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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2004

58

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Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, vol. 56 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0036-8792

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 2001

Len O’Connor and Noel Harvey

Craft apprenticeship in Ireland has been traditionally of the time‐served type, in which the attainment of pre‐determined standards of competence and knowledge was not mandatory…

1142

Abstract

Craft apprenticeship in Ireland has been traditionally of the time‐served type, in which the attainment of pre‐determined standards of competence and knowledge was not mandatory. However, in 1991 a new standards‐based apprenticeship system was introduced and that in future, to be recognised as a crafts worker, a person would have to have the National Craft Certificate as a compulsory requirement. Previously an apprentice underwent four to five years of training to achieve status as a qualified tradesperson, regardless of actual competency. This paper reports on research work conducted on the apprenticeship system in Ireland, and particularly the perceptions of the outcomes of the change from a time‐served to standards based apprenticeship system. The focus of attention is the construction industry, and the research work was conducted in a large city in the south of Ireland. The research work consisted of interviewing a wide variety of personnel in this industry, from employers to trainers. The research findings are supported by contextual data on the construction industry. Broadly speaking, most interviewees expressed satisfaction with the new system mentioning, in particular, the value of having competent standards rather than simply using time. A number of criticisms were voiced. However, these criticisms related primarily to the specific operation of the new scheme and were especially relative to problems in gaining access to particular training courses at the right time.

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Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 25 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0590

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1987

The churn factor Internal moves are a sensitive issue for most facilities managers. Disruptive, costly — and unpredictable — they highlight many of the worst aspects of crisis…

27

Abstract

The churn factor Internal moves are a sensitive issue for most facilities managers. Disruptive, costly — and unpredictable — they highlight many of the worst aspects of crisis management According to IFMA research, facilities managers face an average annual churn rate of 25 per cent, but the level can be as high as 100 per cent in fully‐occupied space. So what is the right approach for those faced with the difficult role of coordinator? And to what extent can moves be planned in relation to an overall facilities strategy?

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Facilities, vol. 5 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-2772

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Article
Publication date: 24 May 2024

Alice Garner, Mary Leahy, Anthony Forsyth and Renee Burns

This article examines the role the Australian Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA) played in international education through the provision of trade union courses and exchanges…

35

Abstract

Purpose

This article examines the role the Australian Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA) played in international education through the provision of trade union courses and exchanges. We consider how an investigation of trade union networks contributes to a richer understanding of international education linkages.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on research conducted for an Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project: Trade union training: reshaping the Australian industrial landscape (ARC LP180100500). This research involved a critical analysis of 60 semi-structured oral history interviews and textual archives, including the official records held by the National Archives of Australia and papers held by the Noel Butlin Archives, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and in private collections.

Findings

TUTA was established primarily as a national union training organisation, but from its inception, it also acted as a hub for the development of regional and international labour networks. The nature of TUTA’s work placed it at the intersection of international trade union and educational domains. Although there were some points of contact with formal international programs (e.g. Japan–Australia and Kellogg Foundations, the Colombo Plan and US Department of Labour exchanges schemes), the specific contribution of TUTA is overlooked in the educational exchange literature. The role of TUTA is revealed through institutional connections and individual experiences.

Research limitations/implications

Further research is required to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of TUTA from the perspective of former participants in international TUTA course and current and former trade unionists in the Asia–Pacific.

Originality/value

This article builds new knowledge by examining the connections forged in the Asia–Pacific region at the intersection of trade union and educational networks, an area often overlooked in the literature on educational exchange.

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Article
Publication date: 10 May 2011

Jose Luis Rocha, Ed Brown and Jonathan Cloke

The concept of corruption is frequently represented as relating to social practices that violate established rules and norms. This paper, however, seeks to demonstrate that…

1357

Abstract

Purpose

The concept of corruption is frequently represented as relating to social practices that violate established rules and norms. This paper, however, seeks to demonstrate that corrupt practices are often only possible because they in fact draw on existing institutional mechanisms and cultural dispositions that grant them a certain social approval and legitimacy. The paper aims to explore these issues through a detailed exploration of corruption in Nicaragua, which outlines how competing élite groups have been able to use different discourses to appropriate resources from the state in quite different ways, reflecting the use of contrasting mechanisms for justifying and legitimizing corruption.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper focuses on two key periods of recent Nicaraguan political history: that which occurred during the administration of ex‐President Arnoldo Alemán and the events that unfurled in the aftermath of a chain of bank bankruptcies that occurred in Nicaragua during 2001. These events are explored in the context of David Harvey's ideas of “accumulation by dispossession.”

Findings

In contrast with more classic practices of corruption in Nicaragua that have openly violated existing formal rules and norms but appealed to an ethos of redistribution and a historically‐specific concept of “the public” in order to imbue their actions with legitimacy, the corrupt practices related to recent banking bankruptcies engaged in an extensive instrumentalization of formal state institutions in order to protect élite parochial interests and to achieve “accumulation by dispossession” through appealing to the legitimating support granted by multilateral financial institutions.

Originality/value

The paper illustrates sharply the inadvisability of perspectives that narrowly define corruption in legalistic terms. Such perspectives focus exclusively on the state as the location of corruption, whereas clearly, in Nicaragua as elsewhere, corruption is a far more complicated phenomenon which crosses the artificial boundaries between private and public sectors. It also evolves and takes a myriad different forms which are intimately connected with the ongoing struggles for control of accumulation processes, suggesting a much more integral role for corruption within accumulation strategies than often allowed for in both orthodox economic and Marxist literatures on capital accumulation.

