Churches and the Governing of Schools in Northern Ireland: A Redistribution of Power?

This paper presents findings of research into the role of church nominees on school governing bodies. The data is drawn mainly from a wider study of school ethos and school governance undertaken in Northern Ireland in the period 1994 to 1997. The paper raises the question of the future roles and responsibilities of church nominees after legislative changes to the composition and responsibilities of school governing bodies. It also considers recent social and attitudinal change and explains how the combination of these factors have created a situation whereby the power of the churches in the individual school governing body is no longer guaranteed

Establishing ex ante public construction supply chain guidelines in the public procurement of Schools' estate

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the formative development of construction supply chain guidelines or proposals in a UK region’s schools’ estates procurement process to more effectively address a forthcoming increase in investment.

Design/methodology/approach – The research approach is interpretive. Using an action research approach, repeated semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a range of stakeholders are conducted.

Findings – The current construction supply chain in schools’ estate procurement has many difficulties, not least given the highly fragmented and disconnected nature of the projects. Synergies are being missed and there is little or no continuous improvement. Drawing on these findings, the research iteratively develops a range of proposals and guidelines to address this situation.

Research limitations/implications – This research adds weight to the current focus on pressing for change in the construction industry. It presents potentially valuable insights into the benefits of partnering arrangements and how these might usefully be incorporated into schools’ estate supply chain.

Practical implications – A set of guidelines is developed to guide the public procurement of schools’ estate in a UK region. These guidelines are set within the context of the Modernising and Rethinking Construction agenda.

Originality/value – The action research approach enabled the researchers to gain a unique insight into how public procurement and contractor personnel interact and to establish effective practical guidelines.

Affective disruption: Walter Benjamin and the 'history' of Ireland's industrial schools

What role do organizations play in writing history? In this paper, I address the part played by organizations in the enactment of large-scale violence, and focus on the ways in which the resulting histories come to be written. Drawing on the case of Ireland's industrial schools, I demonstrate how such accounts can act to serve the interests of those in power, effectively silencing and marginalizing weaker people. A theoretical lens that draws on ideas from Walter Benjamin and Judith Butler is helpful in understanding this; the concept of 'affective disruption' enables an exploration of how people's experiences of organizational violence can be reclaimed from the past, and protected in a continuous remembrance. Overall, this paper contributes a new perspective on the writing of organizational histories, particularly in relation to the enactment of violence. 

The link between the learning organisation and curriculum innovation:A comparative study of public and private primary schools in Greece

This article examines the relationship between the learning organisation and the implementation of curriculum innovation within schools. It also compares the extent of innovative activity undertaken by schools in the public and the private sectors. A learning organisation is characterised by long-term goals, participatory decision-making processes, collaboration with external stakeholders, effective mechanisms for the internal communication of knowledge and information, and the use of rewards for its members. These characteristics are expected to promote curriculum innovation, once a number of control factors have been taken into account. The article reports on a study carried out in 197 Greek public and private primary schools in the 1999-2000 school year. Structured interviews with school principals were used as a method of data collection. According to the statistical results, the most important determinants of the innovative activity of a school are the extent of its collaboration with other organisations (i.e. openness to society), and the implementation of development programmes for teachers and parents (i.e. communication of knowledge and information). Contrary to expectations, the existence of long-term goals, the extent of shared decision-making, and the use of teacher rewards had no impact on curriculum innovation. The study also suggests that the private sector, as such, has an additional positive effect on the implementation of curriculum innovation, once a number of human, financial, material, and management resources have been controlled for. The study concludes by making recommendations for future research that would shed more light on unexpected outcomes and would help explore the causal link between variables in the research model.

The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations

New ways of managing conflict are increasingly important features of work and employment in organizations. In the book the world's leading scholars in the field examine a range of innovative alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practices, drawing on international research and scholarship and covering both case studies of major exemplars and developments in countries in different parts of the global economy. Developments in the management of individual and collective conflict at work are addressed, as are innovations in both unionized and non-union organizations and in the private and public sectors.

