David M. Rosch, Daniel A. Collier and Sarah M. Zehr
A sample (N=81) of undergraduates participating in a semester-long team-project engineering course completed assessments of their leadership competence, motivation to lead, and…
Abstract
A sample (N=81) of undergraduates participating in a semester-long team-project engineering course completed assessments of their leadership competence, motivation to lead, and leadership self-efficacy, as well as the leadership competence of their peers who served within their durable teams. Results indicated that peers scored students lower than students scored themselves; that males deflated the transactional leadership scores of the female peers they assessed; and that the strongest individual predictor of teammate- assigned scores was a student’s affective-identity motivation to lead (i.e. the degree to which they considered themselves a natural leader). Leadership self-efficacy failed to significantly predict teammate scores.
Sarah M. Zehr and Russell Korte
The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of engineering student interns, as well as the perceptions of internship supervisors.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of engineering student interns, as well as the perceptions of internship supervisors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was designed to investigate internships as a complex social phenomenon in the field, through the use of an inductive qualitative design grounded in a naturalistic paradigm guided by theories of learning and socialisation. The researchers used semistructured interviews of 24 engineering student interns and 10 internship supervisors at various organisations.
Findings
Students reported varying levels of learning about how a company works and how to work with others in a professional environment as the results of their internships. The researchers found that students did not look for connections between the classroom and the workplace, making it difficult to apply skills from one setting to the other. Supervisors received very little training, if any, prior to supervising interns. They were unsure how much work students could handle during an internship and perceived that making sure students had a positive experience was part of their role. In addition, internship goals for companies and educational institutions did not necessarily align.
Practical implications
Both students and supervisors would benefit from more formal preparation or training prior to the start of an internship. Educational institutions and companies would also benefit by collaborating to better understand each other's goals and coordinating student experiences to foster learning and positive outcomes.
Originality/value
This paper emphasises the importance of helping students understand the nature of work and the importance of developing relationships in the workplace.
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James Tapp, Estelle Moore, Mary Stephenson and Davina Cull
This paper aims to describe the process and outcomes of restorative justice (RJ) between a detained patient with autism and a person he harmed.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the process and outcomes of restorative justice (RJ) between a detained patient with autism and a person he harmed.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study design was used to provide an in-depth description of a RJ referral.
Findings
Restorative outcomes that align with the theories of RJ, in particular trauma processing and emotional reconnection, were observed by RJ practitioners and reported by participants. The person harmed reported a “safer” memory of the offence.
Research limitations/implications
The absence of outcome assessments limits the findings to observational data and self-reported experiences from participants. A triangulated outcome approach is recommended.
Practical implications
RJ practices can safely be applied within a secure hospital environment. The RJ process can also be followed by a person with difficulties in social and emotional processing.
Originality/value
The RJ process provides a safe framework within which forensic mental health services can respond to the needs of victims, which are not routinely addressed in standard clinical practice, and in worst case scenarios, may even be overlooked.
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This paper features a narrative case study of a leadership team engaged in an effort to transform both culture and instructional practice at an urban charter school. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper features a narrative case study of a leadership team engaged in an effort to transform both culture and instructional practice at an urban charter school. The paper describes the team's effort to align their decision-making with two frameworks selected to anchor the school's institutional change process: restorative justice and deeper learning. Interweaving rich case data with analysis, the paper explores the dilemmas that emerged as leaders struggled to “walk the talk” of these two frameworks, using this to theorize about the synergies between them and to explore the broader leadership challenges involved in transforming schools from authoritarian to humanizing institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The researcher employed an ethnographic approach with the goal of generating a thickly-textured single case study. Data-gathering activities included more than 400 h of participant-observation, in-depth interviewing and artifact collection, conducted over the course of a ten-month academic year. Data analysis was iterative and included frequent member checks with participants.
Findings
The paper finds that restorative justice and deeper learning have powerful epistemological connections that school leaders can harness in order to ensure a coherent approach to change processes. The paper also illuminates several of the core dilemmas that school leaders should anticipate facing when embracing these two frameworks: the dilemma of responding to feedback, the dilemma of power-sharing and the dilemma of balancing expectations with support.
Research limitations/implications
The case study approach employed in this paper allows for rich understandings of specific phenomena while also providing a platform for exploring the general qualities that these phenomena might illustrate. This approach does not allow for statistical generalizability.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that it is imperative for school leaders to explore what it means to lead in ways that are coherent with their vision for change, e.g. to cultivate symmetry. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that the value of such explorations lies in the process of grappling with the tensions that arise when humanizing frameworks are implemented within systems that uphold traditional power hierarchies. Additionally, the paper affirms the value of de-siloing the transformation of school culture from the transformation of instructional practice.
Originality/value
This paper offers an unusually textured account of the messy and uncertain processes that constitute the work of school change. This paper also draws together two educational paradigms which are rarely brought into conversation with each other despite their epistemological synergy.
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Blake Tyson, Roman Iwaschkin, Gillian Mead, David Reid, Peter Gillman, Wilfred Ashworth, Clive Bingley, Edwin Fleming, Sarah Lawson and Kate Hills
AS A RESULT of present economic problems in Britain and attendant cuts in spending, there is a need to achieve maximum cost‐effectiveness in all sectors of public spending…
Abstract
AS A RESULT of present economic problems in Britain and attendant cuts in spending, there is a need to achieve maximum cost‐effectiveness in all sectors of public spending including libraries. This article examines a simple method by which economies could be made in buying multiple copies of books. It is assumed that unless librarians have freedom to buy a single copy of any book they choose, they will not achieve the breadth and depth required of first‐class libraries, be they in the public sector or in academic institutions. Perhaps second copies need cause little concern, but a pilot survey of a polytechnic library revealed cases where as many as four, six or even eight copies of the same edition had been bought on one occasion before the effectiveness of a lesser purchase could have been evaluated.
J. Lukas Thürmer, Frank Wieber and Peter M. Gollwitzer
Crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic pose extraordinary challenges to the decision making in management teams. Teams need to integrate available information quickly to make…
Abstract
Purpose
Crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic pose extraordinary challenges to the decision making in management teams. Teams need to integrate available information quickly to make informed decisions on the spot and update their decisions as new information becomes available. Moreover, making good decisions is hard as it requires sacrifices for the common good, and finally, implementing the decisions made is not easy as it requires persistence in the face of strong counterproductive social pressures.
Design/methodology/approach
We provide a “psychology of action” perspective on making team-based management decisions in crisis by introducing collective implementation intentions (We-if-then plans) as a theory-based intervention tool to improve decision processes. We discuss our program of research on forming and acting on We-if-then plans in ad hoc teams facing challenging situations.
Findings
Teams with We-if-then plans consistently made more informed decisions when information was socially or temporally distributed, when decision makers had to make sacrifices for the common good, and when strong social pressures opposed acting on their decisions. Preliminary experimental evidence indicates that assigning simple We-if-then plans had similar positive effects as providing a leader to steer team processes.
Originality/value
Our analysis of self-regulated team decisions helps understand and improve how management teams can make and act on good decisions in crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic.