Many ex-offenders and substance misusers are employed in the treatment and intervention of offenders. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this role as a protective factor…
Abstract
Purpose
Many ex-offenders and substance misusers are employed in the treatment and intervention of offenders. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this role as a protective factor in the maintenance of desistance.
Design/methodology/approach
Seven paraprofessional employees of a substance misuse service were interviewed using semi-structured interview and analysed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
Findings
Four super-ordinate themes emerged: “The Fragile Sense of Self”; “Hitting Rock Bottom”; “Belonging and identity” and “Maintaining the role reversal”. These themes captured the journey of moving through crime and substance misuse into desistance and employment.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size is small; therefore generalisation is reduced. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) could be considered subjective. Further research should attempt to explore similar ideas with different populations and using different methods.
Practical implications
This work suggests that practitioners and policy makers should look at the vital importance of paraprofessional employment in relation to desistance from crime.
Social implications
Offenders and substance misusers are often left without direction or a fixed new identity, and return to the only life they have known. This study suggests that paraprofessional employment might provide a sense of belonging and identity that could benefit the ex-offender, their clients and society.
Originality/value
This is an opportunity to advance knowledge in the area of paraprofessional employment as an aid to “recovery” and lifelong desistance.
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Nicola Bamford and David Bamford
This paper aims to investigate the implications and impact from the implementation of European Working Time Directive (EWTD) compliant working patterns (the introduction of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the implications and impact from the implementation of European Working Time Directive (EWTD) compliant working patterns (the introduction of shifts) on doctors.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative, case study based research method was used. Data collection involved: the application of semi‐structured, open‐ended interviewing to elicit information based upon categories defined from the literature survey; follow‐up conversations with many interviewees; participant observation; thematic coding and analysis of the results.
Findings
Shifts are here to stay. All doctors interviewed acknowledged that, but there was a general feeling of minimal flexibility in the system. A recurrent theme when asked how things could be improved was to split‐up the week of night shifts into two shorter periods. Some doctors, particularly those working full‐time with small children, already split their weekends in order to spend time with their family.
Research limitations/implications
The methodology applied was appropriate, generating ample data to facilitate discussion and from which to draw specific conclusions. A perceived limitation is the single case approach; however Remenyi argues this can be enough to add to the body of knowledge.
Practical implications
The research generated suggestions for how shifts could be scheduled to make them more palatable for those who work them. Specific recommendations for future research are made.
Originality/value
The research questions of the paper draw out the personal implications for doctors of their employers' adherence to the implementation of EWTD.
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“Where HAS that book been reviewed?” This question seemed to arise daily during my work as Adult Services Consultant for an upstate New York library system. Since I was…
Abstract
“Where HAS that book been reviewed?” This question seemed to arise daily during my work as Adult Services Consultant for an upstate New York library system. Since I was responsible for the selection of new titles for the system pool collection as well as preparing buying lists for member libraries, I felt the need to have some way of “pulling together” all the reviews for new titles as they appeared in the book review media. It seemed to me that the book review indexes currently being published were inadequate in several ways, especially in the timely listing of current reviews and in the fact that you usually had to know the author's name in order to find citations to the reviews. How did I progress from perceiving a need for a more current listing of citations to book reviews and actually publishing my own index, Title Index of Current Reviews? Initially, several seemingly unrelated events led me in the direction I was eventually to take.
Anthony Emery and Michael Watson
Examines the emergence of environmental legislation and the response of organizations. Most legal academics have attempted to explain these responses in the context of rational…
Abstract
Examines the emergence of environmental legislation and the response of organizations. Most legal academics have attempted to explain these responses in the context of rational choice theory, using an economic framework such as the rational polluter model. Argues that whilst the rational polluter model offers a partial explanation of organizations’ behaviour in response to environmental legislation, it does not explain why the majority of organizations are law abiding. Examines work on legitimacy theory, and by drawing on that work and placing it in the context of case law, suggests that it offers a better explanatory framework.
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James Sanderson and Nicola Hawdon
The purpose of this paper is to outline how personal health budgets and a universal, integrated model of support, can positively transform the way in which individuals with a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline how personal health budgets and a universal, integrated model of support, can positively transform the way in which individuals with a learning disability experience their health and support needs.
Design/methodology/approach
The review recognises that Integrated Personal Commissioning, as a policy approach, provides the framework to offer personalised care, and enables people to live an independent, happy, healthy and meaningful life.
Findings
Evidence suggests that a personalised and integrated approach to both health and social care not only offers better outcomes on all levels for the individual, but also benefits the system as a whole.
Originality/value
The study reveals that a personalised care leads to people to have choices and control over decisions that affect in better health and wellbeing outcomes for people.
