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1 – 10 of 111Yasir Latif, Neil Harrison, Hye-Eun Chu, Ashish Malik and Mai Nguyen
This study aims to investigate international students’ experiences through a lens of knowledge management perspective, emphasizing their strategies for knowledge management in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate international students’ experiences through a lens of knowledge management perspective, emphasizing their strategies for knowledge management in tandem with cultural adaptation. The primary objective is to elucidate how international students navigate cultural differences and use knowledge management strategies to augment their learning and integration, thereby supporting their academic progress in a new academic environment.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth qualitative research strategy was used, using semistructured interviews with Pakistani doctoral students who were studying in Australia. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify recurring themes and patterns in the data.
Findings
The findings reveal that international students adeptly adopt various knowledge management strategies to facilitate cultural adaptation. These strategies encompass embracing otherness through a sense of belonging, engaging in both personal and shared learning experiences, achieving individual success, and using critical inquiry as a guiding framework for observations. Notably, this study underscores the pivotal role played by cultural competence in conjunction with social networks, influencing cultural intelligence and, subsequently, impacting knowledge sharing and integration for academic progress.
Practical implications
This study’s findings provide practical insights for higher education institutions and policymakers, emphasizing the importance of supporting international students in their cultural adaptation and knowledge management endeavors. These practical implications encompass fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment, supporting intercultural engagement, using technology for enhanced learning and communication and promoting the development of cultural intelligence among international students.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on international student experiences and knowledge management by providing insights into the strategies used by international students to navigate knowledge of cultural differences to enhance their learning experiences and advance academic progress. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the intersection between cultural adaptation and core knowledge management concepts of knowledge sharing and integration in the context of higher education.
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This study aims to investigate the research question: how do women leaders in the professional business services (PBS) sector develop and approach workplace (in)authenticity?
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the research question: how do women leaders in the professional business services (PBS) sector develop and approach workplace (in)authenticity?
Design/methodology/approach
Ten senior women leaders in the Midlands region of the UK were purposefully selected and interviewed. A semi-structured approach meant that the author adopted a social constructionist paradigm and feminist interpretation. Questions were designed to elicit rich descriptions from the participants. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted to address the study’s purpose.
Findings
Four themes were important to women when they developed and approached workplace (in)authenticity: (1) Power Structures, (2) Fit to Belong, (3) Influential Femininity and (4) Through Her Evolution. Women described masculine-majority organisations exerting power. They were pressured into altering their behaviours to “fit” into workplaces. When women had the latitude to be themselves, their leadership excelled. Women’s authenticity developed through increased self-knowledge, helping them to overcome workplace challenges. The study concluded that women face complexities when developing and approaching their constructions of authenticity, namely in the barriers and ramifications they face.
Practical implications
The study suggests several implications for practice and theory concerning enablers and barriers to women leaders' workplace authenticity. The link between authenticity and workplace gender equity needs to be investigated.
Originality/value
The study provides evidence that women are challenged when becoming authentic, therefore, altering their careers irrecoverably in some cases.
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Ioanna Xenophontes and Neil Springham
This paper aims to evaluate the quality of co-production between lived experience practitioners (LXPs) and professionals in an interactive National Health Service webinar series…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate the quality of co-production between lived experience practitioners (LXPs) and professionals in an interactive National Health Service webinar series aimed at supporting people who were diagnosed or identified with borderline personality disorder.
Design/methodology/approach
Transcripts from the webinars were subjected to mixed-method examination combining Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) and content analysis (CA).
Findings
FDA identified nine discursive objects: diagnosis beyond its medical context, diagnosis as a total explanation, being the other, universality, compassion, hope, faking it, mentalisation and co-production. CA demonstrated those nine discursive objects each corresponded with equalised airtime appropriated by professionals and lived experience practitioners.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was limited and if applied to other mental health settings might reveal different findings. More needs to be understood about the attitudes of professionals and LXPs that support discourse sharing. Although this study has offered evidence of the quality of co-production, it can say very little about whether the co-productive approach offers superior outcomes to other forms of treatment.
Practical implications
Further research could employ FDA and CA to further explore how co-production is being enacted in other situations, with different models, where comparable interventions are delivered. Future research could compare outcomes between co-productive and professional-only interventions.
Originality/value
This study examined naturalistic practice to build new theory in an under-researched area for a substantial mental health population.
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This chapter suggests that enhancing sustainable development in the age of technologies requires reflection about the relationship between business practice and sustainable…
Abstract
This chapter suggests that enhancing sustainable development in the age of technologies requires reflection about the relationship between business practice and sustainable development, as well as clarification of the relationship between sustainability and sustainable development. At the core of business activity is the definition of sustainable development defined by Brundtland (1987) as ‘meet[ing] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Although that captures only one aspect of the sustainability story and its relationship to sustainable development, it nonetheless shapes business approach in research and in sustainability practices. To illustrate the contradictions and tensions in practice so far, this chapter uses three lenses: measurement in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment, the problem of scalability and the challenge of bias in artificial intelligence (AI). It is not clear that we need a paradigm shift, but a shift in mindsets around sustainability business practice will be needed if sustainable development is to be enhanced in the age of technologies.
