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1 – 10 of 714Functional competences and effective working styles aredistinguished as aspects of occupational competence. Two types of reviewand guidance meeting are described: progress review…
Abstract
Functional competences and effective working styles are distinguished as aspects of occupational competence. Two types of review and guidance meeting are described: progress review meetings and transitional review meetings. Possible procedures for assessing functional competences and effective working styles in each type of review are outlined, including a simple practical questionnaire for recording views of the trainer and trainee about current progress towards effective working styles. Those views are summarised on an easy‐to‐use working styles index. By comparing the versions of the index completed by a trainee and by his or her trainer, progress and plans can be discussed, and agreement reached about areas deserving special attention in future.
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Argues that the determinants of food choice are many and varied butall mediated by the individual′s thought processes: perceptual affectiveand behaviour‐deciding. Models of these…
Abstract
Argues that the determinants of food choice are many and varied but all mediated by the individual′s thought processes: perceptual affective and behaviour‐deciding. Models of these attitudinal variables such as the theory of planned behaviour have been increasingly successful in predicting food choices from people′s answers to questions about their reasons for choosing. However, not all food choices can be given an exhaustive rationale and so models which recognize this, such as the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion and causal analysis of individual choice, are likely to carry forward our understanding of the thought processes underlying food choices.
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Cath Jackson, Kiara Lewis, Mark Conner, Rebecca Lawton and Rosemary R.C. McEachan
The workplace offers an ideal setting for facilitating physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviours. Understanding employees’ current health behaviours is required to…
Abstract
Purpose
The workplace offers an ideal setting for facilitating physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviours. Understanding employees’ current health behaviours is required to inform appropriate, tailored, health promotion interventions. The purpose of this paper is to compare the physical activity and sedentary behaviours over 12 months of employees within and across five UK organisations. The paper also explores the association of these health behaviours with objective and self-reported health outcomes; and investigates the association between physical activity and sedentary behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
Self-reported physical activity and sedentary behaviours were recorded at four time points (baseline, three, six, 12 months). BMI, per cent body fat, waist circumference, blood pressure and resting heart rate were collected in health checks (baseline, 12 months). Well-being and health were collected via questionnaire.
Findings
Low physical activity and high sedentariness were evident. Sitting levels varied by occupational role and organisation. More activity was associated with improved health outcomes; no association was evident for sedentary behaviour. No direct effects of occupational role or organisation on health outcomes emerged after accounting for physical activity/sedentary behaviours. Physical activity and sedentary levels were weakly associated.
Practical implications
The low activity levels are of particular concern as linked to health outcomes for this sample. The weak association between behaviours suggests worksite interventions should target both behaviours.
Originality/value
This study provides insight into both the physical activity and sedentary behaviours of employees of large UK employers across different occupational sectors over 12 months; importantly it is informed by the most recent guidance for these health behaviours.
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In the mature stage of product and technology life cycles, major breakthroughs in performance are difficult to achieve. However, a series of small incremental improvements may…
Abstract
In the mature stage of product and technology life cycles, major breakthroughs in performance are difficult to achieve. However, a series of small incremental improvements may cumulatively make a significant difference. At this stage, execution of the best organizational practices becomes even more important. Uses team New Zealand’s extremely successful 1995 America’s Cup program to illustrate how these practices and success factors can be brought together in an effective high technology product design process. Identifies these factors and practices as high quality human assets, participatory leadership, sufficient resources, a climate of innovation, external scanning, interactive involvement with sophisticated users, and technology strategy and competitive strategy match.
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The history of the memory and commemoration of the First World War in British culture has long been the subject of academic debate. In particular, numerous studies have explored…
Abstract
The history of the memory and commemoration of the First World War in British culture has long been the subject of academic debate. In particular, numerous studies have explored the significance of place, both local and national, to the creation and continuity of commemorative practices across the past 100 years. The current years of the centenary provide a particularly useful point of reference for exploring the development of cultural memory of the First World War in Britain, while the village of Ambridge forms a unique case study of local and national commemorative practices.
This chapter examines two forms of commemoration represented in The Archers, the episodic marking of Remembrance Sunday across a 30-year period from 1996 to the present, and the community’s engagement with national commemorative events in the centenary year 2014. It locates both these forms of commemoration in Nora’s (1996) concept of lieux de memoire, the key symbolic elements of community memorial heritage, and Hobsbawm’s (1983) definitions of invented traditions as those which are imposed upon communities rather than emerging organically from them. In doing so it argues that place functions as the key element of Ambridge’s role as a lieu de memoire of the war, in contrast to people whose stories appear as invented traditions, particularly in 2014. It concludes that the programme ultimately maintains its ability to function as a lieu de memoire across the period, not only for the community of Ambridge, but also for the wider national community of Archers listeners.
