The organisation of innovation: collaboration, cooperation and multifunctional groups in UK and German manufacturing

Marked differences exist between the institutional and social context for innovation in the UK and Germany. The question addressed here is how these different contexts affect the objectives and organisation of innovation in UK and German manufacturing. In particular, the paper examines the extent to which UK and German plants engage in inter-plant collaboration and cooperation and multifunctional working as part of their innovative activity, and explores the reasons for differences in these patterns of involvement. The investigation is based on a large-scale, comparative survey of manufacturing plants in the two countries. In Germany, institutional and social norms are found to encourage collaborative inter-plant innovation, but aspects of the German skills training and industrial relations systems make the adoption of more flexible internal systems more difficult. In the UK, by contrast, the more adversarial nature of inter-firm relations makes it more difficult to establish external collaborations based on mutual trust, but less restrictive labour market structures make it easier for UK plants to adopt multifunctional working. This is linked to differences in attitudes to the property rights and transaction cost problems inherent in innovation.

Hidden in plain sight:low-literacy adults in a developed country overcoming social and educational challenges through mobile learning support tools

Illiteracy is often associated with people in developing countries. However, an estimated 50 % of adults in a developed country such as Canada lack the literacy skills required to cope with the challenges of today's society; for them, tasks such as reading, understanding, basic arithmetic, and using everyday items are a challenge. Many community-based organizations offer resources and support for these adults, yet overall functional literacy rates are not improving. This is due to a wide range of factors, such as poor retention of adult learners in literacy programs, obstacles in transferring the acquired skills from the classroom to the real life, personal attitudes toward learning, and the stigma of functional illiteracy. In our research we examined the opportunities afforded by personal mobile devices in providing learning and functional support to low-literacy adults. We present the findings of an exploratory study aimed at investigating the reception and adoption of a technological solution for adult learners. ALEX© is a mobile application designed for use both in the classroom and in daily life in order to help low-literacy adults become increasingly literate and independent. Such a solution complements literacy programs by increasing users' motivation and interest in learning, and raising their confidence levels both in their education pursuits and in facing the challenges of their daily lives. We also reflect on the challenges we faced in designing and conducting our research with two user groups (adults enrolled in literacy classes and in an essential skills program) and contrast the educational impact and attitudes toward such technology between these. Our conclusions present the lessons learned from our evaluations and the impact of the studies' specific challenges on the outcome and uptake of such mobile assistive technologies in providing practical support to low-literacy adults in conjunction with literacy and essential skills training. © 2013 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.

Tale of two studies:challenges in field research with low-literacy adult learners in a developed country

Efforts to address the problems of literacy are often focused on developing countries. However, functional illiteracy is a challenge encountered by up to 50% of adults in developed countries. In this paper we reflect on the challenges we faced in trying to design and study the use of a mobile application to support adult literacy with two user groups: adults enrolled in literacy classes and carpenters without a high school education enrolled in an essential skills program. We also elaborate on aspects of the evaluations that are specific to a marginalized, functionally illiterate, group in a developed country - aspects that are less frequently present in similar studies of mobile literacy support technologies in developing countries. We conclude with presenting the lessons learnt from our evaluations and the impact of the studies' specific challenges on the outcome and uptake of such mobile assistive technologies in providing practical support to low-literacy adults in conjunction with literacy and essential skills training.

Medicines reconciliation in comparison with NICE guidelines across secondary care mental health organisations

