bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Interview training for job applicants
Authors: HARRISON RICHARD
Published: February 2008

In the 18 month period between July 1971 and December 1972, ICI Plastics Division, faced with steeply rising costs and shrinking profit margins, like a number of other British companies had to reduce staff numbers. Although efforts were made to handle this through reduced recruitment and natural wastage a considerable number of white collar staff in the end became redundant or retired early from the company. It was a difficult period for both management and staff, and the Division did a great deal to help those affected find new jobs. A special job‐hunting service was created, and much counselling help was given by managers and personnel officers — both with the practical problems of finding a new job and with the emotional problems of being made redundant, often after long service with the Division.
How do you rate in the manpower productivity leaque?
Authors: WOOD GEOFF
Published: February 2008

Which British industries make the most effective use of manpower and equipment? How does your industry compare with others? Every company that takes manpower planning seriously should know the answers to these questions, yet surprisingly few people look at the right kind of figures. Within any one industry it is possible to make comparisons of output per man‐hour between different companies or different plants. But even these simple comparisons are fraught with danger if they concentrate on shopfloor labour and ignore the indirect workers and staff who all contribute to the final output. Comparisons between different industries are complicated by the problem of comparing, say, a tonne of steel with a motor vehicle, a suit of clothes, a chair, a ship or what have you. And companies are notoriously reluctant to release their own figures, though intrigued to know how well other people are doing. Fortunately, there is a reliable source of information that can supply the answers to the vital questions about manpower productivity. The Census of Production collects information from companies in all manufacturing industries and publishes the data in a series of reports. At one time, the census data came out too late to be of more than academic use (the 1963 figures finally emerged in 1968) but, thanks to computers, the data now emerge in provisional form within a year. What do the figures show, and how can manpower planners make use of the data?
Advancing supervisors
Authors: WALSH BILL
Published: February 2008

DESPITE MUCH OF WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT OVERCOMING ineffective supervision, and a fairly constant flow of books devoted to the many aspects of a supervisor's job, the fact remains that levels of performance in this area of work are still poor. Not because supervisors are unaware of their shortcomings but because of the neglect of management to give supervisors that same training and opportunity to develop that has become almost standard for managers and staff executives.
A neo‐classical Safety Bill?
Authors: BROADHURST ALISON
Published: February 2008

The Government's Proposals for a Safety and Health at Work Bill have been published at last. Based on the ‘Safety and Health at Work’ report of the Robens Committee, it proposes the fusion of various safety statutes, the setting up of a central authority, an extension of scope of application, greater powers of inspection, emphasis on statutory regulations supporting a basic statute, and additional requirements of various sorts, the whole still being enforced through criminal law. In a previous article, the author criticised the Robens Report as being biased towards elegant administration. She sees the Proposals in the same light and suggests that what is really proposed is a rationalisation of law and administration together with an intensification of the existing system which has already failed to reach its objectives. Robens called for a change of direction but the Proposals drive harder along the same route.
CODETERMINATION & WORKER PARTICIPATION
Authors: VOLLMER RUDOLF
Published: February 2008

We start with a study of the present situation in West Germany, not because this is likely to be adopted as the common policy of the EEC — it isn't — but because whatever system is adopted on a wide scale will be largely influenced by the evaluation of the German system which each country will make for itself. We are suggesting that the German system is being treated as a model and what is eventually adopted will be a derivative of the model, perhaps unrecognisable as a derivative, but a derivative nonetheless because the German experience will be the starting point of the public dialogue.
Initiating training
Authors: BELBIN MEREDITH
Published: February 2008

The quality of training and its relevance to a company's needs are very much a function of how training is sponsored at the very first step. Some companies are heavy importers of new training developments; others depend on their own innovative capacity. In some companies developments are taking place in a steady but progressive way through activating a network of instructors; in others the source of creation is a training think‐tank. All training can be imbued with some well‐defined approach or be governed by a general company outlook — ‘… in XYZ we believe that our employees need to know how their jobs fit into the whole …’. But in other companies training is piecemeal and unpatterned. To examine some highly technical aspects of training problems can easily become a pointless exercise if no initial account is taken of the characteristic way in which the company prefers to go about training. Five types of approach can be identified as characterising organisations at the present time.
CODETERMINATION & WORKER PARTICIPATION 2
Authors: JONES DEWI‐DAVIES
Published: February 2008

