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This paper aims to explore if health professionals share understanding of teamwork that supports collaborative ward rounds.

A purpose-designed survey was conducted in two acute medical and two rehabilitation wards from a metropolitan teaching hospital. Medical officers, nurses and allied health professionals participated. To understand characteristics that support collaborative ward rounds, questions developed from literature and industry experience asked: what are the enablers and challenges to teamwork; and what are clinicians’ experiences of positive teamwork? Descriptive and thematic analyses were applied to the dimensions of effective teamwork as a framework for deductive coding.

Seventy-seven clinicians participated (93% response rate). Findings aligned with dimensions of teamwork framework. There was no meaningful difference between clinicians or specialty. Enablers to teamwork were: effective communication, shared understanding of patient goals, and colleague’s roles. Challenges were ineffective communication, individual personalities, lack of understanding about roles and responsibilities, and organisational structure. Additional challenges included: time; uncoordinated treatment planning; and leadership. Positive teamwork was influenced by leadership and team dynamics.

Ward rounds benefit from a foundation of collaborative teamwork. Different dimensions of teamwork present during ward rounds support clinicians’ shared understanding of roles, expectations and communication.

Rounds such as structured rounding, aim to improve teamwork. Inverting this concept to first develop effective collaboration will support team adaptability and resilience. This enables teams to transition between the multiple rounding processes undertaken in a single ward. The emphasis becomes high-quality teamwork rather than a single rounding process.

This article sets out the writer's impressions gleaned from an extensive examination of the homepages mounted on the World Wide Web by governments and government agencies. The writer is critical of the quality of the information made available and identifies some possible explanations for the perceived shortcomings of the homepages. A rush to establish a Net presence has encouraged agencies to mount pages without having clearly defined their intended audience. Much of the information is in the form of ‘HTMLised’ documents originally created for other purposes. Frequently these are accessed from pages structured from the point of view of the agency, without reference to the perceptions and needs of the users of the information. In order to overcome these shortcomings, the writer proposes a more rigorous evaluation of Web publishing projects which are led by information professionals and others involved in the direct delivery of information services, with a smaller role for IT personnel than is currently the case.

Businesses succeed or fail based on competitive advantage. Over the course of business history a number of innovative business practices have earned the distinction of being “milestones” in competitive advantage. Examples of such groundbreaking competitive developments include portfolio strategies in product management and restructuring companies specifically to gain competitiveness. In the early 1990s “Time‐Based Competition” was proposed by Stalk and Hout to be a new major dimension of competition. The book on this subject by these authors, Competing Against Time, (1990) is regarded as a classic work in competitive strategy. In essence, time‐based competition focuses on gaining advantage by being faster than competitors—faster in responding to market changes, faster with new product development and introductions, faster in integrating new technology into products, and faster in distribution and customer service. Success stories of time‐based competitors are numerous; for example the Japanese used time‐based competition as a fundamental component of their automobile manufacturing strategy that caught U.S. firms off guard. Just as time‐based competition matured as a competitive strategy the Internet, World Wide Web and other “virtual” communications links have emerged, proliferated and profoundly impacted competitive strategy. This paper proposes a new dimension of competitive advantage to be called “virtual marketing.” Virtual marketing could be a new milestone in competitive strategy much like time‐based competition.

Drawing on Foa and Foa’s elaboration of social exchange theory, the authors propose that buyers reciprocate perceived commitment on the part of the salesperson and supplier with commitment on their own parts because of strengthening of the relationship’s tacit governance mechanism – cooperative norms.

This study uses data from 155 buyers doing business with a multinational supplier. The buyers were from firms generating less than $100,000 in billings. The salesforce of the supplier firm sponsoring the research is responsible for account management and communicating directly with buyers.

