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Supply chain management is examined and why supplier quality improvement is sometimes more apparent in speech than in action. The concern is that to obtain the required higher quality the suppliers are simply “running faster” on the traditional treadmill. A guide to managing the supply chain is provided and recommendations made for future “best practice” in the light of existing processes.

This paper seeks to utilize the concept of testicularity put forward by Flannigan‐Saint‐Aubin to explain a shift in the hegemonic masculinities in two organizations which were unusual in being successful in realizing their aims for improvement.

The methodological approach taken is broadly social constructionism. The two organizations featured in the paper are drawn from a more extensive study of 22 organizations studied in the UK and the Netherlands. The first phase of the research consisted of extended interview visits. The visits, lasting two or three days, consisted of a mix of formal interviews and observation of the sites and less formal discussion and observation, frequently during meal breaks.

The organizations instigated change processes, which created opportunities for women employees, sometimes at the expense of men. Previous work has discussed whether organization change can represent a feminizing of the workplace, but this did not fully encapsulate the present findings – the men remained in charge – and this led the authors to investigate further masculinities. Flannigan‐Saint‐Aubin's concept is rare in that it argues for positive aspects of masculinities in a growing literature which has a tendency to focus on the negative.

The paper argues that shifts in gender performance are a useful way of exploring organization change.

The object of this paper is to explore superficiality in implementing improvement programmes. The reported lack of success of some quality improvement programmes in realising stated objectives is recognised, but what constitutes the superficial attempts at implementation may well be highly complex symbolic forms of representation and reification which have a multiplicity of meanings for the individuals involved. The project managers try to implement and the tools and activities used to do so are superficial and trivial, and very difficult for observers to associate with improving operations. However, for the managers themselves the superficial has a high degree of significance for their own progression in the organisation and, curiously enough, the means of convincing some outsiders of the organisation's competence. The dominant community of practice was not that of performance improvement, but creating the impression of doing so.

In order to test effects of motives, communication style and licensing on the reputations of sponsors of public relations, a 4 × 2 × 2 factorial design experiment was conducted by the author with 585 non‐student adults and undergraduate university students in the USA. Perceived motives to impression manage had a strong effect on results, with prosocial or mixed and selfish motives seen as a ‘hustle’ on the part of corporate sponsors. Mixed support was found for licensing as a means of enhancing the reputation of public relations. Communication style — ‘symmetric’ versus ‘persuasive’ — had no effect on results. Impression management theory suggests that perceived motives and self‐interests may explain the poor reputation sometimes attributed to public relations and its clients or sponsors.

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to examine the evidence behind breast self examination recommendations. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper the recommendations of various professional and specialty organizations are reviewed along with an analysis of the randomized controlled trials that provided data for these recommendations. Methodological issues regarding these trials and the conclusions that can be drawn are evaluated and presented here. Findings – The paper finds that the current evidence is not sufficient to make recommendations to western women for or against breast self‐examination. Practical implications – The paper implies that breast cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in women in the USA. Originality/value – The paper shows that, while mammography and clinical breast examination remain the standard of care in screening for breast cancer, much controversy has surrounded recommendations for breast self‐examination in breast cancer screening.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a structured improvement process that is used in all programmes of work of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (NHS Institute).

This paper outlines the background to the development of the improvement process, specifically how learning from the domains of new product development, user centred design and innovation and creativity have been incorporated into the process.

There are key elements of evidence and experience that can be taken from other domains and incorporated into a structured approach to healthcare improvement.

An improvement process is outlined that could be used as a basis for any healthcare improvement effort, and will help to ensure the development of better solutions more quickly.

This paper introduces a process that will help anyone interested in improving healthcare create better solutions to the challenges they face in shorter timescales.

The big changes over recent years and their rapid development in Food Retailing have resulted in different shopping practices, for the institution, the hotel, restaurant and the home. Different cuisines have developed, foods purchased, both in cooking practices and eating habits, especially in the home. Gone are the old fashioned home economics, taking with them out of the diet much that was enjoyed and from which the families benefitted in health and stomach satisfaction. In very recent times, the changes have become bigger, developments more rapid, and the progress continues. Bigger and bigger stores, highly departmentalised, mechanical aids of every description, all under one roof, “complex” is an appropriate term for it; large open spaces for the housewife with a car. The development is in fact aimed at the bulk buyer — rapid turnover — the small household needs, not entirely neglected, but not specially catered for. Daily cash takings are collosal. This is what the small owner‐occupied general store, with its many domestic advantages, has come to fall in the late twentieth century.