The Pupil's Experience of School Organization

The paper is concerned with the development, validation and use of management competencies; the focus is upon the position of heads within the maintained‐schools sector. Issues germane to competencies and their usage are discussed, as are the criteria to be met for competencies to have applicability to the education sector. The generation of management competencies for heads through a national job analysis involving some 255 heads is described. Headteacher management competencies are presented, and practical alternatives for their use discussed. Finally, a working framework is developed of how competencies generated for senior educational positions stand in relation to competencies which are applicable in other occupational sectors.     

Clustering in Small Primary Schools: an organisational case study

Small primary schools are frequently perceived as having a discrete organisational problems which are intensified when such schools are located in rural areas. We report a study conducted in a Welsh local education authority which established clustering arrangements as a solution to some managerial, administrative and curriculum problems. The study comprises a questionnaire survey and a more detailed investigation of two clusters.     

The importance of entertainment for sexuality education

Researchers in sexuality education have tended to focus on formal schooling. However, young people learn about sexuality from a range of sources, including entertainment media. This is particularly important because young people actively seek out entertainment media. They do so because it gives them the kinds of information they want, in ways that seem relevant to them. This is often not the case for formal schooling, for reasons that may not easily change in the near future. Possibilities exist for sexuality education researchers to form productive relationships with entertainment producers: but only if these are approached with respect for the producers' particular skills, including the ability to give audiences what they want.     

THE VANISHING MAGIC WAND

Futurists “wave a magic wand,” insinuating thereby that tabula rasa is a psychic and sociological option. “If there were no Bureau, what would the Jewish community do?” “If there were no Jewish community, what would the world's Jews do?” “If there were no world… ?” On the surface, it's an innocuous strategy: a way to probe assumptions, a way to hone a definition of needs. Examined closely, however, it is a flawed way to explore reality. At worst, it is a device to encourage a preconceived outcome.     

An assessment of utility and competitive superiority in the video entertainment industries

The authors examine the satisfactions obtained by audiences from different video media (broadcast television, cable television, videocassette recorders, premium cable television, and pay‐per‐view cable services) and examine the extent to which the different media compete in meeting those satisfactions. The study illustrates how merging niche theory with gratifications research can be used to effectively study competitive relationships.     

Producers,Directors, and Horizontal Communication in Television News Production

This study examines the horizontal communication between producers and directors as they put together a television newscast. Results of the Internet survey show that producers tend to be younger and less experienced than the directors they work with, that producers and directors don't communicate often or effectively in the process of putting together a daily newscast, and that they don't believe their counterpart contributes the information they need in order to best perform their jobs. Correlations between the amount of information relayed between producers and directors and ratings performance indicate a link between internal communication and market profitability.     

Pediatric nurses’ communication of role expectations to parents of hospitalized children

This study examines the role performance of pediatric nurses and parents in relation to hospitalized children. The ambiguity associated with role behaviors for both groups is considered in terms of rules that might be formally adopted to define nurses’ and parents’ roles. Pediatric nurses were interviewed to identify behaviors appropriately performed by parents for their hospitalized children, and formal rules were drafted. These rules were communicated by nurses in writing, orally, or both and were compared to no formal communication for impact on nurses’ job satisfaction, parents’ satisfaction with nursing care, and both nurses’ and parents’ role ambiguity. The formal rules were found to enhance both nurses’ job satisfaction and parents’ satisfaction with the technical‐professional competence component of nursing care. Moreover, both nurses and parents perceived a reduction in role ambiguity as measured by the information that nurses give and the communication of expectations.