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Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

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Article
Publication date: 26 March 2019

Oscar Espinoza, Noel McGinn, Luis González, Luis Sandoval and Dante Castillo

The purpose of this paper is to determine which of the two variables would be a more reliable proxy for quality of university training: graduates’ satisfaction with their degree…

238

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine which of the two variables would be a more reliable proxy for quality of university training: graduates’ satisfaction with their degree program, or institutional prestige.

Design/methodology/approach

Graduates of professional psychology and teaching programs from three Chilean universities responded to a questionnaire asking their perception of different aspects of their degree program and experiences in their first employment. The three universities differ significantly in the proportion of applicants admitted, and in their prestige.

Findings

Salary levels are highly related to profession, but unrelated to graduates’ ratings of quality of curriculum or teaching methods. Overall satisfaction with the university experience is not linked to job satisfaction. Job satisfaction, on the other hand, is highly influenced by salary and secondarily by instructional practices and perceived work relevance of the degree program.

Research limitations/implications

This study is based on data from 3 of Chile’s 60 universities, and graduates of two programs. Most employment in the two professions is regulated by labor agreements. Generalizability of results is limited. Graduates may not have been employed enough to demonstrate their capacities.

Practical implications

The findings offer more evidence that prestige ratings are an unreliable indicator of the quality of formation offered by universities. If the government seeks to reduce income inequality, public subsidies of higher education should be based on program quality rather than on institutional prestige.

Originality/value

The findings are directly relevant to the current debate in Chile about what might and what might not help to reduce severe economic inequality.

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Education + Training, vol. 61 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

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Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Dennis Chung Sea Law

A major focus of the recent research into the quality of post‐secondary education is the centrality of the student experience. The purpose of this paper is to review the…

5116

Abstract

Purpose

A major focus of the recent research into the quality of post‐secondary education is the centrality of the student experience. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on studies addressing such a focus to shed light on how quality assurance (QA) practices can be improved.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews some of the approaches to addressing the quality issues from the viewpoints of students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness, students' programme experiences, students' total experiences, student satisfaction and service quality, and some of the quantitative instruments that have been developed for measuring the respective constructs.

Findings

The employment of student surveys using self‐report inventories/questionnaires with established reliability, validity and diagnostic power has the potential to transform both the external and internal quality‐monitoring mechanisms now being practiced in post‐secondary education, and help shift the focus of QA activities more to the enhancement‐led views.

Originality/value

To cope with the complexity of the education system and to get quality into it, this paper promotes the practice of conducting student surveys by taking reference from the relevant research literature and adopting a rigorous approach to developing and improving data‐collection instruments to tap into the students' experiences, so that the QA activities of educational institutions are research informed, evidence based and enhancement led.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-4883

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Book part
Publication date: 27 June 2015

W. Warner Burke

Early in one’s career in psychology, certainly starting in graduate school, if not sooner as a psych major in college, a choice point gradually emerges between seeking a career as…

Abstract

Early in one’s career in psychology, certainly starting in graduate school, if not sooner as a psych major in college, a choice point gradually emerges between seeking a career as a scholar, a scientist, and perhaps as an academic versus pursuing the life of a practitioner, one who applies the work of the former, the scholar. We faculty will often cast this choice in the form of a “tension” between science and practice. Ironically, I have never felt such tension. The purpose of this chapter is to explore choices we make in life and career, the consequences of these choices, and what we can learn in the process, that is, along the way and the implications for organization change and development.

Details

Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-018-0

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Publication date: 21 November 2018

Lan Guo, Theresa Libby, Bernard Wong-On-Wing and Dan Yang

The multiple performance measures in strategic performance measurement systems should be selected to represent a set of causally linked strategic drivers and outcomes. The pattern…

Abstract

The multiple performance measures in strategic performance measurement systems should be selected to represent a set of causally linked strategic drivers and outcomes. The pattern of results thus can provide information concerning the proper execution of the strategy (i.e., the performance evaluation role) and the strength of the cause-and-effect linkages assumed by the strategy (i.e., the strategy evaluation role). Unfortunately, managers’ tendency to re-evaluate the strategy when performance falls short of target is low in practice. Possible explanations include motivational and cognitive biases. We experimentally examine two decision aids, an attribution aid, and a decomposition aid, designed to help managers ease these challenges. Study 1 shows the decision aids, individually and in combination, increase managers’ tendency to re-examine a problematic strategy. Study 2 demonstrates the effectiveness of the two decision aids, when used together, under a different pattern of results and among a sample of more experienced managers.

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Article
Publication date: 14 September 2015

John Alexander McEwan

The purpose of this paper is to present and evaluate an innovative classification system for medieval seals that was created as part of the Seals in Medieval Wales (SiMeW…

738

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present and evaluate an innovative classification system for medieval seals that was created as part of the Seals in Medieval Wales (SiMeW) project, funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The classification system developed in response to the cataloguing challenges associated with rapidly gathering sigillographic information on about 2,500 medieval seals from a number of collections in several UK repositories.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper outlines the challenges involved in recording and classifying medieval seals from the British Isles, and describes existing systems for organizing sigillographic information. The SiMeW system is explained as a response to the limitations of existing systems.

Findings

Designers of systems for recording seals need to take into account the physical characteristics of seal impressions, matrices, and casts, the strength and limitations of digital media, as well as the need of cataloguers and users.

Originality/value

In recent years scholars have systematically investigated the problems associated with text-based image indexing and retrieval. Nonetheless, medieval seals have been largely overlooked, even though they are common in UK repositories. SiMeW’s system offers cataloguers an example of an approach that they can use in new and existing seal catalogues, to generate metadata that can help make seals, which are a key component of the cultural legacy of the Middle Ages, more accessible to users.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 71 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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