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The preliminary findings of a survey of regular consumers of organic food are presented. The research was designed to investigate dietary change in contemporary society with particular reference to the minority, but nevertheless influential, interest in organic produce. Four hundred and fifty consumers were surveyed through wholefood shops and organic shops, by questionnaire and also by completion of diet‐diaries. Concerns the questionnaire results regarding changes in composition of diet (major food groups) from childhood and how these changes compare with the national average consumption.

Vegetarianism is currently receiving more attention from the food industry than ever before. The campaign initiated by the NACNE and COMA Reports has created a new “health appeal”, resulting in an increased demand for vegetarian food, which is consumer‐driven. Product development in the vegetarian sector should, therefore, favour the use of vegetables and pulses rather than dairy products. Beans, nuts, seeds and grains are all the more appetising now because of the abundance of vegetables available to combine with them. Manufacturers should take the opportunity of an expanding market to provide imaginative, sumptuous products which truly do justice to the variety of colours, flavours and textures of pulses.

Directive 93/43/EEC introduced the concept of good hygiene practice, in response to a pan‐European increase in the incidence of food poisoning, to foster a preventive approach to food safety. UK legislation reinforces the EU position that food businesses are responsible for the implementation of good hygiene practices. The response of the food industry has been to develop audited standards of hygiene, higher than explicit legal requirements. Small businesses have, however, been slow to adopt industry hygiene standards. A case study of small manufacturers of ready to eat meat products investigated the reasons for this. Businesses were first audited to the EFSIS[1] standard, to compare current practice with recommended best practice. Second, technical managers or owner‐managers were interviewed, to gain an insight into their knowledge of industry standards in particular, and the process of hygiene management in general. The analysis found significant differences in the knowledge of technical managers and owner‐managers, with the latter often unaware of the existence of audited standards. It is argued, therefore, that, in order to increase the implementation of good hygiene practices, further programmes to inform small food businesses about industry standards are required.

This study aims to investigate the experiences of frontline managers supervising and developing staff to support autistic adults living in two types of residential housing in the community.

A qualitative approach used semi-structured interviews with 14 frontline managers. Audio-taped material was transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.

Two main themes emerged. Theme 1 “autism in practice” illustrates commonalities observed to affect autistic adults with learning disabilities receiving staff support; whilst one sub-theme illustrated the diversity in how these commonalities may be experienced and expressed, another focused on participants’ experiences of staff concerns regarding behaviours described as challenging. Theme two, “what’s important in autism-informed support” reflected participants’ perceptions of the features of successful person-centred staff support for autistic service users.

The “rich” experiences of these managers may not be readily generalised.

Features of good staff support for autistic adults who may show behaviours of concern included attending to individuals’ specific communication and sensory needs and for predictability within their environments. Developing staff skills and confidence to implement skilled approaches in the context of often high risk behaviour of concern took time and frontline managers “on site” to observe, coach, mentor and demonstrate good practice. More intellectually (verbally) able service-users were perceived as more “difficult” to support.

Staff supporting autistic adults in ordinary housing need frontline managers to act as practice leaders rather than administrators.

This study is the first to report, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, on management for staff supporting autistic adults living in community housing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore primary care psychological therapists’ experiences of working with mid-life and older women presenting with intimate partner violence (IPV) and develop a theoretical framework using a grounded theory approach to identify the experiences of those practitioners working with this phenomenon.

Interviews with 17 practitioners were conducted. The data analysis was informed by a grounded theory approach, which requires three states of data coding: open, axial and selective. Data codes were thematically sorted into causal, contextual, strategic, intervening, interactional and consequential conditions.

A core state of therapist helplessness was uncovered. The framework demonstrates that psychological therapists can doubt their ability to work meaningfully with women over 45 years of age experiencing IPV. To avoid the core state of helplessness, therapists use strategies such as avoiding asking questions about partner violence, making assumptions of how patients interpret their own experiences, addressing symptoms rather than the root cause and going above and beyond in attempts to rescue patients. The consequence of therapists’ helplessness often results in burnout.

The framework identifies barriers in working effectively with IPV and women in the mid-to older-aged populations.

