Chase Ochrach, Kathryn Thomas, Brian Phillips, Ngonidzashe Mpofu, Tim Tansey and Stacie Castillo
Employers increasingly seek a competitive advantage through inclusive hiring practices and recruitment of persons with disabilities. Early research indicates when employers…
Abstract
Purpose
Employers increasingly seek a competitive advantage through inclusive hiring practices and recruitment of persons with disabilities. Early research indicates when employers consider individuals for their strengths rather than solely for their needs, the organization prospers. However, details about how companies pursue a disability inclusive workplace and the effect of those efforts are poorly understood.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive qualitative case study approach was utilized to understand one biotechnology corporation and their approach to recruiting, hiring, and retaining employees with disabilities. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted.
Findings
Results suggest that when the company lives its mission around wellness and inclusivity, they benefit from working with and learning from a range of perspectives, furthering their growth. Placing equal emphasis on hiring a diverse workforce and prioritizing supports and wellness practices lead to greater productivity and innovation.
Practical implications
This study illustrates how one company successfully recruits and hires persons with disabilities, resulting in benefits to their financial bottom line and to the organizational culture.
Originality/value
This paper offers insights for other companies intentionally hiring persons with disabilities, providing accommodations in the workplace, and creating an organizational culture where all employees feel valued and supported. These steps have a direct impact on employee engagement, productivity, and retention.
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With the rapid growth of the video and VCR market since the 1980s, librarians have increasingly used videos for staff training and development, as well as for instructional…
Abstract
With the rapid growth of the video and VCR market since the 1980s, librarians have increasingly used videos for staff training and development, as well as for instructional purposes. As a medium, video provides a potentially stimulating and accessible alternative to other training approaches. In many training and instructional situations, video can clarify technical procedures, step‐by‐step, using such functions as slow motion and replay. For training programs emphasizing soft skills development (including communication, supervisory, and management skills), video can enhance role playing and behavior modeling. It can also provide opportunities for self‐observation and evaluation through the taping of simulated or actual interactions.
Aimee Bui and Brian H. Kleiner
The worlds of literature and business are as different as they get. While literature often revels in the artistic and abstract aspects, business focuses on the more practical and…
Abstract
The worlds of literature and business are as different as they get. While literature often revels in the artistic and abstract aspects, business focuses on the more practical and realistic facets of life. Literature talks ideas, business speaks money. Writers express themselves with words, business men prove themselves through numbers. Former US President Calvin Coolidge once exclaimed, “The business of America is business. Not Art!” (West brook, 1980:1). However, this difference is, at most, on the surface. Literature and business intertwine on more perspectives than one might think. For example, there are traces of corporate capitalism in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in which workers are portrayed as “slaves to the economic system” (Watts, 1982:77). Or Joseph Heller’s Something Happened depicts the harsh rules of business by which any one who is not contributing efficiently to the success of a company will be discarded, also known as corporate Darwinism (Horner, 1992:27). Or in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, with a humourous tone, medieval England is modernised with various economic measures, such as new currency, stock exchange in the court, and full‐time employment for the knights, and hence saved from financial ruins (West brook, 1980:49). In other words, literature has been drawing inspirations from the financial market. Therefore, it might not be surprising if there are major themes in literature than can be applied to the corporate world. In fact, managers at all levels can learn valuable lessons for the many areas of business from literature.
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Stephen Kempster and Jason Cope
The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of leadership learning in the entrepreneurial context, by building a dynamic learning perspective of entrepreneurship. It draws…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of leadership learning in the entrepreneurial context, by building a dynamic learning perspective of entrepreneurship. It draws on contemporary leadership literature to appreciate entrepreneurial leadership as a social process of becoming located in particular contexts and communities.
Design/methodology/approach
Through qualitative phenomenological interviews with nine entrepreneurs the lived experience of learning to lead is explored. The principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) are utilised to analyse the data and enable inductive theory‐building.
Findings
The findings illustrate situated leadership patterns and relationships unique to the entrepreneurial context. A number of significant structural and experiential factors are identified that both shape and restrict the development of leadership practice in small ventures. Specifically, the limited opportunities for leadership enactment and observation, the dominance of the business as the crucible for leadership learning, the influence of the family and the low salience of leadership are highlighted.
Research limitations/implications
In appreciating the leadership learning task that nascent entrepreneurs are faced with it is vital that further research delves deeper into the varying levels of “leadership preparedness” brought to new venture creation. From a policy perspective, there is significant value in enabling entrepreneurs to engage in meaningful dialogue, critical reflection and purposive action with their peers through the creation of leadership “learning networks”.
Originality/value
The research demonstrates leadership learning processes and pathways that are significantly different to those experienced by managers in the employed context. In so doing, this article represents the first systematic attempt to apply a learning perspective to the subject of entrepreneurial leadership.
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Andrew J. Hobson, Linda J. Searby, Lorraine Harrison and Pam Firth
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This response has been prompted by the article “Automated Systems for Small Libraries: Selection Guidelines” by Margaret Martinez in the July/August issue of this newsletter…
Abstract
This response has been prompted by the article “Automated Systems for Small Libraries: Selection Guidelines” by Margaret Martinez in the July/August issue of this newsletter. While database management systems (DBMS) software has been receiving well‐deserved positive reviews on its many capabilities, and this article does a good job in this area, the primary issue of the amount of time it takes to master and effectively use DBMS is not addressed.
Ashton‐Tate's dBASE, in its various versions, is undoubtedly the most widely used database management program in libraries. Scores of articles in the library literature describe…
Abstract
Ashton‐Tate's dBASE, in its various versions, is undoubtedly the most widely used database management program in libraries. Scores of articles in the library literature describe dBASE applications in libraries. They are usually written by enthusiastic dBASE users who have discovered how to bend and twist the program to accomplish a library specific application. The articles vary greatly in accuracy, documentation, and usefulness.