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1 – 10 of 132Matthew Paul Tucker, Mohd Rayme Anang Masuri and Alison Cotgrave
The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical strategic issues for the integration of facilities management (FM) into the development process (DP). It explains the factors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical strategic issues for the integration of facilities management (FM) into the development process (DP). It explains the factors that limit the integration and recognises the best practices applied in the property development industry in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a qualitative research approach through semi-structured interviews from the FM and property development industry in the UK.
Findings
The study discovered that the recognition of FM in the property development industry is encouraging. However, FM has been given a low priority in the property development industry, resulting in facilities managers being inadequately integrated into the DP.
Originality/value
The paper suggests that it is imperative to understand these strategic issues to promote best practice in the industry that improve the position of FM in the property development industry.
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Paul Schmitter, Azar Shahgholian and Matthew Tucker
Facility management (FM) in healthcare is an organisational function that provides non-medical activities, ensuring operational functionality of critical health infrastructure. FM…
Abstract
Purpose
Facility management (FM) in healthcare is an organisational function that provides non-medical activities, ensuring operational functionality of critical health infrastructure. FM leaders are under pressure to implement the digital transformation, confronted with a highly complex and challenging operational environment. However, the current scope and understanding of the digital transformation in FM is rather limited, with a strong focus on technology. This perspective is inadequate to realise a digital transformation in healthcare organisations and requires a new framework. To ensure the practical applicability, a clearer depiction on how FM practitioners in the field, currently understand the digital transformation, is necessary.
Design/methodology/approach
A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was chosen with a qualitative data collection and quantitative data analysis phase. A total of 23 semi-structured research interviews with professionals from FM in healthcare in Switzerland were carried out. Topic modeling was used to analyse, identify and cluster topics.
Findings
In total, nine distinct digital transformation topics were generated: ‘addressing future organisational and people needs’, ‘end-user-oriented processes’, ‘digitalisation management vs. digital tools’, ‘major organisational change’, ‘information exchange and work culture’, ‘digital systems’, ‘pressure’, ‘company-wide strategy’ and ‘management support and communication involving non-medical support services’. The findings indicate that FM practitioners perceive the digital transformation beyond the purely technological viewpoint, although they lack the know-how and instruments necessary to implement the digital transformation.
Originality/value
This study employs an innovative research design, resulting in foundational insights on how FM in healthcare perceives the digital transformation. As such, the study expands the notion on what the digital transformation means for the FM field.
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Benjamin B. Dunford and Matthew B. Perrigino
Workarounds represent informal modifications to rules and procedures that individuals will engage into navigate around a process block in order to make their job easier. Although…
Abstract
Workarounds represent informal modifications to rules and procedures that individuals will engage into navigate around a process block in order to make their job easier. Although workarounds have been primarily studied from an individual-level perspective, this chapter argues that workarounds are a socially constructed, multilevel phenomenon, meaning that they are influenced by others (e.g., group norms and coworkers) and can result in the emergence of workaround climates. We find empirical support for the view that workarounds are shaped by a variety of social influences. Moreover, based on an inductive exploratory study, we suggest that workarounds are related to informal training and troubleshooting behaviors. We conclude by outlining several theory-based directions for understanding how workarounds spread throughout all levels of an organization as an incubator for future research.
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Leona Wiegmann, Annemarie Conrath-Hargreaves, Zhengqi Guo, Matthew Hall, Ralph Kober, Richard Pucci, Paul J. Thambar and Tirukumar Thiagarajah
The use of interviews for data collection is prevalent in qualitative accounting research. This paper examines vignettes – sketches of hypothetical scenarios – as a promising…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of interviews for data collection is prevalent in qualitative accounting research. This paper examines vignettes – sketches of hypothetical scenarios – as a promising complementary way to conduct interviews in qualitative accounting research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on our experiences designing and using vignettes in five separate qualitative accounting studies, which collectively involve over 200 interviews with various participants. It discusses the opportunities the use of vignettes in interviews offers to qualitative accounting research, as well as the challenges associated with designing and using vignettes. The paper also reflects on fellow researchers’ varied reactions during seminars, workshops, and the journal review process.
Findings
Vignettes emerge as a productive and engaging complementary way for accounting researchers to obtain additional insights and perspectives not usually accessible in semi-structured interviews. The paper also provides practical insights into developing, using and publishing qualitative accounting studies using vignettes, contributing an additional behind-the-scenes view of using qualitative research methods.
Originality/value
The aim of this paper is to increase awareness of vignettes as a complement to the standard qualitative accounting interview. It provides guidance on how vignettes might be used productively for studying rare, new, emerging, complex, or multi-period real-world accounting phenomena. It also discusses how vignettes can promote transparency, honesty, and a greater level of detail in participants’ responses, as well as facilitate the involvement of lay people in accounting studies.
