Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between educational leadership and teacher's motivation. The research described here was anchored in the convergence of two fundamental theories of leadership and motivation: the full range model of leadership and self‐determination theory. The central hypotheses were that transformational leadership would predict autonomous motivation among teachers, whereas transactional leadership would predict controlled motivation. The authors further predicted that autonomous motivation would mediate the relations between transformational leadership and teachers' burnout and that controlled motivation would mediate the relations between transactional leadership and burnout.

Questionnaires assessing the variables of interest were completed by 122 Israeli teachers.

Results, based on structure equation modeling, supported the hypotheses, suggesting that leadership styles among school principals play a significant role in teachers' motivation and well‐being.

The school's environment in Western society is characterized by many impositions and pressures that affect teachers' well‐being, as reflected in their quality and intensity of motivation, affect, and burnout. Thus, the present research findings suggest that if the power in educational systems is delegated to school principals, and if the latter are encouraged and trained to be autonomy supportive toward their educational staff, then these steps may potentially facilitate teachers' autonomous motivation, satisfaction, and well‐being.

Few studies have examined the relationship between various styles of leadership and different types of motivation among followers. The present novel study has the potential to fill this gap by empirically studying the relationship between educational leadership and teachers' motivation.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight some methodological problems concerning the neglect of participants' voices by workplace ethnographers and neglect of the highly interactional and co‐constructive nature of research interviewing. The study aims to use discourse analysis, to show the phenomena of workplace learning and expertise to be constituted in participants' talk.

From excerpts of natural talk and research interviews by fish culturists speaking about their learning in a salmon hatchery, discourse analysis is used to analyze how workplace learning and expertise are rhetorically performed.

The paper finds that fish culturists drew on two discursive repertoires/resources – school‐ and workplace‐based learning – to account for their learning and expertise. The main participant affirmed the primacy of interest and practical workplace experience in his job just as he presupposed a weak correlation between school‐based (theoretical) and workplace (practical) knowing. However, both kinds of learning were deemed important though articulating this view depended on the social contexts of its production.

Discourse analysis does not establish immutable truths about workplace learning and expertise but rather it is used to understand how these are made accountable through talk in real‐time, that is, how the phenomenon is “done” by participants.

There is increased sensitivity when using ethnographic and interview methods. No method can avoid being theory‐laden in its conduct and reporting but discourse analysis perhaps does it better than its alternatives.

While some contributors to this journal have also approached workplace learning from a discursive perspective, this paper attempts to understand the phenomenon solely from participants' categories and interpretations.

This paper seeks to analyze the use of metaphor in the 1997‐2006 letters to shareholders (LTS) of Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel). It aims to assess the prevalence of metaphor and changes in the use of metaphor as turnover in corporate leadership took place and as Nortel's financial fortunes changed.

Metaphors in the LTS are part of a corporation's voluntary disclosures, which in turn may be used for impression management purposes. The paper uses discourse analysis, in particular quantitative and qualitative content analysis, of the LTS to identify key metaphors and to evaluate changes in the prevalence of these metaphors across corporate leaders and during phases of growth and decline.

Several key metaphors are identified in Nortel's letters to shareholders, including science, journey, vision, construction and theatre. Evidence is also found that demonstrates changes in the prevalence of metaphors across various chief executive officers, and changes in the meaning of metaphors in periods of growth and decline.

The contribution of the paper is to highlight the use of metaphor in the voluntary disclosures (i.e. letters to shareholders) of a major North American corporation during a turbulent decade. The preferences of four very different CEOs are reflected in their choice of metaphor, supporting arguments that metaphor is used in voluntary disclosures as a means of impression management, particularly in relation to trends in corporate financial performance.

Lately, a number of authors have applied institutional theory when discussing global marketing and emerging market specificities. It has also been argued that the institutional forces influencing a firm will differ between markets and that firms can approach them in different ways. In this paper we conduct a qualitative analysis, based upon NVIVO, of three Swedish firms as they position themselves on the Chinese and Brazilian markets. We compare the institutional context as perceived by the firms in China and Brazil and we also analyse to what extent they have a proactive or a reactive approach when managing their institutional environment, and to what extent their actions are governed by local practices and corporate practices. As a result we present a country institutional profile including a set of issue-specific factors that concern firms’ positioning on emerging markets.

Sociologists have documented how women in male-dominated occupations experience subtle and overt forms of discrimination based on gender stereotypes. This study examines women professional chefs to understand how they perceive and respond to stereotypes claiming women are not good leaders, are too emotional, and are not “cut out” for male-dominated work. Many of our participants resist these stereotypes and believe that their gender has benefited them in their jobs. Using in-depth interviews with women chefs, we show that they utilize essentialist gendered rhetoric to describe how women chefs are better than their male counterparts. While such rhetoric appears to support stereotypes emphasizing “natural” differences between men and women in the workplace, we suggest that women are reframing these discourses into a rhetoric of “feminine strength” wherein women draw from gender differences in ways that benefit them in their workplaces and their careers. Our conclusion discusses the implications of our findings for gender inequality at work.

Since the reforms started in the Romanian child protection, and in spite of adopting children’s rights, and investing in the professionalization of the child protection staff, research has indicated that children continue to suffer violence in care settings.

This chapter contributes to the literature that documents children’s rights violations in Romanian residential care, before and after the political shift in 1989, including the period after the accession to the EU, by presenting and discussing interview data of 48 adults who spent parts of their childhoods in child protection settings.

The conceptual framework of this analysis is based on the human rights perspective and the transitional justice. The main body of the article presents the testimonials of adults who grew up in institutional care in Romania, as collected in the framework of the SASCA project, funded by the European Union. ¹

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS) programme, prepared for the Joint Prison Probation Service Accreditation Panel, might reduce antisocial behaviour if delivered to school‐aged children.

The paper presents two studies. In the first, adult offenders' executive function was measured before and after undertaking the ETS course, using a self report form. Change in behaviour following the course was assessed using behaviour checklists completed by prison staff. In the second study, schoolchildren's executive function was measured using a self report form and their behaviour was also assessed using a comparable behaviour checklist.

The results showed an association between antisocial behaviour and poor executive function in both offenders and schoolchildren. Offenders displayed less antisocial behaviour following the ETS course. Executive function and antisocial behaviour measured before the ETS course predicted reduction in antisocial behaviour following the course.

The studies do not establish a causal role for the ETS programme in reducing antisocial behaviour, and it was not possible to investigate the effect of the programme in schoolchildren. However, the results indicate that further research may be fruitful.

The possibility that an adapted ETS programme might lead to a reduction in antisocial behaviour in schoolchildren should be investigated. Behavior checklists and measures of executive function should guide the selection of individuals joining the ETS programme.

The findings suggest that the ETS programme might be effective outside a criminal justice setting, as an early intervention with schoolchildren aimed at preventing later offending.