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The purpose of this study is to examine predicted business-to-business (B2B) marketing capabilities for the next three to five years by companies in advanced, emerging and developing economies.

The authors identify the prevalent marketing capabilities in industrial companies operating in an advanced economy (USA), two emerging economies (Chile and Peru) and one developing economy (Bolivia), consolidating the themes in firms’ orientations. The study offers a taxonomy of the marketing role in different stages as per country development.

Qualitative approach based on grounded theory.

This manuscript contributes to the understanding of B2B marketing across different levels of market development. The authors offer theoretical and practical implications regarding the paradigms reigning the role of marketing. The coding scheme emerging from the data illustrates how companies and markets evolve in a two-way interaction.

This paper establishes a comprehensive basis for understanding the roles and competences of mid-level management and their influence on the effectiveness of continuous improvement (CI) capability within an organisation.

This research builds upon the hypothesis that methods alone do not lead to successful CI capability development. It focuses on the role of mid-level management in driving a CI environment that underpins the effectiveness of CI capability. A reference model for the CI environment is synthesised based on critical literature review, integrating CI culture, CI enablers and CI leadership elements. A comprehensive framework is introduced to define CI leadership roles and competence indicators. A quantitative benchmarking study involving structured interviews with 15 UK organisations was undertaken to collect evidence for a causal relationship between CI leadership competences and CI capability.

Analysis of the benchmarking data provides clear evidence of the causal relationship between the CI leadership competences of mid-level management and CI capability of the organisation. Given that the empirical study was structured on the basis of the CI leadership roles and competences framework introduced in this paper, this also provides validation for the proposed framework and the CI environment model.

The evidence-based knowledge of the positive relationship between the mid-management CI leadership competences and the effectiveness of the CI capability informs strategic organisational development interventions towards enhancing CI capability and effectiveness, ultimately underpinning productivity enhancement and sustainability. The framework for mid-level management CI leadership roles, responsibilities and competences introduced in this paper and grounded in underpinning work undertaken within a large automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), can be adapted by any organisation. The CI environment reference model should provide a comprehensive support for strategists to communicate the framework for CI capability improvement within an organisation, to enhance acceptability and adherence to improvement actions.

This research proves for the first time the significance of the causal relationship between the CI leadership competences and the effectiveness of the CI capability within an organisation, thus filling an important gap between established previous work, focussing on the role of mid-level management on one side and practitioner and team level roles, methodologies and tools. The proposed CI environment model is a theoretical contribution with reference value for both practice and further studies. The comprehensive framework for mid-level management CI leadership roles, responsibilities and competences introduced in this paper provides sound foundation to deliver CI leadership in the workplace.

Artistry has been suggested by many authors to be a characteristic of exemplary practitioners in any discipline; however, few have defined artistry, or described how it might be employed and developed. The purpose of this paper is to explain the role of artistry in practice and how it can be developed.

This paper explains the relevance of artistry to contemporary practice. The problems faced by today ' s practitioners are often filled with features such as ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity. The paper suggests that, in the face of these features, practitioners may not be able to rely on historical solutions however powerful these may be. Artistry is explained as an alternative capability that allows practitioners to work effectively with difficult problems.

Artistry is not an exclusive talent. Instead, it is a learned, emergent capability that allows practitioners to integrate mastery and originality as the work. This integration is made possible through the development of a sophisticated knowledge system.

By revealing what artistic practice is and how it can be achieved, this paper gives practitioners a route to a creative and effective approach to practice.

This paper aims to highlight the recruitment practices in the records management (RM) profession in Jamaica’s public sector and their implications for professional practice. This paper is part of a larger doctoral study completed at the University College London that investigated the connection between RM education and national development.

The research is a qualitative mixed methods study, which mainly utilises data from 34 interviews done among RM practitioners and educators, and development administrators and analysts in Kingston and Spanish Town, Jamaica.

The study found that there is an urgent need for a change in how RM practitioners are recruited for their roles in Jamaica’s public sector. More coherent frameworks and a more coordinated effort are required to support for the recruitment of practitioners.

This research is specific to the Jamaican case; therefore, it provides little basis for generalisation. Consequently, the study seeks to make no claims that the results in the Jamaican context are generalisable to other societies. Nonetheless, the conclusions and recommendations may be instructive in other environments.

The study evaluated some of the existing practices for the recruitment of RM practitioners. As a result, the findings should enhance the knowledge about the human resources needs in RM in Jamaica.

In addition to providing some directions for future research, the study also gives voice to a diverse group. It brings together an analysis of national discourses around RM recruitment practices. This is done through the multifaceted views of Jamaican RM practitioners, development administrators and RM educators represented in the interviews.

The role of higher education institutions in enhancing capability development of the healthcare professionals workforce has resulted in work-based learning becoming an essential component of awards linked to professional registration. The purpose of this paper is to explore how key stakeholders (academics, workplace tutors and students) on a programme leading to registration as a Biomedical Scientist (BMS) position themselves in their role and the subsequent impact of this upon delivery of pre-registration training and the development of professional capability.

Constructivist grounded theory methodology and a mixed-methods approach were drawn upon for the study.

Findings expose the challenges of a positivist focus and assumptions around workplace learning and professional development presenting a barrier to developing professional capability. In addressing this barrier, two strategies of “doing the portfolio” and “gaining BMS currency” are adopted. The registration portfolio has become an objective reductionist measure of learning, reflecting the positivist typology of practice in this profession.

To ensure that students are supported to develop not only technical skills but also professional capability there is a need for a paradigm shift from a positivist episteme to one that embraces both the positivist and socio-cultural paradigms, viewing them as complimentary and parallel.

