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In recent years, quality management has become topical in management circles. The language of quality has spread throughout manufacturing industry into service industries and also into the public sector. During 1992, almost 900 Institute of Management members completed a questionnaire on quality management in their own organizations. The aim of the survey was to add to our knowledge of quality management in the UK. This article presents a brief overview of some of the main findings of the survey.

Upward appraisal involves staff having a formal input into their manager’s or supervisor’s performance appraisal. Reviews the rationale for the adoption of upward appraisal systems for manager’s, and identifies a number of key factors likely to contribute towards the more widespread use of upward appraisal. Describes upward appraisal systems in practice, reviewing what they are used for, who is appraised, what is appraised, and how the appraisals are conducted. Then discusses the effectiveness of upward appraisal, paying particular attention to its acceptability to managers, subordinates and trade unions. Finally, considers whether the transplant of what is largely an American practice can be more widely achieved in the UK and proposes some areas for future research.

Reviews the available evidence on the use of human resource management consultants, and examines the findings from a study of their use in manufacturing in the North‐East of England. Also considers the following questions: What types of consultants are used and in what areas? How is the HRM consultant sourced, selected, managed and evaluated? What is their relationship with in‐house personnel departments? Concludes by considering the implications of the findings for the future role and status of the personnel function and identifies an agenda for further research. Suggests that the use of HRM consultants does not necessarily undermine the in‐house personnel function and under certain conditions may enhance its reputation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the privatisation and restructuring of social housing provision upon union leadership in the sector. The paper explores how local union leaders have adapted to radical reforms in the nature and organization of social housing provision in the UK.

The paper draws upon empirical material collected by the authors from social housing associations, informed by the union leadership literature and Habermas’ concepts of “communicative action” and “colonization”, drawing in particular upon the recent work of Edwards.

There are indications of moves to a more formalised relationship between management and local union leaders/staff representatives, with management keen to promote more “openness, partnership and collaboration” in working with the union leaders and staff reps. There was some evidence of senior managers involving local union leaders at earlier stages of policy and procedural initiatives, and of senior managers being more explicitly incorporated in the management‐union leader nexus.

Given the limited amount of research to date on union leadership in social housing organizations, and the exploratory nature and limited scope of this study (which, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first to look at these matters), it follows that we still have limited knowledge of practice. Amongst other considerations, it is necessary to broaden the scope of future studies to take in a larger number of UK social housing providers, and to gather data from union/staff association members as well as managers and local union leaders.

The paper examines a matter which has been neglected by researchers to date, that is the changing nature and role of union leadership in social housing organizations, and it does this through an examination of the changing intra‐ organizational contexts within which this is taking place.

Examines the factors which underpin the success of industry‐academic partnerships in management development. Uses data drawn from an in‐depth case study of Cummins Engine Company Limited. Reviews the literature on company‐university partnerships and work‐based learning in management development and provides information on the background of the case‐study organization. Reports on the experience of developing management training programmes for supervisors and middle managers. Concludes by discussing the practical implications of forging closer links between industry and academia.

This paper aims to identify what workplace representative behaviours are most strongly associated with members’ commitment. This is increasingly important, as decentralised management practices have shifted management decisions to workplace levels, placing new demands on workplace representatives.

The methodological approach is quantitative and cross sectional. A total of two unions and 32 workplaces are examined.

Members’ commitment corresponds to workplace delegate leadership that is responsive. Transparency had a negative relationship to commitment, possibly because it is also interpreted as bureaucratic and overly formal for workplace issues. Innovation was not significantly associated with members’ commitment. This applies regardless of occupational class, gender or age. It was also found that workplaces that had adopted the organising model had more committed members.

Cross sectional relationships do not equal causation. However, the findings suggest that workplace level responsiveness by delegates is potentially very effective in building member commitment.

Unions can, with more confidence than previously, invest in developing responsive delegate leadership teams.

This paper provides insight into effective leadership behaviours that apply across two unions covering diverse workplaces and occupational types. As management decentralises, unions need to as well. This provides assistance to unions on how to do so. The cross sectional nature of the study builds on earlier research that may have been prone to common method variance.

Examines managers′ attitudes to the use of upward and the more traditional downward performance appraisal systems. The results are drawn from a survey of UK managers. Finds that upward appraisal is viewed as being generally less acceptable than “traditional” appraisal systems. Potential applications appear to be directed towards development and counselling areas. Concerns that are expressed in the literature, e.g. retribution by vengeful managers or orchestrated campaigns by trade unions, were not found to be particularly prominent in practice.

Quality management has been in vogue within manufacturing for over a decade. Service industries have more recently been making heavy investments in this area. Also there are major initiatives from the public sector to improve quality. Investigates the take‐up of quality management techniques in the public sector, their perceived effectiveness and the consequent impact on the managers running the programmes (private sector services are used as a basis for comparison). Results of survey responses from 394 service organizations show that the uptake of quality management techniques is now similar between public and private sectors, as is the perception of the impact on managerial work. A major difference occurs in terms of perceived effectiveness and results of the quality programmes. In this latter area the public sector fares somewhat worse.

The purpose of this article is to explore the under‐representation of women in union leadership in Barbados. The article asks if there are specific conditions faced by women there or if the barriers for Barbadian women are the same or similar to those facing union women in developed countries.

The study was a small qualitative one. In‐depth interviews were carried out in 2007‐2008 with 17 women leaders from the two dominant general unions in Barbados, from two smaller female‐dominated unions and an international union federation.

The findings show that many of the barriers union women in developed countries face are also encountered in Barbados, including family and domestic and workplace/union. However, the paper shows that the local context of Barbados produces a locally specific version of oppressive gender relations that impact on union women and their ability to access leadership. In particular, the “male marginalisation thesis” holds purchase in the public mindset and has created a backlash against one of the major strategies for addressing women's under‐representation in unions – women's separate organising.

This was a small study based on one Caribbean island and the findings do not necessarily apply to the wider region. Nevertheless, it raises sufficient questions about gender relations in union in the Caribbean to warrant further investigation both by unions and academics.

There is little in the international literature on women and unions in the Caribbean region.