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Integrated care presents health workforce planners with significant uncertainty. This results from: (1) these workforces are likely in the future to be different from the present, (2) integrated care's variable definitions and (3) workforce policy and planning is not familiar with addressing such challenges. One means to deal with uncertainty is scenario analysis. In this study we reveal some integration-supportive workforce governance and planning policies that were derived from the application of scenario analysis.

Through a mixed methods design that applies content analysis, scenario construction and the policy Delphi method, we analysed a set of New Zealand's older persons health sector workforce scenarios. Developed from data gathered from workforce documents and studies, the scenarios were evaluated by a suitably qualified panel, and derived policy statements were assessed for desirability and feasibility.

One scenario was found to be most favourable, based on its broad focus, inclusion of prevention and references to patient dignity, although funding changes were indicated as necessary for its realisation. The integration-supportive policies are based on promoting network-based care models, patient-centric funding that promotes collaboration and the enhancement of interprofessional education and educator involvement.

Scenario analysis for policy production is rare in health workforce planning. We show how it is possible to identify policies to address an integrated care workforce's development using this method. The article provides value for planners and decision-makers by identifying the pros and cons of future situations and offers guidance on how to reduce uncertainty through policy rehearsal and reflection.

BRIEF news of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Tribology Group visit to China as guests of the Chinese Mechanical Engineers Society (CMES), appeared on the “Comment and opinion” page of our September/October issue last year. It was the first since the initial trip in 1979. We asked for a more detailed account and a report of the 3,500 mile journey through the country of a thousand million people, many anxious to know more about the new industrial technologies, now comes from S.J. Crampton, BSc (Eng), FIMechE, FInst Pet, manager, Projects and Research, IMechE, who was a member of the eight‐man party.

To examine the weblogs written by members of UK legislatures and to determine whether such weblogs address commonly cited criticisms of MPs' web sites and serve to bridge the gap between representative and constituent.

Examination of the literature on MPs' web sites to draw up a list of common criticisms. Construction of evaluation criteria to analyse the blogs in terms of content, currency, design, interactivity and evidence of personality both as a snapshot and over a longer period.

That weblogs are, on the whole, kept up to date and show promising levels of activity. Blogs enable constituents to see with what their MPs have been involved (on both the local and the Parliamentary stages) and to see what areas of policy particularly interest their MP. Personality of the MPs is apparent on most of the blogs, which are less party‐oriented than many MPs' web sites. Although the gap between representatives and constituents may have been bridged to an extent, blogging is still largely a top‐down form of communication – even though people do submit relevant and pertinent comments to the blogs, proper two‐way debate is rarely seen and comments are not always acknowledged or answered.

Based on a small number of blogs covering the UK only.

Provides simple evaluation criteria that could be applied to blogs in other areas.

Provides a useful first structured analysis of weblogs written by elected representatives, on which further work can be undertaken once the sample size has increased and existing blogs are more established.

Companies frequently use Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) to distribute financial and nonfinancial information to stakeholders. Research suggests that companies often distribute information via the web for impression management purposes in order to diffuse potential negative reactions and/or to promote positive reactions to corporate policies and actions. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether web disclosure of environmental information and the presentation format influences the outcomes of litigation awards. Results indicate that even a partial web disclosure of pending environmental sanctions on a company’s financial statement reduces the compensatory and punitive damages that jurors award when shareholders suffer losses as a result of environmental sanctions. The results also indicate that firms using enhanced presentation formats when disclosing environmental information further reduce the amount of damages awarded against them. These results have implications for users and preparers of IFR, and for policy makers weighing mandates for disclosure of nonfinancial information in annual reports.

Present research seeks to examine the reality of the glass‐ceiling phenomenon in South Africa's four major retail banks.

Investigates women's low numbers in their top management jobs. A total of 40 women managers were interviewed for their in‐depth responses, which were content analyzed.

