Informal Mentoring as an Organisational Resource

Mentoring is a mechanism for supporting junior managers but until now little research on the benefits to the organisation has been reported. This paper reports on a survey of managers in a UK local government authority to ascertain their views of the benefits of informal mentoring to the organisation. Both mentors and protégés perceived mentoring as investment in a future pool of managers and a tool for the management of change. Mentoring was also seen as assisting in the transfer of knowledge, organisational learning and cross-departmental communication—in other words, as nodes in an information network. Further research is suggested into mentoring as a micro-level knowledge-producing community of practice. As informal mentoring is likely to bring longer-term advantages to the organisation, the paper also discusses how to capture the benefits of informal mentoring when designing formal schemes.     

‘Sent Down’ in China: Stratification challenged but not denied

Dramatic shocks to social systems can disrupt normal social processes such as life course sequences and socioeconomic attainment. Such shocks provide a rare opportunity for contrasting normal and extraordinary social processes and thus revealing social structures and processes that may otherwise be invisible. The current article focuses on the ‘sent-down’ generation in China of the 1960s and 1970s, many of whom were forcibly relocated to the countryside following middle or high school graduation to “learn from the peasants.” Although most of these young people eventually returned to urban areas, the experience was traumatic for at least some and disrupted normal life course developments and process of socioeconomic attainment for many. This is especially the case for those who stayed in the countryside for an extended period of time. Data from the Chinese General Social Survey indicate that both the formal and informal power of parents was unable to protect children from being sent down. Nevertheless, as the process matured, stratification forces reemerged in the ability of politically well-placed parents to facilitate the early return of their children. Despite some success in attaining college education and Communist Party membership for the sent-down generation, sent-down men report more unhappiness with life than their non-sent-down counterparts and sent-down men and women report much earlier retirement and withdrawal from the labor force than non-sent-down women. These findings collaborate and extend prior research on the sent-down generation and illustrate the lasting effects of both inequality and of attempts to change inequality.     

全球边疆：美国对外关系中的比较史与边疆研究路径

长期以来,美国对外关系研究的新路径并没有对例外论者的假设构成挑战,同时也无法对全球范围内的美国经验提供一个比较视角。最近开展的边地（borderland）和边疆（frontier）研究则为历史学家提供了一个深入到文化遭遇、文化认同转变以及国家政治边缘的富有价值的视角,并可以对周边地区的人力和自然资源如何整合到更大的经济交换体系这一过程进行分析。在对边疆研究的域外经验与实践进行系统梳理之后,本文指出,有必要将边疆路径引入美国对外关系研究的领域,这样不仅有助于相关研究的推进,而且能够突破特纳理论的局限,进而更全面地看待包括当代跨国市场等在内的美国的内部发展与海外扩张历程。     

‘Who do I turn to if something really bad happens?’ Key working and relationship-based practice in residential child care

ABSTRACT

This article explores the psychodynamics of relationship-based practice from the perspective of young people in residential care. This research involved qualitative semi-structured interviews with 10 care leavers, aged 18–24 years, who had been in residential care in Ireland. Drawing selectively from that research, this article reports their views and experiences of key-working and how relationship-based practice acted as a reparative method within their experiences of care and aftercare. Similar to previous research, this study underscores the necessity to ensure that children in care are cared for and supported by a trusted adult. In addition, based on this study, the role of a key worker appears capable of providing this ideal type of supportive relationship. It also highlights the importance of the care system working to provide consistency and support for the young people and confirms the importance of relationships with trusted adults, such as key workers.     

