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The paper considers the kinds of treatment available for people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour. It draws on research data on the use of reactive strategies and behaviour plans for 235 children and adults rated by carers as extremely challenging, and 276 rated as very challenging, to identify any trends in the management and treatment of challenging behaviour. It finds an increase in written plans for adults but not for children, and no information on the extent to which plans are based on sound functional analyses and contain proactive as well as reactive strategies. Only half the plans were said to have been drawn up with any support from behavioural specialists, and there was no discernible change in the use of reactive strategies.

This paper explores the importance of clothes for gay males as semiotic markers for identity creation and communication in order to highlight the increasing fragmentation of this market and the role of consumption practices as cultural markers.

The study is grounded in qualitative data from participant observation, diaries interviews and a focus group of Manchester‐based respondents; findings are linked back to literature on postmodernism, image and identity.

Findings point to communication of individual identity through clothes; firstly, on a community level, as a marker of “gayness”; secondly, on a neo‐tribal level, indicating tribal allegiance and aiding inter‐tribal communication; thirdly, on a situational level, where clothing facilitates acceptance and integration. The proactive use of clothing as a semiotic marker enables the fluid construction and linking of multiple identities. Findings indicate the existence of quite specific codes with (gay) culturally embedded meanings which gay men can choose to identify with and make use of, or not, in different situations. Thus fashion is an important means of differentiation and communication of personal and group identities and affiliations.

This is an in‐depth study of a small sample of subjects located in Manchester only. Despite satisfactory respondent and ecological validity it would therefore be desirable to extend the study to a larger sample size and replicate it in other settings before making wider generalisations.

Implications for marketers include the need to move away from treating this market as homogeneous as well as opportunities for “tribal marketing”.

Through its in‐depth qualitative approach the paper represents a rich picture of the UK gay fashion market which has a good degree of respondent validity and useful insights for marketers.

Change and the information‐technology (IT) industry are now almost synonymous. From Moore’s law, which predicts that computing power doubles every 18 months, to mega mergers such as the coming together of Compaq and HP, the IT industry is always on the move. Hewlett Packard’s evolution from humble beginnings in a Silicon Valley garage, though, has been among the most dramatic. The founders’ ethos – the relentless pursuit of inventive decision making in an entrepreneurial and innovative environment – was relatively simple.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the way leadership influences an organization to become humane through its features and behaviors; as well as the organizational circumstances in which humane leadership can be nurtured. The first empirical case study, in the fields of Human Resource Development (HRD) and hospitality management, to explore the way employees from different national cultures (as measured by their individualistic/collectivistic values), in a US-based hotel, perceive their workplace to be a humane organization (HO), as defined by Chalofsky (2008), was the one made by Dimitrov (2009, 2010). More specifically, the example set by leadership in the studied hospitality organization is the focus of the present descriptive manuscript. The importance of HRD concepts such as the HO for the academic study and practical development of leadership in organizations is significant, through the effects leadership has on employee satisfaction and engagement at the workplace.

The exploratory research mentioned above used a single embedded case study with 17 participants, selected via purposeful convenience sampling, who represented management, supervisory and professional line-level employees from a culturally diverse full-service hotel in a major metropolitan area. The instrument of Singelis et al. (1995) for horizontal and vertical individualism (I) and collectivism (C), as well as the instrument of Triandis and Singelis (1998) for I and C, was applied to every respondent to determine their cultural belonging. One-on-one interviews, written reflections and documentary analysis, as well as observations of the social and physical aspects of the participants’ workplace, were conducted.

Five leadership sub-themes were observed to the general theme “Setting the Example” of the study’s findings: company values for leadership styles and employee treatment; the legacy of one charismatic leader (the previous general manager); leader–follower communication; how the workplace feels intrinsically; and how the work environment becomes negative. The study led to the formation of two new characteristics of the HO (Dimitrov, 2009), of which one could be recommended as the main focus of leadership in an HO: being cognizant and understanding of individuals as human beings, not just as employees. The traits and behaviors of some modern leadership theories such as authentic leadership, transformational leadership and charismatic leadership were combined under the concept – humane leadership.