In the first article in this series Dr Vollmer, Labour Attaché at the Federal German Embassy in London, described the German system of worker participation and representation on supervisory boards and works councils. The article was entitled The German Model, 1973. We opened our series with this article because it is the most lucid and comprehensive account of the German model we have yet come across and it has the stamp of unimpeachable authority. However, that article was, and was intended to be, an idealised account of the system by an enthusiast for it. We invited Mr Dewi‐Davies Jones, a British authority on industrial relations in Europe, to comment on Dr Vollmer's idealised account from two points of view: is there a gap between Dr Vollmer's account and the way it works out in practice; and what, if any, are the obstacles to the adoption of the German model in Britain?
CODETERMINATION & WORKER PARTICIPATION 3
Authors: WELLENS JOHN
Published: February 2008

We have called our new series Codetermination and Worker Participation. It is a huge field and what makes it difficult to grapple with is the fact that it is an indeterminate field at the present moment and the terminology means different things to different people. This is particularly true in the case of the term Industrial Democracy, a forceful‐sounding phrase which means what the user wishes it to mean. An important part of the training job is to define the field more precisely by separating the component parts and bringing about an understanding of each and how they cross‐relate. The area of interest is relatively new in Britain so we have to study what has happened in other countries where it is well‐established. In Germany its beginnings go back to the nineteenth century and in France the big change in attitude came with the liberation in 1944. It is only within the last two years or so that worker participation has emerged as an issue in Britain and even now it would be difficult to say how much demand there is for it or where this demand comes from. Employers with conventional hard‐line points of view have no enthusiasm for it since they see it as an erosion of management prerogatives. Trade unions are hostile to certain forms of participation which they see as direct inter‐action between employer and employee resulting in a side‐tracking of the trade union. So, who's for it? This is a good discussion point. And the answer you give to this question has a big influence on all that follows.
The use of the tachistoscope in clerical training
Authors: ATKINS O.F.
Published: February 2008

The tachistoscope is any projector with an aperture timing device to give a regulated exposure of an image. Its use in training is to improve perception by widening the field of view and to improve recognition of what is viewed and retention of the subject matter. The procedure can be referred to as flash training and is practised by projecting suitable images (eg shapes, symbols, numbers, words or phrases) on to a screen and gradually decreasing exposure times.
CODETERMINATION & WORKER PARTICIPATION
Authors: WELLENS JOHN
Published: February 2008

In my training commentary in our November issue I suggested a basic information kit on worker participation. Since then a new survey, of major importance, has been published and should be added to the list.
CODETERMINATION & WORKER PARTICIPATION
Authors: GORE TOM
Published: February 2008

In July 1973, when the international monetary situation was displaying its usual chaotic movement, the Swedes were informed in their daily newspapers they were the richest people on earth in terms of per capita incomes. The news came from a responsible American survey. True or false, Sweden has a sound trade surplus, great foreign exchange reserves and steady economic growth. Consumption volume is expected to grow at 4.4 per cent per year between 1973–77. 500 000 Swedes out of eight million have a summer home in addition to a house or flat in town. All workers have at least four weeks' statutory holiday a year and around 18 days for what we call Bank Holidays. 70 years ago Sweden was a peasant economy. Why and how has this remarkable transition taken place?
Interviewing salesmen
Authors: BOLAND W
Published: February 2008

How can a training officer improve the performance of managers in the selection of their subordinates? Recruiting new staff or replacements and conducting a selection interview are relatively infrequent events in the lives of most managers and they do not get enough practice to enable them to improve. Running courses is not an appropriate solution. Here is what one company training officer does to meet, if only partially, the problem. He issues a handout of guidelines. This can be a valuable aid to performance and is one form of training. The preparation of management performance aids such as this is capable of very wide application. Although in this case the example refers to interviewing a recruit to the sales staff, the principle can be applied to jobs in all functions.
Craft training
Authors: TURNER SR
Published: February 2008

Those of us in Training Division of the Department of Employment who are concerned with the training of instructors for GTCs, industrial concerns and other organisations have read the Vulcan series of articles with considerable interest, not only because the arguments advanced and the conclusions reached are closely in line with our own but also because the paths which led to them were quite different. I will attempt to describe our thoughts on this fascinating but complex problem, our conclusions and the action we are taking to help instructors in the less obvious aspects of their work.
Transactional analysis and custumer relations
Authors: DAVIES GEOFF , BOYLE JOHN
Published: February 2008

