This article is written in two parts and is presented as research-based insight on the growth of formal workplace mentoring programs and the alignment of mentoring with workforce…
Abstract
Purpose
This article is written in two parts and is presented as research-based insight on the growth of formal workplace mentoring programs and the alignment of mentoring with workforce development strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is taken from a two-year study conducted in the Australian rail industry aimed at establishing a harmonized approach to the use of workplace mentoring. Using mixed-methods and an interpretive approach seven major rail organizations from Australia and New Zealand contributed to detailed case studies, on-line surveys and in-depth interviews. Responses were obtained from all levels and functional areas within the organizations
Findings
Research findings support the literature and show a growing interest in the use of formal workplace mentoring to deal with a wide range of organizational issues such as employee retention, engagement, absence and turnover. Importantly, mentoring was found to be highly valued in the area of knowledge transfer and especially across multi-generational groups. In parallel with other traditional industries, rail organizations in Australia are about to lose large volumes of highly qualified and long-serving Baby-Boomers. Therefore, workforce development strategies will need to facilitate the transfer of tacit knowledge to a new generation of rail employees who are eager to learn, but less conformable with formal training courses. Mentoring is becoming an effective option for delivering this change.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are contextual and may not fit all settings, but they offer a comparative account of workplace mentoring in an industry facing perpetual change, economic challenges and an impending shortage of skills in key areas.
Practical implications
These articles have practical implications for human resource practitioners and professionals involved in the implementation of workforce development projects. Mentoring is an old concept enjoying new fame, but the intrinsic nature of mentoring, such as the need for highly-trusted relationships and confidential meetings means that organizations should tread carefully as they can engage mentees at a deep psychological level.
Originality/value
These articles will be of value to human resource professionals and managers, assisting them to think differently about workplace mentoring and consider how the characteristics of mentoring are interdependent with the broader goals of workforce development.
Details
Keywords
This article is written in two parts and is presented as research-based insight on the growth of formal workplace mentoring programs and the alignment of mentoring with workforce…
Abstract
Purpose
This article is written in two parts and is presented as research-based insight on the growth of formal workplace mentoring programs and the alignment of mentoring with workforce development strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is taken from a two-year study conducted in the Australian rail industry aimed at establishing a harmonized approach to the use of workplace mentoring. Using mixed-methods and an interpretive approach seven major rail organizations from Australia and New Zealand contributed to detailed case studies, on-line surveys and in-depth interviews. Responses were obtained from all levels and functional areas within the organizations.
Findings
Research findings support the literature and show a growing interest in the use of formal workplace mentoring to deal with a wide range of organizational issues such as employee retention, engagement, absence and turnover. Importantly, mentoring was found to be highly valued in the area of knowledge transfer and especially across multi-generational groups. In parallel with other traditional industries, rail organizations in Australia are about to lose large volumes of highly qualified and long-serving Baby-Boomers. Therefore, workforce development strategies will need to facilitate the transfer of tacit knowledge to a new generation of rail employees who are eager to learn, but less conformable with formal training courses. Mentoring is becoming an effective option for delivering this change.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are contextual and may not fit all settings, but they offer a comparative account of workplace mentoring in an industry facing perpetual change, economic challenges and an impending shortage of skills in key areas.
Practical implications
These articles have practical implications for human resource practitioners and professionals involved in the implementation of workforce development projects. Mentoring is an old concept enjoying new fame, but the intrinsic nature of mentoring, such as the need for highly-trusted relationships and confidential meetings means that organizations should tread carefully as they can engage mentees at a deep psychological level.
Originality/value
These articles will be of value to human resource professionals and managers, assisting them to think differently about workplace mentoring and consider how the characteristics of mentoring are interdependent with the broader goals of workforce development.
Details
Keywords
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
The management of children′s literature is a search for value andsuitability. Effective policies in library and educational work arebased firmly on knowledge of materials, and on…
Abstract
The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the…
Abstract
The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.
