Nottingham Trent University

About: Nottingham Trent University is a education organization based out in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Addiction. The organization has 4702 authors who have published 12862 publications receiving 307430 citations. The organization is also known as: NTU & Trent Polytechnic.

The devolution of HR responsibilities: perspectives from the UK's public sector

Abstract: This article examines the reallocation of human resource management responsibilities from HR specialists to line managers in UK public sector organisations in an increasingly regulated working environment. It uses evidence about the extent and scope of HR devolution in a large unitary city council, the British Library and a county probationary service. Based on the perceptions of senior managers, middle managers, HR specialists and the trade union representatives, it specifically explores: the issues devolution raises about the HR responsibilities of line managers; the experience of HR devolution in the public sector; and the impact of a more externally regulated and litigious workplace on continuing devolution.

Towards a second generation of mindfulness-based interventions.

Abstract: Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 49(7) In addition to featuring in the practice guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association and the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for the treatment of recurrent depression in adults, emerging evidence suggests that mindfulnessbased interventions (MBIs) have applications for treating diverse psychopathologies and disorders including addictive behaviours (e.g. pathological gambling, workaholism), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anger dysregulation, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, pain disorders (e.g. fibromyalgia), sexual dysfunction and psychotic disorders (Shonin et al., 2014). Mindfulness is also recommended by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists as a non-first-line treatment for binge eating disorder in adults. However, commensurate with growing interest into the clinical (and non-clinical) applications of MBIs, there are growing concerns over the rapidity at which mindfulness has been extracted from its traditional Buddhist setting and introduced into psychiatric treatment domains (Van Gordon et al., 2015). Specifically, these concerns centre on the alleged absence within the first-generation MBIs (FG-MBIs) of the factors that, according to the 2500-year-old system of Buddhist meditative practice, are deemed to maximise the efficacy of mindfulness. Simply put, some researchers, clinicians and Buddhist scholars have suggested that mindfulness in MBIs has been altered from its traditional Buddhist construction to such an extent that it is inaccurate and/or misleading to refer the resultant technique as ‘mindfulness’. To address these concerns, a number of second-generation MBIs (SG-MBIs) have recently been formulated and empirically investigated. Thus, we explicate the key differences between FG-MBIs and SG-MBIs, appraise key empirical findings and issues relating to SG-MBIs and discuss the implications of the trend towards a second generation of MBIs for psychiatrists and service users.

The Concept of Solidarity: Emerging from the Theoretical Shadows?:

Abstract: The concept of solidarity has been relatively neglected by social scientists since Durkheim's pioneering work in the late 19th century. The discipline of politics has been guilty of overlooking this ‘subjective’ element of community life, but recent works by Stjerno and Brunkhorst reflect a growing awareness of the theoretical significance of the concept. Whereas early liberal attempts to theorise solidarity took the nation state to be the appropriate community for its realisation, the emergence of globalisation raises the possibility of human solidarity developing in the global community. Traditional forms of solidarity have been dissipated by the social changes accompanying globalisation, but they were often locked into the defence of particular interests. New forms may be emerging to rekindle the broader vision of human solidarity. Recent work by writers such as Habermas, Honneth, Rorty and Touraine focuses on widening and deepening democratic participation and/or the articulation of our ethical obliga...

Toward Improved Employment Relations Practices of Casual Employees in the New South Wales Registered Clubs Industry

Abstract: This research investigated the effects of casual work arrangements on employee job satisfaction and commitment in a segment of the hospitality sector in Australia. The authors surveyed a total of 454 casual employees: they interviewed 42 employees in a sample of clubs within the top two hundred registered clubs in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and 384 employees returned questionnaires from a sample of different clubs. For the interviews, the authors selected eighteen clubs using nonproportionate stratified sampling, the strata being small, medium, and large. The team conducted systematic random sampling of the clubs within each stratum. Using nonprobability accidental sampling, they then selected individual interviewees at the clubs. For the questionnaire survey, the sampling procedure was identical, but the team selected eighteen different clubs. Questionnaires were administered to all two thousand employees at these eighteen clubs. Because of a low response rate to the survey, the authors questioned an accidental sample of twenty casual employees, who admitted to not responding, in order to see whether their responses differed from those of the participants. The responses were very similar. Key findings suggest that casual employees experience varying levels of commitment and satisfaction according to their perceptions of work context factors such as training, promotion, work scheduling, management practices, and social integration. The authors encourage employers in highly casualized enterprises to involve and empower their casual employees, provide continuous feedback as well as behaviorally based formal performance appraisals, address the issue of training opportunities and program content for casual workers, and consider ways of developing their career paths.