The management of stress amongst professional carers within a social services department

This thesis considers four broad areas:(i) ANALYSIS OF THE STRESS FIELD.(a) research studies, relevant to the British Social Services considering the cultural setting, and the rigor with which they were conducted; (b) models of stress, specifically examining the theoretical soundness and practical application of the Medical, Engineering and Transactional models;(c) organisational models of stress relating specifically to human service organisations.(ii) QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES.(a) the appropriate application of each respective methodology and the particular usefulness of qualitative research designs; (b) the relevance of understanding the language and terminology associated with the subject area prior to the implementation of survey methods; (iii) FIELDWORK.(a) Phase 1. By use of focus groups, in-depth interviews and diary keeping amongst a small range of teams and managers, the Researcher develops a basic conceptual framework of stress within a Social Services context. In addition a small scale personality inventory was administered to participants.(b) Phase 2. This consisted of three key elements: 6 case studies in which the Researcher implements and appraises the impact of a range of intervention strategies designed to assist teams and their managers in dealing more effectively with stress; the administration of a large scale survey to all the field social work teams within the Social Services Department; an analysis of the user role within the stress process by way of two focus groups.(iv) THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT.

Bringing a construction site into the lab:a context-relevant lab-based evaluation of a multimodal mobile application

Mobile technology has not yet achieved widespread acceptance in the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. This paper presents work that is part of an ongoing research project focusing on the development of multimodal mobile applications for use in the AEC industry. This paper focuses specifically on a context-relevant lab-based evaluation of two input modalities – stylus and soft-keyboard v. speech-based input – for use with a mobile data collection application for concrete test technicians. The manner in which the evaluation was conducted as well as the results obtained are discussed in detail.