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The purpose of this paper is to show how the new arrangements for commissioning services in the English NHS can facilitate innovations in service delivery leading to improvements in outcomes and cost effectiveness.

The study uses cost modelling based upon the Hospital Episodes Statistics compiled by the NHS Information Centre to calculate recent expenditure upon treatment of routine childhood illnesses managed as short stay hospital admissions, and then uses a case study of a children's walk‐in centre to show how an alternative service can be provided, and a new service embedded in general practice to show a further alternative type of provision.

The study finds that large sums are currently being spent on inappropriate treatment of routine childhood conditions, especially in large urban conurbations. It demonstrates that in the case studies, the alternative provision can provide a viable and effective alternative.

The research is based upon historical data by necessity. The new commissioning groups are not co‐located with the historical PCTs on which this study is based. The data are collected by providers and co‐ordinated by the NHS Information Centre. Therefore the investigators do not have control over the data quality. The second case study is a new service and therefore is used as an illustration of other service types.

This study suggests that paediatric ambulatory services can be provided at lower cost with better outcomes.

This study provides the basis for a pilot study in Salford, where additional social benefits are targeted including better school attendance and increased self‐awareness over child health amongst local families.

The study provides quantitative evidence for commissioning alternative paediatric ambulatory services.

To increase the global competitiveness of their service business, servitized manufacturers transition towards global services. Yet, the literature has not addressed this development. This study is one of the first to investigate how servitized manufacturers can manage the globalisation of their service business.

The study explores two cases of servitized manufacturers that transitioned from a local organisation of multi-domestic international services to a global-service organisation. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews, observations, and secondary sources.

The authors identify four elements of global service provision: operating model, global performance management, relationship governance, and staffing and employee development. The authors discuss each element and the connections between them, which the authors summarise in a proposed framework for global service provision.

The contributions of this research relate to the proposed framework of global service provision, which extends current conceptualisation of globalisation of routine services. The authors show the unique elements of global service provision of servitized manufacturers and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the work.

The purpose of this study was to identify to identify reasons for the lack of protest against dragnet surveillance in the UK. As part of this investigation, a study was carried out to gauge the understanding of “privacy” and “confidentiality” by the well-informed.

To perform a best-case study, the authors identified a group of well-informed participants in terms of security. To gain insights into their privacy-related mental models, they were asked first to define the three core terms and then to identify the scenarios. Then, the participants were provided with privacy-related scenarios and were asked to demonstrate their understanding by classifying the scenarios and identifying violations.

Although the participants were mostly able to identify privacy and confidentiality scenarios, they experienced difficulties in articulating the actual meaning of the terms privacy, confidentiality and security.

There were a limited number of participants, yet the findings are interesting and justify further investigation. The implications, even of this initial study, are significant in that if citizens’ privacy rights are being violated and they did not seem to know how to protest this and if indeed they had the desire to do so.

Had the citizens understood the meaning of privacy, and their ancient right thereto, which is enshrined in law, their response to the Snowden revelations about ongoing wide-scale surveillance might well have been more strident and insistent.

People in the UK, where this study was carried out, do not seem to protest the privacy invasion effected by dragnet surveillance with any verve. The authors identify a number of possible reasons for this from the literature. One possible explanation is that people do not understand privacy. Thus, this study posits that privacy is unusual in that understanding does not seem to align with the ability to articulate the rights to privacy and their disapproval of such widespread surveillance. This seems to make protests unlikely.

This study explores the sources and triggers of positivity during a major organizational change. The qualitative research methodology is developed around discovering and interpreting employees’ perceptions in a mergers & acquisitions (M&A) process. The results lead us to suggest that change may be perceived in at least three positive ways to constitute positive identity construction. Implications for work-related identity and identification research are discussed.

