Making the most of investment in training

The paper addresses the dilemma of undertaking qualifying training, in a harsh and competitive economic climate against a backcloth of identifiable training need, particularly in residential services.

Certificate in Social Service (CSS) training is used as an example in order to examine ways in which operational and training priorities can be related to manpower planning and individual career expectations, in order to make the best use of scarce resources. Three stages are identified: before, during and after training, when careful thought can enhance the experience of students, their immediate colleagues at work and, most importantly, the clients.     

Mobile skilled workers: Making the most of an untapped rural community resource

Many small rural communities have a flow of skilled people through the community, including employees from the government, non government and private sectors on fixed-term contracts, and a range of professionals, often attracted by amenity and seeking a sea change or tree change. The aim of the study reported in this paper was to investigate how rural communities can optimise benefits from professional and other highly skilled workers in the context of an increasingly mobile and transitory workforce. The paper examines the characteristics and attributes of mobile skilled workers from six different Australian rural communities and one Canadian rural community. It overviews the reasons why mobile skilled workers become involved in rural communities, the process of integration, and the reasons why they decide to stay or leave. If rural communities better understand the characteristics and motivations of mobile skilled workers, they will be able to better harness the potential of this group. Community settings and, to a lesser extent, policy, make a difference to mobile skilled worker integration and community participation. Community settings such as culture, interactional infrastructure and leadership influence the integration process for mobile skilled workers. Effectiveness of the integration process determines the nature and extent of mobile skilled worker contribution to the community and the likelihood that the worker will be retained in the community. Rural communities that make the most of the available pool of skills provided by mobile skilled workers can increase resilience, community capacity, identification and uptake of opportunities such as new enterprises, good practice in natural resource management, enhanced social and leisure opportunities, and the quality and range of local services.     

Making the most of the Victoria Climbié Inquiry Report

The principal findings of the Victoria Climbié Inquiry Report (Lord Laming, 2003) repeat those of most previous fatal child abuse inquiries or reviews, revealing problems with professionals' assessments, communications, skill base and resources. There is a danger that the recommendations of this latest report will be implemented in an overbureaucratic manner, reducing their potential to make a significant difference to practice. Instead, it is essential to build on the core lessons of this and previous inquiries, which is that professionals' capacity to think about their cases and their work must be enhanced. This has considerable implications for the training of professionals and the resources available to them. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making the most of your time: Clinical social work with a borderline patient

If the therapist is to avoid feeling helpless bewildered, and disorganized in response to patients with Borderline Personality Disorder, it is essential that he or she understand as fully as possible the behavior, defenses, and developmental history commonly associated with this syndrome. This paper examines both the diagnostic and the treatment issues from an object relations perspective, including the contributions of social work concepts. A case example is offered.This paper was delivered at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the International Conference for the Advancement of Private Practice, August 1984, in Banff, Alberta, Canada.     

Women in the Workplace:

This study examined the influence of employee sponsored child care service on employee stress level and job satisfaction. The findings revealed that women who used company sponsored child care services manifested significantly lower levels of stress and higher levels of job satisfaction than women who were not utilizing this service. In addition, a higher level of satisfaction with child care arrangements was associated with women involved in company sponsored child care service compared to women who had to make their own child care arrangements.     

Workplace Diversity:

This chapter describes the impact of changing demographic trends on the workplace and its implications for EAPs. Diversity is defined and examples of workplace diversity programs are shared. Additionally, a theoretical model explaining variance in the readiness of one to be culturally sensitive is offered. A model for supervisory training on managing diversity is shared as well as a model for diversity mutual aid and peer support groups.     

Multicultural Existence in the Workplace:

This essay will examine some of the issues that queer workers must deal with, with particular attention to the dynamics of multiple undervalued identities of individuals in the workplace. The interplay of racism, sexism and homophobia is explored focusing on three key areas: special challenges in the workplace; advancement concerns; and safety issues and survival strategies. It also examines the impact of internalized homophobia and horizontal hostility in each of these areas. While grounded in my personal standpoints, as a Latina and Lesbian in academia, the issues raised have broader applications for diverse indivualds across a variety of occupational settings.     

African-American Women in the Workplace:

This article looks at the perceptions and professional perspectives of African-American female EAPs who work with African-American women in various industries. It provides an exploration into the attitudes of African-American women about several workplace and personal issues including:

• sexual harassment and discrimination

• racial discrimination

• career opportunities

• work assignment disparity

• organization culture and sensitivity

• organizational supports

These concerns have been examined against a backdrop of actual demographic changes that have occurred for minority and all women over the last decade. The author has used her own experiences as an EAP professional for the last ten years, in addition to those of other African-American women EAPs, in order to highlight and identify the central issues of concern for Afiican-American female clients. The data were gathered through indepth, face-twface interviews with six African-American female Employee Assistance professionals. Their experiences illustrated the difficulty that EAPs are still having in effecting the problems of sexual discrimination and harassment, racial discrimination, and general career barriers that African-American women face in the workplace. As our current cadre of intervention strategies are not yet successful, new approaches are called for as we move toward ihe next century, especially if EAPs are to enhance our effectiveness in helping clients confront some of the most significant problems they face.     

