Health Manpower Management

Mark A. Thomas

1996 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069610791668pmid: 10158774

Attempts to provide a practical framework in which practitioners may develop human resources (HR) strategies in line with their organizations’ corporate planning processes. Proposes a four‐step approach involving: development of a strategic framework; generating of HR mission statement; application of a SWOT analysis; and making strategic planning decision between HR options. Outlines a four‐dimensional structural focus comprising culture, organization, people and systems. Concludes with a discussion of characteristic of “good” strategic objectives.

Tim Dunne; Sharon Davis

1996 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069610117918pmid: 10158769

Very little has been published about the effects of hospital closure in terms of the service, financial or management issues of the process. Attempts through a case‐study format to redress the balance and as such represents the reflections of practitioners who have recently undergone the experience of hospital closure and the often neglected issues arising both during and after the process.

Fahmia Huda

1996 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069610117927pmid: 10158770

Reports on research conducted in eight residential and/or nursing homes belonging to six different charity organizations. The organizations ranged in size from local bodies dealing exclusively with care homes to large nationals involved in various other activities. However, staff training is a core issue to all of them, and activity directed towards it has met with varying degrees of success. Aims to highlight those indicators which will minimize failure of the training schedule and to make homes aware of the wider issues which affect training schemes.

Philip Gill

1996 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069610117936pmid: 10158771

Considers a variety of pressures, both internal and external to the National Health Service, which in recent years have ostensibly increased the importance of sound workforce planning initiatives. These include, among others: skill shortage; the drive towards cost‐efficiency and effectiveness; an altered philosophy of care through new technology; the development of competence‐based training initiatives; nationwide demographic changes; and the need to develop identifiable skill shortages. Presents reprofiling (skills alignment with organizational needs) and skill mix and distribution as useful approaches to workforce planning and concludes with a brief consideration of implications for planners of professional boundaries and changed educational priorities for health service personnel.

Catherine M. Prest

1996 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069610117945pmid: 10158772

Outlines the changes in legal restrictions on the eligibility of dismissed employees to pursue unfair dismissal claims. Includes a discussion of recent decisions in this area including the July 1995 decision in the case of R . v. Secretary of State for Employment ex parte Nicole Seymour‐Smith and Laura Perez and Employment Protection (Part‐time Employees) Regulations 1995 and assesses the impact of these decisions on personnel practice and disciplinary procedures.

Paul Hitchcock

1996 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069610117954pmid: 10158773

Sets out to demonstrate the usefulness of vision statements to self‐directed work teams, taking ideas from the development of vision within teams in an organization of around 1,000 employees. Considers barriers to the creation of a shared vision in which employees have a stake, putting forward the concept of “team‐sized vision” as a means of coping with the identified problems of “size” and “ownership” with regard to organization‐sized vision. Outlines various advantages of team‐sized vision, e.g. enabling positive discussion of change and acting as a strong motivator. Sets out a process for the generation of team‐sized vision, broken down into four main steps. Concludes that the process can be undertaken with relative ease and that vision is for all levels of the organization ‐ not just top management.