Buyers, who feel that their suppliers are providing a symbolic, long-term, particularistic benefit (commitment), respond with their own strengthened commitment to the relationship; this mutualism is explained entirely by the mediating effect of the relationship’s cooperative norms. Where buyers perceive generally favorable treatment (satisfaction), without these three qualities, their own reciprocal commitment increases directly and cooperative norms play no part. The results also demonstrate the transition of buyer perceptions of the salesperson as they develop into beliefs about the selling firm as a whole.

Drawing on the “reciprocation-in-kind” principle, supplier firms seeking long-term, open-ended commitment from their customers should cultivate it via similarly long-term and open-ended commitments of their own. Attention must be given to the unwritten, often unstated “rules of the road” for business relationships, as these rules represent the mechanism through which investments in long-term, profitable partnerships bear fruit.

The conceptual model draws on and empirically tests Foa and Foa’s framework within social exchange theory to predict what form of buyer reciprocation will result, based on the characteristics of perceived seller-provided benefits. This study illustrates that the tacit governance structure of a B2B relationship – its cooperative norms – plays a critical role in the strength of a buyer’s commitment to its supplier.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/13665629410071216. When citing the article, please cite: Pamela R. Johnson, Julie Indvik, (1994), “The Impact of Unresolved Trauma on Career Management”, Employee Councelling Today, Vol. 6 Iss: 4, pp. 10 - 15.

Explores the issue of workplace violence and stress in the USA. Examines the kinds of violence employees must face in the workplace and also looks at different kinds of stressors such as environmental, e.g. family dysfunction, racial oppression and sexual harassment. Addresses the question of employer responsibility and briefly proposes the development of training programmes for managers.

Just as human capital is being increasingly recognized as the source of organizations′ sustained competitiveness in the global economy, so too must “mental capital” be recognized as the source of sustained career development for individuals in the “white water” business climate of the 1990s. Describes several tools for using mental capital proactively in order to enhance personal empowerment and manage careers more effectively. Methods for working directly with mental images can not only improve self‐fulfilling prophecies but also enhance creativity. These methods can also be useful for career practitioners in their role of educating employees in the use of inner resources.

Managing one′s career entails knowing if one is primarily intuitive or analytical when approaching tasks. Right‐brain management techniques rely on feelings – intuition and creativity – to solve problems. On the other hand, left‐brain‐oriented managers follow rational and logical methods of reasoning. Available research indicates that at top management levels right‐brain and integrative‐brain‐skills are needed more than purely left‐brain skills in decision making. Analysis is thought to be predominantly a left‐brain activity; intuition is traditionally seen as a right‐brain activity. It is the integration and synthesis of both left – and right‐brain activity which are critical to the management process. Left – and right‐brain hemisphericity is discussed, a brain development technique offered, interpersonal dynamics which employ the intuitive right‐brain in the management process suggested, and how brain hemisphericity and intuition enhance career management is indicated.

This study evaluated the linkages among market tracking, research & development (R&D), international competition and firm profitability. Over six hundred electronic and computer manufacturers were surveyed. Results show a clear linkage between market tracking, R&D and increased profitability. The study found no linkage between international competition and profitability. These findings are useful benchmarks for marketing managers in understanding the contributions these practices and variables make to the financial performance of the firm.

Examines turnover functionality (high‐ and low‐performing quitters and stayers) in a business‐to‐business sales setting. Prior research indicates that antecedents of turnover frequency and turnover functionality are different. However, this may be an artifact of the way in which turnover has been measured. This study develops a new criterion of turnover functionality. Additionally, common antecedents of turnover frequency were examined to see if they could differentiate between high‐ and low‐performing quitters and stayers. The results indicate that several antecedents associated with turnover frequency are able to discriminate among different groups of high‐ and low‐performing quitters and stayers. Specifically, satisfaction with promotion, supervision, work, and global satisfaction contribute to our understanding of turnover functionality. Additionally, role conflict, role ambiguity, anxiety, evaluation of job alternatives, and intention to quit are also good discriminators of turnover functionality.