Is social contact with the customer either necessary or profitable to a service industry? Does the salesgirl sell? Or, is she just a packaging‐and‐money‐taking component in a selling organisation? We have had the self‐service restaurant with us for several years, why not the self‐service pub? And in transportation, the Victoria Line is almost fully automated. Need an airline provide more than comfortable seats and a convenient schedule of flights? Just how important is it to have a pleasing social relationship with the customer? Obviously, the answers to these questions depend on a variety of factors in any given situation; and, inevitably a prime factor is the economic one. The situation for the airlines is an unusual one: market competition is constrained by the international regulation of fares and schedules and even of the type of meal service on particular routes. As a result the airlines compete in such narrow areas as the ambience of the passengers' surroundings and the social skills of their customer contact staffs.
A PRESS SETTERS' COURSE
Authors: ROBINSON WFE
Published: February 2008

THE BIRMINGHAM GROUP TRAINING ASSOCIATION — BGTA — which has behind it over 15 years' training experience, was formed by an amalgamation of six former Birmingham Engineering Industry Apprenticeship Scheme Groups — EIGA — under its first, and present Chairman, Robin Udal. The training staff was seconded from the old EIGA partnership, which later became the ITF Training Limited, now ICFC Training Limited, a subsidiary of the Industrial & Commercial Finance Corporation.
Influencing attitudes towards work and society
Authors: MARSH IAN
Published: February 2008

In the March issue of this journal, John Wellens reviewed a recently published book, ‘The Character Training Industry’, by Roberts, White and Parker. In this article, Ian Marsh, Director of Training at Lindley Lodge, describes how, because of the identified shortcomings of the traditional approach of ‘adventure’ or ‘character’ training described in the book, as a means of industrial training, the project was set up. Unique work in development training has been pioneered at Lindley Lodge, near Nuneaton. The response from industry has been such that plans are already in hand for the opening of further centres.
Another look at craft training in France
Authors: DOBINSON CH
Published: February 2008

The steadily increasing bite of the 1974 Budget into the lives of all but a small minority of British people ought to make most of them ask themselves the question — why the Devil are we in this deplorable economic condition, when Germany, defeated, widely devastated by furious bombing and finally dismembered, is at the top of the external balance league and France, ignominiously over‐run and occupied for years, is relatively free from financial anxieties and from production difficulties? Why indeed? Nothing exists without a cause, but those causes which get overlooked, or dismissed, are the ones that make least noise, act most slowly and that require some imagination for recognition as one of the roots of great crises. Such a cause is, naturally, what goes on in schools, because most parents are ignorant or nonchalant about this, and, of those who are not ignorant most are traditional in outlook: schooling means just books and paper and open‐air games. So only defeat and destruction or the affront and indignity of occupation, or some other such shattering experiences are sufficient to bring about the educational revolution that modern scientific and economic developments have been demanding for years.
Retraining courses in engineering
Authors: LODGE RF
Published: February 2008

IN MARCH 1972 THREE ENGINEERING COURSES WERE launched at The Technical College of Monmouthshire, Crosskeys. They were designed to offer a limited amount of skills training to suitable persons who were either unemployed or were willing to retrain for a new job. The idea to introduce these courses came about during a visit to the college by the manager of the local Department of Employment office when he met the head of the college's department of engineering.
Technician education
Authors: GORE TOM
Published: February 2008

The Technician Education Council has recently issued its first Report and Consultative Document. It is now clearly in business assuming responsibility for the rationalisation of the grand assortment of qualifications which lead to the creation of technicians. Technicians are those whose job responsibilities lie between the technologist and the skilled craftsman. They must have specialist skills and specialist knowledge. But they must know, too, the theory behind the skills and have the capacity to exercise technical judgment. Present day needs of industry suggested to the Haslegrave Committee concerned with the Education and Training of Technicians (1969) that technicians should have a recognised national status and a national award understood by all.
Mutual monitoring
Authors: EVERARD KB
Published: February 2008

▪ Have you, the training manager, ever wondered how good your training department really is? ▪ Have you sometimes thought you are misunderstood? ▪ Do you sometimes feel disembodied — floating free of firm links with your board of directors? ▪ Do you ever wonder what on earth you ought to be doing, or which way to turn? — If so, it is possible that a process we call ‘mutual monitoring’ will help you to get your bearings and provide a measure of support. We are using it in ICI, not primarily in response to the questions above, but because circumstances compelled us to think of some better way of managing the training function than simply budgets, establishments and levy/grants. We look on it as a way of forming a reasoned, agreed judgment about the effectiveness and health of the training function, in such a way that the benefit of doing so outweighs the cost.
A study tour of USA
Authors: REVEREND
Published: February 2008

