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We take for granted that we exist in dimensions of time and space. We accept that time passes and that space extends as a matter of course. Just as our personal space is important to us, so is time of our own. The individual is capable of developing a variety of time perspectives or orientations, each applicable to a different aspect of life, for instance, home, leisure, economic, political and organisational. Our temporal perspective influences a wide range of psychological processes, from motivation, emotions and spontaneity to risk-taking creativity and problem-solving. Our temporal landscapes are made up of recognisable domains, with permeable borders – private time and public time, home time and work time, past, present and future time, cyclical time. Just as a geography of space contains recognisable natural features – rivers, deserts, mountains – and features created by human beings – canals, roads, skyscrapers – so our temporal landscape contains natural features – day and night, the seasons – and features created by us – the ordering of social, economic, legal, and organisational time into, among others, the practices of family life, financial periods, prison sentences and workloads. This paper views the temporal landscapes of night nurses, and is based on longitudinal ethnographic research. It highlights areas such as shift work, workload, and the temporal aspects of caring. The result is the production of a map, albeit a rough one, of the temporal landscape inhabited by night nurses as they go about their working lives. ; Partimos do princípio que existimos em dimensões de tempo e espaço. Aceitamos a passagem do tempo e a expansão do espaço. O nosso espaço pessoal é importante para nós, assim como o nosso tempo. O indivíduo é capaz de desenvolver uma variedade de perspectivas e orientações temporais, aplicáveis a cada aspecto da sua vida, como por exemplo, casa, lazer, dimensões económica, política e organizacional. As nossas perspectivas temporais afectam variadíssimos processos psicológicos, desde a ...

This article examines the main issues and challenges associated with the use of the focus group method in a research study involving small business and entrepreneurship. The project concerned the education and training needs of a Bangladeshi community in a West Midlands city, commissioned by the local Chamber of Commerce Training and Enterprise. The article considers the advice provided in the literature on the conduct of focus groups, describes the application of that advice to gather empirical data from an ethnic community, and discusses the insights gained from the use of focus groups in these circumstances. Both the positive and negative features of the research process and outcomes are covered, and the impact of the focus group method on the successes and failures of the project is discussed.

This study focuses on western managers of organizations doing business in Egypt, and examines their perspectives on the interface between them and Egyptian culture, within an organizational framework. The research was carried out through a mailed questionnaire survey sent to foreign managers of organizations doing business in Egypt. Informal interviews and the relevant literature provided the topics for the survey. Four macro-themes emerged from the analysis of the various survey topics. In sequential order of importance, these are cultural respect (the extent to which culture should be taken into consideration as far as organization is concerned), cultural experience (the experience of foreign managers of the different behavioural traits of Egyptians within the workplace), cultural adaptability (foreign managers' reactions to certain cultural traits that exhibit themselves in the workplace), and cultural understanding (understanding of the reasons that underlie the behavioural traits encountered). These findings are a preliminary step for further research in an area that has a high potential for business, yet low research input.

AbstractThe premise of this paper is that for effective diversity management, it is essential that an organization has in place factors that create effective structure, including workplace equality processes and programmes. In order to demonstrate this viewpoint, research was undertaken in a communications‐intensive firm by means of the extensive examination of documents and corroborative interviews. The findings were obtained by means of Beer's Viable Systems Model (1985). The research assumption was shown to be the case—the major finding indicates that effective diversity management is dependent on appropriate structures and systems to support the communication and implementation of arrangements to create and sustain workplace equality. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.