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Originally written in the 1990s but unpublished, the paper is now revised; the purpose of this paper is to examine the context of the formation of the Educational Workers League of NSW in 1931 with particular emphasis on the NSW Crown Employees (Teachers) Conciliation Committee and the enactment of its agreement in the worsening economic conditions of the Depression. The aims, reception and possible influence of the League on Federation policy and practice are addressed.

Primary source material consulted includes the minutes of the Conciliation Committee’s sittings from September 1927 to July 1929; papers relating to the Educational Workers League held in the Teachers Federation Library; and the Teachers Federation journal, Education.

The Conciliation Committee’s proceedings and outcomes had far reaching implications. The resultant salary agreement received a hostile reception from assistant teachers and fuelled distrust between assistants and headmasters. As economic depression deepened, dissatisfaction with the conservative leadership and tactics of the Federation increased. One outcome was the formation of the radical, leftist Educational Workers League by teachers, including Sam Lewis, who would later play key roles within the Federation itself.

While acknowledging the extensive earlier work of Bruce Mitchell, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of teacher unionism and teacher activism in the 1920s and 1930s. Apart from brief attention by Federation historians in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been no history of the formation, reception and significance of the Educational Workers League.

In the USA, school districts are funding mathematics coaching positions to provide school-level support to teachers. The purpose of this paper is to survey school personnel whose job responsibilities included mathematics coaching in order to examine their job responsibilities and what they felt that their job responsibilities should be.

In all, 67 elementary school mathematics coaches completed a survey that included 30 aspects of the job of elementary school mathematics leaders.

Quantitative analyses indicated that there were statistically significant differences between their actual roles and their preferred roles on 24 of the 30 items. This means that coaches reported that the aspects of their current role did not align to what they thought their job should be.

The findings indicate a need to collect further information in a longitudinal study, potentially from a combination of surveys, interviews, and observations, about elementary mathematics coaches’ job responsibilities and the impact that coaches have on both teachers and students.

The findings indicate a need for school leaders, mathematics leaders (coaches), and classroom teachers to work together to utilize mathematics leaders more effectively so as to best support teachers’ instruction and students’ learning.

While some research has been published on literacy coaching, the research base on mathematics coaching is scant. This study contributes to the knowledge base about the roles and duties of coaches in elementary school settings.

The paper highlights the strategic importance of being alert to the power of the language and words used by CEOs in their various communications – their CEO‐speak.

The paper employs a close reading analysis of several contemporary examples of one of the most significant genres of CEO‐speak – the CEO's annual letter to stockholders.

Four perspectives important for understanding corporate strategy are highlighted: the importance of CEO‐speak as a linguistic marker of CEO narcissism; the revealing nature of metaphors chosen by CEOs; the potential rhetorical potency that arises from the way CEO‐speak is framed; and the significance of cultural keywords.

Case examples, such as the close readings in this article, possess the strength of specific instance detail and interpretation, and the ostensible weakness arising from interpretation of small samples. But such research may provide for a reframing of conceptual perspectives and practical approaches.

The case examples and advice provided will help business executives and corporate stakeholders to monitor the quality of CEO‐speak, engage CEO‐speak more effectively for strategic purposes, and improve CEO text and leadership‐through‐language.

Readers are reminded of the power of CEO text, the benefits of subjecting it to greater scrutiny, and are provided with some practical, operational advice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore what drives UK managers aged over 50 to continue progressing in their careers rather than retiring, and their perceptions of career progression at a time in life when opportunities for further promotion may have ceased. It examines subjectively significant personal and organizational influences on career progression and the extent to which older managers perceive that motivation for career progression changes over the career.

The research adopts a qualitative, inductive approach, comprising semi‐structured interviews with 27 male and 13 female managers, aged 50 and over, from two large, UK financial services organizations.

The findings show that motivation for career progression in managers aged over 50 is driven by individually diverse patterns of career drivers, personal and work‐related influences, and attitudes towards career opportunities. These can be classified into four different orientations towards future career progression, pre‐ and post‐retirement.

The study contributes to knowledge about subjective psychological mobility in late managerial careers and the balance which individuals maintain between organizational and personal aspects of their career. It demonstrates that motivational drivers of career progression are perceived to change over the career and that perceptions of what constitutes career progression are linked to an individual's past, current and predicted future career experiences, in some cases extending past the traditional retirement transition.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a psychometric scale – the birth satisfaction scale (BSS) – for assessing women's birth perceptions.

Literature review and transcribed research‐based perceived birth satisfaction and dissatisfaction expression statements were converted into a scored questionnaire.

Three overarching themes were identified: service provision (home assessment, birth environment, support, relationships with health care professionals); personal attributes (ability to cope during labour, feeling in control, childbirth preparation, relationship with baby); and stress experienced during labour (distress, obstetric injuries, receiving sufficient medical care, obstetric intervention, pain, long labour and baby's health).

Women construct their birth experience differently. Views are directed by personal beliefs, reactions, emotions and reflections, which alter in relation to mood, humour, disposition, frame of mind and company kept. Nevertheless, healthcare professionals can use BSS to assess women's birth satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Scores measure their service quality experiences.

