Gender on the flightdeck: experiences of women commercial airline pilots in the UK

The reasons for, and the implications arising from, the underrepresentation of women on the flightdeck of commercial aircraft continues to challenge national Governments, the aviation industry, and the academic community. Although some airlines have made concerted efforts to improve the gender balance of their flightcrew, womens' participation in the profession remains low. Of the 130,000 airline pilots worldwide only 4000 (3%) are women and only 450 hold the command of Captain. The dominant historical discourse of airline pilots as assertive masculine figures may act to dissuade women from pursuing a career on the flightdeck and women pilots are subjected to sexist remarks and behaviour from colleagues and passengers. Given commercial aviation's increasing growth worldwide and the concurrent increase in demand for highly skilled labour, the inability to recruit and retain women pilots represents a significant problem for both the sector and the wider economy as it will constrain growth, hinder aviation's expansion by failing to capitalise on women's skill sets, and delay the achievement of gender equality. Understanding the experiences of flightcrew is therefore vital in addressing this important research problem. Through the use of in-depth interviews with men and women flightcrew in the UK, the research identifies a number of obstacles to greater female participation and recommends that airlines not only focus on gender differences in learning, leadership and communication but that they also take steps to more effectively manage diversity in their workforce and actively promote positive representations of women flightcrew both within and beyond their organisation

Piggy in the Middle: How Direct Customer Power Affects First-Tier Suppliers’ Adoption of Socially Responsible Procurement Practices and Performance

Companies are faced with a choice of which type of power to use in their efforts to persuade their first-tier suppliers to adopt socially responsible procurement practices with key second-tier suppliers. However, we know little about how first-tier suppliers will react to different types of power and which are most effective in encouraging the adoption of socially responsible procurement practices. We are also ignorant of the impact of these practices on first-tier suppliers’ performance. This paper uses bases of power theory to examine the impact of buyer companies’ power usage (non-mediated and mediated) on first-tier suppliers’ adoption of socially responsible procurement practices (process-based and market-based) with their own (second-tier) suppliers. We surveyed managers responsible for sustainable supply chain management in 156 firms and analyzed the results using structural equation modeling. Our findings show that non-mediated power use (expert and referent) influences the adoption of process-based and market-based practices, while mediated power use (coercion, legitimacy, and reward) has no significant impact on the adoption of either type of practice. Additionally, we find that the adoption of market-based socially responsible procurement practices leads to enhanced performance for first-tier suppliers who adopt these practices with their second-tier suppliers

Gender on the flightdeck: experiences of female commercial airline pilots in the UK

The reasons for, and the implications arising from, the underrepresentation of women on the flightdeck of commercial aircraft continues to challenge national Governments, the aviation industry, and the academic community. Although some airlines have made concerted efforts to improve the gender balance of their flightcrew, female participation in the profession remains low. Of the 130,000 airline pilots worldwide only 4,000 (3%) are female and only 450 hold the command of Captain. The dominant historical discourse of airline pilots as assertive masculine figures may act to dissuade women from pursuing a career on the flightdeck and female pilots are often subject to sexist remarks and behaviour from colleagues and passengers. Given commercial aviation’s increasing growth worldwide and the concurrent increase in demand for highly skilled labour, the inability to recruit and retain female pilots represents a significant problem for both the sector and the wider economy as it will constrain growth, hinder aviation’s expansion by failing to capitalise on female skill sets, and delay the achievement of gender equality. Understanding the experiences of flightcrew is therefore vital in addressing this important research problem. Through the use of in-depth interviews with male and female flightcrew in the UK, this paper seeks to set the agenda in terms of future research. It identifies a number of obstacles to greater female participation and recommends that airlines not only focus on gender differences in learning, leadership and communication but that they also take steps to more effectively manage diversity in their workforce and actively promote positive representations of female flightcrew both within and beyond their organisation

How Does it Pay to be Green and Good? The Impact of Environmental and Social Supply Chain Practices on Operational and Competitive Outcomes

Although much has been written about whether it pays to be green, few researchers ask does it pay to be good and fewer still offer insights into which practices pay and which do not. This chapter addresses a key missing link in supply chain management by identifying which environmentally and socially sustainable supply chain management practices impact the operational and competitive outcomes of firms. The research literature has presented a diverse catalogue of measures of supply chain sustainability practices. In this chapter we have consolidated and synthesised existing measures in an effort to test the relationship between established sustainability practices and outcomes which allow firms to create a business case for both environmental and social sustainability practices. In doing so, we arrived at four environmental and four social supply chain sustainability practices with similar themes: monitoring; management systems; new product and process development; and strategy re-definition. A key outcome of this examination is that social sustainability practices pay more than environmental sustainability practices. This finding suggests that it might be advantageous for companies to invest their resources in social new product and process development as well as social supply chain re-definition focusing on social issues and in environmental monitoring and developing new environmental products and processes.Irish Research Counci

Who’s Milking It? Scripted Stories of Food Labour

This article explores representations of food labour at different stages in the supply chain through a labour process theory perspective. Employing multi-modal critical discourse analysis it analyses visual data collected from three television programmes focused on dairy production and consumption. The research sheds light on the power relations inherent to food production and the devaluing of manual food labour in supply chains, which are shaped by the current capitalist socio-political environment. The findings expose ways in which media can reinforce dominant understandings of food supply chains, while making aspects of food labour invisible

