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1 – 10 of 746Darren Hedley, Jennifer R. Spoor, Ru Ying Cai, Mirko Uljarevic, Simon Bury, Eynat Gal, Simon Moss, Amanda Richdale, Timothy Bartram and Cheryl Dissanayake
Employment can make an important contribution to individual well-being, for example, by providing people with a sense of purpose; however, autistic individuals face significant…
Abstract
Purpose
Employment can make an important contribution to individual well-being, for example, by providing people with a sense of purpose; however, autistic individuals face significant barriers to entering the workforce. This is reflected in high levels of underemployment and unemployment, with an estimated 80% of autistic people unemployed worldwide. This is higher than both other disability groups and people without disabilities. Research is needed to identify strategies that facilitate the sustained employment of autistic adults. This study aims to examine the perspectives of autistic individuals participating in a specialized employment program within the information and communication technology sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Three focus groups were conducted with nine adults on the autism spectrum. Data were analyzed using an inductive approach according to established guidelines, which included coding and categorizing data into themes.
Findings
Focus group analysis revealed four themes: trainees’ previous work experiences; expectations of the employment program; recruitment and selection processes; and training and transition. Several factors associated with the changes to the recruitment and selection process were found to benefit the autistic employees.
Originality/value
Few studies have characterized the work experiences of adults on the autism spectrum. Tailored employment processes that challenge traditional human resource management practices can increase the participation of autistic individuals in the workforce. Strategies for promoting the success of these programs are discussed.
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Jennifer R. Spoor, Rebecca L. Flower, Simon M. Bury and Darren Hedley
Although there is growing academic and business interest in autism employment programs, few studies have examined employee (manager and coworker) attitudes toward these programs…
Abstract
Purpose
Although there is growing academic and business interest in autism employment programs, few studies have examined employee (manager and coworker) attitudes toward these programs. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of workload changes (a job demand) and perceived supervisor support (a job resource) on commitment to the program and employee engagement more broadly.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 229 employees from two Australian public sector organizations completed a survey about the autism employment program in their organization.
Findings
Perceived workload increases were associated with lower affective commitment and higher continuance commitment to the program. Perceived supervisor support was associated with higher affective commitment to the program and employee engagement, but lower continuance commitment to the program. Perceived supervisor support moderated the effect of workload increase on employee engagement, but not in the expected direction.
Originality/value
This research helps to fill a gap in the autism employment literature by focusing on commitment toward autism employment programs among existing employees. The research helps to provide a more complete and nuanced view of these programs within their broader organizational context.
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To examine the impact of the philosophical sources on Herbert Simon's Administrative Behavior, a central work in the management canon.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the impact of the philosophical sources on Herbert Simon's Administrative Behavior, a central work in the management canon.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a conceptual approach, tracing the influence of the major philosophers – William James, John Dewey and the logical positivists (A.J. Ayer and Rudolph Carnap) – cited in the book.
Findings
An understanding of the philosophical platform supporting Administrative Behavior is crucial to a more complete reading of the book and to furthering research in the area.
Practical implications
Future research focused either on extending Herbert Simon's work or, more generally, on advancing the study of management, will benefit from deeper consideration of the implications of the chosen philosophical platform supporting the endeavour.
Originality/value
The paper provides the reader a means for better understanding the contributions of a key work in management, with implications that extend to its overall study.
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Contemporary sociologists implicitly assume or explicitly state that classical social theorists shared the Enlightenment’s optimistic vision that society would become more…
Abstract
Purpose
Contemporary sociologists implicitly assume or explicitly state that classical social theorists shared the Enlightenment’s optimistic vision that society would become more rational, free, ethical, and just overtime. I reexamine the primary works that laid the foundation for sociology and resituate them in their neo-Romantic origins.
Design/methodology/approach
Close readings of formative texts are provided to revisit modernist critiques of social progress in turn of the century sociology. The works of Ferdinand Tönnies, Thorstein Veblen, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber exemplify this tradition.
Findings
Insights from social theory written during and around the neo-Romantic period mirrored the Zeitgeist, a time fascinated with irrationality, moral decay, unconsciousness, decadence, degeneration, cynicism, historical decline, and pessimism. However, classical sociology’s pessimism should not be interpreted as anti-modern. Rather, it contributed to the Enlightenment’s maturation.
