Does quality drive employee satisfaction in the UK learning sector?

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to assess the nature and extent of the link between employee satisfaction and organisational performance. This paper examines the link between staff satisfaction and organisational performance, presenting findings from 21 colleges of Further Education that have participated in both a survey of staff satisfaction (covering over 2,600 staff from these colleges) and in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the “Learning PROBE” methodology. The results suggest that whilst each of the measured aspects of work are regarded as being important by a majority of survey respondents, the level of “satisfaction” displayed in each of these attributes is indicated by only a minority of those surveyed. The findings support the existence of a link between staff satisfaction and organisational excellence. Staff satisfaction levels are most strongly associated with the leadership and service processes indices, and even more so with the overall organisational diagnosis. This suggests that colleges that are implementing “good practices” covering a range of managerial aspects, and who are achieving corresponding organisational results, are likely to be closer to satisfying their staff. Practices relating to people, performance management and organizational results also show association with staff's satisfaction gap, although not as significantly as above. The results suggest an holistic approach to implementing business practices appears to be more effective than concentrating only on deploying good practices in only a single area of the managerial process. The value of the paper is to the UK Further Education Sector in that it identifies those organisational practices, which improved, can in combination address to some extent the work satisfaction levels of their employees

Ill-Defined Benefits: The Uncertain Present and Brighter Future of Employee Pensions in Canada

Attempts to shore up the classic single-employer, defined-benefit pension plan are the wrong response to Canada’s occupational pension problems. While tax and regulatory changes can help, Canadians need a new approach to retirement income that will pool risks, control costs, and avoid the agency problems that have put many pension promises at risk.pensions policy, retirement security

A study in metaphysics for free will: using models of causality, determinism and supervenience in the search for free will

We have two main aims: to construct mathematical models for analysing determinism, causality and supervenience; and then to use these to demonstrate the possibility of constructing an ontic construal of the operation of free will - one requiring both the presentation of genuine alternatives to an agent and their selecting between them in a manner that permits the attribution of responsibility. Determinism is modelled using trans-temporal ontic links between discrete juxtaposed universe states and shown to be distinct from predictability. Causality is defined on a temporal sequence of δ-algebras and quantified using a measure. The measure leads to definitions of causal overdetermination and epiphenomena. Proofs are constructed to demonstrate deterministic universes must carry their properties essentially but not necessarily locally. We argue determinism and causality are separate doctrines. These models and results are marshalled to put the case that a counterfactual construal of ontic choice cannot work. In response we propose ‘immanence’ - a modified form of indeterminism whereby a universe can present choices to its denizens. We prove that beings subsumed within a universe cannot pilot their own actions. We then argue these beings can exercise free will only when selecting between choices inhering within immanent relata. A being is responsible for its selections if and only if it is constituted of a temporally evolving deterministic substructure. Our proposal is novel: it avoids injecting indeterminism into the decision process. Topological models for property supervenience are developed and used to reconstruct standard definitions from the literature. These are then used to demonstrate considerations of supervenience do not affect our arguments. We have demonstrated that a model of the exercise of free will involving both genuine choices and responsibility is possible but can only operate within a non-deterministic universe possessing specific traits

From Ritual To Rocket: gravity\u27s Rainbow In The Apocalyptic Tradition (thomas Pynchon)

This thesis situates Thomas Pynchon\u27s Gravity\u27s Rainbow (1973) in the Apocalyptic tradition. In constructing this tradition I have employed the critical theories--or critical visions--of Northrop Frye, Mircea Eliade, and of the Toronto School of communication theorists: Marshall McLuhan, Eric Havelock, and Walter Ong. Ong\u27s conception of the technologizing of the word provides the unifying theme of this thesis, a theme which I extend into the postmodern context where it manifests itself in Pynchon\u27s Rocket/Word.;The first chapter examines the way in which pre-literate oral cultures, Hesiod, Plato, Herodotus, and Thucydides are apocalyptic or anti-apocalyptic. The second chapter focuses on the Bible, which provides the central apocalyptic paradigms and which transmutes the imaginative space of myth into a new dialogical, historical space--or apocalyptic space --which has the character of a textual field oriented towards signification and meaning in contrast to the oral mode of participating in the being of the cosmos via cultic ritual attunement with the cycles of nature. I discuss four covenants of the Old Testament (Noah, Abraham, Sinai, David) as enactments of the process of what I call the hermeneuticizing of the cosmos. I relate this apocalyptic/textual space to principles of biblical typology, Puritanism, and to surprisingly analogous ideas of apocalypse in the theories of Northrop Frye and Jacques Derrida.;Chapter three concentrates more specifically on Gravity\u27s Rainbow with some consideration also given to The Crying of Lot 49 and other works of the American apocalyptic tradition. Tyrone Slothrop, I argue, can usefully be seen as a postmodern Puritan adrift in the Zone: the hyperreal postmodern space for which he has no Bible to serve as his great code. The Zone is an apocalyptic space of signification where the Rocket serves as another ambiguous Logos. This exploding Word--with its metonymic links to the Bomb--is consistent with the double-edged symbolism of biblical apocalyptic revelations, including the smashed tablets of Sinai, the deferred Kingdom of Israel in exile, or Christ as the crucified Logos. Finally, I will consider the way in which Pynchon\u27s postmodern style is, itself, revelatory and apocalyptic

Efficient Follow-Up of Exoplanet Transits Using Small Telescopes

11 pages, 5 figures, to be published in PASP, comments welcomeHere, we introduce an online tool for the prediction of exoplanet transit light curves. Small telescopes can readily capture exoplanet transits under good weather conditions when the combination of a bright star and a large transiting exoplanet results in a significant depth of transit. However, in reality there are many considerations that need to be made to obtain useful measurements. This paper and the accompanying website lay out a procedure based on timeseries differential photometry that has been successfully employed using 0.4 m aperture telescopes to predict the expected precision for a whole light curve. This enables robust planning to decide whether the observation of a particular exoplanet transit should be attempted, and in particular to be able to readily see when it should not to be attempted. This may result in a significant increase in the number of transit observations captured by non-specialists. The technique and website are also appropriate for planning a variety of variable star observations where a prediction of the light curve can be made.Peer reviewe

Understanding the Correlates of Donor Intention: A comparison of Local, National, and International Charity Destinations

The United Kingdom is generous toward charitable donations, and this commitment appears robust against a background of economic uncertainty. While prior work has identified a clear preference for domestic over international causes, research has yet to identify the range of variables that significantly correlate with this important element of charitable choice. A survey of 1,004 U.K. residents was designed to assess willingness to donate to local, national, and international causes. For each destination, stepwise multiple regression analysis identified the key variables that correlate to an individual’s willingness to donate. Findings suggest that donor willingness correlates with levels of trust, preferred types of charitable cause, and donation channels. In contrast, the role of donor demographics is relatively limited. The findings suggest some commonality in the variables that associate most significantly with willingness to donate locally and nationally, but those relating to international donation intention are relatively distinct

Transcriptional Targeting in Cancer Gene Therapy

Cancer gene therapy has been one of the most exciting areas of therapeutic research in the past decade. In this review, we discuss strategies to restrict transcription of transgenes to tumour cells. A range of promoters which are tissue-specific, tumour-specific, or inducible by exogenous agents are presented. Transcriptional targeting should prevent normal tissue toxicities associated with other cancer treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy. In addition, the specificity of these strategies should provide improved targeting of metastatic tumours following systemic gene delivery. Rapid progress in the ability to specifically control transgenes will allow systemic gene delivery for cancer therapy to become a real possibility in the near future