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Previous research has revealed that sales trainers have been reluctant to incorporate distance education training methods into their programs. This study investigated the effectiveness of six different teaching methods in delivering one sales training course to a national salesforce from one organization. Training methods ranged from no‐tech to high‐tec and included: an on‐site instructor, a written manual, a manual plus videotape, video‐conferencing, audio‐graphics and an interactive multi‐media computer‐based training program. Pre‐ and post‐training evaluations of course content indicated significant improvements. Media were evaluated in terms of training required, number of participants to be trained and other technical considerations. Measures of course content revealed no significant differences in terms of delivery methods. Strengths, weaknesses and situations for optimal utilization of media and delivery method were identified. Findings should assist sales training managers in making more informed choices among distance education delivery options.

Construction and development firms are going through major reorganizations in trying to define a profitable structure – including deciding whether to include construction operations as part of the firm or to outsource it. This paper aims to analyze the relationship between firm size, construction management strategy and performance.

The paper reviews relevant strategic management literature and reports the results of an empirical survey research study of 80 US real estate developers.

The results showed that there was no significant performance difference between firms that performed construction activities in‐house as opposed to those that outsourced it. However, the impact of construction strategy on performance may occur through its effect on size and size was negatively associated with performance. In addition, among the smaller firms, the ones that outsourced construction outperformed those that did construction in‐house.

The results are in line with the findings of similar studies from other industries. In order to add to the generalizability of these findings, future studies should include larger samples and non‐US firms.

The study links the general strategic management literature to organizational issues of construction and development firms. Findings suggest that the scale of operation of the industry is such that even large development firms have too small a market share to take advantage of vertical integration of construction.

The forensic nursing role is complex, creates tensions within itself and is underpinned by core values, knowledge, skills and personal attributes; often referred to as ‘good nurse’ characteristics (Smith & Godfrey, 2002). Forensic nurses perform unique, multifaceted roles; they are viewed by patients as ‘a source of treatment, comfort and advice’, but also as ‘part of the system that deprives them of their liberty’ (United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting & University of Central Lancashire (UKCC & UCLAN), 1999: 42). This is problematic both for nurses and patients. Although appearing as opposites, security and therapeutic characteristics of nurses can and do co‐exist in forensic nursing (Peternelji‐Taylor & Johnson, 1996). Through critical analysis of dialogue from interviews and focus groups, this paper depicts forensic practice with people with a learning disability through a study that explores apparent ‘truths’ about such people detained in forensic settings (here referred to as ‘the men’) and the staff who work with them. Beliefs about nursing characteristics were exposed through discourses present in dialogue between the men and the staff. General research questions included: (1) What are the discourses related to learning disability and forensic practice? (2) What ideologies underpin and justify forensic practice? (3) What in particular are the positive discourses? Related discussion is primarily concerned with the way that staff and men share relationships and with characteristics of the nursing staff. Findings generally suggest that the staff may be viewed as prison wardens, leading to relationships of mistrust. Paradoxically, there are also positive discourses identifying warm and therapeutic relationships and good nurse characteristics of the staff. This may have practice implications, such as enabling staff to hear positive views expressed by the men and begin to develop metrics of ‘good’ forensic nurse characteristics that may positively affect treatment.

This paper aims to present a survey of published literature about various quality costing approaches and reports of their success in order to provide a better understanding of cost of quality (CoQ) methods.

The paper's approach is a literature review and discussion of the issues surrounding quality costing approaches.

Even though the literature review shows an interest by the academic community, a CoQ approach is not utilized in most quality management programs. The evidence presented shows that companies that do adopt CoQ methods are successful in reducing quality costs and improving quality for their customers. The survey shows that the method most commonly implemented is the classical prevention‐appraisal‐failure model; however, other quality cost models are used with success as well.

The paper shows that the selected CoQ model must suit the situation, the environment, the purpose and the needs of the company in order to have a chance to become a successful systematic tool in a quality management program.

Forced eviction is a topic of growing importance globally, and the purpose of this article is to investigate a much‐publicised recent case involving Gypsies and Travellers in the United Kingdom (not usually a country associated with such actions).

After setting the context of planning enforcement law in the UK, Green Belt and other planning policies, and the status of Gypsies/Travellers as a disadvantaged minority group, the paper traces the history of the Dale Farm eviction over a 25‐year period and analyses the legal arguments put to the High Court in unsuccessful attempts to defer and over‐turn the eviction, against the context of internationally agreed guidelines.

The research found that the judiciary gave full consideration to all aspects, in accordance with ECHR case law, and upheld the Green Belt and planning objections. The UK government was determined to proceed, resisting various offers of mediation, and the site was cleared even though no appropriate alternative accommodation was available, and notwithstanding that the occupiers owned their own plots.

The case is a new development in a long‐running history of forced eviction of Gypsies by local authorities, and is of interest in comparative study of treatment of Gypsies in other European countries, particularly in the context of the recent European Union Roma Inclusion Strategy.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

The aim of this paper is to review some of the findings in the field of readability research. First, the differences in meaning between the terms ‘readability’ and ‘legibility’ are discussed. Next, the origins and developments of readability formulas are examined in detail. Then, the best‐known formulas for English language material are described so as to give the reader a brief overview of what has been achieved in this field of research. Finally, the principal applications of these formulas are described.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how one of Dale Carnegie's historically best selling self‐help books, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, resonates with the contemporary conceptualization of psychological capital (PsyCap).

The authors use a narrative historical interpretation to analyze Dale Carnegie's book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Initially, two of the co‐authors independently identified passages mirroring each of the four PsyCap capacities, while in the final stage a consensus on the interpretation was reached with the remaining co‐authors.

The components of the PsyCap construct resonate well with the prescriptions that Carnegie narrated and outlined in his best selling book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.

The findings of this study should be interpreted with a recognition that an alternative critical approach to narrative analysis could have been conducted based on the narrative logic of social power structure.

This paper is unique in placing an emphasis on the insights researchers and practitioners alike can gain by re‐evaluating the self‐help books from the past.

The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated cost of quality ‐ activity‐based costing (COQ‐ABC) framework for measuring quality costs under ABC. The main deficiencies of most COQ systems are: (1) no consensus method to allocate overhead costs to COQ elements, (2) the failure to trace quality costs to their sources, and (3) the lack of information about how indirect workers spend their time on various activities. These deficiencies can be easily overcome under ABC together with work sampling. The cost and nonfinancial information achieved from the integrated COQ‐ABC system can be used to identify the magnitude of the quality improvement opportunities, to identify where the quality improvement opportunities exist, and to continuously plan the quality improvement programs and control quality costs. The ultimate goal of the integrated COQ‐ABC system will be to continuously improve processes/activities/quality so that no defects at all are produced and quality cost measurement ultimately becomes unnecessary.

Recently there has been debate about whether or not academic research and theories in management are ‘relevant’. The discussion has been extended to marketing and we explore whether or not there is a disconnection between marketing practice and the methodologies, theories and concepts put forward by marketing academics. The possible explanations for the divide between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ in marketing are assessed. We then focus on new product development and consider the practical implications of the considerable corps of research aimed at identifying the influences affecting new product success. We continue by discussing the traditional representation of new product development. This assumes a staged process that can be managed, but which ignores in particular the impact of uncertainty. We conclude by suggesting that marketing needs to reappraise its model of the new product development process.