This study aims to explore service users’ experience of psychological therapy as part of a community sentence with a Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) in Birmingham…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore service users’ experience of psychological therapy as part of a community sentence with a Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) in Birmingham Courts between January and December 2018.
Design/methodology/approach
All service users that had therapy in this period were telephoned a month after ending and offered a semi-structured telephone interview. Seven service users agreed to be recorded. This data was then transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis to gain a richer understanding of their lived experience.
Findings
Themes identified were: Is the MHTR for me? Opening up, enlightening connections and personal change. Service users initially questioned the relevance and burden of the order for them; the experience of therapy allowed them to trust and talk about things unsaid in the past; this helped them to review and reconsider their understanding of themselves and their life choices and what further support they might need.
Research limitations/implications
Interviews were not completed by an independent interviewer. Experience of working with offender manager supervision additionally available throughout the sentence was not explored.
Practical implications
What is included in the MHTR information and support needs to be informed by the service user’s perspective, including this can improve engagement.
Social implications
Therapy was seen as a “a cog in the machine” and wider social inequalities may need to be addressed within the sentence.
Originality/value
This report focusses on experience of a therapeutic intervention – a key part of a community sentence with an MHTR.
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This paper aims to examine the role and experiences of women working in the industrial relations (IR) academy and to explore the recent claim that the subject of industrial…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the role and experiences of women working in the industrial relations (IR) academy and to explore the recent claim that the subject of industrial relations has “been very receptive to the contributions of feminist analysis”.
Design/methodology/approach
An examination is made of the liminal position of women IR scholars in the IR academy and their concern for feminist and gender analysis. Parallels are drawn with IR and trade unions, focusing mainly on Britain, which also occupy, simultaneously, insider and outsider spaces. This approach draws on the relevant literature and is then tested through a questionnaire survey of women scholars working in the field, the author included, together with interviews and interactive discussions about the findings.
Findings
Gender politics remain highly contested in the IR academy, with women and their work experiencing considerable marginalisation and exclusion. Nevertheless women IR scholars display a high level of commitment to the field, especially its emphasis on policy and practice. The conclusion is that so far, a “gender turn” has yet to occur in the field in the way that women's studies is claimed as being part of a new knowledge movement.
Research limitations
A limitation of the study is a relatively low response rate to the questionnaire, with a bias towards older, more senior women academics.
Originality/value
For probably the first time the role and experiences in the IR academy of women researchers/ academics are examined and published. The study reveals that the exclusion and sexism experienced there closely reflect the gender and diversity analyses in the IR field.
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Among trade unions, women, black, disabled and lesbian and gay members are increasingly recognised as significant in the drive for increases in membership. In turn, unions have…
Abstract
Among trade unions, women, black, disabled and lesbian and gay members are increasingly recognised as significant in the drive for increases in membership. In turn, unions have come under mounting pressure from these constituencies to ensure that their interests and concerns are represented within the union and at the bargaining table. The challenge is how to reformulate notions and practices of trade union democracy to recognise that membership is increasingly diverse and diversely politicised. Here we examine how traditional approaches to trade union democracy have been revised following demands for gender democracy and the need to reflect membership diversity, and consider whether such strategies are sufficient. We do so by drawing on research with two unions; the print union, the GPMU, a private sector industrial union where women make up only 17 per cent of the membership, and the public service union UNISON, where women are three‐quarters of the members.
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Vanessa Melton and Sue Ledwith
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of node-link mapping (NLM) on the effectiveness of a structured treatment for dual diagnosis for men living in a low-secure…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of node-link mapping (NLM) on the effectiveness of a structured treatment for dual diagnosis for men living in a low-secure environment.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 15 participants were recruited and randomly allocated to one of two conditions. The control group, treatment as usual (TAU) or the treatment group, TAU with NLM. Outcome measures used were: a qualitative evaluation form, The Alcohol and Illegal Drugs Decisional Balance Scale and the Brief Situational Confidence Questionnaire.
Findings
Results indicate no statistically significant difference for either group on the pre- and post-treatment outcome measures used. Qualitative data indicated that those using NLM reported the intervention as useful and instructive more often.
Research limitations/implications
The results gained were only a snapshot of the intervention straight after treatment and did not take into account any long-term benefits of therapy such as substance use relapse rates. The outcome measures used may not have been properly understood by all respondents, or reflect practical change. The NLM tool may not have been used as confidently as TAU. The TAU condition needs to be reviewed to improve effectiveness, and NLM to be included to improve the accessibility. A study comparing other outcome tools needs to be completed. Training for staff using NLM may require coaching.
Originality/value
This paper has a high/low originality. It highlights a number of advantages to NLM when comparing this to TAU.
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There has been an explosion of interest in “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” (EDI) – also referred to as DEI among other acronyms. On the one hand, this management trend has the…
Abstract
There has been an explosion of interest in “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” (EDI) – also referred to as DEI among other acronyms. On the one hand, this management trend has the potential to draw attention to the ways in which organizational practices and climates can be transformed to have a positive impact on the underrepresentation of women and other marginalized and excluded groups in the workplace. On the other hand, there may be real consequences for women as EDI replaces other concepts such as women's rights, gender equality, affirmative action, employment equity, gender discrimination, etc. This chapter applies a gender lens to the EDI concept and management policy and practice. It juxtaposes EDI's emergence with the lack of progress on gender equality that is observed and measured in many regions of the world and highlights several critiques that may explain this lack of progress. It also identifies what EDI policies and practices need to take into consideration to better address gender inequality in the workplace. Legal approaches are discussed along with a list of potential areas of research on EDI and gender equality to determine the best path forward for making concrete progress on true equality for women in the workplace.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the inclusion and exclusion of LGBT individuals at organisations towards providing evidence from LGBT non-governmental organisations (NGOs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the inclusion and exclusion of LGBT individuals at organisations towards providing evidence from LGBT non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Turkey and the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to achieve this aim, 40 semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews (20 in each country) were conducted. The empirical dimension of this study was invigorated by thematic analysis of interviews that composed of the individuals and members who work in LGBT organisations in Turkey and the UK.
