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Britain’s New Labour Government has radically shifted its policy aims away from securing traditional full employment towards the improvement of “employability”. This paper briefly assesses what is meant by employability and how the Government has integrated its “supply side” approach to the unemployed with the stricter benefit regime it inherited from its Conservative predecessor. It describes the various New Deal and area‐based employment programmes that have been introduced during an intense phase of policy development and experimentation and outlines the immediate impact they have had. The Government’s long‐term aim is to build on this experience and create a “work‐based welfare state” for all those of working age who receive state benefits. In conclusion, the paper highlights some of the weaknesses of the new strategy and draws out the implications that existing evaluations of active labour market programmes have for the likely impact of the New Deals.

Service work is often differentiated from manufacturing by the interactive labor workers perform as they come into direct contact with customers. Service organizations are particularly interested in regulating these interactions because they are a key opportunity for developing quality customer service, customer retention, and ultimately generation of sales revenue. An important stream of sociological literature focuses on managerial attempts to exert control over interactions through various techniques including routinization, standardization, and surveillance. Scripting is a common method of directing workers’ behavior, yet studies show that workers are extremely reluctant to administer scripts, judging them to be inappropriate to particular interactions or because they undermine their own sense of self. This paper examines a panoptic method of regulating service workers, embodied in undercover corporate agents who patrol employee’s adherence to scripts. How do workers required to recite scripts for customers respond to undercover control? What does it reveal about the nature of interactive labor? In-depth interviews with interactive workers in a range of retail contexts reveal that they mobilize their own interactional competence to challenge the effects of the panoptic, as they utilize strategies to identify and adapt to these “mystery shoppers,” all the while maintaining their cover. The paper shows the limits on control of interactive workers, as they maintain their own socialized sense of civility and preserve a limited realm of autonomy in their work.

Relatively limited attention has been paid to the academic needs of students with emotional and behavioral difficulties. Effective interventions are needed to support these students academically, behaviorally, and socially. The purpose of the concurrent studies reported here was to investigate the effectiveness of academic support in writing for fourth- and fifth-grade students (six boys, two girls) and second- and third-grade students (seven boys, one girl) with writing and behavioral difficulties. The Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) approach was implemented as a tier-2 intervention within a comprehensive, integrated three-tiered model of prevention including academic-, behavioral-, and social-skills components. Students learned an on-demand writing strategy for their state writing-competency test. Dependent measures included number of story writing elements, total number of words written, and writing quality. Fourth- and fifth-grade students who completed the intervention improved in total number of story elements. There were mixed results for the total number of words written and writing quality. Second- and third-grade students did not improve their total number of story elements, total words written, or writing quality. Students in both studies scored the intervention favorably, while there were mixed reactions from teachers. Findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed. Implications for the construct of evidence-based practice (EBP) are also explored, including concerns regarding frequent assessment of writing throughout intervention regardless of stage of instruction in the SRSD model.

In February 2015, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO of the LEGO Group, invited the national and international press to a financial briefing at the company's headquarters in Billund (Denmark). 2014 had been an exceptional year of growth for the LEGO group. Nevertheless, most of the journalists present in the room were surprised when the Danish CEO suddenly began to dance in front of the audience while singing ‘Everything is awesome’ from the LEGO Movie. Why did he do it? Was it out of spontaneous joy? Or was there a strategy behind his actions? And what were the reactions of the media and LEGO employees? What can a CEO who is dancing and singing for a few seconds or minutes in front of a group of journalists tell us about leadership roles and leadership communication? The aim of this chapter is to provide plausible answers to these questions. We combine theory of dancing with three different approaches to the study of leadership: (1) a strategic approach: the CEO as a Performer, (2) a positive organizational scholarship approach: the CEO as a Chief Happiness Officer and (3) a critical approach: the CEO as a Seducer. At the end of the chapter, we discuss how this small case study can contribute to a broader understanding of strategic communication that includes a dramaturgical and multimodal perspective.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the additive and joint effects of trainer directiveness and trainees’ learning goal orientation on training satisfaction and transfer.

Survey responses from a sample (N = 243) of undergraduate business students enrolled at a large US university were examined.

