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This account of a week‐long outdoor management development course at Skern Lodge in North Devon was written by the trainees for regional publication to their non‐participative colleagues. It describes the content of the course and its relevance to real‐life situations

Banks have significantly changed their public policies about women’s access to management, to include career breaks and job sharing, with recruitment and promotion policies claiming equal opportunity for men and women. But has there been a revolution on the high street? A qualitative study of 40 women in banking explored questions of change and continuity with 20 clerical workers and 20 managers. From their perspective, men’s power in higher management positions can still be used to obstruct women’s advancement, and often contradicts the public policy that career and motherhood are compatible. New forms of dual labour market and gendered career routes are taking the place of old ones. These sideline women into less powerful and rewarding posts. They also create new divisions between women, privileging graduate entrants, but further obstructing clerical workers’ career development.

This article reports on research designed to explore recruitment, training and promotion practices in the banking and finance industry. In recent years, the initiatives of the major banks in the area of equal opportunities have received substantial publicity. Recruitment patterns are now monitored, career break schemes have been introduced, equal opportunity training has been undertaken, policy guidelines have been specified and circulated, and managers with specific responsibility for equal opportunities have been appointed. The research findings suggest, however, that deep‐seated and self‐fulfilling vicious circles of sex discrimination, inherited from a paternalistic past, can still characterise the industry's selection practices.

Purpose – This study analyses the various skills needed by today's accounting graduates in order to be suitable for the Ghanaian banking industry.

Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a simple random sampling technique to select 15 of the 27 banks currently in the banking industry, a sample selected as first part of a total banking industry study. Questionnaires were used, supported with interviews, to collect the data from the responding 13 banks.

Findings – The study revealed that variables (in order of preference) such as; positive attitude, communication skills, strong work ethics, team work, good interpersonal skills, analytical and problem-solving skills, flexibility and adaptability, management and organizational skills and strong IT skills are some of the key skills employers expect accounting graduates to have in order for them to be deemed ready for the banking industry.

Research limitation – The only targeted respondents were the human resource and branch managers. The result could have been different if the sample had been widened to cover a greater number of the banks in the industry and included other responding groups like accountants.

Practical implications – The findings offer guidance to those involved in the training of accountants in tertiary institutions and graduates of accounting seeking to develop skills necessary for the banking industry.

Originality/value – This is a major contributor to skills-analysis-requirement of specific jobs, looking at the banking industry. The case can be extended for other job-specific industries like insurance.

WE live at the present time under a constant bombardment of exhortation from governments, industrial leaders, trade associations and publicists. They regularly stress the hazards of the competitive world around us. Through all the warnings of this chorus of Cassandras runs a uniform theme. It is that unless we increase productivity the economic future of this country is precarious.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Industrial and Commercial Training is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings:Education/Graduates/Students; Training/Learning Techniques; Skills Training; Management Development; Career/Human Resources Development; Training Technology.

Numerous forms of training aids are available, from the flip chart via the tape or video recorder to the working model. Used effectively an aid facilitates learning — the manner in which people learn is shown in Figure 1 — because it permits appeal to more than one sense at the same time. However a training aid should not be used just for its own sake; it must serve a purpose. It must be relevant and used to reinforce learning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the voluntary disclosure of risk-related issues, with a focus on credit risk, in graphical reporting for listed banks in the major European economies. It aims to understand if banks portray credit risk-related information in graphs accurately and whether these graphs provide incremental, rather than replicative, information. It also investigates whether credit risk-related graphs provide a fair representation of risk performance or a more favourable impression than is warranted.

A graphical accuracy index was constructed. Incremental information was measured. A multi-level linear model investigated whether credit risk affects the quantity and quality of graphical credit risk disclosure.

Banks used credit risk graphs to provide incremental information. They were also selective, with riskier banks less likely to use risk graphs. Banks were accurate in their graphical reporting, particularly those with high levels of credit risk. These findings can be explained within an impression management perspective taking human cognitive biases into account. Preparers of risk graphs seem to prefer selective omission over obfuscation via inaccuracy. This probably reflects the fact that individuals, and by implication annual report’s users, generally judge the provision of inaccurate information more harshly than the omission of unfavourable information.

This study provides theoretical insights by pointing out the limitations of a purely economics-based agency theory approach to impression management.

The study suggests annual reports’ readers need to be careful about subtle forms of impression management, such as those exploiting their cognitive bias. Regulatory and professional bodies should develop guidelines to ensure neutral and comparable graphical disclosure.

This study provides a substantive alternative to the predominant economic perspective on impression management in corporate reporting, by incorporating a psychological perspective taking human cognitive biases into account.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of Employee Relations is split into seven sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Design of Work; Performance, Productivity and Motivation; Patterns of Work; Pay, Incentives and Pensions; Career/Manpower Planning; Industrial Relations and Participation; Health and Safety.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Industrial and Commercial Training is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings:Education/Graduates/Students; Training/Learning Techniques; Skills Training; Management Development; Career/Human Resources Development; Training Technology.