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The health care industry involves the continual introduction of new clinical interventions and technologies designed to improve patient and business outcomes. This article argues for the integration of two possible improvement strategies, namely the use of work groups to generate and implement new ideas and the development of leadership capacity to promote innovativeness in others. A longitudinal study of 45 groups of employees at a specialist metropolitan teaching hospital revealed that the adoption of transformational styles of leadership in the workplace influences innovation by producing high levels of group morale that, in turn, results in work group interventions having measurable benefit to patients.

This paper examines different perspectives on the broad umbrella term of organisational silence. It identifies ten perspectives on organisational silence from the previous literature on inquiries into failings of British National Health Service providers. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

Using content analysis, it applies ten perspectives on organisational silence to the report of the inquiry into the Gosport Hospital.

There is some overlap between the perspectives in that they draw on the same authors, and stress similar issues. There is some evidence for most of the perspectives in the report, but some perspectives appear stronger than others. However, none of the perspectives seem to cover the full spectrum of behaviour and place differential emphasis on different processes. It is not clear whether all ten perspectives add independent analytical value. This suggests that some might be extended or combined with the umbrella term of organisational silence more fully opened.

This is the first study in healthcare to review perspectives on organisational silence and apply them to a case study.

The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal took great pains to interpret the intention of the parties to the different site agreements, and it came to the conclusion that the agreed procedure was not followed. One other matter, which must be particularly noted by employers, is that where a final warning is required, this final warning must be “a warning”, and not the actual dismissal. So that where, for example, three warnings are to be given, the third must be a “warning”. It is after the employee has misconducted himself thereafter that the employer may dismiss.

The purpose of this study is to highlight special characteristics of building services systems and investigate how practitioners view reliability and maintenance. These characteristics include energy‐hungry services systems, operating modes, maintenance types, the relationship between procurement costs and maintenance costs.

The practitioners' viewpoints on reliability and maintenance are explored through a workshop. The authors wish to draw the attention of researchers in the reliability and maintenance community and furthermore emphasise the difference between building services systems and systems in industries other than construction.

It is shown that a lack of failure data and maintenance data is the main problem from both academic researchers' and industrial practitioner's points of view. The paper suggests that there exists no fixed cost ratio available to apply to building services systems; the analysis of RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) should include duty cycles and the environment; and clients of the construction industry would benefit from mandating a LCC to be applied to the build.

The gap between academia and practitioners should be bridged through better understanding each other's needs. Accurately estimating the ratio between procurement and maintenance costs is needed from a whole life costing perspective.

This paper is a good reference for building designers, facility managers and maintenance staff of building services systems. It also offers reliability researchers references on special characteristics of building services systems.

This paper explores service provision for young fathers through analysis of data from the three-year ESRC funded project Following Young Fathers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea that young fathers are a “hard to reach” group. It begins with a discussion of literature and research evidence on this theme. The empirical discussion draws on data collected in interviews and focus groups with practitioners, service managers and those working to develop and deliver family support services.

The ESRC Following Young Fathers study used qualitative longitudinal methods to research the perspectives of fathers under the age of 25, mapping the availability of services to support them and investigating professional and policy responses to their needs. The strand reported on here focussed on the perspectives of a range of practitioners, service managers and those involved in developing and commissioning services.

The research findings, and those of other projects discussed in the paper, challenge the idea that young fathers are “hard to reach”, suggesting that we should, conversely, consider that many services are actually hard to access. Thus, increasing young fathers’ engagement requires better understanding of their often complex needs and a reshaping of service design and delivery to account for them. The paper highlights how the configuration, funding and delivery of services can inhibit young fathers’ use of them, and identifies ways in which they could be made more accessible.

The ESRC Following Young Fathers Study filled an important gap in knowledge about the lives of young fathers, developing understandings of their experiences and support needs. The strand reported on here draws on research with practitioners to provide an in-depth discussion of how services currently support young fathers, and how they could be better configured to address their often complex and diverse needs.