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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of stressful life events and health related events with sickness absenteeism and presenteeism (attending work while ill or injured).

A web‐based survey was conducted within a public service organization which had just undergone a significant downsizing, where the workforce was reduced by over 30 per cent.

The findings indicated that stressful life events were significantly associated with both presenteeism and absenteeism, to the same degree.

These results extend previous research in suggesting that employees are substituting presenteeism for absenteeism. However, different health risks (chronic conditions vs needing counselling support) were more likely to predict absenteeism than presenteeism.

By supporting a substitution hypothesis, the present study suggests that both presenteeism and absenteeism are important measures of employee health and organizational productivity.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

This study aims to examine how innovation can be accelerated within the New Zealand (NZ) building industry to improve the productivity and efficiency of the industry.

The study adopted a mixed philosophical approach combining interpretivism and post-positivism. Data for the study were obtained through a focus group of 50 practitioners that were selected using a stratified sampling procedure. All focus group data were audio-recorded, notes of the discussions were taken and then transcribed, de-identified and managed using NVivo software. Data analysis was undertaken using thematic analysis and inductive reasoning consistent with interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The study findings revealed that the industry could benefit from the adoption of new and emerging technologies to improve its performance, especially its productivity and efficiency. Key drivers for the adoption of innovative practices included the adaptation of “local best practices” from case studies that would consist of stories of successful innovations that could foster confidence in future innovation. It was also identified that Government and industry should nurture innovation through collaborative contracts, policies and regulations. Further, it was highlighted that a culture of innovation needed to be developed to help nurture competencies and capability within the industry workforce.

This study provides an in-depth examination of the need for innovation from the point of view of building industry practitioners. This study provides a useful starting-off point for further research and for the creation of policies that could help to support and accelerate innovation within the NZ building industry.

NZ’s building industry productivity and efficiency have been sub-optimal relative to other industries. But using evidence from the experiences and knowledge of industry practitioners, strategies can be developed to accelerate innovation within the NZ building industry that could help reverse industry performance. Further, the research findings can help inform government policies to develop support mechanisms that could encourage innovation in the industry in NZ. In addition, it is anticipated that the findings will provide a useful set of guidance for other countries that have similar market and physical constraints as those encountered by NZ.

There is a dearth of empirical studies on innovation in the NZ building industry which the current study contributes to. By sharing industry practitioners’ experiences and knowledge of innovation, the paper seeks to counteract more technocratic and technological optimist accounts of innovation within the building industry. Further, the paper provides insights into how the NZ building industry can transform its performance through innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether deeply rooted ethnic values persist in public administration in spite of strong foreign influence in education and administrative culture.

This paper presents the theories and concepts on ethnic values, in particular Chinese and Canadian administrative values in order to examine their differences. Victoria of Canada and Hong Kong of China, both former British colonies, have been selected as the study sites due to their similarity in British education and administrative culture. Comparable samples of human subjects were drawn from the public sectors of Hong Kong and Victoria, who were either students or graduates of a master of public administration program. A questionnaire containing questions on program evaluation and staff promotion was administered to participants.

The survey results show that, while organizations may have similar administrative systems and cultures, employees revert to their ethnic values for matters concerning their immediate well-being – staff promotion in this case. The findings also suggest that employees endorse good practices and reject bad ones more often than they believe their organizations do.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether lengthy foreign influence can change deeply rooted ethnic culture. The research results are not aimed at and may not be relevant to explaining a current situation.

The research findings may help improve public administration, in particular regarding issues of human resources management.

The research findings may provide a better understanding of social behavior in the work place.

