Universities Masters World Cup Soccer:integrated sports science research and implementation of an international masters soccer community

Ageing populations with greater wellness and athletic expectations require quality sports and active living experiences in order to increase and sustain participation levels. Responding to the diverse needs and circumstances of Masterslveterans players is a complex and multi-faceted process. While sports science contributions have been very effective at enhancing active living in a variety of youth and adult sports events, very little has been documented regarding their efficacy in events for Masterslveteran players. This paper draws upon action research to examine the growth and development of a unique Masters World Cup 6-0-side Soccer Tournament, involving representative teams from twelve nations. lntegrated sports science concepts and strategies were employed to develop quality soccer experiences. Longitudinal data suggest that fostering a community of practice is critical to the success of Masters soccer programs. In addition to critical leadership contributions, an eclectic range of age-appropriate and responsive soccer experiences are essential to ensure that Masters events meet the diverse needs and circumstances of the players.

South Africa and the global game:football, apartheid and beyond

Firmly situating South African teams, players, and associations in the international framework in which they have to compete, South Africa and the Global Game: Football, Apartheid, and Beyond presents an interdisciplinary analysis of how and why South Africa underwent a remarkable transformation from a pariah in world sport to the first African host of a World Cup in 2010. Written by an eminent team of scholars, this special issue and book aims to examine the importance of football in South African society, revealing how the black oppression transformed a colonial game into a force for political, cultural and social liberation. It explores how the hosting of the 2010 World Cup aims to enhance the prestige of the post-apartheid nation, to generate economic growth and stimulate Pan-African pride. Among the themes dealt with are race and racism, class and gender dynamics, social identities, mass media and culture, and globalization. This collection of original and insightful essays will appeal to specialists in African Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sport Studies, as well as to non-specialist readers seeking to inform themselves ahead of the 2010 World Cup. This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society. 1. Introduction Peter Alegi and Chris Bolsmann Part 1: Past is Prologue – History of Football in South Africa 2. Football as Code: The Social Diffusion of ‘Soccer’ in South Africa Lloyd Hill 3. White Football in South Africa: Empire, Apartheid and Change, 1892 – 1977 Chris Bolsmann 4. A Biography of Darius Dhlomo: Transnational Footballer in the Era of Apartheid Peter Alegi 5. Women and Gender in South African Soccer Cynthia Fabrizio Pelak Part 2: Football Culture after Apartheid: Local and Transnational Dynamics 6. "You Must Support Chiefs: Pirates Already Have Two White Fans!" Race and Racial Discourse in South African Football Fandom Marc Fletcher 7. "It wasn’t that I did not like South African Football": Media, History, and Biography Sean Jacobs 8. Soccer in a Rugby Town: Restructuring Football in Stellenbosch Sylvain Cubizolles 9. Differing Trajectories: Football Development and Patterns of Player Migration in South Africa and Ghana Paul Darby and Eirik Solberg Part 3: The 2010 World Cup: Challenges and Opportunities 10. Football's Tsars: Proprietorship, Corporatism and Politics in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Scarlett Cornelissen 11. Sports as Cultural Diplomacy: The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa’s Foreign Policy Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu 12. World Cup 2010: Africa’s Turn or the Turn on Africa? Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed 13. The 2010 FIFA World Cup: Critical Voices From Below Percy Ngonyama.

Breast cancer teams:the impact of constitution, new cancer workload and methods of operation on their effectiveness

National guidance and clinical guidelines recommended multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) for cancer services in order to bring specialists in relevant disciplines together, ensure clinical decisions are fully informed, and to coordinate care effectively. However, the effectiveness of cancer teams was not previously evaluated systematically. A random sample of 72 breast cancer teams in England was studied (548 members in six core disciplines), stratified by region and caseload. Information about team constitution, processes, effectiveness, clinical performance, and members' mental well-being was gathered using appropriate instruments. Two input variables, team workload (P=0.009) and the proportion of breast care nurses (P=0.003), positively predicted overall clinical performance in multivariate analysis using a two-stage regression model. There were significant correlations between individual team inputs, team composition variables, and clinical performance. Some disciplines consistently perceived their team's effectiveness differently from the mean. Teams with shared leadership of their clinical decision-making were most effective. The mental well-being of team members appeared significantly better than in previous studies of cancer clinicians, the NHS, and the general population. This study established that team composition, working methods, and workloads are related to measures of effectiveness, including the quality of clinical care. © 2003 Cancer Research UK.

