Tired and worn out workers in the UK are making mistakes that cost money, comprise safety and even put lives at risk say the findings of a new survey launched on Thursday 23rd February 2006.
A catalogue of mistakes made by frazzled employees, ranging from car crashes to medical errors, is featured in the 24-7 survey report – an annual look at working life conducted by the Work Life Balance Centre, Leicestershire, Keele University, Staffordshire, and the University of Sheffield.
The British are a nation of shopkeepers, Napoleon observed. But the traditional British small shopkeeper is an endangered species. Corner shops are disappearing at a rate of nearly 40 a week, according to a new all party parliamentary report. Now, a leading academic says urgent action is needed if one of Britain’s great institutions is to be saved.
Ian Clarke, a professor at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) who has spent the last four years researching the plight of the UK’s in
Adults often express fear that young people spend too much time online and, as a result, are losing a sense of the importance of social interaction, civic involvement and participation in social communities.
A Northwestern University researcher who for seven years has been studying a remarkable online community of 3,000 youngsters aged 10 to 16 disagrees.
“The involvement of youngsters in online communities today is qualitatively, not quantitatively, different than i
Why is it that so-called science centers do not succeed in attracting teenagers to their activities? Science-centre staff are asking themselves that question all over the world, and it is also the basis of a new doctoral dissertation from Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. Doctoral candidate Vaike Fors had a number of adolescents film a visit and then used the footage to chart these adolescents’ relationships to permanent exhibits.
The dissertation “The Missing Link in Learni
Current debate about the UK government’s proposed education reforms may be based on a false premise. Recent research suggests that education policy by itself contributes little to the rate at which people move between social classes, according to a new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Comprehensive schooling is neither less nor more effective at promoting social mobility than a selective system, says the research carried out by Dr Cristina Iannelli an
Marketing rail services in a similar style to ‘no-frills’ airlines and improving the reliability of trains could help to reduce stress levels among commuters, researchers at The University of Nottingham believe.
The psychologists in the University’s Institute of Work, Health and Organisations have examined the existing evidence into stress levels among rail passengers and how it might be associated with crowding on trains.
Few research projects have been carried out
The notion of offering a self-test for chlamydia via the Web-unique in the world – is the centerpiece of the dissertation that Daniel Novak will be defending at Umeå University, Sweden, on March 3.
“Testing yourself with the aid of the Internet is something I hope will serve as a major complement to present – day care,” he comments.
Many sexually transmitted diseases present no early symptoms. It is fully possible, for instance, to carry a chlamydia infection with
A new study to examine facial preference, has found that people are attracted to facial characteristics indicative of personality traits similar to their own.
Biological scientists at the University of Liverpool launched the study to investigate the reasons why many couples tend to look similar to each other. The team, in collaboration with the University of Durham and the University of St Andrews, asked participants to judge perceived age, attractiveness, and personality traits
Six-year-olds whose parents displayed frequent disagreements in their relationship responded to subsequent parental conflicts with elevated distress and negative thoughts, according to a team of researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of Notre Dame.
In the latest issue of the journal Child Development, the team reported examining 223 children twice during a one-year period for their reactions to conflicts between their parents. First, their mothers and fathe
The government’s new white paper on health seems to suggest that patients should be offered more choice. However, visiting the doctor or phoning the police is simply not like shopping, according to people questioned for a new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which found that most of us reject the trend towards treating everyone as ‘consumers’.
We see public services as different from the market-place and value their ‘publicness’, according to the project le
New research carried out by a consumer behaviour researcher at Henley Management College has investigated what drives people to search online. The findings reveal that convenience, time-efficiency and personal control are the key drivers for consumers to search online, rather than cost. It also shows that the relationship between traditional and online retailing outlets needs to be more unified.
E-shopping has changed the face of retail, and surfers are now looking for Spring sale ba
The minute the words are said, the regret sets in.
Communication scientists from Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University have studied how and why people choose certain ways to repair the damage done once hurtful words are spoken.
According to Jane R. Meyer from Kent State and Kyra Rothenberg from Case, most people offered an apology, spurred by guilt to mend any offense their remarks might cause in an intimate relationship. Following the offer of an apo
A study involving researchers from the Universities of Leicester, Birmingham and Sheffield has highlighted significant variation in the development of intermediate care in England.
The study, which included a national survey of intermediate care co-ordinators, data collection in five case-study sites and a systematic review of previous research, focused upon the costs and outcomes of intermediate care for older people.
Research Fellow Emma Regen said: “Findings from t
Many of us have experienced déjà vu – the unsettling sensation of knowing that a situation could not have been experienced, combined with the feeling that it has. It is usually so fleeting that psychologists have until recently thought it impossible to study. But for some people, the feeling of having been there before is a persistent sensation, making every day a ‘Groundhog Day’. Psychologists from Leeds’ memory group are working with sufferers of chronic déjà vu on the world’s first study
A forthcoming article in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research compares the attitudes of American and Singaporean subjects toward well-known brands in order to assess how a consumer’s self-view influences perception of consumer goods. The researchers found that Westerners, who tend to have a personality-oriented independent self-view, focus on the general qualities of the brand. Easterners, who focus more interdependently on contextual factors and their relationships to other
The First In-Depth Demographic Analysis of the Strike Zone
The images were accurate: The Gulf Coast’s poor, black residents were hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, according to findings by a Brown University sociologist. Professor John Logan’s new research is the first of its kind from the disaster zone and raises provocative questions about the future population of New Orleans.
The Gulf Coast’s African Americans and poorest residents were disproportionately impacted by Hur
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