bullock Report, calling for legislation to put trade unionists on company boards affords an opportunity to examine the new Swedish law and to update the situation outlined in my article on this subject in this journal in December 1973.
IR training for line managers
Authors: HYETT KEN
Published: February 2008

Over the last few years a number of reports have suggested that there is a need for managers to receive more training so that they can improve their competence in handling ‘plant level’ industrial relations. ‘While training resources have expanded, we believe the need for industrial relations training has developed at an even faster rate’. ‘We believe that industrial relations training for managers has been a seriously neglected part of management training’. ‘Companies should give more attention to the industrial relations training of non industrial relations managers’.
ARC in community relations
Authors: HEAP RICHARD
Published: February 2008

Another Action Resource Centre project Rank Xerox has, like its American parent, Xerox Corporation, for the past four years, released individual employees for periods of up to six months to take part in community service, making available 66 man months each year. The opportunity has been taken up by employees at all levels. Some 40 people have been granted leave, and activities have ranged from assisting in administrating a leper colony in West Africa, to improving local amenities in the course of clearing a canal in the North of England. Particularly notable was the leave taken by a young lady who had, through family connections, acquired building skills. She went to Nigeria with her husband, also a company employee, to assist building a community centre somewhere in the Nigerian bush. She did the bricklaying and plastering, he did the labouring.
Pioneering a partnership through a joint appointment
Authors: BROUSSINE MICHAEL
Published: February 2008

I was appointed to the dual role of Principal Training Officer in the County of Avon's Department of Personnel Services and Associate Lecturer in the South West Regional Management Centre at Bristol Polytechnic in January 1975. I believe (and, what is more important, both these organisations also believe) that the concept of a training officer/lecturer joint appointment could be of great mutual benefit to both employers; this is particularly so at a time when most large concerns are wondering whether they are getting real value for money from training schemes, and this question is especially pertinent to management and supervisory training. It is with these areas which I am particularly involved in my day to day work.
On course for their future
Authors: WALPOLE AE
Published: February 2008

While the spotlight of the Great Debate rests mainly upon the education of our older children still at school, the question of what happens as they leave school and take their first steps into the post school world rates mention from time to time in the media and from public platform. We have heard recently a number of ringing declarations that ‘continued education’ or ‘universal day release’ for all young people up to the age of 18, a principle enshrined in successive education acts since 1918 but never implemented, should be accepted forthwith as Government policy.
Internal labour market and training
Authors: JAMES MJ
Published: February 2008

Skill shortages appear to be endemic in the engineering industry; CBI and Government surveys have consistently identified difficulties in acquiring skilled labour as a major constraint on the performance of the Industry. In investigating and trying to find solutions to skill shortages in individual companies, it has become evident that firms operating in the same geographical area and requiring similar types of skills vary in their ability to meet their labour requirements. The most obvious factor to look at as a cause and the one most often quoted, is differences in wage rates. Wage rates would appear to be a factor, but not necessarily a major factor. Our work to date has produced evidence to suggest that the way in which a company structures its internal labour market and the extent to which that structure is compatible with the external labour market within which it is operating can have a significant effect upon: • its ability to meet its labour requirements and adapt to sudden changes in the demand for, and availability of, labour • recruitment and training costs • opportunities which it can offer its employees to develop their full potential to the benefit of both the employee and the company.
Cchools‐industry links
Authors: HAM AL
Published: February 2008

‘Who needs Schools‐Industry links?’ This question is often asked of those working at the Schools‐Industry interface and is sometimes accompanied by the rider, ‘What's in it for us?’ These attitudes are difficult to understand in the light of the fact that the great majority of school‐leavers eventually end up in industry (the term ‘industry’ being used here in its broadest possible sense). Too often schools pay scant attention to the important matter of careers counselling, this frequently being done on a part‐time basis by a teacher who is a specialist in some other discipline, and youngsters can drift out of school with no real idea of what the industrial world has to offer them. On the other hand industrial concerns often neglect to inform local schools of their careers opportunities and entry requirements and wonder why they fail to attract youngsters of the right calibre.
UK engineering training
Authors: WILD RAY
Published: February 2008

In this second article, Ray Wild talks about one scheme which is tackling the problem of producing better engineers. He gives some of the background and details of the collaboration in which he is personally involved.
Action learning
Authors: SMITH DUNCAN
Published: February 2008

