Romania’s anti-reformists will frustrate change

Significance Chronic infighting is preventing the government from dealing with basic challenges and honouring its commitment to restore judicial independence. Personalities, inter-party turf wars and the renewed politicisation of justice are driving the disputes. Unless they abate, the Citu government is unlikely to last long. Impacts Introversion and disarray at the top of government are eroding Romania’s international standing as tensions rise in the Black Sea region. The coalition may struggle to agree a strategy for spending funds from the EU’s recovery fund. The former communist PSD, which left office in 2019, is likely to continue to regain popularity.

Executive group coaching: interventions not for the faint of heart

As the world is changing, organisations are changing with it: matrix structures, flat hierarchies, virtual work, and teamwork are becoming the norm. Therefore, the ability of working successfully with others has become increasingly important and effective teamwork is essential to make these new complex organisational structures work. However, as this special issue highlights, there are major challenges in working effectively together in this rapidly changing world. Indeed, teams often do not live up to the promise of faster problem solving or higher levels of innovation. "Turf wars" and broken trust are common. Group coaching interventions can be second to none in creating effective collaboration and a culture of trust. Based on the clinical paradigm, this article outlines competencies and conceptual models that make for successful group coaching. Overall, effective group coaching interventions, which will also help executives to lead and direct individual and organisational transformation and to create a coaching culture within organisations, need group coaches who have a holistic orientation and pay attention both to micro and macro processes.

Turf Wars and Green Revolutions

Behind the fiction of the IAEA’s non-political status was a tremendous amount of political maneuvering. The agency embarked on numerous programs in the developing world, backed by substantial financial commitments from the United States and other governments with robust weapons programs. The agency’s apparent status as a non-political technical agency obscured its role in propaganda, while its wide membership provided an illusion of global norms and consensus. The agency provided an authoritative international voice for a cornucopian vision of the atom that exaggerated the problem-solving aspects of atomic energy and constantly tried to identify success stories in health, agriculture, and other domains. In the early 1960s, the IAEA engaged in a turf war against two of these agencies, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agricultural Organization, and tried to claim a role in the so-called Green Revolution.

South Korea prosecution reform may concentrate power

Significance President Moon Jae-in has fulfilled his manifesto pledge to reform the country’s powerful prosecution service, with sweeping legislation that transfers most of its investigative remit to two new bodies that will handle minor crimes and elite suspects, respectively. Ruling party lawmakers now seek to remove the last remaining investigative powers of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) by creating a new serious crimes agency. Impacts Reassigning prosecutors away from cases investigating the ruling camp invites suspicion. A proliferation of new bodies may create coordination problems and turf wars. Finding a new prosecutor-general who is credible but more pliant will be challenging for Moon. Yoon is a likely contender for the conservative opposition in next year’s presidential election.

Giving Pharmacists Provider Rights

Changes to our health care system, robotics and health care mergers among them, are forcing pharmacists into expanded provider roles, yet federal policymakers are failing to act on these changes. State lawmakers are acting but not swiftly enough. A federal response, including recognizing pharmacists as health care providers and making them eligible for independent Medicare reimbursement, will be necessary to enable pharmacists to fill their role in our health care system. Policymakers have an opportunity now to respond proactively to a changing climate in health care by clarifying the boundaries on pharmacists’ services, particularly those boundaries regarding direct patient care and the appropriate reimbursement level. In doing so, policymakers may also alleviate some of the scope of practice “turf wars” health care providers engage in and incentivize better patient care and lower health care costs.

Should interventional radiology gain speciality status within the royal college of radiologists?

Interventional Radiology (IR) medicine’s best kept secret will revolutionise healthcare like never before. The legacy Charles Dotter left behind not only showcases IR’s pursuit of innovative and complex techniques in order to provide better treatment options for patients, it also sparked an opportunity for radiologists to use their imagination and creativity to develop IR into a speciality catering for the 21st century. By utilising imaging as well as clinical and minimal invasive surgical knowledge IRs are able to play an integral role in caring for patients in nearly all specialities. Over the past few decades, the absence of radiology in the leadership management arena has allowed other specialities to perpetuate turf wars and utilise techniques developed by IR. A concerted effort is required by the wider radiology community to address the problems faced by IR and to recognise its true potential as a speciality to further improve patient care.