The impact of personality and workplace belongingness on mental health workers’ professional quality of life

Objectives Mental health workers are constantly exposed to their clients’ stories of distress and trauma. While listening to these stories can be emotionally draining, professionals in this field still derive pleasure from their work. This study examined the role of personality and workplace belongingness in predicting compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout in mental health professionals. Methods Mental health staff (N = 156) working in a counselling service completed a questionnaire that included measures relating to professional quality of life, the Five-Factor Model of personality, workplace belongingness, as well as questions relating to the participants’ demographic profile, work roles and trauma history. Results The results indicated that, high levels of emotional stability (low neuroticism), extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and being connected at work, are essential factors that promote the professional quality of life of mental health workers. Specifically, workplace belongingness was the strongest predictor of compassion satisfaction and low levels of burnout, while neuroticism was the strongest predictor of secondary traumatic stress. Conclusions Important implications from this study include: (1) encouraging mental health staff to increase self-awareness of their dispositional characteristics and how their personalities affect their wellbeing at work, and; (2) encouraging management to facilitate practices where mental health workers feel connected, respected, and supported in their organisation.

The Organisation of Policy Meets the Commercialisation of Sex - Global Linkages, Policies, Technologies

During recent years the commercialisation of sex has increased and intensified both locally and globally. This thesis explores the commercialisation of bodies, sex and sexualities, particularly the sex trade, and the impact of rapidly evolving information and communication technologies on this globalising trade. The main focus of this work is on the policies, discourses and policy developments in the area especially in the Finnish context. The study is based on multidisciplinary theoretical sources through which the framework of multiple linkages relevant to the commercialisation of sex is conceptualised. The sex trade functions through a web of intersecting linkages of a substantive, economic, organisational, temporal, spatial, cultural, technological, as well as of legislative and policy nature. This framework of linkages forms the basis for the analysis of the main empirical data, namely qualitative interviews with thirty key managers and professionals, who are responsible for the preparation and implementation of policies on commercial sex. In addition, the thesis addresses the policies and policy practices on the sex trade through the analysis of national and international policy instruments. In addition to analysing the processes of the commercialisation of sex and its effects, the study also discusses their further implications for organisational policy-making, research, and society more generally. The thesis thus seeks to contribute to practice, research and theory on gender, management and organisations.

Continuing Professional Development: rhetoric and practice in the NHS

This article explores the experience of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) by supervisory-level clinical staff in the National Health Service. Four main themes are highlighted in the literature, namely the nature and experience of CPD, its relationship with human resource management practices and in particular in career development and planning. These themes are examined utilising sources of (triangulated) empirical data based on a 2500 sample survey conducted across five NHS Trusts. A key finding was that responsibility for learning and development was perceived as belonging to the individual rather than the organisation. Other findings concern a lack of resource-based commitment by the organisation to CPD for clinical staff undertaking supervisory-level roles and evidence of 'credentialism' with its emphasis on seeking certificated qualifications. The findings raise concerns about the potential for clinical staff to become disillusioned and to perceive a potential breach in their psychological contract because of problems in reconciling their own interests with those of their professional body, and that of their employer in relation to CPD.

Addressing diversity and inclusion in the early years in conflict-affected societies: A case study of the Media Initiative for Children – Northern Ireland

This article reports on the development and systematic evaluation of an innovative early years programme aimed at encouraging young children to respect differences within a deeply-divided society that is emerging out of a prolonged period of violent conflict. The programme, the Media Initiative for Children – Northern Ireland, has been the product of a partnership between an US-based organisation (the Peace Initiatives Institute) and NIPPA – The Early Years Organisation and has been supported by academic research and the efforts of a range of voluntary and statutory organisations. It has attempted to encourage young children to value diversity and be more inclusive of those who are different to themselves through the use of short cartoons designed for and broadcast on television as well as specially-prepared curricular materials for use in pre-school settings. To date the programme has been delivered through 200 settings to approximately 3,500 pre-school children across Northern Ireland. This article describes how the programme was developed and implemented as well as the rigorous approach taken to evaluating its effects on young children’s attitudes and awareness. Key lessons from this are identified and discussed in relation to future work in this area.

Citizens as Social Work Educators in a Post-Conflict Society: Reflections from Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT This paper examines how service users and carers can contribute to social work education in a post conlict society. A small-scale study undertaken in Northern Ireland is used as a case study to show how such citizens can potentially critically contribute to social work students’ understanding of the impact of conlict on individuals, groups and communities. The need to appreciate the effects of such community division is now a core knowledge requirement of the social work curriculum in Northern Ireland. The article reports on research indings with service users, carers and agency representatives which points to ways in which social work students can achieve a critical understanding of the impact of conlict. Northern Ireland, in this way, is presented as a divided society, still in a state of adjustment and evolution, following a period of protracted community strife and violence. The author suggests that individuals who have been directly affected by conlict can contribute in an informed and critical way to social work students’ developing knowledge and experience in an important area of their professional competence and understanding of anti-oppressive practice more broadly.

