Suzanne Battleday, Sue Buss and Wendy Pemberton
We have offered City & Guilds courses in Communication Skills(Levels I and II) and Numeracy (Level I) since 1980 in Birmingham. It may be of interest to note the reactions and…
Abstract
We have offered City & Guilds courses in Communication Skills(Levels I and II) and Numeracy (Level I) since 1980 in Birmingham. It may be of interest to note the reactions and experiences of students and tutors who have followed these courses and to highlight some of the advantages and disadvantages we have found in undertaking this type of work. Many long‐term students see a widening of horizons and an increasing awareness of potential as their skills develop; they want to test their skills in a more formal way. The courses have great advantages in that they offer a flexible structure, allowing individual development. They encourage initiative, with project work and ‘real‐life’ teaching materials and situations being central to the course. Students can gain tremendous satisfaction from tackling an exam course, with a definite sense of purpose and commitment to their learning.
The potential for a ‘narrative turn’ in victimology carries with it all kinds of possibilities and problems in adding nuanced understandings smoothed out and sometimes erased from…
Abstract
The potential for a ‘narrative turn’ in victimology carries with it all kinds of possibilities and problems in adding nuanced understandings smoothed out and sometimes erased from the vision of victimhood provided by criminal victimisation data. In this chapter, we explore the methodological and theoretical questions posed by such a narrative turn by presenting the case of June: a mother bereaved by gun violence that unfolded in Manchester two decades ago. Excavated using in-depth biographical interviewing, June told the story of the loss of her son, the role of faith in dealing with the aftermath of violence and eventually, how this story became a source for change for the community in which it was read and heard. June's story provided an impetus for establishing a grassroots antiviolence organisation and continued to be the driver for that same group long after the issue it was formed to address had become less problematic. As a story it served different purposes for the individual concerned, for the group they were a part of and for the wider community in which the group emerged. However, this particular story also raises questions for victimology in its understanding of the role of voice in policy and concerning the nature of evidence for both policy and the discipline itself. This chapter considers what lessons narrative victimology might learn from narrative criminology, the overlaps that the stories of victims and offenders might share and what the implications these might have for understanding what it means to be harmed.
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In the 1990s, North American archivists and records managers shifted some of their concern with electronic records and record keeping systems to conducting research about the…
Abstract
In the 1990s, North American archivists and records managers shifted some of their concern with electronic records and record keeping systems to conducting research about the nature of these records and systems. This essay describes one of the major research projects at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, supported with funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Specifically, the essay focuses on the project's four main products: recordkeeping functional requirements, production rules to support the requirements, metadata specifications for record keeping, and the warrant reflecting the professional and societal endorsement of the concept of the recordkeeping functional requirements.
Charlie Wall-Andrews, Rochelle Wijesingha, Wendy Cukier and Owais Lightwala
This paper aims to answer the following research questions: Does the Canadian Arts Summit's membership (i.e. Canada’s largest cultural institutions) reflect Canada's diversity…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to answer the following research questions: Does the Canadian Arts Summit's membership (i.e. Canada’s largest cultural institutions) reflect Canada's diversity? What is the state of diversity among leadership roles within Canada's largest cultural institutions when viewed through a geographical, gender and racial diversity, and intersectional lens?
Design/methodology/approach
Employing a geographic, gender, racial diversity and intersectional lens, the authors investigated the largest and most influential arts and cultural organizations in Canada (n = 125) to examine their leadership diversity. The authors found that there is a disconnect between the diversity of Canada and the leadership representation among the largest arts organizations. The authors rationalize the management implications of a lack of diversity leading Canada's cultural sector.
Findings
The leadership of major arts organizations in Canada does not reflect the diversity of Canada's population. For example, among 125 Canadian Arts Summit organizations, only 5.7% of CEOs are racialized compared to 94.3% who are White. The findings show similar results for lack of diversity in the Artistic Director and Chair of the Board roles.
Originality/value
There is limited research using this methodology to investigate leadership diversity, especially in the arts and culture sector. This research can create a benchmark for the sector to improve the status quo. The value of this research aims to encourage policy actors and arts leaders to address diversity and inclusion within their organizations and the communities they aim to serve. This research provides the foundation for future studies exploring leadership diversity and representation in the Canadian arts sector.
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The article aims to show how using the framework of social capital can be useful in understanding the careers of senior retail managers.
Abstract
Purpose
The article aims to show how using the framework of social capital can be useful in understanding the careers of senior retail managers.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research design in the form of 17 biographical interviews with 11 men and six women was adopted to understand the perceived influence and active involvement of social capital factors in retail career development at senior levels.