Scores provide a global measure of care that women perceived they received during labour.

Finding out more about what causes birth satisfaction and dissatisfaction helps maternity care professionals improve intra‐natal care standards and allocate resources effectively. An attempt has been made to capture birth satisfaction's generalised meaning and incorporate it into an evidence‐based measuring tool.

This article seeks to augment understanding of the rise of psychological interpretations of the child in New Zealand, and suggest refinements to McDonald’s typology, with reference to changing religious values and priorities in the years before World War II. In particular, it considers patterns of religious education, with special reference to changing representations of Jesus for children during this time. Consideration of this material indicates that psychological approaches to childhood played an important role in shaping religious education throughout these years. Though noteworthy in itself, this influence highlights the extent to which interest in scientific and psychological understandings of the child had been growing more generally since the beginning of the twentieth century. Indeed, it provides a broader context for understanding the post‐war expansion of psychological approaches to children. Insofar as psychological interpretations of childhood were paradigmatic after 1945, this occurred because such approaches had been disseminated and acquired sufficient legitimacy in preceding years.

By reviewing prior scholarly corporate governance (CG) literature and a review of more recent stakeholder studies, this paper aims to examine the extent to which stakeholders and their interests have gained in importance in recent years compared to the shareholder approach, which is dominant in many national economies and suggest future research opportunities.

This study conducts a literature review to examine major findings in prior studies.

The reviews and analyses provide support for a formal and informal convergence of CG systems towards more stakeholder-oriented elements globally. In general, at the institutional and firm levels, there are remarkable shifts to adopt stakeholder-oriented rules and practices. However, there is limited evidence that all these trends will actually lead to full convergence towards a single stakeholder-oriented governance model.

The paper offers an extensive summary of prior studies that investigate the impact of CG on firm stakeholder-orientation and social performance. Based on the review, this study suggests promising research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical conceptualisation of guilt and the depoliticization of downsizing practices. The authors begin with a critical review of the relevant management literature aiming to establish the discursive normalization and individualization of (un)employment. The authors then use secondary sources to reflect on the downsizing process. A process that, as the authors argue, is distinguished into three separate but interconnected phases: corporate memos (phase 1), termination scripts (phase 2) and the role of outplacement services (phase 3). By examining this process, the aim is to point to the mechanisms through which downsizing practices are neutralized and depoliticized.

This is a conceptual work that provides a systematic overview of the existing management literature on downsizing and guilt. Use of other secondary sources (corporate memos and termination scripts) is also employed to draw links between the discursive normalization of downsizing as identified in the relevant literature and the specific organizational processes and practices implemented by corporations during downsizing. The authors identify common ideas and themes that cut across the relevant literature and the secondary sources and aim to offer a theoretical conceptualisation of guilt and the depoliticization of downsizing practices.

This paper argues that downsizing discourses and practices contribute to the feelings of personal responsibility and self-blame, reinforcing an individualistic understanding of work and unemployment that excludes more structural ones, and that it helps in reproducing the existing structures of power.

The study recognizes that employees’ reactions are not only unpredictable but also constantly evolving, depending on personal and social circumstances. The authors also recognize that the work is based on secondary sources much of which talk about practices in US companies, and thus the authors are and should be cautious of generalizations. The authors hope, however, that the authors will encourage further empirical research, particularly among organization studies and critical management scholars, on downsizing practices and guilt. For the authors’ part, the authors have tried to offer a critical reflection on how guilt is produced through corporate discourses and practices, and the authors believe that further empirical investigation on the three phases of the downsizing process (as identified in our work) and the lived experience of (un)employment is needed. As corporate downsizing discourses and practices frame (un)employment in strictly individualist and behavioral terms, the authors wish to emphasize the need for further theoretical investigation and political contestation. The authors, therefore, hope that the work will contribute to the relevant literature on downsizing practices and open up the discussions around layoff policies and the structural conditions of (un)employment.

The paper shows that downsizing practices and feelings of guilt are strongly linked to and exemplify the “individualization” of social and political issues such as work and unemployment. The authors suggest that individualization signifies, in some sense, a retreat from organized collective resistance and mobilization based upon class and that the prevalence of the ideology of individualism (and its correlative, meritocracy), over alternative explanations and solutions to such public issues, helps in reproducing existing structures of power and inequity.

This paper aims to summarize advice from two professors of accounting on the language CEOs should and should not use in their official communications.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments.

The paper suggests that readers ought to think of the last time they either gave, advised or heard a CEO's speech. They ought to reflect on the last letter they sent or received with a CEO's signature at the bottom and to ask if they were the writer, how did they went about choosing their words and if they were on the receiving end, how did they respond? It suggests that what was said and what was actually communicated might not be the very same thing.

The paper offers case studies which may help CEOs and their teams put together savvier communications documents.

Readers are made to focus on the potentially large impact of the use or misuse of certain words, encouraging them to be more aware of the minor details of their communications.