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This article identifies three types of traps that can emerge when implementing workplace flexibility--altered work-life dynamics, reduced fairness perceptions, and weakened organizational culture--and provides core lessons for managers seeking a balanced flexibility approach. First managers must become flex savvy to understand the variation that exists in flexibility practices to align implementation with the workforce and organizational context. Second, implementing flexibility must not be treated as an accommodation but as a broader systemic organizational change empowering individuals and teams. The article provides a Worksmart case to highlight how to avoid traps and implement balanced workplace flexibility across multiple stakeholder interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of adaptation in elite sport delineates the adjustment strategies of amateur and professional athletes during career transitions (e.g., promotion, relocation). Fiske (2004) recently identified 5 core motives as the vehicles to adaptation: belonging, understanding, controlling, self-enhancement, and trusting. The goal was to verify and contextualize these core motives with 2 respondent groups of professional athletes from the National Hockey League. The groups consisted of those experiencing rookie adaptation and veteran adaptation. A total of 58 athletes were divided into groups representing the Canadian mainstream, Canadian Aboriginal culture, and Europe. There were 175 newspaper articles that were retrieved using online and library resources. The similarities and discrepancies in and across groups provides insight into this hard-to-reach population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural sport psychology (CSP) is a recent attempt by researchers to better understand respondents from marginalized cultures. CSP research provides useful suggestions of how to work effectively with unique populations for coaches and sport science practitioners. This paper addresses the struggles and adaptation strategies of 23 (16 male, 7 female) elite Aboriginal Canadian athletes. National and international level athletes elicited from seven sport disciplines and three Canadian provinces were interviewed with a semistructured protocol. Indications are that Aboriginal Canadian athletes engage in two higher order types of adaptation: (a) self-adaptation and (b) adapted environment. The study was developed, analyzed, and coauthored with an Aboriginal community appointed research team. Implications, such as the use of ongoing reflective practice, are proposed for aspiring CSP sport researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the development of adaptation techniques in one northern Canadian region based on the views of 14 National and International elite coaches. Respondents were from nine different sports and averaged 17.1 yrs of accumulated coaching experience (Range: 8-30 yrs). Data were gathered chronologically using structured open-ended questionnaires, focus groups, and afterwards, follow-up in-depth semi-structured interviews. Content was analyzed to uncover emergent themes. The respondents indicated that elite coaches from their region learn adaptation by (a) cooperating, (b) reframing positively, and (c) coping with their limitations. Further, the respondents elucidated how they use geographical limitations to teach two context specific adaptation skills to aspiring athletes and coaches: (a) psychological adaptation and (b) physical adaptation. Generic coaching strategies across geographical regions are questioned and suggestions regarding elite coaching in small communities are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents evidence for an incremental change process in decision-making groups whereby change unfolds through self-generated interruptions. Group members initiate self-interruptions by switching their attention to social concerns (in familiar groups) or to discussion instructions (in groups using formal interventions). During such interruptions, members evaluate activities, propose alternative approaches, and change working strategies. Results suggest that familiarity and formal interventions provide flexible structures that lead to superior performance. A central finding reveals that using a formal intervention in familiar groups hurts performance because pre-established interaction patterns are altered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents several studies that examine organizational change. The authors note that certain issues should be addressed when examining the studies including an examination of the multiple contexts and levels of analysis in studying organizational change, the inclusion of time, history, process and action, the link between change processes and organizational performance, the investigation of international and cross-cultural comparisons, the study of receptivity, customization, sequenicng, pace and episodic versus continusous change and the partnership between scholars and practicioners in studying change. The author discuss how these issues are related to the concepts in the studies and note they research has not addressed these issues at this point in time.

This article discusses the manpower management problems of Japanese subsidiaries in the U.S., Europe, and less-developed countries. Two different styles of management are identified among Japanese overseas subsidiaries: the modified local system and the modified Japanese system. Rather than replicating the Japanese style of management outside Japan, Japanese subsidiaries overseas are characterized by centralization of decision making, low levels of trust for local managers, ceilings on promotion for locally employed managers, and problems with unions and equal employment regulations. The success of Japanese companies overseas is primarily due to attention to work detail, discipline at the shop floor, and superior operations management and technology. This evidence raises serious questions about the adaptability of Japanese management techniques to other countries and societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author examines the communication gap the exists between practitioners and theorists in the management and organizational fields and attempts to bridge this divide. He presents his case in hopes of demonstrating to academic administrators that having a recognition of management and organizational principals can be invaluable when managing change. He notes that being aware of these principals can help change come about more smoothly and achieve desired results more quickly. He presents a case that outlines how the application of ineffective management principals can slow the process of organizational change and present unnecessary problems for those in charge of implementing the change.

