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The new single regulator for financial services, which acquires its main powers under the new Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, brings together nine regulatory and supervisory bodies operating under a broad range of existing statutory or contractual arrangements across all financial services sectors. In January 2000, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) published a policy report on its new approach to regulation, aimed at focusing its regulatory effort on the risks to its statutory objectives. The proposals rely to a significant extent upon a new risk assessment process, outlined in the paper, which is intended to identify those areas of greatest risk. The paper considers how the new approach is likely to be implemented and looks at the issues involved in applying a risk‐based approach consistently across the industry sectors. The paper includes a review of the supervisory arrangements adopted by four of the predecessor regulators.

Discussions regarding United States competitiveness in the world today often include and even accept the idea of government business “partnerships.” Gaining strategic advantage is seen as a matter of changing the role and also the priorities of government, and developing new relationships with the business community. This creates new expectations for our public officials. Experts are saying in many different ways that economic progress reflects an increase in a nation's goods sold on world markets; greater global “market share” for that nation's products; or an increased ability to attract foreign investment. In each case, the key actor is the multinational corporation.

Violence and aggression against mental health professionals is a global concern with well-documented consequences. In the UK, mental health care is increasingly delivered in the community, yet little research has explored practitioner experiences of workplace violence (WPV) outside of inpatient settings. This study aimed to explore how mental health professionals in a UK community mental health team (CMHT) perceive, experience and cope with WPV.

Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten multidisciplinary professionals based in a CMHT in a UK city. Data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Three interconnected themes emerged. WPV was accepted as inevitable: participants carried on working despite its impact, and feeling unheard by management they gave up on change, perpetuating the perceived inevitability of WPV. Peer support and organisational resources like debriefing, counselling and occupational health improved coping. Stigma and ideas of professional responsibility were barriers to access.

To mitigate against the negative consequences of WPV, CMHTs could offer peer support initiatives, improve communication and availability of organisational resources and involve staff in post-incident decision-making. Recommendations are made to shift the attitude of acceptance of WPV and encourage help-seeking.

This paper aims to explore the role of storytelling and impression management (IM) through the president’s letter in legitimizing the practices of an electricity company with regard to controversial issues during a period of change.

Drawing on a qualitative case study, this paper examines annual report letters from 1995 to 2013 using a methodological interpretative approach.

By promoting a success story using IM, the presidents give sense to particular actions related with controversial issues and attempt to influence expectations on strategic changes. The findings demonstrate that organizational actors use the flexibility of the president’s letter to tell the story and emphasize its self-laudatory nature. The study highlights that storytelling in these documents can be used to alleviate the tensions created by the inherent contradictions of social structures.

This research is useful for regulatory authorities, users of annual reports and academic researchers, making them attentive of the narratives companies may adopt to protect their legitimacy. The findings shed light on the need to evaluate the credibility of accountability mechanisms and can help stakeholders to develop a more critical view of the president’s letter.

This paper makes a contribution to research on communication issues by expanding literature on accounting and organizational storytelling. By demonstrating how presidents use sensegiving as a means of legitimacy-claiming, this study adds to the literature on legitimating accounts. In doing so, this paper bridges the gap between theories about organizational legitimacy, storytelling and IM. To sum up, the findings serve as an incremental step toward understanding the nature of accountability reporting.