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1 – 10 of over 1000Winifred Asare-Doku, Jane Rich, Brian Kelly and Carole James
Previous research has suggested high levels of unaddressed mental health needs among male-dominated work settings. The mining industry has been a recent focus internationally…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has suggested high levels of unaddressed mental health needs among male-dominated work settings. The mining industry has been a recent focus internationally. This paper aims to critically examine research regarding organizational mental health interventions for people working in mining industries.
Design/methodology/approach
The narrative review used a systematic standardized search strategy in six databases and grey literature from 1990 to 2019.
Findings
Of the 418 studies identified, seven studies (five quantitative and two qualitative studies) met the inclusion criteria. Analysis of these studies revealed the organisational interventions available to address mental health needs of miners. Interventions were categorised into organisational and individual-focused approaches. Evidence shows there is great potential in conducting workplace mental health programs, yet further research is required to create a strong evidence base for substantiated policy and practice implications.
Practical implications
Mental health interventions and programs should be available in mining industry to enhance mental health. Organisations can also improve mental health by implementing significant changes in the work environment and identifying workplace factors that induce strain and contribute to psychological distress in employees. Attempt can be made at restructuring safety policies and practices to include mental health, addressing organisational structures such as work schedules and providing training for managers and supervisors.
Originality/value
This review focuses on the unique characteristics pertaining to male-dominated mining industries and workplace mental health interventions which are aimed at supporting employee mental health.
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All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.
This study proposes to examine whether tales from childhood influence the psyche and self of the adult in their professional role as a leader in a large organization. It is…
Abstract
Purpose
This study proposes to examine whether tales from childhood influence the psyche and self of the adult in their professional role as a leader in a large organization. It is positioned within a social constructionist and postmodernist framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology development was challenging; to capture the level of abstraction within which it was positioned. Using narrative inquiry allowed for a less rigid methodology, data collection and analysis. The data were collected using a non‐structured single interview with a known subject, the data analysed using an initial thematic analysis followed by an in‐depth analysis of the themes against the background of an Enid Blyton novel.
Findings
This research project has shown how all are products of their whole life experiences to date; thus the tales from childhood must also impact on adult lives. This project identified links between the adult professional self and the characters in the tales, which were read as children. Leadership can be read as an adventure story or fairy tale, a myth born out of the narratives and language often used to describe it, reflecting tales of quest and achievement.
Originality/value
The interpretations on offer are only one version; another reader or teller would experience a different interpretation; finding her own story, while constructing herself as a researcher, was unexpected and surprising. There are at least two stories running throughout predominantly: the subjects’ story and the story of the research.
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Charlotte Brontë integrated her own and her sisters' traumatic boarding school experiences into her novel, Jane Eyre (1847) as a way of expressing her anger through…
Abstract
Purpose
Charlotte Brontë integrated her own and her sisters' traumatic boarding school experiences into her novel, Jane Eyre (1847) as a way of expressing her anger through autobiographical fiction. The aim is to link contemporary research into boarding school trauma to the relevant events, thereby identifying what she wrote as a testimony contributing to the long history of the problematic nature of boarding schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Autobiographical fiction is discussed as a form of testimony, placing Jane Eyre in that category. Recent research into the traumatic experiences of those whose parents chose to send them to boarding school is presented, leading to an argument that educational historians need to analyse experience rather than limiting their work to structure and planning. The traumatic events the Brontë sisters experienced at the Clergy Daughters' School are outlined as the basis for what is included in Jane Eyre at the fictional Lowood School. Specific traumatic events in the novel are then identified and contemporary research into boarding school trauma applied.
Findings
The findings reveal Charlotte's remarkable insight into the psychological impact on children being sent away to board at a time when understandings about trauma and boarding school trauma did not exist. An outcome of the analysis is that it places the novel within the field of the history of education as a testimony of boarding school life.
Originality/value
This is the first application of boarding school trauma research to the novel.
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Not many weeks back, according to newspaper reports, three members of the library staff of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London were dismissed. All had…
Abstract
Not many weeks back, according to newspaper reports, three members of the library staff of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London were dismissed. All had refused to carry out issue desk duty. All, according to the newspaper account, were members of ASTMS. None, according to the Library Association yearbook, was a member of the appropriate professional organisation for librarians in Great Britain.
Jane Broadbent and Linda Kirkham
The purpose of this paper is to set out some contextual issues in relation to the achievements of women accountants and academics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to set out some contextual issues in relation to the achievements of women accountants and academics.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a discussion paper that uses academic and professional experiences as a basis from which to draw out an agenda for further study.
Findings
It is found that, despite changes over the last 30 years, the lived experience of women in accounting and academia is evidence that their academic and professional opportunities are still constrained. Two papers in this special issue offer feminist approaches to enrich study in the area, and it is argued that gender is an element that should be embedded in research in accounting.
Research limitations/implications
This editorial is a selective review and is not intended as a comprehensive review of research in the field.
Practical implications
The paper seeks to re‐ignite more research in the field, using a richer range of approaches.
Originality/value
The paper sets an agenda for research and provides an argument as to why the agenda needs to be pursued.