In a previous article we have called attention to the danger of eating tinned and bottled vegetables which have been coloured by the addition of salts of copper and we have urged…
Abstract
In a previous article we have called attention to the danger of eating tinned and bottled vegetables which have been coloured by the addition of salts of copper and we have urged upon the public that no such preparations should be purchased without an adequate guarantee that they are free from copper compounds. Copper poisoning, however, is not the only danger to which consumers of preserved foods are liable. Judging from the reports of cases of irritant poisoning which appear with somewhat alarming frequency in the daily press, and from the information which we have been at pains to obtain, there can be no question that the occurrence of a large number of these cases is to be attributed to the ingestion of tinned foods which has been improperly prepared or kept. It is not to be supposed that the numerous cases of illness which have been ascribed to the use of tinned foods were all cases of metallic poisoning brought about by the action of the contents of the tins upon the metal and solder of the latter. The evidence available does not show that a majority of the cases could be put down to this cause alone; but it must be admitted that the evidence is in most instances of an unsatisfactory and inconclusive character. It has become a somewhat too common custom to put forward the view that so‐called “ptomaine” poisoning is the cause of the mischief; and this upon very insufficient evidence. While there is no doubt that the presence in tinned goods of some poisonous products of decomposition or organic change very frequently gives rise to dangerous illness, so little is known of the chemical nature and of the physiological effects of “ptomaines” that to obtain conclusive evidence is in all cases most difficult, and in many, if not in most, quite impossible. A study of the subject leads to the conclusion that both ptomaine poisoning and metallic poisoning—also of an obscure kind—have, either separately or in conjunction, produced the effects from time to time reported. In view of the many outbreaks of illness, and especially, of course, of the deaths which have been attributed to the eating of bad tinned foods it is of the utmost importance that some more stringent control than that which can be said to exist at present should be exercised over the preparation and sale of tinned goods. In Holland some two or three years ago, in consequence partly of the fact that, after eating tinned food, about seventy soldiers were attacked by severe illness at the Dutch manœuvres, the attention of the Government was drawn to the matter by Drs. VAN HAMEL ROOS and HARMENS, who advocated the use of enamel for coating tins. It appears that an enamel of special manufacture is now extensively used in Holland by the manfacturers of the better qualities of tinned food, and that the use of such enamelled tins is insisted upon for naval and military stores. This is a course which might with great advantage be followed in this country. While absolute safety may not be attainable, adequate steps should be taken to prevent the use of damaged, inferior or improper materials, to enforce cleanliness, and to ensure the adoption of some better system of canning.
Mary Ann Glynn, Thomas B. Lawrence, Renate E. Meyer, William Ocasio, M. Paola Ometto and Jean-François Soublière
The closing plenary of the 2015 Alberta Institutions Conference offered an opportunity to reflect on the current status of the institutional perspective and the direction it may…
Abstract
The closing plenary of the 2015 Alberta Institutions Conference offered an opportunity to reflect on the current status of the institutional perspective and the direction it may take in the future. Our four panelists, Mary Ann Glynn, Tom Lawrence, Renate Meyer, and William Ocasio, reflected on how institutionalists can matter. In a first conversation, Renate and William discussed how institutionalists can matter to different audiences, and whether or not the desire to matter should drive research. In a second conversation, Tom proposed problem-driven research as a means of developing relevant theoretical insights. In a third and final conversation, Mary Ann encouraged us to reconsider the role of institutions and culture in shaping the collective rationality of actors and to reveal what matters in everyday occurrences.
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“All things are in a constant state of change”, said Heraclitus of Ephesus. The waters if a river are for ever changing yet the river endures. Every particle of matter is in…
Abstract
“All things are in a constant state of change”, said Heraclitus of Ephesus. The waters if a river are for ever changing yet the river endures. Every particle of matter is in continual movement. All death is birth in a new form, all birth the death of the previous form. The seasons come and go. The myth of our own John Barleycorn, buried in the ground, yet resurrected in the Spring, has close parallels with the fertility rites of Greece and the Near East such as those of Hyacinthas, Hylas, Adonis and Dionysus, of Osiris the Egyptian deity, and Mondamin the Red Indian maize‐god. Indeed, the ritual and myth of Attis, born of a virgin, killed and resurrected on the third day, undoubtedly had a strong influence on Christianity.