Findings
The significance and the role of context in shaping public discourse, policies and practices of LGBT organisations in Turkey and the UK were explored in greater details. Based on the coding and thematic analysis of the interviews, three main findings were presented, which are “inclusion and exclusion at work”, “inclusion and exclusion in politics” and “inclusion in LGBT organisations”.
Originality/value
The originality of this research comes from its unique nature with a comparative approach on the contrary of current LGBT research that mostly focusses on an individual level of analysis and workplace discrimination. Research evidence demonstrates that there are a number of complexities, contradictions and tensions based on the specific characteristics of each country setting where various cultural, societal, political and legislative/regulative forces come into play in LGBT inclusion at organisations. Consequently, this research provides valuable insights for the inclusion of sexual minorities drawing on the evidence from LGBT NGOs in Turkey and the UK.
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Abdirizak Mohamed and Jussi Leponiemi
The organizations' shareholder value maximization is one of the oldest beliefs in business economics. An organization is seen as a compromise between various goals and targets set…
Abstract
Purpose
The organizations' shareholder value maximization is one of the oldest beliefs in business economics. An organization is seen as a compromise between various goals and targets set by stakeholders, including the workforce. Induction training for newcomers is a part of a comprehensive selection of training and development functions in organizations. Those actions are seen as having a role in the socialization functions in organizations. In other words, it offers opportunities for the newcomers to create unofficial networks inside the work community. The purpose of this study is to investigate the induction training practices in use in organizations with an ethnic minority workforce as well as the development of induction training and methods used in diverse workplaces.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses the findings of investigations regarding ethnic minority group members' induction training practices in Finland as a part of Perehdyttämällä monimuotoiseen työyhteisöön – Petmo (initiation training of multicultural working place)‐project.
Findings
The study found that internationalisation and diversity are clearly beneficial for the company/community, but they also require resources and investments both in recruitment, induction training and work familiarization as well as in comprehensive human resource development; the great challenge seems to be the lack of resources and time during the induction process – what is needed is more evaluation, information (feedback and assessment systems), innovations and training for the induction trainers (communications); the induction training should be the same for everyone. However, in different tasks flexibility may be required, e.g. in the order the issues are presented – for one person the concrete work and the feelings associated with it, knowing the working community and developing the skills are better foundations for general integration and commitment, the other person may approach issues more naturally through a theoretical framework.
Originality/value
The paper uses the research material because it captures successfully the typical situation in Finnish organizations. These insights may act as a basis for developmental actions.
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Jane Holgate, Sue Abbott, Nicolina Kamenou, Josie Kinge, Jane Parker, Susan Sayce, Jacqueline Sinclair and Laura Williams
The pursuit of equality and valuing of diversity are central tenets of much organisational thinking and public policy development. However, in this current age of austerity we are…
Abstract
Purpose
The pursuit of equality and valuing of diversity are central tenets of much organisational thinking and public policy development. However, in this current age of austerity we are witnessing a number of existing and proposed “fairness initiatives” feeling the sharp blade of a cost‐cutting axe. This paper is a reflexive response that aims to examine a piece of action research in the field of industrial relations. It aims to take the professional UK association, the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA), as a case study and consider how issues of equality and diversity have been viewed by the organisation both in theory and practice. Using a framework which acknowledges the need for multiple levels of analysis (macro, meso and micro) and which argues for an intersectional approach, the paper seeks to detail the measures adopted by BUIRA so as to augment its organisational responsiveness to various equality and diversity concerns. It also provides an insight into how the authors, as equality and diversity academics, reflected on the process of creating policy through their own research activities. A further aim of the paper is to highlight the scope and character of equality and diversity initiatives undertaken by BUIRA, and to discuss some of their implications for its membership – both now and in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
What began as a simple policy piece of research developed into a multi‐method, quantitative and qualitative, action‐based project. It also became a reflexive study of how and by what methods research is conducted. A quantitative and qualitative survey of BUIRA members was followed with interviews with past‐presidents of the organisation. Historical data in the form of a comprehensive 2010 retrospective on BUIRA were also consulted.
Findings
The authors' empirical material was analysed with reference to a theoretical framework that acknowledges the importance of intersectionality at all levels of analysis. The study's findings are discussed in relation to macro, meso and micro influences and reference is made to how these three levels intersect in examining views and perceptions in relation to equality and diversity within BUIRA. The main findings are that while BUIRA as an association has acted to combat perceptions that it is dominated by older White men who prioritise traditional elements of industrial relations (IR), this view still persists for some of the membership. The membership survey indicated that it was female, younger or less established academics in particular who held this view, suggesting that in challenging inequalities within the IR academic community BUIRA may still have a way to go.
Practical implications
A key implication is that representative organisations such as professional associations need to consider equality and diversity aspects that reflect the membership they serve. This has been acknowledged as fundamental in both workplaces and trade unions and now requires similar commitment from professional associations. Of course, the scope and character of initiatives are also context‐sensitive, as reflected by non‐linear progress in equality initiatives undertaken by these and other organisations.
Originality/value
The research offers an analysis of equality and diversity within a professional association which is an under researched area.