Jennifer Hall, Tess Kay, Alison K. McConnell and Louise Mansfield
Prolonged workplace sitting can harm employee health. Sit-stand desks are a potential workplace health initiative that might reduce and break up the time office-based employees…
Abstract
Purpose
Prolonged workplace sitting can harm employee health. Sit-stand desks are a potential workplace health initiative that might reduce and break up the time office-based employees spend sitting in the workplace. However, little is known about the feasibility and acceptability of providing sit-stand desks. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study sought stakeholder employee views surrounding sit-stand desk implementation within two UK-based non-profit organisations with open-plan offices. This paper draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 26 stakeholder employees and 65 days of participant observations. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, and organisational cultural theory framed the study.
Findings
Stakeholders employees’ positioning of sit-stand desks as a workplace health initiative reflected their perceptions of the relationship between sit-stand desk provision, employee health and organisational effectiveness. Perceptions were shaped by the nature and context of the organisation and by occupation-specific processes. Relatively fixed (e.g. organisational structure) and modifiable (e.g. selecting products compatible with the environment) factors were found to restrict and facilitate the perceived feasibility of implementing sit-stand desks.
Practical implications
The findings offer several recommendations for workplaces to improve stakeholder employee attitudes towards sit-stand desk provision and to increase the ease and efficiency of implementation.
Originality/value
Whilst extant literature has tended to examine hypothetical views related to sit-stand desk provision, this study consulted relevant stakeholders following, and regarding, the sit-stand desk implementation process.
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Alison Lane and Elaine Shellard
All accountants make extensive use of information technology (IT) in their working lives, and IT skills have long been part of the Accounting and Finance undergraduate degree…
Abstract
All accountants make extensive use of information technology (IT) in their working lives, and IT skills have long been part of the Accounting and Finance undergraduate degree programme at the University of Glamorgan. This degree scheme was redesigned on a linear basis with effect from September 2002; one of the major changes being to integrate the teaching of management accounting and IT at the introductory level. The teaching of management accounting lends itself well to the use of IT. This paper describes both the rationale behind, and the design and development of, a case study which aims to integrate the use of IT with the development and application of management accounting techniques. The case study attempts to emulate a “ive” work‐based environment as closely as possible. Completion of tasks at intervals throughout the year form part of the assessment of the module. These are based on data from a variety of sources which students manipulate, using various software packages, in order to produce useful management accounting information. In this way, students learn both management accounting and IT skills, and how to apply these skills to provide management accounting information. The experiences of both students and staff in using the case study over a six‐year period are reported, together with a description of how the case study and its use have evolved in light of the experience.
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Alison Ballantyne, Luke Trenwith, Samara Zubrinich and Megan Corlis
This paper presents the findings from a qualitative pilot project that implemented an internet social networking intervention and evaluated the effect it had on older people's…
Abstract
This paper presents the findings from a qualitative pilot project that implemented an internet social networking intervention and evaluated the effect it had on older people's experience of temporal loneliness. The project was implemented over a three‐month period and utilised an in‐home, one‐on‐one education strategy. Six older people aged 69 to 85 years were recruited from a community aged care programme in South Australia. All participants were connected to the internet and provided with one‐on‐one tutoring in how to use the social networking site. To evaluate the project, data were collected through in‐depth interviews with older people at the commencement and completion of the project. An additional interview with the community programme co‐ordinator was conducted at the completion of the project. Evaluation was also guided by data collected by the research team via reflective journals. The key findings to emerge from the inductive analysis of the data resulted in four major themes, these were: the participants' experience of loneliness; technology as an enabler; providing a supportive environment; connectivity. A case study is presented to provide in‐depth understanding of how social networking can help reduce the participants' experience of loneliness. The findings from this project demonstrated that the utilisation of a social networking site has the potential to reduce loneliness in older people and therefore, based on these findings, recommendations for further research and practice implementation are made. In particular the project team recommends expanding the current pilot project into a larger scale project.
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M. Bilal Akbar, Nihar Amoncar, Erik Cateriano-Arévalo and Alison Lawson
Given the lack of understanding of social marketing success in theory and practice, this study aims to investigate how social marketing experts conceptualize success.
Abstract
Purpose
Given the lack of understanding of social marketing success in theory and practice, this study aims to investigate how social marketing experts conceptualize success.
Design/methodology/approach
In this qualitative study, the authors conducted an open-ended online questionnaire with 48 worldwide social marketing experts, most with more than 20 years of experience in the field. The authors analyzed data using topic modeling, a machine-learning method that groups responses/terms into cluster topics based on similarities. Keywords in each topic served to generate themes for discussion.
Findings
While behavior change is mentioned as paramount to conceptualizing success, participants prefer to use more tangible and less complex forms to define/measure success, such as campaign recall uptick. In addition, lack of funding was considered an important factor in measuring success. This study provides a two-stage taxonomy to better understand success in social marketing.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to conceptualize success in social marketing practice.
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Margaret Somerville and Alison McConnell‐Imbriotis
This paper explores the results of applying a diagnostic questionnaire for measuring the dimensions of a learning organisation in a resource squeezed service organisation. The…
Abstract
This paper explores the results of applying a diagnostic questionnaire for measuring the dimensions of a learning organisation in a resource squeezed service organisation. The questionnaire was conducted as the first stage of an ethnographic study of workplace learning in an aged care organization. It was distributed to the 600 employees in nine facilities to provide baseline information to be complemented by qualitative data collected in the second stage. Strengths in the dimensions of leadership and systemic connection and weaknesses in the areas of dialogue and inquiry, team learning and empowering people were revealed. Preliminary qualitative data support the findings and add to the meaning of the questionnaire results. Subsequent discussions with the organisation about the questionnaire suggest that it was a useful tool to enhance workplace learning.
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Alison Henderson and Rachel Bowley
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to emerging theory about the role of authenticity in social media use through discussion of a not‐for‐profit organisation's experiences…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to emerging theory about the role of authenticity in social media use through discussion of a not‐for‐profit organisation's experiences of using social networking to communicate with potential stakeholders during a recruitment campaign.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses critical discourse analysis of semi‐structured interviews with organisational spokespersons to examine the use of social media by this not‐for‐profit organisation.
Findings
The organisation attempted to re‐position its identity to appear “authentic” to potential young stakeholders, and to use social media to build a dialogue that would attract new recruits to the industry. The paper discusses the challenges and opportunities experienced by the not‐for‐profit organisation in this recruitment campaign.
Practical implications
Organisations contemplating the use of social networking sites to engage new audiences can reflect on the problems encountered in the implementation of this campaign, and plan to avoid similar pitfalls.
Originality/value
The study presents original empirical data in relation to social networking by a not‐for‐profit organisation. It demonstrates the importance of audience perceptions of authenticity and raises important questions about organisational “control”, and the expectations of employees carrying out “authenticity work”.
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The term “library management” covers many different aspects of the way that a library is operated and conjures up different concepts in the minds of different people, depending on…
Abstract
The term “library management” covers many different aspects of the way that a library is operated and conjures up different concepts in the minds of different people, depending on their own interests, agendas and requirements. Research into the subject is even more difficult to define because the application of research in one field can be vital to the development of another. Some researchers would not consider their research central to library matters at all, whereas the practising librarian might well see it as casting new light on a difficult area of understanding or development.