Maria Hepi, Jeff Foote, Jörg Finsterwalder, Moana-o-Hinerangi Moana-o-Hinerangi, Sue Carswell and Virginia Baker
This study aims to understand the engagement between an indigenous social service provider and marginalised clients deemed “hard-to-reach” to gain an insight into how to improve…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the engagement between an indigenous social service provider and marginalised clients deemed “hard-to-reach” to gain an insight into how to improve the client’s engagement and well-being through transformative value co-creation.
Design/methodology/approach
The exploratory study’s findings draw on primary data employing a qualitative research approach through document analysis and in-depth interviews with clients, social workers and stakeholders of the focal social service provider in New Zealand.
Findings
The findings indicate that there are inhibitors and enablers of value or well-being co-creation. The lack of client resources and a mismatch between client and social worker are primary barriers. Other actors as well as cultural practices are identified as enablers of well-being improvement.
Research limitations/implications
This research reports on a single social service provider and its clients. These findings may not be readily transferrable to other contexts.
Practical implications
Findings indicate that social service providers require a heightened awareness of the inhibitors and enablers of social service co-creation.
Social implications
Both the integrative framework and the findings provide a sound critique of the prevailing policy discourse surrounding the stigmatisation of members of society deemed “hard-to-reach” and the usefulness of such an approach when aiming at resolving social issues.
Originality/value
This is the first exploratory study that reports on the engagement between a social service provider and its clients in a dedicated Māori (indigenous) context by employing an integrative research approach combining transformative service research, activity theory and engagement theory.
Details
Keywords
Adeel Akmal, Nataliya Podgorodnichenko, Richard Greatbanks, Jeff Foote, Tim Stokes and Robin Gauld
The various quality improvement (QI) frameworks and maturity models described in the health services literature consider some aspects of QI while excluding others. This paper aims…
Abstract
Purpose
The various quality improvement (QI) frameworks and maturity models described in the health services literature consider some aspects of QI while excluding others. This paper aims to present a concerted attempt to create a quality improvement maturity model (QIMM) derived from holistic principles underlying the successful implementation of system-wide QI programmes.
Design/methodology/approach
A hybrid methodology involving a systematic review (Phase 1) of over 270 empirical research articles and books developed the basis for the proposed QIMM. It was followed by expert interviews to refine the core constructs and ground the proposed QIMM in contemporary QI practice (Phase 2). The experts included academics in two academic conferences and 59 QI managers from the New Zealand health-care system. In-depth interviews were conducted with QI managers to ascertain their views on the QIMM and its applicability in their respective health organisations (HOs).
Findings
The QIMM consists of four dimensions of organisational maturity, namely, strategic, process, supply chain and philosophical maturity. These dimensions progress through six stages, namely, identification, ad-hoc, formal, process-driven, optimised enterprise and finally a way of life. The application of the QIMM by the QI managers revealed that the scope of QI and the breadth of the principles adopted by the QI managers and their HOs in New Zealand is limited.
Practical implications
The importance of QI in health systems cannot be overstated. The proposed QIMM can help HOs diagnose their current state and provide a guide to action achieving a desirable state of quality improvement maturity. This QIMM avoids reliance on any single QI methodology. HOs – using the QIMM – should retain full control over the process of selecting any QI methodology or may even cherry-pick principles to suit their needs as long as they understand and appreciate the true nature and scope of quality overstated. The proposed QIMM can help HOs diagnose their current state and provide a guide to action achieving a desirable state of quality improvement maturity. This QIMM avoids reliance on any single QI methodology. HOs – using the QIMM – should retain full control over the process of selecting any QI methodology or may even cherry-pick principles to suit their needs as long as they understand and appreciate the true nature and scope of quality.
Originality/value
This paper contributes new knowledge by presenting a maturity model with an integrated set of quality principles for HOs and their extended supply networks.
Details
Keywords
Jeff Hale, Allen Reesor and Reni John
Faith-based nonprofit organizations often do not track the transformational outcomes of programs because these outcomes are considered intangible and difficult to quantify. Bible…
Abstract
Faith-based nonprofit organizations often do not track the transformational outcomes of programs because these outcomes are considered intangible and difficult to quantify. Bible League International’s (BLI) Board of Directors commissioned the development of an instrument to assess the transformative impact of BLI’s programs. This was accomplished in collaboration with the Metadigm Group. From field interviews and from relevant literature, three measurement domains emerged: Program Participant Outcomes, Worker Capacity and Affiliation, and Program Function. In pilot tests, qualitative methods were used to refine the instrument. Due to time and budgetary restraints, the project ended prior to conducting reliability studies. This case study presents factors driving faithbased nonprofits to measure transformational outcomes, exposes some of the methodological challenges in accessing transformational outcomes, and provides an approach to developing an instrument to quantify transformational outcomes
Jeff Muldoon, Eric W. Liguori, Josh Bendickson and Antonina Bauman
This paper aims to correct some misconceptions about George Homans. Specifically, it clarifies the relationship between Homans and Malinowski, explains why Homans is rightfully…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to correct some misconceptions about George Homans. Specifically, it clarifies the relationship between Homans and Malinowski, explains why Homans is rightfully considered the father of social exchange, shows Homans’ perspective on altruism and self-interest and analyses Homans’ place in management’s complex history.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper which synthesizes both primary and secondary sources on Homans, social exchange theory (SET), Malinowski and other Homans’ contemporaries and theories, which, in aggregate, help dispel some common misconceptions in the literature today.
