With the outsourcing of various HR activities increasingly falling under the remit of senior HR practitioners, Andrew Smith, outsourcing partner at international law firm Morrison & Foerster, outlines four obstacles you might encounter, and some of the steps you and your HR team can take to...

In this research note we critically consider the concept of \'care\' both inside and around the workplace. Care, we assert, is ever-present in the workplace and evident in friendships and wider social relations. Moreover, many organisational policies and practices provide a framework within...

The Higher Education Funding Councils in the UK are working with higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop a reliable, accurate and relevant set of Key Estate Ratios (KERs). A successful pilot study was carried out in 1998/99, with a national project ‐ including full data collection from...

Purpose – Quality function deployment (QFD) is a method for structured product planning and development that enables a development team to specify clearly the wants and needs of customers. This method has been successfully employed in the construction industry in developed countries. However,...

This working paper develops an approach to the analysis of care as it is evident in the policies and practices of employing organisations. We identify how notions of care are incorporated in myriad and multi-faceted ways that may support, survey and control workers, as well as having...

This article explores how neutralisation can explain people’s lack of commitment to buying Fair Trade (FT) products, even when they identify FT as an ethical concern. It examines the theoretical tenets of neutralisation theory and critically assesses its applicability to the purchase of...

Little evidence is found of a stable structural relationship between aggregate inflation and relative price variability in the Un ited Kingdom. The main contributors to relative price variability are prices of goods that are sensitive to policy changes such as alcohol and tobacco, rates, and...

International cost efficiency benchmarking played a central role in informing the Office of Rail Regulation's (ORR) determination of Network Rail's future funding during the 2008 periodic review (PR08) of the company's finances. This paper sets out how international benchmarking can inform a...