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Enhancing the initiative and enthusiasm of emergency preparedness behaviors among Medical and Health Organization (MHO) staff is an effective measure to prevent and reduce losses from emergencies. In this study, emergency preparedness behavioral intentions were divided into noncooperative behavioral intentions (EPNCBI) and cooperative behavioral intentions (EPCBI) to discuss the impact brought by quality of life (QoL). The mediating effects of psychological capital (PsyCap) and perceived organizational support (POS) were also considered.

A web-based questionnaire was used for MHO staff in China, and a structural equation analysis of the data collected from 243 participants was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The empirical results reveal that: (1) QoL had a positive effect on EPNCBI, PsyCap and POS; (2) PsyCap had a positive effect on EPNCBI and EPCBI; (3) POS had a positive effect on PsyCap and EPCBI; (4) PsyCap mediated the relationship between QoL and EPNCBI, and the relationship between POS and EPNCBI; (5) PsyCap and POS mediated the relationship between QoL and EPCBI.

Improving MHO staff’s QoL is an effective way to enhance positive behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, these findings could provide managers with valuable insight focusing their limited resources on enhancing the emergency preparedness of MHO staff by reinforcing the level of PsyCap and POS.

This study provides important updated considerations for the application of positive psychology in the field of emergency preparedness.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore leadership capability for driving value co-creation in health-care service innovation. The leadership theories developed for leading within organization boundaries can no longer apply when customers and multiple participants are collaborating for innovative services. This study uses the dynamic capability theory to identify leadership capability that supports value co-creation in health-care service innovation.

Two case studies of Australian mental health organizations are used to identify co-creational leadership capability. These organizations have successfully embedded co-creational leadership capability in organizational systems and structure as the dynamic capability.

The study is among the first one to identify the leadership capability from a service-dominant logic perspective. Drawing from dynamic capability theory, six characteristics of co-creational leadership capability are identified, namely, creating a combined world view, creating a shared vision, facilitating an environment of trust, facilitating knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, empowering choice and facilitating collaboration.

This research has extended the leadership and the value co-creation literature by identifying co-creational leadership capability to drive value co-creation agenda for improving organizational results and performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore challenges to the performance and sustainability of mutual health organisations (MHOs) and health institutions towards enhancing access to quality health care (HC) in Ghana.

Data were gathered through interviews and documentary review.

Problems with late release of reimbursement funds for discharging with claims by the central government has impacted heavily on the financial and strategic management and decision-making processes of the MHOs and health institutions.

The lack of in-depth analysis of the financial viability of the MHOs; and the limited number of schemes selected.

Recommends the need to ensure prompt release of reimbursement funds by government to enable the MHOs to reimburse claims to health institutions.

There is a perceived tension between the MHOs and HC institutions due to late release of reimbursement funds by the government.

Contributes to understanding of how the NHI Act influences the operations of MHOs and health institutions towards increasing access to quality HC and financing.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of user and carer involvement in a new one‐year postgraduate certificate course for Mental Health Officers (MHOs) in Scotland, covering the first year of its delivery (2009‐2010).

This was explored in two ways: first, by assessing the level of user and carer involvement against a modified framework; and second, by measuring students' confidence in working with people with mental health issues over the duration of the course, and through interviews with students and service users and documentary analysis.

The findings indicate user and carer “influence” and “partnership” over the design and delivery of the learning, teaching and assessment strategy, but no degree of “control” over any aspect of the course. Teaching provided by users and carers was associated with marked improvement in students' confidence in engaging with and upholding the rights of users and carers in the context of the MHO role. Students reported increased awareness of the lived reality of compulsory treatment. Users reported benefits from feeling they had helped facilitate future good practice.

The research design does not allow for causal links to be made between increases in student confidence and user and carer involvement.

The study identified substantial barriers to effective user and carer involvement but confirmed its potential as a positive change agent for post‐qualifying social work education.

This study contributes to the evidence base by demonstrating the value of service user and carer involvement in post qualifying social work education.

