Search results

An increasing array of policies have been suggested to combat rising obesity. Regardless of the policy intervention that is selected each comes with a cost in the form of imposition on the public purse, or regulative restrictions on business or individuals. Consequently, potential opposition makes it critical to garner sufficient public support for whichever policy is selected. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of attributional framing for the causes of obesity (framed around locus of control and controllability) to increase support for a range of policy interventions designed to reduce obesity.

Using an online panel, the authors manipulate the perceived cause of obesity along the internal/external locus and controllability/uncontrollability dimensions to assess whether attribution of causes of obesity can influence support for policy interventions that either encourage positive behaviour or discourage negative behaviour.

The authors find that framing the causes of obesity to emphasise internal/external locus and controllability/uncontrollability has significant and predictable effects on policy support for men but not for women. In this American study, they show that men are more open to persuasion because their views on the causes of obesity are less firmly held than women.

Highlighting the external and controllable causes of obesity was the most effective, suggesting that emphasising the role of the food industry in obesity can garner public support amongst males for a broad range of policy types. The limited effectiveness with women suggests that media focus be directed at male-oriented channels and outlets.

The authors show that, at least amongst men, attribution framing can be used as a tool to increase support for policy interventions to prevent obesity.

Presents a gendered analysis of the reconstitution of professional subjectivities, as part of the New Public Management (NPM) discourse in the UK police service. Draws on texts generated from interviews with police uniform and civilian professional/managers in two constabularies. Explores the ways in which individuals have received and responded to the NPM discourse. Analysis of these texts suggests the promotion of specific gendered meanings of commitment, based on high visibility and unquestioning loyalty. Drawing on a Foucauldain feminist framework, illustrates how individuals exploit the weaknesses, contradictions and spaces revealed in the NPM discourse. This takes place through thought and action, stimulated by tension, discomfort, paradox and difference and may result in accomodation, adaptation or denial of the subject positions offered.

Gender relations in organisations remain contested and unresolved. While researchers increasingly focus on how gender is articulated, there is also a need to examine gender suppression, or how gender is deliberately not expressed in organisations. The purpose of this research is to examine gender suppression within regional sports trusts (RSTs) in New Zealand (NZ).

Surveys were sent to all 17 chief executive officers of RSTs in NZ, of which ten replied. Of these, six agreed to a phone interview. The data were transcribed and coded.

There was evidence of gender suppression within the RSTs articulated through four organisational practices, which were: employing the “best person for the job”; the importance of gender balance; gender equity policies; and the role of external funders influencing gender relations.

The examination of gender suppression provides one area of analysis within the multiple elements of gender relations. Areas for future research are addressed.

In order to de‐stabilise the gendered status quo within the RSTs, employees and other organisational members may be encouraged in future to discuss gender relations. Suggestions for how this may be achieved are proposed.

Gender suppression has not been widely analysed in its own right in organisational analysis, this study represents a theoretical and empirical engagement with this concept in order to further understandings of gender relations.

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the “double-jeopardy” in widely adopted women’s leadership development interventions aimed at “fixing” women, explore critical feminist coaching (CFC) perspectives and practices and offer more equitable and just alternatives for developing women leaders.

This paper includes a literature review of post-feminist and critical feminist perspectives and a critical examination of coaching for women leaders from each perspective.

Postfeminist approaches in organizations are little scrutinized because of the dominant postfeminist discourse that women's subordination and oppression have been “resolved” through neoliberal, individualistic interventions, such as postfeminist coaching programs. Infusing the message of “fixing women” through emphasizing “4 C’s” – confidence, control, courage and competition – postfeminist coaching programs have been submitting women leaders to “double jeopardy.” The authors critique this postfeminist coaching paradox from a critical feminist perspective foregrounding “4 R’s” – reflecting, reforming, raising and rebuilding – promising more equitable, just development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe CFC and presentation of a conceptual and practical model of the process. The authors define postfeminist coaching as the disavowal of feminist values and failure to challenge gender hegemony in the coaching process. The authors propose a model of CFC defined as the explicit embrace of feminist values and challenge of gender hegemony in the coaching process. The authors offer alternatives for developing women leaders amid paradoxical, complex, capitalist systems, with a critical lens challenging postfeminism.

This paper aims to address the generic research question of how promising management practices such as total quality management (TQM) initiatives affect employee relations in South Eastern European (SEE) countries by focusing on managers' professional lives. In particular, this study focuses on the effects of TQM programmes on middle managers' (MMs') career prospects and job security.

A multi‐modal research approach was applied based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. A total of 1,800 middle managers from 73 service organizations in both the public and private sectors participated in the research (19 and 54 respectively).

The implementation of TQM programs was found to have a positive impact on MMs' careers and job security. Nevertheless, it was related mostly to the “hard”, rather than the “soft”, side of TQM. The strong impact of TQM practices on MMs' responses to various aspects related to their physical work, as compared to the small impact of the “soft” side, implies a more pragmatic view of restructuring of the employment relations covenant due to the application of management models in SEE region.

The business literature has presented limited measurement tools for the “soft” and “hard” aspects of TQM. This paper provides a new, more reliable, and valid measurement of both sides of TQM. More research is required in order to further verify the use of such a measurement tool.

Managers should be aware of a somewhat more linear path to career progression and job security through the use of “hard” quality management practices while anticipating less importance to be given to concepts such as empowerment and employee involvement.

This study expands our understanding of how industrial relations can be formed from the application of promising management practices. In particular, it argues that managers' familiarity with the “hard” side of TQM seems to both positively and negatively influence career development and job security, while being influenced by employment sector and educational background.