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The aim of this paper is to advance the conceptualisation and measurement of work-family conflict (WFC) by developing and validating a scale that is relevant in a collectivist culture setting.

First, qualitative interviews with 15 bank employees were conducted to establish whether WFC was an issue, its meaning and form and the relevance of the Carlson, Kacmar and Williams' (2000) scale. Second, drawing on role theory and work-family border theory, an additional psychological dimension was developed, and the new scale was tested with data from a self-report survey of bank employees (n = 569). Third, the validity, reliability and measurement invariance of the scale were confirmed with data from a sample of secondary school teachers (n = 223).

The characteristics of collective societies pertinent to WFC were relevant to these middle-class employees, and they experience high levels of WFC. A model with a six-factor structure (time-based, strain-based and psychological-based WFC and FWC) represents the most theoretically and statistically sound measure of WFC for these samples.

WFC has many negative social and economic consequences. However, there is inadequate evidence on which to base human resource policies to address the issue in collective societies. This study developed and applied a more reliable measure to assess its extent and form to assist in the design of appropriate WFC management practice. It will be of interest to scholars researching and teaching international management, management consultants, policy makers and managers seeking to understand the problem of WFC in collective societies.

This is the first study to establish the validity of a psychological dimension of WFC in a collectivist culture. It confirms the relevance of the strain and time dimensions of the most commonly used multi-dimensional measure, but found no evidence of behavioural WFC.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Catholic district offices support school leaders’ instructional leadership practices at times of major reform.

The paper employs the theory of practice architectures as a lens through which to examine local site-based responses to system-wide reforms in two Australian Catholic secondary schools and their district offices. Data collection for these parallel case studies included semi-structured interviews, focus groups, teaching observations, classroom walkthroughs and coaching conversations.

Findings suggest that in the New South Wales case, arrangements of language and specialist discourses associated with a school improvement agenda were reinforced by district office imperatives. These imperatives made possible new kinds of know-how, ways of working and relating to district office, teachers and students when it came to instructional leading. In the Queensland case, the district office facilitated instructional leadership practices that actively sought and valued practitioners’ input and professional judgment.

The research focussed on two case studies of district offices supporting school leaders’ instructional leadership practices at times of major reform. The findings are not generalizable.

Practically, the studies suggest that for excellent pedagogical practice to be embedded and sustained over time, district offices need to work with principals to foster communicative spaces that promote explicit dialogue between teachers and leaders’ interpretive categories.

The paper contends that responding to the diversity of secondary school sites requires district office practices that reject a one size fits all formulas. Instead, district offices must foster site-based education development.

The paper adopts a practice theory approach to its study of district support for instructional leader’ practices. A practice approach rejects a one size fits all approach to educational change. Instead, it focusses on understanding how particular practices come to be in specific sites, and what kinds of conditions make their emergence possible. As such, it leads the authors to consider whether and how different practices such as district practices of educational reforming or principals’ instructional leading might be transformed, or conducted otherwise, under other conditions of possibility.

Middle leaders are educators whose practices of building relational trust are critical for generating the kind of strong and sustainable professional learning communities necessary for leading productive site-based education development in their school. This chapter specifically focuses how building an ethic of relational trust, experienced in five interrelated dimensions, aligns with establishing core foundational conditions for building community. Building trust and communities of professional learners are not mutually exclusive – in fact, each reciprocally facilitates, progresses, supports, and sustains the development of the other. The foundations for community building, described as cornerstones, form over time and progressively involve, and achieve, contextuality, commitment, communication, collaboration, criticality, and collegiality. Reflection questions are provided throughout; these are designed to directly focus the attention of middle leaders towards understanding and developing their own trust practices, that with time, create conditions for generating strong viable communities of professional practice.

The research presents an analysis of the impact of recession on industrial relations in a public sector company.

This register of current research in social economics has been compiled by the International Institute of Social Economics. The register does not claim to be comprehensive but is merely an aid for research workers and institutions interested in social economics. The register will be updated and made more comprehensive in the future but this is largely dependent on the inflow of information from researchers in social economics. In order to facilitate this process a standardised form is to be found on the last page of this register. Completed forms, with attached sheets as necessary, should be returned to the compiler: Dr Barrie O. Pettman, Director, International Institute of Social Economics, Enholmes Hall, Patrington, Hull, N. Humberside, England, HU12 OPR. Any other comments on the register will also be welcome.

Presents five of the best papers from the human resource management and industrial relations track of the 2002 British Academy of Management Annual Conference, reflecting the diversity of the field. Concludes that employee relations in many western countries have undergone a significant transformation over the past two decades with a considerable disparity in the pay and conditions of the labour force and a growing gap between the “winners” and “losers”. States, however, that within the European Union, while the collective strength of the workforce may have decreased, a whole raft of European legislation has enhanced individual employment rights.

Part‐time working has been traditionally associated with poor quality, low skill jobs in the secondary labour market. Explores the expansion of part‐time work into skilled occupations using case studies in nursing and the police. Employees in both services have pay and conditions wholly pro‐rated with full‐time colleagues. However, despite a potentially strong bargaining position in relation to the employer, these part‐timers had not achieved complete equality with full time counterparts. Demonstrates a breaking of the mould of poor quality part‐time jobs showing that better jobs can be worked on a part‐time basis. Concludes, however, that full equality is unlikely to be achieved without strategic intervention at the workplace level.

Challenges the assumption implicit in much of the literature on women managers that their failure to progress can be explained solely in terms of the individual behaviour of women and their employers. Examines the characteristics of organizations in which women make their careers which are potent factors impeding female advancement. Draws attention to the effects of radical organizational change, and explores some of the consequences of this change for women managers through the in‐depth analysis of a “typical” case. Explores the complex process by which restructuring and managerial policy and practice eventually combined to undermine the organization’s stated intent to expand significantly the number of women in management. Suggests that in‐depth analysis over time is required to understand the complex processes of change and its often unanticipated consequences for management careers.