Today we are all for Action Learning — just as we are all against Sin. But what is it? What are its dimensions? To what extent has it developed particular and validated techniques? None of these questions is easy to answer and it is therefore illuminating to be taken behind the scenes of the GEC Action Learning experiment in a book published a short while ago entitled ‘More than Management Development’ The book describes the first British version of the exchange model developed by Professor Revans at Brussels, described in his own book ‘Developing Effective Managers’.
More about the politics of manpower
Authors: WELLENS JOHN
Published: February 2008

Common ownership on the Scott‐Bader model is probably the aspect of employee participation that is least understood and least talked‐about. In part this is due to the fact that it has been, in the past, mainly confined to small firms: only the John Lewis Partnership, with over 23000 employee‐members, a sales income of £440m per annum and more than 80 supermarket and department stores outlets, can claim to be in the big league.
Flexastudy
Authors: MORRIS JH
Published: February 2008

A great number of potential students is lost to the state education system each year. These are the students who for social, economic, geographical reasons are unable to attend a course of study at a college or polytechnic. The courses at most state educational institutions are based on groups of 12 or more people coming forward at the same time requiring the same course at the same level in the correct geographical area. This has tended to create a pattern of course distribution which tends to polarise courses in the large centres of population. The system has become rigid and inflexible and institution‐orientated rather than student orientated. If the student is unable to attend the institution offering the course he requires, at the time the institution makes the course available and for the period of time the institution requires him to attend, then he is lost to the state system. His only recourse is to correspondence course or the private sector.
Transactional analysis
Authors: WRIGHT DON , WHALLEY PETER
Published: February 2008

This is the second of two articles and illustrates how TA can be used by trainers in both industry and commerce. The article is of a practical nature and suggests a highly participative approach. The examples and case studies, although of a general and not specific nature, outline the approach the authors have used and found very successful.
JAPAN:
Authors: DUNCAN BOB
Published: February 2008

What training does Japan do that contributes to its efficiency and productivity? How have they measured training in terms of its contribution to business efficiency? These were two main questions which Bob Duncan, Director, and George Wilkinson, Chief Training Officer, of the Iron and Steel Industry Training Board took to Japan's iron and steel industry in November 1977. A short visit cannot necessarily probe in depth but enough was gained from the visits to six companies and works, an employers' federation and a special college to indicate considerable differences between practice here and that in Japan. Bob Duncan comments on some of them.
entrepreneurial drive
Authors: GETLEY ROBERT
Published: February 2008

This article has been written to generate ideas on how we can increase the valuable combination of qualities, skills and attitudes which I have called entrepreneurial drive. I have used this term because I cannot think of a better one to describe the drive that some people have to create things, the determination that they have to achieve real progress, and the tenacity which is shown by them to change things despite massive opposition. In this article I have put down my ideas on entrepreneurial drive — what it is, why increase it and how it can be increased to generate discussion which will lead to a greater ability in management to get real progress in Industry, Commerce and the public sector of the economy.
demolition training
Authors: WHALEY PETER
Published: February 2008

The Construction Industry Training Board has found itself in quite an unusual and interesting role in meeting new demands for the training of demolition workers at all levels. For a Board that has in scope to it some 31 occupations ranging from bricklayer to plumber to plant operator to site agent, it has rarely had such an opportunity to initiate training in an area which is virtually virgin territory. This is because until November this year there has been practically no training done at all in the hazardous demolition and dismantling industry.
trade unions
Authors: GORE TOM
Published: February 2008

The recent wave of strikes, official and unofficial, in all kinds of economic and public activity, affecting all kinds of persons from children to pensioners, occasioning suffering, misery and harm to the community in general, has caused January 1979 to be called ‘Black January’. Yet ten years ago, in January 1969 a White Paper entitled ‘In Place of Strife’ [Cmnd 3888] was published. The White Paper set out a policy for Industrial Relations. It was the policy of a Labour Government and had been designed in the light of the report of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers Associations which had been published in June 1968 [Cmnd 3623]. The main recommendations of the Report [called the Donovan Report] were embodied in the proposals for an Industrial Relations Act which is Appendix I in the White Paper. That paper, following Donovan, boldly states in para 2:
equal opportunities in f.e?
Authors: HICKS J
Published: February 2008

