The police organisation receives much media attention regarding its record on Equal Opportunities. Research suggests that the organisational culture in police organisations plays…
Abstract
The police organisation receives much media attention regarding its record on Equal Opportunities. Research suggests that the organisational culture in police organisations plays a major role in impeding the progress of women. Using repertory grid technique, the culture of a police force, conceptualised at the level of performance value judgements or recipe knowledge was investigated. It is argued that rank, rather than gender has the greatest influence on the content of performance value judgements and that this is attributable to the way that hierarchy influences the way in which the grass‐roots role is constructed. We argue that women’s progression is impeded not because of dominant constructions of the role per se, but by the way such constructions intersect with broader socio‐cultural constructions of women’s domestic roles.
The expansion of part‐time or reduced hours working into skilled, managerial and professional jobs is increasing. This expansion is generally viewed positively. Not only does it…
Abstract
The expansion of part‐time or reduced hours working into skilled, managerial and professional jobs is increasing. This expansion is generally viewed positively. Not only does it herald a change of status for part‐time working but also suggests that organisations are taking Equal Opportunities policies and specifically, family‐friendly policies, seriously. However, the emerging literature in this area suggests that part‐time working within professional roles poses a considerable HRM problem. Using an explicitly pluralistic perspective, this paper presents the results of a case study into the management of part‐time working in a UK police force. It is argued that part‐time working has different meanings for managers and part‐time employees, producing conflicting needs and expectations that are not readily reconcilable. The cultural and institutional factors that reproduce these differences are explored and the implications for human resource management are identified.
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To study the effects of the introduction of part‐time working on managing a police force.
Abstract
Purpose
To study the effects of the introduction of part‐time working on managing a police force.
Design/methodology/approach
This case study involved in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with part‐time officers in an English police force, their full‐time colleagues and managers.
Findings
The author illustrates practical problems which police managers face in ensuring they have staff in adequate numbers and experience to carry out the duties required of an organization which has to operate 24 hours‐a‐day, seven days‐a‐week and which has no way of knowing in advance what demands will be placed on it at any given time. The study focuses attention on the dilemma of legislation designed to improve the status of part‐time workers generally, and people's expectation of “family friendly” employment, with the traditional “command and control” needs of an organization such as a police force.
Practical implications
Implications for human resource management are identified, as the conflicting needs and views of manager and part‐time employees are explored. These conflicts are particularly difficult for HR to reconcile as part‐time and reduced‐hours working continues its expansion.
Originality/value
Provides some useful information on part‐time working at a police station in the UK.
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Using the example of a “school paper” titled The Children's Hour, developed in South Australia in the late nineteenth century, the purpose of this paper is to show the way that…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the example of a “school paper” titled The Children's Hour, developed in South Australia in the late nineteenth century, the purpose of this paper is to show the way that the colonial margins could act as sites of innovation in curriculum and pedagogy and not just as importers of ideas from the imperial centre.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis on which the examination of The Children's Hour is based is a combination of Foucaultian discourse analysis and a genealogical approach to curriculum history which tracks different formations of techniques and programmes for shaping the human subject.
Findings
The Children's Hour (1889-1963), featured the innovative use of literature and other genres, and provided new ways to shape the identities of school students and teachers. School papers were strongly implicated in the discursive construction of both a global/imperial and local/Australian identities and represent an informative case of the ways in which teaching and learning practices have been highly mobile in the field of reading.
Originality/value
This research shows that the humble school reading text is an overlooked site for examining processes of the constitution of national identity and the citizen subject. It is also a reminder of the significance of communications technologies in the formation of, and struggles over, national/imperial imaginaries and that the school is an important site for studying these processes.
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Comic books are finally being recognized as a scholarly medium in literature, art, history, popular culture, and many other fields of study. Blanket disapproval of comic books…
Abstract
Comic books are finally being recognized as a scholarly medium in literature, art, history, popular culture, and many other fields of study. Blanket disapproval of comic books, however, continues in all but a few academic libraries. Librarians do face philosophical and practical challenges to acquiring comic books, but it is both possible and desirable to do so. Valuable selection tools and Internet resources are examined, along with annotations of significant comic book creators.
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Sees the objective of teaching financial management to be to helpmanagers and potential managers to make sensible investment andfinancing decisions. Acknowledges that financial…
Abstract
Sees the objective of teaching financial management to be to help managers and potential managers to make sensible investment and financing decisions. Acknowledges that financial theory teaches that investment and financing decisions should be based on cash flow and risk. Provides information on payback period; return on capital employed, earnings per share effect, working capital, profit planning, standard costing, financial statement planning and ratio analysis. Seeks to combine the practical rules of thumb of the traditionalists with the ideas of the financial theorists to form a balanced approach to practical financial management for MBA students, financial managers and undergraduates.