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1 – 10 of 923Keston Lindsay, Michelle Ferrer, Ronald Davis and David Nichols
Advances in military medical care have facilitated a reduction of fatalities in the global war on terror, relative to previous conflicts. The physical and psychological trauma of…
Abstract
Purpose
Advances in military medical care have facilitated a reduction of fatalities in the global war on terror, relative to previous conflicts. The physical and psychological trauma of returning personnel remain a challenge, and poor physical and psychological health have been shown to affect quality of life (QOL). The purpose of this paper is to validate the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire amongst wounded, injured and ill military personnel, and to determine the characteristics of distinct groups found in this sample.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 52 male and female military personnel (34.69+7.63 years, n=51) completed 24 items of the WHOQOL-BREF. Principal component analysis using the direct oblimin rotation was used to determine the factor structure of the WHOQOL-BREF and k-means cluster analysis was used to determine QOL characteristics of the separate groups.
Findings
The WHOQOL-BREF is a reliable tool for measuring QOL for American military personnel. However, the psychometric structure of the WHOQOL-BREF in this sample differed from the original domains. The first cluster analysis based on the original domains produced two clusters: a group of 12 that had poor QOL, and a group of 40 that had relatively good QOL except for the physical domain. The second cluster analysis differed in independence and access/social support only.
Research limitations/implications
Although the sample was small for principal component analysis, the investigators chose to proceed with this procedure, because objective indicators such as measures of sampling adequacy and communalities met or exceeded acceptable thresholds.
Originality/value
Rehabilitation programs for military ill, injured and wounded should contain components that promote independence and self-actualization.
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Stephen H. Davis, Ronald J. Leon and Miriam L. Fultz
In this chapter, we describe the strategies used in establishing the Great Leaders for Great Schools Academy (GLGSA), a high impact and sustainable university–district partnership…
Abstract
In this chapter, we describe the strategies used in establishing the Great Leaders for Great Schools Academy (GLGSA), a high impact and sustainable university–district partnership and the first program to be accredited under California’s experimental standards for principal preparation. The partnership has evolved into a robust professional learning community dedicated to the task of preparing practice-ready school leaders with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to turn around low performing schools in the Pomona Unified School District. Chapter contents also include descriptions of the key elements of the GLGSA and seven recommendations for those who desire to establish innovative and collaborative approaches to leadership preparation.
To explore the status, interests, and intentions of peer reviewers and how editors enlist and muster these factors to enhance the prestige of a scholarly publication.
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the status, interests, and intentions of peer reviewers and how editors enlist and muster these factors to enhance the prestige of a scholarly publication.
Design/methodology/approach
Case study: use of a 30‐year accumulation of editorial office records of one scholarly journal to analyze the contents of peer review comments and correspondence; direct quotes highlight key themes.
Findings
Peer reviewers labor to obtain more than the certification, authentication, and quality of individual works. The volume and variety of commentary generated by a double‐blind peer review process reveal concerns behind reviewer comments to authors and effects over time.
Research limitations/implications
The study centers on one journal, Libraries & Culture, a publication committed to the specialized, interdisciplinary research about the history of libraries and the collection of cultural records.
Originality/value
The strategic nature of the administration and management of the invisible work of peer reviewers becomes more apparent. The interests and intentions of peer reviewers surface in commentary intended only for authors. Commentary relates to a variety of themes including personal interests, pedagogical and disciplinary objectives, field expansion agendas as well as the prestige of the publication. These themes suggest peer review as a potentially effective guiding mechanism for long‐term endeavors that benefit author, reviewer, and editor as interrelated players in arenas where distinction is at stake.
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Richard J. Pech and Katherine E. Oakley
Can managers prepare their organisations for the unexpected and unforeseeable? The purpose of this paper is to argue that organisations that endure and survive a serious…
Abstract
Purpose
Can managers prepare their organisations for the unexpected and unforeseeable? The purpose of this paper is to argue that organisations that endure and survive a serious disruption to homeostasis may as a consequence be better equipped to survive further and more devastating attacks.
Design/methodology/approach
This hypothesis is based on a naturally occurring biological survival mechanism termed hormesis. Hormesis describes a controversial biological phenomenon where the organism overcompensates and adaptation occurs after exposure to low doses of toxins. Hormesis protects the organism against subsequent repeat exposure to more lethal doses.
Findings
Hormetic effects may occur in an organisation just as it does in a biological entity following exposure to a life‐threatening disruption, inoculating it against potentially more lethal recurrences. Disruption in an organisational context may include negative environmental impacts, incidences of management incompetence, or consequences of competitive hostilities. It is argued that lessons can be applied from examples of biological hormesis, particularly lessons related to the hormetic recovery stages of overcompensation and adaptation as part of an evolutionary survival mechanism for organisations.
Practical implications
Organisational hormesis may have the potential to produce growth and advancement that would not normally occur under ordinary circumstances. Hormesis demonstrates more than a step in an organisational learning process as it conveys an adaptive response designed to prevent future disruptions. Hormesis is a healing process with foresight, “designed” with the intent of increasing organisational fitness within a rapidly changing environment. It has been “designed” with the knowledge that the environment may yet dispense an even greater challenge, still to be met. In this respect the hormetic process defies evolutionary dogma which claims that evolutionary processes are blind that evolution can only react to and compensate for past pressure rather than being able to predict and prepare for future threats. After recovery from disruption, managers may, for cost cutting and other expedient purposes, cease recovery or restructuring activities. This action may unwittingly interfere with the hormetic overcompensation stage, thereby interfering with evolutionary adaptation processes. As a consequence, the organisation's ability to repel more severe disruptions may be compromised. Some firms are prematurely liquidated or downsized before they can develop hormetic response mechanisms. As demonstrated by the Xerox example, liquidation in 2000 would have been a catastrophic mistake.
Originality/value
Provides a post‐mortem examination searching for possible explanations for organisational phenomena that have as yet been adequately explained.
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SEPTEMBER sees most librarians again at the daily round, although some, including those of the universities and schools, are still scattered on mountains, golf‐courses, beaches…
Abstract
SEPTEMBER sees most librarians again at the daily round, although some, including those of the universities and schools, are still scattered on mountains, golf‐courses, beaches and oceans for a short while yet. To older men there is a curious feeling aroused by the knowledge that there is no Library Association Conference this month. They may, in a measure, find compensation in attending the annual meeting of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Association, which will be at St. Albans, or that of A.S.L.I.B., which has Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, as its venue. Both, by some lack of care which might have been avoided, occur on the same week‐end, September 24–26. Quite clearly the special problems of librarianship technique, such as processes, book‐selection and purchase, classification, catalogues, fines, publicity, salaries, hours, and so on almost infinitely, can no longer be discussed profitably at the Annual Meeting of the Library Association; smaller gatherings, such as these, are their fitting place. We make a suggestion to the L.A. Council, for what it is worth and without pretence to being original. It is that it should indicate to all its branches and sections the main questions to which they should devote attention, and that in due course they should produce their conclusions on them. These, being pooled, would form the basis of the L.A. Annual Meeting. This would make a purposeful programme for all, and the results of the Conference might then be considered definite and practical.