Presents the findings of a study which examined the impact of automation on the job satisfaction among library staff of the Margaret Thatcher Library (MTL), Moi University, Kenya. With the exception of the university librarian, his deputy and the systems librarian who were interviewed face to face, questionnaires were distributed to all other library staff. An 80 percent response rate resulted and data were coded and analysed. It was established that there were myriad problems within the library regarding training and access to automated systems of interest. However, MTL staff members viewed automation as enrichment and a source of satisfaction to their jobs. For automation to boost the staff members’ job satisfaction, concrete plans for consistent structured in‐house training, free access to the available software, additional systems staff, and centralised databases, among others, must be implemented.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors for the implementation of the efficient food quality and safety management system in the food industry and the food retail sector in Bulgaria.

Through the standardised questionnaire 422 companies have been studied: 326 from four food sub sectors (meat, diary, fruit and vegetable cans, and bread products), and 96 food retailers. The fieldwork was accomplished in the period June‐October 2007, the first year of the Bulgarian membership in the EU.

The findings revealed that the main factors for the adoption of the efficient food safety and quality management system were related to the company's information capacity and the information environment; firm's belonging to food producers or retailers; overall company development; place of residence; expected benefits; improvement of the working conditions; customers satisfaction; capacity of consultants; frequency of inspections; size; and environment protection. This implementation is hindered by some infrastructural difficulties and perceived negative effects of the official control.

The research is limited only to four food sub sectors, and to a small sample of food retailers.

Some recommendations were drawn, mainly concerning the improvement of the information environment and the creation of special politics on quality issues for small firms.

This was a first attempt to investigate the food safety and quality problems in the food industry and food retail sectors in Bulgaria after the country membership in the EU.

The current role of the approved social worker (ASW) will be changed to that of the approved mental health practitioner, who may be a nurse or other mental health professional, if proposed legislation comes into force in England and Wales. This has implications for service users, carers and the mental health workforce. This article draws on literature and a conference discussing this change attended by practitioners and policy‐makers. It considers the complexity of the ASW role and the implications for the AMHP, and sets the related issues in the context of integrated working.

Examines the major problems associated with managing a library automation project in a developing country. The Moi University experience is representative of the type of problems that a library project manager in a developing country is likely to face. Poor infrastructure, a shortage of local technical expertise, lack of information technology and a shortage of qualified managers are some of the managerial hurdles that they should be able to cope with. Training local personnel and equipping the training institutions may partly solve some of the problems. Management and information technology skills should be emphasised in whatever training programmes may be initiated in a bid to overcome the shortages.

This paper aims to explore the possible connections between self‐directed support and adult support and protection, both of which are important policy developments in Scotland.

The authors draw on findings from the national evaluation of the test sites or pilots of self‐directed support in Scotland and interviews at two time points with adult protection leads in the test sites. These interview data are set in the context of Scottish developments in adult support and protection.

Self‐directed support and adult protection had not been joined up initially. In the three Scottish test sites those responsible for adult safeguarding had not been engaged with the changes. They were unclear about the new systems and were concerned about the implications of reduced monitoring of risks. Shared training between those implementing self‐directed support and those carrying out adult protection work was viewed as a way of bridging these different areas of practice through enhancing mutual understanding and communication.

Policy and legislation have used the word support to provide reassurance of social protection for adults in need of care services. This paper provides new opportunities to consider the ways in which early enthusiasm for self‐directed support in Scotland may have neglected the support inherent to support and protection and the ways in which some adult support and protection stakeholders seemed to be acting as “bystanders” rather than influencing new systems of self‐directed support.

The central research laboratory of Philips Electrical Industries Pty. Ltd., a large Australian manufacturing organisation, is frequently required to act in a consultative capacity to solve problems directly related to production. In this case history, corrosion within the water‐jacketing of water‐cooled mercury diffusion pumps used in the final stages of valve production by an electronics concern was arrested after a systematic investigation of the contributory reactions.