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Nicola Persico and C. James Prieur
In 2007 Conseco's CEO, C. James Prieur, faced a complicated set of problems with his company's long-term care (LTC) insurance subsidiary, Conseco Senior Health Insurance (CSHI)…
Abstract
In 2007 Conseco's CEO, C. James Prieur, faced a complicated set of problems with his company's long-term care (LTC) insurance subsidiary, Conseco Senior Health Insurance (CSHI). CSHI faced the threat of congressional hearings and an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, triggered by an unflattering New York Times article alleging that CSHI had an unusually large number of customer complaints and was denying legitimate claims. This threat came in addition to broader systemic problems, including the fact that the entire LTC industry was barely profitable. What little profitability existed was dependent on the goodwill of state insurance regulators, to whom the industry was highly beholden for approvals of rate increases to keep it afloat. Furthermore, CSHI had unique strategic challenges that could not be ignored: First, the expense of administering CSHI's uniquely heterogeneous set of policies put it at a disadvantage relative to the rest of the industry and made rate increases especially necessary. Second, state regulators were negatively predisposed toward Conseco because of its notorious reputation and thus were often unwilling to grant rate increases. Finally, CSHI was dependent on capital infusions totaling more than $1 billion from its parent company, Conseco, for which Conseco had received no dividends in return. Faced with pressure from Conseco shareholders and the looming congressional investigations, what should Prieur do? Students will discuss the available options in the context of a long-term relationship between Conseco and state insurance regulators. Prieur's solution to this problem proved to be innovative for the industry and to have far-reaching consequences for CSHI's corporate structure.
After reading and analyzing this case, students will be able to: evaluate the impact of a regulatory environment on business strategy; and assess the pros and cons of various market strategies as well as recommend important non-market strategies for a firm in crisis in a highly regulated industry.
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In 1767, did Sir James Steuart predict the political and financial crises that started the French Revolution? Étienne de Sénovert, the editor and translator of Steuart’s work…
Abstract
In 1767, did Sir James Steuart predict the political and financial crises that started the French Revolution? Étienne de Sénovert, the editor and translator of Steuart’s work, seems to argue to this effect in the introduction to the first French edition of An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy in 1789. The visionary “prediction” set forth by Steuart was the following: if the king of France had introduced public credit, this would have changed the political balance in French political society, making it very unstable. The English and the French governments used different ways of borrowing money in 1760: the French king contracted debts with a network of financiers close to the government, while the English government borrowed on the credit markets through the intermediary of the Bank of England. The second of these methods constitutes public credit and has proved its efficiency. According to Steuart, implementing the English public credit system in France could have dangerous consequences. Landed interests and moneyed interests would compete for the control of the State. The author realized that the French nobility, the landowners, as a social and economic group would have no chance in facing such a powerful rival (the public creditors). In this chapter, the author analyzes Steuart’s “prediction” as a coherent part of his systematic and original approach to political economy. Steuart’s theories about the role of political economy and the role of “interest” are connected to his understanding of institutions. Introducing such a complex support for the value as public credit might have different consequences in France and England. Steuart thinks each country’s economy should be analyzed according to its own institutional and social context.
Steuart’s work was still relevant in 1789 for two reasons. Firstly, the author’s prediction of political antagonism between capitalists and nobility anticipated the political conflict about debt expressed by pamphleteers such as Sieyès, Mirabeau, and Clavière between 1787 and 1789. This is the context of Étienne de Sénovert’s claim: the political narrative built by the revolutionaries of 1789 (rescuing the “sacred” public debt from royal despotism) fitted Steuart’s prediction. This may have been the incentive for the translation and publication of his work in 1789 and 1790. Secondly, Steuart’s financial and monetary theory was at the heart of the project of financial reform that would lead to the assignats. Steuart’s (1767) theory of public finance and state power in 1789 provides a key to the understanding the events of the time, and to how actors tried to make sense of them. Steuart made another crucial observation about the deep effect of what he called “the modern economy” upon the power of the governments of Europe: even an absolute monarch could not damage public credit without destroying his own sovereignty.
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Maximiliano Nicolás Saraco and James Blaxland
The aim of this study was to compare the organoleptic attributes and meltability of selected, commercial dairy-free imitation cheeses (DFICs) with those of their dairy…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to compare the organoleptic attributes and meltability of selected, commercial dairy-free imitation cheeses (DFICs) with those of their dairy counterparts to thus determine whether commercial DFIC needs to be further developed.
Design/methodology/approach
Market research was conducted to determine the availability of DFICs in the United Kingdom (UK) and thus select the varieties to assess. Mild cheddar was chosen for its popularity wide availability in the United Kingdom and Italian-style hard cheese for its complex organoleptic profile. The organoleptic attributes and melting properties of the chosen DFIC products were assessed by using descriptive sensory evaluation and their meltability was assessed using the Arnott test, respectively.
Findings
109 different DFICs were found; most of them (74%) presented coconut oil as their primary ingredient. None of the assessed DFICs assessed could mimic the organoleptic attributes of their dairy counterparts accurately; however, one of the non-dairy mild cheddar samples was regarded as potentially acceptable by the assessors of the sensory evaluation assessors. Nonetheless, the meltability of this sample was significantly lower than that of mild cheddar cheese.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that, to obtain products that can mimic the organoleptic attributes and meltability of cheese more accurately, further development is required for the DFIC varieties assessed.
Originality/value
No academic publications have explored and investigated commercial DFICs with similar ingredients to those found in commercial DFICs; the commercial importance of these products may augment in the short term owing to the reported growth in the number of vegan individuals in the UK and in Europe.