武当道茶文化研究

This article explores the promotion of tea culture at Wudang Mountain, a Daoist tem-ple complex in Hubei Province that is a popular tourist destination. At shops in temples and market areas, vendors brand their tea as Wudang Daoist tea, emphasizing its health benefits and connecting their teas to the Daoist discourse of life-nourishing ( yang sheng) practices. In their marketing materi-als and on their websites, the management of the Eight Immortal Temple Tea Plantation further cites folklore and mythic history to claim profound local roots for Wudang tea culture. In so doing, this company echoes the memory narratives of more fa-mous Chinese teas like Iron Guanyin and Dahong-pao. In China as elsewhere, convenient travel now puts people in contact with areas and peoples that a few decades earlier only a few non-locals explored. As a consequence of a global trend towards com-modification, members of local groups, including distinctive ethnocultural groups, now seek to create distinctive local brands for a tourist market. Corpo-rations now regularly mine local traditions to find i-tems that they can transform into commodities for a wider market ( Comaroff and Comaroff 2009 ) . One of Hubei’s richest tourism assets is the Daoist temple complex at Wudang Moutain, which draws pilgrims and tourists from China and Greater China. China’s State Council identified Wudang Moutain as a National Key Scenic Area in 1982 , and UNESCO added its ancient temples to its World Heritage list in 1994 . The Chinese govern-ment has worked with the Daoist Federation to de-velop Wudang’s temples and pavilions, which are spread over 400 square kilometers of mountainous terrain, into a major tourist destination. The gov-ernment tourist office promotes Wudang Mountain for its scenic beauty, its deep historical heritage, its religious culture, and famous martial arts. Al-though its tea culture is less renowned, local tea sellers claim that Wudang tea has a deep history and Daoist qualities. At Wudang Mountain, the Eight Immortal Temple Tea Plantation markets their tea as Wudang Daoist Tea, using history, legend, ritual, and sa-cred location to distinguish its green, black, and oolong teas from those produced elsewhere. They seek to valorize their teas through claims about the excellence of their growing environment ( not un-like the terroir of a fine wine ) and the historical depth of their tea history. They further use legend and mythic history to position their products, and associate their teas with Daoist traditions of health preservation, including martial arts. Finally, they use modern marketing techniques to promote their teas, including a promotional video directed by a In Ethnicity Inc, John and Jean Comaroff pro-pose that “commerce has been instrumental either in crystallizing or in reproducing the sociological entities (‘people’, ‘nation’, ‘community’ ) in which cultural identity is presumed to inhere”( Comaroff and Comaroff 2009:114 ) . In particu-lar, they conclude that people use identity-laden objects as a vehicle through which “ethnic con-sciousness is materialized” ( 33 ) . They focus on the modern discourse of intellectual property rights, including competing national claims to trademark signature products (122). Wudang tea vendors have used story, packa-ging, and performance to promote teas that evoke Wudang’s history, local traditions, and landscape. Hubei officials pay premium prices for the Eight Immortal Temple Plantation’s highest quality teas, but outside China Wudang tea is not well known. As global awareness of this world heritage site grows, Hubei’s Wudang Daoist tea series may find a place among the specialty teas now sold on the world market. But for now, Wudang Daoist Tea is an innovative brand that symbolizes a heritage that is simultaneously imperial, national, Daoist, and deeply local.     

Eight Motivational Forces and Voluntary Turnover: A Theoretical Synthesis with Implications for Research

In this study, we synthesize, from the attitude and turnover literatures, a framework of eight (8) distinctive motives, or “Forces”. We then illustrate how the “8 Forces” framework can be utilized by turnover researchers as clarification of reported reasons for turnover, as causal mediators of turnover predictors, and as factors related to the type of turnover decision process. Finally, we discuss further implications of this framework.     

The Fairness of Decision Rules

Prior work on resource allocation has generally considered only a small number of allocation rules, usually reflecting equity or equality. We use a scenario study to examine the effect of eight different allocation rules (past performance, future performance, rank, random draw, chance meetings, business need, personal need, and political reasons) on recipient reactions to the gain or loss of three different kinds of resources in an organizational setting. We find evidence that allocations based on past performance and random draw rules lead to the highest fairness perceptions and the lowest expectations that the decisions made will lead to intragroup conflict. However, fairness judgments are also influenced by a variety of other factors, such as the type of resource being allocated and whether the recipient is advantaged or disadvantaged relative to others in the workgroup (what we term the “egocentric interaction”). We discuss how our results might influence managers’ allocation decisions.     

Women who use violence in intimate relationships: the role of anger, victimization, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression

The present study examines the role of anger and victimization in women's use of aggression in heterosexual intimate relationships. The sample was composed of 108 women, primarily African American, urban, and poor, who had used violence against a partner in the previous 6 months. Path modeling was used to examine the interrelationships among anger, women's aggressive behavior, victimization, childhood abuse experiences, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression. Results revealed that almost all of the women experienced violence from their partners. Greater frequency of victimization from partners and experiences of childhood abuse increased the likelihood that women would use aggression against their partners. Victimization from partners and childhood abuse also increased the likelihood that women would experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression. Women with more symptoms of posttraumatic stress were also more likely to express anger outwardly towards others. Expressing anger outwardly toward others, in turn, predicted an increased likelihood of using aggression against partners.