Leadership research and cognitive neuroscience: The state of this union

Advances in cognitive neuroscience and other approaches to understanding human behavior from a biological standpoint are only now beginning to filter into leadership research. The purpose of this introduction to the Leadership Quarterly Special Issue on the Biology of Leadership is to outline the organizational cognitive neuroscience approach to leadership research, and show how such an approach can fruitfully inform both leadership and neuroscientific research. Indeed, we advance the view that the further application of cognitive neuroscientific techniques to leadership research will pay great dividends in our understanding of effective leadership behaviors and as such, a future symbiosis between the two fields is a necessity.     

Strengthening Support to Families: Basing a Family Support Worker at a Primary School in Melbourne,Australia

This mixed methods study examines the benefits of basing a family support worker (FSW) at a primary school in Melbourne, Australia. The school has a number of high needs families requiring extensive support from school staff. Pre and post intervention data was collected on the time spent on social problems in the school community. These included managing students with behavioural and emotional issues, providing support and practical assistance to parents with problems and liaising with agencies to access support for students and families. Pre and post intervention Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires were completed by teachers whose students and families were clients of the FSW (n = 8) and compared with non clients (n = 10). Semi-structured interviews were held with FSW clients (n = 6), class teachers (n = 3) the assistant principal, principal and the FSW. Employing a FSW showed a reduction in the amount of time spent on welfare cases for teachers, and therefore a monetary saving for the school. Qualitative data collected from school staff and FSW clients was overwhelmingly positive. Having a FSW based at a primary school provides savings in teacher time, and expenses to the school. Teachers are freed to concentrate on education and the parents valued the relationship provided by the FSW.     

Through the Ages: Developing Relationships Between the Young and the Old

This article evaluates a program between students at a primary school and aged care residents. The aim of the program was to increase respect and appreciation between the groups. Visiting programs between children and the elderly are well documented, and assumes that the contact will benefit both groups. However the research is contradictory. To ensure that this program was achieving its goals, pre-post test data using the Children’s Perceptions of Aging and Elderly test was collected. Significant improvements in attitude were seen in two items. Overall, there was an improvement in attitude in 12 of the 18 instrument items.     

An Evaluation of Caller Satisfaction with Solution-Focused Telephone Counselling

Abstract

‘Practice Forum’ is intended to provide a forum for social work practitioners to share their practice with others; to describe what they are doing and assess its effectiveness.

We extend an invitation to all social work practitioners to submit articles for ‘Practice Forum’ and we look forward to receiving your contribution.

The telephone is a potentially valuable intervention tool in family counselling. The Child, Adolescent & Family Health Service has been experimenting with a response which combines the traditional advantages of telephone counselling with aspects of Steve deShazer's solution-focused approach (deShazer 1985). In 1990 a study was conducted to evaluate caller satisfaction with this approach. Results indicate a high level of satisfaction with the counselling. At a time of increasing funding cuts and lengthening waiting lists, it is important that as many options as possible remain available to our clients. An expansion in effective telephone counselling services may well be one way of achieving this.     

Applying the transtheoretical model to female and male perpetrators of intimate partner violence: gender differences in stages and processes of change

The Transtheoretical Model has been recently applied to men seeking services at battering intervention and prevention programs (Eckhardt, Babcock, & Homack, 2004; Murphy & Baxter, 1997). This study considers whether women arrested for intimate partner violence differ from male perpetrators in terms of stages of change and processes of change. No gender differences were found regarding stage of change. In general, all individuals presenting for treatment were in the early stages of change. The use of various processes of change was strongly related to stage of change, with individuals in the more advanced stages of change using more behavioral and experiential strategies to become nonviolent. However, except for the use of social liberation strategies, there were no gender differences in the use of the various processes. These findings suggest that the Transtheoretical Model may apply to female perpetrators equally as well as to male perpetrators. Intervention programs designed for male batterers using the Transtheoretical Model may also be helpful in the treatment of women arrested for domestic violence.     

How planning and capital budgeting improve SME performance

This paper focuses on the use of strategic planning among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK manufacturing sector. It analyses the relationship between the intensity of strategic planning, business objectives, perceived performance, changes in the business environment and the use of capital budgeting techniques. Capital budgeting is of particular interest as an area of investigation, and is one which has seldom featured in previous studies of strategic planning behaviour. These issues were investigated via a survey of UK manufacturing SMEs carried out in the winter of 1996/97.

