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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of organizational grief in understanding employee reactions to redundancy, managing change and personal development in the UK public sector.

In today's UK public sector, learning and managing the realities of redundancy and organizational change is explored using a case study of a civil service/ public sector agency. The authors use the lens of the Kübler‐Ross grief cycle to examine employee reactions to organizational change.

There is no easy way of managing this type of change, and many employees were at different stages of coming to terms with organizational closure and eventual redundancy. Some employees were reacting to change progressively and accepting their new organizational reality, whilst others had not yet reached acceptance. Nevertheless, an important finding has been that a number of staff did appear to be moving on, readjusting and thinking about their future career aspirations and wider life options.

The article uses a unique narrative style to examine common employee emotions and behaviours associated with organizational change in a redundancy and closure situation. It offers unique insight for senior managers in public sector administrations, in both the UK and elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the value of social learning from group work that emulates a professional community of practice.

A thought piece that first, examines the role of group‐work projects as part of social learning, then outlines key arguments for social learning based upon applying a “communities of practice” approach and finally, discusses the experience of a leading UK university in light of Hoadley and Kilner's “C4P” communities of practice framework. Some reflections are offered to help practitioners and academics who wish to adopt a similar approach.

Developing a communities of practice approach using group work can promote social learning and workplace transferrable skills. The authors discussed five main elements of the C4P communities of practice framework in light of a group project at a leading UK university: “purpose” – to emulate an IT consultancy environment and create energy and results as part of the final year group‐work project; “conversation and connections” – to promote information exchange between group members through meetings, e‐mail, or wikis; “content and context” – drawing upon organisational knowledge and directing groups to improve the quality of project deliverables. Some key reflections include: emulating real world practice helps develop transferrable skills; building membership of a community through simulated teamwork roles encourages motivation; and group leadership helps achieve common purpose.

The paper offers a unique insight and applies a communities of practice framework for analysing and developing group work as part of social learning.

The aim of the current article is to discuss the role of the Bologna process in enabling quality of educational change, internationalisation and greater mobility using an example case study of a Russian university. Some discussion is provided to offer insights and inform future research and practice.

The authors highlight some of the quality issues associated with the Bologna process and reflect on how the statements underpin quality of learning and mobility in a European higher education area (EHEA) context. They explore some of the issues raised from the documentation and examine some early experiences and challenges from a leading Russian university as part of a wider examination of higher education in a Russian context.

The Bologna Declaration was signed in 1999 by 29 European countries. The Declaration became the guiding document for the Bologna process which is now being implemented by 47 (inclusive) EU and non‐EU countries. In Russia, Bologna did not begin well and was originally resisted by employers and universities several years ago. It has recently been started again but it is still in its early stages, as Bologna is only now being implemented more fully. Nevertheless, there are issues around the two cycle system and diploma certificates. Recognition from some employers is also still an issue but less so than before. However, specialist auditing agencies can also be used in conjunction with the universities to assure quality and reassure employers going forward. There is also a strong recognition that Russian higher educational institutions have come a long way in a short space of time in terms of quality and process development.

Whilst the research is limited to one case and is essentially qualitative and exploratory, the integrated analysis and discussion still provides useful insight and reflection concerning key issues as a consequence of recently implementing the Bologna process within the Russian educational system.

Increasingly, post credit crunch, organisations are seeking to develop new ways of attracting, recruiting and retaining staff in the UK high street for less or even no financial reward. The aim of this paper is to investigate volunteerism and volunteer management, based on an exploratory case study of two British Red Cross (BRC) shops. It also aims to examine the reasons why people volunteer and why they keep doing so in the context of BRC, as a charitable organisation.

An exploratory case was used to gain an insight into how BRC recruit and retain volunteer staff. This was achieved by interviewing volunteers and the shop management personnel. An overview of BRC structures, strategic direction and views on volunteerism is also developed as part of the case study.

Exploratory findings from the research show that people decide to volunteer mainly for a variety of reasons such as social interaction, to carry out work that is valued in the local community and for self‐satisfaction. Volunteer satisfaction is derived from helping BRC to help others and also being part of The Red Cross. Volunteer retention is attributed to a proactive management style in terms of creating a favourable work environment. The shop manager's leadership skills are crucial in establishing a friendly and positive attitude towards volunteers. In addition, youth volunteers are attracted in order to gain work experience and learn new skills.

The study is exploratory, based on preliminary interview findings from 17 informants in two BRC shops. However, the insight gained helps in understanding the reasons why volunteerism is successful within the BRC.

The paper can help policy makers reflect and decide on useful tactics and strategy for developing and improving volunteer management within the retail sector.

There is a paucity of literature in relation to retailing and volunteerism and this study contributes to the literature by identifying reasons why this charity has been so successful in attracting and retaining volunteers.

