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The purpose of this study is to understand the influence of formal learning from a web-based training and informal (workplace) learning afterwards on the behaviour of general practitioners (GPs) with respect to prescription of antibiotics.

To obtain insight in various learning processes, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 GPs. These interviews were transcribed and analysed with a theory-based template, that had been defined beforehand, but with an open mind for emerging themes.

The web-based training was perceived by GPs to change their prescription behaviour, mostly as a result of informal learning processes. Being a research participant and being a supervisor appeared to create most opportunities for informal learning.

The current research shows that being a research participant and/or a supervisor enhance informal learning activities, for example, reflection and social interaction, and thereby formal training becomes more effective. It is recommended to remind GPs regularly to reflect on their prescribing behaviour and to stimulate them to reflect and seek social interaction besides participating in formal training.

Our study adds to the existing literature by considering informal learning processes in an evaluation of the perceived effects of formal training. Our findings have implications for the design and evaluation of formal trainings with the purpose of behavioural change of doctors.

Problem solving courts are a result of the therapeutic jurisprudence movement. Drug treatment courts (DTCs), for instance, aim to divert substance using offenders away from the criminal justice system (CJS) to (drug) treatment services. DTCs are associated with reduced criminal offending and substance use. Psychosocial outcomes of DTCs, such as employment, health and family relations, received only little attention. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper focuses on the outcomes regarding substance use and psychosocial variables of a Belgian DTC situated in the Ghent region, which were investigated by a naturalistic evaluation study with a pre- post-design using judicial files.

The results show that Ghent DTC clients were diverted to drug treatment and financial counselling services. Next the Ghent DTC produced beneficial outcomes regarding employment. Contrary to criminal offending (De Keulenaer and Thomaes, 2013), substance use was not significantly reduced in the Ghent DTC sample. Yet more compliance with opioid maintenance treatment was observed. Information on more client centred outcomes such as health and social relations was lacking, precluding a full outcome measurement of psychosocial variables.

Future DTC studies should address more client centreed outcomes by gathering information through DTC clients and treatment services instead of solely relying on judicial data sources. In addition, DTCs should develop a clear and uniform registration system regarding these outcomes.

Since the therapeutic jurisprudence movement continues to expand, discussion regarding the roles and tasks of the CJS as well as treatment and counselling services is vital. Each actor should maintain its own role and task, regarding monitoring and substantive work, to insure a “problem solving approach” that is in line with the recovery philosophy.

Algermissen, Virginia, Penny Billings, Sandra Grace, Barbara Guidry, and John Blair. “Subminute Telefacsimile for ILL Document Delivery.” Information Technology and Libraries, I (Sept., 1982), 274–5.

The paper aims to describe the changes in buyer-supplier relationships among Japanese companies at the early 2000s, focusing on two critical features; long-term relationships and information sharing. In particular, the paper investigates the relationship between benefits from information-sharing activities within buyer-supplier relationships and the stability of these relationships.

The paper develops a questionnaire based on prior research related to Japanese companies and undertakes a questionnaire survey of 353 Japanese manufacturing companies (which belong to the machinery, electrical/electronics, transportation equipment, and precision industries) in 2002.

Although Japanese companies have been considered to have close relationships with their partners, the paper finds only a small proportion of buyers were willing to share sensitive information with their suppliers and/or expected to continue long-term relationships with them. In addition, an examination of factors relating to buyers' performance shows that receiving benefits from inter-organizational information-sharing activities (attending suppliers' meetings, sending engineers to suppliers, and proposing cost saving ideas) could affect buyers' incentives to sustain long-term relationships with their suppliers.

The paper provides empirical evidence of the changing nature of the buyer-supplier relationship in Japanese manufacturing companies. Specifically, the main contribution of this research is to provide empirical evidence indicating that the benefit from buyer-supplier relationships has an effect on the governance structure of these relationships.

While the “creative turn” in everyday life has led to rapid development of creative tourism, not all forms of creative tourism use the same intensity of creative involvement. It is possible to distinguish between more passive and active involvement. In parallel, a “social turn” has led to popularity of forms of tourism, such as volunteer tourism, involving active participation. The purpose of this paper is to put forward ideas and present eclectic observations on active tourist participation around both the creative and social turns. Hence, it should be treated as a springboard and testing ground for these ideas and observations.