The key results suggest that SMEs incorporate a range of objectives into their strategic planning process, with profit improvement perceived to be the most important objective, followed by sales growth. SMEs engaged in detailed strategic planning are more likely to use formal capital budgeting techniques, including the net present value method, which is consistent with maximising the companys' value. Perceived profitability and success in achieving organisational objectives were positively associated with planning detail, suggesting that strategic planning is a key component improving performance. Planning detail was also associated with a significantly higher level of perceived change in the business environment.     

How Organizational Cognitive Neuroscience Can Deepen Understanding of Managerial Decision‐making: A Review of the Recent Literature and Future Directions

There is growing interest in exploring the potential links between human biology and management and organization studies, which is bringing greater attention to bear on the place of mental processes in explaining human behaviour and effectiveness. The authors define this new field as organizational cognitive neuroscience (OCN), which is in the exploratory phase of its emergence and diffusion. It is clear that there are methodological debates and issues associated with OCN research, and the aim of this paper is to illuminate these concerns, and provide a roadmap for rigorous and relevant future work in the area. To this end, the current reach of OCN is investigated by the systematic review methodology, revealing three clusters of activity, covering the fields of economics, marketing and organizational behaviour. Among these clusters, organizational behaviour seems to be an outlier, owing to its far greater variety of empirical work, which the authors argue is largely a result of the plurality of research methods that have taken root within this field. Nevertheless, all three clusters contribute to a greater understanding of the biological mechanisms that mediate choice and decision‐making. The paper concludes that OCN research has already provided important insights regarding the boundaries surrounding human freedom to act in various domains and, in turn, self‐determination to influence the workplace. However, there is much to be done, and emerging research of significant interest is highlighted.     

市场转型下的老年供养研究

现代化理论预测未来家庭纽带会减弱,对老人的家庭供养会逐渐减弱。我们认为市场转型过程中,子女的人力资本和收入的快速提高有助于供养老人。利用2005年全国1%人口抽样调查数据,本文对60岁以上老年人口的主要生活来源进行了深入分析。研究表明,城市老年居民主要靠离退休金,镇和农村老年人仍有一半靠家庭供养,农村另有40%的老人依靠自我劳动生活。Logistic回归的结果显示农村家庭中子女的劳务迁移提高了老年人的家庭供养比。此外,农村、女性、高龄、低教育老人的家庭供养比高,而城市,男性,低龄,和教育程度较高的供养比低。分城乡老人家庭供养比,农村在不发达的西部最高,城市在发达的东部最高,反映家庭供养U型发展趋势。面对老人比例激增的局面,政府应积极扩大社会养老保障的覆盖面,加强扶持老年弱势群体,减轻家庭养老负担。     

‘Placements Online’: Student Experiences of a Website to Support Learning in Practice Settings

Social work practice and education in many parts of the world are implementing an elearning agenda. This article considers the experiences of students using a website developed to support learning in agency settings to discover if and how it can be used to create a ‘bridge’ between the learning environments of the university and practice. The website contains a range of features, including downloadable practice assessment documents, links to university based teaching units, electronic personal notification of placement allocation, and an asynchronous discussion forum.

The action research project which informs this article employed focus groups of students to ascertain their expectations and experiences of the website, in particular the asynchronous discussion forum facility, prior to and on completion of the 80 day placement, combined with analysis of the actual usage patterns and content.

Three quarters of the cohort participated in the discussion forum and findings suggest that students used and valued the discussion forum for its ability to enable the student to student and tutor to student relationships underpinning collaborative learning to be maintained during the placement, and to enable resource sharing and networking.     

Temporal Orientation in Hearing Impaired People

This paper reviews various aspects of the temporal dimension. Cultural perspectives, audition and language development are suggested as factors that may be involved in the development and expression of the human concept of time. The author argues that deafness may impact sufficiently on one or more of these factors to affect the development of temporal orientation in deaf people. The implications of this for the deaf population are discussed. Tentative hypotheses are made and a number of avenues of research that might enlighten our understanding in this area are proposed.