The relationships and supports that matter to children looked after (CLA) in long term voluntary accommodation (Children Act 1989, s 20)

The overall aim of this practitioner-led research project was to explore relationships and conceptualisations of ‘permanence in foster care’ from the young person’s perspective. A multidimensional conceptualisation of permanence, with a focus on supportive networks, was used to identify the relationships that a group of looked after young people viewed as significant to them and to explore which relationship groups they accessed for social support. Participants were a convenience sample of six (two male, four female) young people (aged 13 – 16) who were voluntarily accommodated (Children Act 1989, s.20) in the long term care of the local authority. Four participants were living with foster carers and two were in residential homes. Participants constructed a personal network map, placing themselves at the centre of a concentric circles diagram and the names of the people in their support network in the surrounding circles. To ascertain participants’ perceptions of who provides what type of support, they were asked how they would respond in three scenarios that were designed to elicit specific measures of social support (affective support, self-affirmation, and instrumental assistance). The results showed that the young people considered a wide variety of relationships as important to them and were able to utilise a range of relationships as sources of social support. Significantly, despite their physical absence, sibling relationships were unanimously viewed as important and appeared to hold the potential to provide much support. This research suggests the potential value in moving beyond physical conceptualisations of permanence and instead adopting a systemic relationships-based approach, which recognises a young person’s entire social network. Recommendations for practice include providing support to strengthen all significant relationships, regardless of their physical presence. This research project hopes to highlight the potentially unique needs of voluntarily accommodated young people. The discussion suggests the importance of reinforcing the implementation of voluntary accommodation as it was intended, as “support for children and families” (Children Act 1989, part 3)

What Does the UN Convention on Corruption Teach Us About International Regulatory Harmonisation?

Should international institutions promote international regulatory harmonisation? This paper will present arguments, looking at the UN Convention Against Corruption, noting that international institution regulation may play less of a harmonising role that it ostensibly appears to. Section I discusses the underlying motivations for harmonisation, presenting three views of regulation based on the likely effects of 'globalisation' and noting most views support global harmonisation. Section II will discuss specifically the UN Corruption Convention and compare the Convention (which aims at global harmonising of certain practices against corruption) against its ideals and an optimal regulation. Section III will discuss the influence of regulatory 'clubs' (such as the OECD or OAS Corruption Conventions) and show how regional harmonisation may be superior to global harmonisation in terms of reaching an ideal and optimum. Section III will address how global harmonisation may be deleterious to national interests and will discuss how such global harmonisation may be 'domesticated' in the nations' laws and moeurs. Because business practices depend on a wide range of influences in the national business system, attempts at harmonisation are at best 'ambivalent'.

Emotion management as struggle in dirty work: the experiences of exotic dancers

We further the research to date on ambiguity, ambivalence and contradiction in organisation studies by integrating the dirty work and emotion management literatures. Our intent is to better understand the complex cognitive processes underpinning everyday experiences of those working in what has been perceived to be a high-breadth high-depth stigmatised occupation, that is, exotic dancing. Dancers’ stories reveal they are acutely aware of social and moral taint associated with the work and in turn their self-identities. They adopt a number of strategies to manage their spoiled identities and we contribute by unpicking the cognitive processes that underpin these strategies. In extending strategies of emotional ambivalence at work and stigma management, we conclude that through a lens of emotion management as struggle, exotic dancers, and more broadly dirty workers, do not ‘resolve’ the ambivalence, contradiction and ambiguity they confront but can be seen to experience at best a type of contingent coherence in their everyday work

Environmental management system and electronic communication : Is it the need of the hour?

