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The purpose of this paper is to determine how post-disaster legislation can be used to support building back better (BBB) in the horizontal infrastructure sector (roading, water, wastewater and stormwater networks).

A case study approach was taken looking at the rebuild following the Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand. Data were collected through document analysis and semi-structured open-ended interviews with members of the organization responsible for implementing the horizontal infrastructure rebuild.

The results showed that the post-disaster legislative actions taken in Christchurch were comparable to existing findings on post-disaster legislative best practices in developed countries. This study confirmed that post-disaster legislation is an effective mechanism to support BBB through enforcing BBB concepts such as risk reduction and better implementation, and facilitating the recovery process to improve efficiency.

It is recommended that this study is extended to conduct similar case studies in other countries to further explore legislative implications in different sectors as well as different legislative environments.

This paper makes a valuable contribution to existing research on how post-disaster legislation can be used to support BBB in the horizontal infrastructure sector. The findings also add to wider knowledge on the Canterbury earthquakes recovery process.

Argues that organizations should be thought of as cultures rather than machines, and that managing is as much a social as a technical process. Suggests that effective leadership, and the successful design of appropriate organization development programmes, are dependent on executive understanding and sensitivity to organizational culture. Describes Schein′s model of culture and illustrates each of its major elements with examples drawn from the literature and the author′s own experience. These examples demonstrate the importance and the power of cultural approaches to understanding organizations in general and the leadership function in particular. Demonstrates a new set of tools for mobilizing commitment and enforcing control that can have important performance implications, and which will be of value to the practising manager.

This paper seeks to argue that processes for selecting and appointing medically qualified personnel in some healthcare organizations may be limited, especially those that emphasize qualifications rather than expanding the criteria to include practice scope, person‐organization fit and capability to function within a healthcare team.

The paper is based on the authors' experiences and a literature review.

Selection based purely on academic merit, advanced clinical training, skills and professional achievements may not address other essential selection criteria. Medical personnel need to possess competencies such as ability to give high quality care and work constructively in a clinical team; communication skills; willingness to actively participate in quality and safety programs; teaching ability; management and leadership skills; and support institutional values and corporate aims. These attributes are often over‐looked and cannot be assumed from academic merit and achievements.

The study's conclusions are based on the authors' experiences and literature review. Future studies may wish to examine selection technique efficacy and outcomes empirically.

Better medical personnel selection and appointment processes are likely to reduce unnecessary costs associated with poorly‐made appointments, improve patient outcomes and may have a formative role encouraging medical personnel to take a broader view of their healthcare organization roles.

The authors challenge selection panel members to consider non‐traditional with normal selection criteria for medical appointments. Nine recommendations for enhancing selection processes are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to understand better the formation of an industry and the movement toward agglomeration by examining the development of the furniture manufacturing industry of Western North Carolina and Virginia.

In this general review, the initiation and growth of the furniture industry is traced, applying the theory of agglomeration and noting isomorphic tendencies and the primacy of the search for legitimacy among constituents.

The paper finds first of all, the pioneering efforts of Thomas Wrenn in High Point brought the industry to the region. An initial wave of furniture manufacturers followed closely behind Wrenn as the industry gained legitimacy and status in North Carolina. Important elements in building the industry included the establishment of the Southern Furniture Manufacturers Association and the Southern Furniture Market in High Point. A second wave of furniture producers arrived on the scene after the First World War. This group benefited from cooperative actions of the survivors of the first wave and brought the Western North Carolina and Virginia area to the forefront of the furniture manufacturing industry in the USA. Finally, the paper comments on the current state of the industry in relation to the threat of foreign competition.

The furniture industry is not alone in the need to understand the impact of globalization. Practitioners and researchers alike should be aware of the costs to stakeholder groups, such as employees and local communities.

Geo. Bassett, the revamped jelly babies‐to‐Nquorice all‐sorts confection group, has in Bill Mills (left) a managing director who dislikes using redundancy as a management tool and who believes that bonuses should not exceed 25% of earnings. Ken Gooding reports; pictures by Patrick Thurston.

The mid-1990s marked a paradigm shift in the way physical activity is promoted, and walking is now considered the most suitable type of physical activity for widespread promotion. Accurate measurement underpins public health practice, hence the aims of this chapter are to: (1) provide a typology for the measurement of walking; (2) review methods to assess walking; (3) present challenges in defining walking measures; (4) identify issues in selecting instruments for the evaluation of walking and (5) discuss current efforts to overcome measurement challenges and methodological limitations. The taxonomy of walking indicates that secondary purpose walking is a more complex set of behaviours than primary purpose walks. It has many purposes and no specific domain or intensity, may lack regularity, and therefore poses greater measurement challenges. Objective measurement methods, such as accelerometers, pedometers, smartphones and other electronic devices, have shown good approximation for walking energy expenditure, but are indirect methods of walking assessment. Global Positioning System technology, the ‘Smartmat’ and radio-frequency identification tags are potential objective methods that can distinguish walkers, but also require complex analysis, are costly, and still need their measurement properties corroborated. Subjective direct methods, such as questionnaires, diaries and direct observation, provide the richest information on walking, especially short-term diaries, such as trip records and time use records, and are particularly useful for assessing secondary purpose walking. A unifying measure for health research, surveillance and health promotion would strongly advance the understanding of the impact of walking on health.