Decisions, decisions, decisions

Postscript:
I know that a postscript comes at the end so I suppose this is a prescript but that doesn’t sound right.
I started writing this post at around 6pm yesterday and lost it twice when Blogger decided that it did not want me to save so I ended up writing it in Word!
It’s now Friday morning and I’m about to convert and get it formatted. Hey ho! Modern technology makes life easier?

I have spent the last couple of hours reviewing the journals that are on my list for regular reading in the British Library’s Business and IP Centre and have reached some conclusions about the value of these to me and/or careers and employment advisers.

I thought that I would find that Director was a journal that I enjoyed reading, which I do if not pressured for time, but that did not contain anything of relevance.
I was wrong. For example, the debate in the July/August issue (Volume 65 Issue 11) asks: "Can business be conducted wearing hoodies, jeans and flip-flops?" Useful? Of course it is as it adds to our armoury of weapons to persuade young people (and, indeed, the not so young) that they cannot simply assume that their style of dress will be acceptable to a prospective employer.
That is, however, only one article out of many.
I’ve marked it up to check the next issue and will maybe drop it.

Next up came Economic Review from Deloitte which I will drop. There’s only so much labour market information at a national and international level that can be of value to the adviser helping someone to become a plumber in Barnsley.

The readership of First Voice of Business is clearly intended to be small business owners/managers. I cannot remember using anything from this since I stopped providing posts to the business information blog.

Harvard Business Review – a great read but … ditched!

IDS Pay Benchmark I find useful for looking at job titles and getting a general feel for the employment world. It stays. As does IDS Pay Report a monthly "research and analysis on pay and benefits". I may not often post anything from this (can’t actually remember the last time I did) but it provides very useful background information on different employment sectors for answering specific questions.

Management Today is now available only on request. I can’t be bothered!!

To say that I couldn’t live without the National Institute Economic Review would, of course, be a gross exaggeration but I would miss it. My problem with this publication is that it is available online in a format that I find very difficult to read. Consequently, as I have found with one or two other journals, I find an item of interest in the hard copy and then search for it online. Clumsy but it works even if the information is somewhat delayed.

When I came to the OECD Observer I was torn. It’s a great read, it’s informative, nicely set out, just the right number of pictures and illustrations to break up the text. Do I need it? Probably not because I get regular news alerts from the various departments of the OECD. Is it staying on the list? Yes. I have to have some pleasures!

I’ve dropped The Office Briefing from Croner, and Professional Manager. I did wonder whether I was getting a bit slap-happy towards the end of the list but no, these no longer serve a purpose.

Which leaves Quarterly Survey of Small Business in Britain from The Open University Business School.
The answer on this one is keep but under review as there isn’t anything more recent than December 2011 on the shelf today.

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Social and Heuristic Approaches to Credibility Evaluation Online

an article by Miriam J Metzger, Andrew J Flanagin and Ryan B Medders (Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara) published in Journal of Communication Volume 60 Issue 3 (September 2010)

Abstract
The tremendous amount of information available online has resulted in considerable research on information and source credibility. The vast majority of scholars, however, assume that individuals work in isolation to form credibility opinions and that people must assess information credibility in an effortful and time-consuming manner. Focus group data from 109 participants were used to examine these assumptions. Results show that most users rely on others to make credibility assessments, often through the use of group-based tools. Results also indicate that rather than systematically processing information, participants routinely invoked cognitive heuristics to evaluate the credibility of information and sources online. These findings are leveraged to suggest a number of avenues for further credibility theorising, research, and practice.

Hazel’s comment:
I’ve not had the opportunity to read this article yet but I definitely intend to and if at the end I don’t come up with a lay-person’s conclusion that “people trust people they trust” then it, whatever “it” is has to be OK I will be surprised.
Well, so-and-so said it was alright to do this, use this source, make this assumption – I trust so-and-so not to advise me to eat toadstools.
I hope that you trust me but then I have to be careful when recommending anything to you, doesn’t it?
But I, of course, have my trusted people – and, as Phil Bradley said not long ago, “I research this rubbish so that you don’t have to”.

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