Exposing the protected: Ghana’s disability laws and the rights of disabled people

Disabled people in Ghana continue to experience various forms of discrimination and social exclusion. These occur despite the fact that there are several anti-discriminatory laws that are meant to protect the rights of disabled people and facilitate their participation in mainstream social, political and economic activities. As it is, the laws have not completely eroded the discrimination and in some instances appear to even institutionalise the discrimination that disabled people experience. It is important that the state pays more attention to amending aspects of these laws and putting them into practice.     

Analytical Characterization of the Information Matrix for Split-Plot Designs

This article provides the analytical characterization of the inverse of the information matrix for second-order SPD. A particular feature of these explicit expressions is that they are functions of the design parameters enabling the development of analytical functions to efficiently compute exact design optimality criteria. The application of these analytical expressions is demonstrated using the generalized variance of the parameter estimates for second-order SPD. An example illustrating the use of these expressions is also presented.     

Large Sample Theory for the Bounds on the Gini and Related Indices of Inequality Estimated From Grouped Data

The joint asymptotic distribution of the upper and lower bounds for the Gini index derived by Gastwirth for grouped data are obtained. From them a conservative asymptotically distribution-free confidence interval for the population Gini index is presented. The methods also yield similar results for other indices of inequality (e.g., Theil's and Atkinson's).     

Abstruse and Insecure? Irish Immigrant Identity in Modern Scotland

This paper will look at the religious and political identities that for many people have come to characterize Scottish football. Such a characterization is particularly evident in the case of the two major clubs in Scotland; the 'Old Firm ' of Glasgow Rangers and Celtic. Nonetheless, Scotland is not unique in its sport acquiring an extrasporting dimension and football in particular often has broader political resonance. As Hoberman opines (in Sugden and Bairner, 1993, p. 10), sport has no intrinsic value structure, but it is a ready and flexible vehicle through which ideological associations can be reinforced. Put another way, sport can becom e an important pointer to features of the wider society. It can reflect both the positive and negative features of a society as well as feed aspects of those features. For many people, sport, particularly football, has acquired the capacity to become both a source for, and a reflection of, important social, political and cultural identities. This article argues that such identities are intrinsic to Scottish football. Football is also sym ptomatic of the ongoing conflicts of identity that have become important to Scottish life, especially since the influx of Catholic im migrants from Ireland began in the middle of the nineteenth century.     

Green supply chain management innovation diffusion and its relationship to organizational improvement: An ecological modernization perspective

Drawing on diffusion of innovation and ecological modernization theories, we identify three types of industrial manufacturers, namely early adopters, followers, and laggards, based on the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices among Chinese manufacturers. Test results indicate that differences exist between the three types of GSCM adopters in terms of their environmental, operational, and economic performance. Understanding how Chinese manufacturers adopt GSCM practices and if this adoption affects their performance contributes theoretical advancement to the diffusion of innovation theory. Practically, the results provide managerial insights for manufacturers to benchmark for environmental management practices and performance improvement.     

HRD Research in a diversified field

A nation's capacity to absorb and produce knowledge is increasingly linked to advancing its social and economic well-being. While the bulk of research attention has focused on knowledge management in the private sector, universities worldwide continue to play pivotal roles in developing the human capability to work with knowledge. This article draws on a qualitative case study of a public flagship, comprehensive university in a developing nation in Southeast Asia to identify existing research capacity strengths and the hopes some academic faculty and administrators have for the future in a resource-limited and politically constrained context. It points out that faculty virtue may be the basis on which research capacity can develop when gaps in organizational processes, physical resources, and outside support exist. The findings have relevance for richer and poorer nations alike, as rapidly changing economic conditions threaten levels of funding to universities around the world.     

Framing Effects in Narrative and Non‐Narrative Risk Messages

Narrative messages are increasingly popular in health and risk campaigns, yet gain/loss framing effects have never been tested with such messages. Three experiments examined framing in narrative messages. Experiment 1 found that only the character's decision, not framing, influenced judgments about characters in a narrative derived from a prospect theory context. Experiment 2 found that a framing effect that occurred when presented in a decision format did not occur when the same situation was presented as a narrative. Using a different story/decision context, Experiment 3 found no significant difference in preference for surgery over radiation therapy in a narrative presentation compared to a non‐narrative presentation. The results suggest that health and risk campaigns cannot assume that framing effects will be the same in narrative messages and non‐narrative messages. Potential reasons for these differences and suggestions for future research are discussed.