Despite increasing recognition of the importance of fostering innovation among shop oor employees, little empirical research has been conducted on the topic. Moreover, within work psychology, studies have tended to focus on the generation of ideas (creativity) rather than on their implementation. This study examines the impact of individual perceptions of individual, group and organizational factors on both elements of innovation. It was found that the suggestion of ideas was more highly related to individual (personal and job) characteristics than the group and organizational characteristics; whereas the implementation of ideas was more strongly predicted by group and organizational characteristics. As expected, interactions were found between the number of suggestions made and group and organizational characteristics, demonstrating how successful implementation of new ideas requires both their formulation in the rst place and an appropriately supportive environment. Analysis to explore which factors have the greatest impact on the innovation process was also conducted. The practical, theoretical and methodological implications of the study are discussed.

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Background Patient safety culture is measured using a range of survey tools. Many provide limited data on psychometric properties and few report findings outside of the US healthcare context. This study reports an assessment of the psychometric properties and suitability of the American Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture for use within the UK. Methods A questionnaire survey of three hospitals within a large UK Acute NHS Trust. 1437 questionnaires were completed (37% response rate). Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analyses were carried out to assess the psychometric performance of this survey instrument and to explore potential improvements. Results Reliability analysis of the items within each proposed scale showed that more than half failed to achieve satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's a<0.7). Furthermore, a confirmatory factor analysis carried out on the UK data set achieved a poor fit when compared with the original American model. An optimal measurement model was then constructed via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with splithalf sample validation and consisted of nine dimensions compared with the original 12 in the American model. Conclusion This is one of the few studies to provide an evaluation of an American patient safety culture survey using data from the UK. The results indicate that there is need for caution in using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture survey in the UK and underline the importance of appropriate validation of safety culture surveys before extending their usage to populations outside of the specific geographical and healthcare contexts in which they were developed.

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This paper considers the application of the technology acceptance model (TAM) in explaining intranet usage in two organizations. The TAM was originally developed for explaining technology acceptance and has since been successfully applied to a number of technologies. Its suitability for modelling intranet use is considered here. The model is tested in two UK companies from the banking and engineering sectors. Study 1 finds that the TAM may be valuable as a tool for helping with analysing and understanding intranet usage. The second study indicates that its applicability may be variable between intranets and demonstrates that self-report and actual measures of usage are not interchangeable when applying such a model. The findings have implications for previous and current research employing the TAM and for intranet research in general.