Background Medicines reconciliation-identifying and maintaining an accurate list of a patient's current medications-should be undertaken at all transitions of care and available to all patients. Objective A self-completion web survey was conducted for chief pharmacists (or equivalent) to evaluate medicines reconciliation levels in secondary care mental health organisations. Setting The survey was sent to secondary care mental health organisations in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Method The survey was launched via Bristol Online Surveys. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data was collected through respondents free-text answers to specific questions. Main outcomes measure Investigate how medicines reconciliation is delivered, incorporate a clear description of the role of pharmacy staff and identify areas of concern. Results Forty-two (52 % response rate) surveys were completed. Thirty-seven (88.1 %) organisations have a formal policy for medicines reconciliation with defined steps. Results show that the pharmacy team (pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) are the main professionals involved in medicines reconciliation with a high rate of doctors also involved. Training procedures frequently include an induction by pharmacy for doctors whilst the pharmacy team are generally trained by another member of pharmacy. Mental health organisations estimate that nearly 80 % of medicines reconciliation is carried out within 24 h of admission. A full medicines reconciliation is not carried out on patient transfer between mental health wards; instead quicker and less exhaustive variations are implemented. 71.4 % of organisations estimate that pharmacy staff conduct daily medicine reconciliations for acute admission wards (Monday to Friday). However, only 38 % of organisations self-report to pharmacy reconciling patients' medication for other teams that admit from primary care. Conclusion Most mental health organisations appear to be complying with NICE guidance on medicines reconciliation for their acute admission wards. However, medicines reconciliation is conducted less frequently on other units that admit from primary care and rarely completed on transfer when it significantly differs to that on admission. Formal training and competency assessments on medicines reconciliation should be considered as current training varies and adherence to best practice is questionable.

Employer perceptions of skills gaps in retail:issues and implications for UK retailers

Purpose – This paper seeks to identify the skills gaps associated with retail employees in SME and multiple retail companies, and to investigate the potential training and business implications that arise from these skills gaps, from the point of view of retail employers. Design/methodology/approach – Research was conducted within one geographical region and across five counties within the UK. Telephone and face-to-face interviews and focus group workshops were conducted, resulting in responses from 52 retailers. Findings – The key issues and areas of concern to emerge were: the industry image and impact on recruitment and retention; employee and management skills gaps; and barriers to training. Research limitations/implications – The findings highlight the need for UK retail industry to raise the image of the sector, to identify the skills sets for specific roles, and to clarify the retail qualifications and training required delivering these. Originality/value – Succeeds in identifying the skills gaps associated with retail employees in SME and multiple retail companies and in investigating the potential training and business implications arising from these skills gaps.

The training experience of primary care pharmacists

Objectives — To map the tasks, activities and training provision for primary care pharmacists (PCPs) and to identify perceived future training needs. Methods — Survey undertaken in 1998/1999 using a pre-piloted, postal, self-completion questionnaire to two samples of PCPs. Setting — PCPs in (a) the West Midlands and (b) England (outside West Midlands). Key findings — The response rate was 66 per cent. A majority (68 per cent) had worked in the role for less than two years. Eighty per cent had some form of continuing education or training for the role although only 50 per cent had a formal qualification. Over two-thirds had contributed to the funding of their training, with one-third providing all funding. Seventy-four per cent of PCPs agreed that pharmacists should go through a procedure to ensure competence (accreditation) before being allowed to work for a general medical practice or primary care group. Views on the need for formal education/training prior to work differed: 82 per cent of those with formal qualifications, but only 46 per cent of those without, considered that this should be a requirement. There was general agreement that training/education had met training needs. Views on future training closely reflected previous training experiences, with a focus upon pharmaceutical roles rather than upon generic skill development and the acquisition of management skills. Conclusions — The study provides a snapshot in time of the experience of pioneer PCPs and the training available to them. PCPs will need further training or updating if they are to provide the wider roles required by the developing needs of the National Health Service. Consideration should be given to formal recognition of the training of PCPs in order to assure competence. The expectation that pharmacists should fund their own training is likely to be a barrier to uptake of training and uncertainties over funding will militate against consistency of training.

Do pharmacy graduates possess the necessary professional skills?

Background - Expansion of the pharmacists' role within the United Kingdom has raised the question as to whether pharmacy graduates are equipped with the professional skills and attributes they will need to fulfil such roles. Aim - To describe the professional skills and attributes pre-registration recruiters perceive pharmacy graduates should exhibit and to establish whether final year students perceive they possess these skills and attributes. Method - Five individuals were interviewed from a variety of pre-registration employers; 90 final year students completed a questionnaire (response 69.2%). Results - The recruiters thought that whilst graduates possess sufficient knowledge, they show weaknesses such as inability to apply theoretical knowledge into practice and the lack of good communication and interpersonal skills. Conversely, a majority of students felt that they did possess the necessary skills to enter pre-registration training. Conclusion - Schools of pharmacy need to ensure that students have an opportunity to develop key professional skills to assist students in securing pre-registration positions. © 2010 FIP.