The research of more culturally diverse organizations in different counties, brand cultures and economic sectors, under various research methodologies, and in the context of classical and recent leadership theories, was recommended to establish further weather I and C employees’ expectations of their leadership would make a difference for the sustenance of an HO.

Furthermore, organizations and HRD practitioners are encouraged to invest more time, efforts and resources into leadership development programs that create such humane leadership skills and prepare quality leaders who are well-perceived and trusted by their culturally diverse workforce.

The importance of HRD concepts such as the HO for the academic study and practical development of leadership in organizations is significant, through the effects leadership has on employee satisfaction and engagement at the workplace. Humane leaders can be nurtured in a humane organizational culture.

This paper aims to explore the parental role in children’s food socialization. More specifically, it explores how the legacy of the past (i.e. experiences from the participant’s own childhood) works to inform how parents, in turn, socialize their own children within the context of food, drawing on theories of consumer socialization, intergenerational influence and emotional reflexivity.

To seek further understanding of how temporal elements of intergenerational influence persist (through the lens of emotional reflexivity), the authors collected qualitative and interpretative data from 30 parents from the UK using a combination of existential–phenomenological interviews, photo-elicitation techniques and accompanied grocery shopping trips (observational interviews).

Through intergenerational reflexivity, parents are found to make a conscious effort to either “sustain” or “disregard” particular food practices learnt from the previous generation with their children (abandoning or mimicking the behaviours of their own parents within the context of food socialization). Factors contributing to the disregarding of food behaviours (new influencer, self-learning and resistance to parental power) emerge. A continuum of parents is identified, ranging from the “traditionalist” to “improver” and the “revisionist”.

By adopting a unique approach in exploring the dynamic of intergenerational influence through the lens of emotional reflexivity, this study highlights the importance of the parental role in socializing children about food, and how intergenerational reflexivity helps inform parental food socialization practices. The intergenerational reflexivity of parents is, thus, deemed to be crucial in the socialization process.

This study sought to explore first-year college student perceptions related to when they first became aware of leadership and perceived influences on leadership. The study was rooted in the Leadership Identity Development Model (Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, & Osteen, 2005). Five purposively selected individuals completing the first semester of a formal leadership program for first-year students participated in this study. Content analysis of qualitative interviews revealed two themes related to leadership awareness: pre-college and positional versus non-positional roles; four themes related to perceived leadership influences: external role models, internal beliefs, previous experience, and types of leadership/leadership philosophy. This research supports the importance of both internal and external factors in developing an understanding of what leadership is by first-year college students.

This preliminary small-scale research aims to achieve an insight into drug use offenders’ rehabilitation experiences both in and out of prison, as well as considering how perceptions of the public may inhibit their successful reintegration into society.

A mixed-methods approach was used, with five semi-structured interviews conducted alongside the distribution of the Attitude towards prisoners questionnaire among the general public (n = 106) in the North-West region of England.

Participants recalled a mixture of experiences, highlighting the presence of contraband in prisons to be an inhibiting factor of successful rehabilitation. Additionally, participants expressed the need for more support when preparing for release such as confirmation of accommodation and possible employment. Questionnaires also indicated the public to perceive offenders negatively (M = 76, SD = 16.99), thus presenting a further challenge in the resettlement of drug use offenders.

Findings highlight that improving practices to decrease the presence of contraband in prisons, monitoring an individual’s use of methadone, preparing an individual for their release from prison and educating the public would reduce some of the obstacles experienced by drug use offenders.

This study outlines some of the obstacles that drug use offenders experience when attempting to end their drug use activity and criminal engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers’ motivations to participate in voluntary simplicity in the current market environment.

Using established qualitative research methods, 834 individual autobiographies and blog entries from The Great American Apparel Diet (GAAD) are examined.

Six general categories of internal and external motivations to engage in voluntary simplicity are identified. Findings expand marketers’ understanding of voluntary simplicity and the role of virtual communities inspiring behavior in the contemporary marketplace.

This research is unique because it explores personal information shared in the blog entries of participants in the GAAD.