The history, structure and functions of the Local AuthoritiesCo‐ordinating Body on Trading Standards (LACOTS) are reviewed, and itsfuture role with the EC and the expansion of its…
Abstract
The history, structure and functions of the Local Authorities Co‐ordinating Body on Trading Standards (LACOTS) are reviewed, and its future role with the EC and the expansion of its terms of reference are discussed. LACOTS is a functioning and successful body with wide expertise in local authority co‐ordination and well suited for a greater role in the administration of food controls, trading standards and environmental health in the wider community.
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Sylwia Ciuk and Doris Schedlitzki
Drawing on socio-cognitively orientated leadership studies, this paper aims to contribute to our understanding of host country employees’ (HCEs) negative perceptions of successive…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on socio-cognitively orientated leadership studies, this paper aims to contribute to our understanding of host country employees’ (HCEs) negative perceptions of successive expatriate leadership by exploring how their memories of shared past experiences affect these perceptions. Contrary to previous work which tends to focus on HCEs’ attitudes towards individual expatriates, the authors shift attention to successive executive expatriate assignments within a single subsidiary.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an intrinsic case study carried out in a Polish subsidiary of an American multinational pharmaceutical company which had been managed by four successive expatriate General Managers and one local executive. The authors draw on interview data with 40 HCEs. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff who had been managed by at least three of the subsidiary’s expatriate leaders.
Findings
The authors demonstrate how transference triggered by past experiences with expatriate leaders as well as HCEs’ implicit leadership theories affect HCEs’ negative perceptions of expatriate leadership and lead to the emergence of expatriate leadership schema.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the role of transference and implicit leadership theories in HCEs’ perceptions of successive executive expatriate assignments. By focussing on retrospective accounts of HCEs who had been managed by a series of successive expatriate leaders, our study has generated a more nuanced and contextualised understanding of the role of HCEs’ shared past experiences in shaping their perceptions of expatriate leadership. The authors propose a new concept – expatriate leadership schema – which describes HCEs’ cognitive structures, developed during past experiences with successive expatriate leaders, which specify what HCEs believe expatriate leadership to look like and what they expect from it.
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Lindsay Eastgate, Andrea Bialocerkowski, Peter Creed, Michelle Hood, Michael Anthony Machin, Paula Brough and Sonya Winterbotham
This study aims to examine the anticipated and actual challenges encountered by occupational therapy and physiotherapy students during their first full-time professional placement…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the anticipated and actual challenges encountered by occupational therapy and physiotherapy students during their first full-time professional placement and to understand the strategies they implemented to manage their multiple life roles.
Design/methodology/approach
Longitudinal qualitative research examined students’ anticipated and reported challenges with their first block professional placement and the strategies they implemented during it. In total, 22 occupational therapy and physiotherapy students were interviewed at two time points (pre- and post-placement), producing 44 interview data points. Transcribed interviews were analysed thematically using a hybrid approach.
Findings
Pre-placement, students perceived potential challenges related to the distance between their placement location and where they resided and their ability to maintain balance in their multiple roles. Post-placement, the main reported challenge was maintaining role balance, due to unexpected challenges and students’ unanticipated tiredness. Students implemented strategies to assist with managing multiple roles and reflected on the benefits and drawbacks of placements. They also considered the necessary future adjustments.
Practical implications
This study highlighted the importance of social support and the need for proactive recovery strategies to negate the tiredness that students experienced on placement.
Originality/value
This is the first study, to our knowledge, to investigate how allied health students, on their first block of professional placement, balanced their multiple roles over time.
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Patricia Lanier Pence, Paula Phillips Carson, Kerry D. Carson, J. Brooke Hamilton and Betty Birkenmeier
Suggests that the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City in 1911 was the veritable genesis of laws safeguarding workers. The events of the 18‐minute inferno which…
Abstract
Suggests that the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City in 1911 was the veritable genesis of laws safeguarding workers. The events of the 18‐minute inferno which killed 146 young, immigrant garment workers are summarized, as are the factory owners’ responses to the fire, along with the rationalizations they used to defend their lethal actions, which included moral justification, accusing the accuser, blaming the victim, advantageous comparison, responsibility displacement, responsibility diffusion, dehumanization, and blame attribution. Reviews workplace reforms initiated as a direct result of this fire and discusses why such historical disasters are unlikely to re‐occur if three simple lessons are heeded: first, it is unfortunate that it has required major trauma or carnage to awaken the public to the realities of existing dangers; second, mere compliance with existing statutes is often insufficient for protecting workers; and third, organizations which fail to self‐monitor will often be subjected to external control and regulation.
