Search results

Professor Christine King is Vice‐Chancellor and Chief Executive of Staffordshire University. She is an active and recognised champion of access, inclusion and diversity and is the chair of the West Midlands Higher Education Association.As an academic, Professor King has an international reputation. She is a Professor of History and her research interests include the history of religion, especially the non‐Jewish victims of the Holocaust. She is a Trustee of the Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion and Contemporary Spirituality (CSIRCS).As well as her academic interest in history and religion, Professor King is also very active in the field of management. She is a founder member and past Chair of the Through the Glass Ceiling, a network of senior women managers and co‐author of Through the Glass Ceiling: Effective Senior Management Development for Women.Here, Peter Gilbert, Professor of Social Work and Spirituality at Staffordshire University and author of Leadership: Being Effective and Remaining Human, talks to Professor King about her views on leadership.

Evaluation of student performance in bibliographic instruction (B.I.) has been, and continues to be, an area of interest to B.I. practitioners. The last 15 years have seen a number of excellent analyses and reviews of evaluation techniques. Many recent articles focus on evaluation methods used within specific B.I. programs.

This paper aims to consider the position of Jehovah's Witnesses during the Third Reich.

Drawing on recent research, the author considers leadership and followership lessons that can be gleaned from the Third Reich period of history.

Historians write of the “Führerprinzip” or the “leadership principle” by which Adolf Hitler is seen to have taken and held power in Nazi Germany. Hitler and the Nazi leadership managed to conduct a programme of unthinkable acts, including institutionalised murder on a gargantuan scale, with seemingly limited internal challenge or resistance. Subsequent analysis undertaken in the aftermath of the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials argues that the majority of people will carry out instructions if these are given by an authority figure, even if their action harms others. However, as Professor Milgram and his successors have also shown, not everyone will behave in this way; some people refuse to obey orders which contravene their moral sense or values. This paper aims to summarise the story of one group of people – Jehovah's Witnesses – who, during the Third Reich, refused to comply.

The author offers this paper as a case study to highlight some issues about moral leadership, leadership by example, and about the inspiration that can come from unexpected quarters.

The purpose of this article is to explore how the publishing world is responding to library collection development challenges posed by the growth of interdisciplinary studies programs.

The first step in this study was a survey of the websites of selected ARL and all Oberlin Group university and college websites to determine those institutions that have a clearly identified Interdisciplinary program or majors. The authors then investigated the status of interdisciplinary collection development practices at these institutions. Finally the websites of reviewers, publishers, and vendors were surveyed to explore what tools are available to help librarians identify new interdisciplinary monographs.

Rather than supplying formal interdisciplinary collection development support, most librarians rely on external resources to help identify interdisciplinary materials. As technology evolves publisher/vendor websites can provide librarians with the tools needed to conduct in‐depth searches of their catalogs, thus aiding in the identification of interdisciplinary monographs for purchase.

Building on previous scholarship about the growth of interdisciplinary studies and libraries, this paper extends the research by examining the tools available to help librarians bridge the gap created by new disciplinary formations and offers suggestions for publishers to enhance interdisciplinary selection.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the relative importance of factors affecting quality. This is important where great expenditures of time, money, and resources are wasted each year due to inefficient or non-existent quality levels.

An exploratory approach is employed. After a literature review, six interviews are initially conducted with construction experts and then a simple survey of 328 questionnaires was administrated through structured personal interviews among contractors and architects in the Jordanian housing sector.

The findings suggest that contractors and architects combined agreed that the highest important factors affecting quality are: human resource management, customer satisfaction, and construction specific factors. The findings also suggest that strategic planning, continuous improvement, resources are the lowest important factors. A conceptual framework encompassing the key quality factors is also developed.

This research has important implications for different level managers at construction companies. By understanding the quality factors, managers can focus on the highest factors and catch up with their lowest important factors in order to maintain a balanced and integrated quality approach.

This is one of few studies that investigate the importance of quality factors. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper providing empirical evidence of the quality factors in construction management in a developing country.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the role played by home economists in providing information to consumers about household products. The work of home economist and educator Martha Van Rensselaer is reviewed, specifically her time as editor of the homemaking department of women's magazine Delineator from 1921‐1926.

The paper used qualitative analysis of the content of the homemaking department under Van Rensselaer as well as quantitative analysis of the advertising during those years. Documents from several manuscript collections were used as well.

Content analysis showed a shift over the years from 1921‐1926 from broader social themes to greater emphasis on specific homemaking tasks. Ads were regularly placed next to related editorial content, but under Van Rensselaer no brand names were mentioned editorially.

Since this research focused on one magazine, comparison with homemaking departments in other women's journals at this time would provide useful context.

The specific example provided illuminates the evolving relationship between advertisers, home economists, media and consumers.