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This role-play focuses on a whistle-blowing scenario involving data management issues in a research lab, complicated by uncomfortable personal relationships. Whistle-blowing involves raising concerns or allegations of wrongdoing or misconduct. There is an obligation for whistle-blowers to do so in good faith, which means based on reasonable belief or facts. Suspecting that someone has engaged in research misconduct is one of the most difficult situations researchers face. This is especially true when relationships are strained for other reasons. If you have the suspicion of research misconduct, the possible consequences for all involved can be serious. To handle the situation responsibly and in the best possible manner for your career and the other people involved, you should move deliberately and carefully. Universities are required by the federal government to have procedures for protecting whistle-blowers against retaliation and for reporting misconduct. Inform yourself not only of the formal rules (see your university's policies) but you should also inform yourself of the informal rules for having a dispute in a professional manner while protecting yourself and your career. See the paper on how to report research misconduct and still have a successful career afterwards (Gunsalus, 1998). Also, any paper discovered to have incorrect information should be retracted and errata should be issued for the benefit of other researchers.

Background: The quality of the relationship between professional and user is one of the important factors in the recovery process. However, more knowledge is needed concerning the components of helping relationships and characteristics of the helping professional. The aim of this study was to explore users' experiences of helping relationships with professionals. Data and methods: This was a grounded theory analysis of 71 qualitative interviews to explore users' experience of helping relationships and their components, in psychiatric care in Sweden. Discussion: Within the three main categories – interpersonal continuity, emotional climate and social interaction – two core themes were found that described vital components of helping relationships: a non-stigmatizing attitude on the part of the professionals and their willingness to do something beyond established routines. Conclusions: The focus in psychiatric treatment research needs to be broadened. In addition to research on the outcome of particular methods and interventions, the common factors also need to be investigated, above all, what is the effect of the quality of the relationship between user and professional. Greater attention needs to be paid, as well, to how helping respective obstructive relationships in psychiatric services arise, are maintained or are modified.

This article presents an exploratory account of how medical professionals understand the relationship between new technology and their professional identities. Drawing on interview data with senior surgeons from a variety of surgical disciplines, the article draws attention to how new technologies provide occasions for the evaluation of existing intra- and inter-professional relationships, and professional identity as a whole. In particular, the role of changing insider/outsider dynamics is emphasized, as is the importance of recognizing professional identity as in constant flux at micro-, meta- and macro-levels. The implications for existing theory are discussed, and further research questions identified.

Demands to changes of instruction for mathematics classrooms are presented in standards promoted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Illinois State Board of Education and other government reports creates a demand for teacher professional development to support teachers to adapt to these changes of instruction. The overall purpose of this study investigated characteristics of effective professional development and how those characteristics are associated with teacher job satisfaction and teacher working conditions. With the completion of this dissertation, this study adds to the literature relevant to teacher professional development by demonstrating an association between teacher professional development and teacher working conditions. This non-experimental quantitative study examined 23 lists of characteristics of professional development to provide designers of professional development programs the frequency that specific characteristics were mentioned on the 23 lists. Also, this study administered a Likert scale questionnaire to secondary mathematics teachers to measure the teachers' perception of the three variables: teacher professional development, teacher job satisfaction, and teacher working conditions. The completed questionnaires were used to calculate measures of the three variables and these measures were used to calculate Pearson correlation coefficients. Ultimately, tests of correlations were conducted with the Pearson correlation coefficients to measure the associations between the three variables. Four research questions relating to these associations were created that guided the details of this quantitative study. The results of the data analysis revealed a statistically significant association between teacher professional development and teacher working conditions. Also, the results of a second test of correlation revealed that the association between teacher professional development and teacher job satisfaction was not significant.

Ethical standards are core components of practice standards and codes of conduct for mental health practitioners. Practice standards and ethics related to boundaries are generally based on historical review, study of mental health services, and the impact of boundary crossing or boundary violations on clients receiving services. This article explores some common standards of ethical practice related to boundaries and dual or multiple relationships between mental health professionals and clients. The underlying conceptual basis for these standards and examples of questions encountered in clinical practice with sexual offenders are explored.

