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In Germany up until now, there has been very little research on staff development in schools. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively assess school-based staff development and to describe the interplay between different instruments of staff development (e.g. classroom observations, development discussions) at the school level.

Considering that different constellations of organizational management tools may be differentially effective in different contexts (see Mintzberg, 1983/1992), an approach that takes a combination of different staff development instruments into account was chosen. Data were gathered from principals of primary and secondary schools in two federal states of Germany. Using regression, cluster analysis, and analysis of variance, the authors examined different instruments and patterns of staff development used in everyday school practice and determined how these affected the professional development of teachers.

Five staff development patterns could be identified. With regard to the extent of professional development activities of teachers, these patterns have been proven to have a different impact. Furthermore, the use of the different staff development patterns seems to be heavily dependent on the type of school.

Further research would be needed that examines if the three most relevant staff development patterns identified in this study can also be proven to be effective with regard to somewhat “harder” criteria than the extent of professional development activities of teachers. Such criteria could be teachers’ teaching skills or even student achievement.

The current study is the first to examine staff development in German schools systematically. The results provide some good leads for further studies in this area.

Supporting the learning and wellbeing of vulnerable students is an important yet challenging part of school educators’ work. The purpose of this paper is to investigate advice-seeking patterns around the issue of supporting the learning and wellbeing of vulnerable students, among professional staff in six English secondary schools. The paper focuses on investigating variation in advice-seeking patterns among schools, exploring the association between these patterns and staff perceptions of the school climate for collaboration, and examining how these informal advice-seeking patterns relate to formal support arrangements in the schools.

A mixed-methods approach that combined findings from social network analysis with in-depth interviews was used.

It was found that advice-seeking patterns among staff vary substantively, even among similar schools. Furthermore, schools with more cohesive and reciprocal advice networks also showed a stronger climate for collaboration (i.e. mutual respect and distributed leadership). Also, formal organizational structures and informal advice-seeking structures showed coherence in the sample, as formally designated leaders, such as the Headteacher and the Special Educational Needs Coordinators, were generally highly central to their schools’ advice network.

This study advances the field as there is little research that examines the social networks of educators in England, and no previous studies that explore teacher advice-seeking networks in relation to supporting vulnerable students, internationally.

This paper discusses the staffing patterns at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Library, Bauchi, Nigeria from 1981‐1997. The expansion and scope of services of the library, application of modern technologies to library operations and funding dictated the staffing policy to a large extent. The difficulties encountered in getting the right calibre of staff, both professional/academic and supporting were highlighted. Finally, suggestions were posited for effective staffing of libraries in Nigeria.

Scrutiny of staff turnover in large organisations is traditionally reactive, involving benchmarking against peers at institution level. Not being an outlier tempts the inference that turnover is “satisfactory”. However, individual departments exhibiting varied, counterbalancing patterns might be masked; meaning situations that present challenges and require action could be missed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the degree to which headline staff turnover can mask internal variations in a large post-1992 English university with over 2,000 staff.

The methods scrutinised related mainstream benchmarking sources, and analysed turnover for both new recruits and staff leaving, as well as net turnover. The inverted Nomogramma di Gandy helped highlight overall patterns and identify outliers. Staff categories and characteristics examined included: age, gender, diversity, staff type and contractual status.

It was found that (wide) internal variations were masked between university departments and between different gender and age groups, with Generation Y presenting issues for future recruitment and retention. Localised high turnover rates were found, with particular issues involving research staff. A proactive approach is essential, analysing local data to reflect internal structures, and staff categories and characteristics. Understanding internal and external staff dynamics supports organisations to meet strategic aims and objectives, and target local action.

The approach and findings provided lessons for staff management relevant to universities, which are critical to many, if not most large organisations in the UK and internationally, particularly in times of uncertainty.

To give an overview of some recent research into human resource (HR) deployment in library services in UK universities and colleges of higher education.

The aim of the research in question was to evaluate the effectiveness of HR deployment. This implied a positivistic methodological approach, maintaining that the reality under examination, HR deployment, existed objectively and independently of the researcher. However, the research aimed to discover not only what happened but also why. So there was an overlap between the positivistic and phenomenological approach. To this end, the research collected quantitative data via a survey and the present paper provides a summary of the research aim, objectives, methodology and results.