A comparison of the vocational training system of Britain and West Germany as experienced by minimum-age school leavers.

The sectoral and occupational structure of Britain and West Germany has increasingly changed over the last fifty years from a manual manufacturing based to a non-manual service sector based one. There has been a trend towards more managerial and less menial type occupations. Britain employs a higher proportion of its population in the service sector than in manufacturing compared to West Germany, except in retailing, where West Germany employs twice as many people as Britain. This is a stable sector of the economy in terms of employment, but the requirements of the workforce have changed in line with changes in the industry in both countries. School leavers in the two countries, faced with the same options (FE, training schemes or employment) have opted for the various options in different proportions: young Germans are staying longer in education before embarking on training and young Britons are now less likely to go straight into employment than ten years ago. Training is becoming more accepted as the normal route into employment with government policy leading the way, but public opinion still slow to respond. This study investigates how vocational training has adapted to the changing requirements of industry, often determined by technological advancements. In some areas e.g. manufacturing industry the changes have been radical, in others such as retailing they have not, but skill requirements, not necessarily influenced by technology have changed. Social-communicative skills, frequently not even considered skills and therefore not included in training are coming to the forefront. Vocational training has adapted differently in the two countries: in West Germany on the basis of an established over-defined system and in Britain on the basis of an out-dated ill-defined and almost non-existent system. In retailing German school leavers opt for two or three year apprenticeships whereas British school leavers are offered employment with or without formalised training. The publicly held view of the occupation of sales assistant is one of low-level skill, low intellectual demands and a job anyone can do. The traditional skills - product knowledge, selling and social-communicative skills have steadily been eroded. In the last five years retailers have recognised that a return to customer service, utilising the traditional skills was going to be needed of their staff to remain competitive. This requires training. The German retail training system responded by adapting its training regulations in a long consultative process, whereas the British experimented with YTS, a formalised training scheme nationwide being a new departure. The thesis evaluates the changes in these regulations. The case studies in four retail outlets demonstrate that it is indeed product knowledge and selling and social-communicative skills which are fundamental to being a successful and content sales assistant in either country. When the skills are recognised and taught well and systematically the foundations for career development in retailing are laid in a labour market which is continually looking for better qualified workers. Training, when planned and conducted professionally is appreciated by staff and customers and of benefit to the company. In retailing not enough systematic training, to recognisable standards is carried out in Britain, whereas in West Germany the training system is nevertheless better prepared to show innovative potential as a structure and is in place on which to build. In Britain the reputation of the individual company has a greater role to play, not ensuring a national provision of good training in retailing.

Intercultural training for international placements

Despite its increasing popularity, much intercultural training is not developed with the same level of rigour as training in other areas. Further, research on intercultural training has brought inconsistent results about the effectiveness of such training. This PhD thesis develops a rigorous model of intercultural training and applies it to the preparation of British students going on work/study placements in France and Germany. It investigates the reasons for inconsistent training success by looking at the cognitive learning processes in intercultural training, relating them to training goals, and by examining the short- and long-term transfer of intercultural training into real-life encounters with people from other cultures. Two cognitive trainings based on critical incidents were designed for online delivery. The training content relied on cultural practice dimensions from the GWBE study (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman & Gupta, 2004). Of the two trainings, the 'singlemode training' aimed to develop declarative knowledge, which is necessary to analyse and understand other cultures. The 'concurrent training' aimed to develop declarative and procedural knowledge, which is needed to develop skills for dealing with difficult situations in a culturally appropriate way. Participants (N-48) were randomly assigned to one of the two training conditions. Declarative learning appeared as a process of steady knowledge increase, while procedural learning involved cognitive re-categorisation rather than knowledge increase. In a negotiation role play with host-country nationals directly after the online training, participants of the concurrent training exhibited a more initiative negotiation style than participants of the single-mode training. Comparing cultural adjustment and performance of training participants during their time abroad with an untrained control group, participants of the concurrent training showed the qualitatively best development in adjustment and performance. Besides intercultural training, multicultural personality traits were assessed and proved to be a powerful predictor of adjustment and, indirectly, of performance abroad.

