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THE blueprint, vital communication link between designer, engineer and manufacturer, is currently undergoing a radical change in its traditional format at the Boeing Airplane Company in the United States.

Michael Hammer sees process as “the Clark Kent of business Ideas”—a concept that has the power to change a company's organizational design.

In her recent discussion of women's incorporation into their husbands' employment Janet Finch produces a useful maxim for prospective wives:

The purpose of this paper is to examine two aspects of the self‐employment adjustment of immigrant groups in the UK. First, how the probability of self‐employment for males changes with time since migration relative to the native population and second, how the probability of self‐employment for males differs between immigrants and the UK‐born within ethnic groups.

Limited dependent variable regression models are estimated using data from the UK Labour Force Survey collected between 2001 and 2005. The results are presented graphically to make clear the differences between ethnic groups.

The predicted self‐employment probability of “Asian” immigrants increases faster than that of natives over the lifecycle while that of “Black” groups declines. Furthermore, the observed lower propensity of UK‐born members of certain ethnic groups to be in self‐employment is largely explained by differences in human capital.

High rates of self‐employment amongst some ethnic groups in the UK are unlikely to be a transitory phenomenon.

While previous work on the UK has examined patterns of self‐employment between groups and over time, the paper looks for the first time at how adjustment within groups takes place over the life cycle and across nativity status.

Although culture appears to be an important element in consumer behaviour, few have researched its direct impact on the adoption of innovation. In an exploratory study, research was conducted with migrants from Vietnam and Poland to examine the impact of culture on the adoption of high technology products. Specifically, data were examined for differences in adoption of these products between Vietnamese and Polish migrants to Australia; and the effect of cultural factors of “traditions,” “religion” and “fatality” (beliefs about man's inability to control nature), on adoption. This research was a preliminary study, but the results indicate that culture has an important role in the adoption process of high technology products.

A collective bargaining agreement is not legally binding — or is it? Barrister Robert Gaitskell examines this contentious issue against the background of a recent High Court judgement. The implications affect industry's negotiators at both national and plant level.

Based on a postal survey in 1995 of all front‐line staff in Wales with an assessment and/or care management role, findings are reported about how tasks and roles were operationalised following the full introduction of the new community care in April 1993. Further information was obtained by interviews with managers in health and social services. Only a fifth of social services posts were designated or titled as care management posts. The majority of these workers were located in services for elderly and physically disabled people. Although few had a specific budget, the majority considered that they had greater control over financial resources than before April 1993. The analysis of tasks undertaken by front‐line staff shows that there remains a broad overlap between the roles of care managers and social workers. The results highlight the nature of increasing demands on staff and raise issues about the impact of increased workloads and administration on service quality. They also highlight tensions between care management and traditional professional roles. Some pointers for continuing debate are provided.

This article describes the way people unconsciously perceive their life and work experiences in metaphorical terms. Calling these Operating Metaphors (a trademark of Charles Faulkner), it gives examples of how these metaphors act like programmed instructions to control and limit our behaviour and our capacity to perform well. It mentions research being done to develop a psychometric instrument, designed to reveal metaphors affecting performance limitations, feelings of stress and loss of energy, and explores the hypothesis that modifying these Operating Metaphors can release people from their limitations, and unleash high levels of energy and performance improvement.

WHEN A biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti was returned to Kendal library by post from Oxford University with a stamp on the date label of 5 Feb 1916 no one considered this to be very startling news. There was a compliment slip inside apologising for the delay (‘It was lurking in one of our darker corners’). I sent them a brief note thanking them, and that I thought was that.