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This paper explores the role of religion in the formation and development of the enterprise culture. The approach is that of legitimisation leading to an increase in environmental munificence. It is argued that entrepreneurial activity was encouraged by the use of an entrepreneurial theology specifically articulated by Margaret Thatcher. Parallels are drawn to Max Weber’s work on the Protestant work ethic, particularly in the way that he argued that changes in the socio‐cultural framework of theology allowed, permitted and encouraged entrepreneurial action in what he called the new rational capitalism. Different aspects of the theological underpinnings of enterprise are discussed. The key findings are that religion played a significant role. It provided a Thatcherite rhetoric which became a moral crusade which was passionately pursued. Entrepreneurship was thus elevated to a new moral high ground; this was in spite of the strongly contested views of the Church. Interestingly, it appears that religious support for entrepreneurship, albeit in a modified form, continues with New Labour.

Explores how information technology (IT) can help local authorities to better manage their property. Sets out a summary procedure for the development of an IT strategy. Defines the role of the “property professional”. Offers Cardiff City Council as role model. Concludes that two scathing Audit Commission Reports of 1988 offer a baseline from which local government may start improvements in property management.

This is a personal narrative, but I trust not a self-regarding one. For more years than I care to remember I have been working in the field of curriculum (or ‘program’) evaluation. The field by any standards is dispersed and fragmented, with variously ascribed purposes, roles, implicit values, political contexts, and social research methods. Attempts to organize this territory into an ‘evaluation theory tree’ (e.g. Alkin, M., & Christie, C. (2003). An evaluation theory tree. In M. Alkin (Ed.), Evaluation roots: Tracing theorists’ views and influences (pp. 12–65). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage) have identified broad types or ‘branches’, but the migration of specific characteristics (like ‘case study’) or individual practitioners across the boundaries has tended to undermine the analysis at the level of detail, and there is no suggestion that it represents a cladistic taxonomy. There is, however, general agreement that the roots of evaluation practice tap into a variety of cultural sources, being grounded bureaucratically in (potentially conflicting) doctrines of accountability and methodologically in discipline-based or pragmatically eclectic formats for systematic social enquiry.

In general, this diversity is not treated as problematic. The professional evaluation community has increasingly taken the view (‘let all the flowers grow’) that evaluation models can be deemed appropriate across a wide spectrum, with their appropriateness determined by the nature of the task and its context, including in relation to hybrid studies using mixed models or displaying what Geertz (Geertz, C. (1980/1993). Blurred genres: The refiguration of social thought. The American Scholar, 49(2), 165–179) called ‘blurred genres’. However, from time to time historic tribal rivalries re-emerge as particular practitioners feel the need to defend their modus operandi (and thereby their livelihood) against paradigm shifts or governments and other sponsors of program evaluation seeking for ideological reasons to prioritize certain types of study at the expense of others. The latter possibility poses a potential threat that needs to be taken seriously by evaluators within the broad tradition showcased in this volume, interpretive qualitative case studies of educational programs that combine naturalistic description (often ‘thick’; Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Towards an interpretive theory of culture. In The interpretation of culture (pp. 3–30). New York, NY: Basic Books.) description with a values-orientated analysis of their implications. Such studies are more likely to seek inspiration from anthropology or critical discourse analysis than from the randomly controlled trials familiar in medical research or laboratory practice in the physical sciences, despite the impressive rigour of the latter in appropriate contexts. It is the risk of ideological allegiance that I address in this chapter.

Describes the care policy of Kwik‐Fit, and how their trained staff will re‐charge customers′ batteries with “100% customer satisfaction, 100% of the time”. Briefly outlines the company background and its attitude to both service and customer follow‐through. Describes the development of the company to present‐day and the changes produced by modern technology and enlightened management methods. Defines the company “caring” philosophy. Asserts the importance of training for advancement and considers the factors maintaining motivation. Concludes by supporting the view that when people belong to a “caring” company, only then will the ideology of service permeate the company.

In this, the second part of a two‐part paper (Part I, Personnel Review, Summer 1977, pp 21–34) a survey of instances of work system design (WSD) experiments will be continued. As described in the Introduction to Part I, cases chosen for inclusion report the economic and human results of actual physical or structural innovations in a set or series of human tasks which, taken together, form some meaningful technical whole. The term ‘experiment’ is used in both Part I and II to refer loosely to change or manipulation of actual work activities, and not necessarily to well controlled laboratory experiments. In fact, most cases reported here are ‘natural’ and very few are carefully controlled.

TO some, Annual Estimates this year may have a nightmarish quality. Not perhaps so much in the safe areas to which many who had the means to do so have gone with those means and no doubt are contributing part of them to the local exchequers; but in the so‐called “dangerous” areas which have lost them and their means and have, because of their liability to air raids, huge expenditure on A.R.P., the librarian may have a severe battle to get what he needs to maintain his work. Our own policy would be to concentrate, so far as is possible, upon the book fund and on salaries. If these can be retained at a fair amount much good will ensue.

Here, the legal situation relating to sexual activity and people with reduced capacity is considered. From the starting point of one recent, contentious case, the column goes on to examine the current state of legal protection and intervention, and looks at how this could be improved by current developments and possible future changes.

The emergence of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) represents a major restructuring of the criminal justice sector which, in time, is likely to have a significant impact on the community safety field. New approaches to commissioning services, the management of offenders and the potential for a service more strongly focused on community interventions all present challenges and potential opportunities for community safety partnerships and partners.

It may be news to many trainers that in October, 1977 a report entitled An Approach to the Training of Staff with Training Officer Roles was issued by the TSA. Some of us never received copies, others may have readily filed it in the appropriate section of the archives and the rest may well have read and digested its contents. All of us have an open invitation to tender our views to the committee on trainers. However what concerns the authors is the lack of public debate on the report. After all it is now a decade since the Central Training Council published its report on the training of training officers, and the TSA is timely in suggesting we take stock of the training scene. Yet the ‘great debate’ seems to have achieved minimal proportions within industry. It is our contention that there is a serious gap between the debate being pursued at national levels by bodies such as the TSA committee on trainers and the real everyday concerns of training managers in industry. We feel that the TSA committee's invitation is to join in a debate that has already been channelled into directions remote from the issues that really matter. The central issue for trainers is the uncertainty about what their role should be and how it should relate to those other people within the concerns for which they work.

We investigate the relative roles of key components of earnings change in explaining the value relevance of earnings across different life‐cycle stages of the firm. We hypothesize that firms in different life‐cycle stages take different strategic actions: change in sales is emphasized in the growth and mature stages, while in later stages, profitability is emphasized. Because payoffs to such strategies vary across the life‐cycle, the stock market reaction to the success firms have in employing these strategic actions is likely to vary across the life‐cycle. To test our hypotheses, we disaggregate changes in earnings into three key components: earnings change from change in sales, earnings change from change in profitability, and an interaction term comprising both sales change and profitability change. Our findings are consistent with our hypotheses: when firms are in the growth stage, the value‐relevance of change in sales is relatively greater than that of change in profitability. In the mature stage, the value relevance of change in profitability increases, relative to that of change in sales. When firms are in stagnant stage, the value‐relevance of changes in profitability are relatively greater than that of change in sales. Collectively, the results demonstrate a shift in the value relevance of earnings components from a growth emphasis early in the life‐cycle to a profitability emphasis later in the life‐cycle.