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Maintaining user-focused integrated team working in complex care is one of the demands made of UK health and social care (H&SC) organisations who need employees that are resilient, resilience being the ability to persevere and thrive in the face of exposure to adverse situations (Rogerson and Ermes, 2008, p. 1). Grant and Kinman (2012) write that resilience is a complex and multi-dimensional construct that is underexplored in social care team work. The purpose of this paper is to capture the views of managers in H&SC to explore the making of resilient teams, identify factors that influence team performance and inform organisational workforce development strategy.

A general inductive approach (Silverman, 2011) was applied. Five focus groups were facilitated (n=40) each with eight participants all of whom were leaders and managers of teams in H&SC, working in the integrated care context in the UK.

Findings indicate that further investment in strategies and resources to sustain and educate employees who work in teams and further research into how organisational systems can facilitate this learning positively may contribute to resilient teams and performance improvement. The authors note specifically that H&SC organisations make a distinction between the two most prevalent team types and structures of multi-disciplinary and inter-professional and plan more targeted workforce development for individual and team learning for resiliency within these team structures. In doing so organisations may gain further advantages such as improved team performance in problematic care situations.

Data captured are self-reported perceptions of H&SC managers. Participant responses in the focus group situation may have been those expected rather than those actually modelled in the realities of team work practice (Tanggaard, 2008). Further, in the sample all participants were engaged in a higher education programme and it is possible participants may have been more engaged with their practice and thinking more critically about the research questions than those not currently undertaking postgraduate study (Ng et al., 2014). Nor were the researchers able to observe the participants in team work practice over time or during critical care delivery incidents.

The preliminary link made here between multi-disciplinary and inter-professional team type, and their different stress points and subsequent workforce intervention, contributes to the theory of resilient teams. This provides organisations with a foundation for the focus of workplace learning and training around resilience. H&SC practitioner views presented offer a greater understanding of team work processes, together with a target for planning workforce development strategy to sustain resilience in team working.

This preliminary research found that participants in H&SC valued the team as a very important vehicle for building and sustaining resilience when dealing with complex H&SC situations. The capitalisation on the distinction in team type and individual working practices between those of interprofessional and multidisciplinary teams and the model of team learning, may have important consequences for building resilience in H&SC teams. These findings may be significant for workforce educators seeking to develop and build effective practice tools to sustain team working.

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of key strategic factors in new service development (NSD). In particular, the role of service development strategy, a formalised development process, integrated development teams and customer co‐creation were investigated and the results were compared with managers' beliefs.

The study used a sample of more than 500 service development projects to test a NSD conceptual model. Regression analysis was used to test the relative importance of the key strategic factors, and the results were compared with managers' beliefs.

The results show that managers believe that customer co‐creation is most important in order to succeed with NSD. However, contrary to management belief, a service development strategy is the “missing link” in improving NSD performance. In addition, the research highlighted an interaction effect between integrated development teams and customer co‐creation, which means that project managers should focus on individual competencies on the development team and how they interact with customers throughout the NSD process.

For a long time, NSD has failed to receive the attention it deserves, not just in practice but also in service research. This study shows that the number of new services put on the market and then withdrawn because of low sales remains as high as 43 per cent. This paper contributes knowledge on how to reduce the number of failures in NSD by pointing out the key strategic factors that influence NSD performance.

With the increasing adoption of integrated reporting and the subsequent interest of the accounting discipline in its development, this paper aims to examine the enablers and barriers to the involvement of accountants in integrated reporting.

The paper adopts a case study approach by collecting interview data from six organisations that have adopted integrated reporting internationally. In the selected organisations, face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with professionals who are involved in the preparation of an integrated report. The interviewees in this study included key integrated report preparers including accountants, corporate reporting managers, sustainability managers and other report preparers. Institutional entrepreneurship provided the theoretical insights for this study.

The study found that accountants’ expertise in corporate reporting and especially their knowledge of the assurance process was one of the major reasons why they were involved in integrated reporting. Accountants’ in-depth understanding of an organisation in addition to their general analytical and interpersonal skills were also found to be useful in preparing an integrated report. However, the voluntary nature of integrated reporting along with the lack of sufficient guidelines deterred accountants from being involved in integrated reporting. The study also found that accountants themselves did not see value in integrated reporting and found it challenging to convert numerical information to narratives, thus limiting their involvement in integrated reporting.

Whilst prior studies have underlined accountants’ institutionalised practices, this study uncovers the strategies applied by accountants to maintain their institutionalised practices. The specific application of the institutional entrepreneurship concept identifies mechanisms and strategies through which accountants restrict their practices to narrow taken-for-granted roles.

This study uncovers practical implications by highlighting the factors that limit the involvement of accountants within integrated reporting. One of the major implications identified relates to the training of accountants to apply their existing skills and expertise in non-financial reporting to contribute effectively to multi-disciplinary teams that contribute towards integrated reporting in organisations. This study also provides an impetus for the International Integrated Reporting Council to provide more guidance for preparing an integrated report.

This is one of the initial studies that has explored the enablers and barriers to the involvement of accountants in integrated reporting through its focus on organisations that are already practising this form of reporting. The use of institutional entrepreneurship theory adds to the theoretical insights for exploring the involvement of the various actors in integrated reporting.

Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland has had a system of integrated health and social care since the early 1970s. Following devolution, the reconfiguration of services has strengthened this integration with a smaller number of trusts with responsibilities for all heath and social care. This article examines the current and planned operation of this more comprehensive form of integration of health and social care. It considers how this experience of integrated structures and working can inform approaches in other areas of the UK. Finally, it assesses the main achievements of this system and identifies remaining problems.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between product modularity (PM) and supply chain integration (SCI), and to identify factors influencing this relationship.

