A voyage of discovery or a fast track to success: Men, Women and the MBA

This paper presents and discusses results of a research project on the personal and career benefits of the MBA. These results suggest women value the experience of doing the course and that this gives them greater >intrinsic= benefits of enhanced confidence and self worth. Men gain greater >extrinsic= benefits of enhanced pay and status and place a greater emphasis on the credential value of the MBA. However, the MBA has less of a transforming effect on how they see themselves and their organisations

Men in non-traditional occupations: Career entry, career orientation and experience of role strain

This paper sets out to explore the experiences of men in non-traditional occupations. In particular it focuses on the dynamics of career entry, career orientation (i.e. preference for intrinsic or extrinsic rewards) and the possible existence, nature and consequences of ‘role strain’. Four occupational groups are examined: nurses, cabin crew, librarians and primary school teachers. Results suggest that men fall into three main categories: seekers (who actively chose the ‘female’ occupation), ‘finders’ (who did not actively seek a non-traditional career but who found the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) and settlers (who actively chose the occupation, often as a result of dissatisfaction with a more ‘masculine’ job, and who then settled in their non-traditional career). Settlers in particular are associated with a more intrinsic career orientation and express a desire to remain close to occupational and professional practice. Role strain is prevalent in men’s experiences in their non-traditional career. The potential sources of such role strain and the implications for career aspirations and career choices are explored

The impact of the law on industrial disputes in the 1980s: report of a survey of public transport employers

This paper reports the results of one part of a research project which investigated the nature and extent of the impact of the labour legislation enacted between 1980 and 1990 on the conduct of the industrial relations and the processes by which this came about. Interviews were carried out with managers in three major public sector transport organisations. All three were subject to radical organisational change during the period under review and had quite extensive experience of dispute in this time. While they had made greater use of the law than employers in other sectors covered by the research project, there were mixed views on the results of this resort to the law. In general the law appeared to be a subsidiary part of, and influence on, the management of the process of change rather than an independent factor influencing management''s relations with trade unions and the workforce

Ontological aspects of the Casimir Effect

The role of the vacuum, in the Casimir Effect, is a matter of some dispute: the Casimir force has been variously described as a phenomenon resulting "from the alteration, by the boundaries, of the zero-point electromagnetic energy", or a "Van der Waals force between the metal plates" that can be "computed without reference to zero point energies". Neither of these descriptions are grounded in a consistently quantum mechanical treatment of matter interacting with the electromagnetic field. However, the Casimir Effect has been canonically described within the framework of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics. On this account, the force is seen to arise due to the coupling of fluctuating currents to the zero-point radiation, and it is in this restricted sense that the phenomenon requires the existence of zero-point fields. The conflicting descriptions of the Casimir Effect, on the other hand, appear to arise from inadequate ontologies in which an unwarranted metaphysical priority is assigned either to the matter or the fields. Such ontological errors may have a direct bearing on the problem of the cosmological constant and the correct prediction of the Casimir force in a state of thermal equilibrium.Comment: 6 page

A normal paranoia? The emergence of distrust between parents of autistic children and public officials

This paper explores the development of distrust and paranoia among parents and carers of autistic children in their interactions with public officials charged with such children’s diagnosis, education and care. The suspicion and distrust framework of Fein and Hilton (1994), and Kramer’s typology of organisational paranoia (1998, 2001) are used to show how distrust impacts on client experiences. Antecedents of distrust are identified, and the ‘normalcy’ of paranoia in this context is demonstrated. These findings should permit public sector staff dealing with parents and carers of autistic children to address such perceptions and build trust where little seems to exist