The purpose of the visit was four‐fold: • to discuss at first hand, with those directly involved, the major movements and problems in American higher education, especially those matters arising from relationships between two year and four year colleges; • to examine certain aspects of management education and training and, in particular, to ascertain the scope and nature of activities of the Small Business Administration of the US Government and to determine the involvement of business schools in management education and development for smaller businesses; • to ascertain the major thrusts and practices in education and training for allied health services, in particular, in nursing and social work; • to see something of the social services in operation, as provided by city, State and voluntary (including Church) agencies and to discuss major problems in relation to existing and developing social need.
How management teachers can help small firms
Authors: WOOD GEOFF
Published: February 2008

Even though an ever increasing proportion of the national output stems from the giant companies in Britain, small firms are still a significant part of the economy. The under publicised REPORT OF THE BOLTON COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY ON SMALL FIRMS indicated that there are over a million small firms (defined as those with fewer than 200 employees). Between them, these small firms employ more people than the entire public sector and they produce 20 per cent of the gross national product. Although labour productivity (net output per head) in small firms tends to be lower than in large companies this is partly because many small firms are found in the labour intensive industries. On the other hand, small firms generate a better return on capital employed than do large firms. The Bolton Committee concluded that, in their overall use of resources, small firms are no less efficient than large firms. So what can management teachers do to promote the survival and prosperity of this vital sector of the economy? To answer this question we must first understand the nature of the problem.
How to get the most out of case studies
Authors: ELGOOD CHRIS
Published: February 2008

There must be few training specialists who do not employ the case study method. It is old‐established now and people would look at you sideways if you ignored its use. Yet there is little discussion of the arguments for it or against it, and seldom do you hear individual specialists comparing their manner of using cases and their skill in handling them.
Training the professional engineer
Authors: SEAGER ADRIAN M
Published: February 2008

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF INFLUENCES UPON THIS TYPE OF training of which we must be aware and which we must attempt to reconcile: these major influences are illustrated by figure 1.
A company view
Authors: HERMON‐TAYLOR CG
Published: February 2008

Accountants in general are conservative by nature and consequently the innovation of a new, and in their experience untried, medium such as closed circuit television has to be approached with some care lest it be discounted as a gimmick and its innovator regarded as some ‘Dr Cure‐All’ whose demise is imminent and whose ‘cures’ are worthless. However, it would be unfair to regard all accountants in this light and indeed a large proportion of them are used to giving a new approach at least a fair hearing.
The trouble shooting approach to training
Authors: Prescott BD
Published: February 2008

The trouble shooting approach to industrial training provides trainers with a methodology which enables them to improve departmental performance by: • relating operational problems to skill deficiencies; • designing and implementing training programmes to improve the performance of personnel in critical jobs/tasks related to identified operational problems; • forging close links between trainers and line management. Managers and trainers are becoming increasingly aware of the need to train existing personnel in a systematic manner in order to improve the efficiency of the organisation/department. Millions of pounds are being lost, and needless frustration caused, by management's failure to remedy skill deficiencies among personnel occupying critical jobs. For example, in team jobs it is the team leader who has greatest control over the process variables which affect output, quality yield and downtime. Skill deficiencies at this level are usually more serious than at lower levels, the more so because they are passed on from one team member to the next.
The Company We Keep
Authors: BROUN MYRON L
Published: February 2008

‘Perhaps the biggest failure by employers, and one of the greatest importance, is the failure to demonstrate to workers the identity of interest between management and employees … They want to be told more of what is happening and why; they want to be given incentives to improve productivity and efficiency; they want better pay and they want a bigger say in the everyday running of the company, particularly as it affects themselves … They do not want to get involved in the financial and other management decisions they do not understand … It is at least possible that both the employers and the union leaders are underestimating the intelligence of the workers to a serious degree for it is difficult to fault a desire for more pay in return for higher efficiency or an urge to be treated as adults and told more of what is going on’.
Participation in action
Authors: PEACH DAVID A
Published: February 2008

At Kingston Works both parties to this agreement have attempted to evolve an approach to the operation of the plant that is somewhat different from the traditional approach for large industrial organisations. This approach is based on the belief that conscientious employees, properly informed and carrying out their duties in an intelligent manner, are the best assurance of an effective operation from the point of view of our customers, the shareholders of the company and the people who work here. Thus, both parties to this agreement have worked together to set up plant procedures which reflect these convictions and which give freedom to employees to discharge their responsibilities without unnecessary restrictions. This approach, and the response of employees to it, made it possible some years ago to eliminate time clocks. Later on, the traditional hourly pay system was discontinued and since that date all employees at Kingston Works have been paid on a salaried basis. Both parties take pride in the progress that has already been made in developing an improved working climate which benefits both the employees and the company and intend to continue their efforts in this direction during the life of this agreement.
Organisation simulation in management training
Authors: WALKER HUGH
Published: February 2008