Risks to home care workers: Professional perspectives

Care at home is fundamental to community care policy, but the simultaneous growth of health and safety regulation has implications for home care services because of the duty of employers towards home care workers. This grounded theory study set in Northern Ireland used data from 19 focus groups and nine semi-structured interviews with a range of health and social services professionals and managers to explore perspectives on planning long term care for older people. Home care workers faced a wide range of hazards in the homes of clients, who themselves were faced with adapting their living habits due to their changing health and care needs and 'risks.' Creative approaches were used to ensure the health and safety of home care workers and simultaneously to meet the choices of clients. Staff experienced feelings of conflict when they judged it necessary to impose their way of providing home care and thus impose their values on clients to create a safe working environment. There was variation between and within organizations in terms of the staff focus on client needs or on their employer responsibility towards home care workers. The planning of home care services must take account of both the choices of clients and the hazards facing home care staff.

Work-life Conflict and Social Inequality in Western Europe

Recent debates on time-use suggest that there is an inverse relationship between time poverty and income poverty (Aguiar and Hurst in Q J Econ C(3):969-1006, 2007), with Hammermesh and Lee (Rev Econ Stat 89(2):374-383, 2007) suggesting much time poverty is 'yuppie kvetch' or 'complaining'. Gershuny (Soc Res Int Q Soc Sci 72(2):287-314, 2005) argues that busyness is the 'badge of honour': being busy is now a positive, privileged position and it is high status people who work long hours and feel busy. Is this also true of work-life conflict? This paper explores the relationship between work-life tension and social inequality, as measured by social class, drawing on evidence from the European Social Survey. To what extent is work-life conflict a problem of the (comparatively) rich and privileged professional/managerial classes, and is this true across European countries? The countries selected offer a range of institutional and policy configurations to maximise variation. Using regression modelling of an index of subjective work-life conflict, we find that in all the countries under study, work-life conflict is higher among professionals than non-professionals. Part of this is explained by the fact that professionals work longer hours and experience more work pressure than other social classes, though the effect remains even after accounting for these factors. While levels of work-life conflict vary across the countries studied, country variation in class differences is modest. We consider other explanations of why professionals report higher work-life conflict and the implications of our findings for debates on social inequality.

The level playing field: the impact of assessment practice on professional development

Context: The effects of assessment practice on students’ learning are unclear, particularly regarding professional development. Corralling in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) is designed to reduce illicit passing of examination information. Candidates completing an examination are kept secluded until the next cohort of examinees has begun. We used the introduction of corralling as a context in which to explore social influences on examination misconduct, with the aims of improving understanding of the hidden effects of assessment, and evaluating the acceptability of corralling from the student perspective.

Methods: A questionnaire was administered to students corralled post-OSCE for the first time. Eleven semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted. Questionnaire data were analysed for descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of interview transcripts was carried out.

Results: The questionnaire response rate was 95.4% (251/263). Before corralling, 80.9% (203/251) of students were aware of the sharing of information among peers and 78.5% (197/251) agreed that such misconduct was unprofessional. The majority were in favour of corralling (90.8%, 228/251). Four themes emerged from the semi-structured interviews: the student network versus the individual; assessment-driven culture; the deferring of professionalism, and the ‘level playing field’. Students saw interaction within the student network, on a background of assessment-driven culture, as the key driver in examination misconduct. Conforming to the rules of the social network was prioritised over individual agency, although the mismatch between the rules of the network and the dominant professional discourse caused some conflict for individuals. Deferred professionalism (described as the practice of taking on the norms of professional behaviour only when qualified) was a rationalisation used to minimise this conflict. Corralling provided a ‘level playing field’ in which the influences of the network were minimised.

Conclusions: Examination misconduct is thus a complex social construction with implications for individual learners in terms of professional development. Corralling is one mechanism for addressing misconduct that is acceptable to students, but assessment processes have important hidden effects which educators should acknowledge.

‘5 ways to say your prayers’:The Art and Architecture of Curating People, Place and Creativity in a Post-Conflict Context. The Shed, Galway, Ireland 18th June – 23rd July 2013 Includes: 1. Co-Curation of Exhibition with Peter Mutschler, Director of PS² and 2. Morrow’s individual work as part of the exhibition, entitled ‘Departures & Arrivals: Academic Interactions with the Activities, Artists and Archive of PS² ’

This exhibition profiles the curatorial approach of PS² and the work of creative practitioners who have practiced alongside and with the organisation. PS² is a Belfast-based, voluntary arts organisation that initiates projects inside and outside its project space. It seeks to develop a socio-spatial practice that responds to the post-conflict context of Northern Ireland, with particular focus on active intervention and social interaction between local people, creative practitioners, multidisciplinary groups and theorists.
Morrow has collaborated with PS² since its inception in 2005, acting as curatorial advisor specifically on the projects that occur outside PS² . She regards her involvement as a parallel action to her pedagogical explorations within architectural education.

