The UK moves from March to December Budgets

Barring any very unexpected developments, next month’s Budget Speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be the last such speech to occur in March for the foreseeable future (and perhaps for ever) in the UK. As part of last year’s budget package, the Government published a White Paper on budgetary reform (HMSO, 1992) which announced that in future, Budget Speeches would be made in December of each year rather than in March as at present. However, the tax year will continue to begin in April, so that the lead time between the announcement of tax proposals in the Budget and the coming into force of most of them will be extended from about three weeks to about 16.

Does quality drive employee satisfaction in the UK learning sector?

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to assess the nature and extent of the link between employee satisfaction and organisational performance. This paper examines the link between staff satisfaction and organisational performance, presenting findings from 21 colleges of Further Education that have participated in both a survey of staff satisfaction (covering over 2,600 staff from these colleges) and in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the “Learning PROBE” methodology. The results suggest that whilst each of the measured aspects of work are regarded as being important by a majority of survey respondents, the level of “satisfaction” displayed in each of these attributes is indicated by only a minority of those surveyed. The findings support the existence of a link between staff satisfaction and organisational excellence. Staff satisfaction levels are most strongly associated with the leadership and service processes indices, and even more so with the overall organisational diagnosis. This suggests that colleges that are implementing “good practices” covering a range of managerial aspects, and who are achieving corresponding organisational results, are likely to be closer to satisfying their staff. Practices relating to people, performance management and organizational results also show association with staff's satisfaction gap, although not as significantly as above. The results suggest an holistic approach to implementing business practices appears to be more effective than concentrating only on deploying good practices in only a single area of the managerial process. The value of the paper is to the UK Further Education Sector in that it identifies those organisational practices, which improved, can in combination address to some extent the work satisfaction levels of their employees

Realigning the manufacturing priorities of SMEs as a result of the 2008 UK economic downturn

This study provides consideration of the impact made by the uncertain business environment experienced in recent times in the UK on manufacturing priorities within its SME sector. This uncertainty centres on the economy’s volatility during the recessionary period from 2008 onwards. A consequence of this is a realignment of manufacturing priorities, initiated by senior management within in the sector, accounting for sectoral conditions and associated market response. The study is based on a mixed methods research strategy, comprising a survey of 104 UK-based manufacturing SMEs and 17 interviewees with senior employees from these participating organisations. The study contributes to existing knowledge by building upon existing theoretical constructs of manufacturing strategy, specific to the manufacturing sector, and establishing a realignment of associated priorities around cost, flexibility, delivery performance and quality

Six Pillars of Social Policy: The State of Pensions and Health Care in Canada

William B.P. Robson, a co-author with David Slater of a series of papers on pension issues, has written an ambitious survey of the state of Canadian economic policy in the areas of pensions and health care. He argues that it is appropriate to tackle both issues in the same paper because they are both major spending programs strongly related to the life cycle of Canadians, and face challenges arising from the aging of the population. Robson notes that the pension debate uses the metaphor of three pillars to describe a comprehensive pension system: a safety net to guard against destitution in old age; a mandatory employment-related system to provide basic replacement income; and a voluntary system supported by provisions that reduce the double-taxation of saving. The main elements of public policy related to pensions in Canada cover these pillars. He recognizes that all three of the pillars cannot be directly applied to health care, but he argues that the three-pillar metaphor is still a fruitful perspective because it facilitates constructive responses to the pressures confronting Canada’s health system and illuminates interactions between the pension and health systems. Hence his title “six pillars of social policy”. Based on his examination of Canada’s pension and health-care systems, Robson makes a number of recommendations. First, he advocates more prefunding in both the pension and health areas to cover the future cost of the aging baby-boom cohort. Second, he recommends a gradual increase in the normal age of eligibility for pension benefits. Third, he recommends the creation of a second pillar, a mandatory contribution scheme in the health area as a way to avoid the development of a means-tested system that would exacerbate the disincentives to work and save. Fourth, he puts forward the idea of a new type of saving vehicle that provides tax-relief on distributions rather than on contributions so that Canadians can avoid the high marginal effective tax rates associated with means-tested programs.Health, Health Care, Health-care, Healthcare, Canada, Pensions, CPP, Retirement, Mandatory Contribution, Aging, Ageing

The Voyage to Excellence : a quantitative study from regional and sectoral benchmarking investigations

