Negotiating new meanings of ‘leader’ and envisioning culturally informed theories for developing African-American women in leadership roles: an interview with Patricia S. Parker

The aim of the human resources function (management and development) in the organizational context is to ensure the availability of competent, motivated and learning employees to the firm to facilitate the achievement of its business objectives. The HR function has been quite successful in performing its role in terms of developing capacity, knowledge, attitude and skills of employees. However, in the recent past a shift has been taking place in the expected model role from both the HR function and the HR manager. This new role is that of active partner along with other functionaries like production, finance, marketing, etc., equal if not more important. Therefore, HR is no longer a passive function. This has two implications for the HR managers and practitioners. First, it will require the HR function and persons dealing with it to provide more inputs related to human resources at the strategy formulation level. Second, it will require HR to demonstrate that investment in human resources contributes to business results. However, there is a paucity of empirical work in our country to support the assertion that investments in HR have an impact on firm performance. It is in this context that the present study of eighty-four Indian firms was carried out to answer the question of whether investment in HR contributes to firm performance.     

International Collaboration in Translating Career Theory to Practice

This article describes an effort to apply a theoretical perspective developed in one country (the United States) to cope with increasing demand for career services and limited funding in another country (the United Kingdom) faced with similar increasing demands for cost‐effective service delivery. The authors hope that the experience gained in the transnational application of theory to practice they present can be replicated in other countries using other theoretical perspectives. This article describes the process used in one transnational career theory adaptation project and discusses implications for transnational adaptations of career theory across countries.     

Psychotherapeutic approaches to chronic and episodic physical disorders

Patients experiencing chronic illnesses or psychophysiological disease in which the etiology is unclear and medical treatment less than maximally effective can be helped by therapy which takes into account relevant psychological and social factors. Social workers can, working with medical practitioners, define and develop effective psychotherapeutic approaches.     

Using IT for competitive advantage at Thomson holidays

This article describes how information technology was used to improve productivity and customer services in the travel and package holidays business. Information plays a vital role in services businesses such as this one and its introduction and development had a dramatic impact on turnover. The author emphasises that IT strategy and investment cannot stand still, no matter how successful—and it must constantly be developing and extending to assimilate new technologies.     

Termination of foster care for the older adolescent: Issues of emancipation and individuation

Adolescents currently constitute almost one-half of the foster care population and social work with this population now often includes helping the adolescent make the often fairly abrupt transition to independent living. The authors suggest that this process can be productively viewed as a microcosm of the first individuation process, analogous to the early individuation of self from mother with opportunities for individuation and further growth. The effect of the worker's own level of individuation and self-awareness on this process is discussed.is also in private practice.National Catholic School of Social Service, is also Principal Researcher and Program Consultant, Project Stepping Out of Foster Care Into Independent Living.     

Group treatment of foster children to reduce separation conflicts associated with placement breakdown

Foster children age seven to 16 participated in a number of group sessions under the leadership of their own caseworkers, directed at the children's feelings about having been separated from their own families. The project revealed important lacks in agency practice with both children and their parents.     

Leisure before and after parenthood

The leisure time of 117 wives and husbands was studied to determine the effect of parenthood on this time allocation. Data from both a weekday and a weekend day, both before and after the birth of the first child were analyzed. Ordinary least squares regression was used to analyze the time use model which controlled for weekend/weekday, and looked at the effects of personal characteristics such as wife's education and employment status, husband's wage rate, and number of years married as well as parental status. The time of the wife and the husband and the ratio of the wife's to husband's time were negatively related to parental status. Each personal characteristic was negatively related to the wife/husband ratio of leisure time and unrelated to husband's leisure.     

Psychological Gender Issues in Computing

This paper builds on the implication from Rosen et al.'s (1987) work that the variation in findings with respect to gender differences in attitudes towards computers and anxiety caused by computers (i.e. ‘computerphobia’), may be due in part to differences of psychological gender (regardless of biological gender) within subjects. Sandra Bem's (1974, 1981) theory of psychological gender is incorporated into the research, identifying subjects as ‘sex typed’ or ‘androgynous’. A student population of under/post graduates (N=282; 50.7% of which were male and 49.3% were female) is presented with the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), a computer anxiety questionnaire (Heinssen et al. 1987) and a computer attitude questionnaire (Dambrot et al. 1985). The latter questionnaire has positive and negative subscales. The results indicate that masculinity correlates with positive attitudes towards computers for both sexes. In addition masculinity was correlated with less anxiety and less negative attitudes towards computers for females, lending support to a sex by gender interaction (i.e. that masculinity has a different effect on each sex). Femininity correlated negatively with programming experience in females. This is discussed in relation to computing being seen as a ‘male activity’, and the subsequent educational and organizational implications identified.     

Ideology and welfare in the UK: the implications for the voluntary sector

The UK has, over recent years, moved from a welfare state to a more market-oriented system of welfare. But the extent of this change has varied considerably according to the ideological position of local government in different parts of the country. This makes it possible within one country to assess the implications for the voluntary sector of different models of welfare. This article develops a framework for looking at different welfare ideologies and the values they espouse, with reference both to the UK and to the models that exist in other countries. It then takes four examples of UK local authorities which demonstrate the different models and examines the implications for the voluntary sector. In doing so, it examines the prospects for the voluntary sector to deliver both service and political pluralism in the future.