Early in the summer of 1978 widespread circulation was given to an Equal Opportunities Commission publication, “Fresh Start — a guide to training opportunities.” This booklet was apparently specially produced to help people who are in difficulties with their careers, perhaps wanting to return to work after a long period spent looking after children or an elderly relative or experiencing problems in a job with few prospects. Help was also offered to those who might wish to improve their general levels of education or training, or to tackle jobs normally done by a member of the opposite sex. For all of these categories of people, “Fresh Start” provided a clear, readable and reassuring guide to the wide range of training opportunities and sources of finance which are currently available, but it was possible to feel somewhat disappointed in the fact that the booklet failed to draw attention to the relative disadvantage under which women in general are at present placed through the very limited provision of part‐time day release utilised by them in colleges of technology and further education.
Microcomputers in the small business
Authors: WILLIS ERIC
Published: February 2008

Considerable publicity has been given to the micro processor revolution but the applications have not percolated down to many small companies. Wariness of new technology is a barrier but computer systems and the associated software already on the market are becoming so cheap and easy to use that small companies would be foolish if they didn't investigate the potential for reducing costs and increasing efficiency in their companies. When the potential benefits are measured against costs then the arguments in favour of micro computers become overwhelming.
Britain's lead in the world market for training
Authors: ROSS KEN
Published: February 2008

One of the most outstanding features of the post‐war world is the overwhelming wish on the part of the under‐developed and emergent nations to develop their own industries and join the ranks of the industrial society. It is an essential pre‐requisite to any programme for raising living standards in those countries. For one thing it is the only way that reasonably‐paid jobs can be provided in sufficient numbers, and then again, a rising standard of living requires the production of the material goods on which it is based and which can also form the basis for trade with other nations. This drive to more industrial self‐sufficiency has created, throughout the world, an enormous demand for trained personnel, particularly personnel with technical training at the technician and technologist level, and at the craftsman level too. The demand for trained office workers grows at the same time and there has been created a vast demand for language training in these countries. Britain has made a distinguished contribution to the satisfying of this need and the meeting of this need has already enabled Britain to build up a successful export trade in training technology covering both the supply of training equipment and the provision of complete systems and services, including the staff to go with it. Britain is now the most advanced teaching equipment and materials supplier in the world. Today this world‐wide service covers all grades of employee from shop‐floor workers to management. A great deal of the initiative has come from the commercial companies specialising in training equipment and services; much of their success rests on the fact that they work together within a co‐ordinating organisation, which they created and maintain, called ICETT, The Industrial Council for Educational and Training Technology Ltd. So successful has this venture been that 90 per cent of the output of these companies is sold outside Britain. This is an active, vigorous selling exercise in which Britain leads the field. And yet little is heard about it. In the article that follows ICETT tells its own story.
The repertory grid in action
Authors: HONEY PETER
Published: February 2008

The Repertory Grid Technique [Repgrid] is an excellent way of discovering people's attitudes or beliefs. In this article I shall show you how to use the technique to conduct an attitude survey. I have used it scores of times in this way to conduct surveys on a small and large scale. The particular survey I am going to recount in this article was a medium sized one with 73 people taking part. I have chosen to use this as an example because • this particular survey was designed to establish management training needs rather than for any other purpose. If I can show you how to use the Repgrid in this context it may be extra helpful in getting you started. • the 73 Repgrids were processed manually. I have conducted larger surveys and had the results processed by computer. In this case I was especially interested to discover how feasible manual processing was. I therefore kept records of how long different stages took and will include this information in this article. Just a bit of background. The survey was commissioned by a successful manufacturing organisation who were interested in moving from autocratic to more consultative/participative ways of managing. There was some previous history of in‐company management training, particularly at foreman and supervisory levels, but none aimed specifically at developing people skills. The organisation, some four thousand strong, had a reputation for putting people under pressure but paying them over the odds. They had tight control procedures with daily reporting systems. Managers right up to the top were expected to know in detail exactly what was happening on their patch. After the usual exploratory meetings it was agreed that I should conduct a survey amongst a sample of their management levels (from foremen upwards) to • Find out what development needs people had in connection with the management of people. • Find out what current attitudes were most closely associated with effectiveness and ineffectiveness when managing people.
A Better Startin Working Life
Authors: HICKS J
Published: February 2008

