Search results

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to encourage community college leaders to make greater use of the human resources organizational frame in understanding their organizations and implementing measures to support its students.

The methodological approach: Concepts are drawn from key texts examining human resources organizational frame analysis and community college leadership to locate areas of community college policy development and operations that resonate with tenets of this organizational frame.

Connections between some of the typical operations and policies of community colleges and the analytical tenets and concerns of the human resources frame are explored.

More in-depth literature analysis could well lead to the discussion of additional measures animated by the human resources frame that can be taken to better support students and their learning.

These connections between the human resources frame and community college policy and methods of operation lead to the authors’ recommendation that community college leaders should make particular efforts think and act with the human resources frame in mind. Emerging issues that are consistent with the concerns and tenets of this frame can be highlighted and recognized for further use in leadership and management practice.

Community colleges are critical in human capital development for all societal sectors. A human resources perspective puts people and human values at the center of organizational analysis.

We add emphasis to leading recommendations for understanding and practice of community colleges through multiple frames. We suggest that the concerns of the human resource organizational frame can help leaders provide thought and action that has additional relevance and possibility.

IT IS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO on November 12th since Elizabeth Gaskell died suddenly at the age of fifty‐five. She had not begun to write seriously until she was nearly forty, but during those fifteen years wrote seven major novels, a biography and many short stories. Her premature death was a deprivation to English literature and innumerable characters with whom her mind teemed were never brought to life to add to the host of friends that readers of her books find in her pages.

THE June conference at Margate is so near that we must needs be pre‐occupied with it at the moment although two months ago we were able to give an anticipatory description of the programme. The protracted and cold winter, culminating in the most “perishing” April of the century, possibly of any century since the Great Ice Age, seems on the threshold of May to have dissolved at last in warmer weather. Margate is a lady in the sun, but perhaps something else under cloud, and wise people take warm clothes when they visit her. We hope, however, that they will not be necessary and that for some hundreds of our readers Margate air will be an invigorating experience.

The purpose of this research study is to validate an instrument that measures the importance instructors and students place on online student engagement strategies.

The online student engagement strategies survey was completed by 160 faculty and 146 students. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and an exploratory factor analysis. The factor structure was examined using a principal component analysis with an oblique rotation.

Results show that the Online Engagement Strategies Questionnaire has a valid and reliable structure. Based on the exploratory factor analysis, four engagement constructs emerged including peer engagement, multimodal engagement, instructor engagement, and self-directed engagement. Results and discussion assist in identifying key engagement strategies within this online student engagement framework.

The validated instrument fills a gap in the literature, and it has value to practitioners, researchers, administrators and policy makers because it has practical applications.

Non‐marketable natural coastal resources such as beaches, sand‐dune systems and cliff sides have an economic value deriving not least from the various services which they provide as well as the human demand for consuming some of these services. Coastal defence projects designed to protect the coast against erosion and flooding by the sea have often caused irreversible degradation to coastal natural resources. The main aim of this article is to investigate whether the joint use of cost‐benefit analysis and environmental resource valuation techniques can give any insights toward the sustainable use of the coast. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs cost‐benefit analysis (CBA) in order to assess the justifiability of carrying out coast protection works in a particular location. This paper also uses contingent valuation methodology (CVM) to estimate the economic values of non‐marketable coastal environmental services. In particular, this paper employs willingness to pay (WTP) technique and try to elicit satisfaction values from beach users by conducting an on‐site questionnaire survey. Findings – his paper argues that there are many advantages in approaching shoreline protection project appraisal both from an environmental as well as an economics point of view. However, when conducting a cost‐benefit analysis the monetary value of environment elicited by contingent valuation techniques has very limited use in it self. It can set the financial budget within which likely coast protection options should be considered but it cannot determine which option is more sustainable. What the decision‐maker needs is to give real meaning to this value by translating it into people's specific preferences and behavioural characteristics. The next step should be setting out pragmatic project characteristics to accommodate the above preferences. Practical implications – Knowledge‐based planning and scheduling as well as informed coastal protection decisions is central to achieving sustainability in the coastal zone. Prior to managing a coastal area, the baseline information needed is the economic value of services that the coastal location in question provides. Originality/value – Generally speaking, the economic value of non‐marketable natural coastal resources such as beaches is closely associated with the way in which society perceives the environment. Both use and non‐use values that are placed upon the environment by individuals have an anthropocentric basis. In this respect, it could be argued that these values often reflect multiple coastal zone uses, conflicts of human interests, levels of environmental education, environmental awareness and environmental appreciation.

