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This paper presents findings from a project that aimed to support social work managers to observe, evaluate and give feedback on social work practice skills.

An embedded team of researchers observed over 300 meetings between parents and social workers and gave feedback based on an established research instrument that facilitated quantitative coding of individual skills such as empathy and purposefulness. Then managers took on this task to sustain ongoing feedback on practice skills beyond the timescale of the project.

A practice tool was successfully developed to take the place of the research instrument and aid managers in these observations, and it was implemented across a range of social work settings. The tool was used in a variety of ways by different managers which highlighted a range of views on what constitutes good practice. This raises questions about how far authorities can (or should) expect to achieve a consensus about the type of practice they want to deliver.

The value of this project is primarily pragmatic, in that it shows the potential for using research to develop practice tools collaboratively. However, in doing so, it brings into focus key questions around the nature of good practice.

This paper presents a practice tool, based on an established research instrument that was co-developed with senior managers. It is an aid for observation that practitioners and managers can use to support practice development.

Few research studies have worked so closely with practice managers to develop a tool that can be used to support practice. The paper also highlights the crucial and neglected role of observation in practice development.

This paper aims to provide a brief overview of the global financial crisis (GFC), highlighting its most frightening dimensions, the policy responses and issues around the management of labour during and post‐GFC. Further, this paper introduces the five research papers that encompass this special issue.

The papers presented here are early contributions on how the GFC has impacted the management of people. The key areas focused upon include the human resource management responses of multinational enterprises, the response of trade unions, the roles of employee representative bodies and the rationalisation of post‐crisis managerial strategies.

The major conclusions of this special issue are that the impact of the GFC was variable across countries and sectors in addition to the process of decision making, the types of decisions made, and the determinants and consequences of those decisions.

The papers of the special issue provide some of the first empirical findings on how the GFC has impacted on people management, trade unions and the HR function in different contexts.

Executives who embark on cost of living economies might do well to review personal insurance cover to see if they are paying more than is necessary, said Alec Snobel in his “managing your money” article in the September issue of Industrial Management. His advice prompted the following reply from John McDonnell, public relations manager with the Norwich Union insurance group.

Examines the background to TQM, principally from the perspective of the Deming method. Closes with a brief comment about the application of TQM in McDonnell’s home territory of Australia – a topic which will be pursued in greater detail in a subsequent article.

Investigates the negative effect on employee welfare caused by economic decisions taken by corporate managements which they attribute to the adoption of an accounting standard, focusing on the case of McDonnell Douglas Corporation, which ended health‐care benefits for non‐union employees as a result of adopting the Financial Accounting Standards Board′s Statement 106 (FASB 106). It is estimated that the adoption of FASB 106 caused $148 billion in charges to earnings to be recorded by companies in the Standard & Poor′s 500 Index. Despite the large negative effect on earnings, FASB 106 had little or no impact on the economic condition of the affected firms. Nevertheless, managements have taken economic actions that have negatively affected employee welfare, and these actions have been attributed to FASB 106. Some of the hardest hit are employees at older industrial companies with mature workforces hired during the 1950s and 1960s. Some companies ended retirement health plans abruptly, while others required workers and retirees to pay more towards insurance premiums, or prevented new hires from receiving retirement health coverage.

Bell Helicopter Textron announced it has received one of the largest orders for commercial helicopters in the company's history. Petroleum Helicopters Inc. of New Orleans has ordered 154 Model 206B‐III JetRanger and 206L‐III LongRanger aircraft for delivery between 1992 and 1995.