Personal sacrifice and corporate cultures: career progression for disabled staff in higher education

Disabled people are under-represented in higher education (HE), especially in senior posts. This article reports research on the perspectives of career progression into leadership held by disabled staff in one post-1992 university. Findings indicated that some participants were already engaged in leadership or aspired to such roles, and reported positive experiences. However, participants also experienced barriers to progression, including a lack of awareness of equality and diversity among managers and colleagues, inadequate professional development opportunities and the competitive organisational culture of management that could impact on their health and work–life balance. We conclude that disabled staff in HE do not yet have equal opportunities for progression into leadership roles compared with their non-disabled peers. There is a need for realignment of the culture of leadership and management to make it more compatible with the full inclusion of disabled staff in HE such that their unique contributions are valued.     

Insecure Attachment Behavior and Partner Violence: Incorporating Couple Perceptions of Insecure Attachment and Relational Aggression

Intimate partner violence and insecure attachment are therapeutically relevant concepts when working with couples. The link between attachment and intimate partner violence has been examined in the literature, but an area of aggression that often goes unexamined is relational aggression, or using third parties as a means of being aggressive toward a partner. We asked how participants' attachment behaviors were related to their own and partners' relational and physical aggression. We used structural equation modeling to estimate actor–partner interdependence among these relationships in 644 heterosexual couples. Results indicated significant partner paths from attachment to relational aggression, as well as significant actor paths between relational aggression and physical aggression. Implications were discussed. Data for this study were collected from the RELATE assessment.     

The Quality of Life in Some Local Metropolitan Labour Markets in Italy

This study forms part of a general programme of territorial research in Italy developed by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). In particular we have studied the metropolitan communes, both with regard to movements within the city and to the attraction cities exert over the communes in the surrounding areas. Based on the daily work-related flows, we have identified the Local Labour Systems (LLSs). The LLSs having as their hub the twelve metropolitan communes constitute the Local Metropolitan Systems (LMSs). Among these we have chosen to analyse in detail the quality of life in the Systems of Milan, Genoa and Palermo, which have been singled out as exemplary cases of current socio-economic differentiations.     

A Variable Selection Criterion in the Linear Programming Approaches to Discriminant Analysis*

There are numerous variable selection rules in classical discriminant analysis. These rules enable a researcher to distinguish significant variables from nonsignificant ones and thus provide a parsimonious classification model based solely on significant variables. Prominent among such rules are the forward and backward stepwise variable selection criteria employed in statistical software packages such as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and BMDP Statistical Software. No such criterion currently exists for linear programming (LP) approaches to discriminant analysis. In this paper, a criterion is developed to distinguish significant from nonsignificant variables for use in LP models. This criterion is based on the “jackknife” methodology. Examples are presented to illustrate implementation of the proposed criterion.     

Exhausted,Stressed, and Disengaged: Does Employment Create Burnout for Social Work Students?

Although burnout is a known risk for practitioners, some social work students may experience burnout in the classroom as a result of role conflict from balancing academics with employment. Higher rates of burnout occur in other disciplines in employed students, even higher than in professionals, because of the stress of shifting priorities between workplace and collegiate responsibilities. Employment can decrease collegiate engagement and academic competence and deter persistence to degree, all of which lead to the reduced competency associated with burnout. Additionally, physical and mental health factors are associated with role conflict, leading to a higher risk of burnout for employed students and resulting in burnout for social work students in the classroom even prior to becoming a practitioner.     

An autecological interpretation of the firm and its environment

Explaining the survival and failure of firms is an important issue for researchers and managers of firms in society. Ecological approaches to the study of firms have existed for over 100 years, and have been increasingly popular during the past 40 years, especially since the pioneering works of Hannan and Freeman on one hand, and Aldrich on the other. This paper, in keeping with recent developments elsewhere in mainstream ecology outlines and positions the theoretical and philosophical foundations of an alternative ecological approach, autecology, that has not yet been formulated for the study of firms. The autecological approach affords the individual firm more autonomy in creating its own future evolutionary trajectory. The idea of an ecological complex is developed to provide clear focus on what is central to the application of autecology to the study of firms. The paper also considers several emergent research opportunities that highlight the potential value of employing an autecological approach to the study of firms.     

A Preliminary Examination of Covitality as Integrated Well-Being in College Students

The emergence of positive psychology has generated increased interest about the correlates of positive psychological functioning. Researchers have identified and studied various positive psychological constructs (e.g., hope, optimism, self-efficacy, gratitude, and life satisfaction) and found them to covary and to be positively associated with optimal human functioning and negatively associated with mental illness. This study of 528 college students examined the co-occurrence of selected positive psychological traits and explored their relations with a proposed second-order latent construct called covitality and with psychological well-being. Structural equation modeling examined each first-order positive psychology construct related to the second-order concept of covitality. Findings supported the second-order latent factor model of covitality, which was also significantly related to indicators of psychological well-being. Implications for theory development related to understanding positive human resources and applications within the context of college student populations are discussed.     

Reconfiguring Social Work Education to Fight HIV–AIDS: A Model for Developmental Contexts

This article charts the response of social work educators in addressing HIV–AIDS. Based at the University of the West Indies in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the faculty within the Social Work Unit developed a model of teaching, research and practice that was innovative and transcended cultural, geographical and professional boundaries. The model has contributed a lasting legacy of knowledge and culturally relevant practices to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of social workers working with people living with HIV–AIDS (PLWHIV). Inherent in the propositions that underpinned the model was a belief in the role of education in alleviating psychosocial and other impacts of social problems. This article describes this unique initiative and discusses its relevance to current social work practice and the implications for contemporary social work education. The authors argue that while social work draws on a common body of knowledge, an established set of professional skills and a universal code of values, these central tenets of the profession should not be regarded as concrete and fixed but must be figured and reconfigured as needed to address emerging contemporary problems and their specific sociocultural manifestations.