Morrow's personal contribution to the Exhibition aimed to:
-interrogate PS² spatial projects
-contextualise PS² curatorial practice
-open up the analytical framework and extend to similar local practices

The Shed, Galway, Ireland is a joint Galway City Arts and Harbour Company venture. The exhibition subsequently travelled to DarcSpace Gallery, Dublin (Sept 2013).

(Re)-Introducing Themes of Religion and Spirituality to Professional Social Work Training in the Land of ‘Saints and Scholars’.

This chapter begins by alluding to Ireland’s historical reputation as the land of “Saints and Scholars” and then briefly charts its demise from this position. A parallel process in relation to religiously motivated provision of health and social care is outlined. The inclusion of themes of religion and spirituality within the current professional social work codes in the USA and Britain and the framework for social work training in Northern Ireland is noted. In this context the lack of any substantive inclusion of themes of religion and/or spirituality within the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree at Queens University Belfast will be situated. A series of intersecting reasons for this lack of inclusion are proposed in terms of the experience of living through the recent troubled history of Northern Ireland and a variety of biases in academic thought.
A rationale for the re-introduction of inputs on religion and spirituality is articulated in terms of the widespread resurgence of these themes within health and social care and psychotherapy literature and the new emphasis on practicing in culturally sensitive ways in Britain. The first steps to re-introduce these themes under the higher context marker of “culturally competent practice” are described and an analysis of data from the students’ feedback presented along with illustrative quotations. The dissonance between the initial misgivings of staff and the overwhelmingly positive responses of students are highlighted. The chapter concludes with a discussion of lessons learned through the process with an emphasis on how the inclusion of these themes can result in better practice for service users, including those impacted by “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

Technology, work organisation and job quality in the service sector: an introduction’

This special issue volume is concerned with how technology is changing the nature of work and working conditions while generating new products and new forms of service delivery. The five articles included in this volume cover service work, from the routine and clerical through to highly credentialed and professional work. Although some of the established challenges concerning the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on work and workplaces are evident in the articles, it is also clear that new service delivery processes demand new skills and training to some extent. Overall findings indicate that while ICT competencies are important, they need to be supplemented by the soft skills that are crucial for effective customer interactions and more open work systems with greater autonomy and participation whereby flexible work teams can have a positive impact on job quality outcomes. This introductory article examines technology and the changing nature of work through three strands of interpretation, prior to introducing the five articles in this special issue.

Development of a continuing professional development website to raise awareness of preconception counselling and pre-pregnancy care for Women with Diabetes

Aims: Pre-pregnancy care reduces the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with diabetes, yet the majority of women receive suboptimal care due to poor preconception counselling rates and a lack of awareness about the importance of specialised pre-pregnancy care. The primary aim was to develop a continuing professional development (CPD) resource for healthcare professionals (HCPs) who work with women with diabetes to facilitate preconception counselling with this group.

Methods: The website was developed under the direction of a multidisciplinary team, adhering to NICE guidelines. The tone, key messages and format are informed by the “Women with Diabetes” preconception counselling website, www.womenwithdiabetes.net, an existing resource which is effective in helping women to be better prepared for pregnancy.Results: This e-learning resource will give HCPs the necessary knowledge and tools to prepare women with diabetes to plan for pregnancy. The website features women with diabetes sharing their views and experiences, alongside an evidence-based commentary and key messages from research papers and clinical guidelines. It comprises two modules: “Planning for Pregnancy”, focusing on contraception, risks and planning; and “Diabetes and Pregnancy”, focusing on support during pregnancy with an overview of each trimester of pregnancy.

Conclusion: This website will be a useful CPD resource for all HCPs working with women with diabetes, providing a certificate on completion. This resource will empower HCPs to engage in preconception counselling with women with diabetes by providing the HCP with a greater understanding of the specific needs of women with diabetes both preconception and during pregnancy.

Academic and Practitioners perspectives on Organisation Development – a UK study

This paper reports on a research study to identify the nature of the profession of Organisation Development (OD) in the UK and how it has evolved over four decades. The study is designed to compare academic perspectives on OD with what is happening in the professional practice world. Three forms of data were collected for this study, content analysis of job advertisements from a four decade period, a bibliometric search and interviews with subject experts. The findings were analysed through the theory lens of institutional theory, the dissemination of ideas and fads and fashions in management. Emerging insights are that there is a difference between academic and practitioners development of the OD profession in the UK. The reasons for the difference have been explored in the discussion.