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Media coverage of police activities is substantial and makes for “eye‐catching” headlines. Most people in the UK will remember the riots of 1981 and how policemen battled against overwhelming odds. Equally, the story of the young, brave policeman who attempts, and is injured in the process, to arrest treacherous villains, induces waves of sympathy from a probably, very middle‐class public. Best of all, are the stories of corrupted policemen who, detected and apprehended, generate in us all that slight feeling of insecurity which makes for excellent gossip.

This paper aims to present the baseline results of a research and development project targeted to improve the occupational well‐being of school staff and maintain their ability to work, in Finland and Estonia. It reveals the most problematic factors in the various aspects of the school community and professional competence and outlines development needs in the school communities.

The overall project design is action research, conducted during 2009‐2013 in the SHE (Schools for Health in Europe) network in Finland and Estonia. The baseline survey data were collected in 2009‐2010 with a web‐based Well‐being at your work index questionnaire and analysed statistically using descriptive statistics, sum variables of factors and Mann‐Whitney tests.

The general opinions of the Finnish school staffs were more affirmative than those of Estonian school staffs regarding their own personal occupational well‐being in comparison with the best in the profession (p=0.000). However, the Finns were more critical than the Estonians when estimating the general well‐being of the staff in their working community, maintenance of their ability to work, the aspects of the school community and professional competence and development needs in the school communities.

The results cannot be widely generalised due to the geographically defined samples, but they can be suggestive in comparable situations in Finland and Estonia.

There is a need to develop the occupational well‐being of school staff and maintenance of their ability to work in the school communities: specific interventions will be developed on the basis of the results obtained from the project schools.

The purpose of this paper is to present the baseline results of a school development project where the aim was to improve school community staff's occupational wellbeing in co‐operation with occupational health nurses.

The Wellbeing at Your Work index form for school staff developed for the study aimed to account for occupational wellbeing and satisfaction in terms of the activities maintaining the ability to work as well as the working conditions, working community, worker and work and professional competence and the need to develop them.

The most problematic factors of occupational wellbeing were the urgency and pace of work at school and the problems in working space, postures and equipment. In addition, the activities supporting resources, including stress control, exercise, relaxation and mentoring, were inadequate at work.

The sample of school staff (n=271) consisted of 12 schools in Eastern Finland, and the results cannot be generalised widely due to the small and geographically defined sample. However, the results are suggestive for other schools elsewhere in Finland.

The content model for the promotion of occupational wellbeing presented in the article and the results obtained provide a broad and practical approach to the development of school staff's occupational wellbeing. Occupational health care services are meant to support school communities, and they should therefore provide better information of their services and develop their competence based on the content model of occupational wellbeing.

The work index form based on the content model serves as a good tool for schools and occupational health care in evaluating and developing occupational wellbeing.

Suggests that successful managers develop practical theories or frameworks to guide their decision making and problem solving. Describes how managers developed a framework for focusing performance appraisal, training and career development opportunities in a long‐term care hospital.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects on fitness outcomes of a work-based physical exercise (PE) intervention among women working in older people’s care. In addition, effects on productivity-related outcomes including work ability and sickness absence were studied.

Employees participated in a one-year intervention involving two one-hour weekly mandatory PE sessions. The intervention (n=13) was compared to referents (n=12). Fitness tests and self-reports on work ability and sickness absence were obtained before the intervention (T1), six months into the intervention and after 12 months.

Fitness test scores (corrected for age and weight) increased significantly over time in the intervention group but not among referents. Perceived exertion decreased significantly in the intervention group and increased significantly among referents. For self-rated work ability and sickness absence, no significant time or group differences emerged.

Further research on larger groups of women is needed to delineate the effects of PE on self-rated productivity and performance.

Work-based PE programs can improve fitness among women in older people’s care.

With previous research having primarily focussed on men, this study shows that women in blue-collar jobs also may benefit from taking part in work-based PE programs.