New practices for managing conflict in organizations are set in the context of trends in workplace conflict and perspectives on how conflict should be understood and addressed. Part 1 examines the changing context of conflict management by addressing the main frameworks for understanding conflict management, the trend in conflict at work, developments in employment rights, and the influence of HRM on conflict management. Part 2 covers the main approaches to conflict management in organizations, addressing both conventional and alternative approaches to conflict resolution. Conventional grievance handling and third-party processes in conflict resolution are examined as well as the main ADR practices, including conflict management in non-union firms, the role of the organizational ombudsman, mediation, interest-based bargaining, line and supervisory management, and the concept of conflict management systems. Part 3 presents case studies of exemplars and innovators in the field, covering mediation in the US postal service, interest-based bargaining at Kaiser-Permanente, 'med-arb' in the New Zealand Police, and judicial mediation in UK employment tribunals. Part 4 covers international developments in conflict management in Germany, Japan, The United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and China.

This Handbook gives a comprehensive overview of this growing field, which has seen an huge increase in programmes of study in university business and law schools and in executive education programmes.

Assessing elements of a family approach to reduce adolescent drinking frequency: parent-adolescent relationship, knowledge management, and keeping secrets

AIMS: To estimate 1) the associations between parent-adolescent relationship, parental knowledge and subsequent adolescent drinking frequency and 2) the influence of alcohol use on parental knowledge.

DESIGN: Path analysis of school based cohort study with annual surveys SETTING: Post primary schools from urban and intermediate/rural areas in Northern Ireland PARTICIPANTS: 4,937 post primary school students aged around 11 years in 2000 followed until around age 16 in 2005.

MEASUREMENTS: Pupil reported measures of: frequency of alcohol use; parental-child relationship quality; sub-dimensions of parental monitoring: parental control, parental solicitation, child disclosure and child secrecy.

FINDINGS: Higher levels of parental control (Ordinal logistic OR 0.86 95% CI 0.78, 0.95) and lower levels of child secrecy (OR 0.83 95% CI 0.75 0.92) were associated with less frequent alcohol use subsequently. Parental solicitation and parent-child relationship quality were not associated with drinking frequency. Weekly alcohol drinking was associated with higher subsequent secrecy (Beta -0.42 95% CI -0.53, -0.32) and lower parental control (Beta -0.15 95% CI -0.26, -0.04). Secrecy was more strongly predictive of alcohol use at younger compared with older ages (P=0.02), and alcohol use was less strongly associated with parental control among families with poorer relationships (P=0.04).

CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent alcohol use appears to increase as parental control decreases and child secrecy increases. Greater parental control is associated with less frequent adolescent drinking subsequently, while parent-child attachment and parental solicitation have little influence on alcohol use. 

Gerodontology teaching amongst European dental schools – A European College of Gerodontology survey.

Introduction: In 2009, the European College of Gerodontology (ECG) published the Gerodontology undergraduate teaching guidelines. Seven years later it conducted a survey to explore the current status of Gerodontology teaching amongst the European dental schools.
Methods: The ECG Education Committee developed an electronic questionnaire that was emailed to the Deans or other contact persons in 185 dental schools in 40 European countries. The questionnaire recorded the prevalence, contents and methodology of Gerodontology education. Two weeks later a reminder was sent to non-respondents.
Results: The first wave of responses included 70 dental schools from 28 European countries. Gerodontology was included in the undergraduate curricula of 77% of the respondents and was compulsory in 61% of them. The course was usually offered in senior students and was interdisciplinary; the educators included dentists, physicians, nurses and other care providers. Lecturing was the most common educational technique (75%), and the most common topics included medical problems in old age, pharmacology and polypharmacy, the association between general and oral health, nutritional and chewing problems, xerostomia and prosthodontic management. Clinical training was usually offered within the dental school clinics (50%) and less often in remote locations (nursing homes, geriatric hospitals, day centers).
Key Conclusions: An increasing number of European dental schools teach Gerodontology at the undergraduate curriculum. The study is still ongoing, but a "worst case scenario" has to be born in mind, where dental schools, who failed to participate in the survey, may not be teaching in Gerodontology.