Julie Spencer and Jane Mathieson
This article describes in some detail reader development project work targeting 16‐25 year old young people carried out in 18 library authorities in the North West of England…
Abstract
This article describes in some detail reader development project work targeting 16‐25 year old young people carried out in 18 library authorities in the North West of England during 2000‐2002. The context of the project is set, focusing on the aim of increasing library use by young people. Key national reading agencies are briefly described, as well as the regional Time To Read partnership. The project description is detailed, including aims and objectives, delivery, training, new partnerships and the impact of the work locally and nationally. Some key conclusions are of significant practical value for future reader centred projects. The article concludes by describing a new co‐ordinator’s post which is taking reader development work forward in the region and offers a model for future cross‐authority working.
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Jingqiu Chen, Lei Wang, Minyan Huang and Julie Spencer‐Rodgers
This research aims to examine the relationships among employee commitment to change, naïve dialecticism, and performance change in the context of change in Chinese state‐owned…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to examine the relationships among employee commitment to change, naïve dialecticism, and performance change in the context of change in Chinese state‐owned enterprises (SOEs).
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 287 employee‐supervisor matched data were collected by questionnaire from three Chinese SOEs implementing a major change on sector restructuring.
Findings
Results showed that affective commitment to change was related to performance change. Change thinking was positively related to all three components of commitment to change, whereas contradictory thinking was negatively related to affective commitment to change. Affective commitment to change fully mediated the association between contradictory thinking and performance change.
Originality/value
This research integrates “outside in” and “inside out” approaches to contextualize commitment to change studies in China. An “outside in” approach was followed to investigate the relationship between commitment to change and performance change, whereas an “inside out” approach was followed to add valuable insights to the commitment to change model from the point of view of Chinese naïve dialecticism.
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From earliest times the land and all it produced to feed and sustain those who dwelt on it was mankind's greatest asset. From the Biblical “land of milk and honey”, down through…
Abstract
From earliest times the land and all it produced to feed and sustain those who dwelt on it was mankind's greatest asset. From the Biblical “land of milk and honey”, down through history to the “country of farmers” visualised by the American colonists when they severed the links with the mother country, those who had all their needs met by the land were blessed — they still are! The inevitable change brought about by the fast‐growing populations caused them to turn to industry; Britain introduced the “machine age” to the world; the USA the concept of mass production — and the troubles and problems of man increased to the present chaos of to‐day. There remained areas which depended on an agri‐economy — the granary countries, as the vast open spaces of pre‐War Russia; now the great plains of North America, to supply grain for the bread of the peoples of the dense industrial conurbations, which no longer produced anything like enough to feed themselves.
Cynthia O'Regan, Tomás Dwyer and Julie Mulligan
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature and influence of artefacts in market-oriented firms.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature and influence of artefacts in market-oriented firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Document analysis, direct observation and 14 key informant interviews were undertaken in 6 case study of companies.
Findings
The research investigated the nature and influence of four categories of artefacts in market-oriented firms, specifically, stories, arrangements, rituals and language. The four categories of artefacts were found to embody, reinforce, create and compliment the values, norms and behaviours of a market-oriented culture. Market-oriented artefacts are thus core to a market-oriented culture and in developing a market orientation.
Research limitations/implications
The four categories of artefact, namely, stories, arrangements, rituals and language embody a market-oriented culture; these artefacts are necessary to implement market-oriented behaviours. Artefacts play a significant cultural and behavioural part in creating a market-oriented culture.
Practical implications
To be a market-oriented firm means implementing a market-oriented culture. This paper requires managers to assess the degree to which they have developed and used market-oriented artefacts in the establishment and strengthening of a market-oriented culture.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the limited understanding of market-oriented artefacts as an element of a market-oriented culture.
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Julie E. Learned and Mary Jo Morgan
This paper aims to report on a study investigating how young people and teachers interpreted reading proficiency and difficulty across different tracks of English language arts in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to report on a study investigating how young people and teachers interpreted reading proficiency and difficulty across different tracks of English language arts in the sole high school serving a culturally diverse city.
Design/methodology/approach
For six months, the researchers observed in three hierarchically tracked English classes. Participants were three teachers and 15 focal youths. The researchers also conducted semi-structured and open-ended interviews and collected classroom artifacts and students’ records.
Findings
Despite adoption of the Common Core State Standards and a school-designed common English curriculum, both of which were to contribute to shared literacy objectives, students and teachers built highly contextualized understandings of reading proficiency, which diverged across tracks and mediated instruction. Across tracks, however, deficit discourses about reading struggle persisted, and students and teachers attributed difficulty to students’ attitudes and behaviors. Young people never described themselves in negative terms, which suggests they resisted the deficit labels tracking systems can generate.
Originality/value
Findings extend research by showing how literacy-related tracking contributed to exclusionary contexts through which students were unproductively positioned at odds. Findings suggest a need for renewed rigor in the examination of tracking practices, particularly how notions of reading difficulty/proficiency position youths and mediate literacy instruction. Despite deficit conceptions of “struggling readers” across the school, youths never described themselves negatively and accepted reading difficulty as normal; how youths achieved such resourceful stances can be further investigated. These research directions will support the creation of English contexts that invite all youths into inquisitive, critical and agentive interactions with texts and each other.
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Shijiu Yin, Ying Li, Yusheng Chen, Linhai Wu and Jiang Yan
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors that influence food safety reporting intention and behaviour of the public.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors that influence food safety reporting intention and behaviour of the public.
Design/methodology/approach
Data used in this study came from a questionnaire survey conducted in Shandong Province, China. The 642 qualified samples were analysed through structural equation model based on the expanded theory of planned behaviour to study public food safety reporting behaviour and its influencing factors.
Findings
Results indicated that participation attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control (PBC) and moral norm had significantly positive effects on public reporting intention, which had a direct effect on behaviour. Among subjective norm, descriptive norm had a more significant influence on the intention to report than injunctive norm. PBC indirectly affected reporting behaviour through participation intention, and directly affected participation behaviour. Socio-demographic variables had significant influence on participation attitude, injunctive norm and PBC, whereas these variables had no influence on descriptive norm and moral norm.
Originality/value
This research is of academic value and of value to policy makers. To promote public participation in food safety reporting, the government should consider influencing factors of food safety reporting.