This chapter explores the extent to which female public relations (PR) practitioners perform professionalism in the workplace by interrogating and examining their professional…
Abstract
This chapter explores the extent to which female public relations (PR) practitioners perform professionalism in the workplace by interrogating and examining their professional behaviours. Using an ethnographic approach, where the researcher is immersed in the field, it uncovers the lived experiences and behavioural responses of women working in PR agency environments in the United Kingdom and enables a rich description of professional behaviours to emerge.
Fawkes argues that research into roles in PR ‘has tended to assess roles using management rather than sociological theory’ (2014, p. 2). That is not to say that all PR research adopts the same paradigmatic stance. Several scholars have encouraged the development of a research agenda rooted in social theory. Holtzhausen called for a move away from what she termed the ‘modernist approach to organizations’ (2002, p. 251), which focuses on management discourse, and encouraged instead a focus on the postmodern concept of discourse, where meaning is constructed and conveyed through social and institutional practices.
In seeking to discover the ‘lived experience’ of female practitioners, this chapter locates professionalism in the context of their behaviours and enables individuals to articulate their understandings of the relationship between performance and professionalism. Using Goffman's (1959) work on social encounters as performances in conjunction with Foucauldian discourse and Feminist theory, this chapter explores the three stages of performing professionalism – preparation, performance and reception – through the eyes of women working in PR agencies in the United Kingdom to explore their lived experience and determine how gender affects their performance of professional behaviour.
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This study is a follow-up of inpatients diagnosed with severe depression/melancholia between 1956 and 1969. During this period, all inpatients at the Department of Psychiatry…
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This study is a follow-up of inpatients diagnosed with severe depression/melancholia between 1956 and 1969. During this period, all inpatients at the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Lund, were rated on a multidimensional diagnostic schedule on discharge. There were 471 patients born from 1920 onward. In the present follow-up, 2006 to 2010, 169 survivors could be traced. They were asked to participate in the study involving a telephone interview, in which a structured life chart was used. Of the patients contacted, 16 were ill or confused and 3 did not remember ever being depressed, leaving 150 who could participate. Seventy-five of these agreed to participate in the study. Long-term course of depression was evaluated by cluster analysis and compared to background variables, such as heredity for depression, perceived parental rearing behaviour, and treatment of index depressive episode. Using a cluster analysis the patients could be separated into six clusters describing the course: i) single or few episodes followed by long-lasting remission; ii) single or few episodes followed by long-lasting remission, although shorter; iii) single or few episodes followed by late recurrence; iv) single or few episodes, but more frequently ill, followed by late recurrence; v) several episodes followed by lasting remission; vi) chronic course of episodes. Remission or recurrence could therefore occur even after more than a decade. In summary, there was a short-term course with or without recurrence or a chronic course with or without late remission. Heredity for depression was significantly related to a chronic course with or without late remission.
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Action learning is a unique organizational learning process thatinvolves a non‐traditional instructional approach and mindset. It issimilar to the case method, in that it was…
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Action learning is a unique organizational learning process that involves a non‐traditional instructional approach and mindset. It is similar to the case method, in that it was designed as a managerial learning process. It was introduced by Reg Revans and first referenced as early as 1945, in a report on the British coal mining industry, recommending the establishment of a staff college for the industry in which field managers would be encouraged to learn with and from each other using group review to find solutions to immediate problems. Today it is growing in acceptance and use around the world, as evidenced by its successes at General Electric, Prudential Assurance, the University of Michigan Global Leadership Program, Harvard Business School, along with numerous others. It is used as a managerial learning process, involving teams who are resolving problems, the solutions to which are passed to clients who are themselves learning processes and relevant information valuable for future problem‐solving episodes. When projects and teams are selected appropriately, the body of institutional knowledge and the pace of strategic organizational learning is accelerated in user‐organizations through the action learning process.
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Peter A.C. Smith and Judy O’Neil
Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of…
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Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of learning through experience, “by doing”, where the task environment is the classroom, and the task the vehicle. Two previous reviews of the action learning literature by Alan Mumford respectively covered the field prior to 1985 and the period 1985‐1994. Both reviews included books as well as journal articles. This current review covers the period 1994‐2000 and is limited to publicly available journal articles. Part 1 of the Review was published in an earlier issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning (Vol. 15 No. 2) and included a bibliography and comments. Part 2 extends that introduction with a schema for categorizing action learning articles and with comments on representative articles from the bibliography.
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Summarizes the basic principles of Bioenergetics along with its origin in Riechian psychology. Clarifies that Bioenergetics is used at Cranfield not as psychotherapy, but as an…
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Summarizes the basic principles of Bioenergetics along with its origin in Riechian psychology. Clarifies that Bioenergetics is used at Cranfield not as psychotherapy, but as an aid to personal development for a specific population of high‐functioning individuals, i.e. managers. Places the Bioenergetic body‐mind notion into a philosophical context of human goodness and potential; thus expanding the focus to body‐mind‐spirit. Examines five body‐mind types through the following aspects: how they operate at work; how they were formed; key attitudes; unique gifts; body shape; development path; how they are best managed. Case histories illustrating the different types in various modes of consultant intervention, i.e. individual development, team building and culture change.