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Abdul-Hye Miah and Neil Mcbride
This paper aims to outline an ethical framework for the deployment of facial recognition technology (FRT) in policing practice and highlight the ethical significance of the facial…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to outline an ethical framework for the deployment of facial recognition technology (FRT) in policing practice and highlight the ethical significance of the facial image.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper sets out an ethical approach to the practice of facial recognition deployment derived from Emmanuel Levinas’ Ethics of the Face. Ideas concerning alterity and the role of the face as a source of ethical obligation are used to establish the significance of responsibility and accountability in FRT usage.
Findings
Reflecting on the ethics of the face suggests that facial recognition amplifies requirements for accountability and responsibility in comparison with other biometric techniques and requires stronger legal safeguards.
Practical implications
This paper offers practical improvements through: improved process in applying FRT and changes to information management practice which treat the facial image with heightened accountability and traceability. Training is suggested which creates an understanding of the face and an improved approach to the information management of FRT data. Recommendations are made on selection of officers deployed in the field.
Originality/value
Using Levinas’ concept of the face and ethical philosophy provides a unique and novel lens for characterizing the legal and ethical issues concerning FRT in police practice and results in new insights as to the productive use of FRT in public policing.
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Hannah Grannemann, Jennifer Reis, Maggie Murphy and Marie Segares
Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) across the United States at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic created entrepreneurial opportunities for sewists and makers. In…
Abstract
Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) across the United States at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic created entrepreneurial opportunities for sewists and makers. In the United States in March and April 2020, masks were not readily available to the general public from existing retailers and PPE for medical use was being rationed for healthcare workers. Sewists and crafters, professionals and amateurs alike, began making and selling and/or donating masks. For individuals with sewing skills and time, sewing and selling masks became a lifeline financially, personally, and socially. To understand the experiences of people who made and distributed handmade masks during the early months of the pandemic in the United States, an interdisciplinary team developed an online cross-sectional survey instrument using a qualitative-dominated approach with both open and closed questions. This chapter explores themes identified from a sample of 94 participants, predominantly female-identifying, who created an enterprise or added a product line to an existing business. The sample includes individuals who did not identify as a ‘creative entrepreneur’ prior to the pandemic but did identify as an entrepreneur after starting a mask-making venture. Informed by entrepreneurship literature, the authors observed that these nascent entrepreneurs articulated recognisable motivations for social entrepreneurship, showed signs of pre-existing entrepreneurial mindsets, and employed business models and marketing tactics of entrepreneurs, largely without any business training. Implications for the study include increased recognition of latent entrepreneurial readiness, interest of women in social entrepreneurship, and higher levels of business knowledge among women than previously recognised.
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Neil Bernard Boyle and Maddy Power
Background: Rising food bank usage in the UK suggests a growing prevalence of food insecurity. However, a formalised, representative measure of food insecurity was not collected…
Abstract
Background: Rising food bank usage in the UK suggests a growing prevalence of food insecurity. However, a formalised, representative measure of food insecurity was not collected in the UK until 2019, over a decade after the initial proliferation of food bank demand. In the absence of a direct measure of food insecurity, this article identifies and summarises longitudinal proxy indicators of UK food insecurity to gain insight into the growth of insecure access to food in the 21st century.
Methods: A rapid evidence synthesis of academic and grey literature (2005–present) identified candidate proxy longitudinal markers of food insecurity. These were assessed to gain insight into the prevalence of, or conditions associated with, food insecurity.
Results: Food bank data clearly demonstrates increased food insecurity. However, this data reflects an unrepresentative, fractional proportion of the food insecure population without accounting for mild/moderate insecurity, or those in need not accessing provision. Economic indicators demonstrate that a period of poor overall UK growth since 2005 has disproportionately impacted the poorest households, likely increasing vulnerability and incidence of food insecurity. This vulnerability has been exacerbated by welfare reform for some households. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically intensified vulnerabilities and food insecurity. Diet-related health outcomes suggest a reduction in diet quantity/quality. The causes of diet-related disease are complex and diverse; however, evidence of socio-economic inequalities in their incidence suggests poverty, and by extension, food insecurity, as key determinants.
Conclusion: Proxy measures of food insecurity suggest a significant increase since 2005, particularly for severe food insecurity. Proxy measures are inadequate to robustly assess the prevalence of food insecurity in the UK. Failure to collect standardised, representative data at the point at which food bank usage increased significantly impairs attempts to determine the full prevalence of food insecurity, understand the causes, and identify those most at risk.
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