Emotional and developmental influences on the management of generational transitions by business-owning families

In recent years, succession has become a major theme in family business research. Much of the research effort has concentrated on the managerial dimension of succession, often subordinating the importance of other major variables such as family relationship dynamics and the form of business ownership on the succession outcome. Family enterprises are generally conceptualised as a dynamic, evolving systems in which the actions and interactions taking place amongst constituent groups determine the system's outputs. This study aimed to overcome the limitations of examining only one dimension of a system's activities by carrying out a longitudinal holistic analysis of the evolution of the family enterprise system as it went through the process of generational transition. The research for this thesis employed the multiple case study method to investigate the influence of emotional and developmental factors on the ability of business-owning families to make progress with the tasks required to complete a generational transition. Three specific issues were examined: the nature of the task environment facing the family enterprise system over the duration of the transition period; the approaches used by families to address the tasks required for them to move through the stages making up the transition process; and the extent to which emotional and developmental factors prevented or promoted progress being made with the generational transition. The results reveal that families face the same sequence of stages in the generational transition process. However, they differ in their ability to move through these stages, towards closure of the transition period and the achievement of a succession outcome, Importantly, the degree to which individuals and families are able to make progress is related to their ability to manage the anxiety generated during the transition process. Anxiety is created when the structures or network of interrelationships that hold their family enterprise system intact are evaluated and may be dismantled and reconstructed differently for the next stage in the system's development. The study supports the view that anxiety is generated during transition times when developmental pressures for change build up from changes taking place in the life-cycles underway within the family enterprise system. It also supports the view that developmental pressure (such as a crisis) from the business subsystem alone does not lead to transition task activity and progress. Progress in response to business sub-system pressure comes about when the opportunity exists to solve an ongoing adult development problem by implementing a solution to a transition task problem. The ability to manage anxiety was found to be related to both the quality of emotional functioning in the family and the extent to which the adult development agendas of both generations are in alignment. Favourable alignment brought a developmental opportunity for the individuals concerned. It allowed them to do the exploratory work required in order to assess the extent to which the family business could provide part of their life structure for the next phase of their development. However, in addition to adult development generational alignment, the study confirmed that the quality of emotional functioning in the family (their ability to overcome multigenerational patterns of functioning and behaviour) influenced the family's ability to make progress with ownership transfer and other tasks. The study concludes that emotional and developmental influences are mediating factors between the forces for change originating in the family enterprise system and its environment and the ability of those in the system to respond to the need for change and manage the transition process. It also found that families significantly underestimate the nature and complexity of the work involved in the transition process, as well as the timescale and emotional commitment required to complete the transition

A secondary business education school-to-work partnership : experience of participants.

Although there are many how-to manuals on forming business/school partnerships, there is little valuative information on what actually takes place within them. This dissertation, a case study of a school-to-work partnership between an urban high school\u27s business education department and the local business community, affords a practical insight into the dynamics of such a cooperative. A series of in-depth, phenomenological interviews were conducted with student workers and their workplace mentors. Their candid, powerful testimonies reflect the backgrounds, attitudes, and concerns that each brought to the workplace. Their personal voices express the relationships and interactions that defined their work experiences. Additional interviews with key figures in several similar contemporary programs confirmed that business/school partnerships are as complex and sensitive as the personalities of the individuals and the characters of the institutions that form them. Although all of the participants in this study attest to the value and importance of such partnerships, it is also evident that the demands of sustaining a successful program are daunting. This study suggests that implementing the business/school mandates as proposed in school reform legislation will be difficult, if not impossible. The evidence in this study illustrates that predominantly minority students from disadvantaged backgrounds can succeed in an initial work experience, can grow through that exposure, and can then create new personal visions for themselves. Of the twenty-five business students who participated in this cooperative program, over half entered a two or four year college upon graduation; six were offered a permanent position with a business partner. The director of the partnership that is at the core of this study, a committed teacher and a business owner, was available on a daily basis to provide students with personal guidance as they assimilated new experiences, faced unexpected challenges, or redefined new understandings. The overall findings substantiate the value of such consistent individual support for students in their first adventure into the world-of-work