Research limitations/implications
Contemporary sociologists should recover the spirit of classical sociology’s gloomy extension of the modern project and bring societal processes to consciousness through human reason, untainted by the fable of progress. Without rational grounds for optimism, the most honest and sincere way to preserve the hope for alternatives and emancipation is through the continuation and advancement of the pessimistic tradition. To formulate new disillusioned theories of society, sociology ought to draw from its ignored tragic legacy.
Originality/value
Rather than accept accounts of classical sociologists as believers in progress, the tradition reveals a world of increasing disenchantment, atomization, anomie, alienation, confusion, quarrel, rationalization devoid of value, and unhappiness. Providing society thoughtful, systematic accounts of its own estrangement advances the project of modernity.
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The purpose of this self-study is to analyze my experiences learning in Poland, the country where Nazis imprisoned and murdered my family. I share findings from multiple museum…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this self-study is to analyze my experiences learning in Poland, the country where Nazis imprisoned and murdered my family. I share findings from multiple museum locations, including implications for history teachers, teacher educators and visitors to Holocaust museums.
Design/methodology/approach
I participated in a ten-day professional development seminar designed for American teachers to visit Poland. To allow for self-study after the trip, I maintained a reflexive journal and photographic records of each day I was in Poland. I analyze these data in conjunction with publicly available data from the museums and historical sites I visited in Poland.
Findings
The findings suggest that teachers can face many challenges when learning in a land of traumatic absences. Many challenges stem from the absences of buildings and survivors, as those may be integral to place-based learning. Testimonies and first-person accounts may ameliorate these challenges for teachers engaging in place-based learning. Additionally, teachers may use these accounts to bring a pedagogy of remembrance from Poland to their classrooms.
Originality/value
This study is not under review with another journal.
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Since taking power in July 1994, the RPF government has strived to eliminate the Hutu/Tutsi identities from public discourse, replacing the previous divisive identities with a…
Abstract
Since taking power in July 1994, the RPF government has strived to eliminate the Hutu/Tutsi identities from public discourse, replacing the previous divisive identities with a unified nationalist one. For those who use Hutu/Tutsi identities outside the context of the genocide, they are considered genocidaire sympathisers, negationists and spreading divisionism. However, within the context of the genocide, the role of “ethnicity” is being reinforced and reaffirming ethnic divisions. In 2008, the Rwandan parliament officially changed the 1994 Rwandan genocide to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Based on ethnographic data collected from March until October 2008, this paper will argue that within the public discourse on the genocide, the victim/perpetrator dichotomy has become intertwined with the Tutsi/Hutu identities, creating a hierarchy of victimhood. It will explore how through the process of reconciliation and in particular through gacaca the Hutu and Tutsi identities are imbued with collective guilt and victimization.
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…
Abstract
A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.
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The following paper details a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky, Associate Editor of Industrial Robot Journal, to impart the combined technological, business and…
Abstract
Purpose
The following paper details a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky, Associate Editor of Industrial Robot Journal, to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned successful business leader, regarding the commercialization and challenges of bringing technological inventions to the market while overseeing a company. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The interviewee is Dr William “Red” Whittaker, Fredkin Research Professor of Robotics, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU); CEO of Astrobotic Technology; and President of Workhorse Technologies. Dr Whittaker provides answers to questions regarding the pioneering experiences of some of his technological wonders in land, sea, air, underwater, underground and space.
Findings
As a child, Dr Whittaker built things and made them work and dreamed about space and robots. He has since then turned his dreams, and those of the world, into realities. Dr Whittaker’s formal education includes a BS degree in civil engineering from Princeton and MS and PhD degrees in civil engineering from CMU. In response to designing a robot to cleanup radioactive material at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, Dr Whittaker established the Field Robotics Center (FRC) in 1983. He is also the founder of the National Robotics Engineering Center, an operating unit within CMU’s Robotics Institute (RI), the world’s largest robotics research and development organization. Dr Whittaker has developed more than 60 robots, breaking new ground in autonomous vehicles, field robotics, space exploration, mining and agriculture. Dr Whittaker’s research addresses computer architectures for robots, modeling and planning for non-repetitive tasks, complex problems of objective sensing in random and dynamic environments and integration of complete robot systems. His current focus is Astrobotic Technology, a CMU spin-off firm that is developing space robotics technology to support planetary missions. Dr Whittaker is competing for the US$20m Google Lunar XPRIZE for privately landing a robot on the Moon.
