᭹ This paper presents the outcomes of a live consultancy project. It was conducted to align the delivery of mental health services to the population in a UK region. The two agencies involved are the Social Services Department (SSD) of the local council and the National Health Service (NHS) Mental Health Trust.᭹ The paper examines the realization of the theory of constraints as a key pragmatic model in the delivery of the issues at stake and suggests this is the necessary precursor for real synergistic working between these sets of professionals.

This study has twofold objectives. Firstly, to examine the short‐ and long‐run relationships between diesel or petrol retail prices in New Zealand and crude oil prices and, secondly, to assess the response of retail sector price movements to changes in crude oil prices. The study uses both standard and hidden asymmetric cointegration methods. The major findings are as follows: the prices of diesel and petrol maintain both short‐ and long‐run relationships with crude oil prices although the pass‐through rates differ. Diesel prices are found to be symmetric in response to the changes in crude oil prices, while petrol prices respond asymmetrically to changes in crude oil prices. When crude oil prices increase, petrol prices in New Zealand increase immediately and not vice versa. The reasons for the asymmetric pricing behaviour might include higher demand for petrol than diesel, individual and tourist‐type customers rather than commercial and industrial customers, search costs, revenue‐maximising behaviour of retailers based on high demand, and government taxes and levies.

There has been a recent rise in employers derecognising unions. The oil and chemical industries have been identified as critical for the analysis and practice of derecognition. This paper presents data showing that major oil and chemical firms have, on the one hand, derecognised unions for key internal staff, but on the other hand, have enforced a centralised bargaining framework for their on-site contractors engaged in the out-sourced repair, maintenance and construction work. This centralised bargaining framework has strengthened the institutional position of trade unions. The paper analyses the key factors which have pushed the same employers to act in very different ways for the two sets of workers. It finds little evidence to support arguments that a strong anti-union culture in the industries underlay employers' actions. Rather the evidence suggests that management have acted pragmatically in response to pressing short-term economic pressures. The different approaches to unions for the two sets of workers have been guided by the different economic objectives facing employers and by the different historical position of unions in helping or hindering to secure those objectives. The conclusion considers the implications of these findings for the future of derecognition in the UK.

Human Resource Management in the literature has been considered a second-or third-order strategy largely related to implementation. Argues that the process of strategy formulation and evaluation has not been correctly conceptualised. The evidence that HR issues are fundamental to business is compelling at the level of unit labour costs, but whether they are fundamental to the strategy process has remained highly questionable. The paper suggests that a favourable HR environment has to be established before the various strategic choices can be analysed. Empirical research in two UK oil and chemical companies provides evidence that the effect of HR issues on corporate strategy is understated. The assumption of a top-down, linear model of strategy formulation, whether positionally-or resource-based, is questioned and an alternative conception is discussed.Corporate strategy and human resources Miller (1989, p. 49) defines strategy as``essentially market-related''. This demands inter alia managerial control of the organisation's direction, especially its costs. These are important even if the organisation is pursuing a strategy of`d ifferentiation'' as opposed to``cost-leadership'' (Porter, 1985). The importance of costs is highlighted by the threat to businesses such as automobiles and the question of labour costs looms large when labour is an important contributor to company productivity performance. Other authors (such as Chandler, 1962;Purcell, 1989) follow the line of argument that there is a separation of structure and strategy, and that this can be divided into three levels. The links of HR policies to strategy are, in this conception, essentially second-or third-order, or more``downstream'', whereas corporate strategy is``upstream'' (Purcell and Ahlstrand, 1994). This stratification approach puts HR issues into a``business strategy'' level and a``functional'' role.At this functional level, Blyton and Turnbull (1994) argue that changes in ownership have often led to downsizing, unbundling and increased subcontracting, and vertical de-integration. The HRM changes such as flexible forms of working which affect working practices, are only modest and most firms have pursued``numerical flexibility'' ± part-time and temporary labour ± The many research visits were funded by an ESRC grant ± number R-000-22-1670. I am also indebted to the managers, trade union officers and industry experts who were able to give so generously of their time to unravel the strategies. Thanks are also due to the editor and anonymous referees for their detailed comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Any remaining errors are however mine alone.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate, at the industry level, the modes of governance used by multinational companies in the UK petrochemical industry to outsource maintenance activities to engineering contractors. The study focusses on a form of novel governance structure called an Employer Panel (EP). Design/methodology/approach The study applies an inductive case study method to investigate the contractor governance mechanisms in 19 out of the 20 major petrochemical instillations located in the UK. Data included interviews, documentary and secondary evidence gathered from the cases and also industry bodies. Findings The study uncovered three distinct types of governance mode: market, managing contractor, and EP of contractors. The latter relies on the governance process of “mandated collaboration” to coordinate. Research limitations/implications The main limitation is the focus on a particular industry, albeit an important one. The research implications include extending the empirical research into other sectors which use on-site contracted maintenance such as ship and aircraft manufacturing. Practical implications The EP structure with its mandated collaboration process is of value to managers of contractual relationships as it gives insights into coordinative process and it may provide an alternative model for managing outsourcing relationships. Social implications The mandated collaborative process requires clients to engage its contractors in longer term relationships, thus increasing corporate social responsibility and providing wider job security for contractor employees. Originality/value The EP mode, as far as can be ascertained, has not been addressed in the literature before.