In a consultative paper ‘A Better Start in Working Life’ published jointly by former Secretaries of State for Employment, Education and Science, Industry, Scotland and Wales proposals are made for expanding vocational preparation for 16 to 18 year olds in or about to enter employment. Apart from the fact that they are work based rather than college based, the main proposals for the development of ‘traineeships’ look remarkably like the pre‐apprenticeship schemes developed by many colleges for 15 year olds in the years leading up to the raising of the school leaving age in 1972. Traineeships would be provided by training and educational services jointly and the focal point for developing schemes would be the Industrial Training Boards. Trainees would go through an integrated programme of education and training, both on and off the job, would incorporate induction into industrial working life, main job skills and personal/social skills needed both at work and in their adult lives in general. The aim of the scheme is, and will perhaps remain, that of giving additional help to the 200,000 or more young people who each year take up jobs with little or no provision for skill development and would, within a voluntary framework helped by grants, aim at providing one third of new entrants to employment with vocational preparation within three years of the start of the programme. Educationists have little by way of motive for critising this type of proposal, in principle or even in this specific case in matters of detail, but a number of additional matters might be included in final proposals.
Character counts at work
Authors: SAGAR EILEEN
Published: February 2008

When young people start work in unskilled jobs variations in their competence are soon apparent. The key point is that these variations are seldom in job skills but usually in the areas of personal behaviour and attitude. This is what emerged as significant from the A—Z study of young unskilled workers undertaken by the Industrial Training Research Unit.
What does it really take to start a business?
Authors: LESSEM RONNIE
Published: February 2008

Over the past year, I have been privileged enough to be observing, from very close quarters, eleven separate entrepreneurs starting up in business. The eleventh, incidentally, has been myself. Every week, over a period of three months, individuals have been reporting back on their progress, in the context of a new enterprise programme. While I have acted as sounding board, filter and catalyst, I have been able to record in detail the development of an embryo business. So it has been possible to really determine what it takes, to start up a business from the very earliest stages.
Job splitting in the office
Authors: Sykes Kay
Published: February 2008

Universal lip service is paid to the need for change in existing attitudes towards staff recruitment, but Personnel Managers seem to have their hands tied behind their backs when it comes to implementing this. Until now management has only seriously considered full‐time staff, either permanent or temporary, and has been singularly slow in admitting that there might be some other way of using human resources.
IHD
Authors: Saunders G.
Published: February 2008

In October 1968, a scheme was launched at the University of Aston in Birmingham called the Interdisciplinary Higher Degrees Scheme (IHD). It pioneered a new concept of postgraduate training in industry, commerce and public service. The basic idea was to recruit students with a good first degree and marry them to various companies or organisations with a problem to solve. With Science Research Council support at (in some cases) nominal cost to the firm, projects evolved whereby the student could spend three years mainly with the company (who would take him on as a temporary employee), solving the problem and submitting the written‐up result as a thesis for a degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Safety Signs and Colours: a common European standard
Authors: TYE JAMES
Published: February 2008

Red … stop … amber … watch out … green … go. Every child learns these basic safety colours by heart and motorists react instinctively when they flash up on traffic lights. But few people are aware that colours are also in use in industry and that, from January 1st next year, Britain's workplaces will be required by law to make sure all their safety signs and colours conform to a European standard.
20 years of training development
Authors: Jones JAG
Published: February 2008

The Industrial Training Service was established in 1960 to influence ideas about training at national level and to help put them into practice. This has always been the background against which ITS in‐company work or individual training and development programmes have been conducted. The Industrial Training Service thus has been one of the links between the realities of day‐to‐day work carried out in organisations, and the thinking at national level, which guides the policies and practices of training and human resource development. This article describes how the development of the ITS over the past 20 years has paralleled the evolution of training in the UK. It describes a working model which has guided its development and uses it to make some analysis and prediction for the next 20 years.
Recent trends in management development
Authors: NIXON BRUCE
Published: February 2008

This article is based on the first three of a series of seminars offered by the Association of Teachers of Management on the theme ‘New Developments in Management Development’. Held early in 1980, these were ‘Management Development in Context’ by Mel Berger and Bruce Nixon; ‘Re‐evaluation Counselling Theory and Practice in Management Development’ by Mike Simmons and Rosemary Brennan and, finally, ‘Bioenergetics’ by Ian Ratcliffe. The series was arranged by Bruce Nixon, a member of ATM's executive. Employed by Sun Alliance Insurance as a training manager, his particular interest is to develop ways of helping managers improve their performance that really work. Recently he introduced a successful management development programme in Sun Alliance which drew on research and developments in this area. Acknowledgement is made to Mel Berger, Mike Simmons, Rosemary Brennan and Ian Ratcliffe for their ideas and their permission to bring these ideas together in this article.
Empowering the training officer
Authors: DORIS GEORGE
Published: February 2008

