A Survey of MNC Succession Planning Effectiveness in China,Summer 2001

A survey based on Rothwell's (1994) Effective Succession Planning was administered to several worldclass multi‐national corporations (MNCs) operating in China. Subsidiary MNCs were found to have HRD succession planning problems. Responses regarding succession planning efforts and cultural issues were rigorously tested for significance. The organizational goals for total localization were found to be weak or absent.     

Ability of test measures to predict competitive performance in elite swimmers

The purpose of this study was to quantify the relationship between changes in test measures and changes in competition performance for individual elite swimmers. The 24 male and 16 female swimmers, who were monitored for 3.6 years (s = 2.5), raced in a major competition at the end of each 6-month season (3.6 competitions, s = 2.2). A 7 x 200-m incremental swimming step-test and anthropometry were conducted in up to four training phases each season. Correlations of changes in step-test and anthropometry measures between training phases and seasons with changes in competition performance between seasons were derived with repeated-measures mixed-modelling and linear regression. Changes in competition performance were best tracked by changes in test measures between taper phases. The best single predictor of competition performance was skinfolds for females (r = -0.53). The best predictor from the step-test was stroke rate at a blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol x l(-1) (females: r = 0.46; males: r = 0.41); inclusion of the second-best step-test predictor in a multiple linear regression improved the correlations (females: r = 0.52 with speed in the seventh step included; males: r = 0.58 with peak lactate concentration included). In conclusion, a combination of fitness and technique factors is important for competitive performance. The step-test is a useful adjunct in a swimmer's training preparation for tracking large changes in performance.     

束手无策?回归初心

"初学者的思维饱含可能,久习者的思维饱受羁绊。"——禅修大师铃木俊隆多年前,我还是一个瑜伽学生时,就在想象教授瑜伽会是件多么美妙的事。作为一个初学者,我总能接受新思想:我开始对瑜伽练习产生了狂热的兴趣,我就     

Postsecondary attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and deliberate practice: Study time,study quality,and self-perceptions

The current study examined study habits of postsecondary students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) through the theoretical context of deliberate practice. The responses of participants with and without ADHD were compared on a survey of study time, study quality, and self-perceptions of study habits, as well as a measure of test anxiety. Groups were equivalent on reports of study time and time spent in other activities, percentage of classes they attend, use of conducive study environments, and planning of studying. Despite similar study behaviors, ADHD participants were more likely to feel unprepared for tests, reported significantly higher test anxiety, and had lower grade point averages. Regardless of ADHD status, the majority of study participants were not implementing deliberate practice behaviors, with the exception of class attendance, and study times fell far below recommended levels. Findings provided evidence that emulating the study behaviors of peers is not sufficient for students with ADHD to experience similar outcomes.     

Developing Professional Services Staff to Enhance The Student Experience

This article outlines how cultural change was achieved for enhancing the student experience. The engagement and development of staff and a model of partnership is presented that delivered new services and developments. The change is disclosed from a staff development perspective including an examination of differentiation and what makes a good facilitator. The relevance of the facilitator's own continuing professional development is considered before reflecting on the authors’ delivery of a conference workshop in the north west of England to promote the techniques. It is hoped that the reader will critique the approach and embrace elements for their own practice.     

Rhetoric and realities of London 2012 Olympic education and participation ‘legacies’: voices from the core and periphery

A legacy emphasis was one of the fundamental pillars of the London 2012 Olympic Games. The notion of an Olympic legacy was predicated on assumptions that the event's value would not purely derive from the sporting spectacle, but rather from the ‘success’ of enduring effects met out in London and across the country. For physical education students and practitioners, Olympic legacy agendas translated into persistent pressure to increase inspiration, engagement, participation and performance in the subject, sport and physical activity. Responding to this context, and cognizant of significant disciplinary scholarship, this paper reports initial data from the first phase of a longitudinal study involving Key Stage Three (students aged 11–13) cohorts in two comparable United Kingdom schools: the first an inner-city (core) London school adjacent to the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London (n = 150); the second a (peripheral) school in the Midlands (n = 198). The research involved the use of themed questionnaires focusing on self-reported attitudes towards the Olympic Games and experiences of physical education, sport and physical activity. Students from both schools demonstrated a wide variety of attitudes towards physical education and sport; yet, minor variances emerged regarding extreme enthusiasm levels. Both cohorts also expressed considerably mixed feelings towards the impending Olympic Games. Strong and variable responses were also reported regarding inspiration levels, ticketing acquisition and engagement levels. Consequently, this investigation can be read within the broader context of legacy debates and aligns well with physical educationalists' ongoing discomfort regarding legacy imperatives being enforced upon the discipline and its practitioners. Our work reiterates a shared disciplinary scepticism that while an Olympic Games may temporarily affect young peoples' affectations for sport (and maybe physical education and physical activity), it may not provide the best, or most appropriate, mechanism for sustained attitudinal and/or social changes en masse.