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In recent years, in research and policy circles, there is growing interest in the subject of speaking up (and silence) within the health sector, and there is a consensus that it is a major issue that needs to be addressed. However, there remain gaps in our knowledge and while scholars talk of a voice system – that is the existence of complementary voice channels designed to allow employees to speak up – empirical evidence is limited. We seek to explore the notion of a voice system in a healthcare organisation as comprising structures and cultures as seen from different stakeholder perspectives. What do they see and how do they behave and why? To what extent do the users see a voice system they can access and easily navigate?

Interviews and focus groups were conducted with a voice stakeholder group (e.g. designers of the system from senior management and HR, which comprised 23 staff members) as well as those who have to use the system, with 13 managers and 26 employees from three units within a metropolitan hospital: an oncology department, an intensive care unit and a community health service. Overall, a total of 62 staff members participated and the data were analysed using grounded theory to identify key themes.

This study revealed that although a plethora of formal voice structures existed, these were not always visible or accessible to staff, leading to confusion as to who to speak up to about which issues. Equally other avenues which were not designated voice platforms were used by employees to get their voices heard.

This papers looks at the voice system across the organisation rather than examining a specific scheme. In doing so it enables us to see the lived perceptions and experiences of potential users of these schemes and their awareness of the system as a whole.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate union and non-union’s mechanisms ability to “contest” the realm of workplace employee representation at two UK sites. The paper directly compares one union and one non-union mechanism of employee representation at separate sites by employing three “dilemmas” of employee representation: confidentiality, challenge and trust. The paper contributes to enduring debates about the efficacy of employee voice in UK organisations.

The paper uses a qualitative and inductive case study approach in two organisations, drawing upon semi-structured interviews, archival documentation, company meetings and a trade union officer diary to record the employee representatives use of voice to influence company decision-making.

The paper shows how the union achieved improved pay and a more trusting relationship with managers in comparison to the non-union mechanism, which failed to influence managers’ decisions at the site and fell into demise.

Limitations are that the paper covers one geographical area and interviews were made with employee representatives and HR and management. The access was limited by the respective case study management regime/s. The data are acknowledged as now historical but remain relevant as a means of understanding wider debates on employee representation and voice. These limitations are now acknowledged in the revised edition of the manuscript, as suggested by the reviewers.

The practical implications are that the paper shows how employee representatives face similar dilemmas in their operational roles and activities. If these dilemmas are managed with efficacy for members, then this can result in good outcomes for those members and legitimacy for the workplace employee representatives. We also suggest that the use of employee voice as a practical concept is seen here – the practical use of the factors comprising voice in the literature is used to show representatives' abilities to influence management decision-making.

The significance of having a voice at work that raises the profile of employee representatives and their members emerges from this paper. An effective voice mechanism can promote improved employment relations in a workplace setting.

This paper develops knowledge about dilemmas as important and enduring issues for employee representatives, which, when inconsistently managed, can lose them the support of the workforce or, alternatively, empower them to challenge and sometimes alter management decisions.

This study aims to determine and investigate the main causes of construction project delays. Construction projects are more intricate and associated with significant levels of risk owing to cost overruns. These overruns frequently lead to delays, incomplete work or other related challenges. Building delays are a prevalent problem in the building sector of developing nations. These delays prolong the duration of projects and result in increased costs and conflicts among stakeholders. A conceptual model consisting of the factors causing the delays in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) projects was developed and tested in this study.

A comprehensive data collection process was undertaken. A meticulously designed survey was distributed to a diverse cohort of 294 participants, including contractors and sub-contractors from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The data was collected using stratified sampling, ensuring a representative sample. The data was then analysed using ordinary least squares multiple regression.

The findings of this study have significant implications for the construction industry. They indicate that factors related to sales, clients, design, procurement, finance and labour all contribute to delays in HVAC projects. Understanding these factors can help stakeholders in the industry to better manage and mitigate project delays.

This study is unique because it is a perceptual study of stakeholders. It provides valuable information for analysing and assessing project performance by identifying the primary causes of HVAC project delays. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study conducted on HVAC projects is the first of its kind and hence makes a pivotal contribution to the literature on construction projects. Additionally, the study will assist policymakers and consultants in taking necessary steps to minimize delays.

This paper aims to explore how the context in a dynamically developing country affects employee silence in India.

Qualitative design involving semi-structured interviews with employees and managers from different sectors in the Mumbai and Delhi areas. An abductive approach was used to analyze the data.

Two types of social mobility concerns – advancement aspiration and fear of social decline – emerged as salient drivers of silence and can be attributed to a volatile job market, social status markers, transferability of qualification, someone’s socio-economic situation and the overall economic situation. Pathways were specified from social mobility concerns to silence tendencies that are motivated by both low approach and high avoidance.