Results indicate that the glass ceiling considered a myth by many, is real and is nurtured by the organizational culture, policies and strategies besides women's own inadequacies. Only the most decentralized organizations, characterized by a culture that supports women's top positions, will help in breaking down the glass ceiling, along with women's own efforts to grow, develop and empower themselves through academic and career development.

It is limited to South Africa's four largest retail banks only and provides limited awareness about certain work practices that are insufficient tools to break down the glass ceiling, hence, future research may construct such tools and examine the extent to which the glass ceiling exists in different countries and the influence of the local culture in it is formation.

The paper provides clarity for organizational leaders to identify growth barriers existing in their organizations, leading their women workforce towards a glass ceiling.

It distinguishes between a glass ceiling and a job barrier and recommends organizations to practise cultural change and decentralization to break it down. This is a research paper and clarifies the difference between common career barriers and the glass ceiling by attempting to elucidate the existence of the glass ceiling.

In recent years, electronic performance monitoring (EPM) has increased dramatically. The managerial decision to implement an EPM system is important for it has significant implications for an organization. Even so, little attention has been paid by researchers to this decision. The present paper reviews the published research on EPM and identifies factors that probably impact this decision. A model is offered to help researchers identify relevant psychological and organizational variables that may impact the decision to implement an EPM system. Psychologically, issues of trust, privacy, social facilitation, justice beliefs and stress reactions must be considered. Organizationally, a firm's Human Resource strategy, organizational culture, and anticipated consequences of EPM (i.e., increasing performance, reducing theft) are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to produce a decision support aid for machine tool owners to utilise while deciding upon a maintenance strategy. Furthermore, the decision support tool is adaptive and capable of suggesting different strategies by monitoring for any change in machine tool manufacturing accuracy.

A maintenance cost estimation model is utilised within the research and development of this decision support system (DSS). An empirical-based methodology is pursued and validated through case study analysis.

A case study is provided where a schedule of preventative maintenance actions is produced to reduce the need for the future occurrences of reactive maintenance actions based on historical machine tool accuracy information. In the case study, a 28 per cent reduction in predicted accuracy-related expenditure is presented, equating to a saving of £14k per machine over a five year period.

The emphasis on improving machine tool accuracy and reducing production costs is increasing. The presented research is pioneering in the development of a software-based tool to help reduce the requirement on domain-specific expert knowledge.

The paper presents an adaptive DSS to assist with maintenance strategy selection. This is the first of its kind and is able to suggest a preventative strategy for those undertaking only reactive maintenance. This is of value for both manufacturers and researchers alike. Manufacturers will benefit from reducing maintenance costs, and researchers will benefit from the development and application of a novel decision support technique.

The authors explore the nature of commitment, job satisfaction and job characteristics, and the nature of the interrelationships among these variables concerning expatriate employees in Saudi Arabia. An examination of a sample of 504 expatriate employees reveals that these employees are, by and large, indifferent with respect to their perceptions of commitment, job satisfaction, and job characteristics. In addition, the results provide strong support for (1) the influence of job satisfaction on commitment, (2) the influence of job variety on commitment, and (3) the influence of job autonomy, identity, and feedback on job satisfaction.

Many office workers use computers and the Internet not only to get their daily jobs done but also to deal with their personal businesses. Therefore employers nowadays monitor their employees electronically to prevent the misuse of the company resources. The use of electronic monitoring in organizations causes issues of trust and privacy. This study is dedicated to developing a conceptual model on the two issues under electronic monitoring. Control, considered as the essence of the definition of privacy as well as the foundation of the control model in the theory of procedural justice, plays an important role to people’s privacy concerns and trust. People’s perceived‐self, as essential in the group‐value model in the theory of procedural justice and in the cultural studies, also plays an important role to people’s privacy concerns and trust. This study presents research hypotheses on trust and privacy under electronic surveillance based on the two models of the theory of procedural justice, social identity theory, and cultural studies.