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The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze relationships between contextual factors, and micro-cognitive, emotional and relational factors, influencing the strategic decision-making process.

The relative roles of “rationality,” “intuition” and “political behavior” in five recent and critical strategic decisions have been explored using 16 semi-structured interviews with senior decision-makers in three Middle Eastern Arabic commercial banks.

Context specific macro-factors were found to influence the emotional state of strategists, leading them to adopt a rational approach, rather than use intuitive judgment, to making all five decisions.

The study was limited to one contextual situation and business sector in order to maintain these variables relatively constant, with proposals for extending studies to other business situations and contexts.

The paper provides evidence for the impact of micro emotional and relational factors on decision-making practice, which should lead to increased recognition for strategists, and organizations, of the importance of these influences on strategic decision practice.

A social implication is that organizations should build a level of awareness of the impact of the mood of strategists who are involved with strategic decisions, perhaps through appropriately designed social processes of organizational learning.

The paper examines the little-researched influence of the mood of strategists on the nature of decision-making process, and demonstrates the importance of including emotional factors in future studies. An explanatory framework is developed which is consistent with an interpretation that places the emotional state (mood) of “concerned attention” which existed within the senior management groups as the dominant factor driving the nature of process. A generalized research framework is proposed to aid future studies of strategic processes.

The paper describes the application of a group decision support system (GDSS) to the work of a panel of public sector workers assessing the needs of clients for various forms of social support and benefit. In particular, the paper focuses on the development of consistency of approach to judgement when the workers come from a variety of professional backgrounds. The application is concerned with the introduction within Norway of an approach to the production of judgemental information relating to clients, and for its subsequent utilisation in a national system. The framework, known as GERIX, is intended to ensure that assistance and support is provided on a fair and equitable basis across the nation. The approach is centred on a set of criteria designed to enable a comprehensive review of a client situation to be undertaken. Data for a client, utilising the criteria, are based on judgemental assessments by professionals. It is, therefore, critical for all involved in these assessments to understand and apply the model in a consistent way. Results strongly suggest that the approach to group process support enhances individual learning of professionals who are required to utilise the GERIX framework.

The article presents a practical approach to generating collective learning in organisations. The approach utilises a low profile on‐line group process support technology known as Teamworker, which is based on a wireless handset design. Group interactive sessions are arranged with a series of groups of eight to 16 employees from across the organisation. A case study is presented in order to demonstrate that this method can capture the interplay between individuals and groups of employees by aiding a process of dialogue that is central to organisational learning. The mode of operation of the technology, and the design of the group process, are critical elements to minimise defensive reactions of individuals, while seeking to maximise the outputs of collective communication and learning taking place in a political environment. Our conclusion at this stage is that this is a promising approach that is capable of further research and development by means of fieldwork linked with theory.

Concerns the application of novel technology (the TEAMWORKER system) in the measurement of service quality. A performance‐only version of the SERVQUAL instrument was used as a basis, contextualized to suit the fast food industry. The study suggests that the use of computer‐aided interviewing, involving direct data entry by respondents, may have application in the area of service quality measurement. Using this approach, relatively large samples (300 respondents) were gathered in five hours on two occasions in the same area. The study shows low error rates in data capture, and demonstrates the feasibility of the use of such systems within the service arena. It is argued that the resultant data sets, when developed into databases, can be used to provide timely and relevant data on service quality for organizations’ management at all levels.

CLOSE collaboration between Dowty Aerospace Plc and CHAM on the Bi‐stable valve design for the A340 European Airbus main landing gear has enhanced passenger comfort.

This conversation focuses on the reproduction of vulnerability incarceration and homelessness and presents the reflections of scholars, writers, activists and practitioners.

This paper is based on the conversations that took place on Disasters: Deconstructed Podcast livestream on the 31st of March 2022.

The prominent themes in this conversation include homelessness, incarceration, stigma and marginalisation.

The conversation contributes to the ongoing discussions around the reproduction of vulnerability and the importance of understanding its root causes of disaster scholarship, practice and activism.

Media power plays a role in determining which news is told, who is listened to and how subject matter is treated, resulting in some stories being reported in depth while others remain cursory and opaque. This chapter examines how domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is reported in mainstream and social media encompassing newspapers, television and digital platforms. In the United Kingdom, newspapers have freedom to convey particular views on subjects such as DVA as, unlike radio and television broadcasting, they are not required to be impartial (Reeves, 2015).

The gendered way DVA is represented in the UK media has been a long-standing concern. Previous research into newspaper representations of DVA, including our own (Lloyd & Ramon, 2017), found evidence of victim blaming and sexualising violence against women. This current study assesses whether there is continuity with earlier research regarding how victims of DVA, predominantly women, are portrayed as provoking their own abuse and, in cases of femicide, their characters denigrated by some in the media with impunity (Soothill & Walby, 1991). The chapter examines how certain narratives on DVA are constructed and privileged in sections of the media while others are marginalised or silenced. With the rise in digital media, the chapter analyses the changing patterns of news media consumption in the UK and how social media users are responding to DVA cases reported in the news. Through discourse analysis of language and images, the potential messages projected to media consumers are considered, together with consumer dialogue and interaction articulated via online and social media platforms.

The paper attempts to make generalisations about high performance work systems drawing on a study of the implementation of team working and the replacement of traditional supervisors with team leaders in a company manufacturing and assembling bicycles. It is argued that the company followed what is believed to be a not uncommon pattern whereby employment practices follow a cyclical pattern of introducing innovations which go beyond standard or traditional ways of managing the human resource aspects of the organisation before reverting to those basic patterns as the tensions between the characteristics of the innovations and other pressures in and around the organisation manifest themselves. It can be argued that the key aspiration of the various attempts which are made to organise employment for ‘high performance’ is one of breaking out of this cycle. To utilise the metaphor of management as cycling, it could be argued that the hope of the management of Phoenix was that, instead of continuously riding their bicycle uphill and then downhill — so that no greater overall height above sea level is achieved — a breakthrough would occur whereby the rider shifts gear, makes a special effort, gets out of the foothills and thencefor‐ward rides along across a higher plateau. The company would thus now be performing at a higher level than its competitors or is, at least, be travelling on a similar plain to them so that it can stay in the race, as opposed to being left behind — possibly to die — in the foothills.

Looks at the use of the JOBSCOPE software system by a company involved in the design of systems used in the manufacture of jet engines and aircraft landing gear. Notes the advantages of the system relating to its manufacturing and financial packages and reports on the training programme available for companies choosing to install the system.