Search results

Laurence J. Peter, in his best selling book, The Peter Principle, argued that individuals are promoted to their level of incompetence. He saw this progression as being typified by successive promotion from success at lower levels until the individual gets to a point where he is described as inefficient. The Peter Principle has been accepted because it described clearly and vividly the experience of individuals and of organisations, but we believe that whilst it is descriptively correct, it is only partially true in its conclusions.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

This paper aims to provide organizations with a new tool to make decisions related to a facility (building) selection process. Traditionally, value engineering (VE) applies the Value = Function/Cost formula to evaluate the worth of a product. In this paper, the VE-based facility-selection approach is proposed, where the cost of a facility is expressed in net present value (NPV) as it contains the net expense of purchasing or leasing a building as well as the time value of money. Also, a method of quantifying functions and involved risks of different facility choices is proposed.

The framework of the VE-based facility-selection process is broken down into three steps: preparation, calculation/analysis and assessment. In the latter part of this paper, the authors share a sample analysis by illustrating the analysis and decision-making process when three hypothetical facility-selection options are available.

The sample analysis indicates that companies can get the lowest cost and risk while improving their functions to achieve the highest value by using the modified VE formula to drive an optimal option for company’s business expansion and facility-selection process.

This paper provides organizations with a strategic system and process to select proper facilities or buildings for business expansion. The VE approach suggested in this study can allow facility/real estate portfolio decision-makers to analyze financial and functional aspects of the facility at the same time and obtain the value coefficient when they choose a new facility from different options. Finally, they can select the best option, which has the highest value coefficient, given financial and functional considerations.

Two projects in the EQUAL programme explore aspects of the influence of building design on the quality of life of people with dementia. Design in Caring Environments (DICE) examined the quality of life of people in residential care homes in relation to building design features. INDEPENDENT (Investigating Enabling Environments for People with Dementia) is a current project with the aim of developing technologies to enhance quality of life by supporting enjoyable activities. One aspect of INDEPENDENT is an exploration of the interaction between spatial settings and meaningful activity, to highlight factors that support and enable activity and to identify barriers. Findings from both projects suggest that a more creative approach to the management of buildings would enhance the well‐being of residents; under‐use of facilities is common. Meaningful space that supports activity is therapeutic but spaces that give confused messages are common in buildings used by older people. Tools to evaluate buildings have a potential role in the long‐term management of facilities to help identify underused spaces, spatial confusion and barriers to activity. Quality of life was shown to be poorer in buildings that prioritise safety and health; buildings that support activity positively by providing good assistive devices, giving people control of their environment and affording good links with the community have a positive association with well‐being.

In this special section of Political Power and Social Theory, we present the work of scholars from various disciplines documenting and analyzing the Obama phenomenon. The work in this section, including both theoretical and empirical analysis, is an early step in the much-needed academic discussion on Obama and racial politics in the contemporary United States. We offer this compendium as a call-to-arms to progressives and leftists, encouraging the revival of radical critique of Obama's discourse and policies instead of the fulsome praise or confused silence that has so far greeted Obama from the left.

As this is my final edition as editor of A Life in the Day, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what has happened in the mental health field since we started the journal back in June 1997. In my first editorial I wrote of the colleagues who formed the first editorial board:‘The most fundamental thing we have in common is a belief in the vital importance of enabling people who have used mental health services to find a role and a voice beyond that of patient, beyond also that of user representative … well, how about friend, colleague, manager, employee, therapist, partner, coworker in the struggle that is life in the day.’

With strong evidence to show that most of us feel mentally better if we take exercise, there's clearly a positive relationship between physical activity and mental health ‐ but what's responsible for it? In this article, Diane Crone summarises the theories that have been developed by researchers to explain how it works. She then reviews the research that has asked exercisers for their own opinions about what makes the difference for them and concludes with some practical advice for people using or providing exercise opportunities.

There are many encyclopedias available but finding out how good they are for use by particular sets of people is by no means easy. So there certainly is room for this guide which examines the wide range on offer in the USA and Canada and some elsewhere, describes the form and content of the volumes and attempts to evaluate them in comparison with each other. It is an entirely new work, current to 1 March 1986 and has title and subject indexes. There is even a bibliography of selected other books and articles on the evaluation and use of encyclopedias. Surprisingly it is quite readable and interesting to dip into in spite of the density of bibliographical details contained. Of course it deals mostly with North American publications but sometimes these are “the best” anywhere and librarians should know about more than their own country's publications.