This paper contains original data for a comparative analysis that appears to have never been done before. It provides empirical proof that deeply rooted ethnics values are very difficult to change in spite of a long history of foreign influence.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

Sir Kingsley Wood, the Minister of Health, speaking at Plymouth on September 15th, said the problem of nutrition was one to which increased attention must be given in the light of modern scientific knowledge. In all our consideration of it we should not forget the necessity of pure, wholesome food. The consumption of food of all kinds in the United Kingdom had grown considerably. To‐day it was probably over 25 million tons a year. The consumption of dairy products and of eggs, fruit and vegetables, so important to good nutrition, had greatly increased. It was vital to our good health that our food supply should not only be unimpaired by the addition of harmful substances, but that there should be no abstraction from articles of food of their proper qualities. It was only fair that the public should get what they asked and paid for. There had undoubtedly been a considerable improvement in the food standards in this country. It had been achieved largely by the Health Authorities and their professional advisers, as well as producers and manufacturers themselves. Some 60 years ago some 15,000 samples only were submitted to Public Analysts, and over 19 per cent. were found to be adulterated or not up to standard. Last year over 143,000 samples were submitted—the highest on record—and the percentage adulterated or not up to standard was a little over 5 per cent. For a variety of reasons the true percentage of adulterated food was probably less than was indicated in this figure. It could be fairly said that nowadays there was very little gross adulteration or deliberate substitution of one article of food for another. But we still had to be vigilant to see to it that the public had some sort of guarantee that they were getting what they asked for, and that food did not contain ingredients which would render it injurious to health. The consumer's interest must always come first both from the point of view of fair trading and good health. There was also no doubt about the high nutritional value of milk, and we must do all we can to increase the consumption of clean and safe milk.

This paper examines the Random Walk Hypothesis (RWH) for aggregate New Zealand share market returns, as well as the CRSP NYSE‐AMEX (USA) index during the 1980‐2001 period. Using several indices, we rely on the variance‐ratio test and find evidence to support the rejection of the RWH with some evidence of a momentum effect. However, we find evidence to suggest the behaviour of share prices to be time‐dependent in New Zealand. For example, we find the indices tested were closer to random after the 1987 share market crash. Further analysis showed even stronger results for periods subsequent to the passage of the Companies Act 1993 and the Financial Reporting Act 1993. We also find evidence that indices based on large capitalisation stocks are more likely to follow a random walk compared to those based on smaller stocks. For the USA index, we find stronger evidence of random behaviour in our sample period compared to the earlier period examined by Lo and Mackinlay (1988)

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

Taking its cue from the UK government's declaration that every new home should be ‘zero-carbon’ by 2016, this paper explores how close a flexible, prototype-housing model might come to meeting this target (accepting that there is currently some ambiguity between the respective official ‘zero-carbon’ definitions regarding off-site renewable supply). The prime aim is to design economically (affordable by housing associations) to the European ‘passive house’ standard of no more than 15 kWh/m2 for space heating and a maximum total consumption of 70 kWh/m2 adding in hot water and electricity. The model also prioritizes generous access to sunlight and daylight, as well as realistic levels of air change in a low-volume, intensively occupied scenario. Associated aims are: a) to meet thermal loads without use of fossil fuels such as gas or oil; and b) to employ architecturally integrated active solar thermal and electrical arrays to respectively meet at least one third of the water heating and electrical loads. Micro-wind generation is excluded from the study as too site-dependent. A subsidiary agenda is to achieve a flexible plan in terms of orientation and access, and to provide utility facilities that support the environmental strategy (e.g. drying clothes without compromising energy use or air quality). The paper goes on to address equivalent prospects for retrofit, briefly discusses institutional and other barriers to achievement, and muses on how much of the balance of the electrical demand can be met renewably in Scotland in the near future.

A NEW YEAR is always a time for a glance backwards and forwards, in the library world as in other worlds. If 1937 was not particularly dramatic in events or achievements, it was at least a year which was not unworthy in the library movement. A list of the libraries which came into being appears every year in the Annual Report of the L.A. and we are convinced that the one for the year just ended will be quite sizeable. The opening of a branch library now‐a‐days, as an addition to a large system, or to serve a lately‐populated part of a new area, excites little comment; and that, in itself, is significant and gratifying. People are coming to regard the provision of public libraries as a normal part of urban and even village equipment.