Nutrition policies and programmes: a decade of redirection

This article assesses the effectiveness of nutrition programs and policies since the World Food Conference, 10 years ago. The authors perceive several distinct approaches. Just before the World Food Conference, nutrition programs had passed through an era of enchantment with technological solutions (single-cell protein, oilseed protein isolates). Supply was regarded as the problem; protein inadequacy as the crisis. None of the technological fixes had much of an impact on the malnutrition problem. This contributed to a willingness to entertain a much broader approach to nutrition. The new paradigm manifested itself 1st as a movement toward integrated nutrition planning. The national planning process was assumed to be the appropriate vehicle for applying this methodology. However, integrated nutrition planning threatened, conflicted with or at least brought pressure for change in the administrative and political reality of governmental organizations. Moreover, the nutrition community's capacity to respond to the demands flowing from the new paradigm was limited. The difficulties encountered in trying to achieve full integration led to a reexamination of working within traditional sectors but addressing the problem in several key sectors simultaneously, such as health and agriculture. The past decade also saw a move toward analyzing and improving the design and implementation of various kinds of nutrition interventions. The emphasis was on understanding and dealing with the administrative, economic and political realities of such efforts. Incorporation of consumption and nutrition considerations in the analysis and formulation of food policies in some countries is 1 of the important achievements of the past decade. This overwhelmingly economic approach focuses on pricing policies and market effects, recognizing that poverty and purchasing power are central to the malnutrition problem. Analysis of macrofood policy has filled an important void, giving a more concrete and inclusive view of food security. Nutrition progress during the next decade will require the development community to confront a changed environment and several key challenges, namely the surge of conservative politics in the early 1980s, and the severe economic problems most countries face. There is a need to be realistic about the tenacity of the problem and the multiple barriers to implementation of nutrition policies. The challenges face both national governments and development agencies. There is agreement that, during the decade since the World Food Conference, the field of nutrition has gone through a metamorphosis and that there has been progress. However, the development community still faces an unfinished nutrition agenda.     

ACCOUNTING FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLLS ROYCE RB.211 PROJECT

There is evidence that standard setting bodies see the promotion of uniformity of accounting practice as a major objective in setting accounting standards. However, recently issued standards in respect of the accounting treatment of research and development costs allow corporate managers considerable choice in accounting for these costs. An examination of the circumstances surrounding the development of the RB.211 engine by Rolls Royce Limited during the years 1967-70 is undertaken to determine the extent to which different practices may be employed in accounting for research and development costs under the U.K. and International accounting standards. Evidence adduced from this examination suggests that the management of Rolls Royce Limited could have complied with the requirements of these accounting standards and still have been free to expense or capitalise the costs incurred on the RB.211 project.     

Nursing presence,patient satisfaction,and the bottom line

Hospital planners rely on a number of motivational models to increase patient satisfaction. Missing is the user friendly model oriented to nursing presence. Absent is the approach which taps into that contribution particular nurses might make to increase patient satisfaction and enhance the bottom line. This paper remedies this circumstance by the introduction of the Nursing Presence Grid model. The model is based upon a review of the literature conducted in the manner of Polit and Hungler (1995) and appearing since 1983. Nursing presence is defined. The Nursing Presence Grid matches the various dimensions of nursing presence with various courses of action thought to attain nursing presence. An explanation of how the model might be applied is presented.     

Over the Line: Managers' experience of a labour strike

The experiences of managers who continue to work through a labour stoppage is a largely overlooked question in industrial relations research and practice. Qualitative long interviews were conducted with managers who worked through a strike. A shared narrative for managers' strike experiences emerged. Managers perceived that their prestrike workplace was cooperative and characterized by positive labour‐management relationships. The strike was experienced as contentious and personalized with managers reporting that they and their families were targets of aggression from strikers. The managers envisioned a more formal poststrike workplace characterized by less collegial labour‐management interactions. We discuss the implications of these findings and call for further research on managers' experiences of industrial relations events. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving the New Product Development Process: A Fractal Paradigm for High-Technology Products

Those professionals who are charged with improving the new product development (NPD) process may well feel as though they have been asked to bring order out of chaos. For every level in the organization, and for every step in the NPD process, they must contend with myriad, often interdependent choices—of products and processes; of tools and technologies; of proven best practices and hypothesized solutions. In turn, each choice may cascade into several additional decisions. With so many issues to address and so many variables to consider, practioners and researchers alike need a clear, but complete, framework for exploring, understanding, and improving the NPD process. To help bring some order to the study and the practice of NPD management, W. Austin Spivey, J. Michael Munson, and John H. Wolcott introduce a new metaphor, or paradigm, for product development: a fractal paradigm. Like some fractal images, their framework for understanding the essence of NPD rests on the concept of self-similarity. In other words, the picture their framework provides for understanding and managing the NPD process consists of the same set of concerns, regardless of the level at which the process is viewed. They developed this fractal paradigm during an empirical study of technology transition in a highly successful federal laboratory organization. Whether the focus is on the organization, the division, the team, or the individual, the essence of the NPD process as viewed through their framework comes down to two sets of factors: management factors and resource factors. In turn, each of these factors cascades into several interrelated sets of concerns. For example, the management factors comprise concerns about leadership and the management system. The resource factors include concerns about information, infrastructure, time, and money. Regardless of the level of detail at which the framework is viewed, improving the NPD process requires attention to all of these factors, by all levels within the organization. For example, visionary leadership on the part of senior management will have little effect if middle management and line supervisors fail to provide the necessary leadership for their respective groups of subordinates. Notwithstanding the complexity of the NPD process, the fractal paradigm focuses attention on those few key factors that must be managed continually, throughout all levels of the organization, to ensure successful commercialization of new products.     

Capital intensive education policy issues and problems

This paper describes some of the problems of today's mass schools and suggests that the technology is already available to replace them with more effective and efficient ones using capital intensive man-machine methods of instruction. It discusses some of the political and labor problems that may impede implementation and makes suggestions how these may be overcome.Research findings on the development of such schools are examined. A generalized model of such schools is presented based on a number of studies suggesting it will be substantially more cost-effective than its contemporary counterparts. The politics of change is discussed and specific strategies for implementation are suggested, the most immediate of which is the provision of federal or state funds for development of operating models of capital intensive schools. The key role of teacher union negotiations in facilitating or impeding changes is considered along with the present teacher union posture of opposition. It is suggested that teacher unions can best serve their own interests by cooperating in the development of capital intensive schools while bargaining to assure that their members share appropriately in the benefits of the improvements they bring.