Book Reviews

Citizens Participation in Urban Development: Volume I- Concepts and Issues. Hans B.C. Spiegal, ed. Washington, D.C.: NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, 1969. 291 pp. $3.95 (paper) and Citizens Participation in Urban Development: Volume II- Cases and Programs. Hans B.C. Spiegal, ed. Washington, D.C.: NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, 1969. 348 pp.$3.95 (paper). Robert L. Bruce Educational Media: Theory into Practice. Raymond V. Wiman and Wesley C. Meirhenry, eds. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1969. 283 pp. No price given. Terry Gibson Management by Motivation. Saul W. Gellerman. New York, New York: American Management Association, Inc., 1968. 286 pp. $10.50. George M. Nakasato Programs to Employ the Disadvantaged. Peter B. Doeringer, ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969. 261 pp. No price given. Lloyd Feldmen Readings in Community Organization Practice. Ralph M. Kramer and Harry Specht. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969. 458 pp.$5.95 (paper). Alvin L. Bertran

Building a better future: An exploration of beliefs about climate change and perceived need for adaptation within the building industry

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Building and Environment . Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Building and Environment Vol. 46 (2011), DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2010.12.007The present research explored beliefs about climate change among an important yet relatively understudied population: representatives of the building industry. We also assessed the perceived adequacy of current climate-related actions within the industry and the perceived need for developing new practices. The results of a survey administered within a large engineering firm suggest a fairly high level of concern about climate issues within this sector: participants perceived climate change to be an important issue, current practices to be inadequate, and a need to develop new ways of addressing climate change. Despite this, there was notable and consequential variability in how participants thought about climate change. Higher levels of seniority were associated with greater satisfaction with current practices, and the belief that climate change was a natural rather than man-made phenomena was associated with a reduced support for the idea that changes to current practices were necessary. In addition, when thinking about climate relevant actions (whether current practices or the alternatives) participants focussed almost exclusively on mitigation rather than adaptation. The implications of these patterns for innovation around climate change within the building industry are discussed.EPSR

Perspectives on effective coaching by those who have been coached.

Studies on coaching have largely explored effectiveness from the perspective of a coach or employing organization rather than that of the employee or coachee. There has also been a focus on ‘successful’ coaching, but little is known about unsuccessful coaching or the hindrances to achieving coaching success. Many empirical studies on training interventions have found that support and help for employees from managers and others within the workplace enhances training effectiveness and there is an assumption in coaching studies that this will also be true for coaching interventions. This study addresses the gap in academic literature by exploring survey responses from 296 industry professionals in 34 countries who had been, or were currently being, coached. The study found that facing barriers during the period of coaching engagements was common and we present a categorization framework of six barrier categories. Our analysis suggests that three of these barrier categories may be predictive of coachee perceptions of limited coaching effectiveness: difficulties with a coach; coaching relationships and overall coaching experience. The study also provides empirical evidence that suggests a lack of support from within an employing organization is not predictive of limited coaching effectiveness

Sources of output change in China: 1987-1997: application of a structural decomposition analysis

Since the beginning of the economic reforms implemented in the industrial sectors of China, the economy has grown and changed rapidly. The high GDP growth rates recorded since 1985 have stimulated unprecedented changes in the economic structure of this developing economy. The major causes of the changes are: the increase in consumption and investment, production technological change and trade. The objective was to analyse this type of structural change, and to explore the sources of economic growth during the period 1987–1997, by using the method of structural decomposition analysis (SDA). The chosen SDA method, based on the comparison between two input-output tables, allowed us to decompose each sector's and industry's output growth; it enabled the relative impact of final demand and technological change of each industry on overall growthto be measured.