A typology of participative approaches and methods is applied to organizations. Mechanisms behind the methods are discussed; a causal model is developed; and sets of contingencies conditioning the operation of the model are described. Issues around change toward participation are defined and illustrated, centering on the issue of congruence between the change method and the specific participative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study explores the journey of an executive leadership team seeking to become more collaborative, innovative, and adaptive in their approach to organizational leadership, using a values-based collaborative leadership program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research has suggested strong continuity in children's adaptive or maladaptive behavior with peers across the transition to adolescence, less is known about deflected developmental pathways of peer social competence across this transition. This study investigates how mother-child and best friend relationship quality predict the deflection of youth from adaptive to maladaptive behavior with peers or the reverse. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development ( N = 1,055), high-quality friendships were associated with changes in peer social competence from 3rd to 6th grade. More positive and fewer negative interactions with a friend were linked with becoming more prosocial with peers, whereas less positive interactions with a friend were linked to becoming aggressive or withdrawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continued debate about the relative value of fidelity versus adaptation, and lack of clarity about the meaning of fidelity, raise concerns about how frontline service providers resolve similar issues in their daily practice. We use SISTA ('Sisters Informing Sisters on Topics about acquired immune deficiency syndrome'), an evidence-based human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention intervention for African American women, to understand how facilitators and program directors interpret and enact implementation fidelity with the need for adaptation in real-world program delivery. We conducted 22 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with service providers from four agencies implementing SISTA. Facilitators valued their skills as group leaders and ability to emotionally engage participants as more critical to program effectiveness than delivering the intervention with strict fidelity. Consequently, they saw program manuals as guides rather than static texts that should never be changed and, moreover, viewed the prescriptive nature of manuals as undermining their efforts to fully engage with participants. Our findings suggest that greater consideration should be given to understanding the role of facilitators in program effectiveness over and above the question of whether they implement the program with fidelity. Moreover, training curricula should provide facilitators with transferable skills through general facilitator training rather than only program-specific or manual-specific training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The categorization of displaced people is grounded in criteria enshrined by international and regional conventions as well as receiving states’ asylum and immigration policies. However, drawing distinctions between displaced people remains a controversial issue because the causes of displacement are more diverse than the categories assigned. Whilst various categories confer different rights and entitlement, the forcibly displaced are often obliged to aspire to particular identities driven by their resettlement livelihood objectives. This paper is based on a study carried out in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo and Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. The paper argues that the institutional and policy environments in the locations where resettlement is sought determine the way displaced people identify themselves in displacement and how they appraise their circumstances and their consequent adaptive livelihood reconstruction strategies. Furthermore, it is shown here that formalized displacement categorization adds complexity to the way displaced people must deal with their circumstances and negatively impacts on livelihood adaptation. Whilst categorization may serve perceived institutional needs, this study finds that displaced people’s self-identification makes them resilient and enables survivability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article – based on data that employs interviews conducted with British Army personnel – adopts a social theory of learning in order to examine how both formal and informal learning systems have affected organizational learning within the Army in relation to the counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan. It argues that while the Army has adopted new, or reformed existing, formal learning systems, these have not generated a reconceptualization of how to conduct counter-insurgency warfare. It, furthermore, argues that while informal learning systems have enabled units to improve their pre-deployment preparations, these have created adaptation traps that have acted as barriers to higher-level learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aims of this study were to investigate the degree of psychological and sociocultural adaptation among adolescents from returned Portuguese immigrant families and the factors that may predict adaptation. The study sample consisted of 360 adolescents from returned Portuguese immigrant families who answered a self-report questionnaire. A control group involving 217 Portuguese youths was also included in the study. Adolescents from returned immigrant families revealed similar levels of psychological adaptation and better sociocultural adaptation in comparison with peers who have never migrated. Predictive factors-sociodemographic and intercultural contact variables-were significantly linked to youths' adaptation. It is concluded that perceived discrimination plays an essential role in re-acculturation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Roy adaptation model concepts of stimuli, coping mechanisms, and modes of adaptation have been translated into several middle-range concepts and measured using existing and new instruments. The concept of adaptation level, however, has rarely been used in Roy adaptation model-based research. This paper presents a description of how the Roy adaptation model concept of adaptation level was translated into the logically congruent middle-range theory concept of adjustment. A single-item instrument, the Adjustment Scale, is identified as one way to measure adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that examines the beliefs and knowledge of pre-service teachers on diversity and multicultural education through case-based pedagogy. The study utilizes the story "El Secreto de las Niñas" regarding the reasons why Cynthia and Jessica, children of poor immigrant parents, dislike science. It states that personal experiences and formal education of teachers are the bases of their attitudes toward diversity. It mentions the importance of flexibility of teachers in various issues including student's personal background and individual differences, and problem solving about diversity.

