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Reports on an intensive short management development course for Regional Health Service (NHS) managers, which focuses on personal effectiveness and also aims to help managers cope with the rapid changes currently occurring in the NHS. Stresses the need to create a learning environment and actively involve course participants in the learning process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of “Roma health and wellbeing” as a focus of attention in European research and in policy and the possible detrimental consequences of action founded on a generic representation of “Roma health.”

Based on discussions with and research conducted by scholars who work directly with Roma communities across European regions from a wide range of academic disciplines it suggests how future research might inform: a more nuanced understanding of the causes of poor health and wellbeing among diverse Roma populations and; actions that may have greater potential to improve the health and wellbeing among these populations.

In summary, the authors promote three types of research: first critical analyses that unpick the implications of current and past representations of “Roma” and “Roma health.” Second, applied participatory research that meaningfully involves people from specific self-defined Roma populations to identify important issues for their health and wellbeing. Third, learning about processes that might impact on the health and wellbeing of Roma populations from research with other populations in similarly excluded situations.

The authors provide a multidisciplinary perspective to inform research that does not perpetuate further alienation and prejudice, but promotes urgent action to redress the social and health injustices experienced by diverse Roma populations across Europe.

We issue a double Souvenir number of The Library World in connection with the Library Association Conference at Birmingham, in which we have pleasure in including a special article, “Libraries in Birmingham,” by Mr. Walter Powell, Chief Librarian of Birmingham Public Libraries. He has endeavoured to combine in it the subject of Special Library collections, and libraries other than the Municipal Libraries in the City. Another article entitled “Some Memories of Birmingham” is by Mr. Richard W. Mould, Chief Librarian and Curator of Southwark Public Libraries and Cuming Museum. We understand that a very full programme has been arranged for the Conference, and we have already published such details as are now available in our July number.

THE London & Home Counties Branch of the la reports a gratifying response to its attempts last year to attract a wider list of applications for its biennial Senior Librarians Award, worth £800. As a result, a proportion of the 1973 award has been allotted to Ivan G Sparkes, Librarian of High Wycombe, Bucks, for research into source material relating to furniture history, and to Celia F Thimann, a lecturer at Ealing (London) school of librarianship for a visit to Japan in the autumn to study library provision and information systems in the field of ecological conservation and pollution.

December 15, 1972 Master and Servant — Redundancy — Redundancy payment — Dismissal — Renewal of contract or re‐engagement — Change in ownership of business — Termination of contract one week later — Whether contract of employment renewed on same terms and conditions — Whether employee entitled to redundancy payment from previous employer — Redundancy Payments Act, 1965 (c.62), ss.3(2), 13(2).

The article seeks to explain the rapid increase in the use of agency “temps” by employers during the 1990s. It tests the thesis of profound change in employers' labour use decisions.

The data was from in‐depth interviews with human resource/line managers in 12 work organisations in the UK responsible for decisions on use of temporary agency labour. Organisations were chosen to include a variety of industrial sectors, sizes and locations.

Although there were common trends in organisations, including declining numbers of permanent jobs and waves of restructuring, organisations varied in their approach: it was not always profound change. The paper finds four distinct types of agency labour use and developed a 2 × 2 typology, depending on whether employers were acting strategically or reactively, and whether they were using temps for supplementation, or more far‐reaching substitution, for permanent workers.

Research is based on UK data and is a “snapshot” of the situation. However, the typology can be used to analyse temporary agency labour usage in other settings and time periods.

The findings could be used by human resource managers to assist them in making decisions on use of agency workers.

The paper makes associations between external and internal contexts within which organisations operate and how these affect decisions on temporary agency labour usage.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

Within societies in the 21st century, individuals who are embedded in a controlled context that impedes their political actions deal with the tensions they are experiencing through attempts at resistance. Several studies that examine individual infrapolitics in organizations explain how the subtle mix of compliance and resistance are constructed at the level of individual identity in a complex mechanism that both questions the system and strengthens it. However, the interplay between managers' identities and management accounting tools in this process is a topic that deserves more investigation. The aim of this article is to understand how the subtle resistance of individuals constructs neoliberal reforms through management accounting (MA).

The authors conducted a case study on three health and social organizations two years after major reforms were implemented in the health and social services sector in Québec, a province of Canada. These reforms were part of a new public management dynamic and involved the implementation of accounting tools, here referred to as New Public Management Accounting (NPMA) tools.

The authors’ findings show how managers participate in reforms, at the same time as attempt to stem the dehumanization they generate. Managers engage in subtly resisting, for themselves and for their field professional teams, the dehumanization and identity destruction that arises from the reforms. NPMA tools are central to this process, since managers question the reforms through NPMA tools and use them to resist creatively. However, their subtle resistance can lead to the strengthening of the neoliberal dynamic of the reform.

The authors contribute to both the literature of infrapolitics and MA by showing the role of NPMA tools in the construction of subtle resistance. Their article enriches the MA literature by characterizing the subtle forms of resistance and showing how managers engage in creative resistance by using the managerial potential flexibility of NPMA tools. The article also outlines how NPMA tools play a role in the dialectic process of resistance, since they aid managers in resisting reform-induced dehumanization but also support managers in reinventing and reinforcing what they are trying to fight. The authors’ study also illustrates the dialectic dynamic of resistance through NPMA in all its dimensions: discursive, material and symbolic. Finally, the authors contribute to management accounting literature by showing that NPMA tools are not only the objects of neoliberalization but also the support of backstage resistance to neoliberalization.

This paper aims to evaluate the undergraduate and graduate accounting students’ perceptions of sustainable (or green) information technology (IT) and information system (IS) practices and their contribution to its implementation.

A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was applied to 361 undergraduate and graduate accounting students in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in eight higher education institutions (HEIs). Data are analyzed with SPSS.

There is a high perception of importance regarding IT/IS sustainability practices among the accounting students tested, although respondents are not comfortable with predominantly technical IT/IS topics. However, students are divided on the significance of the accountant’s contribution to these practices, confirming that reflection on their future role is still a challenge for them and their HEIs. The female sub-sample attaches significantly greater importance than the male sample to the accountant role in the implementation of green IT practices.

The authors have proposed a novel integrative framework of IT/IS theories related to sustainability and accounting, and how accounting professionals could participate in the “neutral arena” of the education for sustainable development (SD).

Findings could be useful for educators and coordinators of sustainability of IT/IS in accounting courses, stimulating brainstorming on the accountant’s role in assisting organizations in green IT/IS strategies, best practice and implementation.

This study makes an original contribution to the research base of SD in HEIs. The lack of awareness identified in the study could be elaborated to stimulate discussion about the central role of the accountant in SD processes within organizations.