Medicines inspectors are being taught psychological techniques so that they can deal with pharmaceutical manufacturers' changing attitudes towards inspection.
Participants in the 1999 Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention/Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme training seminar at Oxford from September 8-10 heard that there was a need to consider psychology because those being inspected were now less deferential towards inspecting authorities. There was a change of attitude towards challenge, confrontation and litigation, Dr Gordon Munro (head of inspection and enforcement, Medicines Control Agency) told the meeting.
The seminar, attended by 95 participants from the 20 PIC member states, was led by Mr Peter Tansey (principal lecturer, Civil Service College).
Mr Tansey said that different cultures were characterised by four psychological dimensions. They could be individualistic (Britain, USA) or collectivist (Japan, Pakistan). They could be high power distance cultures, with a high respect for authority (Japan, France) or low power distance cultures (Australia, Sweden). Greece and Japan were unable to tolerate high levels of uncertainty, unlike Denmark, Sweden and Britain. The fourth characterising dimension was materialism (Japan and Australia) versus relationship (Norway and Spain).
These dimensions needed to be understood in order to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation, Mr Tansey said.
Further sessions of the meeting, at which inspectors were taught about dealing with difficult behaviour, and investigative interviewing, were conducted behind closed doors.