Working hours and common mental disorders in English police officers

Background: There is a paucity of evidence on working hours and their psychological correlates in police officers of the federated ranks in England. Aims: An exploratory study to establish the extent to which a sample of English police officers worked long hours and the association between long working hours and common mental disorder (CMD). Methods: Officers of the federated ranks (constable, sergeant, inspector) from two English county forces completed a questionnaire to report their typical weekly working hours and symptoms of CMD. We also collected socio- and occupational-demographic data. We defined long working hours as ≥49 hours in a typical week in accordance with 48-hour weekly limit specified in the 1993 European Directive on the Organisation of Working Time. We established associations between long working hours and self-reported CMDs using binary logistic regression to generate ORs and 95% CIs adjusted for potential confounding variables. Results: 27% (N=327/1226) of respondents reported long working hours. The odds ratios for psychological distress (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.57-2.68), emotional exhaustion (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.52-2.59), and depersonalisation (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.00-1.71) were significantly increased for long working hours after adjustment for socio- and occupational-demographic characteristics. Conclusions: More than one quarter of sampled police officers reported working long hours, and were significantly more likely to report CMD. National and longitudinal research is required to confirm these findings, which suggest management of working hours may effectively promote psychological wellbeing

The impact of rater agreeableness and rating context on the evaluation of poor performance

We tested the effects of rater agreeableness on the rating of others’ poor performance in performance appraisal (PA). We also examined the interactions between rater agreeableness and two aspects of the rating context: ratee self-ratings and the prospect of future collaboration with the ratee after the feedback of PA ratings. Participants were government employees (N = 230) allocated to one of six experimental groups (a 3 × 2 between-groups design) or a control group (n = 20). Participants received accurate, low-deviated or high-deviated self-ratings from the ratee. Half were notified they would collaborate with the ratee in a future task. High rater agreeableness, positive deviations in self-rating, and the prospect of future collaboration were all independent predictors of higher PA ratings. The interactions between rater agreeableness and rating context were very small and inconsistent. We argue that conflict avoidance is an important motivation for those rating the performance of others

Drivers of change in the UK Fire Service: an operations management perspective

The UK Fire and Rescue Service is subject to reform, along with other public sector services, resulting in later retirement age and budget limitations; the fire service is also subject to other societal changes such as shifts in fitness levels and a reduction in call outs. This chapter reviews these changes and considers them from an operations management perspective. A method for how to measure operational effectiveness is proposed and its use in informing changes to operating practice in the fire service is advocated

Refugee entrepreneurship survey 2023

Refugee entrepreneurship initiatives (REIs) play a significant role in rebuilding livelihoods and fostering positive social impacts among displaced communities. REIs provide a variety of activities that support people with refugee experiences to create and pursue new business opportunities. REIs have been deployed in camps[i] and host country settings[ii] around the world, gaining traction with global agencies, including UNHCR[iii] and the World Bank[iv]. Interest in these initiatives has been heightened by the intuitive connection between the global focus on refugee self-reliance and the process of starting a business. However, growth in interest masks the reality that business support for individuals with refugee backgrounds can be complex to bring to life and difficult to scale. Little is known about the collective reach and impacts of these initiatives, both on business related outcomes and on refugees’ personal development. The extent to which REIs typically monitor or estimate reach and impact is also unknown.</p

Overweight and obesity in UK firefighters

Background: Obesity among firefighters can present a hindrance to operational effectiveness. In North American studies 80% of US firefighters are overweight or obese. No studies have explored obesity among firefighters in the UK and it is unclear whether obesity is a problem among UK firefighters. Aims: To establish the prevalence of obesity among a large sample of firefighters in the UK and to explore changes in body mass index (BMI) over a three year period. Methods: The BMI and body composition of 735 male firefighters from a UK county Fire and rescue service was assessed in 2008 and 2011. Results: In 2008, 65% of the firefighters were either overweight (54%) or obese (11%). In 2011, slightly fewer firefighters were overweight (53%) however the proportion classified as obese increased significantly to 13%.Those classified as normal-weight in 2008 were more likely to have gained weight by 2011 in comparison to those categorised as obese at baseline. A lower proportion of firefigthers were classified as high-risk for obesity based on their waist circumference in 2008. Conclusion: The proportion of firefighters who are either overweight or obese is lower in this UK sample than found in US studies. Nevertheless, the proportion of UK firefighters classed as overweight was higher than that found in the general population samples from England. Given the negative implications of obesity for performance, there is a need for further investment in theory-based sector-specific health promotion research and practice

A systematic review of current understandings of employability

A theoretical framework is essential for the effective evaluation of employability. However, there are a wide range of definitions of employability coexisting in current literature. A review into existing ways in which employability has been conceptualised is needed to inform a better understanding of the nature of contributions made by various employability development opportunities, and appropriate assessment of these contributions. A systematic review is presented, assessing the similarities and differences between the components of employability conceptualisations, focusing on employability at an individual level. Relevant publications were identified through a sensitive search strategy of eight electronic bibliographic databases from 1960 to 2014. Data were extracted from 16 eligible manuscripts. Capital, career management and contextual dimensions were identified as unifying themes in these components. Findings indicate that success in developing employability needs to be contextualised within a conceptualisation of employability as a multifaceted construct

