Resistance to teamworking in a UK research and development laboratory

This article presents an ethnographic exploration of resistance to teamworking in a UK research and development laboratory named RDL. It focuses on the nature of autonomy and responsibility and the implications for resistance. It finds that resistance is shaped by the laboratory technicians’ individualistic interactions with technology, the laboratory layout and the technicians’ desire for personal task-related autonomy and individual responsibility rather than team-based accountability. However, although resistance is linked to an individualistic interpretation of work it is supported by collective collusion. The article also finds that resistance is not necessarily anti-work. It is simultaneously oriented towards the interests of the company and individual technicians through the technicians’ desire to perform their job well. Finally, the article demonstrates the local and constructed nature of resistance

Exploring performance management in four UK trade unions

Purpose This article explores performance management in four UK trade unions. Specifically, the extent to which managers in the four unions accept or dismiss the unitarist, disciplinary and performative values that arguably characterise performance management practices. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research design was adopted to investigate trade union managers’ interpretations of performance management. Managers were targeted because they hold the power to shape performance management practices in their specific areas. The research employed qualitative semi-structured interviews. Findings Performance management in trade unions is linked to the structure, purpose and orientation of different types of trade union. It is also linked to the wider environmental context. The trade union managers’ interpretations of performance management are linked to disciplinary and performative values. As such they are comparable to the unitarist forms of performance management described in the literature. There are moreover, similarities and differences between the approaches to performance management between trade unions and for profit or public sector organisations. Originality/Value The article adds to the emerging literature on internal trade union management by highlighting a particular aspect of human resource management

An evaluation of the Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale

The West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre (WMRC) is responsible for the National Health Service provision and maintenance of Environmental Control Equipment to patients across the West Midlands Region, England. It is important to measure outcome of provision using a paradigm that has meaning for those patients. The Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Devices Scale is a 26-item, self-rating questionnaire designed to measure user perceptions of how assistive devices affect quality of life. This outcome measure is being evaluated in the West Midland

Culture, Wasta and perceptions of performance appraisal in Saudi Arabia

This article explores the relationship between Arabic culture and employees’ perceptions of performance appraisal in a Saudi Arabian company named SACO. Using an interpretive and qualitative methodological framework, the article suggests that Western models of performance appraisal rooted in rationality and objectivity conflict with aspects of Saudi Arabian culture. Specifically, the personal relations implicated in the social practice of Wasta. However, the article also shows how SACO employees are beginning to reject Saudi Arabian cultural norms and adopt alternative values which are linked to notions of organisational justice and individual egalitarianism. These values are compatible with Western models of performance appraisal

The notification of phthisis

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Infection, inflammation & innate immunity in the paediatric CF airway

This thesis focuses on infection and immunity within the airways in cystic fibrosis (CF), particularly the role of the antimicrobial peptides (part of the innate immune system) and their relationship to vitamin D status. Vitamin D response elements have been identified in the genes encoding the antimicrobial peptides cathelicidin (LL37) and human β defensins (HBD-2) and in-vitro vitamin D significantly induces expression of these peptides in both CF and non-CF bronchial epithelial cells. As innate defence is pivotal to airway health and is one of the proposed ways that vitamin D deficiency contributes to worsening respiratory health, this thesis will consider first immunity of the normal airway and the interactions with vitamin D and then discuss the pathophysiology of CF and the role of vitamin D on the innate immune system within CF. The role of vitamin D on infection and inflammation in the airways of infants with CF is explored and the impact of Vitamin D levels seen immunologically and functionally over the first year of life is described. Finally the role of vitamin D as an immunomodulatory molecule is explored in a greater range of CF disease severity and age. Through the various parameters explored, in different CF patient populations, the conclusion remains the same; vitamin D deficiency is not associated with increased infection, greater inflammation nor a worse clinical outcome. The possible reasons for the lack of any relationship are discussed in the final chapter; either a missed signal because the levels studied were on the low or high flat parts of a 2 sigmoid relationship thus effects seen only in really severe deficiency or because supra-high levels are needed to see any effect, the effect being lost in the inflammation seen within the CF airway or a true lack of relationship.Open Acces

Effects of separation layer thickness on oxygen permeation and mechanical strength of DL-HFMR-ScSZ

It has been demonstrated in our previous studies that in order for greater methane conversion and less coke-formation, a higher oxygen permeation rate through the outer oxygen separation layer of a functional dual-layer ceramic hollow fibre membrane is needed. Besides new membrane materials with higher oxygen permeability, another way of improving oxygen permeation is to reduce the separation layer thickness, although this strategy is limited by the characteristic thickness, L c, where bulk diffusion and surface oxygen exchange are both important. As a result, a series of La 0.80Sr 0.20MnO 3-δ (LSM)-Scandia(10%)-Stabilized-Zirconia (ScSZ)/ScSZ-NiO functional dual-layer hollow fibres (DL-HF) with an outer oxygen separation layer thickness between approximately 8.0 and 72.4μm were fabricated in this study, by using the single-step co-extrusion and co-sintering process. The effects of separation layer thickness on oxygen permeation and mechanical strength were investigated. The oxygen permeation of the LSM-ScSZ separation layer is more likely to be controlled by surface exchange at higher temperatures, and changes to mixed control by both bulk diffusion and surface exchange at lower temperatures. A thicker separation layer also results in a thinner catalytic substrate layer, and subsequently decreases the mechanical strength of the dual-layer hollow fibre membrane

På väg mot en Gender-Just Peace - En fallstudie av fredsprocessen I Nordirland och kvinnogruppers påverkan efter NIWC:s grundande och inträde i den politiska scenen

I följande uppsats kommer vi att titta närmare på teorin Gender-Just Peace och med hjälp av den analysera fredsavtalet på Nordirland, även kallat för Good Friday Agreement. Fredsprocessen kommer att beskrivas och kvinnogruppen NIWC kommer att ligga i fokus då de var de enda kvinnliga representanterna av alla aktiva delegater vid förhandlingsbordet. Utöver en genomgång av fredsprocessen kommer även en kortare allmän bakgrund till konflikten presenteras. Detta för att ge läsaren en större insikt i de svårigheter och hinder som behövde undanröjas för att nå en fred. Slutsatsen vi drar är att freden ej är gender-just, men den är på god väg. Avtalstexten visar på viljan att förändra samhället mot ett mer jämställd, dock brister det i realiseringen och implementeringen