Looking at the current tendencies in management training among large and medium‐to‐large companies, practice seems to favour a division between training in specialist business skills and training in interactive skills. The specialist techniques are those which a particular manager may need to carry out the technical aspects of his work. The interactive skills, which are the subject of this article, are those aimed at making the manager more effective in his group situation.
North Sea Oil
Authors: OWEN DAVID
Published: February 2008

Who will train the professional and technician grades of staff that will be needed in the next few years to develop the North Sea oil fields? So far all the signs are that it will not be the UK education system despite several Government reports and the attention of the Manpower Services Commission.
Training in South Africa
Authors: WOODHOUSE HC
Published: February 2008

Take a bit of history Prior to the Second World War industrial training in South Africa meant the training of white artisans and officials for employment in the gold and coal mines and the comparatively modest industrial enterprises. The war resulted in greatly intensified training activity in the South African Defence Force, in industry itself and as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme for the Allied Air Forces, notably South African Air Force and the RAF. This latter training effort involved the importation of expertise and equipment on a large scale and left a post‐war legacy of men who found the country congenial and stayed — or returned. Many of those men are still to be found on the industrial training scene. The greatly reduced volume of imports of consumer goods, the need for the equipping of the forces and the stepping up of mining production which were caused by the war initiated industrial growth which has continued ever since. It has been positively encouraged by Government policy based on national self‐sufficiency for strategic reasons.
Organisation behaviour
Authors: TERRY PAT
Published: February 2008

In this article Peter Smith sets out to explain the approach to organisational analysis felt by him to be the most appropriate in the area of training. It suggests an approach to the process of change and development that has differed from previous techniques of management training in which the focus has shifted from the individual, micro level to the macro level of the organisation as a system interacting with its environment and a shift from prescription to prescription. Organisational analysis has been shown to be closely associated with a particular way of thinking and before the analyst can hope to begin work in an organisation he has to educate his clients in his own way of thinking and to move them away from their perceived need for prescriptive solutions to seemingly simple problems. Here the author has looked at a model of organisation which has proved effective as a means of understanding the organisation from the wider perspective required by the organisational analyst. The model as outlined has value both as a means of gaining information and as a tool for educating managers to view their organisation from the wider viewpoint. In accepting the managers' need for a more oriented way of looking at specific problems, he has suggested a means where by studying certain interfaces it is possible to look at the ‘smaller’ but equally important areas of the organisation, whilst still maintaining the organisation perspective. What the author has indicated here is a way of looking at the organisation that combines both theory and practice — a sociological approach that has been used successfully and can be used by the training adviser once he has been given the basic tools of analysis.
Effective practical information systems
Authors: SMITH GEOFF
Published: February 2008

One key to effective information systems is to have a recognised objective which links all the participants in a business. Surely the nation's and a company's current economic problems could be a focal point for developing information systems. Until there is understanding of our economic problems there will be no acceptable solution or method of approach to their cure. Informing people of the basic economic facts of the country and the company we keep is an objective that avoids many of the pitfalls of present approaches.
Coaching
Authors: HAGUE HAWDON
Published: February 2008

If line managers coached their subordinates all management trainers would be looking for other jobs, all, that is apart from a few specialists in techniques. A chastening thought but a possibility that it is not likely to worry us for some years to come. There is no doubt, however, that coaching by the boss is the most effective form of training, just as there is no doubt that the boss is the most powerful influence on how anybody does his or her job.
Organisation behaviour
Authors: CLARKE LIZ
Published: February 2008

Much of the writings on leadership have emphasised the personality of the leader as having the major influence on organisational form and behaviour. Liz Clarke describes in this article some of the organisational determinants of leadership behaviour, but goes on to emphasise the leader's role in influencing and changing these factors in controlling the boundary between the organisation and its environment.
Changing managers or changing situations
Authors: Fineman Stephen
Published: February 2008

It makes good economic sense for an organisation to fully utilise its existing manpower and to exploit relatively rare talent—hence training programmes designed to improve managers' knowledge and skills in financial procedures and new budgeting techniques, or to teach them the mechanics of an MbO system, have a high face validity. They appeal directly to the technical aspects of a manager's role. They also make psychological sense as they harness existing abilities and motivations to improve a manager's administrative competence. Therefore, given adequate instructional techniques, the training programme has a good change of being successful.
Organisation behaviour
Authors: MANGHAM IAIN
Published: February 2008