Applying a longitudinal tracer methodology to evaluate complex interventions in complex settings

Long-running multi-faceted intervention studies are particularly problematic in large and complex organizations where traditional methods prove too resource intensive and can yield inaccurate and incomplete findings. This paper describes the first use of, longitudinal tracer methodology (LTM), a realist approach to evaluation, to examine the links between multiple complex intervention activities (intervention processes) and their outcomes on a construction megaproject. LTM is especially useful when the researcher has little control over intervention delivery but has access to evidence drawn from a variety of sources to evaluate the effects of intervention activities over time. There are, however, very few examples of how this methodology can be successfully deployed in complex organisational settings and none on a construction megaproject. In this paper we present a case study of its use over a period of three years, on 24 construction sites forming London’s Thames Tideway Tunnel (Tideway) megaproject. The aim of the study was to examine the ‘transformational’ power of occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions as they played out across the multiple organisations and supply chains that constituted the megaproject. The case study shows how, with careful design, the method can be adapted in-flight to accommodate shifting lines of inquiry as the intervention activities progress and change. This feature of the method, along with its resource efficient operation, make it a particularly attractive option where interventions are likely to have differential effects across multiple sites of enactment

Politician personality, Machiavellianism and political skill as predictors of perfomance ratings in political roles

This paper conceptualizes politicians as political workers. It describes a multimethod study with two aims: (1) to determine whether politicians share a latent mental model of performance in political roles, and (2) to test hypothesized relationships between politician self-rated characteristics (i.e. extroversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, Machiavellianism and political skill) and received performance ratings from political colleagues and officers. 231 local politicians provided self-ratings on a political performance questionnaire developed following a role analysis, and standardized measures of personality. 185 also received performance ratings from colleagues (n = 749) and officers (n = 729). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of self- and received performance ratings revealed five latent factors: Resilience, Politicking, Analytical Skills, Representing People and Relating to Others. Regression analyses found that neuroticism and conscientiousness contribute to received ratings of Resilience, and neuroticism contributes to received ratings of Analytical Skills

Towards a common measure of operational effectiveness for the UK Fire and Rescue Service

Operational effectiveness explains how well an organisation is performing in terms of maximising their resources to provide goods and/or services and reduce deficits. Within conventional operations management (OM), performance objectives focus around quality, cost, flexibility, speed and dependability. Performance measures can then be designed to ascertain how closely an organisation is meeting those objectives. Performance monitoring within the UK Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) is directed around the data required annually by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on key performance indicators and these reporting systems are seen as exemplars of the new public management profile across Europe (Carvalho, Fernandes, Lambert and Lapsley, 2006). However comparisons between services become difficult due to variation in how this data are reported across the different services. A toolkit exists within the UK FRS to assist services as part of peer auditing which can be used for services to become more self-aware of their performance and help with strategy development (CFOA, 2012). This has been service developed and so features key areas of concern for Fire and Rescue Services associated with the delivery of effective fire and rescue provision for the public. We argue that this toolkit does not allow for rigorous empirical comparisons between services as part of organisational research and improvement processes. Much of the toolkit uses subjective qualitative benchmarking which serves as a useful tool for giving meaningful feedback to services on performance but is problematic when tracking changes over time and between services. We propose that by using a common framework to measure operational effectiveness that is based on existing quantitative data, the UK FRS will be able to make meaningful comparisons and offer a clearer insight in to performance of individual services useful for strategic planning. In addition, it will offer an empirically developed, standardised tool for measuring operational effectiveness when conducting research with the FRS community. This article outlines the development of such a framework with one UK FRS, to be known as ‘The Shires’ to protect anonymity, and a case study of how it has been used within another FRS, ‘The Counties’, to measure performance as part of an ongoing review of specific organisational change activities within the service; the introduction of Day Crewing Plus

The power of nurturing refugee businesses

This report is the culmination of a two-year independent evaluation of Inkomoko’s business support and loan’s initiative. Founded in and around Rwandan refugee camps in 2012, Inkomoko offers business training, consultancy and financial opportunities to camp residents with refugee status and local citizens. An estimated 22% of the world’s refugees currently live in camps (UNHCR, 2021). Refugee communities may now reside for decades in these once temporary places. These figures denote the increasing pressure support organisations and camp residents face in these settings. We established the featured project in 2020, to examine what kinds of impacts business support in camps could have and whether these transferred easily between different countries. This report offers insights from a comparative analysis of survey data from Inkomoko’s Rwandan and Kenyan programs and an in depth mixed methods case study of their expansion into Kakuma, Kenya. The project was supported by three UK Universities and funded by the British Academy of Management and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.</p