Overview of the labour market [October 2002]

The latest figures on the labour market in Scotland are summarised. Over the last quarter, Labour Force Survey (LFS) data showed that employment increased by 16 thousand in the three months to May 2002, to 2,376 thousand - up 0.7 per cent on the previous quar ter level. Over the year to May 2002, employment fell by 3 thousand. The employment rate - as a percentage of the working age population in employment - increased to 73.1 per cent, up 0.5 percentage points on the previous quarter. The paper provides an account of quarterly LFS employment over a two-year period to May 2002

Overview of the labour market [March 2003]

The latest figures on the labour market in Scotland are summarised. Over the last quarter, Labour Force Survey (LFS) data showed that employment increased by 9 thousand in the three months to November 2002, to 2,415 thousand - up 0.4 percent on the previous quarter level. Over the year to November 2002, employment increased by 24 thousand. The employment rate - as a percentage of the working age population in employment - increased to 74.5 per cent, up 0.4 percentage points on the previous quarter. The paper provides an account of quarterly LFS employment over a two-year period to November 2002

Overview of the labour market [June 2003]

The latest figures on the labour market in Scotland are summarised. Over the last quarter, Labour Force Survey (LFS) data show that the level of employment remained unchanged in the three months to February 2003, at 2,415 thousand. Over the year to February 2003, employment increased by 55 thousand. The employment rate - as a percentage of the working age population in employment - fell to 74.2 per cent, down 0.3 percentage points on the previous quarter. The paper provides an account of quarterly LFS employment over a two-year period to February 2003

Introducing--new and improved : the marketing of changed institutions of higher learning

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which colleges and universities that have changed significantly have taken a planned approach to marketing their institutions through their external communications. Changed image institutions are defined as those degree-granting institutions that have changed name, sex status, or number of years of instruction offered within the past two decades since 1966. The sample contained six public and six private institutions--two public and two private institutions in each category.;Publications of various divisions of the institutions were analyzed for consistency of image presentation. Commercially published college guides were consulted for accuracy of descriptions of sample institutions. Site visits were conducted where persons representing various functional areas of the institutions studied were interviewed.;A guidance counselor survey was conducted in which counselors were asked to identify the list of colleges and universities as public or private, single-sex or coeducational, two- or four-year. Each institution was also rated on its attempts to inform counselors of changes, improvements in quality as perceived by counselors, and effectiveness of communications efforts.;Based on four measures of consistency: publication analysis, personal interviews, internal image perception analysis, and guidance counselor survey results, no institution rated high on all measures. However, all of the gender-change institutions rated high on three measures. All of the year-change institutions rated high on two of the consistency measures. The four name-change institutions scored sporadically on the various consistency indicators. A major consideration in effectiveness of these institutions\u27 attempts to communicate a changed image is the amount of time elapsed since the change. The gender changes occurred earliest of those changes in the sample. The year changes were more recent than the gender changes while the majority of the name changes were most recent.;This study concludes that evidence of a high degree of marketing planning is in existence in the sample institutions. With one-third of the sample rating high on 75 percent of the consistency measures and another third rating high on 50 percent, a fair conclusion is that marketing planning is an important consideration for administrators in higher education today

Do You Know Me? The \u27Doodling\u27 of Iconic Mink, Milk, Booze, and Fruit Campaigns

Anyone who has paid attention to advertising for the past several decades is familiar with five iconic campaigns: Blackglama mink “What becomes a legend most?”; American Express “Do you know me?”; Absolut vodka “Bottle”; Fluid Milk Processor Board “Got Milk?”; and Apple computer “Think Different.” These smart, successful, and long-running campaigns share an important characteristic: they rely on the audience to have a certain level of cultural literacy in order to interpret them. However, an advertiser in today’s digital world can no longer take cultural literacy for granted. Yesterday’s common experiences in all facets of life are being replaced by individual experiences. For example, if two people enter identical search terms into Google, they will quite possibly receive different search results. They will be targeted with different advertisements. The order in which they navigate the links they choose to follow will differ. This study examines five, historic advertising campaigns dependent on established cultural literacy for their communicative value along with the rapid response format of the Internet search for information

An Analysis of Urban Higher Education CEO\u27s Perceptions of Critical Leadership Behaviors

The research question for this study asked if CEO\u27s (Chief Executive Officers) of urban higher education institutions hold the same values and beliefs as those attributed to business and industry CEO\u27s through the business literature. Through survey methodology, the analysis of urban higher education CEO\u27s perceptions of critical leadership behaviors revealed very similar belief patterns. The primary discrepancies between the research group and their industry counterparts lie in the degree to which critical behaviors are espoused and in the acceptance of transformational leadership as a proactive model for effective organizational change. The responses to the open-ended portion of the questionnaire gave a clear picture of the kinds of training CEO\u27s consider to be important. The Likert scale items revealed that urban education CEO\u27s espouse the transformational leadership concept yet are tentative about empowering staff and aligning the organizational structure to facilitate a participative management model. Entrepreneurship and risk taking activities are embraced somewhat tentatively also which would serve to inhibit creativity and innovation within the organization. The traditional emphasis on academic culture, symbols and the president as leader may be instrumental in encouraging the belief that CEO\u27s should be charismatic and visionary, yet without changing organizational structure and empowering employees, the concept of leadership remains in the traditional domain. It has been established that urban education CEO\u27s do hold similar beliefs as their business counterparts. The literature search also revealed that many environmental and business conditions are also similar. It is therefore recommended that further research be conducted to identify ways in which transformational leadership methods could best benefit the urban higher education milieu

The regional distribution of public expendictures in the UK : an exposition and critique of the Barnett formula

The Barnett formula is the official basis upon which increments to public funds are allocated to the devolved regions of the UK for those parts of the budget that are administered locally. There is considerable controversy surrounding the implications of its strict application for the relevant regions. The existing literature focuses primarily on the equity of the spatial changes to government per capita expenditure that would accompany such a change. In contrast, in this paper we attempt to quantify the system-wide economic consequences-the real, relative resource squeeze that accompanies the financial relative squeeze-on one devolved region, Scotland. The analysis uses a multisectoral regional computable general equilibrium modelling approach. We highlight the importance of population endogeneity, particularly since the population proportions used in the formula are now regularly updated

Practice learning: challenging neoliberalism in a turbulent world.

The turmoil, struggle, deepening poverty and inequality in which the world finds itself requires a responsive social work practice, theory and education. However, the current era of neoliberalism, 'post-welfare capitalism' and external socio-political pressures (Ioakimidis et al, 2014), increasingly suppresses social work's mandate of working for social justice and social change (Yazbek, 2014, Sewpaul, 2013). The reconceptualisation of social work in a context of rampant wealth accumulation and deepening poverty has led to the need for more orthodox social work assumptions and theories to be challenged (Ioakimidis et al, 2014; Sewpaul, 2014; Harms Smith, 2013)