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Alexander B. Horniman and Drew Freides
This case describes the creation and performance of the America's Cup team and the leadership of Dennis Conner.
Abstract
This case describes the creation and performance of the America's Cup team and the leadership of Dennis Conner.
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Increases in stockholder wealth around leveraged recapitalization (recap) announcements are related more to reductions in the firm's financial slack than improvements in operating…
Abstract
Increases in stockholder wealth around leveraged recapitalization (recap) announcements are related more to reductions in the firm's financial slack than improvements in operating efficiency. Moreover, while recaps significantly reduce the firm's workforce and asset base, they do not improve operating profitability. These results support the argument (often espoused by non‐finance writers) that the market for corporate control is inefficient and, in many cases, outright destructive. Alternative systems of corporate governance should be explored.
David A. Booth and Richard P.J. Freeman
This research study aims to illustrate the mapping of each consumer’s mental processes in a market-relevant context. This paper shows how such maps deliver operational insights…
Abstract
Purpose
This research study aims to illustrate the mapping of each consumer’s mental processes in a market-relevant context. This paper shows how such maps deliver operational insights that cannot be gained by physical methods such as brain imaging.
Design/methodology/approach
A marketed conceptual attribute and a sensed material characteristic of a popular product were varied across presentations in a common use. The relative acceptability of each proposition was rated together with analytical descriptors. The mental interaction that determined each consumer’s preferences was calculated from the individual’s performance at discriminating each viewed sample from a personal norm. These personal cognitive characteristics were aggregated into maps of demand in the market for subpanels who bought these for the senses or for the attribute.
Findings
Each of 18 hypothesized mental processes dominated acceptance in at least a few individuals among both sensory and conceptual purchasers. Consumers using their own descriptive vocabulary processed the factors in appeal of the product more centrally. The sensory and conceptual factors tested were most often processed separately, but a minority of consumers treated them as identical. The personal ideal points used in the integration of information showed that consumers wished for extremes of the marketed concept that are technologically challenging or even impossible. None of this evidence could be obtained from brain imaging, casting in question its usefulness in marketing.
Research limitations/implications
Panel mapping of multiple discriminations from a personal norm fills three major gaps in consumer marketing research. First, preference scores are related to major influences on choices and their cognitive interactions in the mind. Second, the calculations are completed on the individual’s data and the cognitive parameters of each consumer’s behavior are aggregated – never the raw scores. Third, discrimination scaling puts marketed symbolic attributes and sensed material characteristics on the same footing, hence measuring their causal interactions for the first time.
Practical implications
Neuromarketing is an unworkable proposition because brain imaging does not distinguish qualitative differences in behavior. Preference tests are operationally effective when designed and analyzed to relate behavioral scores to major influences from market concepts and sensory qualities in interaction. The particular interactions measured in the reported study relate to the major market for healthy eating.
Originality/value
This is the first study to measure mental interactions among determinants of preference, as well as including both a marketed concept and a sensed characteristic. Such an approach could be of great value to consumer marketing, both defensively and creatively.
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Plus Factors have long played an important role in inferring a price agreement from the totality of the evidence. In response to changes in the case law, economists have proposed…
Abstract
Purpose
Plus Factors have long played an important role in inferring a price agreement from the totality of the evidence. In response to changes in the case law, economists have proposed two alternative paths for the future of price fixing analysis. This paper evaluates the suggested approaches and recommends retaining the enhanced Plus Factor methodology.
Methodology/approach
By carefully defining the Plus Factor concept, three key components of the analysis emerge: (1) information on communications associated with the alleged agreement, (2) economic considerations affecting market competition, and (3) characteristics that serve to differentiate explicit from tacit collusion.
Findings
Developments rationalizing the Plus Factor concept show promise, as the methodology is not more closely related to economic theory. On the other hand, replacement of the Plus Factor methodology with one focused on market performance seems problematic. By abandoning the Plus Factor concept, the economist loses a key institutional constraint on over-aggressive enforcement.
Practical implications
Until advocates can address the difficulties associated with using performance evidence to identify price fixing, the standard Plus Factor concept appears more appropriate. Thus, antitrust analysts should continue to use the Plus Factor methodology to infer agreements in price fixing investigations, as long as the economic rationalization of the specific Plus Factor is clearly presented.
Originality/value
The paper synthesizes a number of recent contributions to the price fixing literature and addresses key issues of interest to the enforcement community. By providing a critique of the proposed policy shift to use performance evidence to infer price fixing liability, the study serves to justify continued application of the Plus Factor methodology.
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