By Kurt Sandholtz, Brooklyn Derr, Kathy Buckner, Dawn CarlsonThe book is written specifically for people who want to stay highly involved in both their careers and their personal lives, rather than simplifying or cutting back in some way. It debunks the myth that juggling can ever lead to true balance. It details four alternative strategies people can use to effectively balance their work and personal lives. The authors explain each of the strategies, detail the rewards and drawbacks associated with each, and include case studies of people who have used each method successfully to rebalance their lives. Beyond Juggling includes a self-assessment instrument that readers can use to pinpoint which strategy (or strategies) for work/life balance they are currently using, as well as additional quizzes and checklists to help readers determine which alternative strategies could help reduce the dissonance between their professional and personal lives.
The 154,000 citizens of Knowsley on Merseyside will soon be able to buy goods and services via the Internet and to exchange them without the need for money. The local council working with several partners including Connect Internet Solutions Ltd, Peapod UK Ltd., Kirkby Unemployed Centre, Huyton Credit Union, North West eGovernment Group and Blackburn & Darwen Borough Council, have set up an e-commerce project, Tradenet, to stimulate the local economy. The aim of the project is to enable small businesses and community groups to develop and maintain their own website, trade electronically and compete for business via links to the Council’s on-line tendering facilities.It is expected that the project will provide Internet connectivityfor over 100 small businesses and 50 community groups in Knowsley.They will be able to develop their own websites using the SiteMaker software. This comprehensive website creation package provides everything needed to create and maintain the website without the need for technical expertise. Businesses will be able to use ShopKeeper which is an easy and safe way to trade online. It provides a fully integrated shopping cart facility and enables a secure online store to be built and maintained by businesses without any technical knowledge.
Executive Agencies are not making the best use of target setting to drive performance improvement. The National Audit Office found that the 30 agencies they surveyed were meeting three quarters of their targets, but concern centred on the targets themselves which in many cases contributed little to improving service delivery. Just over half the civil service is made up of Executive Agencies such as the Passport Office and JobCentre Plus.A major weakness is a lack of customer focus. Agencies have a limited understanding of customer needs and preferences. They also lack information about customer’s assessment of quality and how far the service meets customer expectations. Target setting by Agencies does not focus on the key drivers which most influence the overall quality of service such as speed of delivery, accessibility or quality of information provided.
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By John Bynner, Peter Elias, Abigail McKnight, Huiqi Pan and Gaelle Pierre. Substantial changes in the British labour market over the past twenty-five years, including transformations driven by technology, education, training, and recruitment have had a significant impact on 16 – 24 year olds. The authors chart theses changes and the impact on the lives of young people. They reveal a growing gap between the better and the worse off and a rise in depression among the marginalized group of early school leavers. They call for a re-think of initiatives for supporting young people.
A survey by MORI, commissioned by the National College for School Leadership, found that 52 per cent of those asked thought head teachers provided particularly good examples of leadership. The next best leaders according to the survey are officers in the armed forces – 37 per cent said they provide a good leadership example, closely followed by doctors and the police with 33 per cent each. Those with the lowest scores were local politicians 4 per cent, health service managers 4 per cent and civil servants 3 per cent.But despite ranking heads as the country’s best leaders, ironically the survey revealed respect for heads and the job they do is not as high as for doctors. 58 per cent said they had a great deal of respect for doctors while only 38 per cent said the same of head teachers. Amongst the lowest scoring were politicians, journalists and council officials.
A critical report by the National Audit Office has prompted Health Minister John Hutton to announce tougher measures to counter violence against NHS staff. The NAO found that violence against doctors, nurses, ambulance crews and other health staff has risen 13% in the last two years. A much more serious problem is that it is estimated that the recorded figures under estimate the reality and that two in five incidents go un-reported. The NAO found that in 2001 – 2002 there were 95,500 incidents of violence. In the last eight months, following the introduction of tougher measures, there were only 50 prosecutions. The rise in violence continued despite the adoption by the NHS of a zero tolerance zone campaign.NHS Trusts are criticized for their response to the problem. Four fifths of Trusts failed to meet the Department of Health’s national improvement target of a 20% reduction by April 2002. Some Trusts do not provide adequate support to staff wishing to pursue civil actions. Trusts are also criticized for failure to work in partnership with the police and other agencies. Criticism of Trusts is supported by a survey from the Royal College of Nursing which suggests that in four out of five cases no action arises from an incident being reported.
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Radical plans to create a new type of ‘community interest’ company, bringing together voluntary sector expertise and private sector entrepreneurialism, have been announced by the Department of Trade and Industry.Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt said: “This is about giving power back to local communities. Community Interest Companies will help liberate the entrepreneurial spirit of individuals with public sector values and create new opportunities at local level to provide services where they are needed most. The opportunities created by CICs will be a huge boost to communities in many of the UK’s most deprived areas.”
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The next three years will see an unprecedented growth of investment in social care. The key targets are to bring another 50,000 people into the workforce, and to enable an additional 300,000 staff to gain at least NVQ Level 2 qualifications. There will be support for social care employers in developing the workforce and tackling serious problems of recruitment and retention and they will be urged to form local partnerships to make the best use of the existing and new resources for workforce development. The Department of Health wants comments from all sectors of the social services world and from the wider public on its plans.It is planned to provide funding to support employers with the development of their HR policy and practice and to tackle recruitment and retention. There will also be funds for pilot projects in partnership with the Changing Workforce programme of the NHS Modernisation Agency.
By J C Sarros, G A Tanewski and I L Densten.This study examines the extent to which a leader’s behaviour results in work alienation in the form of powerlessness, meaninglessness and self estrangement. The study is based on the responses of personnel in a major US eastern seaboard fire department – a bureaucratic, quasi-military type organization. Results show that the leadership style of the organization has a more significant impact on feelings of work alienation than the organization’s structure and processes. The study argues that managers as well as leaders need to question bureaucratic orientations to work and manager-employee relations by rethinking their values and adapting new models that encourage individual fulfillment.
Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans.The most talented people on your team are the ones that show up day after day, do their jobs well and contribute to the organization’s success. Whether they are high-potentials or solid citizens, they are stars. This revised edition of the international bestseller (more than 230,000 copies sold of the first edition) shows managers not only how to keep the employees they can’t afford to lose, but also how to keep those employees engaged and energized by giving them what they really want -meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and excellent bosses.