The training that is necessary and appropriate for the training officer himself is of several distinct kinds. Basic is the need to acquire knowledge and skill in the actual subject matter, the context of the training that he is giving, such as accountancy, engineering, marketing and so on. Again there is knowledge and skill in the design and conduct of the training processes, be they called didactic, experiential, discovery, or whatever. We might call the above the technical expertise that the trainer brings to his job — a detailed grasp of what to teach, how to teach, who, when, and where. And yet none of this expertise is of much use unless the decision‐making line managers will play their part in allowing, and helping, it to become effective in the form of training courses actually wanted. So there is another dimension to the trainer's job which is not about training as such, and one which he shares with a wide range of different staff specialists. It is to the task of increasing the trainer's effectiveness, to empowering him, in his dealings with line managers, that this brief article is addressed. And it will surprise a few readers to learn that I don't see the scope for this in augmenting or brushing up his technical skills.
IREX
Authors: BRECH EDWARD
Published: February 2008

That innovation and training essentially belong together could be so self‐evident as virtually to be a cliche. Yet, in Britain's industrial story of the past twenty‐five or thirty years, this inter‐relationship has remained a maxim more honoured in the breach than in the observance. There have been scores of new enterprises, born from enthusiastic technological innovation, surviving only for a relatively short life, to perish through commercial collapse, or at best, decay. Technological brilliance has been unsupported by adequate managerial calibre, and there was no learning of this other essential ingredient for entrepreneurial success.
Operation Phoenix
Authors: Wellens John
Published: February 2008

Immediacy: Let us recap on where I have got to with my model and do a bit of tidying up in the process. We are making a clear distinction between a technological domain and a social domain, the former having to do with harnessing the physical environment or inanimate nature to serve mankind, the latter having to do with human behaviour and how it interacts with this changing external environment. In times of stability the two domains settle down to a state of harmony. But when this harmony is disturbed it is largely changes in technological capability which cause the upheaval. The social pattern then no longer fits with the new technology and what we get is new technology grafted on to the old social forms, which still survive and prevent that society from reaping the full benefits of the advances in technology.
Operation Phoenix 5
Authors: Wellens John
Published: February 2008

We continue with our examination of The Grass Roots Approach potential opportunities coupled with potential risks The theme I now propose to develop is that, though the transfer of responsibility to the grass roots is a necessary condition of survival and prosperity, it carries with it a mass of unsolved — and, indeed, as yet, unconsidered — problems and is exposed to such immense risks that, if things were to go wrong, the outcome could be catastrophic. It is also part of my theme that the grass roots movement will gain strength and will expand considerably and rapidly. It isn't going to go into reverse. I foresee grass roots becoming one of the catch‐phrases of the eighties, just as involvement and motivation were the catch‐phrases of the sixties and participation the catch‐phrase of the seventies. A parallel development is likely to take place. Already the vocabulary of grass roots is beginning to creep into the politicians' bag of goodies and in the process it is coming to mean all things to all men, as in the case of participation at the earlier stage.
A university which serves its local community
Authors: SHELTON DAVID
Published: February 2008

Although the article is oriented towards the agriculture industry its message applies to all industries and to a wider community. For those interested in promoting change and those people who are studying what society must do to adapt to new technology this report can be taken as a case study on how to integrate an institution of higher education into the working life of the community and, as such, it has a major contribution to make to the debate on OPEN TECH. The author wishes to acknowledge the help extended to him by the Douglas Bomford Trust in the making of this tour.
It's up to management
Authors: O'NEILL HUGH
Published: February 2008

The author is concerned to make the point that most of the excuses for the poor economic performance of the UK do not hold water. He argues a two‐fold thesis: that the failures are mainly failures of management; and that the cure lies in the hands of managers. Underlying this view is the very important principle that training, if it is to be effective, must take account of socio‐political factors and that managers and trainers have a legitimate interest in economic, social and political matters and that they cannot formulate meaningful objectives without it. At the present time a division of opinion is appearing within the training movement on where to apply the country's maximum training effort. The MSC, inits discussion document A New Training Initiative, argues for applying it at the lower end of the job spectrum: with apprentices, adult retrainees and school‐leavers. The alternative view, implied here, is that the maximum effort needs to be concentrated at the upper end of the spectrum.
A progress report and statement on policy on youth unemployment long‐term adult unemployment
Authors: HOLLAND GEOFFREY
Published: February 2008