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Marise Regina Barbosa Uemura and Graziella Maria Comini
The purpose of this paper is to identify the determining factors in the performance of integrated vocational education schools, in addition to management characteristics and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the determining factors in the performance of integrated vocational education schools, in addition to management characteristics and specificities.
Design/methodology/approach
By means of a descriptive study with a qualitative approach, a case study was conducted in two schools located in the cities of Cotia and São Roque.
Findings
The following factors were identified: engagement and commitment of teachers; motivation and focus of teachers and students; team of professionals; commitment and focus of students; family involvement; leadership and climate and selection of students. The following characteristics were observed: participative leadership associated with the use of management tools; pedagogical leadership in partnership with the school community; monitoring of student performance; performance assessment and training of teachers related to career plan; selection of students and actions along the community.
Research limitations
The results reflect the vision of the schools' managers and teachers and not that of the managing institution. There is no intention whatsoever to obtain generalization to other ETECs but rather inferences that could shed light on future studies.
Practical implications
This research ratifies what has already been proven in the literature, showing that there are no isolated factors that interfere with performance, but an interrelationship among them, given the characteristics and peculiarities of each school.
Originality/value
This study is expected to contribute to guiding school managers and teachers in the search for quality education, whether vocational or regular basic education.
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Engineering as an exclusive male occupation is being eroded by the tide of sexual equality. But progress is slow. Paula Hann talks to women who have chosen engineering as a career…
Abstract
Engineering as an exclusive male occupation is being eroded by the tide of sexual equality. But progress is slow. Paula Hann talks to women who have chosen engineering as a career — and reports on the attitudes of their male employers.
MAURICE B. LINE and A. SANDISON
The term ‘obsolescence’ occurs frequently in the literature of librarianship and information science. In numerous papers we are told how most published literature becomes obsolete…
Abstract
The term ‘obsolescence’ occurs frequently in the literature of librarianship and information science. In numerous papers we are told how most published literature becomes obsolete within a measurable time, and that an item receives half the uses it will ever receive (‘half‐life’) in a few years. ‘Obsolescence’ is however very rarely defined, and its validity, interest, and practical value are often assumed rather than explained. Before reviewing studies on ‘obsolescence’, therefore, it is necessary to look at the concept and to identify the reasons why it should be of interest.
Louise Griffiths, Di Bailey and Karen Slade
Peer and professional support are important for women in prison to help them tackle a range of issues including self-harm. To date, research has not explored in any depth how…
Abstract
Purpose
Peer and professional support are important for women in prison to help them tackle a range of issues including self-harm. To date, research has not explored in any depth how women experience peer support provided in prison to help them manage their self-harm including peer support provided through the Listeners Scheme. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This was a case study in one women’s prison employing mixed, qualitative methods. These included a questionnaire distributed to women and staff, a focus group with prison listeners, semi-structured interviews with women who self-harmed and semi-structured interviews with prison staff, together with a series of observations in the prison site.
Findings
While women in prison welcomed both professional and peer support their support preferences were influenced by how serious women considered their self-harm to be and the degree to which they regarded their relationships with staff as trusting and/or supportive. The therapeutic community (TC) that operated in the prison facilitated different relationships between women who self-harmed in prison and staff, than have hitherto been reported in the research literature. These relationships described by women and staff as “more open” allowed women to seek staff support when managing their self-harm behaviours. Women sought peer support from listeners in addition to staff support particularly at times when staff were unavailable for example at evenings and weekends.
Research limitations/implications
The case study design was conducted in one women’s prison which operated a TC. The principles of the TC that operated in the prison are supported by the wider literature on TCs as conducive to good mental health. Findings are thus relevant for establishments with TCs .
Originality/value
Women opted for support from staff for helping them to manage their severe self-harm, over and above the peer support available through the prison Listener Scheme. This finding contrasts with previous research that suggests women trying to manage their self-harm in prison prioritise support from their peers because staff are often found to harbour unhelpful attitudes to women’s self-harm that makes seeking support difficult.