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The purpose of this paper is to uncover the desired qualities and behaviours that patients believe general practitioners (GPs) should have in medical (service recovery) encounters. In particular, the authors try to reveal the qualities and behaviours of GPs that patients value, to understand the underlying benefits that they look for during personal (service recovery) encounters, and to graphically illustrate the findings in a so‐called hierarchical value map. This will prove to be important in order to understand patients' needs and desires correctly.

An exploratory research study using the qualitative laddering interviewing technique was regarded as appropriate as it allows researchers to gain a deeper insight into an underdeveloped research subject. In total, in‐depth laddering interviews with 38 respondents were conducted.

In case of a service recovery encounter, patients believe that GPs need to show competence, friendliness and empathy in order to restore trust in them. GPs should also listen actively and do the appropriate checks in order to find the root cause of the problem. “Health” was the main value sought by patients. This value is considered by patients to be the gateway to moving on with their everyday lives and search the attainment of other values such as well‐being, belongingness, accomplishment, and self‐realization. Moreover, respondents would like to gain knowledge about their disease in order to prevent them in the future and to have some sense of control over the decision of the treatment. Patients also want a more active role in the medical (service recovery) encounter, which calls for a more shared approach by GPs in the interaction with their patients.

This paper gives a valuable first insight into the desired qualities and behaviours of GPs during medical (service recovery) encounters. The study results especially indicate that complaining patients are people first and patients second, where the primary importance is the satisfaction of basic social needs. The fact that this study has revealed the highest number of values in published laddering studies so far shows how crucial these medical (service recovery) encounters in general and GP qualities and behaviours in particular are for patients. Another strong contribution of this paper is the finding that all the identified concepts from the laddering interviews that are shown in the hierarchical value maps must not been seen in strict isolation, as in previous research, but have to be understood as a network of interrelated concepts.

Describes a team‐building programme at the manufacturing base of Champion Spark Plug which aimed to ensure that the people in the business were equipped and willing to create the changes and improvements required to achieve the business′s mission and objectives. The results of the programme of change – via the introduction of total quality management – have been experienced at a number of different levels.

THE INTER‐RELATIONSHIPS between the flowering of the fourth estate and popular literature, the democratisation of the reading public, and the growth of radicalism in the first half of the nineteenth century have been long recognised. Yet although literary and political historians have dug deeply and frequently in the periodical press of the time for evidence of contemporary attitudes, less attention has been paid to the journalists whose output is represented. It is unsafe to assume that they were typified by literary giants like Dickens (whose editorship of the Daily news was at best undistinguished) or by those who subsequently produced autobiographical accounts. Most were comparatively faceless men, whose social, educational, literary, and political backgrounds can be discovered only through extensive research. Until numerous bio‐bibliographies are compiled on an individual basis, generalisations about the profession as a whole will remain tenuous. William Weir, editor of the Daily news in 1854–58, was one of this powerful new group of substantially‐neglected communicators, but in his case a unique if scattered range of sources permits a reconstruction of the apprenticeship of a Victorian journalist and some interesting insights into the profession.

This research examines the fan-team-sponsor relationship. It focuses on how the sports team's response to negative sponsor behaviour affects fan/spectator attitudes towards the sponsor. Results indicate that highly identified fans have significantly more positive attitudes towards the team sponsor than fans who are lower in identification. Highly identified fans informed of a negative action by a team sponsor felt more favourably towards the sponsor if the team continued, rather than terminated, their relationship with the sponsor.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the direct and indirect influences of locus of control on the communication patterns of Jordanian Muslim parents in the marketplace activities that directly influence their children’s consumption behaviour. The validity of locus of control components within the context of consumer socialisation and cultural perspectives has been taken into account before testing the hypotheses.

A total of 400 self-administered questionnaires were distributed to Muslim parents via their children aged from 8 to 12 years in 12 public schools that were randomly chosen from different areas of Amman metropolitan-Jordan. The principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, paired sample t-test, the multiple regression analysis, and the bootstrapping test using structural equation modelling were used to validate the model’s constructs and to test the research hypotheses.

