Representations and complaints procedures

One of the potentially more onerous responsibilities of programme providers offering Diploma in Social Work Courses, is the strong recommendation in CCETSW PAPER 30 at Paragraph 3.2.4.2 to establish a clear procedure for handling complaints. This article seeks to outline the potential difficulties in establishing such a procedure, discusses some of the principles which in the writer's view are necessary core conditions for an effective procedure and outlines a possible model for practice. This model was consulted with students, practice teachers and university based teaching staff. Consultation with the full membership of the Diploma in Social Work Partnership and with the wider university is not completed at the time of writing. It is hoped that a subsequent article will outline the final structure of the model agreed upon and its operation on a trial basis for 12 months from Spring 1992.

The writer has had experience of developing and operating a complaints procedure for workers in voluntary social work agencies in New Zealand and also for foster carers in a London borough. The article draws on experience in those two very different settings, as well as the experience of working to develop a procedure for the Diploma of Social Work course.     

Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork

This paper addresses the role of emotion in the qualitative research process and in particular, the effects of emotional experiences on the researcher. Drawing briefly on the literature, we show the importance of emotion for understanding the research process. Whilst this literature acknowledges the emotional risk for research respondents, there is little evidence providing in-depth understanding of the emotions of the researcher. We consider theoretically and empirically, the significance of emotion throughout the duration of a research project. Using our own personal experiences in the field, we present a range of emotional encounters that qualitative researchers may face. We offer suggestions for research teams who wish to develop strategies for 'managing' emotion and effectively utilizing 'emotionally-sensed knowledge'. We conclude that unless emotion in research is acknowledged, not only will researchers be left vulnerable, but also our understandings of the social world will remain impoverished. The challenge therefore is how to construct meaning and develop understanding and knowledge in an academic environment that, on the whole, trains researchers to be rational and objective, and 'extract out' emotion.     

Title Index

Abstract

This article describes how electronic resources have impacted the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries' binding operation and how the libraries have responded to the resulting challenges, including the need for updated collection development and preservation/conservation policies, a comprehensive bindery contract, and a fully functional in-house binding capability. The evaluation of the binding process must continue as libraries move from a predominantly print to a predominantly electronic environment. Librarians, scholars, and binders should work together to preserve and bind library collections that will be valuable to future generations.     

Character-Based Determinants of Trust in Leaders

Trust is a prominent determinant of effective interpersonal relationships, group process, and organizational development. However, for leaders and managers, trust building is often problematic. The aim of this article is to contribute to a growing understanding of the way in which individual managers can develop trust in organizations, particularly those defined by medium to high risk. The article presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the nature of trust at work. Building on the results of an earlier study, use is made of the facet-theoretical approach to generate a definitional framework of trust, which focuses on the characteristics of the trusted person that contribute to the development of trust. Using items developed on the basis of a mapping sentence, hypotheses regarding the relations between the definitional framework and empirical observations were tested through smallest space analysis (SSA) of data collected from a sample of 398 bank and hospital employees. The results demonstrate strong support for the definitional system and show a clear association with results of prior research that identify perceptions of ability, integrity, fairness, and openness as key determinants of trust. The empirical structure clearly reflects the attitudinal nature of interpersonal trust at work and the items empirically distinguish distinct character-based components of trust.     

Self-harm among adolescents with developmental disabilities. What are they trying to tell us?

Self-harm behavior exhibited by adolescents with developmental disabilities can be the most challenging behavior for caregivers and health care professionals to address. Past interventions have taken a behavioral approach and focused on functional analysis to guide assessment and treatment. However, self-harm behavior is becoming more recognized as a means of communication. Therefore, it is important for health care professionals and caregivers to listen to adolescents' attempts to communicate and try to understand the meaning of the behavior. Early assessment is crucial to understanding the meaning of the behavior, and early intervention is necessary to prevent escalation or chronicity. Thorough assessment guides interventions and must be implemented in the context of clients' families and social world, and the broader community. Establishment of trusting relationships among adolescents, their families, and health care professionals is imperative. This article discusses self-harm behavior from a psychosocial perspective related to prevalence, onset, purpose, maintenance, and escalation. It also introduces a comprehensive framework to guide assessment and intervention.     

Recursive location and scale estimators

It is shown that a recursive estimator with the same asymptotic properties as the median has convergence properties in finite samples which depend heavily on the scale of the data. A simple modification which adjusts for the scale is suggested and its application illustrated on simulated data. The modified estimator has much improved properties which are similar to those of the sample (non-recursive) median.     

Old Chicago and new France

It is only when theories are located in history, when we view the demands for verification in highly particular contexts of a historical kind that we are freed from either dogmatism or capitulation to scepticism (MacIntyre 1977: 471). The world has problems; the university has disciplines whose boundary lines inhibit our abilities to address those problems. The boundaries acquire such seeming validity that it becomes necessary to defend problem-oriented research as “interdisciplinary,” when the real point is to examine social reality, rather than defer to academic turf (and scientistic scruples). Faced with the contemporary range of global problems, it is helpful to re-assess and re-construct our history. The artificiality of the disciplinary lineages within the U.S. has diminished Old Chicago. Yet the problems which it addressed have remained pertinent not only to the U.S., and not only to France, but throughout the world. Because the French disciplinary lines have been other than ours, and their nation has been confronting a set of social problems akin to those faced by the Chicagoans, some of their social scientists have sought to draw upon that heritage. The abstract and allusive discourses of a Derrida or Lacan tend to distract observers from the engaged character of the best French intellectual discourse. Park was engaged in the best sense, but he had observed too many campaigns of urban reform which simply clothed the attempt of a culturally dominant group to impose its ethos upon a socially subordinated populace. Underlying Park’s disparagement of “do-good” campaigns and “evangelical sociology” was a moral insistence on respecting the varieties of social life. 19 This is manifest in his life trajectory and in his role as teacher. To me he is cast in the heroic figure of Bernard Rieux in Camus’ The Plague. After undergraduate studies (B.S., 1942) at University of Chicago, Murray L. Wax returned there to teach and undertake doctoral studies (Ph.D., 1959)- He has taught at several universities and is now emeritus Professor, Washington University, St. Louis. The author wishes to express his gratitude for their advice and encouragement to Joan Cassell, Jean-Michel Chapoulie, Lawrence T. Nichols, and Paule Verdet.