An investigation of managerial skills:Implications for personnel policy

This research explores the conceptual basis in adopting a skills approach to management development. The literature reveals a number of development approaches but only a limited appreciation of how the manager does his job i.e. of the skills that he needs. An investigation of managerial skills was conducted with 10 manager s mainly occupying middle and senior positions. The principal source of evidence was the manager's thoughts on what he did and how he did it, although the interviews were supplemented by formal and informal observation. There was also a dialectic value from discussions with other analysts/managers and empathy between analyst and practitioner also played a part. Each manager was invited to comment upon his own skills analysis as a check upon validity. The study supports the view that the manager similar to other skilled practitioners, is conceptually a model builder and operationally a navigator (Singleton 1978b) . The manager variously holds enactive, pictorial, symbolic and hybrid models that enable him to understand his world and act in it. The universal managerial function is decision making and the study presents a preliminary nomenclature in classifying decision processes or perceptual skills. Managerial skills are also reflected in interpersonal interaction where the hallmark is mutual construction and attribution and in 'self-management’ where the requirement is to cope with the inner rather than the outer world. Differences between the managers are most evident in perceptual skills, the more senior manager requiring increasing ability to process abstract information and take account of environmental uncertainty. He will also make greater use of 'off- line’ information. The practical purpose in studying managerial skills is to facilitate the improvement of managerial performance and the implications of the research for training, selection and appraisal are explored.

Medication error in mental health:implications for primary care

Medication errors are associated with significant morbidity and people with mental health problems may be particularly susceptible to medication errors due to various factors. Primary care has a key role in improving medication safety in this vulnerable population. The complexity of services, involving primary and secondary care and social services, and potential training issues may increase error rates, with physical medicines representing a particular risk. Service users may be cognitively impaired and fail to identify an error placing additional responsibilities on clinicians. The potential role of carers in error prevention and medication safety requires further elaboration. A potential lack of trust between service users and clinicians may impair honest communication about medication issues leading to errors. There is a need for detailed research within this field.

A penny for your thoughts! Patterns of fMRI activity reveal the content and the spatial topography of visual mental images

Visual mental imagery is a complex process that may be influenced by the content of mental images. Neuropsychological evidence from patients with hemineglect suggests that in the imagery domain environments and objects may be represented separately and may be selectively affected by brain lesions. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the possibility of neural segregation among mental images depicting parts of an object, of an environment (imagined from a first-person perspective), and of a geographical map, using both a mass univariate and a multivariate approach. Data show that different brain areas are involved in different types of mental images. Imagining an environment relies mainly on regions known to be involved in navigational skills, such as the retrosplenial complex and parahippocampal gyrus, whereas imagining a geographical map mainly requires activation of the left angular gyrus, known to be involved in the representation of categorical relations. Imagining a familiar object mainly requires activation of parietal areas involved in visual space analysis in both the imagery and the perceptual domain. We also found that the pattern of activity in most of these areas specifically codes for the spatial arrangement of the parts of the mental image. Our results clearly demonstrate a functional neural segregation for different contents of mental images and suggest that visuospatial information is coded by different patterns of activity in brain areas involved in visual mental imagery. Hum Brain Mapp 36:945-958, 2015.

Standardisation and benchmarking for improving translator training

The worldwide growth of the translation industry requires qualified professional translators. During the last decade, we have seen an enormous increase in translator training programmes offered by universities, mainly at postgraduate level. A challenge for such university programmes is to make sure that they prepare graduates who are qualified for the needs of the diverse profession in the rapidly changing market. This means that programmes need to be developed with the market needs in mind and that they need to ensure a good match between graduates' competences and employers' requirements. This paper addresses the following questions: How can universities adapt translator training programmes to the rapidly changing industry and the accompanying changes in professional profiles? How can we reconcile the requests of the industry for graduates who have practical and professional skills with the requests of the universities for graduates who have in-depth academic knowledge and intellectual skills? What standards and benchmarks are in place to assure quality of translator training programmes? Some such developments in respect of benchmarking are illustrated at first for the United Kingdom, followed by information on the European Master’s in Translation (EMT) project, an initiative at the European level. Finally, the paper reflects on the challenges which the EMT translator competence profile poses for university programmes.