What follows in this article can best be described as what German scholars call unabgesichert—that which is insufficiently protected from critical attack. What I have to say is personal, tentative, speculative, exploratory, ill‐worked out, probably inconsistent and certainly derivative. It cannot claim that status of theory, nor of a model, but is a series of assertions which underpin my view of behaviour within organisations. It is an attempt, within the limitations of space and readership imposed by this journal, to sketch in some ideas that inform my work with members of organisations particularly within the field of decision‐making. I expect it to be attacked and, from the standpoint of scholarly detachment, I would welcome such attacks. From a less objective standpoint however, I must point out that I am a small bloke with specs and acne who fundamentally is not too keen on having sand kicked in his face so comment tempered with constructive criticism is more likely to be readily received than any other kind.
Training and employment of the disabled
Authors: MORTON DEIRDRE
Published: February 2008

Industry has a vital part to play in helping as many disabled people as possible to lead a worthwhile life, and in giving them the opportunity to earn their own living. Many companies recognise this. Discussions staff from the Food Drink and Tobacco Industry Training Board have had with those concerned with the training and employment of handicapped workers, however, suggest that their potential is still not being fully recognised or utilised. Possibly this is because companies while wanting to help simply do not know how to go about it, although those with twenty or more employees are in fact required under the Government's quota scheme to employ a certain percentage of disabled workers, provided of course that this is practicable.
The Theory and Practice of Personnel Management
Authors: Cuming Maurice
Published: February 2008

Britain's anti‐inflationary policy rests partly on the flat‐rate £6 limit on wages and salary rises. But this is regarded as no more than a temporary and rather negative expedient, to be replaced by some more positive policy, possibly by August 1976.
The basic philosophy of Coverdale training
Authors: SMALLWOOD ALEX
Published: February 2008

It is difficult in these days of proliferating training and consultancy systems to decide what are the distinguishing features of the respective practitioners. Coverdale ‘training’ has been coming in for its share of interpretation and evaluation, some complimentary, some snide—the former, we like to think, from those who use it, the detractors from amongst would‐be competitors. We are doers rather than writers and seldom go into print on our own behalf, so it might be useful for a member of the organisation to outline what he sees as the dominant characteristics that give Coverdale its particular quality. I will not claim uniqueness in such an active field, and there are a flattering number of imitators to contest any such claim. We sometimes come across people who think we dispense some kind of black magic! Perhaps I may go some way to dispelling the two extreme reactions to our approach—that it is some magical star‐dust, a miraculous laying‐on of hands for ailing enterprises, or that it is a cart‐load of quack remedies hawked by some mountebank circus.
Audit your management development climate
Authors: SMITH PETER , DAVIES JUDITH
Published: February 2008

If our experience is typical, management development advisers can find themselves relatively isolated and removed from continuous contact with management. Information to plan an overall management development strategy is often not available to them and their effectiveness is confined to dealing with individual manager problems or potential, usually through the medium of a training course. In addition to an incomplete picture of the areas where management development activities are perceived by managers to be most acceptable and relevant (an inevitable starting point for any adviser), the management development adviser has also to work in relative ignorance of the attitudes and perceptions that the manager may have of the management development function. He may allow his worst fears to fill that knowledge gap—which in itself can be inhibiting and hinder that close contact with management which is so essential to a trusted and effective management development function.
Experiential learning
Authors: ALLNER DAVID , TEIRE JOHN
Published: February 2008

In experiential learning the lessons are taught by causing certain experiences to happen to the learner. What does it feel like to be exposed to such learning? Experiential learning is learner‐oriented; it is notoriously difficult to describe. We invited the authors to attempt to communicate it by using a learner‐oriented approach.
Master's in management
Authors: LOWNDES RICHARD
Published: February 2008

The design and launching of Master's degree programmes in management is a major task facing the polytechnics in Britain. Having existed for some six or seven years, they have achieved their initial objective of creating an appropriate range of first degree programmes, exhibiting the characteristics of career orientation, multi‐disciplinary structures, innovative learning methods and relevant assessment systems. The replacement of External London University Degree courses by Council for National Academic Award programmes has accompanied the conversion of the large colleges of technologies of the nineteen sixties into the polytechnics of the nineteen seventies. Many problems still exist in the first degree range: the provision of part‐time study versions to offset overgearing to full time students, the development of course network approaches, and the integration of sub‐degree work within total programmes of which first degrees are currently the main focus—in that connection the evolution of the Diploma in Higher Education could be a key item.
Participation or alienation
Authors: MUNRO FRASER JOHN
Published: February 2008