On the 9th July 1981 Geoffrey Holland, Director of Special Programmes, Manpower Services Commission, addressed the Biennial Conference of the Industrial Training Research Unit in Cambridge. There follows a verbatim transcription of his speech. The speech is worth studying in detail. In the first place it is the best exposition of MSC policy (Government policy?) to have been publicly presented so far, so much so that it will create a great deal of sympathy and good‐will for what MSC is trying to do and the way they are tackling their task. In its selection of statistics alone, and its sparing though effective use of them, it is an object lesson in communication. But the interest will extend beyond the technical mastery of the subject and how to present it. What marks this speech out from the common rut is the openness which Holland displays which is quite unusual for a civil servant.
Awareness of time and space
Authors: Tierre John
Published: February 2008

A short while ago a training friend of mine received a ‘phone call from the secretary of a busy executive. At the time, my friend was running a series of courses on the management of time and the secretary was enquiring on behalf of this manager. ‘That sounds just what he's looking for’ she said as he explained what the course covered and how it did it, ‘can you tell me where and when the next one is to be held?’ He gave her the place and also the dates for the next of the three‐day courses. ‘But that's three days’ she exclaimed, ‘he couldn't possibly afford that amount of time. He's far too busy’.
Back on the job
Authors: O'NEILL HUGH
Published: February 2008

“The times they are a changing!” The song tells us. Training is often called a “change agent”, but it is questionable whether training is, at the moment, in the vanguard or the guards van. As a consultant in organisation development, I am called upon for advice on many issues. Recently I was asked to comment upon a booklet produced by the training department of a major manufacturing concern. The title was: TRAINING FOR CHANGE. The work outlined the “philosophy of the training department” and it detailed some of the current activities and courses. In general these could be described as preparing people to be changed. The focus therefore was upon sessions detailing the need for change, working with people, Transactional Analysis and similar. As I read it, a conviction grew: “this is not what training is about, nor is it a reflection of what has been happening in training in the past three or four years.”
Developing staff self‐awareness
Authors: Winfield Ian
Published: February 2008

Training managers frequently speak of an omission in staff development programmes. Whilst considerable sums are spent on job‐related courses and training modules little or nothing is spent on developing staff emotional well‐being, removing blocks to more effective performance. Is this, one wonders, too nebulous a concept for anyone to worry about? Of course we are sneakingly aware that the Japanese are doing this already. Their staff development programmes promote well‐being in characteristically Japanese ways: daily group meetings, integrating the individual closely with his/her primary working group and through it the corporation. The approach to staff development and staff well‐being adopted by Europeans will be different, for we have a different heritage. Our approach is through developing the individual as a unique person, as a whole person. Finding more effective ways of developing staff rests on using better ways of understanding the individual employee; what their unique problems are; what their individual ways of relating (or not relating) to the company and environment are.
What I believe about management training
Authors: HONEY PETER
Published: February 2008

Issues A to W: Two coincidences combine to inspire this article. One is the fact that I have just celebrated my sixteenth anniversary as a management trainer. The other is that I've just finished reading a book called ‘What I Believe’ (bought for 50p from a second hand bookshop!). It contains a collection of essays from a variety of men and women giving their personal philosophies of life. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to set down my philosophy of management training. To discipline myself from rambling on, I'm going to confine myself to a paragraph per belief or issue. Here they are, in alphabetical order from A to W. (Please add your own XYZ!)
Reader comment
Authors: SINGER EDWIN
Published: February 2008

Editor: Our editorial comment on the previous pages is strongly critical of YTS. This is, because we are just about the only dissenting voice and we feel that it is our duty to express it powerfully. There is an alternative or additional point of view which says that these young people are not responsible for their plight and it behoves us all to do whatever we can to mitigate it. ED SINGER wishes to put this point of view before readers.
THE POLYTECHNIC ALTERNATIVE
Authors: COX ERNEST
Published: February 2008

