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The MSC has just earmarked £10 million as a pump‐priming budget to actively promote open learning methods. This new approach includes open learning systems, peer‐learning networks and self‐instruction methods. Ian Winfield is a regular contributor to ICT and previously worked for the MSC as a training psychologist. He is now a director of Self Instruction Ltd and his latest book PEOPLE IN BUSINESS is being published by Hienemann this spring. Here Ian describes the self‐instructional approach to redesigning an induction training course for sales staff.

Instructors and supervisors have an acknowledged hard job. Explaining, demonstrating, setting to work and correcting errors all day long is extremely demanding. Often we hear our instructors, supervisors and chargehands complain that over the years their job is getting no easier. What do they specifically complain about? They complain that the pace of technological change brings in new skills almost daily, and, conversely that old skills disappear without trace almost overnight. They also complain of the apparent decline in standards of literacy and numeracy and the willingness to work among sections of the younger work force.

Studies on successful techniques of job instruction show that particular kinds of learning on the part of the learner need appropriate methods of instruction. This article explains how novice instructors are taught how to use a card listing these appropriate instructional methods. Examples are given of how instructors use these in actual shop‐floor job instruction.

The first wave of interest in appraisal interviewing took place in the late 60's and 70's. That particular wave culminated in such classic studies and texts as Anstey et al 1976, Randell et al 1974, and many others. After something of a lull in interest there now appears once again to be a revival in staff training for appraisal. The reasons behind this re‐emergence of interest must of course lie in our current experience of de‐industrialisation, labour‐shedding and rationalisation. Today's Training Manager, either starting a company appraisal scheme afresh or intending to rekindle interest in an existing one, will quickly find that attitudes towards appraisal interviewing have changed. They differ drastically from those of five or ten years ago. Gone is the naive faith in appraisals as a panacea to cure all ills; gone is the immediate seduction of a behaviourally‐based performance objectives approach; tarnished is the shibboleth of better two‐way communication. Nowadays, by and large, the unspoken feeling so often is one of suspicion: rating systems are viewed as distasteful; public recording of performance is seen as potentially threatening, and all documentation related to appraisal systems is scrutinized and criticised by all and sundry within organisations. Yet schemes have to be implemented afresh, personnel have to be convinced of the usefulness of schemes and the Training Manager must ensure that all his staff know the mechanics of his company scheme.

This case study narrates the experience of a medium‐sized UK manufacturing company in setting up and running a manufacturing plant in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. It details how features of the social organisation of production, the human resource policies and the management practices of the UK parent company were successfully transferred and adapted to the unique labour market and business environment encountered in mainland China. The study concludes by reviewing two major challenges that directly lie ahead for the company.

Examines the extent to which a major purchaser can affect company behaviour within those firms supplying to it. Eleven major UK suppliers to Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK were compared with other non‐supply chain companies to examine the extent to which new forms of customer‐supplier relationships are spreading within supply chain firms into wider aspects of organizational behaviour, as a direct consequence of close involvement. Toyota appear to affect supply firms’ communication patterns, employee relations, and approaches to problem solving directly.

Training Officers, Personnel Officers, Welfare Officers, Instructors and line managers find that much of their time is being taken up with activities related to destocking and labour shedding. But as well as this they also find that their everyday activities and roles are changing too. Increasingly they find themselves taking a caring role with staff; assisting whenever possible with their health, general welfare and mental well‐being. They find themselves talking with staff about general problems of living in today's changing world; about avoiding illness; ways of coping with social and personal disruption in their lives; about maintenance of sound health — even about avoiding health‐denying habits. At first sight all this seems due to the increased general population awareness of health and well‐being — the impact of Health Education Council public campaigns for instance. But is it? Is this the only reason?

Training managers frequently speak of an omission in staff development programmes. Whilst considerable sums are spent on job‐related courses and training modules little or nothing is spent on developing staff emotional well‐being, removing blocks to more effective performance. Is this, one wonders, too nebulous a concept for anyone to worry about? Of course we are sneakingly aware that the Japanese are doing this already. Their staff development programmes promote well‐being in characteristically Japanese ways: daily group meetings, integrating the individual closely with his/her primary working group and through it the corporation. The approach to staff development and staff well‐being adopted by Europeans will be different, for we have a different heritage. Our approach is through developing the individual as a unique person, as a whole person. Finding more effective ways of developing staff rests on using better ways of understanding the individual employee; what their unique problems are; what their individual ways of relating (or not relating) to the company and environment are.

Relates how the arrival of Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Derby, UK, prompted the setting up of a research project to study the impact on regional businesses. Baseline surveys were conducted in the Derbyshire region revealing a marked swing towards modern, socially‐based manufacturing methods, including lean production, cellular manufacturing, just‐in‐time component supply and teamworking. Contends that this swing is congruent with national findings. When the Toyota supply chain was examined using survey and extended case‐study analysis, the research uncovered significant differences in the way supply chain firms approach and implement changes in manufacturing, compared with other matched, non‐supply chain firms. Toyota UK appeared able to pass on valuable knowledge and expertise to its component suppliers. Examines and further explains this process of inter‐firm learning and collaboration.

Outlines a research project being carried out within the East Midlands, which is examining change in management ideas owing to the presence of a large Japanese car manufacturer. If management ideas are found to alter, there will eventually follow the implementation of new ideas in both production practices and employment practices. This will make itself felt throughout the region. Change will come in the implementation of new ideas and techniques, some of which are successful, others not. What the research will investigate is how senior managers′ ideas and strategies develop and change over time as a direct result of Toyota′s presence. Using well‐established techniques the study will track changes by conducting surveys and in‐depth interviews. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be used to map the flow of changed practices through the business network.