The study provides a novel insight into how stakeholders interact with the pressures of internal and external influences and the impact this has upon behaviours and strategies adopted. The theoretical understanding proposed has a range of implications for practice and for the development of practitioner capability through pre-registration training and beyond.

Failure in engaging shop floor employees (including supervisory staff) in lean, lacking of supervisory skills in leading workers and lacking of lean technical knowhow among the shop floor employees are some of the major obstacles in lean transformation. One of the reasons of inefficient lean transformation is the shortages in frameworks or plans in implementing lean. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the shortfalls in the current lean implementation frameworks.

The frameworks were analysed according to the following criteria: first, “What” is the approach of lean implementation, i.e. top-down or bottom-up; second, “How” to implement lean (description of steps or sequences of lean implementation along the lean journey); third, “Why” – the reason of adoption of the proposed lean tools, techniques or practices (thereafter TTPs) in each phase of lean implementation; and fourth, “Who” are the targeted internal stakeholders to use or apply the lean TTPs that were proposed in the frameworks.

Most of the current available lean frameworks were prone to top-down approach but not bottom-up. Improvement initiatives from the shop floor employees were often overlooked by researchers. In proposing their frameworks, most of the researchers have neglected the importance of “Why” aspect in the adoption of TTPs or the framework itself without giving the “reason” for each of the elements in lean implementation. Besides the aspects of “What” and “How”, the mentioned “Why” aspect is important in contributing to capability building among the shop floor employees in carrying out improvement, problem-solving or waste elimination activities. The aspect of “Who should carry out which lean TTP” was somewhat not emphasised by most of the lean researchers. In addition, the current frameworks were prone to “one-best-way” approach with lacking of contingency sense, which is one of the common criticisms against Lean Production System.

This paper provides a critical view on the shortfalls of current lean implementation frameworks, and proposes an insight of new criteria for future research in analysing and proposing new lean implementation framework towards lean transformation.

The purpose of this paper is to test links from hotel general managers’ (GMs’) environmental commitment to hotel companies’ environmental management capabilities and then to hotel companies’ involvement in environmental practices. The secondary goal of this study is to identify the common, critical environmental management capabilities in the lodging business context.

In total, 172 GMs, working for hotels affiliated with two state lodging associations located in the northwest region of the USA, participated in this study. GMs’ responses were gathered via an online survey. The structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model.

The results show that GMs’ environmental commitment affects their firms’ involvement in environmental practices both directly (GMs’ commitment and firms’ involvement) and indirectly via firms’ environmental management capabilities (GMs’ commitment, firms’ capabilities and firms’ involvement). The five common, critical hotel environmental management capabilities are identified: employee training, communicating environmental initiatives to guests, knowledge and skills to implement environmental practices, capital to invest in environmental management and support from employees.

The hotel industry-specific environmental management capabilities enhance hotel practitioners’ understanding of the critical components for the success of hotel environmental programs and assist GMs to effectively prepare and operate their hotels’ environmental initiatives.

This study demonstrates the essential role of individual actors, specifically hotel GMs, in firms’ environmental involvement, and advances our understanding of hotel environmental management in hospitality literature.

Developing capable practitioners who offer high quality care can bring significant improvement to dual diagnosis services. But developing such practitioners presents many challenges. This paper offers some practical solutions to this problem and proposes that the wider dissemination of existing skills and resources could effect substantial change.

This paper aims to identify the characteristics practitioners consider essential to effective multisensory rooms and the barriers they experience when trying to realise the potential of such rooms.

The paper presents semi-structured interviews with 27 multisensory room practitioners from a range of backgrounds followed by analysis to identify key characteristics and barriers.

Eleven positive room characteristics were identified. The three deemed most significant were that the rooms are dark, activity associated and uninterrupted spaces. Two negative room characteristics were identified: inaccessible design and broken equipment. Ten barriers to effective multisensory room practice were identified and grouped according to themes of logistics, suboptimal usage and practitioner capabilities.

The research focuses on a small self-selecting sample, coded by one person acting independently of any institution. This is an under researched area which would benefit from further more rigorous investigation.

This research enables practitioners to remove barriers to effective multisensory room practice and to focus on the characteristics most significant in generating benefits for room users. Understanding of the essential characteristics and potential barriers to effective practice will allow practitioners to better exploit limited resources of time, money and staffing.

Past research into multisensory rooms has focused on specific user groups or specific multisensory environments. This research examined multisensory room practice across both a range of environments and a range of users, giving an original overview of current multisensory room usage in the UK.

This study answers the call for research and theorising exploring ethical communication and brand risk from the African continent. The study's purpose was to identify the challenges that strategic communication practitioners face in enacting ethical crisis communication in South Africa.

The researchers conducted ten in-depth interviews with South African strategic communication professionals.

The dominant theme emerging from the study is the marginalisation and exclusion of the communication function in decision-making during crisis situations. Communicators were viewed as implementers, technicians and not strategic counsel. The protection of organisational reputation was done at the expense of the ethics and moral conscience of practitioners. Practitioners were viewed and deployed as spin doctors and tools to face unwanted media interactions.

The article sheds light on the concepts of ethical communication and decision-making in a multicultural African context using the moral theory of Ubuntu and strategic communication. It demonstrates the tension professionals experience as they toggle between unethical capitalist approaches and African values. The practitioner's role as organisational moral conscience is hindered, suppressed and undermined by organisational leadership's directives to use opaque, complex communication, selective transparency and misrepresentation of facts.