The Challenge of Leadership in Front Line Clinical Teams Struggling to Meet Current Policy Demands

Teams, and their managers, working at the interface between government policy and service to clients are subject to high levels of anxiety arising out of the persecutory manner in which well-intended policy demands are delivered and cost efficiencies imposed. Informed by Bion's ideas about group behaviours, these responses can be understood as a form of defensive behaviour and identified as Basic Assumption Me-ness. Basic Assumption Me-ness in team managers takes the form of managerialism at the expense of leadership, developing a shell that acts as a protection for the lonely, overburdened, vulnerable and soft inside. This hardness, evident through increased unavailability and a rather sadistic use of boundaries, is communicated to staff, who in turn pass it onto clients. In this manner, it infects all relationships thus stifling emotional engagement, creative thinking and practice. This paper then explores ways in which team leaders, courageous enough to take up their authority in an emotionally engaged manner, can reverse these dynamics to the relief and benefit of all concerned. Leaders need to insist on attendance at meetings and supervision where cases can be properly considered; demonstrate an ability to think about risk as ever present in the work because, as all are well aware, no amount of form filling can eliminate this; and acknowledge that the work requires constant assessment and judgement as well as an ability to stay with the unknown. The aim is to be responsive to the daily struggles of team members working face-to-face with clients and to remain aware of ‘the reality on the ground’ when engaging in an equally lively way with senior management.     

广东省高校男子毽球技术发展现状研究——以广东省第8届大运会男子毽球双打比赛为例

运用文献资料法、专家访谈法、调查法和数理统计等方法对2011年我省大运会毽球比赛获得男子前8名的各高校代表队的技术应用进行了研究与分析,结果显示：扫发球、脚内侧和正脚背接球技术、腾空倒勾进攻技术、拦网防守技术是高水平运动队最核心的得分技术,也是他们比赛制胜的关键技术;教练员、选材是制约各代表队技术水平提高的因素．     

农村劳动力素质提升对产业升级的影响

提高广大农村的劳动力素质对提升我国总体劳动力水平、实现产业升级具有重要意义。农村劳动力素质的提升不仅可以作用于第二、第三产业,同时也可作用于第一产业,有利于实现第一产业内部的优化升级。以河南省西峡县双龙镇为例,分析农村劳动力素质提升对当地产业结构的影响。双龙镇农民由于掌握了香菇种植技术,劳动力素质得到了很大提升,直接促成了香菇种植业成为双龙镇农业的主导产业,实现了农业内部的优化升级。同时,双龙镇劳动力素质的提升又间接地促进了第二、第三产业的发展,促进了三次产业的优化升级。     

Zanzibari Social Entrepreneurs and Poverty Alleviation Strategies: Understanding Efforts to Build Local Community Sustainability

ABSTRACT

Poverty throughout Zanzibar, Tanzania encourages social entrepreneurs to think strategically about methods of human capital development, promoting economic sustainability and asset building. Local women social entrepreneurs are successfully active in (a) building the educational opportunities for girls and low income women, (b) evolving in business to meet change and economic growth, and (c) empowering vulnerable populations and people living with disabilities. This qualitative study interviews 15 women social entrepreneurs in the rural area of Jambiani and the urban area of Stone Town. Their ventures are alleviating poverty and social workers can support these local creative initiatives in diverse ways.     

Preparing Community Health Workers for Their Role as Agents of Social Change: Experience of the Community Capacitation Center

Current efforts to better integrate Community Health Workers (CHWs) into the health and social service systems are promising, but may be less effective if they fail to support the role of CHWs as social change agents. The way CHWs are trained influences the roles they play. In this article, we review the literature on CHW training and summarize lessons learned to date. We describe how the Community Capacitation Center in Oregon uses a combination of content, methodology, and values to prepare CHWs to make an optimal contribution to health. Recommendations for CHW training programs and policy makers are provided.     

Competitive environments in fantasy sports gaming: effects of entry fees and rewards on opposition quality and league sorting

Despite its explosive growth in North America, relatively little research has been conducted on the gambling implications of fantasy sports. The current study examines whether financial information (i.e. entry fee and payout) in an advertisement promoting a fantasy football service influences perceptions about opponents' perceived skill level and expected outcomes. This study also examines the impact of perceived opponents' skill and perceived winning expectations on the desire to participate in the advertised fantasy sports service. Findings indicated that entry fee and reward information significantly increased the participants' expectation of opponent quality, but that this expectation did not result in decreases in the subjects' self-reported probability of winning the league. Additionally, subjects indicated that they were most likely to join a league in which the expected opponents' skill level was nearly equal to their own. In the presence of an advertised monetary reward, however, perceived winning probability also became an important factor in participation decisions. The former result suggests that participants in fantasy sports, especially in free-to-play leagues, are purchasing an experiential product with a value that increases in outcome uncertainty, while the latter implies that participants are motivated both by the overall experience, and by financial gains when they are available.     

Exploration of Equality and Processes of Non-Hierarchical Groups

Abstract

This article argues that, in a non-hierarchical organisation, when value determined by position is taken away, other hierarchies emerge which introduce new power dynamics and can undermine the equality afforded by this context. It discusses various forms of hierarchy that can emerge and implications for non-hierarchal organisations. Research was undertaken with four non-hierarchical community projects on how value can be found for individuals and how they value their colleagues outside of any forms of hierarchy. The article argues that there is uncertainty as to the role of processes in this context, and they are often associated with power and control in a hierarchical context. It discusses findings from the research that show how processes can be reinvented and created to suit the relational and operational needs according to the setting.     

校长培训机构专职教师发展困境的质性研究

校长培训机构的专职教师被视为提升校长培训质量的关键能动者。本文通过对五个培训机构的34位专职教师进行深度访谈与资料分析,描述了中国校长培训机构专职教师发展的现实组织环境及专职教师的工作,深度剖析专职教师发展的困境及其原因。最后,结合我国校长培训的性质,对校长培训机构专职教师的发展提出建议。     

Identity tensions of women with two leadership positions in India

Identity narratives enhance the understanding of women’s leadership, but there exist very few in-depth analyses of negative identity tensions that influence agency. In this study, we examine the negative identity tensions of well-to-do women from small towns in India, who hold two leadership positions: organizational and social movement. We borrow from the discourse on well-to-do women’s participation in social movements in India to draw on the notions of identity, perceptions of feminism, and patriarchal challenge. Our data are derived from 49 in-depth interviews with women leaders. Findings from qualitative analysis and creation of a composite narrative show that negative identity tensions arising from two leadership positions are gendered in nature. Furthermore, agency is (i) contingent on one’s reflection on challenges, (ii) rooted in an underlying principle, and (iii) practiced through the mechanisms of “managing femininity,” a concept that is widely discussed in the Western paradigms of postfeminism and neoliberalism. This paper contributes to the feminist dialog on the global South in the context of gender, class, and geographical location intersection by revealing certain non-Western ways of managing femininity. However, in the process, the hegemony of Indian men remains intact.