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Much of the idea exchange and evaluation that are part of the creative process occur in groups. It is often presumed that groups facilitate these processes, but much research indicates that groups often hinder effective exchange of ideas and that they may not facilitate their evaluation. We summarize the factors that limit the potential of groups in these domains and use the cognitive–social–motivational model (Paulus & Brown, 2003, 2007) to highlight the conditions under which group creativity is enhanced. In particular, we focus on the conditions under which groups can actually outperform similar size sets of individuals and thus provide evidence for synergy in creative groups.

Explains the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches that are now being used in today’s society for group decision making. Groups are everywhere in our society, and learning more about them and how to work better in them can enhance the quality of each person’s life. Explains in detail five of the most widely used techniques: brainstorming, brainwriting, buzz sessions, quality circles, and nominal group technique. Points out the advantages and disadvantages of each approach with a view to reducing failures in implementing techniques as a result of lack of knowledge. The article will be useful for anyone involved in groups, e.g. managers or people wishing to improve their skills.

Traditional interviewing techniques often fail to fully assess the “soft skills” required for a potential hire to succeed in a particular organizational culture. This case study presents an alternate framework for evaluating candidates to determine their ability to effectively collaborate with existing team members. The authors report the process used in hiring two faculty librarians in 2011 and the ways the process was revised to fill two newly created positions in 2013. A review of management literature on interview techniques supports using practical exercises and strategically designed questions to assess a candidate’s fit within a given organizational culture. The experiences reported in this case study bear that out. The process of strategically designing the interview structure enabled the department to gain a better vision of its priorities and values, while the interviews enabled the team to select additional members who work well in a collaborative environment with the personalities already in place. Readers can use this to redesign their interview procedures to more effectively select candidates who will contribute to the vision and positive culture of their workplace. This model was successful in this instance and readers can modify these procedures to adapt to their own workplace cultures in any type of library. Building on strategies used in various industries, this chapter translates the use of practical exercises and strategically designed questions into an academic library context.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors that drive changes to the construction project brief and the background to those factors. The founding argument, that incorporating these changes is paramount for achieving client satisfaction, introduces the concept of dynamic brief development (DBP), which permits changes throughout the project life cycle. The understanding and attitude of the major construction project stakeholders towards DBP are investigated along with identifying the originators of brief development and the value and risk sources.

A threefold method was used comprising a comprehensive questionnaire survey followed by structured interviews. The results of these were further investigated though a brainstorming session with major construction project stakeholders. A total population of 266,434 units for the survey was identified, reduced to a random stratified sample of 530. The response rate was 49.2 per cent and the responses were analysed using a weighted relative importance index. A total of 88 interviews were carried out and 12 client organisations participated in the brainstorming session.

The findings lead to the conclusion that there is a need to set out a detailed brief development management system that incorporates both value management and risk management. This system should enable the appropriate project participant to make informed decisions at the right time for the benefit of the client. The system must facilitate feedback to both client organisations and construction professionals to enable lessons to be learned. Understanding the relationship between the factors that drive brief development and the various project team members will facilitate managing brief development in a way that increases client satisfaction and enhances the performance of the project.

The paper identifies deficiencies in current practices and techniques and presents a system which overcomes them.

To reduce financial and human losses, managing risks associated with earthquakes is essential in practice. However, in using common risk management methods, experts are often faced with ambiguities that can create profound challenges for risk management. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a logical and straightforward risk assessment model to provide scientific and accurate answers to complex problems. This study aims to recommend an innovative combined method based on the probability-impact (P-I) approach and intuitionistic fuzzy set theory to identify and prioritize the essential earthquake risks associated with worn-out urban fabrics in the context of Iran.

The opinions of 15 experts in the fields of civil engineering and urban construction were gathered during brainstorming sessions. These brainstorming sessions were conducted to determine the probability of risks and the effect of identified risks. After calculating the severity of risks using the P-I approach and converting them to intuitionistic fuzzy sets, the risks were measured and prioritized based on their individual scores.

The study results indicated that risk of damage due to buildings’ age and flooding risk had the highest and lowest priorities in causes of financial damage, respectively. Furthermore, the risk of damage due to building quality (demolition) and building age was the most important. The risk of flooding and damage to communication networks has the lowest importance among causes of fatalities in worn-out urban fabrics.

The study findings and recommendations can be served as a policy and consultative instrument for the relevant stakeholders in the area of urban management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the brainstorming component of Statement of Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 99 influences decision aid use and reliance, and the effectiveness of fraud risk assessment.

The research framework links the influences of the fraud assessment setting and decision aid reliance. The hypotheses are tested in an experiment with two manipulated factors: setting (group or individual) and decision aid (provided or not provided).

The results of the study provide insight on how the brainstorming impacts fraud risk assessment, decision aid use and decision aid reliance. The results show that groups using a decision aid with fraud risk factors demonstrate superior decision quality and effectiveness even with lower decision aid reliance.