Top teams and strategy in a UK university

This paper reports on the results of an in-depth study of how a top management team (TMT) puts strategy into practice in a UK university. A study of the top team in Warwick University was conducted to analyse how strategy was formulated and implemented. The results suggest that a combination of two broad theoretical lenses provide useful analytical insight. These are strategy as practice and strategy as process. The main elements of this university’s strategy result from an interplay of localized routines and patterns of action within an organizational context, which both produces and is a product of such actions. The TMT itself was found to be clearly identifiable and stable in composition. The team exhibited identifiable patterns of strategic thinking and acting. However, the role of organizational structure was also found to be a key influence on the actions and processes of the TMT with strong central control tendencies in the team being counterbalanced by devolved operational control to individual departments. The data also reveal inter-relationships between organizational structures and the TMT in four key areas: direction-setting, monitoring and control, the allocation of resources, and processes of interaction. The overall conclusion is that to understand how strategy is practised, analysis needs to focus on how patterns of action are associated with the characteristics of both the team and the wider organization. The nature and characteristics of these patterns can be related to how strategy is put into practice.

Organizing innovation: complementarities between cross-functional teams

Cross-functional teams play a potentially important part in the innovation process enabling knowledge sharing, the development of trust and overcoming spatial and organizational barriers. Using a supermodularity approach, we focus on potential complementarities which may arise when cross-functional teams are used in different elements of the innovation process in UK and German manufacturing plants. Using optimal combinations of cross-functional teams in the innovation process increases innovation success in the UK by 29.5 per cent compared to 9.5 per cent in Germany. Patterns of complementarity are complex, however, but are more uniform in the UK than in Germany. The most uniform complementarities are between product design and development and production engineering, with little synergy evident between the more technical phases of the innovation process and the development of marketing strategy. In strategic terms, our results suggest the value of using cross-functional teams for the more technical elements of the innovation process but that the development of marketing strategy should remain the domain of specialists.

The professional role of breast cancer nurses in multi-disciplinary breast cancer care teams

Since the 1970s breast cancer services have witnessed considerable changes in the management of patients. One significant change was the introduction of specialist core personnel, including the breast care nurse (BCN). The role of the BCN has been gaining credence rapidly in the British NHS and this service is perhaps the paradigm of care for other services. With the lack of specific evidence of the role of specialist nurses in the breast care team, the current study aims to explore this area by in-depth interviews with core team members, and observations of 16 multi-disciplinary teams in England. The study explores the following themes: Nurses' unique informal management leadership role in ensuring the co-ordination, communication and planning of the team work; nurses' innovatory role in making the bureaucracy respond to patients and their relatives needs; nurses supportive role in the provision of expert advice and guidance to other members of the team; nurses confidence and humour in well-performing teams; and the limitations of the professional role of the breast cancer nurse. This study indicates that there is evidence that the BCN is practicing at an advanced level of practice. However, there is a severe lack of evidence-based description of that advanced practice. Cancer nurses including the BCNs should develop and participate in programmes of research in line with cancer legislation in order to build an evidence base that ultimately supports their unique role. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Do many hands make light work? How to overcome social loafing and gain motivation in work teams

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to challenge the assumption that process losses of individuals working in teams are unavoidable. The paper aims to challenge this assumption on the basis of social identity theory and recent research. Design/methodology/approach – The approach adopted in this paper is to review the mainstream literature providing strong evidence for motivation problems of individuals working in groups. Based on more recent literature, innovative ways to overcome these problems are discussed. Findings – A social identity-based analysis and recent findings summarized in this paper show that social loafing can be overcome and that even motivation gains in group work can be expected when groups are important for the individual group members' self-concepts. Practical implications – The paper provides human resource professionals and front-line managers with suggestions as to how individual motivation and performance might be increased when working in teams. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature by challenging the existing approach to reducing social loafing, i.e. individualizing workers as much as possible, and proposes a team-based approach instead to overcome motivation problems.