Introducing Educational Administration Candidates to Learning-Style Approaches

Introducing Educational Administration Candidates to Learning-Style Approache

Scoping Out A Socio-Economic Research Agenda For The Co-Operative Research Centre For Sustainable Rice Production

In May, 2000 the Co-operative Research Centre for Sustainable Rice Production (henceforth called the Rice CRC) commissioned Professor John Spriggs and Mr Tony Dunn from Charles Sturt University to write a paper called Scoping out a Socio-economic Research Agenda. In June 2000, Associate Professor Barbara Chambers, Director of the Institute for Regional Community Development at the University of Canberra was selected as a Research Associate for the project. The project was based on at least two assumptions. The first was that existing programs do not embrace a systems view of the rice industry, a significant omission given that the CRC is concerned with economic and social sustainability of rice farming in the irrigation areas. The second was that existing programs do not adequately involve producers in the change process required to respond to socio-economic challenges, especially technical research projects (Committee on Socio-economic Issues in the Rice Industry, CSU, December 14, 1999). In a philosophical sense, the dominance of scientific research has meant that the human dimension has often been ignored. A myth is perpetuated that facts and logical thinking will lead to changes in behaviour. But it is people that make decisions about how they will act, how they will respond to change and it is often attitudes and values that affect practice, not information per se. Socio-economic research attempts to address these dimensions, where there is a recognition that the affective (feelings and emotions) is at least as important as the cognitive (thinking) domain when people make important life decisions, such as in producer responses to market forces, salination, water reform and land use. In this context, 'socio-economic' research refers to the study of social and economic effects of policy decisions on people and communities. Changes in policy affect people's way of life, their cultural traditions, their community and their standard and quality of life. With this in mind, the aim of the current project is to focus on policy as it relates to irrigated agriculture in rice-growing areas of eastern Australia and hence to define a socio-economic research agenda for the Rice CRC. Our methodology is to develop a research framework and then use this framework as a basis for constructing the research agenda. We approached the task of building a research framework in four stages. First of all, we built an initial tentative framework from an initial meeting of the Socio-economic Committee of the Rice CRC. Second, we conducted an extensive literature search, including existing research reports and web-based data. Third, we undertook a number of semi-structured interviews with key informants. Finally, we revisited the initial tentative framework and modified it as dictated by the results of the literature search and interviews. The modified framework was then to be used to determine a proposed research agenda for the Rice CRC

Microarray karyotyping of commercial wine yeast strains reveals shared, as well as unique, genomic signatures

BACKGROUND: Genetic differences between yeast strains used in wine-making may account for some of the variation seen in their fermentation properties and may also produce differing sensory characteristics in the final wine product itself. To investigate this, we have determined genomic differences among several Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine strains by using a "microarray karyotyping" (also known as "array-CGH" or "aCGH") technique. RESULTS: We have studied four commonly used commercial wine yeast strains, assaying three independent isolates from each strain. All four wine strains showed common differences with respect to the laboratory S. cerevisiae strain S288C, some of which may be specific to commercial wine yeasts. We observed very little intra-strain variation; i.e., the genomic karyotypes of different commercial isolates of the same strain looked very similar, although an exception to this was seen among the Montrachet isolates. A moderate amount of inter-strain genomic variation between the four wine strains was observed, mostly in the form of depletions or amplifications of single genes; these differences allowed unique identification of each strain. Many of the inter-strain differences appear to be in transporter genes, especially hexose transporters (HXT genes), metal ion sensors/transporters (CUP1, ZRT1, ENA genes), members of the major facilitator superfamily, and in genes involved in drug response (PDR3, SNQ1, QDR1, RDS1, AYT1, YAR068W). We therefore used halo assays to investigate the response of these strains to three different fungicidal drugs (cycloheximide, clotrimazole, sulfomethuron methyl). Strains with fewer copies of the CUP1 loci showed hypersensitivity to sulfomethuron methyl. CONCLUSION: Microarray karyotyping is a useful tool for analyzing the genome structures of wine yeasts. Despite only small to moderate variations in gene copy numbers between different wine yeast strains and within different isolates of a given strain, there was enough variation to allow unique identification of strains; additionally, some of the variation correlated with drug sensitivity. The relatively small number of differences seen by microarray karyotyping between the strains suggests that the differences in fermentative and organoleptic properties ascribed to these different strains may arise from a small number of genetic changes, making it possible to test whether the observed differences do indeed confer different sensory properties in the finished wine

