The sound of silence. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender discrimination in 'inclusive organizations'

Most studies on diversity and discrimination in the workplace have focused on 'visible' minorities such as gender or race, often neglecting the experiences of invisible minorities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers. In this paper we explore the practices of inclusion/exclusion of LGBTs in the workplace in Italian social cooperatives, which are specifically founded to create employment for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market. The study examines how organizations, which have an ethos focused on inclusion and mainly employ workers from specific social minority groups, manage the inclusion of LGBT workers. We also explore the experience of LGBT workers within these organizations. The paper reports that the culture of silence existing in the five organizations studied prevents LGBT employees from constructing a work identity which encompasses their sexual identity and prevents the organizations from achieving their aim of being fully inclusive workplaces. © 2013 British Academy of Management.

Being Tamil, being Hindu:Tamil migrants’ negotiations of the absence of Tamil Hindu spaces in the West Midlands and South West of England

This paper considers the religious practices of Tamil Hindus who have settled in the West Midlands and South West of England in order to explore how devotees of a specific ethno-regional Hindu tradition with a well-established UK infrastructure in the site of its adherents’ population density adapt their religious practices in settlement areas which lack this infrastructure. Unlike the majority of the UK Tamil population who live in the London area, the participants in this study did not have ready access to an ethno-religious infrastructure of Tamil-orientated temples and public rituals. The paper examines two means by which this absence was addressed as well as the intersections and negotiations of religion and ethnicity these entailed: firstly, Tamil Hindus’ attendance of temples in their local area which are orientated towards a broadly imagined Hindu constituency or which cater to a non-Tamil ethno-linguistic or sectarian community; and, secondly, through the ‘DIY’ performance of ethnicised Hindu ritual in non-institutional settings.

The state of the nations:current and future developments in technology enhanced learning

Right across Europe technology is playing a vital part in enhancing learning for an increasingly diverse population of learners. Learning is increasingly flexible, social and mobile and supported by high quality multi-media resources. Institutional VLEs are seeing a shift towards open source products and these core systems are supplemented by a range of social and collaborative learning tools based on web 2.0 technologies. Learners undertaking field studies and those in the workplace are coming to expect that these off-campus experiences will also be technology-rich whether supported by institutional or user-owned devices. As well as keeping European businesses competitive, learning is seen as a means of increasing social mobility and supporting an agenda of social justice. For a number of years the EUNIS E-Learning Task Force (ELTF) has conducted snapshot surveys of e-learning across member institutions, collected case studies of good practice in e-learning see (Hayes, et al., 2009) in references, supported a group looking at the future of e-learning, and showcased the best of innovation in its e-learning Award. Now for the first time the ELTF membership has come together to undertake an analysis of developments in the member states and to assess what this might mean for the future. The group applied the techniques of World Café conversation and Scenario Thinking to develop its thoughts. The analysis is unashamedly qualitative and draws on expertise from leading universities across eight of the EUNIS member states. What emerges is interesting in terms of the common trends in developments in all of the nations and similarities in hopes and concerns about the future development of learning.

Unity in Christ or Pan-Europeanism?:Nathan Söderblom and the ecumenical peace movement in the interwar period

In the summer of 2014 the Swedish Church is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the appointment of Nathan Söderblom as archbishop of Uppsala, and thus head of the Swedish church organisation. As a Lutheran with an enormously broad-minded and broad-reaching approach to ecumenical understanding and community-building, Söderblom shot to prominence in the interwar period not only because of his ecumenical engagement, calling for an evangelical catholicity so stand side by side with the Roman catholic and Orthodox catholic traditions, but also because of his comprehensive secular engagement for peace and understanding between peoples. In the latter context he also acquired a solid reputation as a perhaps less prominent but still noteworthy figure in the history of European integration. This article investigates how, why and to what extent Söderblom’s ecumenical and secular engagements were intertwined. The first part discusses how his biographical and academic background led to such staunch ecumenical positions, while the second part focuses on the secular engagement, which was perceived by Söderblom as necessary to make progress on the ecumenical front in the practical political realities of the 1920s. The final part, comparing and contrasting Söderblom’s views with those of Count Richard von Coudenhove-Calergi and the Pan-European Union, demonstrates why Söderblom’s engagement for Europe had to be limited: unity in Christ is by definition global in nature and therefore cannot be continent-specific.

From the workplace to the classroom:examining the impact of self-leadership learning strategies on higher educational attainment and success

Self-leadership is a concept from the organisational and management literature broadly combining processes of self-goal setting, self-regulation and self-motivation. Research has typically focused on the impact of self-leadership on work performance outcomes, with little attention to potential benefits for learning and development. In this paper, we employ a longitudinal design to examine the association of a number of processes of self-leadership with higher educational attainment in a sample of business students (N = 150). Self-reported use of strategies related to behavioural, cognitive and motivational aspects of self-leadership were measured in the first semester of the academic year, and correlated with end-of year grade point average. We found that in particular, self-goal setting, pro-active goal-related behaviour, behaviour regulation and direction, motivational awareness, and optimism were all significant predictors of educational attainment. We discuss implications for educational research and for teachers and tutors in practice.