Findings
This paper disperses several common misconceptions about Homans and his work. First, the findings show that beliefs that Homans was unaware of Malinowski are not justified, as Homans was not only aware of Malinowski but also significantly influenced by Malinowski’s work. Second, this manuscript clarifies that while Homans, for specific reasons, focussed on self-interest, his work accounted for altruism. Lastly, this paper also further cements Homans’ place in history as the father of social exchange.
Originality/value
Recent misconceptions have emerged in the literature calling to question not only Homans’ legitimacy as the father of social exchange but also some of his views on the theory itself. By clarifying these misconceptions, this paper enables scholars from a variety of management fields to better understand historical foundations of SET and its impact on current research.
Details
Keywords
Jeff Muldoon, Joshua Bendickson, Antonina Bauman and Eric W. Liguori
Elton Mayo was a professor at a prestigious university, but not a researcher; a scholar, but more concerned with executives; a capitalist, but someone who downplayed monetary…
Abstract
Purpose
Elton Mayo was a professor at a prestigious university, but not a researcher; a scholar, but more concerned with executives; a capitalist, but someone who downplayed monetary incentives; an insider, but someone whose own background was more of an outsider. These contradictions have resulted in scholars questioning Mayo’s impact on the field of management. Thus, this paper aims to critically review Mayo and his contributions to management through a lens calibrated to the context of his time, providing a more contextually accurate view of Mayo and his work and offering a clearer view of his meaningful impact on the field.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a combination of primary and secondary sources, the authors connect otherwise disparate information to critically review Mayo’s work within the context of its era.
Findings
The authors’ critical review of Mayo identified nine topical areas where Mayo and/or his work have been misunderstood or misinterpreted. For each area, the authors offer a more contextualized and appropriate interpretation of Mayo and his viewpoints, and thus more accurately informing the management literature.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to thoroughly revisit Mayo and his work through a contextualized lens, offering a more informed view of why Mayo’s seemingly controversial behaviors were actually quite standard behaviors given his context.
Details
Keywords
Nick Beech, Jeff Gold, Susan Beech and Tricia Auty
This paper aims to explore the impact discourse has on decision making practices within the boardroom and considers how personal proficiency in micro-language use can enhance an…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the impact discourse has on decision making practices within the boardroom and considers how personal proficiency in micro-language use can enhance an individual’s personal efficacy in influencing boardroom decisions. The work uses Habermas’ theory of communicative action to critique board talk, highlighting the need for greater understanding of the power of everyday taken for granted talk in strategy shaping. It illuminates the contribution that human resource development (HRD) professionals can make to the management of such behaviour and minimising dysfunctional behaviour and enabling effective boardroom practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Traditional governance theory from a business and organisational perspectives are provided before considering the boardroom environment and HRD’s role. The authors undertake ethnographic research supported by conversation analysis to explore how directors use talk-based interpersonal routines to influence boardroom processes and enact collective decision making. The authors provide one extract of directors’ talk to illustrate the process and demonstrate what the data “looks like” and the insights it holds.
Findings
The analysis suggests that the established underlying assumptions and rationale ideologies of corporate governance are misplaced and to understand the workings of corporate governance HRD academics and professionals need to gain deeper insight into the employment of talk within boards. Armed with such insights HRD professionals can become more effective in developing strategies to address dysfunctional leadership and promote good governance practice throughout their organisation.
Social implications
The work raises a call for HRD to embrace a societal mediation role to help boards to become a catalyst for setting good practice which is strategically aligned throughout the organisation. Such roles require a more dialogical, strategic and critical approach to HRD, and professionals and academics take a more holistic approach to leadership development.
Originality/value
The paper considers the role of the development of HRD interventions that both help individuals to work more effectively within a boardroom environment and support development to shape a boardroom culture that promotes effective governance practice by influencing boardroom practice thereby promoting strong governance and broad social compliance throughout the organisation.
