Further reading: Her Majesty's inspectorate: Not good enough

The territorial Departments, such as the Welsh Office, may be low in Whitehall's pecking order, but their communities derive enormous benefits from the arrangement It may be true to say that if we did not have a Welsh Office we should now be thinking of inventing one.     

Teamworking: Redesigning the Organization for Manufacturing Improvements

This paper argues that our understanding of the different forms of teamworking in manufacturing is aided by placing teamworking within an organizational and a strategic context. The argument is developed firstly by considering changes in the manufacturing environment which have resulted in the need to overcome the legacy of traditional organization and move to contemporary forms emphasizing quality and flexibility. Secondly, there follows a discussion of the role of teamworking in the current literature, particularly that focussing on 'new wave' manufacturing. Thirdly, extracts from one of our fourteen in-depth case studies from field work are presented as examples. This is of a car assembly plant, which used teamworking as a vehicle for major organizational change. Data analysis used Hinings and Greenwood's (H.R. Hinings & R. Greenwood, Understanding Organisational Design (Oxford, Blackwell, 1989)) theoretical framework, arguing the relevance of that model to aid our understanding of teamworking, both in terms of utilizing an organizational perspective and of recognizing and defining different team archetypes. Finally, the article concludes by summarizing the main findings of the research so far, emphasizing the benefits of taking a strategic approach to teamworking.     

Decision‐making in the pharmaceutical industry: analysis of entrepreneurial risk and attitude using uncertain information

The main purpose of this study was to investigate judgments made by employees from the pharmaceutical industry and allied health‐care sectors in a set of four different drug discovery and development cases derived from real scenarios. Each case study related to go/no‐go decisions taken from various steps in drug discovery through preclinical and clinical development (investigational new drug) on to market introduction (new drug application) and treatment of the target population. Using a web‐based questionnaire, 52 respondents made five sets of judgment within each drug case whether to continue or halt further project development. For each case, additional details of the developmental scenario were disclosed to the respondent after completion of each judgment response. We also assessed to what extent the individual judgments given by the respondents were influenced by work experience and functional role, education, or their perceived entrepreneurial character. Our study demonstrates that health‐care employees differ substantially in their individual intuitive judgments of benefit and risk in go/no‐go decisions during the drug discovery and development process. This lack of coherence and wide variability with respect to the drug development cases selected may reflect judgment in the real world. Such judgments are usually taken from incomplete information, and individual decision‐making rules vary substantially between experts in the field. Further knowledge about this inherent human functional judgment variability may be helpful to form a better understanding of individual decision‐making in relation to inherent uncertainties. Additional research may also clarify how personal experience within drug discovery and development influences judgment and help to optimize decision outcomes in the drug development sector. Importantly, a deeper insight of the fundamentals and rules that shape individual and group decision‐making of everyday drug discovery and development may help to optimize the decision processes in the pharmaceutical industry.     

The Financial System and The Crash One Year On

What was the ultimate significance of the Crash? Professor Ivor Pearce places the events of October 1987 in the context of a fundamental defect in the financial system.     

Matrices with dominating diagonal blocks

In mathematical economics we appeal frequently to the theory of matrices with dominating diagonal elements. This paper generalizes that theory to the case of matrices with dominating diagonal submatrices which appear to possess the same fundamental properties. Matrix dominance is defined, and its connection with “bigness” of a matrix is established. Quick checks for dominance are developed. The standard theorems associated with dominating diagonal matrices are shown to be special cases of more general results. Examples are presented to illustrate the wide range of possible application.     

Adding value through the mechanization of post-harvest cassava processing,and its impact on household poverty in north-eastern Zambia

This article investigates the impact of adopting a mechanized cassava processing system on household poverty levels in Zambia. An Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measure was used to compare poverty levels among households using a mechanized cassava processing system against those households using a nonmechanized process. Based on the FGT poverty measure’s specifications, a significantly lower poverty status of 49% was found among households using the mechanized process when compared to the 58% found among households using the nonmechanized process. The significant factors contributing to these differences in poverty levels include whether households are using a mechanized process or not, the number of years’ schooling among household members, the number of years’ farming experience, household income and membership of associations. The study concludes that the mechanization of cassava processing, particularly if done on the right scale, can transform primary production activities, in turn leading to higher incomes and reduced poverty levels in rural villages. Thus, policies should be introduced aimed at encouraging the promotion of mechanized post-harvest cassava processing technologies among rural households, so as to enhance crop productivity and household income levels, as well as reduce poverty among rural households.