The article presents a Delphi study on the futurity of information literacy in academic libraries. It notes that information literacy is a fundamental doctrine of academic librarianship. A survey was given to 13 information literacy experts about the plans that could research on information literacy evolution throughout the next ten years. The results reveal that the majority of the respondents were affirmative regarding the future of academic information literacy. Moreover, the study concludes that the issues on information literacy are outside the control of librarians and librarians expect the changes made by advances and technology, and try to effectively adjust as possible.

The dominant view in economics is that increasing demands for flexibility on the labour market jeopardizes employment security. However against the prediction of a negative relationship or a "trade-off" between flexibility and security, there is evidence for a positive, mutually reinforcing relationship known as the 'flexicurity' thesis. Using comparative panel data for 14 European countries, we elaborate dynamic outcome indicators for flexibility and employment security to assess the differences across countries and welfare regimes in balancing the two. We estimate transftion models to explain the observed mobility patterns. The outcomes confirm the impact of the institutional set-up indicated by regime type on these transitions supporting the 'variety of capitalism' approach. The regulated Southern and Continental regimes perform worst and the unregulated Anglo-Saxon and Nordic regimes best in attaining high levels of flexibility and employment security simultaneously, though for both regimes with a small loss either in flexibility or in security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the bottom-up vision of the learning society. Unlike the top-down approach, the bottom-up approach does not start by specifying the purposes of learning which should direct the development of the learning society, but from observing interactions among learning individuals as agents. While in the relevant literature and policies much attention has been devoted to certain positions on how one's learning should respond to current change, this paper proposes that when considering the establishment and development of the learning society we should not dismiss the understanding of how individuals, concrete beings, act as they learn, since how they do so has an impact on the way in which learning is structured. This bottom-up approach has to be taken into account, for it helps us to come near to what is embedded in learning practices, and to react pertinently when we need to come to terms with substantive issues for the development of the learning society. Three aspects - lifelong learning, the individualization of learning, and learning beyond education - serve as the context for understanding what characterize the practices of the learning society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing a network approach and discussing certain features of different family network patterns among Tamil and Somali families, this paper argues that cultural scripts governing kinship, marriage and gender relations developed in the country of origin influence adaptation patterns in exile. Cultural scripts influence the process of interaction between migrants and the Norwegian majority society. While Tamil families appear to have densely-knit and joint networks of relatives and friends, Somali spouses have separate social networks with few cross-linkages. These differences are expressions of different systems of marriage and kinship relations, where Tamils have a system of life-long cross-cousin marriages while Somalis follow a system of exogamy and plural marriages. The paper maintains that, while Tamil cultural scripts tend towards centralisation, which is re-enacted in Norway in ways which confirm family unity, joint gender roles and social cohesion, the diversified and diffusive logic of Somali cultural scripts is likewise re-enacted. This tendency is supported by welfare policy that speeds up the dissolution of Somali families in exile. The analysis does not pretend to give a full understanding of adaptation processes for the two groups; it discusses a temporally limited period in the exiled communities and only some aspects of family adaptation; but its aim is to shed light on aspects that are understudied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This research is undertaken to examine the influence of family relationships on attitudes of the second generation working in their parents’ family businesses. Two specific family variables are delineated: family cohesion and family adaptability. The outcome variables are organizational commitment, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and propensity to leave. Relationships among outcome variables are also examined. A survey questionnaire is used as the research instrument. Results and implications of findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any analysis of workforce flexibility within particular countries needs to take account not only of the character of industrial relations and union organization at workplace and company levels, but also of how actions at those levels are influenced by broader regulatory arrangements covering employment and work practices. In other words, to avoid the over-simplifications and over-generalizations which much of the flexibility debate has in the past been (correctly) accused of and to expand the analysis offered by the relatively broad-brush, multi-country studies, it is necessary to locate issues of flexibility more securely within both existing national regulatory and institutional frameworks, and also to take account of patterns of union organization and job regulation at the local level, and the ways unions and workforces have responded to (and at times even shaped) different flexibility initiatives by employers. By analysing different types of enterprise in Spain and the United Kingdom, this article seeks to illustrate the role and significance of these factors for the particular development of workforce flexibility in the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]