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The Health Service Executive in Ireland seeks to further develop healthcare in the community. It has identified that this reform requires developing leadership amongst the staff. This study aims to identify what kind of leadership staff in community healthcare observe in practice and their leadership preferences. The core objective has been to identify the readiness of the organisation to implement the adopted national policy of integrated community care reform in terms of leadership development.

An online cross-sectional survey was conducted using the Organisational Cultural Assessment Instrument, based on the Competing Values Framework. This tool identifies four overarching leadership types: Clan (Collaborative), Adhocracy (Creative), Market (Competitive) and Hierarchy (Controlling). Participants (n = 445) were a representative sample of regional community health care employees. They were asked to identify presently observed leadership and preferred leadership in practice. The statistical analysis emphasised a comparison of observed and preferred leadership types.

Participants reported the current prevailing leadership type as Market (M = 34.38, SD = 6.22) and Hierarchical (M = 34.38, SD = 22.62), whilst the preferred or future style was overwhelmingly Clan (M = 40.38, SD = 18.08). Differences were significant (all p’s < 0.001). The overall outcome indicates a predominance of controlling and competitive leadership and a lack of collaborative leadership to implement the planned reform.

During reform in healthcare, leadership in practice must be aligned to the reform strategy, demonstrating collaboration, flexibility and support for innovation. This unique study demonstrates the importance of examining leadership type and competencies to indicate readiness to deliver national community health care reform.

This paper describes the Safe at Home pilot telecare project which was designed to promote safety, reassurance and dignity for older people in Co Louth, north east Ireland. It describes the background, the process, implementation and evaluation of the project for 25 adults aged over 65 years who were victims of crime and/or had experienced social isolation. The project achieved significant improvements in the confidence of the participants especially with regard to feelings of safety and security. It is currently being reviewed with a view to expanding the pilot to an additional 200 residents in the area.

The standards movement, while new in the current NCLB iteration, has been a part of education for almost the last half century (Popham, 2001; Sirotnik, 2004). According to several researchers (e.g., DiPaola & Walther-Thomas, 2003; Fullan, 2001; Lashley & Boscardin, 2003; Marsh, 2000; Villa & Thousand, 2000), there have been significant changes in the roles that school leaders must fulfill to implement a standards-based educational accountability system. The requirements of NCLB will not be a “passing fad” and so will affect the manner in which special education administrators conduct their work (Hochschild, 2003). As it stands, districts and schools are viewed as an amalgam of complex relationships (Harry, Sturges, & Klinger, 2005) that come together as learning communities to meet accountability targets for all students. The requirements for building a learning community involve the skills of collaboration and empowerment of others. Apparently, developing productive partnerships will exceed the previously defined narrow interpretation of collaboration with families and other professionals (Crockett, 2002). Standards-based accountability practices which disaggregate data based on specific subgroups, one of which is students with disabilities, are a result of the concern that exclusion of students from testing distorts the efficacy of educational reform efforts (Heubert & Hauser, 1999; McDonnell, McLaughlin, & Morison, 1997; Schulte & Villwock, 2004). However, concerns have also been raised regarding the validity of conclusions drawn from large-scale accountability data (Schulte & Villwock, 2004; Ysseldyke & Bielinski, 2002). Hargreaves (2003) concluded that “the rightful pursuit of higher standards has generated into a counter productive obsession with soulless standardization” (p. 82).

Examines the Japanese management philosophy in organizations, and develops a 15‐item, four‐factor (family orientation and loyalty, open communication, team approach, and manager knowledge) Japanese organizational culture scale (JOCS). Investigates the differences in JOCS and other work‐related variables between 156 non‐unionized employees of one Japanese‐owned automobile plant and 144 unionized employees of one US‐owned automobile plant in the USA. There were no differences in income and education. Employees in the Japanese‐owned plant had higher scores for family orientation and loyalty, open communication, team approach, manager knowledge, organizational commitment, organization‐based self‐esteem, organizational instrumentality, intrinsic satisfaction, and extrinsic satisfaction than those in the US‐owned plant. Results are discussed in light of organizational culture and enhancing quality and productivity in the global competitive market.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the twentieth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1993. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of students’ loyalty in retail banks in Ghana.

A review of the literature identified four determinants of customer loyalty which were used to survey 624 students from five universities in Ghana. Data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression.

The study found satisfaction with bank services, image of the bank, availability of electronic bank services and perceived service quality as the determinants of students’ bank loyalty. Perceived service quality was, however, not significant in predicting students’ loyalty to their banks.

The study highlights the importance of understanding students’ behavior with regard to banking services. The three factors identified as significant predictors of students’ loyalty could be used by retail banks to design effective marketing strategies to attract and retain the student cohort in Ghana.

The study was the first of its kind that investigates students’ loyalty in retail banks in sub‐Saharan Africa. The study provides practical leverage to enable bank marketers to identify students’ financial needs in order to design an appropriate value proposition to satisfy them.

The aims of this paper is to show how supply chains can become a lot smarter to deal effectively with risk and meet business objectives.

For this Global Chief Supply Chain Officer Study, IBM group leaders interviewed 400 senior executives from North America, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific region who are responsible for their organizations' supply‐chain strategies and operations.

Findings in five key areas summarize the state of supply‐chain management today: cost containment; visibility, risk; customer intimacy; and globalization.

IBM sees a different kind of supply chain emerging – a smarter supply chain with three core characteristics: Instrumented – supply‐chain data previously created by people will increasingly be generated by sensors, RFID tags, meters, actuators, GPSs, and other devices and systems; Interconnected – smarter supply chains would take advantage of unprecedented levels of interaction that will facilitate collaboration on a massive scale; and Intelligent – to assist executives in evaluating trade‐offs, intelligent systems will assess myriad constraints and alternatives, allowing decision makers to simulate various courses of action.

Smarter supply chains would have the analytic capability to evaluate myriad alternatives in terms of supply, manufacturing, and distribution – and the flexibility to reconfigure flows as conditions change. Executives could then plan for contingencies and execute them.

The business case for facility expenditures is grounded in the knowledge that life-cycle economics is significant to the continued viability of the facility. The aim of this study is to develop an algorithm for life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and evaluate flooring products to inform decision makers about the long-term cost of ownership.

The protocol for executing an LCCA is defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, including defining the problem, identifying feasible alternatives and establishing common assumptions and parameters, as well as acquiring financial information. Data were provided by an independent third-party source.

The results of this study are twofold: assess functionally equivalent flooring alternatives to determine the best financial value and develop a replicable protocol and algorithm for LCCA. The study found that modular carpet was the best financial solution. As a tool for decision makers, this LCCA informs asset management about the long-term cost of ownership, providing a protocol for making practical, informed decisions for the lowest cost solution for functionally equivalent alternatives.

Projecting LCCA beyond 15 years may have limited value based on potential changes in the financial climate. Further research should focus on the implications of changes in the discount rate over time and testing the algorithm on other building systems.

Maintenance costs are considerable when compared to initial cost of flooring. Equipment costs have a significant impact on long-term cost of ownership. Using LCCA to inform specifications and to determine the best solution for a building system such as flooring provides an evidence-based process for building design and facility management.

Life-cycle costs have a significant impact on the financial health of an organization. Using LCCA to make informed decisions about facility design and specifications may contribute to increased financial stability and resources to benefit the organization’s long term goals.

This study contributes an algorithm instrument for buildings and building systems. The flooring tested with this protocol provides evidence to inform flooring selection based on lowest cost while considering other factors that inform appropriate selection of flooring materials.