Implementation and certification of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) is a reality for many businesses. Communication with an organisation&rsquo;s stakeholders is a required element of any EMS. In the last five years companies have steadily moved towards integrating their different management systems, such as quality, environmental, and occupational health and safety, in an attempt to reduce their costs and increase efficiency. Legislation requires extensive reporting in each of these areas, so compliance is another important driver. During this period, communication by digital technology, or electronic communication, has gained prominence and acceptance amongst all groups of people including businesses primarily as a means to disseminate crucial EMS information to geographically diverse employees in a cost effective and instantaneous manner. Some perspectives have emerged to suggest that change processes in organisations may be hindered or helped in various ways through the application of digital technology in EMS. There are, however, gaps in the literature that document the impact and effectiveness of electronic communication amongst EMS stakeholders. In this paper we will discuss employees as one of the major stakeholders and whether the move to electronic communication has been assisting or hindering transformations in awareness and understanding of issues amongst employees. We highlight opportunities and challenges presented by an increased use of electronic communication in light of the environmental and climate change debates, which underpin EMS.</div

The Shape of Utility Functions and Organizational Behavior

Based on measurements with 332 owner-managers, the global shape of the utility function (i.e., S-shaped versus concave or convex over the total range of outcomes) appears to discriminate organizational behavior. Whereas the degree of risk aversion, based on the local shape of the utility function, may be important in explaining owner-manager's trading behavior, the global shape of the utility function appears to drive more structural organizational behavior.utility theory;prospect theory;risk aversion;organizational behavior

Harnessing technology review 2007. Progress and impact of technology in education. Summary report.

This is the summary of the first review of the use and impact of ICT in the education system following the publication of the Government's e-Strategy for the education system, known as Harnessing Technology. The Review drew upon Becta's surveys of schools and FE colleges as well as other research to assess the impact of technology within the education system and the progress made in achieving the system outcomes of the policy

Soft power, hard news:How journalists at state-funded transnational media legitimize their work

How do journalists working for different state-funded international news organizations legitimize their relationship to the governments which support them? In what circumstances might such journalists resist the diplomatic strategies of their funding states? We address these questions through a comparative study of journalists working for international news organizations funded by the Chinese, US, UK and Qatari governments. Using 52 interviews with journalists covering humanitarian issues, we explain how they minimized tensions between their diplomatic role and dominant norms of journalistic autonomy by drawing on three – broadly shared – legitimizing narratives, involving different kinds of boundary-work. In, the first ‘exclusionary’ narrative, journalists differentiated their ‘truthful’ news reporting from the ‘false’ state ‘propaganda’ of a common Other, the Russian-funded network, RT. In the second ‘fuzzifying’ narrative, journalists deployed the ambiguous notion of ‘soft power’ as an ambivalent ‘boundary concept’, to defuse conflicts between journalistic and diplomatic agendas. In the final ‘inversion’ narrative, journalists argued that, paradoxically, their dependence on funding states gave them greater ‘operational autonomy’. Even when journalists did resist their funding states, this was hidden or partial, and prompted less by journalists’ concerns about the political effects of their work, than by serious threats to their personal cultural capital

Masking hegemonic masculinity: reconstructing the paedophile as the dangerous stranger

This paper reviews the social constructions of the paedophile as these are embodied in clinical and journalistic discourses. It considers how these discourses have influenced community perceptions of risk and professional responses to the concerns they portray. It then locates these professional constructions within a context of hegemonic masculinity and unsafe families. It concludes that community safety is not adequately addressed by professional assessments of risk that focus primarily on the problems posed by known paedophiles. It is important to consider the problem of sexual violence in a much wider context that problematises the context in which sexual abuse occurs.</p

Enterprise Risk Management: Review, Critique, and Research Directions

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Many regulators, rating agencies, executives and academics have advocated a new approach to risk management: Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). ERM proposes the integrated management of all the risks an organization faces, which inherently requires alignment of risk management with corporate governance and strategy. Academic research on ERM is still in its infancy, with articles largely in accounting and finance journals but rarely in management journals. We argue that ERM offers an important new research domain for management scholars. A critical review of ERM research allows us to identify limitations and gaps that management scholars are best equipped to address. This paper not only identifies how management scholars can contribute to ERM research, but also points out why ERM research (and practice) needs management research for its development

Harnessing technology review 2008. The role of technology and its impact on education. Full report.

This is the second review of the use and impact of ICT in the education system following the publication of the Government's e-Strategy for education, known as Harnessing Technology. The Review drew upon Becta's surveys of schools and FE colleges as well as other research to assess the impact of technology within the education system and the progress made in achieving the system outcomes of the policy