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In recent years the problems of stress in organisations has become widely discussed and a number of approaches for helping, or “managing” stress have been suggested. Many of the methods have been aimed at organizational wide activities which are assumed to be good for all in the battle against stress. So, for example, we have prescriptions for more participation in decision making; for reducing work overload, and for clarifying job definitions and expectations.

Primary mental health workers have been based in West Lothian schools since 2003 to act as links between the community and hospital‐based services. The research programme this paper describes aimed to examine how this model worked and its impact for children and their families.

This paper reports on interviews with secondary school staff, the link workers and comparative post‐holders. The research study was qualitative and the research question was “What is the perceived impact of Mental Health Link Workers in West Lothian schools?”.

The paper finds that Primary mental health workers felt that their main contribution was building capacity in the community to support children with mental health problems, and identified four strands to this: space, relationships, skills and containment. Two described direct access for children and their families as the main gain. Secondary school staff considered that the greatest impact was for children at the onset of mental illness, and their own knowledge and skills.

Primary mental health work in the community is fairly new in Scotland. This study suggested that it speeded up and improved access to services for children in need of mental health assessments and services. It was based on temporary contracts and short‐term funding. Sustainability within schools may only take place when the work becomes well resourced.

The paper is a detailed look at the views of Primary Mental Health Workers based in schools and school staff.

Stress damages us and our performance. It is a real part of most manager's experience and can be said to occur when significant demands exceed perceived management responsibilities and routines. Stress can be the essence of working life, and certainly need not always be damaging to us. But when it becomes excessive, it is something unwanted.

The task of intervening to increase leadership effectiveness is to help learners become aware of counterproductive reasoning (defensive reasoning occasioned by threat, as opposed to productive reasoning) and to educate them in additional methods of reasoning and action. Two cases which have been utilised worldwide illustrate how focusing on generic competences can aid leaders in solving complex and threatening issues. The end result is to increase organisations' capacity to learn how to learn, so that intentions can be successfully implemented and individual or organisational capacity controlled.

Notes that workplace violence is increasing, and new structures and policies that focus on preventing employee violence are necessary. Concern over the danger of violence on the job creates a new challenge for supervisors in all fields. There is no reason to panic; however, there is just cause for prudent action to increase safety and decrease the likelihood of any violent eruption in the workplace. Preventive measures include early identification of problems, decreasing the risk of disputes and thoughtful policies on handling stressful situations. Crisis preparedness requires tough self‐assessment and tougher trade‐offs, but the pay‐off is clear. Creating systems that defuse the time bombs of stress and violence on the job is an investment in peace of mind for employers and workers alike.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

The purpose of this study is to examine the new normal within a continuum of three types of disruption, each of varying duration. References to the new normal draw attention to the periodic and rising importance of different levels, types, and consequences of game-changing disruption for those in governance roles.

In this conceptual research, given the discussion of a return to normalcy near the expected end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors organize the literature on disruption in governance into a disruption continuum – emergency, crisis and super crisis – to demonstrate the differences in each type of disruption to establish a distinct view of the new normal.

Within the three types of disruption, the first two suit the rational authority model in which disruption is turned over to those in governance roles. However, the rational authority model comes under attack in the super crisis and is increasingly associated with the post-truth era.

In Type 3 disruptions or super crises, the failure of those in control to set the parameters of the new normal raises concerns that the center no longer holds, and as a result, the assumption of an attentive public splinter into multiple contending publics, each with its version of data, facts and images.

The new normal is typically treated after the result of a black swan or rare and surprising long-lived disruption. In this work, the formulation of the recurrence, ubiquity and controversy engendered by super crises suggests that it is one of the features attenuating and giving rise to fractious incivility in the post-truth era.

Management development in a contracting environment demands a difference in emphasis from that of a growing environment. The most fundamental aspect, which indeed characterises much of management development, is in terms of changing attitudes. A research study of 102 middle and junior managers in five large manufacturing companies reveals that there may be a need for some management development advisers to take a second look at how they advocate and perceive management development within a contracting environment. All organisations have political attributes, and the problem, for both the organisation and the individual, is when political activity becomes an end in itself. There may be a strong case for making managers more aware of political behaviour and how to counteract it. Opportunities to discuss and explore problems in a non‐threatening environment may not be a novel or complete solution, but may provide an effective starting point to develop managers in a contracting organisation.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).