The gap between career management expectations and reality – empirical insights from the IT industry

The Information Technology (IT) industry has become an important economic factor in many Western countries, but it is well known for suffering from skills shortages and high turnover rates. Organizational career management (OCM) may help to attract new talent and reduce IT turnover by satisfying individuals’ career needs. However, to date, little is known about what, exactly, IT professionals expect in terms of career-related support, and whether their expectations match with what IT organizations provide. This paper reports on a quantitative study that investigated what 1686 IT professionals in Switzerland, Germany and the UK expected and what their employers provided in terms of OCM. Findings indicate that there are substantial mismatches between OCM ‘supply’ and ‘demand’. The paper makes an important contribution by providing a more in-depth understanding of IT professionals’ OCM preferences, leading to various practical implications for IT organizations and beyond.     

Increasing Following Headway in a Driving Simulator and Transfer to Real World Driving

ABSTRACT

The effects of a package intervention including prompts, goal setting, feedback, education, and behavioral self-monitoring to increase following headway (decrease tailgating) of three young drivers were evaluated in a simulated driving environment. Another objective of the present study was to determine if the effects of the package intervention would maintain in the simulator and transfer to real-world driving by assessing driving behavior recorded using a black box video camera in the participants’ vehicles. During intervention, drivers were prompted to increase following headway and were provided a specific target for following headway. The participants were asked to estimate following headway after each session and when the session ended were given feedback on actual following headway. The introduction of the treatment package in the simulator was associated with an increase in following headway for all participants. During the reversal phase maintenance occurred for all participants. The effects transferred to real-world driving for all participants. Teaching young drivers in a simulator to increase following headway may be one strategy to decrease the risk of crashes.     

Effects of natural and anthropogenic environmental influences on tree community composition and structure in forests along an urban-wildland gradient in southwestern Ohio

Urban Ecosystems - Unprecedented population growth and urban expansion are rapidly transforming natural and agricultural settings into highly modified urban and suburban landscapes in developed...     

Youth and their workers: the interacting subjectification effects of neoliberal social policy and NGO practice frameworks

The effects of neoliberalism on young people and youth workers through outsourcing government services has attracted critique from multiple sources. Post-structural analysis interrogates subjectification effects of these policies on youth. However, this kind of analysis of the governmental formation of youth ought to consider the interaction between the knowledge of youth underpinning neoliberal social policy, and those employed by non-government agencies implementing them. The interaction between these two shape the reciprocal governing activity within the young person and youth worker power–knowledge relationship that, this paper will argue, is an important factor in the critique of neoliberal social policy. Young people are governed by a diverse array of knowledges developed by government, youth studies, NGOs and young people themselves. These knowledges interact, reinforce and contradict discourses of youth work. This paper focuses on a neoliberal social policy (FLO) which constructs youth as a surplus population in need of risk management, and youth workers as the producers of young workers. Furthermore, I will consider the interfering subjectification effects produced by an intake and assessment tool (Your Story) utilised by a non-government FLO provider. These discourses underpinning Your Story and FLO render young people and their workers as relational beings or economic citizens respectively.     

Domestic Harm and Neglect Among Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Older Adults

This study examined harm, hurt, and neglect by caregivers as well as self-neglect and physical and mental health status among 113 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) older adults aged 60–88 years, who attended community-based social and recreation programs or groups in the United States. Reporting on their experiences with caregivers, 22.1% of the participants experienced at least one type of harm, including physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, financial, and neglectful; additionally, 25.7% of the participants reported they knew LGB older adults who experienced at least one type of harm from his or her caregiver. With regard to self-neglect, 62.8% reported experiencing it; those indicating positive psychological health reported fewer experiences with self-neglect.     

