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The desirability of having a more flexible workforce is emphasised across many health systems yet this goal is as ambiguous as it is ubiquitous. In the absence of empirical studies in healthcare that have defined flexibility as an outcome, the purpose of this paper is to draw on classic management and sociological theory to reduce this ambiguity.

The paper uses the Weberian tool of “ideal types”. Key workforce reforms are held against Atkinson’s model of functional flexibility which aims to increase responsiveness and adaptability through multiskilling, autonomy and teams; and Taylorism which seeks stability and reduced costs through specialisation, fragmentation and management control.

Appeals to an amorphous goal of increasing workforce flexibility make an assumption that any reform will increase flexibility. However, this paper finds that the work of healthcare professionals already displays most of the essential features of functional flexibility but many widespread reforms are shifting healthcare work in a Taylorist direction. This contradiction is symptomatic of a failure to confront inevitable trade-offs in reform: between the benefits of specialisation and the costs of fragmentation; and between management control and professional autonomy.

The paper questions the conventional conception of “the problem” of workforce reform as primarily one of professional control over tasks. Holding reforms against the ideal types of Taylorism and functional flexibility is a simple, effective way the costs and benefits of workforce reform can be revealed.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a causal model that explains the antecedents and mediating factors predicting the organizational commitment of healthcare employees in different work roles.

This study tests an integrative causal model that consists of a number of direct and indirect relationships for antecedents of organizational commitment. It is proposed that the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment is best understood by focusing on the three interrelated facets of job satisfaction, i.e. satisfaction with career advancement, satisfaction with supervisor, and satisfaction with co‐workers. However, the model also advances that these job satisfaction facets have different mediating effects for other antecedents of organizational commitment.

The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) path analysis showed that the job satisfaction facets of career advancement and satisfaction with supervisor had a direct impact on organizational commitment. Employee empowerment, job‐motivating potential, effective leadership, acceptance by co‐workers, role ambiguity and role conflict were also important determinants of organizational commitment. Interestingly, post hoc analyses showed that satisfaction with co‐workers only had an indirect impact on organizational commitment.

While there has been extensive research on organizational commitment and its antecedents in healthcare organizations, most previous studies have been limited either to a single employee group or to a single time frame. This study proposes a practical causal model of antecedents of organizational commitment that tests relationships across time and across different healthcare employee groups.

In 2010, the Canadian government introduced the National Action Plan for the Implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security. Approximately 24 countries have developed national action plans to evaluate and monitor the implementation of UNSCR 1325 that calls for the inclusion of all women in peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding and the protection of women. Refugee women were not included in the Action Plan as partners in peacemaking, mentioned only in sections referring to protection and post-conflict reconstruction. As such, refugee women are not considered key players in plans to bring about peace despite evidence that refugee women's organizations can participate in and even lead peacebuilding efforts.

This chapter analyzes the activities of three refugee women's organizations from Tibet, the Sudan, and Burma/Myanmar concluding that it is strategically important to support women's transnational networks and facilitate contact between diaspora, refugee, and local women's organizations interested in conflict transformation. A gendered analysis of refugee peacebuilding capacity reveals gaps in peacebuilding capacity approaches that become evident when female diasporas are the focus of the research. The women's refugee organizations show the capacity for transnational bridge building, that is, the capacity to build and sustain networks across geographical, social and political boundaries with the aim of bringing about nonviolent social change.

This register of current research in social economics has been compiled by the International Institute of Social Economics. The register does not claim to be comprehensive but is merely an aid for research workers and institutions interested in social economics. The register will be updated and made more comprehensive in the future but this is largely dependent on the inflow of information from researchers in social economics. In order to facilitate this process a standardised form is to be found on the last page of this register. Completed forms, with attached sheets as necessary, should be returned to the compiler: Dr Barrie O. Pettman, Director, International Institute of Social Economics, Enholmes Hall, Patrington, Hull, N. Humberside, England, HU12 OPR. Any other comments on the register will also be welcome.

The purpose of this paper is to develop weights of key performance areas (KPAs) and performance indicators for public private partnerships (PPPs) in Bangladesh. Since a variety of PPP arrangements is observable, different performance measurement approaches exist in the literature. However, analysing the relative importance of indicators influencing the performance score of particular projects using the perspective of developing countries remains unexplored.

The authors’ method involves application of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to develop weights for eight KPAs for which 41 contributing performance indicators have been developed. In total, 68 respondents (62 per cent of the PPP practitioners in Bangladesh) participated in a structured questionnaire survey and their judgements have been found to be consistent, using consistency ratios, a geometric consistency index and one-way ANOVA test.

“Feasibility analysis”, “life cycle evaluation and monitoring” and “optimal risk allocation” are the most significant performance indicators in Bangladesh. “Financing” is the most important KPA, followed by “planning and initiation” and “transparency and accountability”. Interestingly, unlike the cost, time and quality measures of the public sector comparator analysis used in most developed countries, a different set of indicators and KPAs are found dominant.

This suggests that performance indicators and their weights may differ for developing countries. Future research could usefully focus on testing this model in different countries and applying it to derive performance scores for individual PPPs.

An application of AHP in determining weights of the performance indicators represents a major contribution to the literature on PPP performance measurement in the developing countries including Bangladesh.