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The ability to work anytime from anywhere is attractive to job seekers, who respond by developing needs regarding flexible working. Flexibility needs are compared to the flexibility perceived in job advertisements to form an overall perception of flexibility fit. The purpose of this paper is to examine both the impact of flexibility fit (on applicant attraction) and its antecedents.

The impact of flexibility fit on applicant attraction and its antecedents are examined using person–job (PJ) fit theory. 92 job seekers analyzed a total of 391 job advertisements. The hypotheses are tested using multilevel structural equation modeling.

The results show that perceived flexibility fit is positively related to job pursuit and job acceptance intentions. They further show that perceived flexibility fit is driven by perceived job advertisements' flexibility exceeding applicants' needed flexibility, which in turn is driven by the flexibility actually present in job advertisements exceeding applicants' flexibility needs.

This study contributes to literature on new ways of working by highlighting the desirable nature of flexibility and its impact on fit perceptions. It further contributes to literature on job search and PJ fit by investigating a full model of fit, examining both outcomes and antecedents of perceived fit. For practitioners, this study highlights the importance of advertising flexibility to attract applicants.

This paper describes how psychosocial interventions (PSI) have been integrated into an undergraduate mental health nursing programme. The first part of the paper provides the broad context of PSI in nurse education and justifies the need to incorporate skills for PSI into the undergraduate nursing curriculum. A variety of educational theories and research are presented, which have informed the development, structure and delivery of the skills programme underpinned by PSI into the undergraduate programme. The successes and limitations of this skills programme are considered in light of the key issues and challenges concerning the integration of PSI skills into undergraduate nursing education.

This paper seeks to examine employees' perceptions of TQM practices and its impact on job satisfaction within a large Malaysian outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) organization. Despite extensive research on TQM practices, none examines this scope of investigative study. Therefore, the proposed model was developed with the intention of examining this relationship.

Original research using self‐completed questionnaires, distributed to all staff within this organization, is thoroughly reported. The study sample consisted of 230 employees, resulting in a response rate of 76.6 percent. A questionnaire developed by Wright and Cropanzana was used for ascertaining the level of overall job satisfaction. Data were analyzed by employing correlation and multiple regression analysis.

The results revealed that teamwork, organizational trust, organizational culture and customer focus are positively associated with employees' job satisfaction. It is also found that, where teamwork was perceived as a dominant TQM practice, improvements in job satisfaction levels were significant. Further, the result of the multiple regression analysis supports the proposed model based on the empirically validated soft TQM instruments, which are reliable and valid.

The findings make a significant contribution by using a major Malaysian OSAT organization that proves to be useful as an example of a methodology that might be used to track the extent of TQM effects on job satisfaction. A firm could use this instrument to do a pre‐test baseline measurement, and then periodically re‐administer it to identify changes associated with TQM efforts.

This paper aims to make a contribution to the current lack of literature in the Australian context by reviewing qualitative feedback collected from students in five private higher education institutions. In particular, the paper seeks to examine factors influencing student choice to study at private higher education institutions and student perceptions of such institutions. Previous studies on this topic are mostly focussed on universities with lack of research with the booming private higher education sector.

This study draws data from five different private for-profit higher education institutions in Australia. It involved feedback from 120 students undertaking higher education courses in different discipline areas at different stages of study. The study involved 15 focus group interviews with eight students in a group. The selection of students was based on the representation of different characteristics of student such as: male/female, domestic/international, and discipline areas.

An analysis of the data collected from the students across these five institutions indicated that the main factors influencing student choice can be grouped in six domains. These are: student perception; access and opportunity; learning environments; quality of teachers; course design; and graduate success. This study reinforces that student perception of the private for-profit higher education institutions is an important factor in influencing student choice to study at the institution.

The limitation of the study was the ability to interview more students from larger colleges, across all discipline areas. However, the time and length of the focus group interviews was largely managed by the five institutions.

The private higher education sector has experienced consistent growth in the last few years in Australia. Currently, there is no qualitative research done in Australian private higher education on factors influencing student choice to study with private institutions. The rise of such providers require research on insights about student choice, student expectation and their experience.

The purpose of this paper is to present the METAL project, a French open learning analytics (LA) project for secondary school, that aims at improving the quality of teaching. The originality of METAL is that it relies on research through exploratory activities and focuses on all the aspects of a learning analytics environment.

This work introduces the different concerns of the project: collection and storage of multi-source data owned by a variety of stakeholders, selection and promotion of standards, design of an open-source LRS, conception of dashboards with their final users, trust, usability, design of explainable multi-source data-mining algorithms.

All the dimensions of METAL are presented, as well as the way they are approached: data sources, data storage, through the implementation of an LRS, design of dashboards for secondary school, based on co-design sessions data mining algorithms and experiments, in line with privacy and ethics concerns.

The issue of a global dissemination of LA at an institution level or at a broader level such as a territory or a study level is still a hot topic in the literature, and is one of the focus and originality of this paper, associated with the large spectrum of different concerns.

Assessing Equal Opportunities Policies. This is the title of an article by Sonia Lift in Volume 18, Number 1 of Personnel Review in which the strengths and weaknesses of equal opportunity codes are discussed, in the light of the recently issued Equal Opportunities Code of the Institute of Personnel Management.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

Social avoidance disorders can be disruptive to the individual as they begin to over-manage their lives, at times avoiding social and work commitments. A potential therapeutic approach is exposure therapy and a virtual reality (VR) treatment approach, gameChange VR, has been developed. This provides an opportunity to test their fears in virtual environments. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of using this VR approach to treat people with social avoidance problems within a secure mental health setting.

Nine participants completed the gameChange VR sessions. Participants received 30-minute VR sessions for up to six weeks using selected scenarios at five levels of difficulty. Patients’ comments and behaviours were noted and clinical staff also provided feedback on their observations of patients’ use and experience with VR.

Overall, patients felt that the gameChange VR helped them to build their confidence and reduce their overall anxiety as they became more comfortable with the equipment. Both patients and staff generally found the intervention easy to use and the staff reported an overall high level of engagement among the participants. The key issues raised largely related to technical and safety issues.

While a previous study was carried out using gameChange VR with an outpatient cohort, this was the first using an inpatient group in a secure mental health setting. It has demonstrated that the intervention is viable in this setting, although further studies are required to identify the specific patient population that would benefit optimally from the therapy.

Purpose – This chapter reviews the approaches to the decentralization of services and the devolution of decision-making to local structures outlined by the New Labour government in the United Kingdom. The chapter draws upon earlier attempts by Town Halls in urban areas to introduce new forms of governance and decision-making as a way of providing a context to New Labour's plans.

Methodology/Approach – The chapter provides a detailed review and analysis of the literature and discusses the different models of governance and concepts of power and uses this analysis to identify 10 key lessons for policymakers.

Findings – The 10 key lessons for policymakers and practitioners that are identified and discussed include the role of local political leaders; the convergence of political and managerial leadership; defining the level and pace of community participation; and stressing the importance of continual training, learning, and evaluation.

Research implications – The chapter sets out a possible framework for review, research, and evaluation including cultural change, civil renewal, policy connectivity, and commitment and pace of change. The chapter defines these terms and the terms offer a way of looking at different initiatives and approaches at the level of City Hall.

Originality/Value of the chapter – The chapter sets the framework for a conceptual and empirical study of different approaches to double devolution within the United Kingdom and also outside of it.