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Brief discussion on the importance of quality as a control in the marketplace. Compares the measurement of quality by service providers with the high levels of quality achieved by manufacturers. Questions whether service providers adequately measure the quality of their services. The future offers quality challenges and opportunities for all service providers.

Despite the increasing recognition that organizations should report on relevant sustainability matters, the importance and value to stakeholders of these reports being independently assured are not well appreciated. The objective of the paper is to underline that such assurance can be (and is) provided by the internal audit function and, in doing so, that function makes a significant contribution to effective corporate governance.

Theoretical in nature, the paper makes reference to a few “real‐world” illustrations. It is review in character and in a relatively systematic manner reviews key internal auditing professional standards‐guidance in conjunction with prior theoretical and empirical research.

The paper reinforces the argument that reporting of sustainability policies, practices and measures, without independent assurance, is of reduced value to stakeholders. The paper provides evidence to show how, despite the potential to do so, internal auditing has not always been promoted globally in this role.

The paper is limited to a theoretical consideration. There is potential for it to be enhanced by further empirical research demonstrating the value of independent internal auditing within sustainability programs and reporting.

The paper is possibly the first to make explicit the linkage between the reporting of sustainability and the assurance of such reports. It should help make boards of organizations in emerging markets more aware of internal audit in relation to sustainability in terms of corporate responsibility and governance.

Charities are now big business in the UK, responsible for delivering major welfare services. The regulatory structure has been improved and a new radical accounting standard has been introduced. Little research, however, has occurred on the number of large charities that have internal audit and how such functions operate. Makes an extensive review of the literature and also reviews two major studies in this area in 1987 and 1991. Asks how representative are their findings in 1995? Makes a report on recent qualitative research reviewing these reports. Concludes that internal auditing will not be more widespread in larger charities unless an expectations gap is overcome and an educational initiative coupled with recommendations from the regulator is made.

At a meeting of the Council of the Royal Borough of Kensington, on November 22, Councillor J. BROOKE‐LITTLE, Chairman of the Public Health Committee, brought up a report as follows:—

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), formerly the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, has exerted a profound influence on the education of students with disabilities. In 2004 major changes were made to the IDEA when it was amended in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. The category of disabilities that was most profoundly affected by these changes may have been the category of learning disabilities. In this chapter we (a) review the development and major components of the IDEA, (b) explain the important changes in the 2004 amendments for the education of students with learning disabilities, focusing on two specific requirements, and (c) reflect on possible changes in future amendments to the IDEA.

Ethiopia was under the rule of monarchies between 1811 and 1974, a reign long enough to create good value for Ethiopia. The emperors came from eight dynasties, and 86 emperors ruled Ethiopia from these dynasties. Apart from 1936 to 1941, when the Italians occupied Ethiopia, the nation was never under colonial rule. Vices such as concentration of power, inequity, favoritism, expansionist drive, and the marginalization of the population were prevalent during the reign of the emperors. Most of the emperors preferred a positive external reputation over internal respect. They maintained legitimacy despite their negative contributions because of their link to the gods, reinforced by the national religion. In the end, the emperors achieved marginalization and expansion, leading to wars, and draining the nation's natural and human resources. They did not create or leave behind any sustainable and effective legacy, and all they did ended with the termination of monarchical rule in 1974. In other words, in 1974, Ethiopia started from ground zero because what was left by the emperors had no use in the modern nation.

The purpose of this paper is to draw on scientific models in conceptualising the evolutionary bases of contemporary behaviours, and make cross‐species comparisons, to account for male managerial activities in situ in health organizations.

In the animal world, males of many species display in order to induce females to mate. Such lekking behaviour involves inter alia, strutting, puffing out, catching attention via the use of ornamental physical characteristics, exhibiting gaudily‐coloured body parts, singing or splashing, and other courting and wooing strategies. The paper applies these behavioural repertoires as an explanatory device for male‐dominant organizational lekking in a set of contemporary settings. It draws on six studies of managerial talk, appearance and behaviour in order to do so.

Within the organizational lek male managers display mainly by power dressing, positioning, and exercising power and influence via verbal and behavioural means. Social and religious mores prohibit overt sexual coupling in organizations but lekking for other rewards is nevertheless pursued by male managers. The paper explores this managerial patterning, compares it to the lekking behaviour of other species, and discusses points of comparison and departure. It shows how male managers display within various sub‐habitats, and discusses the central issues of appearance, tasks and work assignment, physical interaction structure, and talk and physiognomy.

Understanding what makes people tick via deep explanations than are customarily rendered is a vital contribution of scholarship to the practical world of management.

The evolutionary bases of contemporary behaviours, and cross‐species accounts, may prove useful paradigms for other theorists and empiricists in organizational studies, and could encourage the development of a new field that might be labeled evolutionary organizational behaviour.

This study evaluates the efficiency of teaching hospitals using a variable returns to scale, input oriented, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology. Hospital executives, healthcare policy-makers, taxpayers and graduate medical education benefit from studies that look to improve the efficiency of teaching hospitals. Data for 164 University Health Consortium Hospitals (UHC) in 1998 and 154 in 2001 were analyzed using DEA. The results indicate that efficiency in UHC Hospitals improved from 64.8% in 1998 to 69.6% in 2001 for an increase of 7.4%. From a management perspective, it shows opportunities for improved management and the realignment of resources to better meet demand. From a policy perspective, the research highlights the problems associated with improving efficiency while providing graduate medical education.