The published work in this thesis is based on a number of studies that utilise a suite of (related) “best practice” benchmarking tools, providing an evaluation of the North East England’s manufacturing and service sectors and the UK Further Education sector. Within this submission, a supporting commentary in the form of a critical literature review is provided. The complementary review initially provides an introduction and background to the studies that as a whole comprise this PhD by publication. Consideration is then given to the literature specific to benchmarking, particularly in terms of its role in facilitating organisational improvement and learning, as well as its take-up and applications. The studies described above relate to the implementation of related “best practice” frameworks, yielding data from the self-assessing participating organisations. This leads to the third part of the literature review where the association between practice and performance is assessed relating to certain connected themes. The final part of the commentary assesses the contribution to knowledge that is made by this PhD submission in terms of the literature that existed at the time the constituent papers and reports were developed, along with my specific contribution to these outputs and the potential future research that could lead from this contribution. A key contribution of this work to the benchmarking literature rests in the deployment of a framework in two new sectoral contexts, the regional application being underpinned by a novel approach to supported self-assessment. This complemented the case-based literature dominant at the time, the review providing a critical comparison of “best practice” frameworks and the adoption of generic benchmarking metrics. The empirical assessment of practice against performance suggests that the former does impact on the latter, but with greater influence internally. The association between excellence achievement and stakeholder satisfaction is holistically positive, although the findings are perhaps both less than clear-cut and unexpected. The contribution to knowledge provided here relates to the assessment of the broader service sector, including dual consideration with stakeholder perception and examination of additional performance areas, such as corporate social responsibility, thus moving this evaluation into areas under reported at that time

Environmental turbulence: impact on UK SMEs’ manufacturing priorities

Purpose This paper aims to assess the impact of 2008 recession (Great Recession)-led environmental turbulence on the manufacturing small and medium enterprise (SME) sector and its related competitive priorities. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods research strategy, consisting of a survey of 104 manufacturing SMEs located in the UK, complemented by 17 in-depth interviews with senior management representatives from this survey group. Findings Senior managers have prompted a realignment of competitive manufacturing priorities accounting for external financial and market conditions. Differing competitive priorities post-recession are given to various areas of manufacturing decision-making, the greatest impact being on manufacturing costs. Manufacturing flexibility, performance in meeting customer deliveries and enhancing supplier selection are merited to increase priority with relatively little change for process technology, quality and environmental practices. Research limitations/implications The sample of survey participants was relatively small, therefore prohibiting an assessment of differences in competitive priorities by sub-sectors of manufacturing SMEs. This was offset by a healthy number of informative, in-depth interviews that provided a richness of examples and insight into the shifting priorities for the sector. Practical implications Clear priorities have emerged around reducing manufacturing costs, being more flexible in manufacturing and improving outward performance relating to customers and suppliers. Originality/value This builds on established manufacturing strategy constructs and points to necessary competitive priority realignment focused on the performance areas listed above

Austral Jazz: A Practitioner’s Perspective on the Local Remaking of a Global Music Form

This thesis presents a creative practice research study that draws on the fields of music composition and jazz studies. It attempts to address the following question: In what ways and to what extent can a musical genre such as British folk song, which is the ancestral music of quite a large number of Australians and New Zealanders, absorb jazz sounds and processes—and vice versa—to produce new music that can be heard as a local expression of a global form? Methodologically it approaches the question in several ways: through compositional practice that works towards achieving a synthesis of musical styles, and through an essay that sets out a new scheme for understanding local expressions of jazz within a global context. Three large-scale works are presented, each of which draws on a distinct corpus of British folk song and within contrasting self-imposed parameters. The initial work engages well-known printed collections, the second a set of historical recordings, and the third a set of ballad texts for which no known traditional tune survives. The essay sets out a new theory of jazz historiography, and provides a detailed practitioner’s account of how jazz became ‘Austral’, a term that strives to capture the idea of a creative shift in direction in jazz in Australia and New Zealand that took place around 1973, whereby it began to become more noticeably local. Drawing on the notion of ‘double identification’ the essay discusses how in the mid 1970s local jazz began to undergo processes of cultural revitalisation and geocultural connection. This provides crucial context for the creative ‘answers’ to the research question the thesis poses. Part I of the thesis introduces the study, reviews the literature relating to the spread of jazz as a global expressive system, and presents the essay. Part II introduces and discusses each of the creative works, which can be understood as having emerged, in large part, from the processes of cultural revitalisation and geocultural connection that are a feature of Austral jazz as discussed in Part I. The works, and the thesis as a whole, represent the creative expression of a single practitioner working within the Austral jazz scene. Parts III and IV respectively, comprise the scores and recordings of these works

Understanding the Correlates of Donor Intention: A comparison of Local, National, and International Charity Destinations

The United Kingdom is generous toward charitable donations, and this commitment appears robust against a background of economic uncertainty. While prior work has identified a clear preference for domestic over international causes, research has yet to identify the range of variables that significantly correlate with this important element of charitable choice. A survey of 1,004 U.K. residents was designed to assess willingness to donate to local, national, and international causes. For each destination, stepwise multiple regression analysis identified the key variables that correlate to an individual’s willingness to donate. Findings suggest that donor willingness correlates with levels of trust, preferred types of charitable cause, and donation channels. In contrast, the role of donor demographics is relatively limited. The findings suggest some commonality in the variables that associate most significantly with willingness to donate locally and nationally, but those relating to international donation intention are relatively distinct