Findings
Men and women were equally aware of the importance of accumulating social capital factors for career development purposes, although they considered that the accumulation of human capital factors to be crucial in their own career development. Evidence indicated that women and men had benefited from borrowing social capital early in their career. However, having reached senior status the ways and reasons women accumulate social capital seemingly differ from the men's. Overall, men acquired social capital and used networking techniques more strategically and instrumentally than the women with regard to career development purposes. Senior women talked about engaging in expressive networks for social support and to overcome macho cultures.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to 17 qualitative interviews and so cannot be generalised to the wider population. Rather, it is intended to instigate debate over the importance of social capital in careers.
Practical implications
The findings imply that gender impacts access to and accumulation of social capital for career development purposes. It highlights issues that need to be explored in more detail so as to enable a more complete understanding of the factors important for people's careers.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to an understanding of men's and women's career development in relation to social capital, an area that has received limited attention in the human resource and retail fields.
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This chapter discusses how private military corporations (PMCs) and their employees have been implicated in discourses and practices of sexual violence. I examine how PMCs have…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter discusses how private military corporations (PMCs) and their employees have been implicated in discourses and practices of sexual violence. I examine how PMCs have become seemingly permanent fixtures of international relations since the end of the Cold War. Furthermore, the purpose is to contribute to the ongoing conversations about PMCs and gender. To do this, I examine one instance of sexual violence in the context of PMCs. I argue that, since the legal case was forced into private arbitration, this maneuver reflects critical shifts in the normalizing power of law, away from a model of a social contract toward global neoliberal economics.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing postmodern feminist theory alongside a Foucauldian discourse analysis, I explore the case of one PMC contractor who alleged rape by multiple coworkers in Iraq. I examine the limitations of standpoint feminism in relation to theories and representations of sexual violence.
Social implications
I claim that military outsourcing raises serious concerns for feminists theorizing issues of gender and wartime sexual violence. PMC personnel are unaccountable when they are implicated in cases of sexual violence. Feminist critique is urgent given the various ways PMCs have been implicated in reproducing gender inequality and in sexual violence.
Originality/value
This chapter advances feminist knowledge about wartime sexual violence in a context where PMCs now play a significant role in the reproduction of practices that normalize sexual violence in public and private militarized spaces, both “at home” and “abroad.”
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The greatest challenges with which digital systems present us are the creation and maintenance of reliable records and the preservation of their authenticity over time. It is…
Abstract
The greatest challenges with which digital systems present us are the creation and maintenance of reliable records and the preservation of their authenticity over time. It is vital for every organisation that its records be able to stand for the facts they are about i.e. that their content is trustworthy. To meet these challenges the international community of records professionals must develop appropriate strategies, procedures and standards. In this article the author explores the concepts and principles derived from archival diplomatics that should guide the management of electronic records and therefore these developments, as well as drawing conclusions about the nature of the research work required
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Clive Bingley, Edwin Fleming and Sarah Lawson
CHRISTMAS is coming, and the year is nearly done. On the whole, a good year, I think—at any rate for realism. No doubt we shall have our (by now) customary industrial fun and…
Abstract
CHRISTMAS is coming, and the year is nearly done. On the whole, a good year, I think—at any rate for realism. No doubt we shall have our (by now) customary industrial fun and games during the winter, with lights going out, rubbish piling up in the streets, and the car‐workers continuing to perform their slow‐motion, ritual suicide. But it is becoming appreciated that inflationary, pay increases simply spawn unemployment.
Mary Barrett, Anne Cox and Blake Woodward
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological contracts (PCs) of international volunteers (IVs) in international aid and development organizations (IADS)…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological contracts (PCs) of international volunteers (IVs) in international aid and development organizations (IADS). Specifically, it explores four questions: how IVs form PCs; what the content of these PCs is; how IVs’ PCs are maintained; and how they are fulfilled or breached.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used an inductive analysis of qualitative data: interviews with 27 IVs from a range of IADS.
Findings
The findings take the form of research propositions: RP1: IVs’ PCs, like those of domestic volunteers, include relational, transactional and, especially, values-based elements, but the balance of these is influenced by their values-based PC; the self-directed way IVs join their organizations; and reliance on peers rather than the organization’s management hierarchy. RP2: the PCs of IVs working for faith-based organizations have an additional element: spiritual support. RP3: the values-based PC means many transactional elements can be “adjusted away”, making it difficult to breach these PCs. RP4: experienced volunteers have very minimal PCs, but are more likely than inexperienced volunteers to expect basic safety and adequately skilled colleagues.
Research limitations/implications
The authors suggest areas of new inquiry and specific ways each research proposition could be tested empirically.
Practical implications
To alleviate IVs’ expatriation and repatriation adjustment problems, international aid organizations could facilitate the ways IVs already help each other. This would also help fulfill IVs’ PCs.
Originality/value
IVs are a growing but underexplored group and aspects of their PCs may be unique.