Restoring Meaning to Supervision Through a Peer Consultation Group in Rural Australia

The establishment of a cross-discipline peer consultation group in regional Australia is described. A research project, which explored the impact of the peer consultation on participants, using pre-group and post-group evaluation surveys along with data from an externally facilitated group evaluation session is discussed. Key findings reveal the value of access to varied modes of supervision; the importance of supervision not feeling like being subjected to surveillance; and the contribution that positive experiences of peer consultation have for our participants' well-being. The potential for improved connection and mutual benefits for practice and academia in sponsorship of professional peer consultation by regional universities also emerges from this research. The effectiveness of contemporary workplace counselling supervision arrangements, and of what, precisely, the enjoyment of engaging in case discussions in peer consultation groups is constituted are areas for more exploration.     

Pre-term Foetal Life Times in Scotland

A proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the association between ten categorical covariates and the risk of pre-term delivery for women having their first child and women in subsequent pregnancies. An adaptation of the model for use with grouped survival times made it possible to model foetal life times between 28 and 36 completed weeks of gestation for 67,000 Scottish singleton births in 1981. The use of the model was justified by testing time-dependent effects. For both groups of women age, and a history of abortion, were major factors associated with increased hazard. For women experiencing a second or higher-order birth a history of perinatal death was also associated with substantially increased hazard to the pregnancy.     

Large sample bias of maximum likeihood estimates from a series of sparse ixj tables

For a large series of IxJ tables, each containing two observations, the bias of the maximum likelihood estimates of log linear partial association parameters is shown to be equal to the parameters, regardless of the size of I and J. The partial association considered is that between row and column variables; the three way interactions are assumed to be O. This is a generalization of Andersen's results (1973a, 1973b) for a series of 2x2 tables.     

Denn sie wissen was sie tun!

Information and communication technologies (IT) permeate both the business and the private world. They cause profound changes for companies in terms of structure, leadership, culture, education and the position of individuals within the context of the company. Established structures, decision making habits and methods of communication are being called into question. This means that communication is neither explicitly controllable nor in some cases even specified, but it also should not be viewed as arbitrary. Structures which are treated as contingent require meta-management, reflection and determination. Leaders are forced to act within a constellation of tensions between the reduction and the expansion of complexity as basic functions of structuring. Ideally this type of steering takes place consciously and with a view toward the future, taking into account the increasing complexity and dynamics of the environment and the corporate culture. Empirical studies of our four intervention research projects show that the situation for many companies is sobering. Companies cannot always entirely interpret the rapid development of communication technologies and the consequences it brings with it, nor can they completely make use of its potential advantages. Companies and individuals are forced to think actively within the networked economy. The demand for further education shifts between the company (expertise, employee loyalty) on the one hand and the responsibility of the individual for his or her own development on the other. Agreements are the key to bringing harmony and new solutions to the conflicts among the differing interests of individuals, subsystems and the company as a whole. Considering the complex requirements for companies and management caused by IT, this article shows that reflective observation of intervention research, guided by theory and with a focus on targeted change of management practice, is a process which provides new opportunities for action in both theory and practice. In this process, focusing (systemization) and reflection (enhancement of perspectives) are fundamental keys for dealing with complexity.     

TWO-STAGE PROCEDURES FOR TESTING HOMOGENEITY OF MEANS AGAINST ORDERED ALTERNATIVES IN ONE-WAY ANOVA WITH COMMON UNKNOWN VARIANCE

In this paper we present two-stage procedures for testing the equality of normal means against ordered alternatives in one-way ANOVA with common and unknown variance. The procedures proposed are analogous to Williams's and Bartholomew's single-stage methods. A table of percentiles needed for implementation is provided. Some Monte Carlo results for estimating the power of both procedures are given.