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Quality measurements and techniques ‐ for example SPC ‐ can play an important role in achieving high levels of quality. However, in practice, the methods sometimes fail to deliver the expected benefits, for a variety of human and organizational reasons. Draws on three case studies to explore some of these practical problems. Concludes by making a number of suggestions for improving the effectiveness of quality measurements in organizations.

The oversight of clinical research in the UK is currently in a state of flux. Discusses the quality assurance problems that have arisen in the management of research and the protection of the rights of human participants. Contrasts clinical governance and regulatory approaches to research quality assurance and performs a critical analysis of the Department of Health (England) Research Governance Framework (RGF) to see where it falls within the continuum. Highlights the implications for UK hospitals engaged in clinical research through the presentation of a case study in implementing the RGF. Concludes by suggesting the priority areas that need to be addressed and invites further debate regarding the merits of a clinical governance or regulatory approach to research quality assurance.

Two recent empirical studies of new technology adoption, one focusing on employee resourcing aspects and the other on employee relations, have concluded as follows: in many instances, it may well be “that on balance it is employment policies that are more likely to determine the way in which technological change is implemented” (rather than the other way around); and “it is more sensible to talk of the impact of industrial relations on technological change than the reverse…”. These findings are supportive of the work of Buchanan and Boddy, who have argued that “the changes to structure that accompany technological change reflect strongly and directly the expectations and objectives of management, and weakly and indirectly the characteristics of the technology”. We broadly concur with these views, and, given that there is potentially a good deal of space within which managers and others can decide and act when new technology is adopted, we focus on the part that personnel specialists have played here, on the basis of case studies both authors have conducted of new technology adoption and implementation. But first, we need to review what the relevant social science literature can tell us about this matter.

Day surgery is now a major element of surgical practice. The paper aims to examine if those patients undergoing day surgery from in‐patient wards receive the same standard of care as those attending a formal day case surgical unit (DCSU), which is important.

Two cohorts of 50 consecutive patients undergoing day surgery either on an in‐patient ward or in the DCSU were asked about the pre‐operative checks that had been made in relation to their safe discharge.

Confirmation by in‐patient ward staff of safety issues outlined in guidelines published by the Royal College of Surgeons of England was variable. Of particular concern was that at least two of the recommendations relate to important safety issues such as driving a motor vehicle.

This paper is of use because ensuring that patients fulfil the Royal College's guidelines for day case surgery is important, no matter what surgery the patient undergoes. Patient safety may be compromised by failing to verify that patients are being discharged into a safe environment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges of pricing quantity surveying (QS) professional services to enhance the understanding of practitioners in developing strategies for the determination of fees for their services.

The paper adopts the quantitative approach by administering 150 survey questionnaires QS professionals out of which 79 questionnaires were retrieved for analysis using the mean, standard deviation, standard error and the Chi-Square test.

The study identified the challenges that continue to hamper the successful pricing of QS services as the inability to respond to changing contractual arrangements; lack of appropriate response to emerging services; slow response to changes in information and communication technology.

This paper focused on QS professionals. Hence, a future study to encompass other professionals in the built environment will be novel.

The findings of this paper have the potential to motivate QS firms to develop solutions that address the challenges identified to improve the efficiency of their service delivery to clients. The paper also has the practical importance of opening up new frontiers of research that focus on pricing of professional services in the built environment in general.

The paper contributes to the awareness and understanding of QS professionals about the challenges that continue to hamper effective pricing of their services.

This paper seeks to report on six Symposia offered at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held 17‐21 February 2011 in Washington, DC. This 177th Meeting's theme was “Science without Borders.”

The report for each symposium includes internet links and bibliographic citations leading to information that further supports and enriches the information provided in the speakers' presentations.

An enhanced report was presented for each presentation for each symposium.

Several symposia, relating to: global collaboration; the digitization of science; publications without borders; and, teaching, learning, and research in the digital age, are covered in this report. The paper provides a documented insight on the most recent advances in research described by each symposium's presenter.

This article looks at the role of leadership development in the ethical leadership of English local government. Since the development of the ethical framework with the Local Government Act 2000 leadership has been seen to be increasingly important, although comparatively little consideration has been given to what this actually means in practice. This article seeks to investigate the situation in a number of ways. It will discuss the distinction between ‘ethics leadership’ and ‘ethical leadership’ and argue that the two are connected: leadership is both an external role and an internalised process. We will then argue that the ethics framework has created a new community of practice in which leadership is exercised by a relatively large group of stakeholders. In so doing, we will identify both members of the broader ethical community and also members of the internal ethical community: ie. those stakeholders within any given local authority. Different aspects of leadership and leadership development (LD) will then be investigated in relation to ethics as a community of practice and a model is presented that illustrates the modes of ethical leadership development.

The techniques of statistical process control (SPC) are designed to monitor production processes in order to prevent the production of waste and improve the quality of future output. The emphasis is on the prevention of problems before they occur instead of simply revealing and correcting past mistakes. SPC is now increasingly used for service processes as well as the manufacturing processes for which it was originally developed. This raises the question of whether the same benefits can be achieved, and whether the techniques need to be refined in any way, if they are to be equally useful in the service arena. Looks at a number of examples of the application of SPC techniques to service processes. Argues that there are features of many service processes which have implications for the way SPC should be applied. Proposes a set of guidelines for systems for the statistical monitoring of service processes. Argues that standard SPC techniques can yield substantial benefits for service processes, provided that users remember these guidelines. In particular, argues that the use of the word “control”, and so the phrase “statistical process control”, is often inappropriate. Finally, suggests that some of the conclusions may be equally applicable to many production processes.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on value creation by examining value within the visual arts market and arguing for a broader, socio-culturally informed view of value creation.

The authors develop an original conceptual framework to model the value co-creation process through which art is legitimised. An illustrative case study of artist Damien Hirst demonstrates the application of this framework.

The findings illustrate how value is co-constructed in the visual arts market, demonstrating a need to understand social relationships as value is dispersed, situational and in-flux.

The authors problematise the view that value emerges as a result of operant resources “producing effects” through working on operand resources. Rather, adopting the socio-cultural approach, the authors demonstrate how value emerges and is co-constructed, negotiated and circulated. The authors establish the need to reconceptualise value as created collaboratively with other actors within industry sectors. The locus of control is, therefore, dispersed. Moreover, power dynamics at play mean that “consumers” are not homogenous; some are more important than others in the valuation process.

This more distributed notion of value blurs boundaries between product and service, producer and consumer, offering a more unified perspective on value co-creation, which can be used in strategic decision-making.

This paper illustrates that value co-creation must be understood in relation to understanding patterns of hierarchy that influence this process.