Search results

This article arises from the authors’ experience of undertaking research on behalf of the Scottish Executive, following the deliberations of a national working group focusing on employment (Scottish Executive, 2003) set up to progress the recommendations of the Same as You? review (Scottish Executive, 2000), Scotland's equivalent of Valuing People (DoH, 2001). The detailed findings of the research study and its methodology can be found elsewhere(Ridley et al, 2005); only a brief summary is given here. The main purpose of this article is to contribute to a debate about the achievements and under‐achievements of supported employment in the contemporary Scottish context. The research findings are used to discuss where we are now, some of the main problems, and how policy and practice need to move forward and develop. We suggest that the time is ripe to initiate strategic change in policy and professional practice. Supported employment must be firmly embedded in the wider employment landscape and the practice agenda of professionals, in order to ensure that real, paid jobs in integrated settings become a routine option for people with learning disabilities who express these aspirations.

This is a case study of an employment strategy for adults with learning disabilities developed in a local authority in a rural area in the South West of England. It describes a structured approach to work‐based training modelled on principles and practices associated with supported employment. It argues that this represents a more effective route into employment than day‐centre training or unstructured work experience. It provides a detailed account of the experience of one service user, based on interviews. It places this development in the context of the authority's strategic response to Valuing People.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

The prevalence, correlates (child behaviour problems and negative parenting) and determinants (risk and protective factors) of parental need for support were examined in a community sample of 177 mothers with a child aged 1.5‐3.5 years, in order to draw a profile of families that need parenting support. A substantial number of the mothers reported needing support (40% reported need for information, 10% reported family and social support needs). This need was related to child behaviour problems and to negative parenting. Maternal depression, difficult temperament of the child and negative life events, as well as total number of risk factors, significantly predicted the need for support. Satisfaction with support (but not number of support sources) acted as a protective factor.

BASED ON TWO POSTAL surveys in 1995 and 1997 of care management practitioners in Wales, this paper examines practitioners' perceptions of change in work roles and tasks over time. Assessment tasks are taking up increasing amounts of care management practitioner time leading to a corresponding decrease in the time set aside for arranging services and for direct work with clients. The results are claims of de‐skilling and the likelihood of a more administrative style of working.

This article starts with a brief overview of the history of housing for people with intellectual disability in Austria. The system of care and Austrian disability policy are also examined, focusing on implementation of deinstitutionalisation and community living. The following analysis of services provided in the field of housing for people with intellectual disabilities shows that support is provided in undistinguished, generalised service packages based on a competency model. Academic research on community living is quite rare in Austria, and fails to take into account the subjective perspective of people with intellectual disabilities.

Although a great deal of research has focused on global marketing strategy development and implementation, little research has focused on the global marketing managers charged with the responsibilities of developing and implementing such strategy. The aim of this paper is to develop a model that identifies a set of soft skills that have the ability to increase the effectiveness of global marketing managers in making the tactical adaptations necessary to develop and implement global marketing strategy in an increasingly complex and dynamic marketplace.

A conceptual model is developed with coinciding propositions.

The model developed theorizes that the ability of global marketing managers to make tactical adaptations to the firm's global marketing strategy (and thus enhance performance) is driven by the soft skills of tacit knowledge, experience, learning, unlearning, intuition, self‐confidence, flexibility, prioritization of problems, working under pressure and ambiguity tolerance.

The model highlights the specific soft skills that firms can work to foster in their global marketing managers and educators can work to incorporate within a curriculum. Through the development of these soft skills within a firm's global marketing managers, the firm can achieve a competitive position within the marketplace.

This study is one of the first to conceptualize a specific set of soft skills that enhance a global marketing manager's ability to make tactical adaptations to the firm's global marketing strategy by which the firm can be more competitive. As such, this study provides for a better understanding of how soft skills relate to the development and implementation of global marketing strategy and how firms can be more competitive by not only employing unique human capital, but by developing global marketing managers who are more effective at adapting to constantly changing global market conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate motivation to teach for higher education faculty within schools of education.

This study utilized survey research methods to collect data from higher education faculty at nine universities identified from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of teaching website.

The predictor variables of gender, years of teaching in higher education, percent of overall workload devoted to teaching and two dummy variables for type of institution (i.e. doctoral granting and research II institution) when considered together did not statistically significantly predict whether or not a faculty person achieved tenure with outstanding teaching. In total, 14 of the factors influencing teaching (FIT)-choice scale components statistically significantly predicted whether or not a faculty person achieved tenure with outstanding teaching, only social dissuasion statistically significantly added to the model.

This is the first study to use the FIT-choice scale with university education faculty, and the findings suggest that higher education faculty may be motivated to produce high-quality instruction based on different factors than K-12 teachers.

Prior to the launch of Valuing People (DH, 2001), Gordon Grant and Paul Ramcharan were appointed by the Department of Health as co‐ordinators of the Learning Disability Research Initiative (LDRI). The LDRI was a £2m research initiative, funded through the Department of Health's Policy Research Programme, linked to the implementation of Valuing People. The LDRI was brought to a conclusion in November 2007 with a final conference at which an overview report and accessible summary of the findings were launched (Grant & Ramcharan, 2007a, 2007b). In this paper we summarise the main findings of the LDRI with reference to Valuing People's main principles of rights, choice, inclusion and independence. In conclusion we consider how to build on the evidence base.