In this article I present brand-centred control as a new form of normative control and examine the ways in which it affects employees. To do so, I draw on the results of a qualitative case study of a consumer products company with a strong corporate culture and brand, and examine internal branding as an extension of culture management. The key insights of the case study show that brand-centred control – unlike traditional normative control that typically works inside the company – also engages an external audience (customers, fans, and the wider public) as an additional source of normative control. As employees internalise the brand image of this external audience, they turn into brand representatives even in absence of face-to-face interactions with others and in their private lives. Brand-centred control thus blurs the boundaries between work and employees’ private lives in unprecedented ways. I discuss the ways in which employees respond to and resist brand-centred control and point to further research on brand-centred control as a significant new form of normative control.

Background: Failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) is a therapy-refractory pain condition characterized by persistent low back pain after spine surgery. FBSS is associated with severe disability, low quality of life and high unemployment rate. We are currently unable to identify patients who are at risk of developing FBSS. Patients with chronic low back pain may display signs of central hypersensitivity as assessed by quantitative sensory tests (QST). This can contribute to patients' vulnerability to develop persistent pain after surgery. Objective: We tested the hypothesis that central hypersensitivity as assessed by QST predicts FBSS. Design and Setting: We performed a prospective cohort study in 141 patients with chronic low back pain scheduled for up to three segmental spine surgery for chronic low back pain due to degenerative changes in three tertiary care centres. Patients: Chronic low back pain was defined as of at least 3 on a numerical rating scale at most days during the week and with a minimum duration of three months. Outcomes: We defined FBSS as persistence of pain, persistence of disability or a composite outcome defined as either persistence of pain or disability. The primary outcome was persistence of pain 12 months after surgery. We applied 14 QST using electrical, pressure and temperature stimulation to predict FBSS and assessed the association of QST with FBSS in multivariable analyses adjusted for socio-demographic, psychological and clinical and surgery-related characteristics. Results: None of the investigated 14 QST predicted FBSS, with 95% confidence intervals of crude and adjusted associations of all QST including one as measure of no association. Results remained robust in all sensitivity and secondary analyses. Conclusion: The study indicates that assessment of altered central pain processing using current QST is unlikely to identify patients at risk for FBBS and is therefore unlikely to inform clinical decisions.

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Background It would be desirable to identify patients with acute low back pain (ALBP) who are at high risk for transition to chronic pain early in the course of their disease. This would enable early preventive or therapeutic interventions. Patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) display signs of central hypersensitivity. This may contribute to the transition to CLBP. We tested the hypothesis that central hypersensitivity as assessed by quantitative sensory tests predicts transition to CLBP. Methods We performed a prospective cohort study in 130 patients with ALBP recruited in a primary care setting to determine the ability of 14 tests using electrical, pressure and temperature stimulation to predict transition to CLBP after 6 months. We assessed the association of tests with transition to CLBP in multivariable analyses adjusted for socio‐demographic, psychological and clinical characteristics, quantified the performance of tests using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and calculated likelihood ratios for different cut‐off values for most promising tests. Results None of the evaluated tests showed a statistically significant or clinically relevant ability to predict the transition to CLBP, with 95% CI of crude and adjusted associations of all tests including one as measure of no association. Corresponding estimates of areas under the ROC curves were below 0.5, and none of the 95% CI crossed the pre‐specified boundary of clinical relevance set at 0.70. Conclusions We found no evidence to support a clinically relevant ability of current quantitative sensory tests to predict the transition from acute to CLBP.

Improving the ability to predict persistent pain after spine surgery would allow identification of patients at risk and guide treatment decisions. Quantitative sensory tests (QST) are measures of altered pain processes, but in our previous study preoperative QST did not predict pain and disability at single time-points. Trajectory analysis accounts for time-dependent patterns. We hypothesized that QST predict trajectories of pain and disability during one year after low back surgery.We performed a trajectory analysis on the cohort of our previous study (n=141). Baseline QST included electrical, pressure, heat and cold stimulation of the low back and lower extremity, temporal summation and conditioned pain modulation. Pain intensity and Oswestry Disability Index were measured before, 2, 6 and 12 months after surgery. Bivariate trajectories for pain and disability were computed using group-based trajectory models.Multivariable regressions were used to identify QST as predictors of trajectory-groups, with sociodemographic, psychological and clinical characteristics as covariates.Cold pain hypersensitivity at the leg, not being married and long pain duration independently predicted worse recovery (complete-to-incomplete, incomplete-to-no recovery). Cold pain hypersensitivity increased the odds for worse recovery by 3.8 (95% CI 1.8−8.0, p<0.001) and 3.0 (1.3-7.0, p= 0.012) in the univariable and multivariable analyses, respectively. Trajectory analysis, but not analysis at single time-points, identified cold pain hypersensitivity as strong predictor of worse recovery, supporting altered pain processes as predisposing factor A C C E P T E DCopyright Ó 8 8 by the International Association for the Study of Pain. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. 2020 3 for persisting pain and disability, and a broader use of trajectory analysis. Assessment of cold pain sensitivity may be a clinically applicable, prognostic test.

Metaphorical phrases appear frequently in practitioner and academic texts on internal branding and depict employees as 'brand ambassadors' who 'embody the brand' and ultimately turn into 'living brands'. In this article, I examine how these metaphorical phrases rhetorically construct the concept of internal branding and thereby also impact our thoughts on organizations, employees and their relationships to one another. The findings show that complex metaphorical phrases provide linguistic framing for internal branding and simultaneously convey conflicting messages to different stakeholder groups. These metaphors describe internal branding as empowering employees to be autonomous and encouraging them to take control over the brand, whereas connotations paint a picture of employees being controlled by the brand. This article contributes to studies on internal branding, branding more generally, and on language in critical management studies by highlighting that internal branding metaphors point to a hidden value system that values brands higher than employees. This value system reflects tensions around the increasing financial value of brands and increasingly precarious working conditions.

The aim of this study was to compare a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method combined with selective enrichment in Rappaport-Vassiliadis broth (PCR-RVB) with standard microbiological techniques (SMT) for the generic detection of Salmonella in samples of porcine origin. Two hundred sixty eight field samples consisting of 42 sets of pooled porcine mandibular lymph nodes and tonsils, 44 samples of intestinal content, 38 pork sausage meat samples and 144 samples of feed collected from swine farms were submitted to the PCR-RVB and SMT protocols. Salmonella was detected in 54 samples using the PCR-RVB assay and in 42 samples by SMT, three of the SMT Salmonella-positive samples (one each of S. Derby, S. Panama and S. Typhimurium) being Salmonella-negative by PCR-RVB. For the PCR-RVB method 15 Salmonella-positive samples were negative by SMT, a significant difference according to the Mac Nemar's chi-squared test (p=0.0153). Subsequent serological typing of the SMT isolates showed the following Salmonella serovars, the number of positive samples being given in parentheses: Typhimurium (12); Bredeney (10); Panama (5); Saint-paul (5); Minnesota (3); Mbandaka (2); Derby (1); Enteritidis (1); Orion (1) and Salmonella sp. (2). We concluded that, although the use of both PCR-RVB and SMT increased the number of positive samples, the PCR-RVB, due to its higher sensitivity and greater speed in giving results, can be implemented to detect Salmonella in samples of porcine origin.

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