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Jennifer Creese, John-Paul Byrne, Anne Matthews, Aoife M. McDermott, Edel Conway and Niamh Humphries
Workplace silence impedes productivity, job satisfaction and retention, key issues for the hospital workforce worldwide. It can have a negative effect on patient outcomes and…
Abstract
Purpose
Workplace silence impedes productivity, job satisfaction and retention, key issues for the hospital workforce worldwide. It can have a negative effect on patient outcomes and safety and human resources in healthcare organisations. This study aims to examine factors that influence workplace silence among hospital doctors in Ireland.
Design/methodology/approach
A national, cross-sectional, online survey of hospital doctors in Ireland was conducted in October–November 2019; 1,070 hospital doctors responded. This paper focuses on responses to the question “If you had concerns about your working conditions, would you raise them?”. In total, 227 hospital doctor respondents (25%) stated that they would not raise concerns about their working conditions. Qualitative thematic analysis was carried out on free-text responses to explore why these doctors choose to opt for silence regarding their working conditions.
Findings
Reputational risk, lack of energy and time, a perceived inability to effect change and cultural norms all discourage doctors from raising concerns about working conditions. Apathy arose as change to working conditions was perceived as highly unlikely. In turn, this had scope to lead to neglect and exit. Voice was seen as risky for some respondents, who feared that complaining could damage their career prospects and workplace relationships.
Originality/value
This study highlights the systemic, cultural and practical issues that pressure hospital doctors in Ireland to opt for silence around working conditions. It adds to the literature on workplace silence and voice within the medical profession and provides a framework for comparative analysis of doctors' silence and voice in other settings.
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Thomas O. Nitsch and Bruce J. Malina
Introduction We would like to make it clear at the outset that the present essay is not an essay in theology. Theology deals with the articulation of some symbol of the Ultimate…
Abstract
Introduction We would like to make it clear at the outset that the present essay is not an essay in theology. Theology deals with the articulation of some symbol of the Ultimate or All, i.e. some “Theos”, or God. Rather, our concern is with humans and their perceptions and experiences of some Ultimate or All; this concern is typical of a religious studies approach. The approach of contemporary religious studies is much like the social scientific, only much more self‐conscious of the implicit cultural presuppositions and deductive principles that control its mode of producing facts from data. The social sciences usually treat data and facts as though they were one and the same. We use the religious studies approach in order to discern and assess the implications, consequences and/or impact of religion and its central symbols on human beings. In this essay our focus will not be simply on human beings, but on their ideologies and the behaviors flowing from those ideologies in the arbitrarily delineated sphere of the social called “economy”.
Documents and notes the specific content of Marx′s postulate (inthe original German edition of Das Kapital, 1867) that“der Mensch von Natur...ein gesellschaftliches thierist”. All…
Abstract
Documents and notes the specific content of Marx′s postulate (in the original German edition of Das Kapital, 1867) that “der Mensch von Natur...ein gesellschaftliches thier ist”. All the prominent English editions (unlike the French, Russian, Italian and Spanish versions examined) except one omit the “by nature” qualifier. Suggests reasons for and the significance of this critical and essentially mysterious omission.
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Rob Angell, Paul Bottomley, Matthew Gorton, Ben Marder and Antonia Erz
Sponsorships involving foreign brands are ubiquitous, but those involving a company from an animosity-evoking country can adversely affect rather than enhance domestic consumers'…
Abstract
Purpose
Sponsorships involving foreign brands are ubiquitous, but those involving a company from an animosity-evoking country can adversely affect rather than enhance domestic consumers' attitude towards the brand. This paper explains the mechanisms by which brand denigration occurs, introducing and validating a model of the animosity transfer process as well as considering if various framing and timing strategies attenuate or lead to adverse consumer responses.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 tests the animosity transfer model, utilizing a scenario in which English consumers respond to a German brand sponsoring the England soccer team. Study 2 assesses the generalizability of the model in the context of Indian consumers' responses to sponsorship of their cricket team by a Chinese company, and the extent to which an honest framing of the sponsorship choice through the announcement affects outcomes. Study 3 returns to an England–Germany country dyad, testing whether priming consumers with information about the sponsorship prior to a full announcement, attenuates or intensifies the impact of animosity on the studied outcomes.
Findings
The three studies demonstrate that when consumers learn of a sponsorship, it triggers an evaluation process in which the agonistic emotion (anger) they feel plays a pivotal role. More intense emotional appraisals weaken perceptions of sponsor-sponsee congruence, which together act as consecutive process variables mediating the relationship between animosity and sponsorship outcomes. Framing the sponsorship announcement with an honest justification for the partnership can improve outcomes but not amongst those with the highest animosity. Providing consumers with an advanced warning (preannouncement) of the sponsorship also amplifies consumers' unfavorable evaluations showcasing how difficult animosity is to manage in this context.
Originality/value
The animosity transfer model aids understanding of the mechanisms by which animosity affects brand attitude for foreign (out-group) sponsors. It identifies how animosity generates agonistic emotions and in turn weakens perceived fit between the sponsor and sponsee, leading to adverse consumer responses.
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