Managing diversity: Using an equal opportunities audit to maximize career potential and opportunities in a uk bank

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe an equal opportunities audit aimed at developing the career potential and opportunities of employees in a UK national bank. The major aims of the equal opportunities audit were: (1) to identify the position of employees in the bank by gender, race, disability, and age; (2) to identify the reasons (e.g. policy/structural barriers) and/or attitu-dinal barriers for job segregation and barriers to recruitment, training, and career progression (particularly into higher managerial grades); (3) to make appropriate recommendations for change to ensure equality of opportunity for all bank employees. A two-phased approach to data collection was utilized in this audit, namely the use of qualitative information in the form of in-house data/materials and group interview sessions, and quantitative data (statistically analysed) from the distribution of a large-scale sample (piloted), postal questionnaire (JV = 595, a 30.5% rate of response). The results were analysed in terms of issues associated with recruitment, promotion, training, working conditions, and the development of career opportunities. Differences were examined between personnel employed in seven UK locations and working within one of four job-grade bands. Gender, disability, and ethnicity differences in the responses were also investigated. The findings indicated that barriers to equality of opportunity and career development in the bank are likely to be localized to specific locations and impacting on those in certain grades. For these reasons, adoption of a blanket policy might not meet the needs of personnel seeking to maximize their career potential and opportunities in the bank.     

The effect of religiosity and spirituality on psychological well-being among forensic psychiatric patients in Canada

All patients in a multilevel secure forensic psychiatric centre were surveyed to determine the relationship between religiosity and spirituality, and depression, anxiety and satisfaction with life. Of the whole population, 90% responded; 5% were females and 47% aboriginal. The mean anxiety and depression scores using the Beck anxiety and depression inventories were low at 11.4 and 17, respectively. Weekly attendance at worship and the private intrinsic religiosity scores were higher than comparable samples of Canadians and general mental-health inpatients. Satisfaction with life score was positively correlated with all religiosity and spirituality variables. There was an inverse relationship between the Existential Well-Being scale and depression scores. The Existential Well-Being scale also correlated positively with satisfaction with life. Weekly worship attendance was inversely correlated with depression scores. These results point to some important differences between this patient population and the general population.     

Julian of Norwich: Problems of Evil and the Seriousness of Sin

Julian of Norwich emphasizes God’s eternal and unchanging love for humankind. Her visions show how God is not angry with our sins and so has no need to forgive us. God does not shame or blame us but excuses us and plans how to reward and compensate us for sin. In relation to Mother Jesus, we remain dear lovely children who need help, correction, and education. Although these remarks suggest to some that Julian must be “soft” on sin, that she has no adequate appreciation of the worthiness of God or the dignity of human nature, I argue that this is far from the case. On the contrary, she makes Divine worthiness axiomatic and urges readers to live into it. She relocates human dignity not in its intrinsic value but in our centrality to God’s plan. She measures the seriousness of sin in terms of the “real hard work” it takes to rear us up out of it: crucifixion for Christ, the hell of being a sinner and the crucifixion of life-long penance for us. Nevertheless, the brightness of her visions dominates with her assurance that despite the sin-produced sufferings of this present life, all will be well.     

The manifestation of transference during early psychotherapy sessions: Exploring an alternate data source for therapist narratives in transference research

Introduction: Previous transference studies have compared in‐session client narratives about significant others to in‐session client narratives about the therapist, limiting data to the information that clients are willing to share with the therapist. Method: The first three sessions of 30 therapies with high‐functioning individuals were examined using the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method. Client narratives about others were drawn from the psychotherapy sessions and client narratives about the therapist were drawn from a Participant Critical Event (PCE) interview conducted after the third session of therapy. Results: Factor analyses of the CCRT components indicated several relational patterns: a complementary pattern of relating characterised by a devaluation of the therapist and idealisation of others; a concordant relational transfer where clients feel bad with both the therapist and others; and as clients experience control issues with significant others, they wish to adopt a submissive stance toward the therapist. The results suggest that the source of therapist narratives may influence the results of transference research.     

Nancy J. Hirschmann on the Social Construction of Women's Freedom

Nancy J. Hirschmann presents a feminist, social constructionist account of women's freedom. Friedman's discussion of Hirschmanns account deals with (1) some conceptual problems facing a thoroughgoing social constructionism; (2) three ways to modify social constructionism to avoid those problems; and (3) an assessment of Hirschmann's version of social constructionism in light of the previous discussion.     

