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This paper presents a framework that training professionals may utilize to develop training to align learner preferences with organizational objectives.

The authors of this paper present a framework they have used throughout the United States to prepare and develop training aligned with organizational objectives and learners' preferences in the workplace.

This paper highlights the importance of understanding organizational objectives and learner preferences when designing training and provides a framework to assist trainers. Using this framework, the authors have found that they can quickly adjust training sessions to a target audience with a broad range of personalities and preferences with good results.

This framework provides training practitioners with a step-by-step guide for quickly considering the alignment of organizational objectives to learner characteristics to enhance training design.

This organizational climate empirical case study involves a religious organization in the United States of America, which has experienced a substantial decline in membership and weekly service participation numbers over the previous five years. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to reveal motivating factors that drive parishioners to leave or stay within a traditional protestant congregation and to uncover the strengths and weaknesses within the organization.

The methodology behind the study considers personal observation by the author and engages current and former members of the organization as well as front-line employees and senior leadership. Qualitative essays were completed through Qualtrics by participants and analyzed with the use of MAXQDA software for thematic frequency and organization.

During analysis, correlations were found to exist between the church's membership decline and ineffectiveness of senior leadership. Also, it is quite evident that the church's strengths were found in the quality of its members and the relationships they developed. This was found to be a significant motivation to stay within the organization.

The study provides value to practitioners within organizational development fields. Usage of this knowledge could assist in providing insights into possible reasons why religious organizations falter under ineffective leadership, which in turn could provide opportunities to implement improvements based on discoveries.

At the end of the European Middle Ages, as the Church slowly lost its monopoly held on truth and meaning, the traditional foundations of knowledge crumbled, initiating an epistemological crisis that continues to haunt Western thought. The problem became how can we have confidence in our theories and beliefs. What grounds their validity? Bacon's empiricism and Descartes' rationalism were the most concerted and influential early attempts to resolve the crisis. But their resolutions were soon found inadequate, and ever since, the search for a way to provide a solid foundation for our knowledge has been the dominant concern of philosophy. The last grandiose and influential attempt at resolution was positivism. But positivism too has fallen into disfavor. The epistemological crisis endures.

THE Conservative Government elected on June 18th last has lost no time in putting into practice its avowed principle of reducing direct taxation. Late in July it flew a kite through an inspired leak showing that it intended to save millions on education, one small part of which would be £10 million, purporting to be “saved” by making readers pay for books borrowed through public libraries. First indications of this were in a story included in The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and other papers, and as this story was not denied by the Government, the Library Association thought it proper to issue a press statement immediately, with the message that the Association was totally opposed to the introduction of such charges.

Provision of ecological goods and services at the local level is often related to benefits at higher governmental levels. On the one hand, sustainable watershed management and biodiversity conservation are strongly connected to local land-use decisions. On the other hand, related conservation activities and protected areas are frequently associated with regional, national or even global public goods. Therefore, spatial externalities or spillover effects exist that – if not adequately compensated – lead to an under-provision of the public goods and services concerned. This chapter investigates fiscal transfers as an innovative instrument for compensating local jurisdictions for the ecological goods and services they provide across local boundaries. From a public finance perspective, fiscal transfers are a suitable instrument for internalising spatial externalities. A case study is presented that investigates the present and potential use of fiscal transfers for ecological public functions in the German federal systems. Analysis of the German system of fiscal equalisation at the local level shows that, so far, mostly end-of-the-pipe activities are currently considered with resource protection and nature conservation being widely underrepresented.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

A tax based on land value is in many ways ideal, but many economists dismiss it by assuming it could not raise enough revenue. Standard sources of data omit much of the potential tax base, and undervalue what they do measure. The purpose of this paper is to present more comprehensive and accurate measures of land rents and values, and several modes of raising revenues from them besides the conventional property tax.

The paper identifies 16 elements of land's taxable capacity that received authorities either trivialize or omit. These 16 elements come in four groups.

In Group A, Elements 1‐4 correct for the downward bias in standard sources. In Group B, Elements 5‐10 broaden the concepts of land and rent beyond the conventional narrow perception, while Elements 11‐12 estimate rents to be gained by abating other kinds of taxes. In Group C, Elements 13‐14 explain how using the land tax, since it has no excess burden, uncaps feasible tax rates. In Group D, Elements 15‐16 define some moot possibilities that may warrant further exploration.

This paper shows how previous estimates of rent and land values have been narrowly limited to a fraction of the whole, thus giving a false impression that the tax capacity is low. The paper adds 14 elements to the traditional narrow “single tax” base, plus two moot elements advanced for future consideration. Any one of these 16 elements indicates a much higher land tax base than economists commonly recognize today. Taken together they are overwhelming, and cast an entirely new light on this subject.

Questions the relationship between information science, the theory of science, and ethics. Defines the differences between the views of the theory of science used in information science and introduces the concept “The context of solution”, in addition to the entities “The context of discovery” and “The context of justification”. These three contexts constitute what is thought should be normative for the research community. Finally couples this unit to moral/ethical consequence considerations, where the basis is local knowledge. Concludes with a model for the integration of science and ethics.

The purpose of this paper is the conceptual expansion of the science-theoretical foundations of information science, i.e. to develop new thought schemes for information science.

The design of the paper is as follows: first, the paper will discuss the foundation of the systemic paradigm (SP). Then the authors will consider the history of information science related to the philosophy of science. In the remaining part of the paper, the authors will investigate information science and its relation to the philosophy of science, focusing on SP.

In conclusion, the authors will summarise the seven criteria for the application of SP in information science.

Paradigms in information science have rarely reflected upon the use of a SP in information science.

The practical use of the seven criteria in information science Criterion 1: make your premises, suppositions, prerequisites and motives explicit. Criterion 2: make your moral/ethical results and consequences explicit. Criterion 3: research should be evaluated in relation to the transcendence of knowledge. Criterion 4: emphasise methodical pluralism, i.e. empirical generalisations and conceptual generalisations. Criterion 5: emphasise proximity and in-depth studies. Criterion 6: look for patterns and patterns which combine. Criterion 7: look for the power behind the patterns.

The opinion is that scientists to a great extent should seek knowledge on the basis of a belief, a specific way of thinking, and by means of specific methods. To make the authors belief explicit makes the way of thinking visible. What the authors achieve, and possibly the only thing the authors can achieve, is to reaffirm the conscious belief. This does not make reality more real, but it could put the authors in a better position to see through the authors way of thinking when faced with scientific problems. This indicates that a scientific study should emphasise all three entities: “The Context of Discovery”, “The Context of Justification” and “The Context of Solution”. These three entities, according to SP, make up the unity of the scientific process.

The seven criteria entail that Kuhn’s argumentative chain (where he tries to find out why theory A is preferred to theory B on a rational pretext) does not concur with SP. This indicates that a scientific study should emphasise all three entities: “The Context of Discovery”, “The Context of Justification” and “The Context of Solution”. These three entities, according to SP, make up the unity of the scientific process.