Denise Skinner, Mark N.K. Saunders and Richard Beresford
The question of how to develop human capabilities to meet current and future needs of organisations has become an important issue at national, organisational and individual…
Abstract
The question of how to develop human capabilities to meet current and future needs of organisations has become an important issue at national, organisational and individual levels. An essential ingredient is shared understanding of the skills and competences deemed necessary and/or desirable for current and future performance. Current indications in the UK are that this may not exist and that there is an incompatibility between supply and demand. This paper reports on a research project undertaken in the UK automotive sector to explore the extent and nature of the differences in perception among stakeholders relating to the skills and development needs of current and future employees. Using the template approach data were collected from those providing training and those who are consumers of training. Comparison identified competing demands and differences in expectation and attainment, particularly in relation to prospective employees, potentially resulting in dissatisfaction and disappointment for all concerned.
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Mark N.K. Saunders, Denise Skinner and Richard Beresford
To explore potential mismatches between stakeholders' perceptions and expectations of key and technical skills needed for an advanced modern apprentice within the UK.
Abstract
Purpose
To explore potential mismatches between stakeholders' perceptions and expectations of key and technical skills needed for an advanced modern apprentice within the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data collected from the automotive sector, the template process is used to establish lecturer, student and employee stakeholder group's expectations of a person taking up employment alongside an advanced modern apprenticeship or as an advanced modern apprentice. Perceptions of the extent to which expectations are met and their relative importance are assessed.
Findings
All stakeholders acknowledge that a skills gap exists across key and technical skills. However, whilst students focus on technical skills, lecturers and employees place greatest emphasis on key skills and their ability to transfer them.
Research limitations/implications
Although this research is based on the UK automotive sector, the findings emphasise the importance of key skills and understanding as part of students' learning. Research is needed to establish why students appear to undervalue these and establish whether similar patterns exist in other sectors.
Practical implications
The voluntarist approach to UK vocational education and training has, when combined with the need for further education colleges to be economically viable, resulted in courses that appear attractive but do not always meet the automotive sector's needs. Research is needed to establish whether this is occurring across other sectors.
Originality/value
This template process offers a new technique to explore stakeholders' perceptions and expectations. The findings provide new insights into the mismatches between expectations of the stakeholders in vocational education and training.
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A suite of databases designed to provide a guide to archive collections, detailed descriptions of some major holdings and surveys of holdings elsewhere, has been developed at the…
Abstract
A suite of databases designed to provide a guide to archive collections, detailed descriptions of some major holdings and surveys of holdings elsewhere, has been developed at the University of Southampton Library since 1983. The databases are mounted using STATUS. Future development paths for archive systems are discussed.
This paper aims to examine the recent jurisprudence of the Supreme Court concerning the registration of land as a town or village green (TVG). This area of law has proved…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the recent jurisprudence of the Supreme Court concerning the registration of land as a town or village green (TVG). This area of law has proved contentious over the past decade and shows no sign of relenting. Most recently, in April 2014, the Supreme Court was asked to determine whether use that is pursuant to a statutory right could be qualifying use for the purposes of village green registration, which requires 20 years use “as of right”.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper starts by summarising the law relating to the registration of land as a TVG and identifies the current problem that the courts are grappling with, namely the “by right” defence. After analysing the two leading authorities in relation to this point, the paper makes a judgment on the operation and conceptual underpinning of the “by right” defence.
Findings
The paper concludes that the “by right” defence in the context of village green registration is a functioning concept that prevents the registration of land as a town and village green whenever the use relied upon is indulged in pursuant to a statutory right. Furthermore, the defence should also be construed with the pre-existing test for use “as of right” rather than being recognised as an additional limb to this test.
Originality/value
The value of this paper is that it seeks to clarify an area of planning and property law that is fraught with conceptual uncertainty, and seeks to re-align the law of town and village greens with its prescriptive underpinnings.
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– The aim of the research is to assess the extent and value of mental health service user (MHSU) involvement in research in England.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the research is to assess the extent and value of mental health service user (MHSU) involvement in research in England.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a knowledge review, including academic and “grey” literature, and documented testimonial evidence.
