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Customers′ experience of service encounters remains an area blessed with a rich folklore but little fundamental understanding. Reports on a pilot study for an exploration of women′s experiences of public houses, which used idiographic methods on a small sample of middle‐class women: role repertory grids, “critical‐incident” questionnaires, individual comparatively unstructured interviews and group “focus” interviews. Group interviews were most useful for coming quickly to a consensus picture, and the critical incident questionnaires allowed extreme examples of good and bad practice to be explored. The other two methods produced rich data on the variations within and between women′s experiences. Concludes that there is considerable variation in what women are looking to find in pubs, but that they agree on their dislike of male‐dominated atmospheres in which they are harassed or made to feel unwelcome.

Using two complementary ideographic approaches, investigates the impact of the servicescape on women′s experience of the public house service encounter. Preliminary findings from both the focus group and the in‐depth interviews conducted indicate that women perceive their desired pub experience as diametrically opposite to that provided by the traditional male‐dominated pub. In the latter, barriers to enjoyment arise from the dynamic interplay between the physical environment and the behaviour of staff. The latter, unless carefully managed, can act as reinforcement of the behaviour of other established male customers, whose actions have the effect of signalling to women that they are unwelcome. These barriers are seen to be particularly strong on entry, when getting served and when being seated. Explores how publicans can make use of these crucial stages and shape the servicescape to facilitate a more satisfactory encounter, thus enhancing loyalty among female customers.

This paper is a report of a study that looks at the practice of records management in the public sector in Zimbabwe and the extent to which records management, within Zimbabwe, can be regarded as a profession. The study reveals that records are mishandled and abused suggesting a lack of ethics. Those with the job title records manager have neither specialized training nor a code of ethics. The conclusions drawn are that, in Zimbabwe, records management has not yet been professionalized. The paper then suggests that the adoption of a code of ethics might lead to the professionalization of records management.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

In this article we consider community well‐being and new approaches to reinvigorating partnership working for older people's services. In particular, we focus on improving transport for older people. We draw on findings from a series of public consultations, group discussions and interviews with older people in 10 purposively selected localities in England. Although there was great diversity in the issues raised by older people on the subject of transport, both across and between the sites, we point to a number of core analytical themes which could assist commissioners in developing a citizens' framework designed to address this traditionally ‘wicked’ issue.

Tuesday, 7 September 1993 and I am experiencing the different levels of investment by British Rail on its West Coast and East Coast routes as I travel from the North‐West of England to the University of Hertfordshire at Hatfield for the ninth International Library Technology Fair (renamed from this year as Libtech International). Catching up with the Times Higher Education Supplement of 20 August on the train I am pleasantly surprised to see a note about Libtech '93 and Hans Geleijnse's guest lecture on page 20.

The initial shock of devaluing the currency, after so many promises that it would not take place, has passed; only the uncertainty and apprehension remain. It seems an idle exercise to compare the present state of the country's economy with other periods in recent history, such as when in the first Labour Government, we went off the gold standard; at that time, shock was indeed profound and again, the French were cock‐a‐hoop, but the position was complicated by the huge inter‐indebtedness of the Allies in the First War. Or the first devaluation after the Second World War, but both periods were also characterized by public waste and profligate spending. Now, we have to obtain foreign loans and financial backing to keep going, and it is this aspect of the present devaluation which will probably far outweigh any positive advantages. The country's massive external debts were increased by approximately one‐seventh overnight, probably wiping out completely all the repayments made at such great effort since the War. Devaluation of the currency cannot be seen as anything but a grievous blow to the country, presaging hard times ahead for everyone. When promises were being made that devaluation would not take place, there can be little doubt that these were honestly made and, at the time, believed in, for no Government of a country with imports always exceeding exports, would impose such a burden on its people willingly. It must then have been forced upon them.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the implementation of building information modelling (BIM) concepts of the various processes involved in building surveying practice can lead to a reduction in waste. In turn leading to a synergy between BIM functionalities and lean production concepts.

To verify and validate the existence of this synergy between the two methods in building surveying, evidences were gathered from previous literature that supports these interactions. Next, a questionnaire was conducted for the purpose of identifying new interactions and providing further evidence to support existing interactions. Finally, based on the findings from previous literature and the results of the questionnaire, an interaction matrix was constructed linking the two concepts with the relevant evidence found.

The results of the questionnaire show that the BIM functionality with the highest interactions, maintenance of information integrity, had a high correlation with the reduction of variability, cycle time, batch size and promoting standardization of value flow. 4 D model-based scheduling, the second highest functionality, showed a high correlation with the reduction of variability, cycle time, batch size and an increase in the use of visual management. Finally, the results of the interaction matrix between the two concepts showed that the BIM functionalities with the most interactions were maintenance of information integrity, visualization of form and the automated generation of models and documents. The lean principles with the most interactions were reducing variability, cycle time, batch size as well as “enables visual management”. While most of these interactions were positive, negative interactions were also observed. These negative interactions were due to the fact that the level of competency and knowledge in BIM for building surveyors is at reduced levels which can lead to increased human errors.

The significance of this study is to provide the basis for building surveying organizations who wish to implement BIM and how this would lead to a synergy between BIM functionalities and lean principles. Both positive and negative interactions were considered to provide these organizations with different options for waste elimination.