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It seems today to be an indisputable fact that ISO 9000 is a powerful instrument, which cannot be disregarded. It is, far and away, the most influential initiative that grew from the quality movement of the late 1980s. This paper contains an evaluation of results from a survey on ISO 9000 certified companies and aims to present some aspects of the current state of the standard in Swedish industry. This study is focused on motives for implementation, perceived benefits and key implementation factors. The predominant reasons identified for seeking certification were the desire to improve corporate image and quality. Like many previous studies this study underlines the need for management commitment and participation. The very important conclusion drawn from this survey is that the motivation for certification may influence the performance of ISO 9000. The overall benefits which the companies gain from the standard showed dependence on the motivation which initiated the drive for the certification.

This paper aims to look at Shakespearean characters and to help managers to discover their strengths and weaknesses and learn from Shakespeare, one of the best psychologists of all time.

Six manager types according to Shakespeare are examined in this piece and comparisons to famous managers of today are drawn.

It was found that Shakespeare's heroes, in their glory and their faults, do not differ too much from today's managers. So if you study Shakespearean leaders, you can prevent errors you may otherwise make as a manager.

The paper shows that managers can: learn more about themselves through Shakespeare; use a story as an indirect approach; prevent errors Shakespearean leaders already made; and understand that Shakespeare is one of the best psychologists and executive coaches.

While there have been some works on leadership in Shakespeare, this paper helps managers to find out more about themselves via Shakespeare. What might look like a detour will turn out to be a shortcut, as it is easier to talk about other people's faults (here: Shakespeare's leaders) than about your own.

Product development projects can be utilized to create not only new products or services but also competitively important capabilities on how to work with product development. The resulting capabilities can be, and often are, as important as the product itself. Although there is potential for an organization to improve product development performance, most organizations can learn even more from their development experiences. A reliance on post‐project reviews to share knowledge across projects is doomed to fail, since it usually is of low priority and does not capture the complexity of development projects. The aim of this research is to investigate what organizations can do to reduce the effect of losing valuable experience gained in product development projects.

A multiple case study approach, using both qualitative and quantitative data, is used to perform a study of two high‐tech product development organizations with respect to their inter‐project improvement activities. A framework concerning inter‐project improvement is presented, containing concepts such as levels of learning, improvement content, and axes of improvement.

To avoid losing valuable experience, an organization should use multiple strategies to share knowledge across projects. Examples of successful strategies are to use a well‐established product development process, professional full‐time project managers as well as modularization of the product.

Although research on organizational learning in product development has increased significantly during the last few years, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of inter‐project improvement by combining perspectives from quality management, organizational learning, and knowledge management.

Continuous improvement has become an important strategy in improving organizational performance. Unfortunately, product development is often excluded in continuous improvement programs due to the special characteristics of product development activities. The overall purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of continuous improvement in the context of product development.

A central aspect in this context is that many organizations find it difficult to improve and learn if work is carried out in the form of projects. In this paper, a quality perspective on continuous improvement is introduced and its usefulness is tested empirically through three case studies in Swedish organizations. The focus is on the improvement programs used and the quality principles displayed in a product development context.

The results show that the three investigated organizations have multiple improvement programs, but that some configurations of improvement programs seem to be more successful than others. For instance, co‐ordination of multiple improvement programs, scope creep, and separating between product development processes and project management models are important success factors for continuous improvement. In addition, an introduction of an improvement program without adoption of a critical mass of quality principles is doomed to fail.

The research initiative is one of the first to conduct an empirical investigation of how organizations design and work with improvement programs in the context of product development. It provides knowledge to both academics and practitioners on how organizations can design and implement initiatives on quality management, especially in the context of product development.

Moanin'; Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blue Note CDP 7 46516 2. Even though this reissue was released several years ago, please get it into your library's collections as well as your own. The late Art Blakey is one of the most important figures in jazz history. He was one of the seminal bebop drummers, but his true niche is as the leader of the Jazz Messengers. Almost every major trumpet player for the last four decades played with Blakey, from Clifford Brown to Fred‐die Hubbard to Wynton Marsalis, and a whole number of others along the way. As well, Blakey's sax players, e.g. Wayne Shorter, Branford Marsalis, et. al., were no slouches.

The format for bibliographical records of monographs that will be distributed in machineable form by the Library of Congress and the British National Bibliography as the second stage of Project MARC has now been agreed upon. All significant differences between the records produced in the two countries have been removed and compatibility problems will be minimal.

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by Tony McSean, Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for VINE articles rests with the British Library Board, but opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription to VINE is £10 per year and the subscription period runs from January to December.

Spain's libraries have experienced considerable change in the past decade as a result of governmental restructuring and the general economic boom, after many years of neglect. Automation efforts, the first of which date from the late 1960s, have increased in the past five years, coinciding with the introduction of new software packages. The pace of automation and the software solution chosen vary according to the different types of libraries. Some networking and co‐operative ventures have begun recently, especially among university and research libraries. It remains to be seen if the present growth will continue after the major events of 1992 have concluded.

US and Europe take bite out of copyright The US Supreme Court opened the door for US vendors to sell electronic versions of white‐page telephone directories, while the European Commission looked to be closing the door on European database compilers. Both decisions deal with the thornier issues of copyright that could mean millions in revenues gained in the US, and lost in the EC's information industry.