Details
Keywords
Discusses the reasons why companies innovate, and the methodsemployed to innovate successfully. Considers the factors whichdiscourage innovation, the right people, rewards…
Abstract
Discusses the reasons why companies innovate, and the methods employed to innovate successfully. Considers the factors which discourage innovation, the right people, rewards, environment, and organizational structure for innovation as well as the sources of creative ideas. Concludes that innovation is allowed by attention to the human needs of the innovator, rather than by force, and attending to these needs allows companies to enjoy growth and leadership in the markets they serve.
Details
Keywords
Dario J. Villa and Sara C. Schwarz
Political correctness, also known as “PC,” has generated much discussion on both the Right and the Left. The greatest debate comes from college campuses. Political correctness…
Abstract
Political correctness, also known as “PC,” has generated much discussion on both the Right and the Left. The greatest debate comes from college campuses. Political correctness derives from the principle that ethnic diversity, i.e., multiculturalism, can and should be preserved and protected. Ironically, the term originated in the Marxist era, when it was used to enforce conformity in the advancement of a particular Marxist view. The term became obsolete until it was revived in the 1980s (D'Souza, 1991).
Companies with global ambitions need to pay close attention to how innovation is achieved in India. In particular, corporate leaders still have much to learn about how this…
Abstract
Purpose
Companies with global ambitions need to pay close attention to how innovation is achieved in India. In particular, corporate leaders still have much to learn about how this economic powerhouse is likely to develop in the coming decades and what strategy and innovation plays are most likely to be successful.
Design/methodology/approach
This “Masterclass” examines the lessons from three important recent books that offer valuable insights on how Indian businesses are addressing the innovation challenge: Conquering the Chaos by Ravi Venkatesan, former Chairman of Cummins India and Microsoft India, identifies the leadership blueprint for creating most value in this and similar emerging “VUCCA” markets. India Inside by Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam discovers a significant opportunity and challenge – India's rapid emergence as a global hub of innovation. Reverse Innovation by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble presents an alternative strategy to “glocalization” as a more promising way to drive global growth, using emerging markets like India as the innovation platform.
Findings
The article looks at why only 25 to 30 of the more than 1,300 major multinationals currently operating in India have made it into the “high-growth trajectory, market leadership” category within that country.
Practical implications
Every company with global ambitions would now be well advised to make to make innovation in India central to their own ambitions, so that they might become the global disruptors of the future not the victims.
Originality/value
While most of today's multinational CEOs see pursuing significant market participation in China as a “no-brainer,” rising, or failing to rise, to the challenge of India, with at least as much urgency and commitment, may turn out to be their most “defining” strategic legacy.
Details
Keywords
Sirje Virkus and Emmanouel Garoufallou
Data science is a relatively new field which has gained considerable attention in recent years. This new field requires a wide range of knowledge and skills from different…
Abstract
Purpose
Data science is a relatively new field which has gained considerable attention in recent years. This new field requires a wide range of knowledge and skills from different disciplines including mathematics and statistics, computer science and information science. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the study that explored the field of data science from the library and information science (LIS) perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis of research publications on data science was made on the basis of papers published in the Web of Science database. The following research questions were proposed: What are the main tendencies in publication years, document types, countries of origin, source titles, authors of publications, affiliations of the article authors and the most cited articles related to data science in the field of LIS? What are the main themes discussed in the publications from the LIS perspective?
Findings
The highest contribution to data science comes from the computer science research community. The contribution of information science and library science community is quite small. However, there has been continuous increase in articles from the year 2015. The main document types are journal articles, followed by conference proceedings and editorial material. The top three journals that publish data science papers from the LIS perspective are the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, the International Journal of Information Management and the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. The top five countries publishing are USA, China, England, Australia and India. The most cited article has got 112 citations. The analysis revealed that the data science field is quite interdisciplinary by nature. In addition to the field of LIS the papers belonged to several other research areas. The reviewed articles belonged to the six broad categories: data science education and training; knowledge and skills of the data professional; the role of libraries and librarians in the data science movement; tools, techniques and applications of data science; data science from the knowledge management perspective; and data science from the perspective of health sciences.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of this research are that this study only analyzed research papers in the Web of Science database and therefore only covers a certain amount of scientific papers published in the field of LIS. In addition, only publications with the term “data science” in the topic area of the Web of Science database were analyzed. Therefore, several relevant studies are not discussed in this paper that are not reflected in the Web of Science database or were related to other keywords such as “e-science,” “e-research,” “data service,” “data curation” or “research data management.”
Originality/value
The field of data science has not been explored using bibliographic analysis of publications from the perspective of the LIS. This paper helps to better understand the field of data science and the perspectives for information professionals.