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Over the twentieth century, the relationships between the home and the school have been considered from a number of perspectives. These include social class and children’s…
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Over the twentieth century, the relationships between the home and the school have been considered from a number of perspectives. These include social class and children’s education (David, 1993; Halsey et al., 1980; Utting, 1995); the language of the home and school (Bernstein, 1971); involving parents in their children’s learning (David, 1993; Mortimore & Mortimore, 1984; Sylva, 1987; Wolfendale, 1983); parents’ political participation in their children’s education (Ball, 1990; David, 1993; Deem, 1989; Golby, 1989; Macleod, 1989); home-school relations and minority ethnic families (Tomlinson, 1984); gender and home-school issues (David, 1993); family structure and children’s education (Cockett & Tripp, 1994; Utting, 1995); the treatment of family in the school curriculum (Cockett & Tripp, 1994; DfEE, 2000; OFSTED, 2002; Utting, 1995); the role of school in addressing students’ family problems (Cockett & Tripp, 1994; Rodgers & Pryor, 1998); and home-school contracts (Bastiani, 1991; David, 1993; Macbeth, 1989). The range of areas outlined above alone highlights the complexities of the issues surrounding home and school.
Louise Curran and Soledad Zignago
This paper explores the regionalisation of the European Union’s supply chains and the impact of enlargement by looking at trends in trade in intermediate products between…
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This paper explores the regionalisation of the European Union’s supply chains and the impact of enlargement by looking at trends in trade in intermediate products between 1995‐2007. The findings show that enlargement has not significantly impacted overall levels of regionalization although it has led to quite major changes in the division of labor within the EU. In addition, the impacts have been very varied depending on the sector involved. There has been a greater consolidation of the EU supply chain in medium‐tech and up‐market goods while in low‐market and high‐tech goods, market share has been ceded to non‐EU sources.
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Hassan Vatanparast, Mustafa Koc, Marwa Farag, Joseph Garcea, Rachel Engler-Stringer, Tamer Qarmout, Carol Henry, Louise Racine, Judy White, Romaina Iqbal, Mahasti Khakpour, Sindhuja Dasarathi and Sonia D'Angelo
This study aims to provide a qualitative in-depth account of the status and experience of food insecurity for Syrian refugee households in Toronto and Saskatoon, Canada. The study…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a qualitative in-depth account of the status and experience of food insecurity for Syrian refugee households in Toronto and Saskatoon, Canada. The study considers the range of geographic, socio-economic, cultural and gendered components shaping and determining the barriers and management of food insecurity.
Design/methodology/approach
The study included 54 semi-structured interviews with refugee families in Toronto and Saskatoon who resettled in Canada after November 2015. In addition, 15 semi-structured in-person or telephone interviews were conducted with settlement and support agencies to measure their capacity to respond to issues of food insecurity for Syrian refugees.
Findings
Syrian refugees reported experiencing food insecurity as part of the broader resettlement journey, including in the transitional phase of refuge and in each settlement context in Canada. Income status in Canada was reported as a key barrier to food security. Low-income barriers to food security were experienced and shaped by factors including food affordability, physical access and availability and the extent of familial or other support networks including sponsorship relationships. Participants also reported how managing food insecurity contributed to the intensification of gender expectations.
Originality/value
The analysis reveals food insecurity as both an income and non-income based concern for refugees during the process of resettlement. The study also highlights the importance of considering variations between primary barriers to food security identified by Syrian families and key informants as critical to the development of strategies designed to mitigate the impacts of resettlement on food security.
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Melanie Jay Narayanasamy, Louise Thomson, Carol Coole, Fiona Nouri and Avril Drummond
There has been little research into the use and efficacy of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) across UK workplaces. This paper aims to investigate the implementation of MHFA across…
Abstract
Purpose
There has been little research into the use and efficacy of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) across UK workplaces. This paper aims to investigate the implementation of MHFA across six UK organisations, identifying key barriers and facilitators.
Design/methodology/approach
Twenty-seven workplace representatives were recruited from six organisations through purposive sampling and took part in semi-structured interviews exploring their experiences of workplace MHFA. The data underwent thematic analysis, identifying key themes around implementation.
Findings
Implementation varied across organisations, including different reasons for initial interest in the programme, and variable ways that MHFA-trained employees operated post-training. Key barriers to successful implementation included negative attitudes around mental health, the perception that MHFA roles were onerous, and employees’ reluctance to engage in the MHFA programme. Successful implementation was perceived to be based on individual qualities of MHFA instructors and good practice demonstrated by trained individuals in the workplace. The role of the inner organisational setting and employee characteristics were further highlighted as barriers and facilitators to effective implementation.
Research limitations/implications
MHFA is a complex intervention, presenting in different ways when implemented into complex workplace settings. As such, traditional evaluation methods may not be appropriate for gaining insights into its effectiveness. Future evaluations of workplace MHFA must consider the complexity of implementing and operationalising this intervention in the workplace.
Originality/value
This study is the first to highlight the factors affecting successful implementation of MHFA across a range of UK workplaces.