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The present study aims to provide a perspective on effective mentoring in the construction industry by examining key mentor characteristics as perceived by construction professionals.

A total of 170 union construction workers rated 55 mentor characteristics based on to what extent each was characteristic of a superior, average, or poor mentor.

To identify the most important mentor characteristics, three criteria were relied on: means of characteristic ratings of a superior mentor; effect sizes of mean differences between ratings of poor and superior mentors; and correlations between characteristic ratings of superior mentors and satisfaction with mentors. Significant mean differences were found between characteristics of poor and average mentors as well as between poor and superior mentors.

Possible future directions include an investigation of the relationship between competent mentors and personal characteristics, and potential health and safety outcomes resulting from effective mentoring in the construction industry.

Although mentoring has been the focus of much research, the mentoring relationship is quite different in the construction industry and little mentoring research has targeted this industry. To develop an effective mentoring program in this industry, one of the initial steps is to identify characteristics of effective mentors in this industry.

Time banking is a form of alternative consumer market where members trade services, non-reciprocally creating a local marketplace for services. Time Banks facilitate dyadic exchanges, meeting members’ practical needs and building diverse skills. The purpose of this research was to determine the broad capabilities developed in the Time Bank economy, and to demonstrate how these capabilities were mobilised following a series of earthquakes, contributing to the larger community’s resiliency.

Taking an ethnographic approach, data were collected using a variety of methods including interviews, focus groups, participant observation and secondary research.

Over time, this alternative consumer market developed a significant communication and social network that members activated to solve diverse practical problems facing the community. Similar to other exchange communities, the Time Bank also fostered a strong sense of community based on reciprocity and egalitarian values. Although the Time Bank was created as a marketplace to exchange local services, during a series of devastating earthquakes, it galvanised adaptive capacities, increasing the resiliency of the local community during disaster relief and reconstruction.

The data were drawn from one alternative exchange system in New Zealand.

The study shows how grassroots alternative consumer markets like Time Banks build community capacities alongside the formal economy. During normal times, this system meets consumer needs, but in extraordinary times, this system provides community shock absorbers, thereby enhancing community resiliency.

The Time Bank was particularly adept at leveraging local knowledge to provide social support to those residents who were most vulnerable.

Data were collected before, during, and after the earthquakes, providing a rare opportunity to explore the process of community resiliency in action. This research extends existing theories of community resiliency explaining the development and activation of capacities by a local alternative consumer market.

This paper aims to examine alliance governance at different hierarchical levels.

The data is collected from both top-level and operating-level managers in 286 strategic alliances in China (a total of 572 managers). Hierarchical moderated regression models are adopted to test the hypotheses and two-stage regression analyzes are used to correct for endogeneity.

This paper finds that relational governance has a greater impact on alliance performance than contract utilization at the top level. Furthermore, the simultaneous use of relational governance at the top and operating levels have a detrimental impact on alliance performance. Finally, top-level contract utilization has a negative interaction with operating-level relational governance but a positive interaction with operating-level contract utilization.

First, the cross-sectional nature of the data collection approach provides only a snapshot of how each type of governance mechanism and its interactions affect alliance performance. Second, the sample is limited to firms located in emerging markets.

Managers should realize that the effectiveness of contract and relational governance mechanisms varies across different management levels and they should be cautious about the cross-level governance mechanism alignment.

This study advances the interfirm governance literature in that this paper examined alliance governance at different hierarchical levels and provides new insights into the ongoing debate on whether the contract and relational governance mechanisms function as complements or substitutes by exploring the governance alignment across different alliance hierarchies.

The drive towards clinical effectiveness and cost‐effective care within the NHS is becoming increasingly apparent. Consequently, there is a need to change clinical practice, and a set of activities with which to implement the necessary and desirable changes is required. Resistance to accepting change at an individual and organisational level is common and it is postulated that the solution lies in adopting an eclectic approach where the range of factors affecting the implementation of change is considered. A possible framework for identifying suitable behaviour change strategies is proposed. Factors included are the context of change, the relevant theoretical and empirical literature and the implementation and maintenance of change. With practical application in mind, the framework is intended as a tool to assist health care professionals analyse the change process in a structured manner and develop potential strategies for achieving desirable behaviour changes within their own and others’ practice.

This paper aims to explore how environmental employment can promote desistance among criminalised children. Research demonstrates that being immersed in and interacting with the natural environment has a positive impact upon well-being and behaviour, including reduced aggressive and violent behaviours. However, how exposure to the natural environment might promote desistance amongst children with persistent criminal involvement is unclear.

This paper examines, through semi-structured interviews and participant observations, the experiences of n = 23 criminalised children aged 16–18 employed in outdoor work at a UK social enterprise.

The findings demonstrate how working in the natural environment can provide a safe space for children, where they can build positive relationships, learn valuable skills and reconnect with the world outside of the high-pressure, conflict-driven spaces in which they typically occupy.

This research highlights the relevance of the setting in which child rehabilitation takes place and the potential role of natural environments in providing places and opportunities which support pro-social identity development and desistance for children.