II Planning the care environment

This article reviews the experience of a two year post-graduate CQSW course in organising the first year placement as a cluster in which six or seven students are placed in different social work agencies but in the same geographical area. It outlines the advantages of this model of placement planning and practice teaching for students, practice teachers, student units, and college tutors. Particular attention is drawn to the support and stability offered to students and to the opportunity to demonstrate links between theory and practice in the teaching of community social work. It is suggested that this model may provide one way in which student units might develop as training resources for the local area, and help the development of closer collaboration between agencies and colleges.     

Strategic leadership in super-growth companies—a re-appraisal

This article reports on a research project to identify the attributes of high and super growth medium-size companies, the strategies they employ to maintain growth and the critical success factors they consider vital to achieve rapid growth.

Pronounced differences were found in the preferences between both groups when ranking seven critical success factors: (1) Flexibility; (2) Product diversification; (3) Attracting and holding quality staff; (4) Niche marketing; (5) Early entry into growth markets; (6) Quality; (7) and Frequent innovation. There were also differences in their strategic objectives, as well as, in the ages of the growth companies.     

Inside Management Teams: Developing a Teamwork Survey Instrument

This article reports the development of a measure of teamwork for use with management teams. A five‐stage process was followed. First, a model of teamwork including team processes was generated through empirical research involving the elicitation of 600 team performance constructs from members of management teams and from theoretical considerations. Second, items were written to operationalize the model. Third, data from 220 members of management teams working in private‐ and public‐sector organizations were factor analysed in order to establish the scale structure of the instrument. Fourth, data from a second sample of 16 complete management teams were collected in order to assess within‐team properties of the instrument. Lastly, convergent and criterion‐related validity were assessed. The resulting ‘Teamwork Survey’, is a 7‐scale, 36‐item general‐purpose questionnaire that can be used in further research and in consulting interventions.     

Peak performing organisations

The literature on organisational performance is riddled with measurement problems that cannot easily be solved. In contrast we argue that elite theory in terms of performance can be more easily measured by the win record of sports organisations. Accordingly, this article argues that certain organisational peak practices are key to understanding how peak performance is sustained. Through data collected from the top ten sports organisations in the world we introduce the embryonic theory of Peak Performing Organisations (PPO). Sustained PPO practices offer more robust outcomes than the genre of High Performing Organisations.     

The impact of human resource management on organisational performance: Theory and research

This article by Jean-Marie Hiltrop, considers some of the models which have studied the link between HRM and organisational performance. As yet, there is little real evidence, but it is growing and indicates that corporate HRM policies and practices - including ‘best’ practices - are associated with high (financial) performance, and can encourage employee behaviour and attitudes towards strengthening the competitive strategy of an organisation. But such ‘best’ practices can vary widely and even contradict each other. Questions are raised in the article about these ‘best’ practices.The first part of the article looks at the relevant theoretical models, and the second part reviews the findings of recent empirical studies which have evaluated the effects of distinctive HR practices on organisational outcomes.     

Fertility control: values,beliefs, and behaviors

The author hypothesizes that any group that is isolated from participation in social, economic, and political affairs is likely to be characterized by a high degree of apathy, fatalism and hopelessness. Even more deleterious to understanding "out groups" is the fairly widespread habit of judging a minority group by the actions of a minority of the minority. Certain vital statistics of the white and the Negro races are discussed. (These include income, education, illegitimacy, etc.). The author contends that one of the unfortunate aspects of many studies dealing with the communication between the husband and the wife, is the fact that personal characteristics are emphasized rather than an understanding of the social situation in which the poor live.     

Creating safe learning environments: Developing and maintaining class cohesion

This paper reports on an Australian study that was conducted in two distinct phases. Phase One examined the belief systems of 28 experienced language teachers, while Phase Two used the theoretical framework generated by the teachers to document the social evolution of eight intensive English language classes containing adult learners from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Phase One revealed that language teachers place high value on class cohesion, believing that classes that operate as cohesive groups provide safe environments for language learning. Phase Two described a range of individual and collective classroom behaviours and identified a variety of strategies used by teachers in their attempts to develop and maintain class cohesion. The study has implications for pedagogy because it foregrounds the importance of class cohesion and identifies the kinds of classroom behaviours that can enhance the development of cohesiveness in language classes. It also raises the question of the degree to which students do actually feel safe in "safe" learning environments.     

中国的生育率:到底下降了多少?

1990年代以来 ,中国的生育水平持续下降 ,已经进入低生育国家的行列。 2 0 0 0年人口普查 ,中国的总和生育率为 1 2 2 ,明显存在漏报。那么中国的生育率到底下降了多少 ?本文利用亲生子女法、生育史重构法和胎次递进比方法分析了 1 990年代生育率的下降过程 ,认为 2 0 0 0年总和生育率最准确的估计应为 1 5 8。通过分解总和生育率的变化 ,认为 1 990年代生育水平的下降 ,2 /5归因于结婚年龄的推迟 ,3/5归因于婚内生育率的下降     

引起中国出生性别比偏高的三要素

从“人群、技术和管理系统”三个要素分析造成中国出生性别比升高的原因 ,在出生性别比异常偏高的地方 ,首先 ,有一定规模的男孩偏好的人群 ;其次 ,有可以获得的性别选择信息和技术服务 ;同时 ,存在着对性别选择行为疏于管理的系统。这三要素是在中国社会经济、文化习俗和生育政策的大环境下发挥着作用 ,因此 ,出生性别比偏高的治理工作必须从这三要素入手 ,同时必须努力创造有利于出生性别比治理工作的社会、经济、文化和政策环境。