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The paper considers current costs of nurse training and dropout rates in the context of a contracting labour market and the need for a fundamental revision of strategy, as well as the use and misuse of the skilled nursing workforce. It proposes the return of the ‘officer class’ model.

The Oxford Institute for Employee Relations (OXIFER) is a small research and teaching community based at Templeton College, Oxford. It aims to link advanced research with teaching and the widespread dissemination of findings, focusing primarily on the role of management in employee and industrial relations and examining aspects of employee relations. Four research projects are currently under way. The first, Development and Dissemination of the Industrial Relations Audit, involves identifying an organisation's existing industrial relations practices and comparing and contrasting these with the desired position as perceived by senior managers or a joint body of senior managers and union representatives. Line Management of Industrial Relations uses data from the audits conducted in the first project to study the industrial relations role of line managers. The Management of Employee Relations in the Multidivisional Company focuses on the strategic choices open to senior line managers and personnel management. Management of Change and the Contribution of Industrial Relations Training aims to gain a better understanding of the process of change in a variety of organisations with particular reference to the contribution which industrial relations training in its broadest sense can make to change. Common themes running through the projects are methodology, employment relations and the management of change and the apparent current managerial concern with quality.

Focuses on the individual and management development process (MDP) and the importance of training and education as complementary inputs towards the goal of maximizing individual and organizational potential. Develops a two‐dimensional framework, consisting of a skill continuum and a contextual continuum, to identify the key issues which need to be addressed by education and industry. Advances the MDP three Cs model of competence, confidence and capability, presenting a skill hierarchy and map and discussing transitional frictions. Emphasizes that management development should be viewed in the context of an organization’s strategic direction, highlighting an important link with operational and competitive success.

This monograph contains abstracts from the 2005 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, 6‐7th September 2005

Within the past 20 years hiking and backpacking have enjoyed rapid growth among Americans as favorite outdoor activities. From 1965 to 1977 the number of hikers almost tripled, from 9.9 million to 28.1 million, while national forest visitor days among hikers and mountaineers increased from 4 million in 1966 to 11 million in 1979. Accompanying this growth in interest has been a boom in books about the sport. These include both “how‐to‐do‐it” volumes and guides to specific geographical areas. Each year brings another spate of books, yet to this compiler's knowledge no bibliography of hiking guides to the Rocky Mountains, one of North America's premier outdoor regions, has yet been attempted. This bibliography is an effort to correct that situation.

Examines some effects of NHS Trusts moving away at varying speeds from complex national arrangements for determining terms and conditions towards local bargaining. Notes that while there has been some research into the extent and nature of this decentralization, the impact on trade unions has largely been ignored. This research suggests that, far from marginalizing stewards, senior managers have involved them in joint discussions. Although there has not been a renewal of local trade unionism, there has not been a decline, as membership has held up. Moreover, stewards have coped remarkably well with their enhanced roles, even though faced with the increasing and conflicting demands of their work and their union duties, compounded by problems in obtaining time off work because of lack of cover.

Contributes to the social partnership debate by exploring ways in which inter and intra‐union relations influence the development of partnership within a National Health Service Trust, by using observation techniques, focus groups and semi‐structured interviews involving ancillary workgroup members, shop stewards and managers (conducted in 1998). Argues, on an empirical basis, that union relationships may both facilitate and constrain management decision making and, ultimately, the implementation of policy. Views, conceptually, the parties’ understanding of partnership as changing over time, within a context that is contradictory; with management, trade union representatives and employees developing competing perspectives on “social partnership”, in part as a response to, and in turn recreating, a pluralistic workplace environment.

In this study, scales were developed to measure the extent to which organisations exhibited “soft” or “hard” approaches to HRM, and the extent to which potential barriers to the effective operation of HRM were present. The sample comprised 549 employees, managers and HRM staff across a wide range of types of organisations in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK and Canada. While the results supported the contention that HRM effectiveness can be achieved via both “soft” and “hard” approaches, several barriers to HRM take‐up were identified and there was little evidence that organisations generally operated HRM policies and practices that were seen as effective. Although very few differences between countries were found, the authors suggest the barriers identified and related ineffectiveness of HRM may be all the more detrimental to the competitiveness of Australian and New Zealand organisations in light of the recent economic downturn in the Asia‐Pacific region.