Enhancing Well-Being at the Workplace:

The workplace is a social environment and for many the opportunity for social interaction at work is a source of satisfaction. Yet, the quality of relations is variable and can be a source of anxiety, stress and work dissatisfaction. There is a need to enhance employee well-being and to improve social relations by increasing the opportunity for social support at the workplace. Two approaches are proposed: (a) as a health promotion strategy, to provide employees with training in interpersonal skills, and (b) as a component of aftercare, to foster the development of formal and informal support networks in order to reintegrate employees with emotional difficulties into the workplace. These strategies are discussed in the light of their applicability to EAP practice.     

Queering the Workplace

Despite many advances toward equity in society, gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) individuals remain subjected to many stereotypes and experience negative consequences resulting from a dominant heterosexual environment, which includes significant obstacles that inhibit opportunities and participation in the workplace. As a start to addressing these issues, this conceptual article begins by providing an overview of the experiences of GLB people in the workplace, focusing on forms of discrimination, its impacts on GLB people, and coping mechanisms employed to mitigate stress. Though the literature supporting this endeavor is largely derived from the United States, an examination of extant literature suggests that experiences of GLB Canadians are similar. This paper concludes by encouraging employers to foster expansive learning environments as a means of promoting full participation for GLB individuals in the workplace.     

Miscarriage in the Workplace: an Authoethnography

This paper is an extension of the literature on pregnancy and work, and it introduces miscarriage as an important topic of study in management. Miscarriage starts with a pregnancy, so a woman who has miscarried deals with many of the same workplace issues as women who carry to term. The experience of miscarriage, however, often leads to physical and emotional trauma and/or grief that many women hide from their co‐workers. In this paper we also explore how secrecy is an integral part of the miscarriage experience. The combination of secrecy and grief that is layered on top of a difficult physical experience makes miscarriage a unique experience that, to date, has mostly been ignored in management literature and practice. It is well documented that contemporary corporate structures have little room for addressing procreation, health and grief, it is perhaps unsurprising then that despite miscarriage being seen as a relatively common event it remains silenced.     

Workplace accommodations: evidence based outcomes

One central component to meaningful employment for people with disabilities is the ADA's workplace accommodation provision that allows qualified individuals to perform essential job functions. Little empirical evidence is available to evaluate the costs, benefits, and effectiveness of accommodations. Previous research has focused on direct costs. This article advocates an inclusive accommodation cost/benefit analysis to include direct and indirect costs and benefits and to differentiate disability-related accommodation costs from typical employee costs. The inclusive cost/benefit analysis is applied to preliminary data from interviews with employers who contacted the Job Accommodation Network (JAN). Results suggest that accommodations are low cost, beneficial and effective.     

Workplace flexibility: a model of change

The inception of When Work Works – a theoretical- and research-based model of change in promoting effective and flexible workplaces – dates back to the confluence of a number of factors in the early 1990s. One decade later, this ‘perfect storm’ of factors led to the creation of When Work Works, and two decades later, to this critical assessment of the foundation for and results of this model of change. When Work Works has used partnerships with nationwide business organizations with community chapters in combination with media coverage, educational events, the creation of tools and materials and grassroots methods to communicate well-researched information to employers that show workplace flexibility is not just a favor or perk for employees but can be a powerful strategy for promoting better outcomes for both employers and employees. The program has been responsible for implementing a rigorous award and providing numerous community-based recognition and educational events on workplace effectiveness and flexibility around the country and for assisting many employers to effectively create more flexible and effective workplaces. When Work Works has been designed around eight key principles for creating change on a national level. This paper presents the context in which When Work Works evolved, a detailed discussion of the eight principles of Families and Work Institute's model of change, its results and lessons other organizations may wish to apply in their own change initiatives.     

To reclaim a legacy: Social rehabilitation

The article describes the first year of the Social Rehabilitation Program for children and their families at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. A parallel is drawn with the beginning of family therapy and the ecological approach under Salvador Minuchin in 1965. It traces the difficulty in maintaining outreach community work because of funding problems and productivity requirements of the funding agency, and ends with the return to the community approach under the new program. The program is described primarily through case examples.The therapists who worked on this project are Pat Goodman, Sara Thomas, Rick Nelson, Roosevelt Spruill and Muriel Shapp.