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Deleuze and Guattari have argued that in art, including literature, the senses get hold of the world in a non‐conceptual or “sensational” way, adding “new varieties” that can lead to new ways of knowing and seeing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of multi‐disciplinary, practice‐led research in creative writing as a form of knowledge making in qualitative research.

The author uses her own writing, especially the novel Swimming (Vanark Press, 2009), which is situated in the broader context of feminist fiction writing, as a subversive feminist project that aims to intervene in and challenge the dominant narratives of what it means to be a woman, by creating “alternative figurations” of “woman” which highlight differences among women and enhance our understanding of “woman” as a complex and multiple subject always “in process”.

By using her own practice of fiction writing and research as a case study, the author explores the ways that constructing an imagined narrative – in this case a novel – can make a contribution to knowledge and raise questions about representation, truth and subjectivity.

In this paper, through a few examples from her novel, the author's aim has been to write a narrative of the process, of “material thinking” that led to the final work.

Imagine yourself trying to: — keep an eye on time — listen to a long and confusing but relevant contribution — bring somebody into the discussion whom you believe has an important point to make — stop a “side meeting” that’s just developed all at the same time, and whilst being observed by a number of your colleagues. This is what we expect of someone who is running a meeting. No wonder most people find it difficult to do and, in turn, no wonder many managers take a dim view of the effectiveness of meetings. (The ones they attend, of course, not the ones they run themselves!)

In our previous article we introduced the concept of Assertiveness and identified some of the benefits that can follow from people in organisations becoming more assertive. In this article we move on to answer the question: ‘How do we go about training people to become more assertive?’ We home in on the assertiveness courses we've conducted: • identifying some of the areas that we cover • considering the main issues that typically arise within them. Towards the end of the article we make some points relating assertiveness training to some of the other forms of behaviour training with which the reader may be familiar.

Organizational behavior.

Upper-level undergraduate courses, introductory MBA courses.

This case study unveils the story of Al Qatef Holding, a Gulf-based real estate company that was created on the vision of one ambitious businessman. The case begins in 1999 when Faisal Al Qatef decided to pursue his dream of establishing a full-fledged corporation to serve the mounting real estate needs in the Gulf region. Faisal started his company by launching a number of residential and commercial property developments in his home country, Kuwait. During its early years of operation, Al Qatef Holding witnessed an impressive success and an increasing appetite for growth. A couple of years down the road, the founder made the strategic decision to open a new branch in Doha to seize the opportunity that the Qatari real estate market presented at that time. Yet, along with the rapid expansion came the company’s incapacity to deliver on its promises, generating many customer complaints and a damaged reputation owing to poor construction quality and significant delays in project delivery. The case describes the multiple challenges experienced by Al Qatef Holding throughout its evolution and portrays the external and internal dynamics that led to its initial success and subsequent decline.

Assess the internal dynamics and challenges that are associated with the management of small firms; discuss how leadership styles and characteristics affect the organizational climate and employee performance; demonstrate understanding of how corporate culture drives human behavior in the workplace; perform an analysis of firm structure to estimate its impact on individual and organizational outcomes; apply different techniques for enhancing employee motivation in organizations; and evaluate the effectiveness of managerial decisions and provide recommendations for securing corporate survival.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the way leadership influences an organization to become humane through its features and behaviors; as well as the organizational circumstances in which humane leadership can be nurtured. The first empirical case study, in the fields of Human Resource Development (HRD) and hospitality management, to explore the way employees from different national cultures (as measured by their individualistic/collectivistic values), in a US-based hotel, perceive their workplace to be a humane organization (HO), as defined by Chalofsky (2008), was the one made by Dimitrov (2009, 2010). More specifically, the example set by leadership in the studied hospitality organization is the focus of the present descriptive manuscript. The importance of HRD concepts such as the HO for the academic study and practical development of leadership in organizations is significant, through the effects leadership has on employee satisfaction and engagement at the workplace.

The exploratory research mentioned above used a single embedded case study with 17 participants, selected via purposeful convenience sampling, who represented management, supervisory and professional line-level employees from a culturally diverse full-service hotel in a major metropolitan area. The instrument of Singelis et al. (1995) for horizontal and vertical individualism (I) and collectivism (C), as well as the instrument of Triandis and Singelis (1998) for I and C, was applied to every respondent to determine their cultural belonging. One-on-one interviews, written reflections and documentary analysis, as well as observations of the social and physical aspects of the participants’ workplace, were conducted.

Five leadership sub-themes were observed to the general theme “Setting the Example” of the study’s findings: company values for leadership styles and employee treatment; the legacy of one charismatic leader (the previous general manager); leader–follower communication; how the workplace feels intrinsically; and how the work environment becomes negative. The study led to the formation of two new characteristics of the HO (Dimitrov, 2009), of which one could be recommended as the main focus of leadership in an HO: being cognizant and understanding of individuals as human beings, not just as employees. The traits and behaviors of some modern leadership theories such as authentic leadership, transformational leadership and charismatic leadership were combined under the concept – humane leadership.

The research of more culturally diverse organizations in different counties, brand cultures and economic sectors, under various research methodologies, and in the context of classical and recent leadership theories, was recommended to establish further weather I and C employees’ expectations of their leadership would make a difference for the sustenance of an HO.

Furthermore, organizations and HRD practitioners are encouraged to invest more time, efforts and resources into leadership development programs that create such humane leadership skills and prepare quality leaders who are well-perceived and trusted by their culturally diverse workforce.

The importance of HRD concepts such as the HO for the academic study and practical development of leadership in organizations is significant, through the effects leadership has on employee satisfaction and engagement at the workplace. Humane leaders can be nurtured in a humane organizational culture.

We are writing this article and the follow up one next month as a result of our experiences in training people in organisations to become more assertive. At the same time we are drawing on our learning from working on our own personal assertiveness. In this article we describe assertion, aggression and nonassertion, and their effects on individuals. We outline how to see this relating to people in organisations. We end with comments on some of the assumptions about assertiveness and assertiveness training. In the second article we explain our approach to assertiveness training.

A few years ago, when investigating various schools as a prospective parent, I decided to complete my educational journey by going to see a progressive school not far from where I lived.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of music therapy and dramatherapy with traumatised children in a residential school through examining the therapists’ experience of feeling useless.

Using clinical examples, the paper explores the therapists’ feelings of uselessness and how this experience informs and enables the progression of the work.

The paper suggests that feelings of uselessness are a necessary and useful part of the clinical process when working with traumatised children.

This paper offers an insight into application of music therapy and dramatherapy in this environment, and also into the therapists experience of working with highly traumatised children.

The religious tradition of male circumcision has come increasingly under attack across a number of European states. While critics of the practice argue that the problem is about children’s rights and the proper relationship between secular and religious traditions, Jews tend to see these attacks within the longer history of attempts to assimilate and remake them according to the norms of the majority. Using the 2012 German legal controversy concerning the issue as my vantage point, I explore how contemporary criticism of male circumcision remains entangled with ambivalence toward Judaism and the Jews as the “other.” Through a close reading of the arguments, I show how opponents use the seemingly neutral language of universal human rights to (re)make Jewish difference according to the norms of the majority. I conclude by arguing that such an approach to this issue runs the risk of turning Jews once again into strangers at a time when cultural anxieties are troubling European societies.