Retention Practices for Engineering and Technical Professionals in an Australian Public Agency

Retaining employees with core business skills is a key human resources (HR) activity. This article examines retention of engineering and technical (E&T) professionals in an Australian public service agency by collecting data from 670 E&T professionals to compare attraction, retention and turnover intention by age and occupation. It was hypothesised that the influencers would vary by age, in line with the research on generational differences and employment patterns ( Chaminade 2005 ; Kyles 2005 ). This hypothesis was largely supported. It has also been suggested that intention to leave is influenced by job opportunity ( Hwang and Kuo 2006 ) and we thus sought to examine the influencers for turnover intention for the differing occupations in the E&T group surveyed. There were no significant differences by occupation, except for location, although this may be because occupational groups were aggregated due to the small numbers in some occupations. The current findings address the call for evidence‐based data on the influencers for attraction, retention and turnover intention ( Allen, Bryant and Vardaman 2010 ), and suggests that retention strategies need to take into account generational differences.     

Does Racial Balance in Workforce Representation Yield Equal Justice? Race Relations of Sentencing in Federal Court Organizations*

Increasing racial and ethnic group representation in justice‐related occupations is considered a potential remedy to racial inequality in justice administration, including sentencing disparity. Studies to date yield little evidence of such an effect; however, research limitations may account for the mixed and limited evidence of the significance of justice workforce racial diversity. Specifically, few studies consider group‐level dynamics of race and representation, thus failing to contextualize racial group power relations in justice administration. To consider these contextual dynamics we combine court organizational and case‐level data from 89 federal districts and use hierarchical models to assess whether variably “representative” work groups relate to district‐level differences in sentencing. Using district‐specific indexes of population and work group dissimilarity to define representation, we find no relationships between black judge representation and sentencing in general across districts, but that districts with more black representation among prosecutors are significantly less likely to sentence defendants to terms of imprisonment. We also find in districts with increased black representation among prosecutors, and to a lesser degree among judges, that black defendants are less likely to be imprisoned and white defendants are more likely to be imprisoned, with the effect of narrowing black‐white disparities in sentencing. Consistent with the “power‐threat” perspective, and perhaps “implicit racial bias” research, findings encourage modeling diversity to account for relative racial group power in processes of social control and suggest that racial justice may be moderately advanced by equal representation among authorities.     

Posttraumatic Stress as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Trauma and Mental Health Problems Among Juvenile Delinquents

This study investigated the interrelationships among trauma exposure, PTSD, and mental health problems in a sample of 289 adolescents (199 male, 90 female) detained in a juvenile correctional facility. Mean differences were found in that females scored higher than males on measures of interpersonal trauma exposure and symptoms of both simple and complex PTSD. Females also endorsed more mental health problems in the areas of depression/anxiety, somatic complaints, and suicidal ideation. For all youth, trauma exposure, PTSD, and mental health problems were correlated. Results of structural equation modeling were consistent with the hypothesis that PTSD mediates the relationship between interpersonal trauma and mental health problems for all youth, although the results were stronger for females.

Self-reported suicidal behavior and attitudes toward suicide and suicide prevention among psychology students in Ghana, Uganda, and Norway

Self-reported suicidal behavior and attitudes toward suicide in psychology students are reported and compared in Ghana, Uganda, and Norway. Small differences only were found in own suicidal behavior. However, experience of suicidal behavior in the surroundings was more common in Uganda than in Ghana and Norway. Although differences were found between the three countries in attitudes toward suicide, which emphasizes the need for culture-sensitive research and prevention, many of the differences were not as big as expected. The most pronounced difference was that the Norwegian students were more reluctant to take a stand on these questions compared to their African counterparts. Some differences were also found between the two African countries. The implications of the results for suicide prevention in Africa are discussed.     

Emotion and the Framing of Risky Choice

One of the most noted phenomena in social and political decision-making is the occurrence of a framing effect. For example, on problems involving risky choices, individuals tend to act risk-averse when the problem is framed in terms of gains (e.g., saving lives, making money) and risk-seeking when the same problem is instead framed in terms of losses (e.g., deaths, losing money). Scholars have begun to identify the processes underlying framing effects as well as the conditions under which framing effects occur. Yet, extant work focuses nearly exclusively on cognitive processes, despite growing recognition of the importance of emotion in general decision-making tasks. In this paper, we explore the impact of emotional states on risk attitudes and framing. We find that emotions significantly influence both individuals’ tendencies to take risks and the impact of a frame on risky choices (e.g., emotions amplify or depress a frame’s impact). The precise role of emotions depends on the problem domain (e.g., a life-death or a financial decision), and the specific type of emotion under study. Moreover, in contrast to much work in political science, we show that emotions need to be distinguished beyond their positive or negative valence, as different negative emotions exert opposite effects. Our results accentuate the importance of integrating emotions into research areas traditionally dominated by more cognitive perspectives.

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 Group Randomized Trial of School-Based Teen Courts to Address the School to Prison Pipeline,Reduce Aggression and Violence,and Enhance School Safety in Middle and High School Students

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the efficacy of School-Based Teen Courts (SBTCs) using a rigorous experimental trial with 24 middle- and high-schools randomly selected to receive SBTCs (n= 12) or to business-as-usual without any SBTC program (n = 12). Analyses examined school-level longitudinal growth models and individual-level pretest-posttest comparisons on school climate, student problems, and suspension rates. Longitudinal growth models revealed that SBTCs were significantly associated with positive changes in school satisfaction and reductions in delinquent friends for high school students, but showed no significant changes on other outcomes. Short-term suspensions decreased more than twice as much in SBTC schools versus comparison schools. There was a 47% reduction in bullying victimization in SBTC schools relative to a 22% reduction in comparison schools. These findings suggest that SBTCs have the potential to positively impact youth development.     

Chrystal Macmillan,Scottish campaigner for women’s equality through law reform

ABSTRACT

This article will explore the work of Chrystal Macmillan, who used her knowledge of the law to further the cause of women’s equality through her committee work with several voluntary organisations, and her presentations to the British Government, the League of Nations, and the International Labour Office. Using archival material, both from committee minutes and family anecdotes, we will show the substantial amount of voluntary work undertaken by Chrystal Macmillan both before and after she became a practising lawyer in 1924. The article will also try to capture something of the woman’s character through the comments of her friends and colleagues.