In response to an increasingly high level of exclusion rates for boys within secondary school in the UK, this study seeks to explore the value of restorative practice and justice for changing student behaviour.

As a piece of action research, the authors aimed to look at how methods of restorative practice could work with one student in a secondary school, following a whole school's move towards a personal responsibility charter. The focus of this research remained on the individual male subject, rather than the educational institution. It is based upon a process of reflecting upon key events that happened throughout the study. This research will use qualitative data gained from observing the student at school, as well as interview and written feedback from the subject himself and school staff. The paper is designed to offer real and informative insight into the value of restorative justice and practices.

Restorative practices had little overall impact on improving the subject's behaviour in school. He was able to have a mature discussion with an adult about the behaviour he was demonstrating. Nevertheless, when put back in the classroom situation he was unable to make a conscious decision to alter his negative behaviour. However, his skills in conferencing to resolve conflict were developed through the authors' involvement with him, as well as other school staff, and he was able to understand the school's new charter.

This paper contributes to restorative justice and practice literature and is insightful because of the action research approach taken.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and reflect upon some of the major (quality) issues concerning supply chain management (SCM) for Chinese companies.

The authors draw upon the literature, especially the theoretical perspectives of service orientation and dynamic capabilities, develop a macro‐analysis of SCM issues within a conceptual framework and posit ideas for further research. Discussion and reflection of interview findings is interwoven with the literature and on‐going case study analysis.

In conjunction with the conceptual framework, the influence of government, improving relationships through Guanxi and developing overall logistics capacity are identified as important dynamic capabilities for Chinese companies. Specific SCM issues such as: the role of distributors; regional supply networks; and information sharing are also identified and discussed. The authors suggest ideas for further research based on the discussion presented.

Given the relatively small number of qualitative SCM studies in recent years concerning China, an exploratory discussion and reflection of key issues from a macro‐analytical perspective is important. However, no empirical findings, propositions, or hypotheses were developed as part of the current thought‐piece. Nevertheless, the insight gained from the conceptual framework and ideas posited are useful for developing a future research agenda.

The paper has been written in response to calls for a wider understanding and reflection of the quality issues associated with the development of SCM in China.

The purpose of this paper is to develop “techno‐change alignment” as an approach for evaluating the effectiveness of large‐scale technology‐enabled organisational change, commonly associated with the adoption of enterprise information systems (IS).

By developing a processual analysis of techno‐change, useful insights are developed concerning techno‐change alignment, within the confines of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) case study. Recent techno‐change literature, emerging ideas on human agency, cultural and social relations are incorporated as part of the evaluation approach taken. The paper also discusses the implications of more recent work on techno‐change and suggests directions for future research.

In terms of “structural” alignment, the ERP system was chosen because it reflected requirements of the case study in the university/education sector. As part of “strategic and intellectual” alignment, business processes were reviewed, as well as alignment with university aims and strategy goals. “Social and cultural” alignment between different groups of users is paramount for effective integration and re‐embedding of relationships and activities once techno‐change is introduced. Wider implications of processual alignment suggest that bringing users and stakeholders together as human agents for techno‐change within a high priority communication environment is essential for developing effective social relationships.

Given the difficulty of developing usable evaluation mechanisms for techno‐change and complex enterprise information systems, the contribution of this article is the demonstration of an effective interpretative (processual) IS evaluation approach, which the authors refer to as “techno‐change alignment”.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between cooperation and inter‐organisational coordination in the supply chain. There is much literature debate over the nature of electronic trading enabled cooperation and coordination in the supply chain. The paper examines the major concepts associated with inter‐organisational cooperation in social network literature such as collaboration and partnership and how this is affected by changing forms of coordination (market and hierarchy) governance.

Seminal literatures about how electronic market and hierarchy coordination mechanisms have changed over time are examined. While some evidence from interviewing companies is used in conjunction with literature to inform discuss the workings of a matrix framework, the discussion remains essentially conceptual.

A conceptual cooperation and coordination matrix outlines four quadrant forms of cooperation relative to evolving electronic markets and hierarchy coordination contexts, namely; “collaboration”, “partnership”, “dominance” and “autonomous”. The matrix depicts and describes subtle differences in these forms of cooperation. Collaboration involves a low degree of vertical integration and a high number of trading partners transacting on short‐term contracts. Partnering involves a higher degree of inter‐firm linkage with fewer stable partners on a medium to long‐term basis. Dominance is characterised as a traditional form of hierarchical inter‐firm linkage with a high degree of vertical integration. The autonomous organisation specialises in the production and delivery of major super brands which in the case of information based products can be sold directly to the customer.

The contribution is a discussion analysis and new matrix framework depicting forms of cooperation relative to market and hierarchy coordination contexts in the supply chain. This is useful for understanding theoretical interplay between different forms of inter‐firm cooperation and complex supply chain inter‐dependencies that utilise information technology.