The Romanticization of Charismatic Leadership in the Arts

This inter-disciplinary article focuses on the role, significance, and impact of charisma in cultural leadership. It brings together fresh empirical data with a critical review of the literature to investigate the role of charisma in the operation, reputation, and strategic success of arts organizations. For the first time, this article synthesizes a diverse range of literature from sociology, psychology, political science, management, and leadership studies and applies it critically to the context of the arts. This comprehensive review is compared against interviews with key stakeholders in the arts, which challenge the neo-charismatic literature on leadership and support a return to aspects of the original formulation of charisma, as envisaged by Max Weber. The article finds that charismatic leaders are seen as extraordinary individuals and are excessively romanticized by arts managers, policymakers, and audiences. It questions this normative bias and concludes that charismatic leaders should be treated with a degree of skepticism, even caution, to temper any negative impacts on "followers" and organizations

Differing responses of osteogenic cell lines to β-glycerophosphate

Abstract Ascorbic acid (Asc), dexamethasone (Dex) and β-glycerophosphate (β-Gly) are commonly used to promote osteogenic behaviour by osteoblasts in vitro. According to the literature, several osteosarcoma cells lines appear to respond differently to the latter with regards to proliferation kinetics and osteogenic gene transcription. Unsurprisingly, these differences lead to contrasting data between publications that necessitate preliminary studies to confirm the phenotype of the chosen osteosarcoma cell line in the presence of Asc, Dex and β-Gly. The present study exposed Saos-2 cells to different combinations of Asc, Dex and β-Gly for 14 days and compared the response with immortalised human mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs). Cell numbers, cytotoxicity, mineralised matrix deposition and cell proliferation were analysed to assess osteoblast-like behaviour in the presence of Asc, Dex and β-Gly. Additionally, gene expression of runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2); osteocalcin (OCN); alkaline phosphatase (ALP); phosphate regulating endopeptidase homolog X-linked (PHEX); marker of proliferation MKI67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) was performed every two days during the 14-day cultures. It was found that proliferation of Saos-2 cells was significantly decreased by the presence of β-Gly which contrasted with hMSCs where no change was observed. Furthermore, unlike hMSCs, Saos-2 cells demonstrated an upregulated expression of late osteoblastic markers, OCN and PHEX that suggested β-Gly could affect later stages of osteogenic differentiation. In summary, it is important to consider that β-Gly significantly affects key cell processes of Saos-2 when using it as an osteoblast-like cell model

Expanding medical education in general practice

General practitioners are major providers of medical education, with recent expansion at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, particularly in rural areas. General practitioners not only teach general practice, but also provide access to patients well suited to other aspects of medical school curricula. Teaching demands on GPs, already high, may increase with the addition of extra medical school places, additional medical schools, and expanding vocational GP training. The challenge for this growth is the low morale in the GP workforce; a feeling of being under valued, a lack of trained GP teachers, and poor remuneration for teaching

Macroscopic quantum damping in SQUID rings

The measurement process is introduced in the dynamics of Josephson devices exhibiting quantum behaviour in a macroscopic degree of freedom. The measurement is shown to give rise to a dynamical damping mechanism whose experimental observability could be relevant to understand decoherence in macroscopic quantum systems.Comment: 7 Pages; Plain REVTeX; 3 Figures available upon request; to be published in Phys. Lett. A 229, 23 (1997

Wavepacket reconstruction via local dynamics in a parabolic lattice

We study the dynamics of a wavepacket in a potential formed by the sum of a periodic lattice and of a parabolic potential. The dynamics of the wavepacket is essentially a superposition of ``local Bloch oscillations'', whose frequency is proportional to the local slope of the parabolic potential. We show that the amplitude and the phase of the Fourier transform of a signal characterizing this dynamics contains information about the amplitude and the phase of the wavepacket at a given lattice site. Hence, {\em complete} reconstruction of the the wavepacket in the real space can be performed from the study of the dynamics of the system.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTex

Towards a balanced scorecard: A critical analysis of the Culture and Sport Evidence (CASE) programme

This article provides a critical analysis of the methods employed in the Culture and Sport Evidence (CASE) programme. Based on a comprehensive review of the arts management and cultural policy literature, it contests recent claims that the cultural sector should state its value in the economic language of policy appraisal and evaluation (O’Brien, 2010) and proposes alternative methods for evaluating the drivers, impact and value of engagement in the arts, including the balanced scorecard approach. The literature identifies a number of fundamental problems in quantifying the social and personal impact of the arts, and an underlying policy issue is that the arts have become increasingly subject to the benchmarks of incompatible disciplines and practices. This paper seeks to redress the balance by questioning the argument that economic cost benefit analysis is the best way to understand cultural value and influence public policy. As the CASE programme aimed to make the business case for optimum Government investment in sport and culture, it adopted the framework set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book and took a quantitative, evidence-based approach to measuring the drivers, impact and instrumental value of engagement, disregarding established qualitative studies and approaches, which have been shown to articulate cultural value through a more personal, intrinsic and holistic lens. This article makes the case for a more balanced approach to cultural evaluation and a more holistic articulation of cultural value, which would combine intrinsic and instrumental benefits and comprise both qualitative and quantitative methods. The key implication of this re-conception of value is that cultural policy should be evaluated not on return on investment but rather against a balanced range of objectives and articulated in a language that reflects artistic practice and speaks directly to existing and potential audiences