Context and Models for the Analysis of Individual and Group Needs

This article summarizes the papers presented in the discussion group focused on the theme “Models for the Analysis of Individual and Group Needs” at the joint symposium of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Society for Vocational Psychology, and National Career Development Association held in Padua, Italy, in September 2007 titled Vocational Psychology and Career Guidance Practice: An International Partnership. The predominant theme that emerged from papers and discussion was that theory and practice need to be positioned within their proximal and distal contexts, ranging from personal to societal contexts.     

Re-aligning the Stakeholders in Management Research: Lessons from Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychology

The publication of the Starkey and Madan (2001) report represents a timely and valuable contribution to an ongoing debate across a range of applied disciplines, concerning the nature and purpose of social research. The call for stakeholder alignment, culminating in the production of new knowledge that is both theoretically and methodologically rigorous on the one hand, and socially relevant on the other, is, in our view, to be greatly welcomed. However, the Mode 2 approach advocated by Starkey and Madan will not satisfy these fundamental requirements. Drawing on recent analyses of the nature, causes and consequences of the academic-practitioner divide in the subfield of industrial, work and organizational psychology, we offer an alternative, four-fold taxonomy of the varieties of managerial knowledge. Within our alternative framework, research that is low on rigour but high on relevance (a likely consequence of the wholesale adoption of a Mode 2 approach) is characterized as 'Popularist Science'. 'Pedantic Science', by contrast, is high on rigour but low on relevance, while 'Puerile Science' meets neither requirement. Only 'Pragmatic Science' will meet the twin imperatives of rigour and relevance. Whilst it is highly desirable that Pragmatic Science should dominate the management field, there are considerable barriers that impede its widespread adoption at the present time, not least the limited availability of researchers who possess the requisite sociopolitical and methodological competencies. The immediate imperative that has to be addressed, therefore, is the question of how best to close this competency gap, a fundamental precondition of stakeholder realignment.     

Peak Exposures in Epidemiologic Studies and Cancer Risks: Considerations for Regulatory Risk Assessment

We review approaches for characterizing “peak” exposures in epidemiologic studies and methods for incorporating peak exposure metrics in dose–response assessments that contribute to risk assessment. The focus was on potential etiologic relations between environmental chemical exposures and cancer risks. We searched the epidemiologic literature on environmental chemicals classified as carcinogens in which cancer risks were described in relation to “peak” exposures. These articles were evaluated to identify some of the challenges associated with defining and describing cancer risks in relation to peak exposures. We found that definitions of peak exposure varied considerably across studies. Of nine chemical agents included in our review of peak exposure, six had epidemiologic data used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) in dose–response assessments to derive inhalation unit risk values. These were benzene, formaldehyde, styrene, trichloroethylene, acrylonitrile, and ethylene oxide. All derived unit risks relied on cumulative exposure for dose–response estimation and none, to our knowledge, considered peak exposure metrics. This is not surprising, given the historical linear no‐threshold default model (generally based on cumulative exposure) used in regulatory risk assessments. With newly proposed US EPA rule language, fuller consideration of alternative exposure and dose–response metrics will be supported. “Peak” exposure has not been consistently defined and rarely has been evaluated in epidemiologic studies of cancer risks. We recommend developing uniform definitions of “peak” exposure to facilitate fuller evaluation of dose response for environmental chemicals and cancer risks, especially where mechanistic understanding indicates that the dose response is unlikely linear and that short‐term high‐intensity exposures increase risk.     

From bodies as ‘meat’ to bodies as ‘flesh’: the expression of performance management as ‘sacrificial acts’ within professional rugby

ABSTRACT

In this article, we argue that to extend the research on performance management we need to examine further how organisational members interweave the technology of such management into their work. Using Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, we question the notion that technology acts on bodies in a linear manner as ‘meat’ to be manipulated. His reversible ontology suggests that these materials can be woven into the flesh of organising in a multitude of ways. Specifically, we refer to professional rugby, and the manner in which its players utilise the technology of performance management, to forge a localised expression of sacrifice. We suggest that this expression provides a means for players to define and evaluate themselves against ‘good rugby’. As forms of evaluation may vary in organisations, we recommend that researchers do not solely associate performance management with metrics but also look to other, more localised, expressions to inform their work.     

Separate Schools: Gender,Policy, and Practice in Postwar Soviet Education

Christopher F. Black, Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century (1989), xiv + 321 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £35.00).

Ralph Houlbrooke, English Family Life, 1576–1716: An Anthology from Diaries (1988), xiv + 268 (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, £14.95).

Judith Moore, A Zeal for Responsibility: The Struggle for Professional Nursing in Victorian England, 1868–1883 (1988), xvii + 214 (University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia, $23.00).

Dieter Fricke, Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung 1869 bis 1917 (1987), 2 vols, 1468 (Dietz Verlag Berlin, East Berlin, DM 58). [Handbook for the History of the German Labour Movement, 1869–1917].

Diane Langmore, Missionary Lives. Papua, 1874–1914 (1989), xxiv + 408 (University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, $28.00).

Christine Collette, For Labour and For Women: The Women's Labour League, 1906–1918 (1989), iii + 225 (Manchester University Press, Manchester, £29.95).

Sebastian Balfour, Dictatorship, Workers, and the City. Labour in Greater Barcelona since 1939 (1989), viii + 288 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, £30.00).     

The VL control measure for symmetric networks

In this paper we measure “control” of nodes in a network by solving an associated optimisation problem. We motivate this so-called VL control measure by giving an interpretation in terms of allocating resources optimally to the nodes in order to maximise some search probability. We determine the VL control measure for various classes of networks. Furthermore, we provide two game theoretic interpretations of this measure. First it turns out that the VL control measure is a particular proper Shapley value of the associated cooperative network game. Secondly, we relate the measure to optimal strategies in an associated matrix search game.     

Sunk ‘Decision Points’: a theory of the endowment effect and present bias

Theory and Decision - This paper presents a very simple model in which situational cues associated with a particular consumption good compel an agent—who may have otherwise been...     

中国本土管理研究与中国传统哲学

中国本土管理研究必须深深地扎根于中国传统哲学之中。中国传统哲学最为本源的基础在于道家,而不在于儒家。以"道"、"阴阳"、"悟"为核心内容,中国传统哲学是关于智慧的哲学,提倡科学与艺术的互动与整合;西方哲学是关于知识的哲学,主张科学与艺术的分离,因此东西方哲学有着根本的差异。但是,正是由于东西方哲学两者之间本质上的差异,双方又可互补,由此可见,中国传统哲学与西方哲学(包括西方科学哲学)是相生相克的阴阳关系。中国传统哲学必需向西方学习,但是中国传统哲学不能放弃自身的特色和优势,绝不能将其所谓"西方科学化"。中国传统哲学与西方哲学对中国本土管理研究都必要,但两者的重要性是非对称的,中国本土管理研究应以中国传统哲学为主,以西方哲学为辅。