Findings
The involvement of MHSUs in mental health research has become mainstream. There is clear evidence that involving MHSUs in research adds value. Four gaps in the literature were identified. First, a lack of evidence from non-service-user researchers about their experience of working with MHSUs. Second, a lack of recognition that anyone involved in research may hold more than one role. Third, failure to treat carers as separate from MHSUs, or – often – to include them at all. Fourth, a lack of understanding that MHSUs may have a useful role to play in research on topics other than mental health.
Research limitations/implications
The literature would benefit from some evidence about non-service-user researchers’ experiences of working with MHSU researchers. Carers should be recognised much more widely as different from MHSUs and with a valid role to play in mental health research from their own perspectives. MHSU researchers, and carer researchers, should be offered opportunities for involvement in research on topics other than mental health.
Practical implications
The evidence shows that involving service users in research can benefit everyone involved and the research itself. The process can be challenging for all concerned. However, there is now plenty of guidance about how to involve service users in research for maximum benefit to all (e.g. Faulkner, 2004b; SURGE, 2005; Morgan, 2006; Tew et al., 2006; Kotecha et al., 2007; Schrank and Wallcraft, 2008, pp. 243-247; Leiba, 2010, pp. 160-169; Armes et al., 2011; Morrow et al., 2012, p. 114). This guidance should be consulted by researchers, funders, ethics committees, and other stakeholders at the earliest possible stage of any relevant project.
Social implications
It is essential to recognise and acknowledge that anyone involved in research may hold more than one role. Embracing multiple and mutable identities is not an easy process, as the literature shows, and attempts to do so are likely to produce resistance at every level. Nevertheless, the example of the survivor researchers suggests that doing this has the potential to enrich our individual and collective experience, and therefore society as a whole.
Originality/value
The paper is written by an independent researcher who is also a carer for people with mental health problems: a viewpoint which is rarely found in the literature. The literature suggests that power imbalances and identity issues are at the root of most difficulties and gaps. Social identity and categorisation theory offers a useful theoretical perspective. The paper will be of value to anyone interested in mental health research, whether as a student, service user/survivor, researcher or teacher.
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Once the third largest port in the country, the London ‘overspill’ town of King's Lynn has been revitalized in the last decade. Richard Brooks examines this once rather sleepy…
Abstract
Once the third largest port in the country, the London ‘overspill’ town of King's Lynn has been revitalized in the last decade. Richard Brooks examines this once rather sleepy market town, which now has one eye on Europe and the other on the Midlands and South‐East. Photographs by Colin Porter.
The field of educational leadership is very much dominated by studies of process. That is, discourses of best practice, effectiveness, efficiency, accountability, and so on…
Abstract
The field of educational leadership is very much dominated by studies of process. That is, discourses of best practice, effectiveness, efficiency, accountability, and so on, dominate the landscape. This then feeds into those working in schools in leadership positions and leadership teams coming to value style over substance. Whether a leader is working according to a particular adjectival leadership model matters little if the purpose of schooling and education is not the priority and shared. In this chapter, I argue that leaders need to have issues of social justice and equity as central to the purpose of their work, for those in disadvantaged areas and schools, and also those working in more privileged sites. Schools have unfortunately often been sites where forms of racism and social injustices have been perpetuated. A key aspect then for leaders is to work redress these practices. However, when working with large diversities in many schools, some leaders feel they are often unprepared for such challenges. In this chapter, I explore the difficulties and challenges of this kind of leadership with a particular focus on the Australian context and examine ways that leaders can think about and act in ways that recognize and acknowledge the diversity in their schools and communities, challenge their own assumptions and beliefs, and also work toward alleviating socially unjust practices.