A case study approach involving in‐depth interviews on three modular and two non‐modular design projects in the Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta region was conducted. Within and cross‐case analyses were adopted.

Results support the current view that modular design is related to a loosely coordinated supply chain, whereas integrated design is associated with a tightly coordinated supply chain. However, this relationship is affected and explained by four contingency factors: new module/component development, technological knowledge leakage and creation, project team size and supply chain efficiency.

The paper used a case study approach so the generalizability of the study is limited. This approach, however, enabled us to examine explicitly the relationship between PM and SCI, where empirical research was lacking. The rich content of each case suggested how and why modular design affects supply chain management.

The findings of this paper increase the understanding of the dynamics of modular product design and supply chain management. The paper also explores four contingency factors affecting the relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigates strategies for achieving better integration between the design and construction (DC) and operation and maintenance (OM) supply chains in Singapore. The specific objectives are to: discover the goals that stakeholders want to achieve in integrating the supply chains; identify the stakeholders that play important integration role in each supply chain; and investigate the effective strategies that may yield better integration of the supply chains.

Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The sampling frame was Singapore-based clients, consultants and construction firms involved in developing and managing built facilities.

The most important strategies for integrating the supply chains are: sharing relevant information and addressing sustainability issues jointly with DC and OM teams; and integrating life cycle optimization options in DC and OM supply chains.

The limitations include low response rate, and the subjective nature of a Likert scale which was used to rate importance levels. The research implication is that activities in DC and OM supply chains can indeed be integrated, and this leads to higher value for all stakeholders.

The practical implication is that stakeholders could adopt the effective strategies identified by this study to foster closer integration of the two supply chains in Singapore. Teams from both supply chains need to work jointly instead of consecutively. Sharing information through an online platform by setting up a web-based database may help in their collaboration. It is also important that common goals need be set out at the onset, preferably by clients of built facilities, with strong buy-in by main contractors and consultants, so as to achieve better value.

The study revealed effective strategies for integrating DC and OM supply chains.

It is suggested that a common understanding of integrated care between multi‐professional staff is vital to prevent barriers to unification and quality of care. This paper examines qualitative data from PROCARE, a recently completed European project on integrated care for older people, to put forward an interpretation of what integrated care means to staff. Through thematic analysis, four main clusters were identified. The paper suggests that, while the analysis revealed a common and inter‐related European interpretation that was somewhat idealised and moralistic, this was countered by challenges to its implementation that were inseparable from the rhetoric. The paper suggests that a collective, morally strong understanding is unable to prevent barriers to integrated care, and that tensions between services remain a prominent impediment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of the Alliance Team Integration Performance Index (ATIPI) model as an assessment tool to measure the performance of team integration in alliance road infrastructure projects in New Zealand.

This study takes a case study approach, using a qualitative research method. Three road infrastructure projects under project alliance from the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) were selected as the cases. Data were collected through the interviews with a representative from the alliance management team from each case. Project records and documentation were also used to assist and support the actual data from the interviews.

The findings indicated that the ATIPI is performing as expected and found to be both practical and applicable to measure the team integration performance in light of real life case studies of alliance road infrastructure projects. Across the three case studies, there is evidence that high levels of integrated performance is consistently fostered by the project teams over the lifecycle of projects. In addition, based on the cross-case analysis from the application of the ATIPI on three cases, further work could enhance the probability of the utilization of the tool to manage different project alliance teams consistently and objectively.

The study was limited to three alliance road infrastructure projects in New Zealand. Further research into different alliance projects is required to establish a comprehensive database of alliance team integration performance, so that the model could be more beneficial for owner and non-owner participants, for benchmarking purposes.

As team integration practice can directly result in high performing teams in alliance projects, the ATIPI is an ideal model to facilitate the continuous evaluation of team integration performance consistently and objectively over the lifecycle of the projects.

This study extends the team integration literature in construction research by providing significant insights into the empirical evaluation of alliance team integration performance, as well as providing added value for the enhancement of any future development of performance evaluation models in construction research.

As one of the 16 pilots in the Department of Health Integrated Care Organisation (ICO) programme, Norfolk is exploring ways of integrating primary, community and social care services in six localities. Progress in the first few months is assessed within the framework of the six laws of integration developed by Leutz. The initiative has a high degree of support across the County, and local practitioners are taking the opportunity of being within a national programme to redesign their services for the benefit of patients and carers. There is work to do at every level to align the strategy, policy, management and operation of the service to facilitate integrated working for the benefit of patients and carers. The Norfolk approach is to build on existing knowledge of good practice, identify champions by inviting volunteers to work on the pilot, and share experience through a network for the six localities in preparation for rolling out and replicating the model. Progress is being monitored nationally as well as locally.

This paper assesses the recommendations and proposals contained in Transforming Your Care, the recent review of health and social care in Northern Ireland, in the context of the existing integrated structures. It is designed to promote a better understanding of the implications of the proposed reconfiguration of health and social care.

This paper reviews a number of published documents encompassing an independent review and subsequent plans and strategies. It also draws upon a case study of a Rapid Access Clinic undertaken by the authors as part of a wider research project.

The paper concludes that the planned changes question the ability of an integrated structure operating across primary, secondary and social care. It notes that there are real concerns about the capacity of the social care workforce to deliver services. It is suggested that the proposal for Integrated Care Partnerships can be seen as a reflection of the need for a more localised approach to delivery.

The findings are derived from a small‐scale study and as such may make generalisation difficult. There is a clear need for a more robust evidence‐based approach to the evaluation of structural integration in health and social care and a process for monitoring of this change process.

The article is a reminder of the unique example of structural integration within the UK. As such it could have important lessons for England, Scotland and Wales which are moving in a similar direction.