Lucy J. Lee, Isobel Gowers, Lorraine Ellis and Ilaria Bellantuonoa
This article reports the development, application and results of a baseline investigation of contract research staff in 2007 in the Medical School at the University of Sheffield…
Abstract
This article reports the development, application and results of a baseline investigation of contract research staff in 2007 in the Medical School at the University of Sheffield which was carried out in order to develop a specifically tailored training and career development programme and allow for future impact evaluation of the scheme. Postdoctoral researchers reported on their perceived skill levels, academic achievements, career motivations and the current research environment. Results indicated that transferable skills related to communication and awareness of the process of research (i.e. the process of acquisition of funding, commercialisation of research outputs) were lacking. Furthermore, these skills were associated with higher publication outputs, and improved with mobility between institutions at postdoctoral level. This paper also describes how the findings from the baseline evaluation were used to develop a programme to address the lower ranking skills and evaluate the impact of the programme.
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The increasing availability of electronic information is changing the role of the librarian and information professional. This article examines how joint working between the…
Abstract
The increasing availability of electronic information is changing the role of the librarian and information professional. This article examines how joint working between the School of Information Studies and the Library at the University of Central England is crucial to successfully deliver electronic information resources to students and staff. It also illustrates how co‐operation and collaboration has helped them both to adapt to the changing needs and culture of today’s electronic environment.
THE Fifty‐First Conference of the Library Association takes place in the most modern type of British town. Blackpool is a typical growth of the past fifty years or so, rising from…
Abstract
THE Fifty‐First Conference of the Library Association takes place in the most modern type of British town. Blackpool is a typical growth of the past fifty years or so, rising from the greater value placed upon the recreations of the people in recent decades. It has the name of the pleasure city of the north, a huge caravansary into which the large industrial cities empty themselves at the holiday seasons. But Blackpool is more than that; it is a town with a vibrating local life of its own; it has its intellectual side even if the casual visitor does not always see it as readily as he does the attractions of the front. A week can be spent profitably there even by the mere intellectualist.
A CORRESPONDENT complains that he has undertaken a course for his final examination, after spending six years from Dunkirk to the Elbe far removed from library opportunities—only…
Abstract
A CORRESPONDENT complains that he has undertaken a course for his final examination, after spending six years from Dunkirk to the Elbe far removed from library opportunities—only to find that librarians and libraries are building up their staffs now. The Times Literary Supplement, he says, carries column after column of advertisements of desirable posts for which he, as he thinks, is a desirable and legitimate aspirant, but he is barred by his academic obligations. This appears to be a genuine grievance and we place it first in these notes in the hope that authorities, and especially librarians, may be induced to consider it. It may be answered that there is a present urgent need to tune up libraries of every kind to meet the great public need and that many of them have already waited some years. It is perhaps a pity that they did not wait a little longer so that the men who deserve most of the country could have been brought into the competition.
STAFF problems in libraries are likely to become very severe within the next few months. That “best seller” among publications, the official schedule of reserved occupations…
Abstract
STAFF problems in libraries are likely to become very severe within the next few months. That “best seller” among publications, the official schedule of reserved occupations, permits no reservation of librarians over the age of 35 after the middle of July, 1941. The effect of this will be that many libraries will be left almost entirely without male staffs. A number of libraries come to mind immediately where the chief librarian himself is under 35, and it is very unlikely that he will have assistants older than himself. It is true that we have never seen an emergency so severe, and perhaps there is nothing that can be done about it. It has been suggested in one quarter that librarians of neighbouring districts should undertake the supervision of any library which is to be deprived of its chief. We are quite sure that such work would gladly be undertaken in spite of the difficulties which the older librarians will experience and are already experiencing seeing that many of them are involved in Food or Civil Defence services. Each librarian must consider very carefully how his system may be preserved and be made to function during his absence: it will require much ingenuity not to lose ground. On the other hand, the use of libraries by the public, even in blitzed areas, is still so great that they are obviously an integral part of the life of our people.
This paper examines different perspectives on the broad umbrella term of organisational silence. It identifies ten perspectives on organisational silence from the previous…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines different perspectives on the broad umbrella term of organisational silence. It identifies ten perspectives on organisational silence from the previous literature on inquiries into failings of British National Health Service providers. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Using content analysis, it applies ten perspectives on organisational silence to the report of the inquiry into the Gosport Hospital.
Findings
There is some overlap between the perspectives in that they draw on the same authors, and stress similar issues. There is some evidence for most of the perspectives in the report, but some perspectives appear stronger than others. However, none of the perspectives seem to cover the full spectrum of behaviour and place differential emphasis on different processes. It is not clear whether all ten perspectives add independent analytical value. This suggests that some might be extended or combined with the umbrella term of organisational silence more fully opened.
Originality/value
This is the first study in healthcare to review perspectives on organisational silence and apply them to a case study.
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Lee D. Parker and Philip Ritson
The management profession has a long and well‐documented history adopting and abandoning “fads” promulgated by a series of thinkers, practitioners, and opinion leaders who enjoy a…
Abstract
Purpose
The management profession has a long and well‐documented history adopting and abandoning “fads” promulgated by a series of thinkers, practitioners, and opinion leaders who enjoy a “guru” like status. The purpose of this paper shows that stereotyping contributes to the existence of this guru‐fad phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the characteristics of both management fads and the phenomenon of stereotyping with reference to two leading historical management practitioners and thinkers, Henri Fayol and Mary Parker Follett.
Findings
Drawing on the examples of Mary Parker Follett and Henri Fayol, it argues that the influence exerted by other management gurus and fads, such as Frederick Winslow Taylor's Scientific Management and Elton Mayo's Human Relations Movement, gave rise to a stereotyped view of both Follett and Fayol's work that prevented an accurate appraisal of their ideas.
Research limitations/implications
In addition, this paper notes that, while Follett and Fayol exhibited an extraordinary capacity to identify the very issues that have spawned many subsequent management fads, the contemporary management discipline's approach to both thinkers is quite different. While Follett has escaped her earlier stereotypes, allowing management thinkers a new opportunity to re‐assess her work and value its contemporary relevance, Fayol remains misclassified as a European Taylorist who has little to offer the contemporary management practitioner.
Originality/value
This paper provides an interesting insight into the characteristics of both management fads and the phenomenon of stereotyping.
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An examination of managerial rule breaking is potentially significant in times of rapid change where advantages have to be gained through flexibility and the effective use of…
Abstract
An examination of managerial rule breaking is potentially significant in times of rapid change where advantages have to be gained through flexibility and the effective use of power. This paper is based on a study of middle managers with professional backgrounds in public and private UK health care organizations. It analyses managers’ responses to rules and identifies to what extent they accept, subvert or reinterpret rules, ignore or hide rules, create new rules or manage without rules at all. The conclusion is reached that, within certain organizational, professional, gender and personal parameters, managers demonstrate great versatility. It is suggested that it is not the decision to avoid rules, nor the selection of particular ways to manipulate rules that is significant, but it is the ability of managers to move freely across different modes of behaviour as they deem appropriate that marks out successful opportunistic action.