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The importance of socially just leadership has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years as integral for tackling issues of disadvantage and inequality across education and…
Abstract
The importance of socially just leadership has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years as integral for tackling issues of disadvantage and inequality across education and schooling systems. However, there are still remaining questions about what these leadership practices look like in the everyday work of school leaders. This chapter draws on a research project to embed Indigenous perspectives in schools as an example of socially just leadership. The links between Indigenous communities and schools are a key focus area for improving educational outcomes for Indigenous students. This project sought to bring Indigenous community members into classrooms in six schools in New South Wales, Australia. Community members were recruited to work with teachers as co-constructors of learning activities that explicitly value and work with Indigenous perspectives. This chapter outlines the positive outcomes from this project as well as challenges faced by schools, teachers, principals, and community members as part of this culturally responsive work. The practices of community members, teachers, and principals are theorized using the notion of culturally responsive leadership. The chapter argues for an approach to leadership that is grounded in culturally responsive understandings to improve the educational outcomes and opportunities for Indigenous students and the cultural understanding and awareness of non-Indigenous students, to better promote reconciliation. This chapter provides a concrete example of powerful leadership practices that are working towards equity and social justice for their schools and communities. While the cases are specifically from the Australian context, they are relevant for a variety of schooling contexts and leadership practices.
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This paper aims to conceptualise the residential and psychiatric hospital as a space where criminality and social harms can emerge. Because of recent media scandals over the past…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to conceptualise the residential and psychiatric hospital as a space where criminality and social harms can emerge. Because of recent media scandals over the past 10 years concerning privately-owned hospitals, this study examines the lived experiences of service users/survivors, family members and practitioners to examine historic and contemporary encounters of distress and violence in hospital settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The study consists of 16 biographical accounts exploring issues of dehumanising and harmful practices, such as practices of restraint and rituals of coercive violence. A biographical methodology has been used to analyse the life stories of service users/survivors (n = 9), family members (n = 3) and professional health-care employees (n = 4). Service users/survivors in this study have experienced over 40 years of short-term and long-term periods of hospitalisation.
Findings
The study discovered that institutional forms of violence had changed after the deinstitutionalisation of care. Practitioners recalled comprehensive experiences of violence within historic mental hospitals, although violence that may be considered criminal appeared to disappear from hospitals after the Mental Health Act (1983). These reports of criminal violence and coercive abuse appeared to be replaced with dehumanising and harmful procedures, such as practices of restraint.
Originality/value
The data findings offer a unique interpretation, both historical and contemporary, of dehumanising psychiatric rituals experienced by service users/survivors, which are relevant to criminology and MAD studies. The study concludes by challenging oppressive psychiatric “harms” to promote social justice for service users/survivors currently being “treated” within the contemporary psychiatric system. The study intends to conceptualise residential and psychiatric hospitals as a space where criminality and social harms can emerge. The three aims of the study examined risk factors concerning criminality and social harms, oppressive and harmful practices within hospitals and evidence that violence occurs within these institutionalised settings. The study discovered that institutional forms of violence had changed after the deinstitutionalisation of care. These reports of violence include dehumanising attitudes, practices of restraint and coercive abuse.
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Richard Oloruntoba and Richard Gray
The purpose of this paper is to explore, analyse and discuss the published concepts of “the customer” and “customer service” in the context of managing international emergency…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore, analyse and discuss the published concepts of “the customer” and “customer service” in the context of managing international emergency relief chains.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a literature‐based approach that extends concepts usually applied in a commercial context to the area of humanitarian aid and emergency relief chains in particular.
Findings
Based on the most common associations of the terms in the literature, the paper proposes adopting a customer and customer‐service perspective in managing international emergency relief chains. An understanding of the various perspectives of customers described in this paper provides a starting point in the development of emergency relief chains that can deliver customer service and satisfaction to all concerned.
Practical implications
As managers of emergency relief chains strive to improve the performance of their organizations and supply chains in a highly challenging environment, the paper provides a useful and enhanced understanding of the roles that the “customer” and “customer service” play in their operations strategies. Although it is sometimes assumed that all participants in emergency relief chains are highly co‐operative, this is often not the case. Therefore, the concept of “humanitarian competitive advantage” is also presented to enable a better practical focus for managers of emergency relief chains.
Originality/value
The paper is believed to be the first to apply the terms “customer” and “customer service” systematically in a humanitarian context and thereby propose a customer service perspective in emergency relief chains.