This paper makes an important contribution through its focus on the effects of a work-based PE program on fitness and possible relations to productivity, among employed women.

This monograph summarises the key influences of leadership behaviour on the transformation process associated with creation of an effective and high performing team. It clarifies the key factors that are relevant to a team at each stage of the transformation process and the leadership roles that each team member can play. The role of an organisation's senior management is considered both in terms of the impact it has on the transformation process within specific teams and in terms of creating the necessary organisational environment to make effective teams the norm. Some reasons why senior management behaviour is often perceived as inconsistent and unhelpful are explored. Specific recommendations are made to help senior managers to adapt their behaviour, and in so doing become more context‐sensitive to the needs of the environment as it changes. Some tools and techniques are presented that have been found in practice to help senior managers adapt their behaviour to that most appropriate at a given time, and to create the organisational infrastructure needed to make effective teams the organisational norm rather than the exception. A case study is presented illustrating the networked nature of leadership and the culture change associated with making effective teams “the way we do things around here.”

Using the theoretical framework of job demands-resources and boundary management, the purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating role of work and life boundary characteristics in the relationship between time-spatial job crafting, work engagement and job performance.

A total of 176 employees working in the IT sector and having an opportunity to use flexible work arrangements were surveyed online.

Work and life boundary characteristics were found to moderate the relationship between time-spatial job crafting and work engagement as well as between time-spatial job crafting and job performance. Moreover, boundary characteristics moderated the indirect relationship between time-spatial job crafting and job performance through work engagement.

Time-spatial job crafting becomes a key strategy for maintaining work engagement and job performance, when work–life boundaries are less flexible and less permeable.

The study demonstrates that boundary characteristics determine the effects of time-spatial job crafting on work engagement and job performance.

It is common to hear it said that the most important benefits yielded by vocational training and organizational development programmes cannot be assessed because they are too ‘intangible’. The ‘demand’ for them is in itself sufficient indication of their value. Unfortunately, as economists such as Thurow have, only too belatedly recognized, the value of a certificate to an individual is a very different thing from the value of the knowledge to the acquisition of which the certificate testifies. Most school pupils, parents, and teachers believe that, while it is very important to pass examinations, the value of what is learned at school is minimal. Their beliefs are confirmed by the studies of Berg, Jencks and Raven. Because of the social functions of educational qualifications, teachers and pupils attend to the goals which are assessed. Because the goals which are easiest to assess are not those which they believe to be most important, teachers and pupils fail to attend to the goals which they actually believe to be most important. Had these teachers and students spent their time working toward the most important goals, the students' life chances, and the teachers' own reputation, would have been jeopardized.

It is estimated that we spend at least a third of our working lives in the workplace and the duration of this, due to the extension of working lives through legislative changes and increased pension ages, is set to increase. Ageing of the workforce is a growing concern but health and safety issues cannot be used as an excuse for not employing older workers. A healthy workplace is one where the risks are managed and where workers and their managers work together to improve the work environment and protect the health of the workers. Furthermore, linking this to personal health resources and the local community can improve the health of all involved. Within the workplace this includes both the psychosocial and physical work environment. To create a healthy workplace there is a need to ensure risk management measures are in place and our older workers participation in risk assessment and risk reduction programmes. In addition to this, targeted occupational health promotion programmes may be beneficial. There are few integrated policies with regard to age and work but research does identify good practice, including participation of employees in change measures, senior management commitment and taking a life-course approach. While there are challenges in relation to age-related change, the work ability concept can improve understanding. The use of a comprehensive approach such as Age Management can help employers who have a critical role in making the workplace age-ready.

INTRODUCTION Performance appraisal and review, sometimes also referred to as merit rating, staff appraisal, or personnel assessment (although these terms are by no means synonymous), is a process in which “bosses” regularly evaluate and report on the performance, attainments, abilities, potential for future development and other qualities of their organisational subordinates.