Search results

Recent research (Robertson et al, 2005) has demonstrated that person‐centred planning (PCP) leads to positive changes for people. This research shows how PCP is associated with benefits in the areas of community involvement, contact with friends, contact with family and choice. This paper briefly describes this research and its recommendations. In addition it explores the implications for managers and professionals supporting people with learning disabilities.

Increasing demands in university management in the 1990s in the UK requires a re‐examination of the head of school’s role. The Standards are part of a radical change in the system of vocational education and training in the UK which began in 1982. A questionnaire was distributed to deans and senior officers, heads and staff. Respondents gave their ratings of importance of 62 activities in the effective leading and managing of a school derived from the Standards. In feedback workshops heads and deans commented on changes to the proposed model. The validity of the standards and their future usefulness is evidenced by few changes to the proposed model and willingness by heads and deans to use the model as the platform for future development.

Forms a part of a larger project aimed at developing a framework of managerial competence applicable to top teams in small – to medium‐sized enterprises in Northern Ireland. Reports on an investigation into the development of a process of “translation”, whereby cross‐company competence frameworks could be transformed into company‐specific frame‐works. A systematic, ten‐step translation process emerged, involving drawing out reactions to, and checking understanding of the generalizable frameworks, modifying framework items through additions, deletions, aggregation, disaggregation, and changes to the small print; identifying priorities; drawing out examples from practice; distinguishing actual from ideal; introducing a time dimension; challenging underlying reasoning and implications; and finally, checking the fit of the adapted frameworks. The developed translation process maintained the integrity of the generalizable frameworks while enabling full account to be taken of specific company differences. The process also served as a means of identifying individual team, and organization development issues, and laid the ground for the introduction of competence‐based management development initiatives.

This study aims to explore the nature of couple agreement about work‐family conflict, adding to previous research by explicitly testing the extent to which couples agree when rating work interference with family (WIF) and the influence of this agreement on other outcomes.

In total, 224 dual‐earner couples were surveyed to assess their own WIF, as well as what they believed to be their partner's level of WIF. Participants also completed questions regarding their organizational commitment.

Couples agreed when rating their own and their partners' WIF more than they disagreed. As predicted, couples agreed more when rating the female partner's WIF as compared to the male partner's WIF. Finally, couple agreement about WIF moderated the relationship between female WIF and her continuance organizational commitment such that the relationship between the female partner's WIF and her level of continuance commitment was stronger when agreement about her experienced WIF was low.

This was a convenience sample, and therefore caution should be used when generalizing to a broader population. Second, the research design was cross‐sectional, prohibiting causal inferences and conclusions about couple agreement over time.

Organizations should consider the perceptions and attitudes of both employees and their partners, as both have implications for work attitudes. Organizations might benefit from considering ways in which they can involve and engage employees' spouses and partners, and could offer flexible schedules as a way to reduce employee work‐to‐family conflict and enhance both employee and partner attitudes toward the organization.

This paper contributes to the literature by exploring both self and partner perceptions of work‐family conflict and examining couple agreement about this conflict.

Ever since Mead, sociology has maintained a deep divide between human and non human animals. In effect, Mead constructed humans as having capacities that he saw lacking in animals. Recent research on animals has challenged the traditional ideas of Mead and others by providing evidence of animal intelligence, adaptability, selfawareness, emotionality, communication and culture. This paper examines the human‐animal relationship as presented in Introductory Sociology Textbooks to see if this new research on animals has allowed us to move beyond Mead. We find outdated information and confused thinking on such topics as the relationship between language and culture, the development of the self in animals, and the role of instinct, socialization and culture in animal behavior. We conclude that, with few exceptions, the main function of the treatment of animals in these texts is to affirm the hard line that sociology has always drawn between humans and other species.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which leaders influence follower’s work-life management. Specifically, the authors propose that personal (positive affect), social (managerial support for work-family balance), and job (autonomy) resources mediate the relationships between transformational leadership and work-family conflict (WFC) and enrichment.

The sample included 411 managers in 37 hotel properties across the USA.

The relationship between TL and WFC was mediated by autonomy, positive affect and managerial support for work-family balance, whereas the relationship between TL and WFE was mediated by managerial support for work-family balance and positive affect.

This study constructs a foundation for future integration of leadership and work and family literatures. It also provides preliminary support for work-family enrichment theory (Greenhaus and Powell, 2006), as well as the value of examining leadership through a resource-based perspective.

Interventions designed to enhance leadership may be effective not only in the workplace, but also for reducing WFC and promoting enrichment.

This study is the first to directly examine the effect of transformational leadership and both WFC and enrichment. Further, it specifies mediating variables that underlie these relationships.

Ancient and universal, fantasy was most likely the first mainstream literature rather than the naturalism later recognized as mainstream. Every generation of every culture tells and retells tales based on psychological archetypes, the elements of fantasy. For instance, the Celtic tale “Leir and His Daughters” has been reworked and updated by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Diana Paxson (The Serpent's Tooth, Morrow, 1991). One of the old English/Scottish ballads collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century (Child ballad No. 37) has recently reappeared as the novel Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner (Morrow, 1991). Similarly, retellings of the Arthurian legend are legion, from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Malory to Tennyson to such modern writers as T.H. White, Mary Stewart, Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Mists of Avalon, Knopf, 1982), and Guy Gavriel Kay (The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road, Collins, 1986).

This paper aims to explore generational effects on work‐family conflict and synergy

The design is cross‐sectional and investigates large US national probability samples. Multiple regressions and ANOVAs were used in the analyses.

Generational differences in work‐family conflict and synergy were found. Mental health and job pressure were the strongest predictors of work‐family conflict for each group. Matures were significantly more satisfied than baby boomers and generation Xers.

All measures were self‐reports collected at one point in time. Thus, common method variance may be an issue and causal inferences cannot be made. Life stage and family stage differed for the generational groups and this should be explored in subsequent research.

Managers and human resource professionals need to consider generational differences in work‐family program design and monitor patterns of program usage for each group. Generation X members are particularly concerned about work/life balance.

This is the first paper to investigate generational issues affecting work‐family conflict and synergy. The findings are particularly relevant to managers and human resource professionals.