The research findings indicate that staff deployment patterns in the context investigated are suboptimal and that, in consequence, individual libraries should be open to scrutiny in comparison with others not only in terms of their quantifiable patterns of library usage but also in terms of the patterns of their staff provision and staff deployment.

The findings only relate to UK universities and colleges of higher education.

The present research suggests five actions for practitioners.

The present research highlights the lack of benchmarking facilities in UK universities and colleges of higher education relating to HR deployment in libraries, and recommends that Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) extends the existing data collection in the Annual Statistical return to include this HR area.

The purpose of this paper is to gain a systematic and comprehensive understanding of deploying temporary agency work (TAW) in China in relation to the adoption, staffing pattern, and human resource (HR) configuration.

Based on the literature and theory of strategic human resource management, this inquiry identifies and analyzes three major components in the utilization of temporary agency work (TAW) in Chinese organizations.

The paper derives a framework to conceptualize the relationships among strategic vs ad hoc adoption of TAW, separated and mixed staffing patterns, as well as four HR on the utilization of TAW in the Chinese context..

This is an initial effort in exploring the phenomenon of TAW in China prior to the enactment of Labor Contract Law. The paper offers a conceptual base for further examining the evolution of TAWs in Chinese organizations.

The context‐based analysis of TAW's challenges existing frameworks in the Western literature. The resulting framework is an innovative effort for a comprehensive understanding of TAW in China, thus enriches the existing literature.

Members of Congress become involved in scandals on a regular basis. These range from personal imbroglios, like sexual affairs or substance abuse, to professional scandals like embezzlement of campaign funds, abuse of office, or insider trading. As a common feature of congressional life, scholars have shown that scandals frequently disrupt the electoral and legislative trajectories of representatives' careers.

However, it must be remembered that congressional offices are comprised of more than just an individual member. Congressional offices are legislative enterprises, and a representative's staff are integral to his or her political and lawmaking activities. Accordingly, studying how scandals relate to the careers of congressional staff is an important but overlooked topic.

In this chapter, the authors investigate the relationship between members' malfeasances and the careers of the staff around them. The authors combine a list of congressional scandals with a dataset that captures the turnover of staff in congressional offices. The chapter proceeds in four parts. First, the authors describe the structure of a congressional office and the relationship between members and their staff. Next, the authors provide an overview of scandals in Congress and what previous literature has uncovered about their effects. Third, the authors examine staffing patterns and turnover in offices hit by scandal, uncovering evidence that scandals are associated with staff departures. The authors end by considering how Congress as an institution could help to protect and support employees who are caught up in a member's poor choices.

This paper discusses the contribution and value of research into human resource management issues as they affect auditors and audit firms, and to identify areas for future research. The contribution and areas for future research are identified in terms of four areas, namely career development, staffing patterns, the multi‐disciplinery global firm, and the management structure and practice as they relate to audit firms. This is followed by a discussion about the value of this research. In the conclusion the paper argues for future research to adopt a greater sociological and organizational perspective, including studies which work shadow auditors and audit teams, and longitudinal studies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use patterns of scholarly e-journals by academics for teaching, research and keeping themselves up-to-date. The study also looks at differences in the use patterns across 12 disciplines.

A survey was conducted to explore academics’ use patterns of scholarly e-journals in 12 disciplines. The University of the Punjab was used for the sample population. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to all regular and contractual academics of Lahore campuses of the University. After follow up, 457 questionnaires were received with a response rate of 54 per cent. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistics were used to analyse data.

The results showed that the academics made more frequent use of e-journals, online reference sources and discussion with colleagues for scholarly activities. E-journals were used predominantly for research-related activities rather than for teaching and instruction. Academics obtained e-journal articles primarily from open access sources, i.e. general search engines and Google Scholar as compared to subscribed and other sources of e-journal articles. Disciplinary differences were also found in academics’ use patterns of e-journals. However, academics showed just satisfactory skills regarding use of advanced searching techniques and evaluation of the quality of e-journals.

Findings will be helpful for information professionals to review their policies and practices in relation to e-journal services for academic community. The needs for e-literacy skills to use e-journals will also be identified and findings will be significant for information professionals in arranging information literacy instruction programmes for targeted disciplines.

Most of e-journals use studies focused on specific disciplines – Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering and Technology and Social Sciences. This research study is valuable that investigated use patterns of e-journals across 12 different disciplines at the University of the Punjab.