‘You can tell your follower where to go, but you can’t put them there’: Leadership as partnership

This workshop aims to explore the role of the follower in enabling leadership, the leader’s twofold obligation to the present and the future, issues around power and ‘powerful-ness’, as well as the relevance of this in a work context. We will use both the metaphor and the reality of ballroom dancing to explore and challenge our behaviour and assumptions in our roles as leaders and followers in a mix of practical dance exercises and reflection. Since this is ‘work in progress’, participants’ contributions are essential to the outcome. There is no need to bring a partner, but be prepared to partner up and dance! Some prior dance experience (of any style) may be helpful, but is not necessary

Student choice, league tables and university facilities

Purpose: This paper examines the three-way connection between league tables, student choice of university and university facilities, a topic area that has so far seen little research. In the decade since Price et al. (2003) highlighted the links between university facilities and students’ choice of institution, changes in technology and the rise of league tables render an update necessary. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical research focuses on one top league university with a 1960s campus, using a mixed-method approach, including results from the annual York University Student Union survey (results of a survey with 2,382 responses, and 3,500 focus group comments) and from research carried out by one of the authors (a survey with 331 responses and 144 comments from focus groups. Results from the Unite Student Experience Report 2012 (based on 1,236 responses) were also used. Findings: The influence of league tables on students’ choices was strongly confirmed. There are expectations that ‘premier league’ institutions come with top class facilities. Students whose expectations of their institution’s facilities are not met, may vent their disappointment via national satisfaction surveys (such as the National Student Survey in the UK). Originality/value: There has been little research about the connection between league tables, student choice of university and university facilities. This paper makes a start on a three-way connection and maps out the field for further research

Dance, leadership and space

This paper aims to ‘unpick’ the spatial elements of leadership and followership in competitive ballroom dancing and to explore how they relate to organizational life. To explain and underpin this relational field, the authors use examples from their own learning journeys, both as amateur dancers and in their professional roles

Feeling your way forward : questions about autoethnography, embodiment and sensemaking

This paper tells the story of a journey of inquiry, which has turned into a journey of research, through the lens of collaborative autoethnographic work, connecting work lives, private lives, dance lives, a journey in time (nearly two decades) but also in spaces (dancefloors, universities, other organisations). It connects dance competitions with organisational life, dance performance with organisational performance, leader-follower-ship on the dancefloor with leader-follower-ship in organisations (Matzdorf 2005, Matzdorf & Sen 2005, Matzdorf & Sen 2014), but also reflection on dance with reflection on work and reflection on relationships in general (and how to make them work). The authors describe and reflect upon layers of mutual influence between work, life in organizations and dance

Empirical Characterization of Particle Size Distribution Spatial Dynamics for Helminth Eggs Detection in Waste Stabilization Ponds (WSP)

This study assesses seasonal particle size distribution (PSD) dynamics inside a waste stabilization ponds (WSP) (Buguruni, Tanzania) to understand settling dynamics of wastewater particles with an interest in helminth eggs. Results indicate that particles coming into the pond are mainly supracolloidal and settleables with 52.9% and 45.6%, respectively, in dry season and 48.9% and 49.9%, respectively, in wet season. Inflow PSD is a unimodal distribution that splits into settling and suspended PSDs, with an indication of particle breakage, as shown by the increased volume of smaller particles and hence the appearance of a bimodal distribution for the suspended particles. Up to 61.5% and 45.2% of particles that fall within the size range of helminths eggs are suspended during dry and wet seasons, respectively, with the potential to be carried in the effluent and to cause contamination

Demanding followers, empowered leaders : dance as an “embodied metaphor” for leader-follower-ship

In this paper, we explore how leadership and followership are relational, mutually constructed and mutually enabled. Using dancesport as metaphor and medium, we focus on the embodied, corporeal aspects and dynamics of leading and following, relating them to lead/follow roles and tasks of people in organizations. In a mainly autoethnographic exploration of the lived experiences of people in leader-follower-relationships, we use the concept of embodied cognition as a basis and argue that dance can provide a vehicle for immediate, implicit “insights” and even “aha effects” through sensory, bodily experiences

People make, and patterns break, FM

Purpose : Reports a service ecosystem in FM as a basis for understanding peoples’ roles Theory : The service ecosystem model Design/methodology/approach: Interpretive, but realistic, qualitative research into perceptions of FM excellence Findings : The importance of perceptions and narratives in shaping FM services. Originality/value, Presents the first mapped example of a service ecosystem and shows how it can be used in practice

Clients' perceptions of an occupational therapy intervention at a substance use rehabilitation centre in the Western Cape

Substance use among adolescents is a significant health and social problem and affects occupational performance. While occupational therapy interventions are available at substance use rehabilitation centres in the Western Cape, little is known about clients' perceptions of the usefulness of these interventions. A qualitative study was conducted to address this gap, specifically exploring clients' perceptions of the usefulness of the intervention on their occupations post discharge. The occupational therapist at a particular centre was interviewed as a key informant. Eight participants who attended the aftercare programme at the centre took part in three focus groups. Four themes emerged from the analysis of data: "We taking the drugs away, but we need to give them something back in that place"; "I don't want to be that person I was in the past"; "Keeping me clean"; "Take us out into the life". Participants perceived skills development, work training, life skills and leisure exploration to be useful. However, team members' roles and treatment objectives should be clarified to the clients to ensure that clients understand why they are participating in therapy. Finally, there should be more community-based, out-patient support programmes for adolescents so that the appropriate services are more easily accessible.DHE

The role of DNA methylation in directing the functional organization of the cancer epigenome

The holistic role of DNA methylation in the organization of the cancer epigenome is not well understood. Here we perform a comprehensive, high-resolution analysis of chromatin structure to compare the landscapes of HCT116 colon cancer cells and a DNA methylation-deficient derivative. The NOMe-seq accessibility assay unexpectedly revealed symmetrical and transcription-independent nucleosomal phasing across active, poised, and inactive genomic elements. DNA methylation abolished this phasing primarily at enhancers and CpG island (CGI) promoters, with little effect on insulators and non-CGI promoters. Abolishment of DNA methylation led to the context-specific reestablishment of the poised and active states of normal colon cells, which were marked in methylation-deficient cells by distinct H3K27 modifications and the presence of either well-phased nucleosomes or nucleosome-depleted regions, respectively. At higher-order genomic scales, we found that long, H3K9me3-marked domains had lower accessibility, consistent with a more compact chromatin structure. Taken together, our results demonstrate the nuanced and context-dependent role of DNA methylation in the functional, multiscale organization of cancer epigenomes.Charles Heidelberger Memorial Fellowshi