Trade union members did not shape the Labour leadership result as much as in past elections

Following changes to the Labour leadership election procedures under Ed Miliband, critics claimed that this election would be swamped by affiliated members from the trade unions who could opt in to get a ballot (unlike the old system in which they were capped at a one third share). However, Mark Wickham-Jones finds that trade unionists came nowhere near playing the kind of role that they had done in previous contests. Though they comprised over 30 per cent of the original electorate, in terms of votes returned only 17 per cent came from trade union members

Reflecting on the Strategic Use of CAQDAS to Manage and Report on the Qualitative Research Process

As an increasing number of researchers have been trained to u s e programs such as Atlas/ti, NUD*IST, Nvivo, and ETHNOGRAPH their value in analyzing qualitative data has gained greater recognition. Drawing on the experience of two PhD candidates at the University of Tasmania, this paper reflects upon some potential uses of a suite of computer software programs to make the research and analysis process more logical and transparent. In addition, this paper argues for the introduction of a Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Protocol to give readers of the research report a better understanding of the analysis process undertaken by the researcher

Knowledge Management and Its Role in Strategic Sustainability Management in the Finance Sector

Given the broad economic, environmental, and social challenges in the modern competitive environment, it is not surprising that effective sustainability management has emerged as an important variable in the strategic management process. Increasingly, firms are finding it necessary and beneficial to build sustainability principles into their strategic planning, and the extant research has shown that effective strategic management of sustainability can have a variety of positive outcomes for the firm such as improved economic. Given its demonstrable importance to the strategic management process, and the noted absence of a knowledge management process in the literature, this chapter seeks to address the broad research opportunity to explore what elements comprise a sustainability knowledge management system

Polynomials inducing the zero function on local rings

For a Noetherian local ring (R, m) having a finite residue field of cardinality q, we study the connections between the ideal N (R) of R[x], which is the set of polynomials that vanish on R, and the ideal N(m), the polynomials that vanish on m, using polynomials of the form (formula presented) where c1,…, cq is a set of representatives of the residue classes of m. In particular, when R is Henselian we show that a generating set for N (R) may be obtained from a generating set for N (m) by composing with π(x)

An Examination of the Knowledge Management Process in the Emerging Chinese Hotel Industry

Since the Open-Door Reforms of the Chinese market to foreign investment in the late 1970s, numerous Western firms have sought to enter and establish their presence as a market leader in their particular industry. Establishing a presence and generating growth in the emergent Chinese market has proven challenging for Western firms; operating effectively and efficiently in this ‘new’ market environment (characterised by significant psychographic, cultural, legal and political differences) has highlighted a number of significant research opportunities. One such opportunity has manifest in a call to develop a finer-grained understanding of the knowledge management processes required by Western hotel chains attempting to enter and establish their operations in China. This chapter presents an exploratory analysis of the knowledge management issues and processes experienced by the Marriott Group during its entry and growth in the Chinese hospitality industry. This analysis is based on a series of semi-structured interviews with senior managers present during Marriott’s entry into China. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the managerial and theoretical implications emanating therefrom

Lewis Minkin's Labours:The developing party-trade union relationship

In this article, I examine critically the themes raised by Lewis Minkin in his 2014 volume about Labour politics, The Blair Supremacy, within the context of his earlier work concerning the party’s relationship with its affiliated trade unions. I outline his argument concerning the development of party management, especially that regarding ‘a Blair coup’. I discuss the role of norms in political explanation, the importance of formal rules in understanding Labour politics, the significance of wider changes to the party’s character, how best to conceptualise the nature of Tony Blair’s leadership, and, finally, the historical development of the party’s trajectory. I conclude with an overall assessment of Minkin’s corpus and some pointers as to an alternative conceptualisation of Labour’s relationship with its affiliated unions. </jats:p

The Impact of Social Deprivation on Paranoia, Hallucinations, Mania and Depression: The Role of Discrimination Social Support, Stress and Trust

The negative implications of living in a socially unequal society are now well documented. However, there is poor understanding of the pathways from specific environmental risk to symptoms. Here we examine the associations between social deprivation, depression, and psychotic symptoms using the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, a cross-sectional dataset including 7,353 individuals. In addition we looked at the mediating role of stress, discrimination, trust and lack of social support. We found that the participants' neighbourhood index of multiple deprivation (IMD) significantly predicted psychosis and depression. On inspection of specific psychotic symptoms, IMD predicted paranoia, but not hallucinations or hypomania. Stress and trust partially mediated the relationship between IMD and paranoid ideation. Stress, trust and a lack of social support fully mediated the relationship between IMD and depression. Future research should focus on the role deprivation and social inequalities plays in specific manifestations of psychopathology and investigate mechanisms to explain those associations that occur. Targeting the mediating mechanisms through appropriate psychological intervention may go some way to dampen the negative consequences of living in an unjust society; ameliorating economic injustice may improve population mental health