Originality/value
Dr Whittaker coined the term “field robotics” to describe his research that centers on robots in unconstrained, uncontrived settings, typically outdoors and in the full range of operational and environmental conditions: robotics in the “natural” world. The Field Robotics Center has been one of the most successful initiatives within the entire robotics industry. As the Father of Field Robotics, Dr Whittaker has pioneered locomotion technologies, navigation and route-planning methods and advanced sensing systems. He has directed over US$100m worth of research programs and spearheaded several world-class robotic explorations and operations with significant outreach, education and technology commercializations. His ground vehicles have driven thousands of autonomous miles. Dr Whittaker won DARPA’s US$2m Urban Challenge. His Humvees finished second and third in the 2005 DARPA’s Grand race Challenge desert race. Other robot projects have included: Dante II, a walking robot that explored an active volcano; Nomad, which searched for meteorites in Antarctica; and Tugbot, which surveyed a 1,800-acre area of Nevada for buried hazards. Dr Whittaker is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and served on the National Academy of Sciences Space Studies Board. Dr Whittaker received the Alan Newell Medal for Research Excellence. He received Carnegie Mellon’s Teare Award for Teaching Excellence. He received the Joseph Engelberger Award for Outstanding Achievement in Robotics, the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence’s inaugural Feigenbaum Prize for his contributions to machine intelligence, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Simon Ramo Medal, the American Society of Civil Engineers Columbia Medal, the Antarctic Service Medal and the American Spirit Honor Medal. Science Digest named Dr Whittaker one of the top 100 US innovators for his work in robotics. He has been recognized by Aviation Week & Space Technology and Design News magazines for outstanding achievement. Fortune named him a “Hero of US Manufacturing”. Dr Whittaker has advised 26 PhD students, has 16 patents and has authored over 200 publications. Dr Whittaker’s vision is to drive nanobiologics technology to fulfillment and create nanorobotic agents for enterprise on Earth and beyond (Figure 1).
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Alice Allan and Simon Rowlands
This paper aims to investigate parents' beliefs about the causes of their child's Type 1 diabetes to understand if this affects the way diagnosis is processed and if this impacts…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate parents' beliefs about the causes of their child's Type 1 diabetes to understand if this affects the way diagnosis is processed and if this impacts on sibling parenting.
Design/methodology/approach
Online, semi-structured qualitative interviews with nine parents of children with Type 1 diabetes who have at least one non-diabetic child. The results were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).
Findings
Two interlinked themes were identified: “What ifs”: parents postulated underlying genetic reasons for their child's diabetes and had working theories about the triggers of diabetes that included stress, infection, vaccination or a virus. Developing a personal aetiology of their child's condition allowed some a feeling of control, while others focused on practical ways to manage diabetes. “Having something to blame”: narratives dwelt on the relationship between beliefs about causes and self-blame. Some believed that acting on an identified trigger reduced personal guilt.
Research limitations/implications
Although internet access is widespread in the UK, a limitation of this research is that it excluded those without internet access.
Practical implications
The findings of this research may provide greater depth and a more holistic perspective to the health promoter to better support parents of Type 1 diabetics.
Social implications
The analysis of illness narratives that this research provides may offer a greater understanding of the social context in which health and illness develop. This research found some examples of parental confidence about the causes and triggers of their child's diabetes being positively associated with a sense of control. This might indicate the value of a more comprehensive larger-scale study to establish whether parents who are supported to develop a personalised conception of the aetiology of their child's diabetes develop a greater sense of coherence and well-being regarding their child's condition.
Originality/value
There is very limited literature focusing on the beliefs of sufferers and their families about Type 1 diabetes causality. Of that which does exist, some research is heterogenous in its sampling of Types 1 and 2 diabetes sufferers. This study offers a rare, focused insight into the beliefs of parents about the background causes and more proximal triggers of their child's Type 1 diabetes.
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ALMOST EVERY communication we receive from manufacturers or suppliers, whether sent direct or from professional public relations companies, claims that the firm concerned is the…
Abstract
ALMOST EVERY communication we receive from manufacturers or suppliers, whether sent direct or from professional public relations companies, claims that the firm concerned is the most important firm in its category.