The struggle to empower trade union members: insights from Zambia

Empowerment is under-researched in labour and trade unions, not least in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on workplace observations and interviews with union members and staff in agriculture, commerce, and industry, this article shares insights from two trade unions in Zambia. Findings show that the extent of empowerment differs between members and that empowerment is constrained by employer influence, privatisation, lack of government labour law enforcement, and union resources. Using an integrated approach, the article discusses differences in perceptions of empowerment, how external intentions clash with local structures, and offers suggestions which may help to improve union empowerment methods and programmes.     

Prospective Person Memory: The Role of Self-Efficacy,Personal Interaction,and Multiple Images in Recognition of Wanted Persons

Prospective person memory refers to recognition of individuals one has been asked to be on the lookout for, such as wanted criminals or missing persons. Past field experiments have tended to find very low rates of identification. The present experiments examine whether multiple pictures, personal interaction, and increased self-efficacy would improve prospective person memory. Participants viewed a mock wanted person alert and were told that if they saw the person depicted in the alert they could win a cash prize. The alert either showed a single picture of the target person or multiple pictures. The target individual then showed up at the dining hall participants routinely had lunch. Some participants had peronal interaction with the target and some participants were led to believe that the likelihood of encounter was quite high. Despite these manipulations, only a small number of participants reported seeing the target individual.     

A Multi-Level Conceptual Model to Examine Child Welfare Worker Turnover and Retention Decisions

There is little disagreement about the importance of a healthy stable workforce in promoting effective provision of child welfare services. This review proposes a multi-level conceptual model of child welfare workforce turnover combining traditional individual and organizational impacts with factors associated with community context. Identified gaps in the literature along with a related research agenda are reviewed. Also presented is an overview of the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families, a longitudinal study of new hires into the child welfare workforce across Florida, providing opportunities to address gaps and test model characteristics regarding turnover decisions and related outcomes.