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The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of cement‐ and earth‐plastered straw bale walls against the appropriate vertical loads.

The effects of contact between two common types of plasters and the stacked straw bale by the optimal design analysis have been assessed in this work with the use of finite element method.

Cement‐ and earth‐plastered straw bale walls have shown adequate resistance against the appropriate vertical loads and showed that the earth‐plaster can bear higher stress than the cement plastered straw bale. There is the implication that the collapse or response of the earth‐straw bale wall will be significantly higher compared to that of cement‐straw bale wall.

The stress stability obtained of the analytical walls is adequate after using the best fit variables for the wall height and thickness.

The paper shows that the allowable stresses of 70.14 kN/m² for cement plastered straw bale wall and 73.14 kN/m² for earth‐plastered straw bale wall are higher than the calculated stress values using SAP2000 of 18.836 and 64.2 kN/m² for cement plastered straw bale wall, respectively.

Progress meetings provide a central forum for requesting and exchanging the information necessary for the successful completion of construction projects. Although common to the majority of projects, little is known about the interaction between participants during these meetings. Reviews appropriateness of methodologies for the study of group interaction and discusses the problems encountered when piloting them. The review led to a focus on Bales’ interaction process analysis (IPA) as an appropriate methodology for observing, analysing and interpreting social interaction in small groups. Pilot testing and subsequent use found the method to be reliable and robust. Bales’ IPA was used to categorise and quantify communication acts of 30 site‐based progress meetings. Results indicate that the management and design team interaction is subject to interaction norms: this is predominantly task‐based, but subject to outbursts of emotional interaction, which was found to be very influential on the groups’ behaviour.

Many researchers who have studied drinking in Ireland have worked under the assumption that the Irish have a particularly acute problem with alcohol. Through an investigation of historical and contemporary writings on the subject I demonstrate that the problem is more complicated than traditional images would lead one to believe. Generally it is not known that Ireland has one of the lowest rates of alcohol consumption in Europe and one of the highest percentages of abstainers, although it is also true that Ireland has one of the highest hospital admission rates for alcohol‐related illnesses. In an attempt to understand the complex variety of drinking behaviours in Ireland, I advocate the reinterpretation and use of the concept of ambivalence in the context of Irish drinking, adapting ideas of Barth (originally applied to Bah) in the process.

The purpose of this study is to investigate interpersonal characteristics associated with Belbin's team roles in work groups.

The SYMLOG Interpersonal Effectiveness Profile (an interpersonal measure of personality), the EPQ (an intrapsychic measure of personality) and a revised version of Belbin's behavioural checklist measure of team roles were administered to 145 UK managers.

Canonical correlation analysis showed that SYMLOG personality dimensions were much more clearly and strongly related to team roles than were EPQ personality dimensions. The dominance (upward) SYMLOG dimension was positively associated with the roles of implementer, coordinator and resource investigator, and this was the most important canonical variate. The accepting authority (forward) SYMLOG dimension was positively associated with the roles of completer finisher, monitor evaluator and negatively associated with plant and shaper, and this was the next most important canonical variate. The friendly (positive) SYMLOG dimension was positively associated with the roles of team worker and plant and this was the least important canonical variate. Only the extraversion dimension of the EPQ was clearly associated with team roles (implementer, coordinator, resource investigator and team worker).

The present findings are too dependent on self‐report questionnaires which are prone to biases such as positivity, leniency and halo effects. Research using observational analysis of behaviour in groups would be useful for extending the present findings.

Organizations might improve the functioning of their teams by analysing the sorts of interpersonal characteristics that are duplicated or lacking in their personnel so that a balanced mix of personalities can be established across different roles.

There has been little research on the interpersonal as opposed to the intrapsychic personality characteristics of different social roles in small groups.

The studies of school size undertaken by the Midwest Psychological Field Station at the University of Kansas indicated that while students in large schools were exposed to a larger number of school activities and the best of them achieved standards in many activities that were unequalled by students in the small schools, students in the small schools participated in more activities, their versatility and performance scores were consistently higher, they reported more and “better” satisfactions and displayed stronger motivation in all areas of school activity. Although there has long been evidence from industrial psychology that the larger and more bureaucratically efficient the organization the greater the degradation of the individual, this knowledge has had little influence upon schools, and the widespread concern for the organization man has not been accompanied by a similar concern for the organization child.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to establish whether different gender groups develop in similar or dissimilar ways to conventional group formation patterns. Focussing primarily on Tuckman's model of group development, male, female and mixed gender learning networks (groups) of entrepreneurs were observed over a six month period, with the observations recorded and analysed, to establish whether different gender networks of business people adhere to Tuckman's model of group development in terms of early development and cohesion through the forming, storming and norming stages.

A total of 100 entrepreneurs were recruited in Autumn 2009/Spring 2010 and allocated to three different gender networks, male, female and mixed, in Ireland and Wales (six networks in total), as part of the Sustainable Learning Networks Ireland Wales (SLNIW, for detailed information about SLNIW see www.slniw.com) INTERREG 4A funded project. The groups began networking in January 2010, observed by impartial observers who noted group behaviour and dynamics and recorded observations quantitatively (based on adapted Bales criteria) and qualitatively. It is the results of these observations that form the basis of this paper.

This paper analyses the results of the group dynamic witnessed over subsequent network meetings for different gender mixes in Ireland. Whilst the observations are still ongoing, early results indicate that early engagement with group members, team bonding and group dynamics are formed sooner in the single gender groups. The paper explores why this could be the case and considers factors that could then address problems with early group development in mixed gender networks, so that the ultimate “performing” stage of group development and optimal business performance is achieved as early as possible.

This paper will be of considerable value to academics, theorists and practitioners. It will specifically add to the body of knowledge on single gender networks to see if they provide a more effective learning environment.

This review article focuses on the factors that affect the selection and implementation of three principles of distributive justice (i.e., equity, equality, and need) to reward systems in group and organizational settings. After presenting an overview of the assumptions, goals, and possible consequences associated with each of the three perspectives, the article then describes the moderating factors influencing distribution rule preferences across four levels of analysis: (1) the interorganizational, (2) the intraorganizational, (3) the work group, and (4) the individual. Some of the variables discussed include cross‐cultural differences, reward system implementation, task interdependency, work group climate, and individual characteristics. This material is then summarized through the use of a new conceptual model for describing allocation rule preferences. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.

The importance of various support sources to the experience of work and non‐work life balance is a well‐documented factor. This study investigate the differential impact of the support of work colleagues, workplace supervisors, non‐work friends, spouse/partner, and extended family on employees’ perceptions of the balance between their work and family life commitments. The sample of an Irish working cohort (n=170) indicated that after having a young child (6 years of age) the next significant predictor of experienced work interference with family life was spouse‐partner instrumental support. Spouse‐partner social support did not have an impact on experienced work interference in family life. The support of co‐workers and workplace supervisors did not influence experienced work‐family conflict. How and why positive spouse‐partner instrumental support should lead to elevated work‐family conflict are discussed.

Previous work has suggested that the adhesion between oil and metallic surfaces of an engine could be an important factor in determining crankcase cleanliness. It can be shown that it is only necessary to measure the spreading pressure of an oil on metal in order to get a direct measure of the work of adhesion, Surface tensions of lubrictaing oils vary very little and it can be assumed that the critical film pressure (C.F.P.) obtained with a given apparatus is an acceptable measure of the work of adhesion as well as of the spreading pressure. Oils of similar properties may vary tenfold in their C.F.P's. The addition of additives influences the spreading pressure, the largest increments in C.F.P. being given by dispersant and detergent additives.