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THERE have been official links for the past twelve years between the Institute of Incorporated Work Study Technologists and Time and Motion Study. Many of its members have been valued contributors to our pages and the Institute has had editorial space for its news.

To investigate the influence of organisational culture on the implementation of ISO 14001:1996 environmental management system (EMS) standard in two manufacturing case study organisations (CSOs).

This research is a case study action research conducted in two manufacturing organisations in the UK.

The hassles authors identified a framework of four dimensions of organisational culture that play an important role during the ISO 14001:1996 implementation process of. These are recognised as people, process, structure and environment.

The study is limited to two case organisations, which are based in the UK.

The four dimensions of organisational culture identified through this research can help practitioners to coordinate their ISO 14000:1996 implementation projects.

This paper fulfils the need to improve the understanding of the impact of the organisational culture on ISO 14001:1996 implementation projects within the manufacturing environment.

Following the growing interest in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Committee on Consumer Policy (ISO/COPOLCO) opened the discussion about the feasibility of CSR management system standard. In this paper, we investigate the underlying issues that shape the development of CSR standard. Based on our case study research, we provide a framework for organisations to establish, manage, improve and document a CSR management system. This framework is based on process and systems thinking and analogous to ISO 9001:2000 adding significantly to existing definitive management frameworks. Finally, we outline areas for further research and indicate substantial managerial implications.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework for assessing impeders of strategy implementation in a higher education context through an in‐depth analysis of a higher education institution in Iran.

A semi‐structured interview is employed with senior academic staff and managers in a particular university.

The main impeders of strategy implementation within the university as the case organisation and are found to be grouped into five main areas: planning consequences, organisational, individual, managerial and environmental. The nature and reasons for the impeders are explained and finally an analytical framework is developed.

The paper, through the use of how and why questions during interviews, highlighted a framework which provides an in‐depth understanding of impeders. The paper's results have implications for other universities in Iran and indeed the Middle East. However, a limitation of this paper is that the results are exploratory only, given that the paper is carried out in only one Iranian university.

This paper provides a valuable basis for discussion on the impeders of strategy implementation. Moreover, the results of the research can be used as guidance for managers and academic staff at the strategy implementation stage in the higher education sector.

The findings of the paper highlight the relevant impeders of strategy implementation within a higher education environment that will be of interest to those in this field, particularly those working in Iranian universities.

The British Food Journal is in no way concerned with politics, and as it would appear that the propositions put forward by Mr. CHAMBERLAIN are commonly regarded as constituting matter for political controversy instead of being looked upon as subjects for serious investigation and discussion entirely outside the field of politics, it would be an undesirable course and one likely to be misunderstood and, no doubt, misrepresented, were we to refer to the great question which is now before the country without plainly indicating at the outset that we have no intention of supporting or opposing any political party or any section of politicians. We believe Mr. CHAMBERLAIN'S suggestion that the subjects which he has brought forward should be discussed on a higher plane than on the muddy plane of party politics was a reasonable and proper suggestion which all men of sense who are not blinded by political bias should applaud and endeavour to adopt. We do not mean to say that problems of so complicated a character are capable of being accurately solved, in the present state of knowledge, by scientific methods other than actual experiment. They certainly cannot be solved by abstract discussions of a pseudo‐scientific character. The factors which enter into the problems of political economy are so numerous, so complex, and so little understood, that to endeavour to argue even on the basis of what are alleged by political economists to be well‐ascertained facts in the so‐called “dismal science” is to lay oneself open to the charge of theorising from insufficient data. HERBERT SPENCER has lucidly demonstrated the universality of this scientific crime. On comparatively simple subjects, in regard to which a man has no special knowledge, he will, if possessed of the quality known as common sense, generally decline to deliver oracular opinions; but, let a subject be sufficiently complex and let the data relating to it be few, obscure, and uncertain, then decisive opinions will be delivered by all and sundry,—and the more profound the ignorance the more decisive will be the expression of opinion.

Computer‐aided systems for all four of the conventional divisions of the field of library housekeeping are now operational in libraries. In Great Britain the only activity not yet operational is that of periodicals control, although two libraries have already used a computer to produce lists of periodicals holdings. The aim of this paper is to describe simply how computer‐aided housekeeping systems work, from the point of view of the librarian, and to mention briefly some typical applications of each type of system.

MR. ALBERT HILL has been fitter, shop steward, foreman and works manager. He is now managing director of the Yorkshire engineering group which proposes to negotiate a ‘job for life’ agreement with its workers. In a recent address to the Institution of Works Managers he commented on the views of an American consultant which we quoted on this page last month.

Organizations need constructive interventions for resolving disputes in the workplace. Mediation is one possible intervention. This real‐life case study and an accompanying mediation exercise can help employees acquire and practice basic mediation skills. The exercise can also serve as a learning frame for generating discussions on current issues in any organization.

PROJECTS launched early in National Productivity Year are still producing useful results. One of the most commendable of these was the circulation of a questionnaire which reached manufacturing firms in Monmouthshire. It was the idea of No. 3 sub‐committee of the country's Productivity Study Group.

SOCIAL scientists have not yet been able to formulate any general laws about behaviour in industry that are capable of broad application. In recent years, however, they have made many useful case studies of which the one just published by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is typical. It is an approach to the problem which can do much to increase the understanding of the way in which people react to common industrial situations.