Search results

Last month Geoff Smith described how to develop a system of financial reporting which adequately relates to the business activity of a company: How effectively does it use its resources of people and money; how is it growing; how is it providing security for participants? Now he looks at a method of reporting cash flow; profit and loss and balance sheet in relation to each other.

Full‐text documents are usually searched by means of a Boolean retrieval algorithm that requires the user to specify the logical relationships between the terms of a query. In this paper, we summarise the results to date of a continuing programme of research at the University of Sheffield to investigate the use of nearest‐neighbour retrieval algorithms for full‐text searching. Given a natural‐language query statement, our methods result in a ranking of the paragraphs comprising a full‐text document in order of decreasing similarity with the query, where the similarity for each paragraph is determined by the number of keyword stems that it has in common with the query. A full‐text document test collection has been created to allow systematic tests of retrieval effectiveness to be carried out. Experiments with this collection demonstrate that nearest‐neighbour searching provides a means for paragraph‐based access to full‐text documents that is of comparable effectiveness to both Boolean and hypertext searching and that index term weighting schemes which have been developed for the searching of bibliographical databases can also be used to improve the effectiveness of retrieval from full‐text databases. A current project is investigating the extent to which a paragraph‐based full‐text retrieval system can be used to augment the explication facilities of an expert system on welding.

Following the British Library’s 1998 Strategic Review a unit was set up to develop and co‐ordinate the Library’s Co‐operation and Partnership Programme in the areas of collection development, collection management and access. The unit co‐ordinates existing and new BL co‐operative activities and provides an external focus and point of contact relating to co‐operation. A new fund, administered by the unit, was established to support practical co‐operative and partnership activities and projects. The article describes the activities of the Programme, including the review of existing co‐operative activities, the establishment of dialogue and communication mechanism, and the pursuit of co‐operative and partnership initiatives with other organisations, both at a level of strategic frameworks, and on a bilateral or multilateral basis, including through the funding of projects.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of a trauma-informed care (TIC) training programme on practice at the individual and workplace level in mental health and drug and alcohol services and to examine the implications of using training alone as a strategy for achieving system-level practice change.

A total of 271 clinicians and managers from public mental health and drug and alcohol services in Western Australia who had undertaken TIC training were invited to complete an on-line survey 12 months after training. Individual survey items were based on a five-point Likert scale with opportunity being provided for additional comments from respondents.

One year post-training, both clinicians and managers reported that training had increased their awareness and knowledge and had a positive impact on their attitudes towards TIC. Clinicians reported a moderate impact on their individual practice and both groups reported very limited success in bringing about change in their workplaces. Workforce development and organisational factors were identified by both clinicians and managers as being barriers to implementation.

Only 30 per cent of the training participants responded to the survey and it is not possible to determine whether they differed from non-respondents. Findings were based on a self-report survey with no objective measure of behaviour change.

This “naturalistic” study examines the longer-term impact of training, from the perspective of clinicians and managers, on changing practice at the individual clinician and workplace level. It highlights the critical importance of understanding and addressing contextual factors where collective, coordinated behaviour change is needed in order to effect organisational change.

This paper considers the use of a hypertext system, GUIDE, for paragraph‐based searching in full‐text documents. Searching can be effected in GUIDE using both a conventional, word‐based approach and using the inter‐textual linkage facilities. The effectiveness of these retrieval techniques are evaluated by means of searches of three full‐text documents for which relevance data are available. The results of the searches are compared with those obtained from use of a nearest neighbour retrieval system that has been developed for the ranking of paragraphs within full‐text documents. The comparison suggests that the linkage facilities in hypertext do not provide a very cost‐effective mechanism for paragraph‐based retrieval.

Most businessmen and managers are now aware that ‘things are not what they used to be’ and they never will be the same again. The reasons for this are many and cover rapid technological development, increased education and training, a greater social awareness, pollution of the environment, growth of markets, increasing standards of living, increased competition for the world's natural resources, inflation on international basis and Government involvement in increasing areas of our individual way of life. The latest developments are to be seen in; • the need for two of the world's industrial nations to have Economic Stabilisation Programmes or Prices and Incomes Policy, both to counter inflation • the fact that the United Kingdom has joined the EEC and is thus part of the large market created • leading businessmen and managers are becoming more aware of the need for new social contracts to cover customers, shareholders and employees • the negotiating power of certain groups of workers and their impact on the lives of all • the inequalities that still exist in our society and are of the concern of politicians, companies, unions and individuals • the growing impersonality of the larger units of business supposedly in the interest of efficiency, which do not seem to have produced the benefits that it was claimed would benefit everyone • the profit motive and market economic forces are no longer acceptable to the increasing majority of people who are now looking for more from life • the failures in communicating to people and in allowing them to be involved in decisions which affect them.

Amongst one of the most progressive worker participation programmes currently being developed is the one by the Cadbury‐Schweppes group. Much has been written elsewhere about the philosophy and approach being used. ICT were recently able to discuss the training and people development approaches that have been adopted by one of the Cadbury‐Schweppes group operating units — Fry's at Somerdale.

Asserts that to help convince everyone in the company that quality improvement is worthwhile, a way of linking the improvements with business results is required. Discusses the waning of commitment which often follows the early days of a quality initiative. Contends motivation is improved if the costs of quality are identified and measured on a regular basis, and that it helps if improvement efforts are linked to the needs of business. Asserts that taking a quality approach to business can benefit the bottom‐line. Discusses business models and their use. Concludes it involves examining costs in minute detail, and tracking back the costs to each customer order.

One key to effective information systems is to have a recognised objective which links all the participants in a business. Surely the nation's and a company's current economic problems could be a focal point for developing information systems. Until there is understanding of our economic problems there will be no acceptable solution or method of approach to their cure. Informing people of the basic economic facts of the country and the company we keep is an objective that avoids many of the pitfalls of present approaches.

The previous articles have outlined the need for and approaches to presenting information to employees. The questions continually asked are — why do it? — what can we use the information for? — do employees really understand and want to know anyway? In the first article information needs were identified and linked with security, improvement and comparability factors for all the participants in any business. So the obvious approach in using information is to meet these real needs whether for groups or individuals, ie the company or its employees. The one area where these needs are mutual is that the continuous economic survival of the business is essential if there is to be security of income whether wages or profits. This can be achieved only through effective, efficient business performance being continuously maintained and improved to meet growing economic pressures brought about by inflation.