Workplace Bullying Policy in the Australian Public Sector: Why Has Gender Been Ignored?

This article examines the question of gender-neutral workplace bullying policy in the Australian context. It draws on the international workplace bullying literature and interview data gathered from policy actors located in Australian public service administrations, including managers, policy implementors and employee advocates. Our findings show that both the literature and the policy actors tend to present workplace bullying as a product of individualised behaviour, overlooking the nuances and dimensions of organisational power relations that include gender. As part of this tendency, policy actors insisted that workplace bullying be represented as gender-neutral. Our analysis reveals two key factors underpinning the defence and dissemination of workplace bullying as a gender-neutral problem: the tendency to individualistic remedies in public sector policies; and the idea among policy actors that if workplace bullying was portrayed as needing gender analysis, its current support as an important organisational issue would dissolve.     

The situation of women in the agribusiness sector in Africa

This practical note syntheses the proceedings of a gender forum on women in agribusiness, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya in April 2015. The workshop session of the forum focused on two themes: financing options and entrepreneurship capacities. The public session covered six main areas: (1) post-harvest food management, (2) policies to enhance affirmative action, (3) regional integration and international trade, (4) technologies, (5) land and water management for agriculture, and (6) the next generation of agribusiness entrepreneurs. The multi-sectoral forum brought together some key stakeholders across East Africa to share experiences and best practices, increase mutual learning, and expand public discourse on the subject.     

Cognitive Abilities,Social Adaptation,and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Childhood and Adolescence: Specific Cascade Effects Across Development

Children’s and adolescents’ cognitive abilities, social adaptation, and externalizing behaviors are broadly associated with each other at the bivariate level; however, the direction, ordering, and uniqueness of these associations have yet to be identified. Developmental cascade models are particularly well-suited to (1) discern unique pathways among psychological domains and (2) model stability in and covariation among constructs, allowing for conservative tests of longitudinal associations. The current study aimed to identify specific cascade effects among children’s cognitive abilities, social adaptation, and externalizing behaviors, beginning in preschool and extending through adolescence. Children (46.2?% female) and mothers (N?=?351 families) provided data when children were 4, 10, and 14 years old. Cascade effects highlighted significant stability in these domains. Unique longitudinal associations were identified between (1) age-10 cognitive abilities and age-14 social adaptation, (2) age-4 social adaptation and age-10 externalizing behavior, and (3) age-10 externalizing behavior and age-14 social adaptation. These findings suggest that children’s social adaptation in preschool and externalizing behavior in middle childhood may be ideal intervention targets to enhance adolescent well-being.     

Estimating postmortem interval for human cadavers in a sub‐tropical climate using UV‐Vis‐near‐infrared Spectroscopy

Estimating postmortem interval (PMI) of surface found skeletal remains is challenging. This novel study used UV‐Vis‐NIR spectroscopy to scan soil collected from cadaver decomposition islands (CDIs) ranging from 15‐ to 963‐d postmortem and control soils. A decomposition product spectra model (DPS model) was constructed by deducting the control soil spectra from the CDI soil spectra for the estimation of postmortem indices: PMI (d), ADD₄, ADD₁₀, and ADD₂₀. The DPS model (n = 55) was calibrated and subjected to a full cross‐validation. Calibration R² and RPD for the DPS model ranged from 0.97 to 0.99 and from 6.1 to 9.9, respectively, for the four postmortem interval indices. Validation R² and RPD for the DPS model ranged from 0.73 to 0.80 and from 1.9 to 2.2, respectively. The DPS model estimated postmortem intervals for three test CDIs in a clay soil under perennial grassland (test set 1; n = 3) and six CDIs in a sandy soil under a loblolly pine forest (test set 2; n = 6). Test set 1 had PMI prediction ranges from ?69 to ?117 days, ?796 to +832 ADD₄, +552 to +2672 ADD₁₀, and ?478 to ?20 ADD₂₀ of observed PMI. Test set 2 PMI prediction ranged from ?198 to ?65 days, ?9923 to +2629 ADD₄, ?6724 to +1321 ADD₁₀, and ?2850 to +540 ADD₂₀ of observed PMI. Test set 2 had poor predictions for two CDIs, for all measures of postmortem indices resulting in discussion of sampling depth, effect of body mass index (BMI), and scavenging.     

Deficiencies in education and poor prospects for economic growth in the Gulf countries: The case of the UAE

Abstract

Our paper shows that the deficient educational system and the large share of unskilled foreign workers in the Gulf countries are serious impediments to a successful implementation of the strategies of these countries to reduce their dependence on foreign technologies and to restructure their economies in order to make them less dependent on oil exports. A novel element in our analysis is that we emphasise the role of the deficient educational system as an important problem, next to the well-documented quandary of a high incidence of unskilled foreign workers in the workforce. We use new survey data, both at an establishment level and economy-wide, to provide evidence on how the poor educational facilities lead to a poor provision of training, low skill levels, serious skills mismatch and deficient transfer of knowledge. These inadequate facilities and the lack of incentives to improve them also lead to low R&D efforts to promote local technologies and hamper a restructuring of the economy.     

Privatization,efficiency and market failure : transforming ecuador's public sector

Much of the privatization that is occurring in Latin America is leading to improved efficiency. However, privatization in areas where markets do not yield efficient solutions, for example of public goods, like light houses, natural monopolies, mainly utilities, and goods with externalities, like education, can lead to lower output and higher costs in the long run. This paper first presents an outline of the shift in development theory with respect to the role of the public sector. It then examines the growth of Ecuador's public sector and its current debate on how privatization should proceed. It concludes that while careful privatization can be positive, privatizing natural monopolies like the electric utility and/or quasi-public goods, like highways are likely to be detrimental to long run economic development. In order for Ecuador's economy to continue to develop, the public sector still needs to play a significant role in developing human capital and physical infrastructure.