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Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

The implementation of new technology in the workplace has produced some negative responses from employers. Two field surveys investigating the prevalence of repetitive VDU work in the UK are discussed and responses from four categories of workers – data entry operators, administrators, programmers and supervisors – are analysed. Critical psychological variables show that in all cases data entry operators gave more extreme (worse) responses than any other group. It is concluded that there appears to be widespread evidence of more routine menial tasks having been created as a result of the introduction of new technology. Guidelines regarding the use of VDUs, especially over protracted periods, are advocated, with the introduction of timely rest breaks.

Describes how in recent years a greater priority has been given to improving health in the workplace and throughout the workforce. The increased awareness of and investment in employee wellbeing in commercial organizations, however, has not extended to UK higher education. When viewed in the light of the changing and increasing pressures placed on this sector in recent years, and the increasing insecurity and instability which arise therefrom, this appears an important oversight. Universities are primarily “people organizations”, success being fundamentally dependent on the abilities and performance of the human resource. Even small institutions have a high financial investment in both their academic and non‐academic staff. Argues that there is therefore a strong prima facie case for more proactive health care measures to be implemented in order to respond to the myriad organizational personnel problems associated with changes in higher education. Aims to highlight some of the characteristics of the university environment which distinguish it from other types of employing organization.

The prediction of graduation rates of college students has become increasingly important to colleges and universities across the USA and the world. Graduation rates, also referred to as completion rates, directly impact university rankings and represent a measurement of institutional performance and student success. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort by federal and state governments to increase the transparency and accountability of institutions, making “graduation rates” an important and challenging university goal. In line with this, the main purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid data analytic approach which can be flexibly implemented not only in the USA but also at various colleges across the world which would help predict the graduation status of undergraduate students due to its generic nature. It is also aimed at providing a means of determining and ranking the critical factors of graduation status.

This study focuses on developing a novel hybrid data analytic approach to predict the degree completion of undergraduate students at a four-year public university in the USA. Via the deployment of the proposed methodology, the data were analyzed using three popular data mining classifications methods (i.e. decision trees, artificial neural networks, and support vector machines) to develop predictive degree completion models. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the relative importance of each predictor factor driving the graduation.

The sensitivity analysis of the most critical factors in predicting graduation rates is determined to be fall-term grade-point average, housing status (on campus or commuter), and which high school the student attended. The least influential factors of graduation status are ethnicity, whether or not a student had work study, and whether or not a student applied for financial aid. All three data analytic models yielded high accuracies ranging from 71.56 to 77.61 percent, which validates the proposed model.

This study presents uniqueness in that it presents an unbiased means of determining the driving factors of college graduation status with a flexible and powerful hybrid methodology to be implemented at other similar decision-making settings.

Describes a process through which organizations might seek to implement interventions relating to employee wellbeing. Emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive needs assessment both in obtaining the breadth of information needed to design appropriate interventions and also in providing baseline information against which to evaluate programme effectiveness. Discusses factors which influence the type of intervention appropriate for a particular situation and highlights their design implications. Finally, provides guidance on programme implementation and evaluation, and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to tertiary welfare provision.

At Sebastiani Vineyards, a 7,000‐year‐old wine‐making tradition joins the information age.

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of human resource management in publicly listed finance sector companies in Nepal. In particular, it explores the extent to which HR practice is integrated into organisational strategy and devolved to line management.

A structured interview was conducted with the senior executive responsible for human resource management in 26 commercial banks and insurance companies in Nepal.

The degree of integration of HR practice appears to be increasing within this sector, but this is dependent on the maturity of the organisations. The devolvement of responsibility to line managers is at best partial, and in the case of the insurance companies, it is more out of necessity due to the absence of a strong central HR function.

The survey is inevitably based on a small sample; however this represents 90 per cent of the relevant population. The data suggest that Western HR is making inroads into more developed aspects of Nepalese business. Compared with Nepalese business as a whole, the financial sector appears relatively Westernised, although Nepal still lags India in its uptake of HR practices.

It appears unlikely from a cultural perspective that the devolvement of responsibility will be achieved as a result of HR strategy. National cultural, political and social factors continue to be highly influential in shaping the Nepalese business environment.

Few papers have explored HR practice in Nepal. This paper contributes to the overall assessment of HR uptake globally and highlights emic features impacting on that uptake.