Paradoxical leadership in public sector organisations: Its role in fostering employee resilience

Government organisations, and their employees, need to be resilient to manage challenges such as resource constraints, rising demands, and the tensions and contradictions that underlie much public sector work, often stemming from the need to balance different stakeholder interests. Employee resilience, defined as the capacity to continuously adapt and flourish, even in the face of challenge, is an individual level construct that also benefits organisations. Despite its benefits, little is known about how to foster it. This paper explores whether paradoxical leadership (PL) can contribute to employee resilience. PL – the ability to balance competing structural and relational demands over time – may be one means of supporting employee resilience, as it corresponds to the tensions and paradoxes that exist in public sector work. This correspondence between PL and tensions in public administration work means that PL may also help employees behave resiliently. Findings from a quantitative survey (n = 233) in a large New Zealand public sector organisation indicate that PL antecedes resilience. The effect of PL facets on employee resilience is partially mediated by perceptions of organisational support.     

A Game of the Half: The Manageress and the Sex Discrimination Act

As the football industry continues in its struggle to balance its traditional regulations and practices with the demands of domestic and European law it is evident that entrenched attitudes within the game will have to be changed if the industry is to avoid further damaging litigation. One such area is in the appointment of football managers (or head coaches), where the practices of selection seem to contravene the most basic principles of employment law with regard to the Sex Discrimination Acts. This article argues that the appointment of ex professional players as Managers violates the prohibition on indirect sex discrimination, and asserts that being male is not a ``genuine occupational qualification' for the post. The article analyses case studies of football managers to substantiate its claims, and uses interviews carried out with coaches and players in the women's Premier League in order to discuss sex discrimination and the non-appointment of women to one of the most important posts in the football industry in more general terms. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Federal Impact on Early Postwar Suburbanization

ABSTRACT

Researchers agree that, in Canada and the United States, federal policy with respect to mortgage finance encouraged suburbanization in the early postwar period. However, direct evidence has been lacking. Unique mortgage file data for 1951 for two Canadian cities, Hamilton, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia, make it possible to assess this claim, and related claims. They show that the impact of federal mortgage assistance was similar in direction in both cities, but much more striking in Hamilton: federal involvement encouraged suburbanization, reinforced existing broad patterns in the social geography of the city, and increased the amount of income segregation at the scale of specific neighborhoods and suburban subdivisions. The broad generalizations that previous researchers have made about the impact of federal mortgage policy are confirmed, but the magnitude of that impact could vary enormously and cannot be assumed in particular cases.     

Policy,Practicalities, and PACE s. 24: The Subsuming of the Necessity Criteria in Arrest Decision Making by Frontline Police Officers

PACE, as amended by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, establishes a complex framework of factors that police officers must consider during arrest decision making. Officers must possess a reason to arrest, it must be necessary to arrest for that reason, and they must give at least a ‘cursory consideration’ to alternatives. Based on a four‐year ethnographic study of frontline officers from two forces in Northern England, we argue that the 2005 reforms have not achieved their aims. The new regime tasks officers with undertaking a complex legal assessment prior to arrest, but officers are often confused about the necessity criteria which, moreover, is typically a minor consideration in contrast to demanding practical and policy pressures. This means that unlawful and non‐human‐rights‐compliant arrests continue to be regularly made and, equally significantly, many suspects are escaping the criminal justice system because officers are not considering arrest alternatives.     

Developments in public affairs in Australia

• This paper discusses the integrated public affairs model most common in Australian companies, and its rationale. It describes some key characteristics of the function, drawing on a comprehensive survey of public affairs departments in late 2003. The function has become more senior and strategic, more closely aligned to business imperatives and with stable or growing budgets. It identifies areas of increased attention for practitioners, including support for organization transformation and culture change, stakeholder relations as a line, as well as staff function, reputation management and sustainability reporting.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Military,the media and the invasion of Grenada

The article begins by discussing trends in official U.S. information policies before the invasion of Grenada (1983), describing the tendency towards secrecy and limited disclosure. The immediate political background to the invasion is outlined, including an examination of attempts to produce a plausible justification for military intervention. The management of the media both immediately before and after the invasion is detailed and the article concludes by assessing the lessons and aftermaths of the information war fought during the Grenada episode.The Grenada ban is not an isolated incident, but part of a pattern ... (Time, 7 November 1983)     

Clinical supervision and forensic work

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on supervision in relation to forensic work and examines the need for such supervision in work with offenders. Three types of problematic countertransference are identified, which can be characterised as repulsive, helpless and voyeuristic in nature. Current research emphasising the role of attachment styles in sexual offending is seen as having implications for the treatment process and therefore for clinical supervision. Similarly, research emphasising the importance of group leadership skills in treatment is presented as indicating a need for supervision. Some problems with the provision of supervision are examined and it is concluded that it should be an integral part of any work with offenders.