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Teacher assessments are becoming increasingly popular in public school improvement plans. These assessments may inadvertently diminish the amount of time and attention teachers perceive they can devote to a traditionally non-tested subject such as social studies. Would teachers’ orientations toward social studies change in a manner that would elevate its status if an assessment resulted in the teachers recognizing they have more direct say over the manner in which they allocate their instructional time? In this paper, we explore this and other questions to investigate how elementary teachers imagine social studies in an age of teacher assessments.

In response to external conditions, organizations yearn to gain a competitive edge during unremitting change. Recognizing the importance of managing change, researchers have aggressively investigated organizational change at the macro level. This research, however, argues that an employee's ability to cope with change is a function of both micro (individual) and macro (contextual) factors.

The survey data were collected at an organization that was undergoing a significant internal change. Correlational and structural equation modeling techniques were used for data analysis.

The results suggest that individual differences (intolerance for ambiguity) and contextual factors (LMX, TMX receipts and TMX contributions) are important factors for understanding the ability to manage organizational change effectively. Additionally, it is argued that contextual factors not only have direct effects on coping with change but indirect effects through perceptions of work group effectiveness. Our results indicate that both micro and macro factors are important for understanding the ability to cope with and manage change.

The research leaves open some interesting questions around the role of contextual factors in coping with change, in addition to the interaction with individual differences.

Most sources discuss change as focused at the organizational level. Managers will be well served to understand that the degree to which employees cope effectively with change will be partly determined by the interaction of individual differences and the organizational and team level context.

This research extends our understanding of the relationship between social exchange relationships and how individuals cope with change in organizations and the mechanism by which that occurs.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

Cognitive-behavioural interventions, such as the substance related offending behaviour programme (SROBP), are being implemented across forensic contexts in an attempt to address the detrimental economic, social and personal impacts of substance use and offending. Whilst support exists for the effectiveness of such treatment, there remains to be limited knowledge of offenders’ experiences of treatment and factors that promote treatment efficacy and support desistance. This study aims to develop an idiographical understanding of those processes.

Six prisoners who had completed the SROBP were interviewed via a semi-structured schedule to collate their individual experiences of engaging in treatment. Interviews transcripts were analysed by the lead researcher using interpretative phenomenological analysis, and external auditing analysis was conducted by the research supervisors.

Three superordinate themes resulted: “Therapeutic processes and relationships,” “Therapeutic outcomes” and “Threats to post treatment recovery.” Participants identified factors which facilitated the effectiveness of treatment and were effective in meeting their needs, although there were other factors that required improvement.

The important role of motivation at various stages of treatment as this engenders commitment to treatment aims and longer-term recovery. Treatment efficacy is linked with perceived relevance and value of treatment outcomes in supporting desistence from substance use. Pro-social peer relationships are important for effective application of learning and recovery. Attentiveness to participants specific needs is required. The lack of post-programme support has the potential to threaten therapeutic alliances and reinforce experiences of rejection and abandonment. The management of the exit phase from programmes is critical.

Results are discussed in light of their implications for future working practices in supporting therapeutic processes and rehabilitative culture.

This study aimed to understand young children’s influence on family consumer behavior by examining children's and parents’ points of view in the Brazilian context.

Through an exploratory approach, the study used focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Specifically, to elicit children’s perceptions, two focus groups were conducted, and to capture the perspective of the parents, 8 families, via 12 participants, were interviewed.

Children’s use of information provided by the media in their attempts to influence family decisions is perceived positively by parents because such behavior helps parents to fulfill their parental duties.

This study examines how young children perceive their influential role in family consumer decisions and how parents perceive this influence, given the existence of child adultization and adult infantilization.

The findings extend the discussions regarding the adultization of children and the infantilization of adults, revealing positive aspects of such a trend in association with consumer behavior.

There are a variety of multi‐library automation and connectivity initiatives in Alabama. Among these are programs of the following: the Alabama Public Library Service, Harrison Regional Library System, Jefferson County Library System, Library Management Network, Montgomery City‐County Public Library System, the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries, and the PACERS Small Schools Cooperative.

We explore: (1) the effects of work unit pressure on employees’ satisfaction with work–family balance (S-WFB); (2) the effects of individual-level job and family pressures on S-WFB; and (3) the extent to which schedule control moderates the negative influences of work unit pressure and other demands on employee S-WFB – among employees in a large healthcare system.

The data come from employee responses to the baseline survey (n = 3,950) administered in September 2012, and from administrative unit-level data (445 units) showing the extent to which units were “on-budget” (within 5 percent), “over-budget,” or “under-budget.”

Practices associated with cost containment in a healthcare system of 10,000 employees in the United States appear to have a negative impact on employee S-WFB. Working in a unit that is “under-budget” is negatively associated with individual S-WFB. Employees with high job demands, longer hours, responsibilities for children and/or adults, also reported lower S-WFB than employees without these characteristics.

Research is limited by lack of measures specific to healthcare workers, the use of baseline data only, and sample size for some of the analyses.

Schedule control makes a difference even under high work pressure. The lack of interactions among variables that typically moderate relationships between work pressures and S-WFB suggests the need for more support for healthcare workers under the strain of cost containment.

We include an objective indicator of unit-level job pressures on individual employees, thus identifying specific ways that work stress affects S-WFB.

Explores the relationships between organizational communication and organization theory. Focuses on interorganizational communication and assesses several models of interorganizational relations. Proposes and discusses a method for studying interorganizational communication.