Tools and Technologies of Transparency in Sustainable Global Supply Chains

This article explores the role that technology plays in creating and fostering transparency in global supply chains. Transparency is deemed vital in the creation of sustainable and resilient supply chains and overall effective corporate governance. There are two distinct orientations toward the use of technology by multinational corporations (MNCs) in creating sustainability transparency within their global supply chains: control and relational. A control orientation views technology as a tool to gather the ever-increasing levels of sustainability data on supplier practices in an efficient, secure, and progressively automated manner. A relational orientation adopts a view where technology is a tool to help build social relations and improve dialogue and collaboration on sustainability throughout the supply chain. A key difference in the two orientations lies in the mindset of the MNC manager toward the development of supply chain sustainability transparency. The article illustrates the effective application of both approaches and offers advice to managers on the design choices they need to consider in choosing technologies.University College DublinIrish Research CouncilIrish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Science

An Ideological Analysis of Sustainable Careers: Identifying the Role of Fantasy and a Way Forward

• Purpose: Scholarly and general interest in sustainable careers is flourishing. Sustainable careers are focused on the long-term opportunities and experiences of workers across dynamic employment situations, and are characterized by flexibility, meaning, and individual agency. The current paper analyzes and challenges the underlying ideological assumptions of how sustainable careers are conceptualized and advocates the inclusion of the ecological meaning of sustainability and the notion of dignity into the sustainable careers concept. • Design/methodology/approach: Using Slavoj Žižek’s (1989, 2001) conceptualization of ideology as fantasy-construction, we explore how the use of sustainable careers is influenced by fantasies about the contemporary workplace and the role of the individual in the workplace. This is a conceptual method. • Findings: We argue that the concept of sustainable careers is grounded in the neoliberal fantasy of the individual. The paper concludes by presenting an alternative concept of sustainable careers grounded in a collective dignity-perspective on sustainability, which offers an alternative theoretical understanding of sustainable careers in the contemporary workplace, sharpening its contours and usefulness in theorizing careers. • Originality: This paper is the first to systematically analyze the use and conceptualization of sustainable careers in the literature and to expose the ideological underpinnings of the concept. Propositions are developed to be explored by future research

New insights from field observations of the Younger giant dyke complex and mafic lamprophyres of the gardar province on Tuttutooq island, South Greenland

LK, RW, RC, LM and AM received funding from the Mining Institute of Scotland, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the Edinburgh Geological Society, the Augustine Courtauld Trust and the Scott Polar Research Institute. LK received funding from the Society of Economic Geology Hickok-Radford Fund.The Gardar Province of south Greenland is defined by the products of alkaline igneous magmatism during the Mesoproterozoic. The most laterally extensive Gardar intrusions are a series of giant dyke complexes best exposed on the Tuttutooq archipelago. We present new field observations and a geological map of north-east Tuttutooq island that provide fresh insights into the temporal evolution of the Younger giant dyke complex and two associated ultramafic lamprophyres. Our data demonstrate that distinctive crystallisation regimes occurred in different sectors of the dyke complex, leading to the formation of marginal gabbros and ovoid pod-like domains displaying lamination, modal layering and/or more evolved differentiates. We infer that at least two pulses of magma contributed to the formation of the Younger giant dyke complex. In addition, the relative ages of two ultramafic lamprophyre diatremes are constrained and attributed to two distinct phases of rifting in the Gardar Province.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Prospective biomarkers in preterm preeclampsia: A review

Preterm pre-eclampsia (prior to 37 weeks’ gestation) remains a major cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality particularly in low to middle income countries. Much research has focused on first and second trimester predictors of pre-eclampsia with the aim of allowing stratification of antenatal care and trialling of potential preventative and therapeutic agents. However, none have been shown to be of benefit in randomised controlled trials. In this literature review we critically evaluate predictive and diagnostic tests for preterm pre-eclampsia and discuss their clinical use and potential value in the management of preterm pre-eclampsia. We defined preterm pre-eclampsia as pre-eclampsia occurring prior to 37 weeks’ gestation. Substantial progress has been made in the development of predictive screening tests for preterm pre-eclampsia, but further research is needed prior to their introduction and integration into routine clinical practice. The performance of diagnostic tests mainly utilising angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors for determining time to delivery in later pregnancy currently hold more promise than first trimester predictive tests, possible reflecting the heterogeneity of pre-eclampsia

Cost-effectiveness of Xpert MTB/RIF for tuberculosis diagnosis in South Africa: a real-world cost analysis and economic evaluation

Background In 2010 a new diagnostic test for tuberculosis, Xpert MTB/RIF, received a conditional programmatic recommendation from WHO. Several model-based economic evaluations predicted that Xpert would be cost-effective across sub-Saharan Africa. We investigated the cost-effectiveness of Xpert in the real world during national roll-out in South Africa. Methods For this real-world cost analysis and economic evaluation, we applied extensive primary cost and patient event data from the XTEND study, a pragmatic trial examining Xpert introduction for people investigated for tuberculosis in 40 primary health facilities (20 clusters) in South Africa enrolled between June 8, and Nov 16, 2012, to estimate the costs and cost per disability-adjusted life-year averted of introducing Xpert as the initial diagnostic test for tuberculosis, compared with sputum smear microscopy (the standard of care). Findings The mean total cost per study participant for tuberculosis investigation and treatment was US$312·58 (95$298·58 (246·35–350·82) in the microscopy group. The mean health service (provider) cost per study participant was $168·79 (149·16–188·42) for the Xpert group and$160·46 (143·24–177·68) for the microscopy group of the study. Considering uncertainty in both cost and effect using a wide range of willingness to pay thresholds, we found less than 3% probability that Xpert introduction improved the costeffectiveness of tuberculosis diagnostics. Interpretation After analysing extensive primary data collection during roll-out, we found that Xpert introduction in South Africa was cost-neutral, but found no evidence that Xpert improved the cost-effectiveness of tuberculosis diagnosis. Our study highlights the importance of considering implementation constraints, when predicting and evaluating the cost-effectiveness of new tuberculosis diagnostics in South Africa