For me, one of the most interesting and stimulating aspects of the PHOENIX SCENARIO and the subsequent articles in Industrial and Commercial Training over the past sixteen months has been its catalytic effect on my view of subjects as diverse as: parental involvement in curriculum development; School/Industry liaison; the stimulating of small‐business activity; Course design in Continuing Professional Education; and the role of the Polytechnics. One of the major reasons, I am sure, why the Wellens approach has had this type of impact on me lies in his method of exposition. My own background and training has emphasised the traditional logical method of problem‐solving — through analysis of the constituents of a situation, selection of the major constraints, deduction of alternative solutions to remove the constraints and testing of these to arrive at the optimum solution. By contrast, John Wellens has used an almost lateral thinking methodology. Given the scope and complexity of the problems to which he has addressed himself, one can see an obvious advantage in looking separately at a series of topics first so that one can, through them, gain some appreciation of the central issues of which they are the diverse reflections. To use one of his own analogies, he has been sending up a large number of ‘trial balloons’. Perhaps the time has come when some of his readers should try to link together these ‘balloons’ to provide ourselves with enough ‘lift’ to create necessary changes. In this spirit, and hoping that if I am ‘shot down’ it will be by someone who has got a better handful of balloons to which we can all cling, I offer the following ‘connections’ on the subject of TRAINING PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY IN EMPLOYMENT.
Working together
Authors: TEIRE JOHN
Published: February 2008

Teambuilding is essentially a ‘doing’ activity. The benefits to working relationships come from active participation in workshops and projects. As such it is difficult to describe: conventional explanations of the concepts and principles don't take the training manager much further on. Therefore, as part of this article we invite you, the reader, to have a go at the TEAMTRACK game as a way of exploring what teambuilding is about. The author, John Teire, has drawn from his work as a consultant with a range of organisations to design the game. Most of the ideas which are relevant to teambuilding are in there. It is up to you and your colleagues to find your way round them.
Training through ENDEAVOUR
Authors: CRANFIELD INGRID
Published: February 2008

Academic education nearly always takes place within walls. Non‐academic education is not confined by bricks and mortar, nor, its supporters would say, by anything else. Extramural education, training in life skills, development training — call it what you will — addresses itself to the whole person. While conventional education refines and stretches the mind, extramural education reaches out to the spirit. And since spirit influences mind, the argument runs, non‐academic education can subtly alter professional capacity and social behaviour. The notion has been with us for some time. Outdoor or adventure education, which is the principal arm of personal development training, first gained a foothold in the 1940s and has since become well established in use. Like acupuncture or faith healing, it is seen to work, though no one seems to know exactly how. The results are indeed almost impossible to quantify, since they are invisible, untestable, non‐specific and long‐term. The use of the word ‘training’ in this connection smacks slightly of wishful thinking.
Interactive video
Authors: PARSLOE ERIC
Published: February 2008

This is just a random selection of headlines from my clippings file. It seems, these days, that just about every magazine concerned with either video or training has at least a news snippet about some well‐known organisation establishing (or expanding) a video training programme. A single article in the Financial Times mentions the National Westminster Bank, British Home Stores, Marks and Spencer, Selfridges, the Electricity Council, the Industrial Society, the British Institute of Management, the Welding Institute, General Motors, Ford, IBM, American Express and the Distributive Industry Training Board — as varied a selection as one could imagine, and all using television and video.
Interactive video
Authors: PARSLOE ERIC
Published: February 2008

I am an unashamed convert to interactive video. But in my process of conversion I have had to learn some key terms from my new technical catechism. It has been painful but inevitable and in this article I want to offer a quick summary by discussing one key issue — COMPATIBILITY. Will what you want go with what you've got? Should you dump your existing system for a new one? Will you be able to add more later? Will another manufacturing technology render your system obsolete in a few years' time on price, technical or incompatibility grounds? These are the problems facing users and worrying potential users right now — and not all of them have easy (or indeed any) answers.
Operation Phoenix 20
Authors: Wellens John
Published: February 2008

In Phoenix 19 we traced the development of worker participation in Britain which took place between 1971 and 1977: eight traumatic years of unmitigated disaster for British management, progressively fighting a rear‐guard action, throughout the entire period, against the encroachment of the bureaucratisation and the politicisation of management. We pick up the story again at that point.
The experiment in vocational courses at the Philip Morant School
Authors: WESTWOOD L.D.
Published: February 2008

IP.49 A report on the progress and success of the EITB Course at Philip Morant School: We are now at the preliminary stages for the selection of pupils for the pre‐Engineering course, due to start in September of this year. This will be the fifth group of pupils to venture on to the new very successful scheme of School, Colchester Institute and Industry linked courses being run at the Philip Morant School.