Worker participation is currently attracting a great deal of attention. Books, articles and conferences centre round the subject and we are constantly hearing about worker directors, two‐tier boards and other means by which it might be brought into effect. But when the man on the assembly line is told that his union has appointed a representative on the board, will this guarantee that he feels he is participating effectively in the operations of the company in which he works? Opinions differ on this and related questions so it might be worthwhile to stand aside for a moment and consider what participation really depends on. Fundamentally it is an attitude of mind and this cannot always be linked with methods of representation.
The role of private venture in the history of business studies education
Authors: BOSLEY DJ
Published: February 2008

Most members of the public are aware that Britain is a trading nation in which business and commercial activities have a key economic role. They may equally be aware that this country has been involved in these activities for several centuries. Indeed, in medieval times, trading took place not only within city walls under the aegis of the guilds but also overseas, notably with Europe. Longer trade routes were possibly safer across the sea than across land, and the exchange of wool, silks and wine between England and the Continent was important. Exploring navigators in due course ventured far beyond the coasts of Europe and discovered new continents and new products, and inevitably these provided markets for both buying and selling.
Appeals procedure at the Glacier Metal Company
Authors: BARNES RON
Published: February 2008

In the public dialogue on industrial democracy there has been an undue concentration on certain restricted aspects. Two, in particular, have dominated the debate: how and by whom top policy decisions are to be made; and who is to own the business or how are its benefits to be shared out. This is to neglect certain other basic concepts seen to be critical to the running of a healthy social democracy. One of the important corner‐stones of social democracy is the right of appeal by the citizen against a decision or a judgment made by some person in authority ever that citizen. Speaking in very broad terms, this right of appeal, considered essential in social democracy, has never been transferred to or conceded in industrial democracy in any country. Indeed it is rarely, if ever, raised as an issue. It is the absence of this right of appeal which results in an undue number of strikes — often the only alternative. Right of appeal is a democratic method; instant strike is the primitive use of power. At the forefront of this matter stands Glacier Metal. This article describes the appeals procedure in that company. To avoid any misunderstanding it has to be made clear that what is involved is right of appeal against some order or command made by a manager to one of his subordinates, to which the subordinate might object or feel the order to be in some way unjust or improper.
Learning about oneself
Authors: ELGOOD CHRIS
Published: February 2008

Experiential Learning is concerned with helping the individual to learn about himself and his behaviour. This excludes activities in which the student undergoes an experience ‐ and learns from it ‐ but in which the subject is technical.
Realities of an organisation development workshop
Authors: KNIBBS JOHN
Published: February 2008

In a series of articles in the journal in Autumn last year, aspects of organisation development were explored. These included ‘The Role of Organisation Theory’, ‘Intervention and the Management Trainer’, ‘Approaches to Organisation Analysis’, ‘The Contribution of Action Research’ — all relevant articles, helping us to understand more of the dynamics of organisation development. In this article, however, I wish to set out one example of intervention, warts and all, to highlight some of the difficulties experienced in actually conducting an OD review, paying particular attention to some of the problems inherent in the training officer's role on such occasions. It involves the preparation for and conduct of an organisation review workshop for a large local authority Social Services Department. I intend to take the reader through the pre‐workshop activity and thereafter to look at events during the workshop. As a lecturer/consultant in organisation development, I am often confronted with the phrase ‘It's all right in theory, but…’. Here, I wish to concentrate on the ‘buts’ and, where appropriate, indicate some ways in which I counteracted these in an actual situation.
Machiavellian dynamics
Authors: WILLMER MICHAEL
Published: February 2008

A new treatment for negotiating naïveté. Contemporary projects may be more impressive than those of the cave‐man, today's skills may be more sophisticated, but the need for trust between groups and between individuals within groups is as important as ever. Where trust is missing, suspicions are not slow to grow. Suspicions left unchecked begin to fester; rumours become rife and create ever more distrust. If such a process is allowed to continue, the main corporate objective becomes lost in an ocean of personal intrigues.
Employee funds
Authors: WELLENS JOHN
Published: February 2008