Fruit and Vegetable Weights or Pan Weight are Valid Methods to Estimate Elementary Student Self-Service Salad bar Portions

Assessing the validity of weighing both individual fruit and vegetable (FV) pieces and salad bar pans of specific FV for estimating amounts taken from self-service salad bars

National Certification As A Performance Measure: Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, 1977-1982

This research involved an analysis of data for 3,387 candidates who took the National Qualifying Examination for pediatric nurse practitioners/associates between 1977 and 1982. Those data were available from the National Board of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners and Associates, which administers the examination, and its testing agency, the National Board of Medical Examiners. Included in the data were sociodemographic characteristics of examinees, characteristics of their nurse practitioner educational programs, and their composite examination scores. The purpose of the research was to determine the ability of these sociodemographic and educational program variables to predict examination performance. Sociodemographic variables included: examinee age; highest level of education; months of experience as a registered nurse and as a nurse practitioner; formal or informal preparation as a nurse practitioner; current function (nurse practitioner skills or not); employment setting; year of examination; and, status as a first-time examinee or repeater. The educational program variables available for study were: current program status (operational or not); educational level (certificate or masters); institutional setting/sponsors; accreditation status; administrative control; discipline of program director(s); year established; class size; and length in hours and weeks. The data were analyzed by descriptive and multivariate techniques. There were statistically significant differences in the sociodemographic and program profiles of examinees from year to year. Between 1977 and 1982 the average age and, consequently, the length of experience of examinees decreased. Their highest level of education increased, and there were a larger proportion of masters programs and masters program graduates. In terms of functions and settings, the number of examinees who were not functioning as nurse practitioners increased, as did the number who were unemployed. Over this 6 year period, educational programs have moved into the mainstream of nursing education: they are typically located in schools of nursing that are accredited by the National League for Nursing, with administrative control vested in nursing and with a nurse director or nurse and physician co-directors. Additionally, programs have increased in both length in hours and in weeks. Regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationships between examination scores and the various predictor variables. An exploratory analysis using stepwise regression procedures eliminated those variables with little predictive significance. Further analyses with the five sociodemographic and five program variables remaining in the regression equations indicated that the largest contributions to differences in examination scores were made by the following variables: examinees\u27 status as first- time takers or repeaters, their highest education, their age, and the educational level and accreditation status of their nurse practitioner program. At the individual level of analysis, sociodemographic variables were better predictors than program variables and explained between 8-26% (R = .28 to .51) of the variance in examination scores. On the other hand, the program variables explained 28% (R=.53) of the variance in average performance from program to program. That is, at the aggregate level of analysis (by program) there is obviously less individual variation around the program means and, therefore, greater predictive ability. Based on the results of this research the investigator made recommendations regarding educational and regulatory policy and suggestions for further research. In particular, further research on certification in nursing was encouraged

The Role of Models and Formulations in the Management of Behaviors that Challenge in Dementia

The British Psychological Society’s Briefing Paper for Behaviors that Challenge (BtC) in dementia states that psychological formulation helps in the development of effective and well targeted treatments [1]. While not explicitly using the term psychological formulation, the 2018 NICE UK Dementia Guidelines support the use of systematic problem-solving approaches in the management of BtC. The current paper gives an overview of the content of a number of formulation models developed in this area and contrasts two established models. This article looks at two different ways of understanding people’s agitation – one which emphasizes the reasons for their behaviour in terms of the person with dementia [2] and the other called DICE [3] which puts equal emphasis on the roles of both caregivers and the environment in explaining behaviors. We suggest that, while the Newcastle Model tacitly suggests a role for caregivers and the environment in BtC, the explicit emphasis in DICE encourages a more holistic understanding of agitation