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The literature on policies, procedures, and practices of diversity management in organizations is currently fragmented and often contradictory in highlighting what is effective diversity management, and which organizational and societal factors facilitate or hinder its implementation. In order to provide a comprehensive and cohesive view of diversity management in organizations we develop a multilevel model informed by the social identity approach that explains, on the basis of a work motivation logic, the processes by, and the conditions under which employee dissimilarity within diverse work groups is related to innovation, effectiveness, and well-being. Building on this new model, we then identify those work group factors (e.g., climate for inclusion and supervisory leadership), organizational factors (e.g., diversity management policies and procedures, and top management's diversity beliefs) and societal factors (e.g., legislation, socio-economic situation, and culture) that are likely to contribute to the effective management of diversity in organizations. In our discussion of the theoretical implications of the proposed model we offer a set of propositions to serve as a guide for future research. We conclude with a discussion of possible limitations of the model and practical implications for managing diversity in organizations.

This study investigates whether the completion of an optional sandwich work placement enhances student performance in final year examinations. Using Propensity Score Matching, our analysis departs from the literature by controlling for self-selection. Previous studies may have overestimated the impact of sandwich work placements on performance because it might be the case that highcalibre students choose to go on placement. Our results, utilising a large student data set, indicate that self-selection is present, but the effects of a placement on student performance still have an impact. This robust finding is found to be of a remarkably similar magnitude across two UK universities.

Higher education has faced the problem of budget cuts or constrained budgets for the past 30 years. Managing the process of the higher education system is, therefore, a crucial and urgent task for the decision makers of universities in order to improve their performance or competitiveness. This paper reviews the literature which focuses on four major higher education decision problems. These are resource allocation, performance measurement, budgeting, and scheduling. Related articles appearing in the international journals from 1996 to 2005 are gathered and analyzed so that the following three questions can be answered: (i) What kind of decision problems was paid most attention to? (ii) Were the multiple criteria decision making techniques prevalently adopted? (iii) What are the inadequacies of these approaches? Based on the inadequacies, some improvements and possible future work are recommended, and a comprehensive resource allocation model is developed taking account these factors. Finally, a new knowledge-based goal programming technique which integrates some operations of analytic hierarchy process is proposed to tackle the model intelligently.

Background: Attendance of university students at their timetabled teaching sessions is usually associated with higher levels of educational attainment (e.g. Credé, Roch & Kieszczynka, 2010). Attendance is usually considered to reflect students' level of engagement with their course and to be critical to student success; despite the potential for technological alternatives, lectures and other face-to-face sessions still tend to be the primary method of teaching at university. Purpose: Here we review studies which have investigated these determinants of attendance in order to gain a better understanding of whether -and how -Higher Education Institutions are able to improve attendance rates.Sources of evidence: Electronic databases (e.g. ERIC, Web of Science) were used to identify articles exploring attendance in Higher Education settings.Main argument: Some of the most debated determinants of attendance are reviewed: teaching issues (e.g. quality, style and format); effects of university expectations and policy (e.g. mandating attendance, awarding grades for attendance); scheduling issues; provision of materials online; and the effects of individual factors arguably outside of the Higher Education Institution's control (e.g. finance, student employment, student demographics and psychological factors). Conclusions:It is suggested that, although some individual factors influence student attendance and are arguably out of the control of HEIs, it is possible for them to facilitate attendance through adjustments to aspects of degree delivery such as attendance policies and monitoring, timetabling and style of teaching. Implications for policies on the recording of lectures, curriculum design and student term-time working are also discussed. Future research on student attendance should include longer and larger studies which simultaneously consider a range of influences; examining both inter-and intra-individual variability and different types of teaching sessions.