This study is the first to suggest a framework that is grounded in practitioner experience with capability to transfer to a range of professionals working with mid-to older-aged women such as forensic, medical and specialist psychologists.

The purpose of the study is to examine how women become leaders in the Security Services in Ghana and the challenges they face in the discharge of their responsibilities.

A qualitative phenomenological approach was adopted to explore the intentions and opinions of the participants, interpret their worlds through their lived experiences and present a clearer understanding of their stories.

The study revealed that women deliberately positioned themselves to be considered for leadership placements in their male-dominated professions. The study’s findings also suggest that although both men and women are considered equal in the service, women were faced with challenges in their daily experiences as leaders due to their gender. The gender barriers created a strenuous situation for women to rise to top leadership placements in the Security Services.

This research is one of the first studies that explored the experiences of women in middle and top leadership positions in the national Security Services in Ghana. It contributes to the literature by presenting how female leaders in the Security Services successfully navigate into leadership placements, the challenges and their strategies in excelling in their duties. The study is important in bridging the gender gap in leadership positions in the Security Services.

Purpose: This study contributes to understanding how consumers perform new rituals of love and gather in pilgrimage sites.

Methodology/Approach: Five years of engagement with 21 consumers involving prolonged observations and unstructured in-depth interviews provided the empirical evidence for this chapter.

Findings: Consumers’ love rituals are better explained by considering not only consumers’ actions and performances but also their physical environment. The authors found that love rituals are rites of passage following three sequences of a script. By using the religious connotation of pilgrimage, the authors highlight the importance of the location of rituals, as well as material objects. Providing contrasting perspectives, the authors also show that rituals follow substantial variations and display the instability and ambiguity of its symbolic meanings.

Originality/Value: By doing so, the authors contribute to research about rituals, singularized objects, and love relationships. More importantly, this research contributes by demonstrating the need to enrich studies of consumers rituals with historical and cultural perspectives, and transdisciplinary investigations.

The purpose of this paper is to explicate professionals’ giving backstory, identifying what motivates and hinders professionals’ undertaking of pro bono service activities. Examples are provided of different pro bono giving styles, as professionals struggle to resolve inter-institutional tensions, thus addressing this little understood yet vital form of giving, and meeting an important research priority.

Using a discovery-oriented grounded theory approach, this paper draws on narratives from interviews with 31 professionals to explicate, from the professional’s point of view, the backstory of pro bono service.

The authors provide an integrative institutional logics-based framework for understanding the backstory to professionals’ giving. Three distinct pro bono giving styles are revealed: first, an individual logic (self-centric), an “I” logic; second, an organizational logic (organization-centric), “We” logic; and third, a societal “All” logic (where the greater good to society in general is the dominant logic). The paper concludes with recommendations for how professionals and professional service firms (PSFs) can better align their pro bono giving styles with non-paying not-for-profit clients for multi-party benefit.

The originality of this research lies in addressing an important yet little understood form of giving through delving into the backstory to pro bono service. First, the paper theorizes the characteristics of a formerly unarticulated form of giving, distinguishing it from individual-to-individual close consumer gifting, individual to organizational charitable giving, sponsorship, and volunteering. Second, the different inter-institutional logics of pro bono giving are identified, with three main pro bono giving styles uncovered. Third, the authors link professional services theory, theoretical perspectives from giving, and institutional logics theory to develop an integrated framework to explain service professionals’ pro bono activities. Furthermore, a compelling agenda for future research is provided to guide future work.

This paper aims to offer fresh insight into attitudes towards casually used brands and the role of tie strength in the building of online non-brand-related network relationships amongst young consumers.

Thirteen consumers aged between 18 and 24 years took part in in-depth interviews. The interviewees were matched on gender, age, occupation, residency and social media usage.

Tie strength effects are evident in changes to brand attitudes, choice of social media platforms and in the casual use of brands to further consumer relationship building and identity creation goals.

This paper answers calls for greater understanding of the way in which network structure influences consumers’ online motivations and attitudes towards the brand.

This paper explores the importance of managers viewing brands as embedded in broader social contexts and tailoring social media communications to those broader contexts.

This paper is the first to combine tie strength with casual brand use to examine non-brand-related network effects on brand attitudes, growing and maintaining consumer relationships and building online identity.