The purpose of this paper is to reassess Chiswell's vulnerability to storm and sea flooding since an analysis made in 1979 and to identify characteristics of resilience, a more recent item of disaster studies terminology.

Chiswell's geography, geomorphology and changes affecting its vulnerability up to 1979, are described against its history of storms. Two serious storms in 1978 and 1979 drew attention to Chiswell's need of improved protection and a flood alleviation scheme was completed. Some consequences for Chiswell of the completed scheme are described and considered in relation to climate change, Chiswell's inclusion in the UNESCO Jurassic Coast and its expression of human ecology in a context of natural hazards of the sea.

Resilience existed before its inclusion in the terminology of disaster studies. The role of a community pressure group and of local and national administrations are considered against the timescale of protection provision. The essential requirement of external inputs before community resilience became evident is highlighted, together with additional observed and itemised characteristics of resilience.

Updated research is based upon the results of rapid field observation and extensive use of internet sources, not available in 1979.

Realities of resilience may assist interpretation of its theoretical evaluations and expectations.

As yet, there are few field evaluations of resilience.

Studies the marketing system of the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) in the Philippines. The data collection methods comprised overseas trips to carry out unstructured field observation and interviews, a nine‐item structured questionnaire, and unobtrusive measures from Government statistical publications in four different countries. In the data‐analysis process, the questionnaire data were used to rank the importance of services required by major shipping lines in order to formulate the appropriate marketing strategy. The Government statistics data were used to test a hypothesis that Manila is more cost‐effective as a transshipment centre compared with three other major Asian ports. Testing of the hypothesis was based on the theory of General Equilibrium. A response rate of 60 per cent was obtained from the 30 mailed questionnaires. Finds that the most important services required by the major shipping lines were: (1) berth availability, (2) efficient operation, (3) cost. On the transshipment economics analysis, the alternative hypothesis: It is more cost‐effective to use Manila as a transshipment centre compared with Hong Kong, Kaohsiung and Singapore, was found to be sustained. Notes, however, that, although Manila is found to be the most cost‐effective on the whole system, Singapore is the cheapest, when considering stevedoring cost only, while Hong Kong is the cheapest when considering port charges and vessel‐steaming cost. On the whole, the existing marketing strategy of MICT, as observed during the various trips, was found to be sound and well‐justified. Nevertheless, makes recommendations, based on the findings in this study, aimed at increasing berth availability, ensuring efficient operation and being cost‐competitive and effective.

To provide data on the tsunami hazard of the Mediterranean region, to outline the Maltese Islands specific tsunami risks.

The physics of tsunami and the tsunami magnitude scales are first introduced. The Mediterranean tsunami characteristics are introduced by reference to sources (1962‐2003). Following this the Mediterranean tsunami vulnerability assessment is undertaken. This then narrows down to assessing the Maltese tsunami hazards with reference to various newspaper articles, with finally a risk assessment for Malta tsunami exposure calculated.

Considering the high loss of life occurring in the Indian Ocean catastrophic tsunami, tsunami awareness hazards are to be kept ongoing whilst Malta should form part of an expected European Tsunami Warning System.

Planning is to consider various options available including tsunami barriers, evacuation paths, buildings with vertical evacuation facilities. It would be more prudent to work with nature by moving all inessential structures further into the interior and to protect the shoreline with suitable vegetation.

Creates a Mediterranean/Maltese awareness to tsunami hazards/risks in a highly developed tourist region.