Gay‐Straight Alliances,Inclusive Policy,and School Climate: LGBTQ Youths’ Experiences of Social Support and Bullying

Gay‐Straight Alliances (GSA) and school policies focused on support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning youth may reduce bias‐based bullying and enhance social supports in schools. Using multivariate regression, we tested the relationship between youth reports of the presence of GSAs and LGBTQ‐focused policies, independently and mutually, with experiences bullying and perceived support (n = 1,061). Youth reported higher classmate support in the presence of GSAs and higher teacher support in the presence of LGBTQ‐focused policies; the presence of both GSAs and LGBTQ‐focused policies was associated with less bullying and higher perceived classmate and teacher support. The findings indicate that GSAs and LGBTQ‐focused policies are distinctly and mutually important for fostering safer and more supportive school climates for youth.     

How companies motivate entrepreneurial employees: the case of organizational spin-alongs

This paper investigates how high-profile employees with entrepreneurial abilities can be attracted, retained, and nurtured in order to foster companies’ corporate entrepreneurship through innovations. We find that the spin-along design provides entrepreneurial employees with a combination of flexibility and security (flexicurity), corporate management, and control. Based on five in-depth case studies within an innovative company, our results show that the organizational spin-along structure supports and enhances entrepreneurial employees’ motivation and leads to the attraction, nurturing, and retention of such employees. We also find that senior management has a critical leadership role in enabling such an organization design by balancing flexibility and security with control.     

Addressing the sex trade in Thailand: Some lessons learned from NGOs, part I1

This is the first in a series of articles stemming from Project Hope International's month long visit to Thailand in June 2002. Project Hope International is a non-governmental organization based in greater Washington, D.C., which fights against child sexual exploitation and trafficking in girls and women into the international sex trade, specifically in Thailand and the United States. Thailand undeniably deals with serious problems of child sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as trafficking of children into the sex trade. However, the sex trade in Thailand today is not the same as it was thirty years ago. There has been a gradual decrease in the numbers of Thai women and girls in the sex trade, and an increase in the numbers of females from neighboring countries in the Mekong sub-region, as well as non-citizen, hill-tribe girls from Northern Thailand. The goals of our research trip to Thailand were threefold: first, we wanted to learn about the current problems of the sex trade and how they have changed over the last ten years; second, we wanted to visit the child welfare centers, and meet the most prominent activists in Thailand who are targeting the political, social, and economic problems surrounding the child sex trade in Thailand; and, finally, we wanted to be able to bring the information we acquired to dispel myths promulgated by many nearsighted NGOs who work on trafficking issues. In this article, problems of researching the sex trade in Thailand are discussed, and a brief overview of the current situation surrounding the trafficking of females into Thailand is provided. In examining the extraordinary efforts of non-governmental organizations and international organizations, we place these issues in the context of how Thailand fits into the broader international anti-trafficking movement. We then provide some information on the most recent court cases that have prosecuted sex offenders and pedophiles and look at some of the reasons why girls get involved in prostitution, albeit on an increasingly voluntary basis in certain regions. Finally, evidence is provided that the government and police are slowly committing themselves to fighting trafficking in females for sexual exploitation. Christina Arnold is an undergraduate in the School of Public Affairs at American University, majoring in Political Science and Justice. Ms. Arnold spent her childhood in Southeast Asia and as a result was drawn to a career in public service. She is the Executive Director of Project Hope International (PHI), a non-for-profit organization, dedicated to combating human trafficking in the U.S. and Thailand by partnering with organization that provide direct services to women and children in their receovery, repatriation, and reintegration processes. She won a $20,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in 2001 for research on human trafficking in Thailand. Andrea M. Bertone is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Govenment and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is writing her dissertation on the ways in which NGOs and international organizations cooperate in Thailand and Kosovo on anti-trafficking projects. She is also the Associate Director of Project Hope Internation, an NGO in Washington, D.C., working on issues of child prostitution and trafficking in females in Southeast Asia and the United States. She is the author of “International Political Economy and the Politics of Sex,” Gender Issues 18 (1). She is the co-editor of numerous publications published by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. We thank Sudarat Serewat of FACE for her invaluable help and time in Thailand.