The development of Irish HRD professionals in comparison with European professionals: roles,outputs and competencies

A study of Irish HRD professionals shows an excessive focus on the individual with an emphasis on instruction and facilitation. A study of four European countries shows their HRD professionals to be more organisationally focussed. The lack of consideration by the Irish HRD professionals of organisational competencies such as cost benefit analysis and industry understanding will inhibit their move from a transactional to strategic role. A modification to the ASTD model of a role in strategic HRD is suggested in addition to other uses of the Irish results.     

Employee work–life balance outcomes in Ireland: a multilevel investigation of supervisory support and perceived organizational support

This article examines how employee perceptions of supervisory and organizational support for work–life balance, in addition to the number of work–life balance programmes available, predict a number of work–life balance outcomes including role conflict, job satisfaction, family satisfaction and turnover intentions in a sample of large private and public sector organizations in Ireland. The attitudes of HR managers towards work–life balance programmes are also explored. To account for the nested structure of the data, analyses were conducted using hierarchical linear modelling. We found that perceptions of work–life supportiveness as measured at the HR manager and immediate supervisor levels affect employee uptake of work–life programmes, employee work–life balance outcomes and turnover intentions.     

On estimation of the CES production function—Revisited

Estimation of the non-linear Constant Elasticity of Scale (CES) function is generally considered problematic due to convergence problems and unstable and/or meaningless results. These problems often arise from a non-smooth objective function with large flat areas, the discontinuity of the CES function where the elasticity of substitution is one, and possibly significant rounding errors where the elasticity of substitution is close to one. We suggest three (combinable) solutions that alleviate these problems and improve the reliability and stability of the results.     

The Trade Union Role in Career Development: a Membership Perspective

This article explores how a highly unionised and professional occupational group, school teachers, want their trade union to be involved in their career development. By taking an apparently individualistic concept and considering it from a collective perspective, the article provides insights into a neglected aspect of career development.     

Adjusting Choice Models to Better Predict Market Behavior

The emergence of Bayesian methodology has facilitated respondent-level conjoint models, and deriving utilities from choice experiments has become very popular among those modeling product line decisions or new product introductions. This review begins with a paradox of why experimental choices should mirror market behavior despite clear differences in content, structure and motivation. It then addresses ways to design the choice tasks so that they are more likely to reflect market choices. Finally, it examines ways to model the results of the choice experiments to better mirror both underlying decision processes and potential market choices. Co-chairs. Author order is alphabetical.     

Political Activism and Workplace Industrial Relations in a UK 'Failing' School

The paper draws on a qualitative case study of workplace industrial relations in an inner–city secondary school identified as 'failing' and subsequently closed. It considers the way unionized teachers and their representatives interpret, influence and resist the impact of centralized managerial and educational change. The local implementation of such change leads to an engagement with the debates on union renewal. In particular, the paper explores the dynamic interrelationship between political and trade union activism and the tension between workplace relations and formal union organization.     

Tourism and rural development in Maputaland: A case‐study of the Kosi Bay area

There is often a vast difference between the needs of the tourism industry and tourists on the one hand and of the local inhabitants of developing tourist destination areas — especially in Third World, rural settings — on the other hand. This article describes some of the problems associated with tourism development in general and discusses tourism development in terms of the psychological saturation effects it can have on local inhabitants. The authors state that tourism could enhance the development of rural areas on an ecologically and economically viable basis, and improve the quality of life of the rural black. They further state that it is possible to reconcile the needs and demands of locals and those of tourism through adequate planning and the development of effec‐tive intra‐ and intercultural communication systems. Using the Kosi Bay area of the Maputaland region in northern Natal as a case‐study, specific suggestions are offered about ways in which this process of need reconciliation can be built into tourism plan‐ning and into the development of a meaningful infrastructure for tourism.