April 2008 saw the introduction of a new Public Law Outline (PLO) that aims to improve judicial case management of Public Law Children Act cases. The PLO is a response to concerns about the rising number of care proceedings, associated costs, and the difficulties of achieving case resolution given this volume. Based on an ethos that care proceedings should be avoided wherever possible, the new approach to case management, which places significant emphasis on pre-proceedings work and the effective engagement of parents, can be seen to reinforce the 'no order principle' enshrined in the Children Act (CA) 1989. Focusing specifically on relationships between parents and professionals, this paper provides a critical discussion of the potential of the PLO to further promote consensual practices with parents. Discussion traces the introduction of the concept of partnership within the CA 1989, provides a review of the evidence to-date of effective partnership working, before considering the prospects for the PLO with respect to parental engagement. A number of key contextual obstacles are highlighted that will inevitably undermine the aspirations of the new outline, and a more general observation is drawn about the limits of procedure in effecting change in complex social issues. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework for and an initial understanding of critical times in business relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe authors define "critical time" as a period of time with increased sensitivity in a business relationship that may change the actors' attitude and/or behaviour in the relationship. The authors review previous research, present the theoretical framework and present the findings from two explorative empirical studies concerning companies' relationships with information technology consultants and advertising agencies. The focus is on the factors driving the flow of critical times.FindingsThis authors introduce the concept "critical time" as a period of stress and raised sensitivity in a relationship that may change it. Critical times are built up by three elements: initial state of the relationship, the flow of critical time and outcome state of the relationship. The authors contribute with the critical C‐model: competence, communication, and clock.Originality/valueThis is the first study focusing on critical times in business relationships. The authors study two categories of knowledge intensive professional services. A new theoretical framework for, and an initial understanding of, critical times in business relationships are suggested.

The beginning and the first years of teaching can be viewed in various ways. For example, the image of a triangle with the person's teaching in one of its vertices. As a person, the novice teacher has a particular vision of his work and a sense of mission or task. The beginning teacher feels more capable in some areas than others and with a confidence variable with respect to its initial preparation (although this perception may change with the first experiments). From the other sides of the triangle together towards this new professional messages that come from the context of work and messages of social and political context relating to education, quality or otherwise of their initial preparation and what they should or should not make teachers. In their place of work, in concrete form, is facing demands or conflicts, receives support, and asks questions that do not always have the answer. The beginning teacher welcomes, rejected, interpreted and reinterpreted these experiences as a sort of re-shaping the professional identity that maybe he thought he had acquired in their initial training. In this, no different from other professionals faced with his first work experiences, but those living in more complex by the interweaving of relationships that will demand accountability with students, parents, peers, authorities and his own social environment of friends, and possible by the diversity of expectations regarding their work, both personal and from others.

ABSTRACTApril 2008 saw the introduction of a new Public Law Outline (PLO) that aims to improve judicial case management of Public Law Children Act cases. The PLO is a response to concerns about the rising number of care proceedings, associated costs, and the difficulties of achieving case resolution given this volume. Based on an ethos that care proceedings should be avoided wherever possible, the new approach to case management, which places significant emphasis on pre‐proceedings work and the effective engagement of parents, can be seen to reinforce the 'no order principle' enshrined in the Children Act (CA) 1989. Focusing specifically on relationships between parents and professionals, this paper provides a critical discussion of the potential of the PLO to further promote consensual practices with parents. Discussion traces the introduction of the concept of partnership within the CA 1989, provides a review of the evidence to‐date of effective partnership working, before considering the prospects for the PLO with respect to parental engagement. A number of key contextual obstacles are highlighted that will inevitably undermine the aspirations of the new outline, and a more general observation is drawn about the limits of procedure in effecting change in complex social issues.