Social mobility as a specific factor in the Indian distal context and as a characteristic of emerging markets can motivate silence while organization-related concepts like job satisfaction or commitment may have less predictive value. Propositions that were derived from the interview study need to be validated by deductive research. Generalizability of Indian findings across other emergent markets needs to be shown.

To the organizational behavior (OB) scholarship on silence, this research contributes by identifying antecedents of silence that are situated beyond the organizational boundaries challenging the dominant role of established factors at the team- and organizational level. To the human resource management/employment relations (HRM/ER) scholarship, this research contributes by theorizing psychological processes that link environmental factors to silence behaviors.

With the increased demand for the application of technology in property activities, there is a growing need for property professionals adept in using digital technology. Hence, it is important to assess the competence of academia in equipping property professionals with digital technology skills. This study, therefore, assesses property academics in Australian universities to identify their level of knowledge and use of digital technology applicable to the property industry.

Online questionnaire surveys were administered to 22 out of 110 property academics contacted through the Australia Property Institute (API) database to achieve this aim. The collected data were analysed using mean score ranking and ANOVA.

The study found that apart from databases and analytics platforms such as Corelogic RP data, price finder and industry-based software such as the Microsoft Office suite and ARGUS software, the academics were not knowledgeable in most identified and sampled proptech tools. Similarly, most proptech tools were not used or taught to the students. It was also found that early career academics (below five years in academia) were the most knowledgeable group about the proptech tools.

Relying on the API database to contact property academics potentially excludes the position of property academics who may not be affiliated or have contacts with API, hence, the findings of this study should be generalised with caution.

The study bears huge implications for the property education sector and industry in Australia; a low knowledge and use of nascent tools such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, drones, fintech, which have received intense interest, reveals some level of skill gap of students who pass through that system and may need to be upskilled by employers to meet the current day demand.

In response to the clamour for technology-inclined property professionals, this paper presents itself as the first to assess the knowledge levels and application of digital technology by property academics.

This article argues that the potential of the vast amount of research, published each year in the history of education, remains untapped. Given the rapidly growing number of academic publications in the field, there is a need for research that is based on articles, chapters and monographs already published. While analyses of existing research publications are widely used in other academic disciplines, such approaches remain under-utilized in the history of education.

The argument of this article is supported in three steps. Firstly, we distinguish between different forms of research using existing data and research publications, in particular secondary analyses, systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses. Due to the heterogeneous nature of research publications in educational history, this article argues for the method of qualitative meta-analysis. Secondly, we discuss the risks and methodological pitfalls of research using existing research publications, outlining possible areas of application and discuss examples of meta-analyses in educational history. Finally, the article explores the implications of an increased use of meta-analyses, especially for the editors of scientific journals.

This article provides an introduction to the main features of meta-analysis as applied in history of education. By promoting qualitative meta-analyses as original research, we argue that journals could help ensure that the potential for vibrant and highly productive research in the history of education is fully realized.

Despite that the use of published research is widely discussed in the behavioural and social sciences, there is a lack of reflection on how to use the knowledge produced in the history of education. By presenting qualitative meta-analysis, this article provides a starting point for such a discussion.

Business environment has had a considerable influence on the strategic and operational choices of organisations since the beginning of industrialisation. The faster pace of change in the environment and unpredictability was observed in the advancement of the industrial ages. Strategic management thinkers studied the organisational context of turbulent environments including volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). Ambiguity in a volatile, uncertain, and complex environment changed the rules of business altogether from structured organisations to flexible ones with living entity-like responsiveness. Strategic leadership has emerged as the radar to see solutions in unpredictable environments. The inherent vulnerability of tourism to the vagaries of outside forces makes it imperative to accept and prepare for VUCA. The future of tourism will rest in flexible, agile, innovative, and resilient business models.

How parents experience school governance is increasingly shaped by its changing requirements as well as their positioning by leaders and policy makers within a marketised education system. In order to make sense of these experiences, they are situated within a wider policy context in which both neoliberalism and increased centralisation are juxtaposed. Policy has a significant influence on leadership, yet the relationship between them is complex, and while the impact of the former on the latter is clearer, this is less so in terms of the extent to which governance (as a form of leadership) shapes policy, and this is explored further in this chapter. It considers the prescriptive nature of current policy and how this not only hinders the ability of governance to influence policy but facilitates and reproduces the neoliberal ideology underpinning it. The implications of neoliberalism and increased centralisation, with their associated policy technologies, such as performance management and accountability for school governance are considered, including the underrepresentation of certain parents and the ‘professionalisation’ of governing boards. Through a critical exploration of this professionalisation of governance, this chapter makes an original contribution to our understanding of the complex relationship between leadership and policy. It uses Foucault’s work as a conceptual framework, drawing on his tools of governmentality, discipline and surveillance. It has significance not only in terms of governance in the school system in England, but within the wider global policy context in which the influence of both market-oriented policies and centralised policies is evident.