This study of 32 small and medium-sized industrial enterprises explored eight distinct aspects of communication, as appraised by the staff (n 493), and innovative performance, assessed by two indicators: perceived innovation effectiveness and patent statistics obtained from the Patent Register at the National Board of Patents and Registration of Trademarks. The results showed that intraorganizational aspects of communication, such as encouragement of initiatives and critical evaluation of performance, were associated with both indicators of innovative performance. In addition, a participative climate and interaction between the personnel in R&D, marketing and production were related to perceived innovative effectiveness, whereas interaction with clients and other firms related to the number of patents in the organization. The link between communication and innovation was interdependent with the organizational and staff characteristics including the number of personnel, administrative and R&D intensity, the level of vocational training, and the age distribution of the staff.

The role of personality characteristics and psychological distress in the occurrence of severe neck trouble was investigated in a 3-year follow-up study conducted from 1984 to 1987 among 1015 men (age: 25-49 years old) employed as machine operators, carpenters and office workers. The subjects had reported in a questionnaire in 1984 that they had experienced no more than 7 days with neck trouble during the past 12 months. Based on a similar questionnaire in 1987, severe neck trouble was defined as trouble having lasted more than 30 days. Psychological distress and personality characteristics were assessed in 1984 by the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ) and the Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI) respectively. Severe neck trouble occurred in 11% of the subjects, who were considered as cases; those with 0-7 days with neck trouble were considered as controls. When individual and occupational factors were adjusted for no powerful predictors were found. However, after performing a backward stepping analysis, somatic symptoms and hysteria were significantly associated with severe neck trouble. In occupation-specific analyses, somatic symptoms and neuroticism were significantly associated with the occurrence of severe neck trouble among the machine operators, as were somatic symptoms, depression and hysteria among the office workers. Neither the personality characteristics nor psychological distress predicted the occurrence of severe neck trouble among the carpenters. We conclude that the associations between psychological factors and neck trouble are complex and may depend on the psychosocial environment.

IntroductionAn increasing number of total quality management (TQM) experiments has recently been conducted in health care organizations, including hospitals

The changes in psychological performances associated with long-term exposure to organic solvents and solvent mixtures were studied in a group of 56 male workers diagnosed as having an occupational disease caused by solvents. Their mean duration of exposure was 9.1 +/- SD 8.3 years, and they were exposed mainly to halogenated and aromatic hydrocarbons and to mixtures of paint solvents. The psychological performances of these solvent-exposed patients were compared with those of 98 styrene-exposed workers and a nonexposed group of 43 construction workers. The applied psychological test variables were factor analyzed, before other statistical analysis, in order to clarify what they measured in the present study. The solvent-exposed group was characterized by a decline in visuomotor performance and decreased freedom from distractibility. The poor visuomotor performances were also related to the long duration of solvent exposure in this group of patients. The index applied for the exposure level revealed no significant relationships to psychological performances among the solvent-exposed patients. The psychological performances of the styrene-exposed group differed only very slightly from those of the nonexposed workers.

The purpose of this study was to identify management-related factors contributing to personnel satisfaction in hospital wards. The sample population consisted of the employees of 15 hospital wards in four medical departments. The wards were classified into two categories on the basis of the satisfaction of the personnel with the management: 'satisfied wards' (seven wards with a highly satisfied personnel, n = 124) and 'other wards' (eight wards, n = 186). The employees of 'satisfied wards' reported more innovative activities and continuous quality improvements, more possibilities to participate in decision-making, more efficient communication within the ward and between other units, and more managerial activities for promoting the well-being of the staff compared with the personnel of 'other wards'. According to the ratings of the nursing directors, the quality of patient care in the 'satisfied wards' was higher, but there were no differences in cost-effectiveness between the study groups.