The influence of the setting (group or individual) on the fraud evaluation and detection is highlighted.

This paper will be informative for auditors and firms involved in designing an efficient and effective fraud risk assessment.

This paper integrates the fraud risk assessment and decision aid literature to evaluate decision quality and effectiveness of group fraud risk assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse change processes in the post‐merger integration (PMI) phase from a complexity theory perspective. Therefore, it looks at the merged organisation as a complex adaptive system (CAS).

Post‐merger situations borrowed from literature and a one‐day expert workshop with integration managers are related to the characteristics of CASs. During the workshop, data of the change process in different PMI phases are collected and the integration activities are analysed with a coded event history analysis.

Change processes in the PMI phase are very complex and the newly merged organisations experience tension and non‐linear behaviour, but positive self‐organisation, a major property of CASs, cannot always emerge as the required prerequisites are sometimes not given.

Insights of the workshop are limited to personal statements of the participants. In order to further investigate the PMI process under a complexity perspective, additional research in the form of longitudinal case studies including methods of storytelling and narratives should be considered.

Leaders and integration managers need a great repertoire of behaviours in order to both manage the challenging change processes by planning and controlling the integration activities and allow self‐organisation to emerge.

The paper offers a deeper understanding of the complex change processes in the PMI phase by using the metaphor of complexity theory and CASs.

This research is elucidating quality control theories to reduce variation in chocolate manufacturing process in the UK food company that will help maintain the processes stable and predictable. The purpose of this paper is to reduce defects of the output; to identify the root causes of variation; to establish and implement solutions to this variation problem; and to establish a control system to monitor and report any variation in the process.

The authors use experimental case study of a chocolate company to achieve the objective. In this paper, the authors predominantly use established theory define–measure–analyse–improve–control, customised to the case of the chocolate factory to reduce variations in production processes.

The results confirm that customised-traditional theoretical quality models will support manufacturing companies to maintain customer satisfaction while enhancing quality and reliability.

Implementation of customised approach reduced the rate of defect from 8 to 3.7 per cent. The implications of reduced variation are improved product quality; reprocessing elimination; and a more stable process that support sustainability and reliability in producing chocolates to meet customer needs.

The authors used an experimental-based case study approach to test with one company. Testing in multiple case companies may help to generalise results.

The research study experimentally tested quality approach with a real case company and hence the findings of this study can be applied to other cases working in similar settings.

Usually the impact of research and researchers is quantified by using citation data: either by journal‐centered citation data as in the case of the journal impact factor (JIF) or by author‐centered citation data as in the case of the Hirsch‐ or h‐index. This paper aims to discuss a range of impact measures, especially usage‐based metrics, and to report the results of two surveys.

The first part of the article analyzes both citation‐based and usage‐based metrics. The second part is based on the findings of the surveys: one in the form of a brainstorming session with information professionals and scientists at the OAI6 conference in Geneva, the second in the form of expert interviews, mainly with scientists.

The results of the surveys indicate an interest in the social aspects of science, like visualizations of social graphs both for persons and their publications. Furthermore, usage data are considered an appropriate measure to describe quality and coverage of scientific documents; admittedly, the consistence of usage information among repositories has to be kept in mind. The scientists who took part in the survey also asked for community services, assuming these might help to identify relevant scientific information more easily. Some of the other topics of interest were personalization or easy submission procedures.

This paper delineates current discussions about citation‐based and usage‐based metrics. Based on the results of the surveys, it depicts which functionalities could enhance repositories, what features are required by scientists and information professionals, and whether usage‐based services are considered valuable. These results also outline some elements of future repository research.

The United Kingdom (UK) construction sector is transforming with increasing confidence in offsite construction (OSC) solutions following its accrued benefits. To sustain this momentum, exploring viable strategies to promote successful OSC implementation is a top priority. This paper aims to identify and establish interrelationships and logical dependencies of critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing OSC on building projects in the UK.

This study utilised a qualitative research approach. Following a critical review of extant literature, brainstorming and focus group sessions were carried out with OSC experts in the UK construction industry to identify and contextualise CSFs for OSC implementation. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and matrix impact cross-reference multiplication applied to a classification (MICMAC) were used to analyse and model the interrelationships between the contextualised CSFs.

The study identified eighteen CSFs for implementing OSC on projects in the UK positioned on seven hierarchical levels and clustered into dependent, linkage and independent factors. The top five CSFs established were client commitment, top management support, adequate OSC knowledge and experience, flexible leadership and flexible business models. These were located at the base of the ISM model, possessing the highest driving powers in facilitating the successful implementation of OSC on projects.

This study established a hierarchical interrelationship and the importance of the CSFs influencing the successful implementation of OSC. This would assist OSC clients and project teams in identifying and prioritising particular areas for strategic actions, which offer advantages in pursuing successful OSC project outcomes in the UK. Previous research on OSC implementation in the UK had not examined CSFs' interrelationships.