This study is based on theoretical conceptualisation with empirically derived supporting examples.

A new descriptor, “participatory experience tourism”, is advanced and argued to be preferable to reframing “creative tourism” to capture varied forms of experience involving active tourist participation. “Participatory experience tourism” is put forward as an extension of creative tourism and as an umbrella construct is further expanded upon to include notions of value addition.

Structured empirical substantiation of the conceptual ideas in this paper is a future research need.

The paper provides an original theoretical construct to better account for forms of active tourist participation that have emerged from the creative and social turns that characterise contemporary society, and also heightens awareness of a key link in the experience value addition chain.

The examination and identification of solvents and binder resins in particular has been discussed in detail previously. It is the sole purpose of this section to indicate the means available for obtaining these substances from finished paints in such a way as to facilitate their analysis. For example, the ASTM (15) has published a standard procedure for examining the solvent portion of paints by direct injection on to a GC. In this case, so as to prevent blockage of the column by the resin and pigment components, the sample was injected either via a glass injection port sleeve or on to a glass wool plug positioned in the heated injection port. Hence solvent analysis could be carried out without the need to apply any preliminary separation procedures. If however, both solvent and binder resin are to be examined then a procedure for separating these constituents must be applied.

Recent accounting research has connected the coercive and enabling types of formalisation (C/E) (Adler and Borys, 1996) with the distinction between diagnostic and interactive controls (D/I) proposed by Simons (1995, 2000) to tackle research questions on complex control situations involving both the degree of employee autonomy and patterns of management attention. The diverse conceptual approaches used for connecting C/E and D/I have led to fragmentation in the literature and raise concerns about their conceptual clarity. In this paper, we assess the conceptual clarity of various forms of connection between C/E and D/I. Firstly, we conduct an in-depth content analysis of 59 recent papers, and inductively identify three points of conceptual ambiguity and divergence in the literature (namely, the perspective from which a phenomenon is studied; whether categories capture choices driven by design or by style-of-use; and the properties of control systems). We also observe that the literature proposes various forms of connection (i.e. coexistence, inclusion, and combination approaches). Secondly, we use the three detected points of ambiguity and divergence as assessment criteria, and evaluate the extent to which conceptual clarity is at risk under each form of connection. Based on this assessment, we provide guidelines to enhance the conceptual clarity of the connections between C/E and D/I, propose several research models, and indicate opportunities for future research in this area.

Idiosyncratic jobs occur when formal job duties match the abilities or interests of a specific person. New duties can accrue or be negotiated to match an existing employee or a potential hire. Idiosyncratic jobs can help organizations deal with changing contexts, and influence organizational goals and structure. They can affect job holders’ careers and organizational job structures. The evolutionary accumulation of idiosyncratic jobs can potentially generate unplanned organizational learning. Promising research frontiers include links to work on job crafting, I-Deals, negotiated joining, and ecologies of jobs. Deeper exploration of these domains can advance core theories of job design and organizational transformation and inform normative theory on organizational use of idiosyncratic jobs without falling into cronyism, inefficiency, or injustice.

Despite extensive adoption of Simons’ Levers of Control (LoC) framework, there is still considerable diversity in its operationalization which impedes the coherent development of the literature and compromises its value to researchers. The purpose of this paper is to draw researchers back to the conceptual core of the framework as a basis for stable, consistent definitions of the domain of observables.

We derive the conceptual core of the framework from Simons’ writings. We highlight instability in existing operational definitions of the LoC, weaknesses in the extent to which these definitions reference this conceptual core, and inconsistencies in the restriction of LoC to formal information-based routines.

We draw on the inconsistencies identified to build the case for commensuration or a “common standard” for the framework’s use on two levels: the constructs within the framework (through reference to the conceptual core of the framework) and the framework itself (through explicit inclusion of informal controls).

We illustrate the benefits of commensuration through the potential to guide the scope of the domain of observables in empirical LoC studies, and to study LoC as complementary or competing with other management control theories.

Our approach to resolving tensions arising from inconsistencies in the empirical definitions of LoC differs from others in that we focus on the strategic variables underlying the framework to define the conceptual core. We believe this approach offers greater potential for commensuration at the level of the constructs within the framework and the framework itself.