Skilled Migrants and International Careers: A Qualitative Study and Interpretation of the Careers and Perceived Career Success of Skilled Migrant Workers in Ireland

This dissertation presents an exploration of the career motivations, actions and experiences of thirty-eight skilled migrants, from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, who currently live and work in Ireland. Specifically, the analysis considers how career transitions and contexts, in conjunction with time and timing, influence the career actions and career outcomes of skilled migrants. These internationally mobile workers were interviewed over a two-year period. This study espouses a constructivist philosophical paradigm, with the study’s analysis based on the elucidations of the respondents themselves, in their recounts of their career actions and experiences in Ireland, the country context for the study. Adopting a holistic definition of career, the study embraces a whole life perspective (Litano and Major, 2016) on the interviewees’ careers. This perspective develops and extends the skilled migrants’ career development from an occupational and organisational perspective to a much broader, all-inclusive perspective, where profession and work have place and meaning; such as work being a means to an end (e.g. good quality of life) for the interviewees with an instrumentalist career script. This study draws on literature in the HRM, skilled migrant, careers, business, management and organisational studies domains. The research unpacks the contemporary conceptualisations of skilled migrant careers and relates these to the detailed empirical study. In doing so, the study provides a deeper comprehension of how the skilled migrant constructs and interprets his/her career experiences in the ever-changing personal, professional and social frameworks of both their home and host country careers. These findings and interpretations contribute to the existing knowledge on a number of key areas, such as skilled migrant and expatriate careers, underemployment, perceived career success, international careers and the effects of career transitions and structure and agency on career actions and outcomes. The research captures the individual migrant’s subjective perceptions of his/her career and world, and adopts an more inclusive view of career, examining the under-explored importance of the influence of family, context and time on the career actions and outcomes of skilled migrants in their home and host countries

Russian-Iranian Relations: Outlook for Cooperation with the "Axis of Evil"; Strategic Insights, v. 6, issue 8 (August 2005)

This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.6, issue 8 (2005 August)Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Principles of physical and biological science found in seven textbooks of general science for grade seven

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

An analysis of six junior high American history workbooks on the basis of the higher mental processes involved

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

The treatment of Africa in six basic social studies texts

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Revisiting the De-Radicalisation or Disengagement Debate: Public Attitudes to the Re-Integration of Terrorists

The article reports on the findings of an experimental survey which was conducted to ascertain the level of support and perceived effectiveness of using de-radicalisation programmes to re-integrate returning foreign fighters. Public support (or the lack of opposition) for re-integration programmes can be important in ensuring the programmes have the time, resources and opportunity to be successful however we know little about what wider society thinks about re-integration programmes. The article explores the extent to which the inclusion of de-radicalisation – in name and content – changes attitudes to a re-integration programme. This is relevant in showing attitudes to de-radicalisation over disengagement and whether de-radicalisation, while perhaps not more effective at the programme-level, is or is not more effective at generating public support for re-integration (and thereby facilitating the process itself). We find that the inclusion of de-radicalisation in the name and content of a re-integration programme to a small extent increases support for re-integration over a programme that uses the terms disengagement and desistance. However, we also find that while de-radicalisation increases support, it also decreases perceived effectiveness, leading respondents to feel it makes the country less safe and less likely to reduce the re-offending rate than if the programme excludes de-radicalisation. We argue this polarising effect is reflective of wider reasons for supporting the policies (e.g. de-radicalisation may be seen as a form of ideational/normative punishment) and that the term de-radicalisation may shift the framing of the problematic to entrenched social structures, thus rendering itself ineffective as a policy treatment. In terms of policy, we argue there is a necessity for greater openness about re-integration programmes and that governments would benefit from selling the programmes to the public. We conclude our paper with a justification of focusing further research on understanding public/community attitudes to re-integration programmes and understanding the PR of counter-terrorism policies more generally

Instantaneous effects of mindfulness meditation on tennis return performance in elite junior athletes completing an implicitly sequenced serve return task

Single-session meditation augmentation of sport-specific skill performance was tested with elite junior tennis athletes. Athletes completed one of two styles of mindfulness meditation (focused-attention or open-monitoring) or a control listening condition prior to performing an implicitly sequenced tennis serve return task involving the goal of hitting a target area placed on the service court. Unbeknownst to athletes, six distinct serves followed a repeating second-order conditional sequence for two task blocks before the sequence was altered in a third transfer block. Task performance was operationalized as serve return outcome and analyzed using beta regression modeling. Models analyzed group by block differences in the proportion of returned serves (i.e., non-aces), returns placed in the service court, and target hits. Contrary to previous laboratory findings, results did not support meditation-related augmentation of performance and/or sequence learning. In fact, compared to control, meditation may have impaired performance improvements and acquisition of serve sequence information. It is possible that the effects of single-session meditation seen in laboratory research may not extend to more complex motor tasks, at least in highly-trained adolescents completing a well-learned skill. Further research is required to elucidate the participant, task, and meditation-related characteristics that might promote single-session meditation performance enhancement

The changing role of the software engineer

In this paper we will discuss the changing role of a software engineer. We will examine this from four major standpoints, the software development life cycle, the influence of open source software, testing and deployment and the emergence of new technologies. We will first analyze what the role of a software engineer was in the past. We will examine limitations associated with software development life cycle models, and software failures that catalyzed increased importance for quality assurance. We then outline the current role of a software engineer. We discuss the impact of agile software development and automation on the software development cycle, the influence of open source software and how new technologies such as Function-as-a-Service and machine learning may impacted the role. Based on our research, we analyze why the software engineer role has changed and postulate prospective changes to the role of software engineer, and in particular how new responsibilities may affect the day to day work of future software engineers. We ultimately find that the role of a “software engineer” is nowadays widely varied and very broad, and it only generally indicates the type of work that the software engineer may undertake

What goes around comes around. Exploring how skilled migrant founder–managers of SMEs recruit and retain international talent

Abstract Purpose – This micro-level study unpacks the recruitment and retention of international professionals to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study highlights the influence of the founders’ international experience when applying organisational-level (meso) policies and practices. With their insider experience as skilled migrants, we share how the founders in each of the SMEs mobilised career capital into human resource management (HRM) strategies. Design/methodology/approach – Combining literature on SMEs and skilled migrants’ careers, we draw upon intelligent career theory to illuminate the recruitment and retention of self-initiated expatriates and skilled migrants in SMEs. With three SME case studies as samples–one micro, one small and one medium-sized organisation in Ireland–we consider the influence of the founders’ international experience in the design and application of formal and informal HRM strategies (at the organisational level) that are operationalised to recruit and retain international talent to/in these organisations. Findings – The HRM practices in the three SME cases in this paper, each run by migrant founders, vary from formalised (for our medium-sized organisation), semi-formalised (for our small-sized organisation) to ad hoc and tailor-made (for our micro-sized organisation). These particular SMEs were often more receptive to hiring other migrants. The important role of the three SME case studies’ skilled migrant founders and their own international career experiences was apparent in the particular HRM approaches they adopted. The relevance of intelligent career theory when applying micro-level findings at the meso-organisational level is shown. Originality/value – The paper presents how the international experience of founder–managers, in turn, impacts on the HRM practices and policies that are implemented to recruit and retain international employees. The study highlights how both organisation size and founder-manager international experience influence the degree of customisation of HRM practices and policies in SMEs, specifically pertaining to the recruitment and retention of self-initiated expatriates and skilled migrant employees. The heterogeneity within the sub-categories encompassed under the umbrella label of SME is emphasised; validating our case study approach, where nuance and detail of the specific organisation can be shared