Trainer directiveness and trainee learning goal orientations each additively predicted training satisfaction and transfer over and above one another and study controls. Further, trainer directiveness and trainee learning goal orientation jointly predicted satisfaction and transfer, such that the positive relationship between trainer directiveness and both outcomes was accentuated (more positive) when learning goal orientations were high (compared to low).

This study suggests that scholars and practitioners need to be mindful of both trainer and trainee characteristics when evaluating potential training programs. In addition to selecting competent trainers, organizations might be well-served to encourage trainers to use a directive style. Further, organizations might be able to boost the positive effects of trainer directiveness on trainee satisfaction and transfer by priming (or selecting on) trainee learning goal orientations.

With few exceptions, prior research has devoted comparatively little attention toward understanding how trainer characteristics influence training outcomes. Of this research, even less considers possible interactions between trainer and trainee characteristics. The present study provides an initial step toward addressing these gaps by examining the additive and joint influences of trainer directiveness and trainee learning goal orientations. Results support that additional variance in training satisfaction and transfer can be explained by considering both trainer and trainee characteristics in tandem.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interplay between perceptions of instructor competence and trainees’ motivational orientations (autonomy orientation) as predictor of trainee satisfaction.

Simulating a realistic training initiative, the paper examines survey responses from a sample (n=132) of students enrolled in an introductory business course at a large US university.

Perceptions of instructor competence predict course satisfaction over and above trainees’ motivational orientations. Further, trainee satisfaction is an interactive function of both instructor competence and trainee orientations, with instructor competence being more important for trainees with high autonomy.

The results of the present study should be considered in the light of the limitations, including limited generalizability, an exclusive focus on trainee satisfaction as outcome, and a test of only one moderator.

This study confirms the need for instructors to be knowledgeable, organized and prepared, and to establish rapport with their trainees in order to promote high levels of satisfaction with the instruction – even for trainees who are often assumed to naturally thrive in training (i.e. those high in autonomy).

If extended to other contexts and settings, the results point out toward the need to consider multiple venues, including both trainer and trainee-based factors to increase trainees’ course or program satisfaction. In a broader sense, aptitude-treatment (Cronbach, 1957) remains a valid perspective and needs to receive renewed attention.

The current literature suggests that positive course reactions (e.g. high trainee satisfaction) can enhance learning, learning transfer, and ultimately application of acquired knowledge and skill. This study provides support for the notion that trainee satisfaction is a function of both instructor competence and trainees’ motivational orientations. Training professionals can enhance training outcomes by emphasizing trainer and trainee factors when designing initiatives. Related, trainee motivational orientations should not be viewed as a substitute for highly competent trainers.

French Libraries Sign Retrospective Conversion Contract with OCLC OCLC will convert to machine‐readable form more than 600,000 bibliographic records for six French academic libraries. The records will also be loaded into the PANCATALOGUE, France's national union catalog of monographs.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is mandated by the international community to collect, analyse and disseminate internationally comparable statistics on education, including those on and related to teachers. Based within a framework that emphasises quantity and quality issues for teachers, this chapter describes the current UIS international collection of teacher data, the policy options they intend to inform, as well as key limitations and challenges of the present data. In reaction to this, the chapter also presents UIS’s on-going developmental work related to the global data collection and statistics on primary and secondary teachers ranging from the measurement of current shortages, particularly in developing countries aiming to achieve universal primary education (UPE), to the expansion of an international framework that sheds additional light on teacher and teaching quality.

Argues that although the four Nordic countries are commonly lumped together, given their historical ties, they show many differences. While all share a deeply rooted love of nature and solitude, the prevailing egalitarianism in these countries manifests itself differently when it comes to management or communication. Finland has the most autocratic management style but Norway, which shares a similar literary tradition has a very participative management style. While unions play an important role in Norway and Sweden, Denmark and Finland avoid collective bargaining and manage less democratically. The adjustments required by a Euromanager to adapt to the Nordic lifestyles are very demanding, requiring corporations to select and filter candidates seriously for any Scandinavian mission. Outlines the main characteristics of the people of the four Nordic countries, both on a personal level and in a work context. Compares and contrasts the management styles of the four countries.