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The purpose of this paper is to identify how the US Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) communicatively engaged in legitimization concerning accreditation.

This study utilized the rhetorical analysis approach outlined by Hoffman and Ford (2010) to explore the accreditation-related texts from an online source created by CHEA, Information About Accreditation.

The analysis identified three overarching approaches to include: isomorphism to address regulatory legitimacy, organizational identity management to address pragmatic legitimacy, and a dialogic approach to address normative legitimacy. This analysis also developed a new theoretical model for the rhetorical construction of legitimacy, “A Model for the Rhetorical Construction of Legitimacy,” that can be summarized as: organizations foster a type of legitimacy through a legitimizing strategy by demonstrating how the purpose of the legitimizing strategy is achieved by the implementation of the legitimizing strategy.

Limitations include that data were gathered only from online, web-based texts during a period in which the rhetorical situation was ongoing.

This study expands research concerning the rhetorical approach to issues management in that it examines the way legitimacy is negotiated through the various rhetorical strategies of an organization. Additionally, information is offered about the rhetorical structure of texts when an organization seeks to legitimize certain ideas.

This analysis developed a theoretical model for the rhetorical construction of legitimacy, “A Model for the Rhetorical Construction of Legitimacy,” that demonstrates important relationships between legitimizing strategies and types of legitimacy. Understanding these relationships may allow for a better interpretation of how legitimacy theory is represented within a communicative venture.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how large, public companies in the health industry communicatively engage in employer branding on career homepages.

An exploratory content analysis of the career homepages (N = 42; 8,500) was conducted to analyze the communication of successful organizations in four realms of the public health-care industry to include Biotech (n =10), Managed Health Care (n = 8), Medical and Equipment Supplies (n = 12) and Pharmaceuticals (n = 12).

The analysis revealed the following ten major themes of content: Worldview, Stakeholders, Environment, Excellence, Dedication, Aid, Unity, Advancement, Distinctiveness and Industry/Organization. Additionally, the results revealed that health-care employer branding often communicated about Stakeholders, Industry/Organization and Advancement.

The results of this study aid researchers in understanding the foundational content of employee branding efforts in the health industry.

The results assist practitioners in understanding how different health-care industries and organizations engage in employer branding on career homepages.

The results of this study function to both confirm previous findings related to employer branding and extend research on employer branding into the career homepages of organizations in the health-care industry.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the development and nomological testing of a 17‐item scale measuring the five dimensions of service convenience (decision, access, transaction, benefit, and post‐benefit) as proposed by Berry, Seiders, and Grewal.

A cross‐sectional survey methodology was used to collect the data.

Reliability and validity assessments provided evidence of the scale's psychometric validity. Service convenience was found to be a significant predictor of overall satisfaction in the context of personal cellular telephone and internet usage.

This study uses a student sample which may limit its generalizability to other respondents. Also, the cross‐sectional survey methodology does not allow for the investigation of causation. Future research should investigate other contexts outside of the cellular and internet services examined in this study and across a broader sample. Furthermore, the ability to retrospectively rate service convenience, the trade‐off between price and convenience, and the continuum of convenience need to be investigated further.

This study provides psychometrically valid scales to measure service convenience as conceptualized by Berry et al..

This case study investigated how a collaborative, interdisciplinary partnership supported pre-service teachers’ approach to integrating content and pedagogy in coursework and field-based experiences at a large, public university. The collaboration involved articulating shared goals and objectives, planning and teaching co-requisite courses, and sharing a vision of shaping future social studies teachers. The research questions that framed this study were: What elements contributed to a successful collaborative, interdisciplinary partnership? How did faculty involved in the collaboration conceptualize supporting pre-service teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)? The voices of the faculty members involved in this collaboration are highlighted to illustrate how they conceptualized meeting the needs of pre-service social studies teachers. Findings included identifying the constraints and benefits of partnerships as well as contributing factors to a successful interdisciplinary partnership. Identifying the evolving definition and role of PCK in the training of future social studies teachers is also addressed.

The domain of service convenience remains relatively unexplored. However, as time pervades all aspects of consumption, the value placed on time is likely to influence the importance of convenience. Prior studies call for the investigation of convenience beyond the store context; and malls being a one-stop shopping destination, present an ideal environment for investigation.

A conceptual model delineating the relationships between service convenience, shopping trip value, customer satisfaction and several retail outcomes is developed. This model is empirically tested using survey data collected from 619 mall shoppers; and analyzed using structural equation modelling.

For shoppers who place high economic value on time, the effects of service convenience are greater on hedonic value. Conversely, those who place low economic value on time, effects of service convenience are greater on utilitarian value. Effects of shopping value on retail outcomes also vary according to value placed on time.

Further investigation utilizing full convenience scale and more elaborate time style measures encouraged.

Results signal the importance of enhancing the experiential aspects of the mall for high economic time value shoppers. Conversely, for low economic time value shoppers, findings suggest the importance of boosting the visual distinctiveness and ease of mall navigation.

This study sheds light on research gaps by examining the link between service convenience and its effects on retail evaluation in the mall. It also considers how the economic value placed on time impact perceptions of convenience and the shopping experience.

Bundled payments for care are an efficient mechanism to align payer, provider, and patient incentives in the provision of health care services for an episode of care. In this chapter, we use agency theory to examine the evolution of bundled payment programs in private and public payer arrangements, and postulate future directions for bundled payment development as a key component in the provision and payment of health care services.

This paper is based on a cross‐sectional study of 550 medium to large Australian service organisations to determine the effect of quality management practices on various dimensions of service quality outcomes (productivity, competitive advantage, customer relationships, and employee morale). These outcomes were used as dependent variables in a series of regression analyses in order to test several hypotheses. The results demonstrate the importance of including quality in the strategic planning process, customer involvement, empowerment of the workforce, and including quality indicators as part of key performance indicators. On the other hand, integrating quality systems and procedures into the organisation had a significantly negative relationship with increases in productivity. Based on the findings of this study, we conclude that the “soft” practices based on empowerment, at all levels of the organisation, strategic planning and customer/supplier involvement are the most significant predictors of high quality service organisations.

Discusses organisation, automation and performance measurement aspects of interlibrary loan department management, and developments in charging for and the preservation of ILL items. Highlights the problems of ILL in developing countries, and changes and developments in the rest of the world. Considers electronic document delivery systems, the effect of technological advances on libraries and the “Burgundy effect”.

The purpose of this paper, a qualitative study, is to explore service users’ experiences of attending clinical psychology within a public community adult mental health service.

Six individuals who had completed at least 16 sessions of psychotherapy participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The results showed the following overarching domains: the relationship and its impacts, structure and focus, and participant factors – timing/readiness. The importance of the use of language was also identified. Participants appeared to value a sense of humanity within the relationship. Interestingly, the personal impact of therapy as perceived by the participants was not focussed on symptom reduction, but on broader changes. The results are discussed in relation to the relevant literature.

Suggested principles for practice include maintaining attentiveness to relational factors, to client factors such as readiness for change and to the use of structure and flexibility. The use of recovery focussed and alliance measures are recommended.

For clinical psychologists providing psychotherapy within the public system, there are valuable lessons we can learn from asking the service users directly about their experiences, in terms of focussing on the human element of the relationship, and striking a balance between professionalism and humanity.