Search results

Describes the process of change at Birmingham City Council to cope with new legislation including compulsory competitive tendering. Achieving the strategic objectives of the City Council needed key elements of education, training and development for all employees and Members. Describes the design and development of the training programmes and considers the client/consultant relationship. Concludes that a key lesson is of the joint involvement in developing not only participant skills and knowledge but the training skills of the client.

Discusses one Council′s introduction of an innovative compulsory competitive tendering scheme. Goes on to show that with self‐assessment exercises, in addition to reorganization of all the various members′ departments, even the biggest local authority can make major improvements in its managerial training and operational arrangements. Explains the various personnel training methods and looks at the training programme′s design and development which involved KPMG Peat Marwick and the Birmingham City Council, which has one million customers under its umbrella. Shows how both parties can gain from the client/consultant relationship and concludes that the 200 managers who have been through the programmes have rated highly the experience, which involved new ideas and methods.

Dealing with the needs of asylum seekers and refugees presents a challenge to local health services, and mental health has been identified as the main health issue for this group. This paper reports the findings of a quantitative and qualitative study of the mental health care needs of asylum seekers and refugees in Newcastle upon Tyne. Primary and mental health services were found not to be meeting the needs of this group. In some practices, attitudes to asylum seekers among both GPs and other patients were reported as stigmatising. But there is evidence that many of the mental health problems of asylum seekers are related to post‐migration stress arising from practical and economic difficulties and experience of racism and other discrimination, highlighting the need to build support and social connections and include the needs of asylum seekers in local mental health promotion strategies.

Based on an analogy with a recently revived film of The Benny Goodman Story, draws some marketing‐related parallels between jazz musicianship and teaching. Specifically, as in the case of artists, professors may often pursue a product‐oriented strategy stubbornly dedicated to honouring their own convictions at the expense of a customer‐oriented quest for greater potential popularity. Illustrates through an interview with Woody Herman that, as with jazz musicians, so with teachers: one hopes that integrity will win true listeners.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the act of expressing criticism against a music brand fits with the identity and practices associated with being a loyal fan of that brand.

Drawing on insights from theories of brand loyalty and fandom, this interpretive inquiry makes use of data from an online forum dedicated to the band, U2, and interviews with forum members. A combination of online ethnography and discourse analysis is employed.

The findings reveal how interpretations of the act of expressing criticism within a space that ostensibly functions as a place to celebrate all things U2 related, shape the construction of loyalty to the b(r)and in diverse ways. The apparent in-group tensions between being loyal and being critical pose a challenge to the taken for granted nature of brand loyalty and fandom, highlighting the nuanced ways with which they manifest.

By examining the role of criticality within otherwise loyal spaces, the authors contribute to brand loyalty theory by revealing the malleability of the concept, as meaning is constantly being reshaped depending on individual realities.

The purpose of this study is threefold. First, human brands are conceptualized and the distinction between them and personal brands is established. Second, human-brand research is reviewed in light of a strategic brand management framework and gaps in the knowledge that may suggest new research pathways are identified. Third, the extent to which a brand management model designed for products could be applied to human brands is explored.

A systematic literature review was conducted in this study. The content analysis of the selected set of papers allowed the assessment of the state of this field of brand management and the identification of proposals for future research.

Substantial research exists on different aspects of human brands. However, these studies are fragmented in nature, thus highlighting the need for specific and complete human-brand management models.

A limitation of this literature review is that it is based on a sample of papers collected by one specific criterion; furthermore, the way the papers were classified may be challenged. However, this study provides a comprehensive picture of studies on human brands available today.

A parsimonious distinction and connectivity between human and personal brands suggest a branding-by-individual continuum. Additionally, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first identifiable one that summarizes the growing literature on human brands, reveals important gaps in the knowledge and calls for the development of particular human-brand management models.