More harm than good? Diagnostic codes for child and adult abuse

This study sought to understand the reasons for the lack of use of ICD diagnostic codes for child and adult abuse. New Jersey professionals were recruited to participate in three focus groups on child abuse, adult or primarily woman abuse, and elder abuse. Participants included health care providers, advocates from the community, and representatives of state agencies and the insurance industry. Concerns about coding abuse included further jeopardizing victims/patients, diagnostic uncertainty, and lack of resources. Members of the child abuse group were somewhat more receptive to coding abuse. Reasons to code, such as for documentation and reimbursement were discussed and rebutted. Most participants concluded that use of the abuse codes should be judicious because they have the potential to do more harm than good. More research is needed on the implications of coding for victims/patients along with medical education in the identification of abuse in general and coding abuse in particular.     

HRD in 2020: a hop-on,hop-off city tour

This article reports on the outcome of a Future Search Conference in the UK to consider human resource development (HRD) in 2020 and beyond. We firstly consider themes from the past into the present. This includes the persistence of solutions in HRD that are systematic, predictable, how apprenticeships in the UK have had to accommodate government policies to ameliorate youth unemployment and the long-standing difficulty for HRD of failing to demonstrate a return on investment (ROI) on activities. We then present four scenarios based on key questions for the future relating to value of HRD and whether this will be a future for HRD. Reponses to the questions form scenario logics which we present against the theme of city tour. Each scenario is explained against the presented logic with positive, negative, ambiguous and uncertain implications for HRD. We suggest that each scenario carries a glimpse of what might be.     

Safety culture

'Developing a positive health and safety culture is important if high standards of health and safety are to be achieved and maintained. There is a limit to the health and safety performance an organization can achieve without addressing the contribution which human factors have to play in eliminating occupational accidents and ill health' (David Eves, Deputy Director UK Health and Safety Executive; HSE 1997).     

An Empirical Evaluation of Conflict in the Franchise System

This paper articulates the theoretical rationale for conflict in franchising, operationalizes conflict through the measurement of franchisee satisfaction and labels empirically supported stratified satisfaction levels. Two propositions are advanced in relation to the drivers of conflict in franchise systems. The first proposition is underpinned by relational exchange theory, which postulates that franchisee–franchisor goal congruence is important to the fulfilment of the alliance efficiencies which motivate inter-organizational forms. Cooperation, communication, coordination and commitment, as perceived by the franchisees, are used in the context of a survey instrument to operationalize goal congruence.
The second proposition involves franchisor-provided services. Transaction-cost analysis suggests that long-term contractual relationships must be flexibly interpreted and governed if the relationship is to be maintained over a series of transactions. We propose that the transactional intersection of the franchise system is in franchisor-provided services. The perceived importance and subsequent adequacy of delivery of these services established a tolerance zone within which transactions support and/or enhance the relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee.
The empirical objectives of the study are accomplished utilizing a questionnaire sent to nine franchise systems, to which 621 franchisees responded. Three clear clusters of franchisee conflict emerged in near equal proportions. The propositions are supported and illustrated empirically and in CHAID tree diagram form.     

Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to Changing Contracts

This article describes the emerging changes in psychological contracts being experienced by British middle managers in relation to their employing organizations, the middle managers' negative reactions to these changes and organizational responses to such negativity. By analysing case studies of 16 organizations, a classification of changes to five elements of the psychological contract are identified: knowledge, motivation, goals and means, role behaviour and ethics. By analysing the semi-structured interviews of 37 middle managers, selected from a much larger database for their obvious negative reactions, a continuum of such reactions is considered: uncertainty, contrariness and double-bind. This consideration leads, then, to suggestions for further research.     

Cleveland 20 years on: themes of disruption and repair in the trauma narratives of children,adults and society

This is the second of two linked papers which explores coherent and incoherent narratives emerging from Cleveland. It draws a parallel between the disrupted narratives of child and adult survivors of child sexual abuse and professional and societal narratives of Cleveland. The paper looks at the therapeutic task of individual repair using attachment‐based therapy, illustrated by clinical examples. It identifies five key challenges relevant to repair in the interpersonal, intra‐personal and societal domains. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managing Contradiction: Stockholder and Stakeholder Views of the Firm as Paradoxical Opportunity

Stockholder and stakeholder perspectives have been positioned in the literature as being in tension, and thus a potential source of innovation and change. However, researchers have overlooked a systematic examination of this presumption in theory and in practice. This study explores the ways that stockholder and stakeholder assumptions are presented by theorists and compares these with expressions of stockholder and stakeholder perspectives used by firms in practice. We argue that theoretical entrenchment dichotomizing these perspectives has disrupted the ability of researchers to leverage this tension. While scholarship remains trapped in a vicious cycle, we also argue that firms in practice express only the acceptance dimension of a virtuous cycle. Our empirical research demonstrates that firms accept and accommodate the paradoxical tension between managing for stockholders versus balancing the interests of stakeholders. This is evidenced by strategies we identify as book‐ending, cadence, continuous and simultaneous co‐mingling, and hybridization. We find that in practice these tensions are more integrated whereas in theory they are treated as more distinct and, often, in conflict. We suggest ways in which both scholarship and practice can better leverage tension as paradoxical opportunity.