Health Promotion,Health Locus of Control,and Health Behavior: Two Field Experiments1

In spite of a sizable body of research on the effects of information promotions on health knowledge and health behavior, relatively little is known about how such efforts affect change (or why they do not). This paper addresses that problem by exploring the particular role that health locus of control (HLC) beliefs play in individual responses to health promotion efforts aimed at encouraging preventive health behaviors. Two field experiments are presented. The first experiment examined the extent to which HLC beliefs are related to differences in individual levels of health knowledge following the distribution of an informational booklet on health. Internals high on health value who received the information booklet demonstrated greater health knowledge three months later than did other subjects, although this difference was greater among men than among women. The second experiment explored how HLC beliefs interact with differently framed “control” messages to promote behavior change in breast self-examination (BSE). HLC beliefs interacted with the control language of the BSE promotional message and a neutral reminder to affect subsequent BSE practice. Together, these studies suggest a more influential role for health locus of control beliefs in shaping responses to health messages than has previously been documented in field settings.     

Early life events as discriminators of socialized and undersocialized delinquents

The relationship between early life events and the socialized and undersocialized dimensions of conduct disorder was investigated. Subjects were 40 incarcerated male delinquents and their mothers. The mothers were administered the Children's Life Events Questionnaire and the Developmental Questionnaire. Youths were administered the Adolescent Parent Relations Scale. The results indicated that the undersocialized delinquents had a greater number of stressful life events during their first 4 years of life than did the socialized delinquents. Discriminant function analysis indicated that stressful life events during the 2nd and 4th years were the most important predictors of membership in the undersocialized group. The discriminant function generated was able to classify 82.5% of the sample correctly. The remaining variables did not significantly discriminate the groups.     

INCREASING HANDICAPPED PRESCHOOLERS' PEER SOCIAL INTERACTIONS: CROSS-SETTING AND COMPONENT ANALYSIS

The purposes of our study were: (a) to train a set of observationally determined social behaviors via peer initiation; (b) to determine if effects generalized across classroom settings and to directly intervene if generalization did not occur; and (c) to analyze components of the peer-initiation intervention. After baseline, nonhandicapped preschool children (confederates) were taught to direct social initiations to the three handicapped preschool-aged students. Teachers prompted the confederates to engage the students in social interaction when necessary and rewarded the confederates with tokens. Confederates' initiations to the students resulted in increased frequencies of positive social interaction. There was no generalization to other classroom settings, and the intervention was subsequently implemented in a second and third classroom. Next, the confederates' token reinforcement system was withdrawn, with no apparent deleterious effects on the confederates' or students' social interactions. When teachers substantially reduced their prompts to the confederates, students' social interactions decreased. Finally, reinstatement of teacher prompts resulted in increases in the confederates' social initiations and, consequently, the positive social interactions of the students.     

Gender-related aspects of occupational prestige

Prestige of six occupational clusters was studied in relation to gender of the 369 college students who rated the prestige and to gender of imagined jobholders. Subjects rated on a scale of 1–5 the prestige of 30 occupations while envisioning women or envisioning men holding those jobs. Occupations were classified as either female professional, male professional, female nonprofessional, male nonprofessional, neutral professional, or neutral nonprofessional. Classification into these clusters was on the basis of percentage of women and men presently in each occupation and perception of each occupation's sex type, as well as whether college preparation was necessary. Prestige ratings were analyzed by a 2 (rater gender) × 2 (jobholder gender) × 6 (occupational cluster) repeated measures ANOVA. Main effects were obtained for gender (p < .05) and occupational cluster (p < .0001), as well as for the interactions of cluster and rater gender (p < .0001), cluster and jobholder gender (p < .0001), and the three-way interaction of cluster, rater gender, and jobholder gender (p < .01). The significant findings (particularly the interaction between occupational cluster and jobholder gender) seem to indicate that status is not inherent in sex-typed occupations, but is in part a function of the gender of the person imagined to be holding the job, and of the gender of the rater.     

Sex differences in a simulated classroom economy: Children's beliefs about entrepreneurship

The purposes of this study were (1) to measure sex differences in children's perceptions of entrepreneurship and occupational sex-stereotyping and (2) to assess sex differences in children's risk taking, persistence, and economic success. For 10 weeks 938 children in grades 3–6 participated in Mini-Society, an experience-based economics education instructional program. Child self-report measures and teacher ratings were utilized. Before Mini-Society children reported entrepreneurship to be primarily a male domain. There was less entrepreneurial stereotyping after Mini-Society, especially in favor of girls. Children's occupational sex stereotyping also decreased following Mini-Society. Finally, there were no sex differences in the children's risk taking, persistence, or economic success during the Mini-Society experience.