The communication patterns of Jordanian Muslim parents are more likely to be influenced by the high and low beliefs in the chance, whereas the highest degree of the indirect influences is associated with Muslims’ belief in powerful others.

It measured the mediation of socio-orientation, but neither concept-orientation nor the simultaneous interventions of the two dimensions were taken into consideration. The solicited sample has been relied on parents’ responses. Future research considering mothers-fathers, mothers–adolescents or fathers–adolescents dyadic perspectives may disclose the convergence and divergence among Muslim family members to better understanding the mediation process.

The local and global marketers may segment the Jordanian market into consensual, pluralistic and protective Muslim consumers; rely on reference groups on their promotion campaigns, as the Muslim parents in Jordan are more influenced by the powerful others; and use the concept of chance positively in their promotion campaigns.

Based on rigorous methodology, this is the first study that measures the direct and indirect influences of locus of control on the communication patterns of Jordanian Muslim parents in terms of marketing milieu and collectivist cultures.

The general quality of milk supplied by the cows will also affect the question, and in this connection it may be noted that Mr. Lehmann stated to the Departmental Committee that Dutch cows do not produce a milk so rich in fat as these of Switzerland; an examination of the figures given tends to corroborate this view. Dutch milks appear to require concentration to a higher degree in order to provide as large a proportion of fat as Swiss or Norwegian made milk.

We hope that our Conference Report Number of The Library World will give our readers as much pleasure as the many communications we have received assure us our last issue did. The record of the proceedings at Norwich appears on other pages; here we need only say that the conference will be remembered as one of the most delightful and stimulating in a long list of delightful and stimulating conferences. Everything went smoothly from beginning to end with that absence of obvious effort which is a certain sign that immense effort has gone to the organisation. We expected much from Norwich, and we received it. The tributes paid to the Local Committee and the special references to the enthusiasm and devotion of Mr. Stephen and his able deputy, Mr. Charles Nowell, were blessed to give and we hope were blessed to receive. They were thoroughly deserved.

The purpose of this study is to examine the negotiation tactics used in business-to-business (B2B) negotiations in creative sectors and to shed light on some of the characteristics of creative sectors that might drive these behaviors.

This is a multiple-case study involving interviews with 18 creative sector negotiators engaged in B2B negotiations.

The findings suggest that negotiators in B2B firms in creative sectors use a variety of negotiation tactics to reach agreement, but that there are some differences compared with other sectors. One group of tactics, not represented in existing taxonomies, is identified and termed closure-seeking tactics, referring to tactics intended to speed up the negotiation process and reach agreement as quickly as possible. The reasons for creative sector negotiators’ choice of closure-seeking tactics might stem from their desire to expedite the start of new projects to enable them to fulfill their creative drive.

In addition to the identification of group of tactics observed in creative sectors, but not anticipated by existing research, the findings indicate that negotiators in creative sectors seem to lack interest in, and expertise for, negotiating and might be driven more by the desire to get on with the creative process than by concerns over monetary gains when negotiating. This could reflect unique characteristics of creative sectors and the people who work in these sectors.

This work offers new insights and understanding about tactics used in B2B negotiations in creative sectors. These findings have important implications for both practitioners in creative sectors, who might be too eager to reach closure quickly, and practitioners negotiating with firms in creative sectors, who need to understand the unique characteristics of these firms.

The originality of this work lies in its consideration of tactics used in B2B negotiations in the under-studied context of creative sectors and investigation of the reasons that drive the choice of tactics.

THE thoughts of all librarians, chief librarians in particular, are now turned upon the annual conference of the Library Association at Manchester. We understand that all the projects of the conference, which we have commented upon in earlier issues, are proceeding satisfactorily. By this time most of our readers who intend to go will have obtained their accommodation in the city. But we advise those who have not done so to delay no longer.