Conservative Party comes out strongly in favour of Employee Share Ownership Schemes. Although employee shareholding schemes are becoming an important feature of industrial life in other countries, in Britain they have been neglected by employers and cold‐shouldered by unions. In France such schemes have been required in law since 1967 for companies employing more than 100 employees; in Sweden the movement has been going strongly for over 25 years, culminating in the Meidner Plan which would have required certain companies to hand over 20 per cent of their profits to union‐controlled employee funds; 18 million workers in West Germany benefit under employee share schemes and in the USA the movement flourishes more than anywhere else.
Developing the export potential of small firms
Authors: CANNON T , DAWSON G
Published: February 2008

The aim of this article is to review the work currently being conducted at Durham University Business School to help small firms to develop their export potential. It describes the evolution of an Export Planning, Organisation, Research and Training System (EXPORTS). The foundation stone of the system is a training programme developed in conjunction with the Rubber and Plastics Processing Industry Training Board. Much of the article describes the development and evolution of this course. A keynote of the article is the progress that can be made with in‐company work providing the Training Board is willing to involve Training Advisers actively in course development and implementation. This innovative programme is evaluated and the routes to further action identified and reviewed.
The information problem 3
Authors: EVERARD KB
Published: February 2008

Both tags are applicable to social science and technology, and while academics seek to understand causal relationships in their studies of human behaviour, trainers in particular are trying hard to find places to stand from which they can more effectively influence the world around them. How can we use our craft to help the nation progress? To close down the objective, what can we do to interest the workforce of which we are a part, in trying to understand the root causes of our socio‐economic condition and to find for those who care about it a place to stand from which to move it to something better? Would it help to get an informed dialogue going, in the mode not of adversary politics but of problem‐solving, round questions like these: • What is our problem? • How did we get to where we are? • Where would we rather be? • How can we get there? • What is the first step for me?
Two diary systems
Authors: SCHLESINGER ERIC
Published: February 2008

The classical view of management did not bother itself with observing what managers actually do. As set out by Henri Fayol, for instance, it laid down the logical and analytical view of management as a planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling function. This view fitted in well with the claim to be the inheritors of scientific thinking. It gives a calm, rational and logical view — the well‐ordered, well‐planned and surprise‐free world.
Algorithms in the public service
Authors: UNWIN ALAN
Published: February 2008

From time to time, one cannot escape the feeling that training ought to be a very simple process. Basically yon tell someone how to do a job and hope that he will remember what yon have told him. If he does, you can claim that the training was successful and represents money well spent; if he does not — well there may be many reasons for that. If the job is a difficult one, it is only natural to spend more time on training. If it contains a lot of unmemorable detail, the obvious answer is to tell the trainee all about the principles of the job and then get him to ‘sit by Nellie’ for a year or so. By now the complications are already setting in: you can bet that the first thing Nellie will tell him is that his training course was a lot of theoretical rubbish. Harder cases still are jobs which involve many procedures which are used only intermittently. Here one of the Nellies of the past Is sure to have written The Bible Of The System, containing a couple of hundred exceptions to exceptions. This usually frightens the trainee more than it helps him. Eventually, if the trainee is sufficiently motivated, he will qualify as a Nellie himself, which surely vindicates the method. Our training may look crazy, but it works.
Combatting economic illiteracy
Authors: LINTON THOMAS
Published: February 2008

If one conducted a survey of the content of news material projected by the media at the average citizen over a normal week, it would be extremely surprising if economic material did not figure prominently at both local and national levels. Political information might just have the edge, but it would be unlikely that the man or woman in the street was not far more preoccupied with, and affected by, economic and social issues. Consider the blitzkrieg of economic jargon to which the average citizen is subjected: the balance of payments crisis; the retail price index; the break‐down of the social contract; devaluation of the Spanish peseta; the international monetary fund; inflationary spiral. What do you suppose the average citizen makes of these economic flesh‐words? There has been so much repetition on these themes of late that one might expect at least a recognition of the terms, but what of the understanding? What one is arguing is that the average citizen is at the stage of kindergarten look‐and‐say reading in his comprehension of this economic mumbo‐jumbo. No real attempt has been made by society to equip him or her educationally to make rational decisions in the area of economic thinking. It is not enough to master the 3 Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic — to these must be added the 2 Es — economic education. It is to this end that the Moray House Economic Education Project has been directed. Implicit within this scheme is the conviction that economic understanding in the average adult will not automatically arrive with maturation, but will develop only if it is systematically pursued within the school curriculum. Within the school environment it is possible to introduce pupils to a set of basic economic ideas which will provide him or her with a means to economic understanding. In short, the schools, using these procedures, should guarantee a level of economic literacy and numeracy, similar to that they provide in the mastery of the 3 Rs.