Despite the breadth of knowledge on self and identity formation across the study of organizations, the field of organizational development and change has limited research on the construction of professional identity. Much has been written to describe the “self-concepts” of those practicing and researching in the field, but there have been no investigations that have explored how these “self-concepts” form. In addition, although women have contributed to defining the “self” in the field, men have held the dominant perspective on the subject. Thus, in this chapter, we address a disparity in the research by exploring the construction of professional identity in the field of organizational development and change, and we give voice to the renowned women who helped to build the field. Using the profiles of 17 American women included in The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers, we perform a narrative analysis based upon the concepts and models prevalent in the literature on identity formation. By disentangling professional identity formation of the notable women in the field, we can begin to see the nuance and particularities involved in its construction and gain deeper understandings about effective ways to prepare individuals to work in and advance the field.

Presents 35 abstracts from the 2001 Employment Research Unit Annual conference held at Cardiff Business School in September 2001. Attempts to explore the theme of changing politics of employment relations beyond and within the nation state, against a background of concern in the developed economies at the erosion of relatively advanced conditions of work and social welfare through increasing competition and international agitation for more effective global labour standards. Divides this concept into two areas, addressing the erosion of employment standards through processes of restructuring and examining attempts by governments, trade unions and agencies to re‐create effective systems of regulation. Gives case examples from areas such as India, Wales, London, Ireland, South Africa, Europe and Japan. Covers subjects such as the Disability Discrimination Act, minimum wage, training, contract workers and managing change.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the disproportionate impact of the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic on women, presenting an assessment of how this impact in particular is linked with violence against women and women’s right to health, and a critique of improvements that could avoid discrimination against women in healthcare crises.

This paper covers conceptual understandings of, and utilises a human rights law and public health lens to analyse how the EVD epidemic in West Africa both directly and indirectly caused greater harm to women and girls. All these factors which represent intersectional violations of the human rights of women are examined with a focus on violence against women and the right to health.

There are multiple reasons why the EVD outbreak harmed women disproportionately, and this intersectionality of discrimination must be considered in any response to a public health crisis. Addressing the vulnerability of women and girls to all forms of violence involves the coordinated efforts of public health, legal and political actors to empower women.

Specific issues of the 2014 West Africa EVD outbreak have been examined in medical journals, but there have been no academic studies that present a cross-disciplinary analysis of the gender concerns. This paper combines a public health perspective with a human rights law viewpoint in order to consider the impact of the EVD outbreak on women and provide suggestions as to how discrimination and disadvantage of women in such health crises can be avoided.

This study aims to evaluate a training in mental health crisis support for non-mental health professionals who work in urgent care settings. The training consists of an e-learning module, a one-day face-to-face (F2F) interactive study day and simulation training.

This multi-methods study collected data pre and post training and at three to six months post training. Validated questionnaires, rating scales and open-ended questions were used to measure self-efficacy in health-care skills, attitudes towards mental illness and knowledge and confidence in working in mental health. A subsample of participants was interviewed post training about how they had used the knowledge and skills learned.

A total of 706 staff completed the e-learning, 88 attended the F2F training and 203 attended simulation training. Overall satisfaction with the training was high, with F2F and simulation training preferred. Statistically significant improvements in self-efficacy for health-care skills, positive attitudes towards mental illness, and mental health-related knowledge and confidence were found post training. Qualitative analyses of interview and survey data indicated that participants had translated learning to practice through improved attitudes and behavioural changes when working with patients experiencing a mental health crisis.

This training improved mental health-related knowledge, confidence and self-efficacy and reduced mental health-related stigma in professionals who provide urgent care to people in mental health crisis. Participants reported changes to their practice following training; this is important as care has been inadequate for this group. Workforce planners and leaders should consider implementing this or similar training widely.

The purpose of this paper is to look back on 150 years of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and reflect on the recent challenges to organised labour.

Places unions in their current context and discusses how they have responded to the challenge of declining membership.

With declining membership levels and the lack of a “silver bullet” solution, unions continue to face many challenges, although there is some light at the end of the organising tunnel.

This paper introduces the special issue which reflects on 150 years of the TUC.