MRS Radha Nadarajah, Head of the School of Library Science at the Mara Institute of Technology in Kuala Lumpur and Vice‐President of the Malaysia Library Association was in…
Abstract
MRS Radha Nadarajah, Head of the School of Library Science at the Mara Institute of Technology in Kuala Lumpur and Vice‐President of the Malaysia Library Association was in Britain during June and July, visiting library schools to discuss staff exchanges and recruitment for her school.
Interest in the role of the New Zealand School Journal as an officially sanctioned publication for schools, has resulted in a number of past studies exploring its relationship to…
Abstract
Interest in the role of the New Zealand School Journal as an officially sanctioned publication for schools, has resulted in a number of past studies exploring its relationship to official curriculum, educational policy and wider socio‐political developments, largely in relation to the written text. This article focuses on selected visual imagery, drawing on a masters study that examined discourses of art and identity through an interdisciplinary approach. Primary sources such as the School Journal publications themselves, material from the National Archives, and the stories of illustrators (gathered through a variety of communications including oral history), contributed a range of voices to the research. This article addresses some of the themes identified in relation to post World War 2 discourses of identity seeking to construct a sense of New Zealandness in educational publications. Acknowledging the role of imagery in educational publication itself offers another voice in constructing our educational history.
Terceira A. Berdahl and Helen A. Moore
Purpose: to explore the experiences of employees in a local bank merger in the United States and examine the concept of job exit queues. We introduce the concept of a job exit…
Abstract
Purpose: to explore the experiences of employees in a local bank merger in the United States and examine the concept of job exit queues. We introduce the concept of a job exit queue, which describes how workers position themselves or are positioned by employers to leave jobs and enter new jobs following the announcement of a corporate merger. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative interviews with mid‐ level managers, technical specialists and low status workers during the sale and merger process were conducted and coded thematically. We explore: (1) how workers and managers describe the job search as an “opportunity” or as a recurring cycle of low‐wage, high‐turnover work and (2) how severance packages structure the job exit queue to meet corporate needs. Findings: The role of severance pay is pivotal in understanding women’s and men’s job relations to job exit queues. We conclude that employers create job exit queues, placing low status workers and mid‐level women managers with less formal education at a disadvantage in reemployment. Value: This paper contributes a new concept “job exit queue” to the research and theory on work place diversity, gender inequality, and queuing theories.
Details
Keywords
Simon Shurville and John Williams
To show how a combination of hard and soft project and change management methodologies guided successful in‐house development of a campus‐wide information system.
Abstract
Purpose
To show how a combination of hard and soft project and change management methodologies guided successful in‐house development of a campus‐wide information system.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study of the methodologies and management structures that guided the development is presented.
Findings
Applying a combination of the dynamic systems development method, rapid prototyping, PRINCE 2, Checkland's soft systems methodologies and change management helped to develop a product that met user needs, offered value for money and was delivered on time.
Practical implications
The case study shows that the advantages of formal governance brought by PRINCE 2 can be retained in a softer environment where user needs generate work packages and stage gates.
Originality/value
There is widespread evidence that more than half of all IT projects fail and that the softer people issues are essential for success. The paper presents an example of fusing softer approaches with formal governance. It should interest programme and project managers, senior sponsors, software developers and usability specialists.
Details
Keywords
Denis Adams, Albakri Ahmad, Doug Haynes and Jim Sheehan
Begins by summarizing Stafford Beer's minimal model proposed in his report on the organization of Manchester Business School in 1970, and the conclusions made by Sir Douglas…
Abstract
Begins by summarizing Stafford Beer's minimal model proposed in his report on the organization of Manchester Business School in 1970, and the conclusions made by Sir Douglas Hague, when Beer's model was used as a framework to examine current business school practices and a vision for the twenty‐first century. To facilitate learning in a “reality” which closely resembled situations in A‐space, a business simulator course was designed and its cybernetics is explained to show how Beer's ideas were actually used to teach Beer's ideas. Also delineates the experiences of the students' practical use of Beer's VSM. Continuing the theme to interplay teaching, research and consultancy, describes the concept, model and the implementation of Janus — The Centre for Systems Thinking and Organizational Transformation; a centre for those who wish to study, develop, apply and promote Stafford Beer's ideas and works.
Details
Keywords
Carolyn Summerbell, Helen Moore and Claire O’Malley
– The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence base for effective public health interventions which aim to improve the diet of children aged zero to three years.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence base for effective public health interventions which aim to improve the diet of children aged zero to three years.
Design/methodology/approach
General review.
Findings
Key approaches and components of effective interventions include: repeated tasting, parental modelling, use of rewards, moderate restriction of “unhealthy” foods alongside an increase in portion sizes of fruits and vegetables, culturally appropriate messages, culturally acceptable health care provider, sufficient intensity of intervention, and an intervention which targets parental self-efficacy and modelling. Interventions which provide home visits (rather than require visits to a GP surgery or local community centre) financial incentives and/or mobile phone reminders may increase retention, particularly for some individuals. Recruiting mothers into programmes whilst they are pregnant may improve recruitment and retention rates.
Originality/value
Allows for key public health interventions, approaches and components to be explored and identified. This will ensure that there is guidance to inform the development of new interventions for this age group and more importantly recommend that those components which are most successful be incorporated in policy and practice.
Details
Keywords
September TUE.8. Aslib Chemical Group/Technical Translation Group Joint Evening Meeting. ‘Technical translations: meeting the need’, by Paul H. Scott (BP Research). Aslib. 5 for…
Chris Tilly, Georgina Rojas-García and Nik Theodore
Recent research begins to explore how organizations of informal workers function, and succeed or fail. Using cases of domestic-worker movements in Mexico and the United States, we…
Abstract
Recent research begins to explore how organizations of informal workers function, and succeed or fail. Using cases of domestic-worker movements in Mexico and the United States, we seek to extend this research by adding historical analysis of the movements’ evolution through a cross-national analysis of movement differences. We draw on concepts from the social movement and intersectionality literature. Historically, the two movements have been propelled by multiple streams of activism corresponding to shifting salient intersectional identities and frames, always including gender but incorporating other elements as well. Comparatively, the US domestic-worker movement recently has had greater success due to superior financial resources and more facilitative political opportunities – advantages due in part precisely to intersectional identities resonant with potential allies. However, this relative advantage was not always present and may not persist. Social movement concepts and intersectional analysis thus help understand both historical changes and cross-national contrasts in informal-worker organizing.
Details
Keywords
Avril Bell, Lesley Patterson, Morgan Dryburgh and David Johnston
Natural disaster stories narrate unsettling natural events and proffer scripts for social action in the face of unforeseen and overwhelming circumstances. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Natural disaster stories narrate unsettling natural events and proffer scripts for social action in the face of unforeseen and overwhelming circumstances. The purpose of this study is to investigate stories of natural disasters recounted for New Zealand school children in the School Journal during its first 100 years of publication.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis is used to categorise the disaster event and to identify two distinct periods of disaster stories – imperial and national. Textual analysis of indicative stories from each period centres on the construction of social scripts for child readers.
Findings
In the imperial period tales of individual heroism and self‐sacrifice predominate, while the national period is characterised by stories of ordinary families, community solidarity and survival. Through this investigation of natural disaster stories for children, the paper identifies the shifting models of heroic identity offered to New Zealand children through educational texts.
Originality/value
This study adds to the existing literature on the School Journal and to the broader study of the history of imperialist and nationalist education in New Zealand. In these times of increased disaster awareness it also draws attention to the significance of disaster narratives in offering social scripts for children to draw on in the event of an actual disaster experience.