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Volume 15 Number 4 of Industrial & Social Relations includes an article by Catherine O'Regan and Clive Thompson entitled “Collective Bargaining and the promotion of equality for women in South Africa”.

Changes have occurred in the pattern of services for people with learning disabilities and mental illness and/or challenging behaviour over recent years, with the development of a variety of service models across the UK. In SE London, residential services are based predominantly on a supported housing model and the strong philosophical premise that people should not be excluded from a community residential service because they have complex physical, behavioural or mental health needs. Local services, therefore, are supporting individuals with a wide range of need. This paper describes the development of specialist mental health and challenging needs services in support of this model. The issues raised are outlined, together with a list for action and priorities to overcome the difficulties encountered, including the maintenance of an effective infrastructure.

The children's room in my hometown library in Marion, Ohio, was a bright, comforting site, with low shelves of colorful books on every imaginable topic and a desk where kids could, under the librarian's careful guidance, use a red date‐due stamp to check out their own books.

Research in gender and development (GAD) remains largely preoccupied with women's issues and ignores the gendered nature of masculine experience. While exposing this inconsistency in gender research, the present paper highlights the gendered nature of men, and sets an agenda for their inclusion in gender research and planning.

To engage with the issue, the paper resists an unproblematic understanding of men as a singular formation, and instead builds on cultural and historical approaches which locate masculinity within modes of production.

Instead of casting men in the problem mode and theorizing masculinity as an ahistorical universal, an attempt is made to delink men from patriarchy. For development to be truly transformative, men's issues should be addressed not just as instruments for women empowerment, but also as subjects in themselves.

The paper, at a very broad level, pleads for a need to re‐vision and “men” stream development that does not ignore women, but accommodates men as gendered subjects.

In this context, power may be seen as embedded in specific modes of production, and not inherent in patriarchy. The paper argues that development agenda should go beyond categorical thinking, include men in gender planning, and create conditions for social justice.

To outline the emerging imperative for the integration of ICT into schools and to locate such integration within broad notions of governance and effective implementation.

Using a flexible interview structure, conversations concerning ICT integration into schools were held with 65 school‐based personnel in 50 Tasmanian schools.

Coding analysis of conversations enabled 14 themes to be identified; for example: “The use of ICT involves partnerships between people”, “ICT is more or less integrated into the classroom curriculum and is more or less entwined in the various pedagogies employed by teachers”, and “ICT ‘champions’ or ‘heroes’ are recognised more or less in schools”. Many of the themes focus on issues of governance. A number of strong correlations were found to exist between the themes. Few differences were found to exist within the data in regard to four criteria, namely: whether the school was in the Catholic sector or the Department of Education; the urban‐rural location of the school; the size of the school in terms of student enrolment numbers; and the role of the participant (Principal, Assistant Principal, Teacher, ICT Co‐ordinator, Technician). Concludes that there is likely to be considerable agreement about the content of such conversations in schools and that they are likely to be concerned with people and processes rather than with ICT technology/software/hardware and the like per se.

Provides guidance to school leaders and others regarding effective implementation of ICT into schools.

It is expected that the schools taking part in this project will move towards implementing ICT with considerable success and it is hoped that this can be applied to Tasmanian schools in general.

This study reports an examination of the relationships between Porter's (1980) generic strategies, dynamic environments, and performance. In me study, profile deviation is used to test strategy—environment fit. A sample of 173 acute care hospitals was used to test the proposed relationship. Results from the study indicate that adherence to an externally specified ideal strategy profile has a positive effect on firm performance. From a methodological standpoint, results suggest that empirical and theoretical profiles have equal predictive validity, and both have a higher predictive validity, than a random profile. Results also suggest that profiles can not be assumed to be robust to differences in performance measures used.

OWING to the comparatively early date in the year of the Library Association Conference, this number of THE LIBRARY WORLD is published so that it may be in the hands of our readers before it begins. The official programme is not in the hands of members at the time we write, but the circumstances are such this year that delay has been inevitable. We have dwelt already on the good fortune we enjoy in going to the beautiful West‐Country Spa. At this time of year it is at its best, and, if the weather is more genial than this weather‐chequered year gives us reason to expect, the Conference should be memorable on that account alone. The Conference has always been the focus of library friendships, and this idea, now that the Association is so large, should be developed. To be a member is to be one of a freemasonry of librarians, pledged to help and forward the work of one another. It is not in the conference rooms alone, where we listen, not always completely awake, to papers not always eloquent or cleverly read, that we gain most, although no one would discount these; it is in the hotels and boarding houses and restaurants, over dinner tables and in the easy chairs of the lounges, that we draw out really useful business information. In short, shop is the subject‐matter of conference conversation, and only misanthropic curmudgeons think otherwise.

This article revisits some theories and concepts of public administration, including those related to public value, transaction costs and social equity, to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in public service delivery. The author seeks to mobilize theory to guide AI-era public management practitioners and researchers.

The author uses an existing task classification model to mobilize and juxtapose public management theories against artificial intelligence potential impacts in public service delivery. Theories of social equity and transaction costs as well as some concepts such as red tape, efficiency and economy are used to argue that the discipline of public administration provides a foundation to ensure algorithms are used in a way that improves service delivery.

After presenting literature on the challenges and promises of using AI in public service, the study shows that while the adoption of algorithms in public service has benefits, some serious challenges still exist when looked at under the lenses of theory. Additionally, the author mobilizes the public administration concepts of agenda setting and coproduction and finds that designing AI-enabled public services should be centered on citizens who are not mere customers. As an implication for public management practice, this study shows that bringing citizens to the forefront of designing and implementing AI-delivered services is key to reducing the reproduction of social biases.

As a fast-growing subject, artificial intelligence research in public management is yet to empirically test some of the theories that the study presented.

The paper vulgarizes some theories of public administration which practitioners can consider in the design and implementation of AI-enabled public services. Additionally, the study shows practitioners that bringing citizens to the forefront of designing and implementing AI-delivered services is key to reducing the reproduction of social biases.

The paper informs a broad audience who might not be familiar with public administration theories and how those theories can be taken into consideration when adopting AI systems in service delivery.

This research is original, as, to the best of the author’s knowledge, no prior work has combined these concepts in analyzing AI in the public sector.

What do you feel about the status of management in British industry today? Has the manager's job been helped or hindered by legislation concerning equal pay, dismissal proceedings and union recognition rights? Given current rates of taxation, which has the greater influence over job choice — pay or perks?

This study confirms and extends previous research by providing a detailed longitudinal examination of the strategic group and performance relationship in the hospital industry from 1983 to 1993. Based on a deductive approach using Porter's (1980) typology, we find that matching strategy to environment affects hospital performance, that the appropriate match between strategy and environment changed over the 1983 to 1993 time period, and that hospitals combining a low cost and differentiation strategy (i.e., a best‐cost approach) performed well during most of the time period examined. We also find significant movement between strategic groups, thus calling into question the degree to which mobility barriers affect between group performance differences. Finally, our research suggests the existence of multiple groups following the same strategic approach, a result that calls into question the view that groups within an industry are monolithic.