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The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth account of how individuelas with a mild intellectual disabilitiy or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF; IQ 50–85) perceive their group climate in a secure forensic setting. Giving voice to these service users may provide relevant insights for secure forensic settings.

The interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore what individuals with MID-BIF experience with regard to their group climate.

In the interviews about the four domains of group climate (i.e. repression, support, growth and atmosphere), five overarching dimensions appeared, namely, autonomy, uniformity, recognition, competence and dignity. Depending on the person and the (treatment) context in which he/she resides, these five dimensions relate to all four factors of the group climate instrument.

From the perspective of individuals with MID-BIF, this study contributes by providing a framework to “fine-tune” group climate on five dimensions. Training socio-therapists to be sensitive to interpret ambiguous signals on these dimensions can contribute to optimizing group climate in secure forensic settings.

The Dutch juvenile justice system locks up an increasing number of adolescent boys and girls at a cost of approximately €250,000 for each inmate annually (Boone & Moerings, 2007; Tonry, 2005). Questions have been raised, however, about the cost‐effectiveness of treatment in closed institutions. This study, with a sample of 49 adolescents residing in a Dutch youth prison, examined the role of group climate in establishing and maintaining treatment effects. Results show that an open group climate, with group workers paying more attention to the psychological needs of the adolescents and giving them ‘space’ to experiment, led to inmates feeling that they were ‘being understood by the group workers’. This perception of being understood was associated with greater treatment motivation and higher internal locus of control. Positive prison workers in the living group turned out to be a key factor in building an open group climate and subsequently higher internal locus of control and greater treatment motivation.

This study seeks to examine the education, safety, and professional attitudes of group workers in a Dutch youth prison and to analyse their perceptions of the organisational culture and leadership by line management. To achieve therapeutic goals, group workers must maintain a balance between flexibility and control.

A total of 59 group workers (40 per cent male and 60 per cent female) randomly chosen from eight living groups (141 group workers) were interviewed and completed questionnaires.

It was found that some interactions between group workers and prisoners created fear, suspicion, and violence, and that staff varied in their behavioural responses to perceived safety risks and disorder. “Transformational” leadership by management was associated with less fear, more flexibility, and less control; factors necessary to create a rehabilitative group climate.

The findings of this study inform the treatment of young offenders in secure correctional facilities.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Violence is a common problem in secure residential units for young people. Group workers often think that young people have to learn to behave by means of punishment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether this approach is effective in these settings, and, if so, under what circumstances. Furthermore, it aims to provide alternatives to punishment when dealing with violence.

Recent evidence on the effectiveness of punishment in secure residential units is reviewed. In addition, methods which are promising in dealing with violence are described.

The review shows that punishment is often used to regain control by group workers or, alternatively, is a result of professional helplessness in the face of escalating problems. Only when the living group climate is marked by trust and cooperation can punishment be effective.

Punishment in secure residential settings can have severe negative consequences. Nevertheless, group workers are tempted to use it as a response to violence in an attempt to gain control.

Devotes the entire journal issue to managing human behaviour in US industries, with examples drawn from the airline industry, trading industry, publishing industry, metal products industry, motor vehicle and parts industry, information technology industry, food industry, the airline industry in a turbulent environment, the automotive sales industry, and specialist retailing industry. Outlines the main features of each industry and the environment in which it is operating. Provides examples, insights and quotes from Chief Executive Officers, managers and employees on their organization’s recipe for success. Mentions the effect technology has had in some industries. Talks about skilled and semi‐skilled workers, worker empowerment and the formation of teams. Addresses also the issue of change and the training that is required to deal with it in different industry sectors. Discusses remuneration packages and incentives offered to motivate employees. Notes the importance of customers in the face of increased competition. Extracts from each industry sector the various human resource practices that companies employ to manage their employees effectively ‐ revealing that there is a wide diversity in approach and what is right for one industry sector would not work in another. Offers some advice for managers, but, overall, fails to summarize what constitutes effective means of managing human behaviour.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

This paper aims to present case study evidence on the changes in the relations between chief executive officers (CEOs) of large firms and shareholders in the past three decades of the twentieth century. In line with insights from agency theory, the CEOs have experienced increased scrutiny from their principals, the shareholders. This development has affected financial communication and investor relations as well as stock market prices.

The Dutch electronics firm Royal Philips NV in the transition period of 1971-2001 has been studied using publicly available disclosures and stock market prices. A descriptive case study approach is combined with event study methodology.

It was observed that the increased emphasis on shareholder interests has affected the interactions between Philips’ respective CEOs and the shareholders’ reactions to strategic decisions as measured by stock price changes. Around the beginning of the twenty-first century, clarity and openness in CEO communication was the norm and deviations were punished with volatile stock prices.

The study relies on publicly available data.

The case study of Philips can be extrapolated to other exchange-listed firms in the late twentieth century, which faced changed expectations about the role of the CEO, investor relations and the CEO’s accountability toward shareholders. This transition is relevant not only as a historical observation, but also as a background to studies in finance and management about top management and financial markets.

Arguably the most distinguishing characteristic of the current rise of foresight for dealing with the long term is the explicit mention and involvement of actors and actor networks, i.e. participation. In general, this participation dimension is considered a valuable contribution to better anticipation and anticipatory behavior. However, participation should not be seen as the solution for the conceptual and practical difficulties of anticipation. This paper seeks to argue that, although participation is a necessary requirement for foresight, it contributes a number of new problems, which one prefers to see as dilemmas (since there is no solution to these “problems”). Understanding these “ten insolvable dilemmas of participation” is the main objective of this contribution.

This article employs theories and practice dealing with participatory approaches.

Although an important dimension of foresight, participation is often trivialized. However, using participation means also having to address new challenges for which no default design answer is possible.

Futures practitioners will be aware of the consequences of incorporating a participatory dimension into a foresight exercise.

Although participation has become a key feature of many contemporary foresight activities, generic design questions are either ignored or dealt with on a case‐to‐case basis. This paper is an attempt to employ the body of theories on participation and participatory approaches in order to frame the participatory dimension in foresight.

The purpose of this paper is to study the EFQM model self‐assessment in a Spanish university.

A case study methodology is used based on five services provided by a public university in Spain.

The findings show the steps that one university can follow in order to apply this exercise in a successful manner, its benefits, its obstacles and its key factors such as management and employee commitment, and the support to self‐assessment teams (e.g. training, review).

The paper provides lessons for managers from other universities who wish to develop a self‐assessment exercise.