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This paper explores the links between economic and social structures and ethical norms for economic life. As such, the essay is a contribution to the more general philosophical…
Abstract
This paper explores the links between economic and social structures and ethical norms for economic life. As such, the essay is a contribution to the more general philosophical discussions on the relation between fact and value in the social sciences. I begin with a brief discussion of ethics which highlights the social character of ethical “value” and draws upon the work of the Canadian philosopher, Bernard Lonergan, to introduce a novel way of understanding social structures. The analyses show how economic structures can be understood as cooperative meaning schemes, how such schemes are embedded within a wider ecology of social meaning schemes, and how the dynimic relations among such schemes reveal ethical goals and make ethical demands upon participants who depend upon them for their living. I illustrate these linkages in a discussion of three examples drawn from economic life: a consumer purchase transaction, an ancient trade scheme drawn from the work of Karl Polanyi, and a rather novel approach to economic development proposed by Jane Jacobs.
R. Michelle Rich, Jane Ogden and Linda Morison
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact on stress and work-related outcomes of an app-delivered mindfulness-based program (MBP; Headspace®) offered to employees in a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact on stress and work-related outcomes of an app-delivered mindfulness-based program (MBP; Headspace®) offered to employees in a UK higher education (HE) institution.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a randomized waitlist control trial design, participants were randomly allocated to be offered a mindfulness-based program (MBP) immediately for 2 months or after a waiting list period of 2 months (WLC). Data were analyzed using Intention to Treat (ITT; MBP n = 62; WLC n = 63); with supplementary analysis restricting to those who completed all measures; (MBP n = 45; WLC n = 56) and then further restricting the MBP group to those who completed at least foundation level 1 of the app; (MBP n = 31; WLC n = 56).
Findings
The ITT analysis showed significant increases in several aspects of mindfulness and a significant reduction in perceived stress but no significant effects for work-related outcomes. Analysis restricted to MBP participants who completed the app foundation course showed a similar pattern but in addition showed significant increases in work-life balance and the emotional aspect of job engagement.
Practical implications
The offer of the Headspace® app in the HE sector may result in reduced perceived stress. If improvements in work-related outcomes are also to be seen, then users need to be encouraged to complete a minimum level of practice.
Originality/value
Effect size estimates for stress and work-related outcomes of an app-delivered MBP contribute to the evolving picture of MBPs in the workplace.
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Claes Dahlqvist and Christel Persson
Primary teachers play a vital role in fostering pupils' successful futures. Therefore, gaining knowledge of primary teacher students' learning processes, including the achievement…
Abstract
Purpose
Primary teachers play a vital role in fostering pupils' successful futures. Therefore, gaining knowledge of primary teacher students' learning processes, including the achievement of information-seeking skills, is crucial. The aim of this paper is to understand better the interplay between cognitive appraisals and emotions in the constructivist process of learning and achieving information-seeking skills.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with six Swedish primary teacher students. The analysis of qualitative data was deductive and theory-driven, guided by Kuhlthau's information search process model, Scherer's semantic space of emotions and Pekrun's control-value theory of achievement emotions.
Findings
Anger/frustration, enjoyment and boredom were identified as activity emotions and anxiety, hopelessness and hope as prospective outcome emotions. The retrospective outcome emotions found were pride, joy, gratitude, surprise and relief. The appraisals eliciting the achievement emotions were the control appraisals uncertainty/certainty (activity and prospective outcome) and oneself/other (retrospective), and value appraisals negative/positive intrinsic motivation (activity) and failure/success (prospective and retrospective). The interplay between appraisals and emotions was complex and dynamic. The processes were individually unique, non-linear and iterative, and the appraisals did not always elicit emotions.
Originality/value
The study has theoretical and methodological implications for information behaviour research in its application of appraisal theories and the Geneva affect label coder. In addition, it has practical implications for academic librarians teaching information-seeking skills.
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Anna-Maija Multas and Noora Hirvonen
This study examines the information literacy practices of young video bloggers, focusing on the ways in which they construct their cognitive authority through a health-related…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the information literacy practices of young video bloggers, focusing on the ways in which they construct their cognitive authority through a health-related information creation process.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws upon socially oriented information literacy research and nexus analysis as its methodological framework. Data, including YouTube videos, theme interviews and video diaries, were collected with three Finnish video bloggers and qualitatively analysed using nexus analytical concepts to describe the central elements of social action.
Findings
The study shows that video bloggers employ several information practices during the information creation process, including planning, information-seeking, organization, editing and presentation of information. They construct their cognitive authority in relation to their anticipated audience by grounding it on different types of information: experience-based, embodied and scientific. Trustworthiness, emphasized with authenticity and genuineness, and competence, based on experience, expertise and second-hand information, were recognized as key components of credibility in this context.
Originality/value
This study increases the understanding of the complex ways in which young people create information on social media and influence their audiences. The study contributes to information literacy research by offering insights into the under-researched area of information creation. It is among the few studies to examine cognitive authority construction in the information creation process. The notion of authority as constructed through trustworthiness and competence and grounded on different types of information, can be taken into account in practice by information professionals and educators when planning information literacy instruction.
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