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Previous articles in this series have considered techniques of paint analysis, as well as methods of studying surfaces and interfaces and ways of following the various physico‐chemical reactions which occur within coatings, particularly those concerned with film curing. Many of the techniques described in these articles required sophisticated analytical equipment and certainly in larger organisations the care and operation of this would be in the hands of specially trained personnel. There are however, a wide range of tests which paint chemists more or less routinely use in their day to day work on formulation control and development. These are the types of test which charactertise liquid or paint film properties such as viscosity (which has been considered in a previous article), colour and gloss, drying time, hardness, durability etc. The equipment used in these tests tends to be less complicated than required for many of the techniques described in the previous articles though as much care and attention to detail is required in operation and interpreting the data obtained. The last two parts in this series will be concerned with a review of some of the recent literature concerned with certain aspects of paint film testing. This article will consider test panel preparation and some of the literature concerned with measuring gloss level and film mechanical properties. Recent advances in the field of durability and corrosion testing will form the basis of a subsequent article.

Previous articles in this series have described some of the techniques that are used to characterise paint film properties. In many instances results from such tests are used predictively, that is they yield information on the likely performance of the coating during service. It is however, widely accepted that the most accurate way of determing performance is to actually subject the coating‐substrate combination to the service conditions it will meet in practice, or a close approximation to them. Suitability can then be assessed by periodic inspection and/or by taking measurements of some appropriate parameter which might be expected to change with time. A great many techniques have been developed and refined over the years that are intended to replicate service environments in some simplified and reproducible way; an indication of the range of test methods that can be employed to this end can be seen in a recent article by El‐Sawy. Many of these techniques are suitable for the laboratory and range from simple immersion tests in appropriate solutions through to exposure testing in controlled environment cabinets. Because of the problems of interpreting the results from laboratory simulation testing though, exposure of test panels in the natural environment is also widely practiced. This, the last article in this series, will consider some of the recent literature concerning environmental testing, with particular reference to techniques appropriate for assessing the weather, marine and corrosion resistance of coatings.

Introduction Organic surface coatings are the most familiar, and perhaps the most economical, method used for providing corrosion protection to metallic structures. If appropriate control of the metal preparation and pre‐treatment procedures and specified coating application is followed, the paints will afford protection by one, or more of the following mechanisms:

Previous articles in this series have considered recent developments in the colouring and opacifying pigments which are added to all paints, and also in the protective pigments used in anticorrosive coatings for metals. Many paints also contain another component in their total pigmentation these being the extenders.

This statement was made by Dr William M. Mackinlay, chairman of Federated Paints Ltd. of Glasgow at the company's annual sales conference, which was held this year at Arenal in Majorca, to celebrate their 21st Anniversary and a record sales year. He further emphasised that while they were patting themselves on the back they should remember that they were not exceptional in having had such a great success in a ‘weary year like last year’.

Considering the significant increase in researchers’ interest in human resource management (HRM) in the public sector domain, this study aims to focus on producing a scale of HRM practices customized for the context of public organizations.

Experts and semantic analysis were performed for the scale development (qualitative stage), and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis through structural equation modeling was conducted for the scale validation (quantitative stage).

The public HRM practices scale (public HRMPS) is composed of 19 items, distributed along four factors/dimensions, named training, development and education; relationship; work conditions; and competency and performance appraisal. The scale showed evidence of internal and construct validity (convergent, divergent, criterion-related and discriminant), as well as reliability and content validity.

The public HRMPS can be applied in relational studies to test structural models of prediction, mediation and moderation to evaluate relationships with organizational behavior variables, such as leader-members exchange, engagement at work, life quality at work and well-being at work, among others.

The public HRMPS may also serve as a useful diagnostic tool for the decision-making process made by public managers so they can promote a strategic, evidence-based HRM. Furthermore, the transforming role of strategic HRM can be operationalized by adopting practices gathered in the public HRMPS, advancing toward new HRM strategies to promote healthier and more productive work environments.

Healthier and more productive environments translate into real impacts for society, the first beneficiary of public services with more quality, efficiency and accountability.

The public HRMPS is the first attempt to produce an operationally valid and reliable measure to evaluate strategic HRM practices, responding to calls in the literature concerning the need for an integrated, comprehensive and customized HRM practices scale for the public service context.

High-involvement work processes (HIWPs) are associated with high levels of employee influence over the work process, such as high levels of control over how to handle individual job tasks or a high level of involvement at team or workplace level in designing work procedures. When implementations of HIWPs are accompanied by companion investments in human capital – for example, in better information and training, higher pay and stronger employee voice – it is appropriate to talk not only of HIWPs but of “high-involvement work systems” (HIWSs). This chapter reviews the theory and practice of HIWPs and HIWSs. Across a range of academic perspectives and societies, it has regularly been argued that steps to enhance employee involvement in decision-making create better opportunities to perform, better utilization of skill and human potential, and better employee motivation, leading, in turn, to various improvements in organizational and employee outcomes.

However, there are also costs to increased employee involvement and the authors review the important economic and sociopolitical contingencies that help to explain the incidence or distribution of HIWPs and HIWSs. The authors also review the research on the outcomes of higher employee involvement for firms and workers, discuss the quality of the research methods used, and consider the tensions with which the model is associated. This chapter concludes with an outline of the research agenda, envisaging an ongoing role for both quantitative and qualitative studies. Without ignoring the difficulties involved, the authors argue, from the societal perspective, that the high-involvement pathway should be considered one of the most important vectors available to improve the quality of work and employee well-being.