Search results

The purpose of this paper is to assess the patient’s perspective on a dedicated clinic set up for patients diagnosed with an inflammatory arthritis who are being treated with a biologic. It proposes that dedicated clinics offer better overall care. The aim of this quality improvement survey is to evaluate the level of patient satisfaction with this clinic and identify any unmet needs.

This study was based on a quality improvement survey, which was developed using Zineldin’s five qualities model and assessed various aspects pertaining to service quality and improvement. A structured interview approach was used and 44 consecutive patients were recruited.

This paper explores key aspects that influence patient satisfaction within a rheumatology outpatient setting such as education on arthritis and biologics and involvement in decision making. It provides insight on what patients value most and it also addresses organizational aspects that can have an impact on patient satisfaction. It suggests that service quality can be linked to the degree of patient satisfaction.

Direct interviewing of patients could have introduced a source of bias whilst questions are being answered. On the other hand, it provided an opportunity to clarify instantly any doubts and therefore avoiding any inadvertent errors.

This paper reinforces that specialized clinics enable the caring rheumatologist to provide better care for patients on biologics. Service providers should continue developing their services around the patient’s needs and perspectives in order to continue improving the service.

Dedicated biologic clinics allow more judicious monitoring of patients who are taking these highly efficacious but costly medications.

This survey has reinforced that patients highly value dedicated clinics. These results strengthen the case that healthcare services should continue investing on specialized clinics.

This paper assesses the patients' healthcare information needs and expectations when they attend a rheumatology outpatient clinic. It proposes that obtaining the patients' perspectives about the services they use is an essential service-development tool. The aim of this paper is to expand the current domains used to evaluate these perspectives.

This paper is an exploratory study, looking at quality assessment and improvement based on Donabedian's quality model in a rheumatology outpatient setting. A structured interview schedule addressing care pathways was used and 70 consecutive patients were recruited.

The article provides insights about how relevant change can be brought about when service development is contemplated. It suggests that patients are important stakeholders in the ongoing service development process.

Because rheumatological conditions tend to be chronic and require long-term follow-up, the results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test propositions in different clinical settings.

The article highlights healthcare delivery areas that are not meeting patient expectations. Some recommendations (such as informing waiting patients regularly about any delays) require minimal additional resources for successful implementation. Service providers need to obtain the patients' healthcare perspectives to ensure that services are built around their needs.

This article fulfils an identified need to study how patients perceive service quality.

As the youngest generation – Generation Z (Gen Z) – enters the workplace, there is a growing interest in this cohort's career needs and expectations. This paper explores the under-researched topic of Gen Z project management (Gen Z PM) professionals. In addition to shedding light on the factors that positively affect Gen Z PM professionals' early career-development phase, this research aims to identify specific organization-led practices that can foster sustainable early PM careers and so achieve greater workforce sustainability.

Through the lens of the resource-based view (RBV), Gen Z PM professionals are considered critical resources that can help ensure workforce sustainability in project-based organizations (PBOs). Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 Gen Z PM professionals in Australia to explore the professionals' early career experiences and the organizational-support initiatives that facilitate positive experiences. The results were analyzed using thematic analysis.

The results revealed that most Gen Z PMs experienced many challenges and a lack of support during their early career phase: Gen Z value (1) mentoring, (2) time for training and development, (3) showing support and guidance, (4) understand skill-gaps and (5) reasonable workloads. Through catering to these needs, PBOs can ensure better career sustainability for their young Gen Z talent and, therefore, greater workforce sustainability for the project profession.

According to the career sustainability lens, PBOs play a significant role in ensuring that their valuable young PM talent are supported and retained in the profession. This research sheds light on what Gen Z PM professionals value in their early careers, which guided recommendations to better support this new generation of project professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of measures designed to increase physical activity in women in secure psychiatric care.

A range of interventions (environmental and motivational) designed to increase participation in physical activities were introduced on two secure wards for women. A pre-post design assessed frequency, duration and intensity of physical activity, attendance at physical activity sessions, exercise motivation, exercise-related mood, attitudes to exercise and health and biological indices. Measures collected over a three-month baseline period were repeated six months post-intervention.

Significant changes occurred in both attitudes to exercise and health, exercise motivation and exercise behaviour following change initiatives. With the exception of resting pulse rate and perceived exertion, the increased level of activity was not reflected in changes in body mass index, body fat or body muscle.

Management led, multi-disciplinary interventions to increase physical activity can have a positive impact on both lifestyle behaviours and physical health.

This study adds to a small literature on increasing physical activity in women in secure psychiatric settings where obstacles to change are formidable.

The aim of this paper is to explore the support that project managers receive from construction project-based organisations (PBOs) in their early careers.

Fifty-seven semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with four key stakeholder groups including early career project managers (ECPMs) and employers from Australian construction PBOs, project management professional bodies, and university educators to ascertain (1) what organizations are currently doing and (2) what organizations can do better to support project managers in their early careers.

Thematic analysis revealed that construction PBOs' responsibilities to ECPMs entailed: (1) providing mentoring, (2) offering training, (3) collaborating with universities, (4) giving time and feedback and (5) assigning manageable workloads. However, the findings revealed inconsistencies in companies enacting these responsibilities.

This research is limited to the context of the Australian construction industry, yet the findings shed valuable insights into the current practices of construction PBOs in supporting ECPMs. From a strategic resource-based view perspective, ECPMs have the potential to serve as long-term valuable organizational resources. Failure to invest in new professional entrants constitutes an area of untapped competitive advantage.

Construction PBOs looking to better support their ECPMs may use the results of this research as a guide to tailor their early career professional development initiatives.

The study adopts a holistic, multi-vocal approach by interviewing four key stakeholder groups. The findings contribute new insights into the role of construction PBOs in supporting ECPMs and the implications this has on the sustainability of their project management talent pool.

The Rolex Middlesea sailing event takes place in Malta on an annual basis. The race forms part of a number of new tourism initiatives supported by the Maltese Government. These aim to diversify the Maltese tourism economy from reliance on mass tourism to more niche or specialist forms based, for example, upon the “Blue Economy”. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact and future of sailing events using the Rolex Middlesea sailing event as a specific case. In turn it evaluates current and future contributions to both the Maltese tourist economy and broader experiences and lessons of such events for other regional destinations. Consideration is given to the overall impact of the Rolex race for Maltese tourism; how the event can be improved to enhance its contribution to Maltese tourism; and what challenges the event faces in promoting Malta as an “alternative” tourism destination. Conclusions assess the benefits and barriers for developing maritime events and for sailing and yachting sectors as an alternative tourism option for Malta. In turn, it provides a specific and unique case that reviews implications for such events and, at a broader policy context, lessons for developing niche event markets for tourism destinations generally.

This research focusses upon an inductive approach using qualitative and case study research methodologies. Secondary data for events management, sports tourism sailing and yachting and niche market development provide a contextual framework. Primary research is used to collect qualitative data which are based on purposeful sample selection of interviews from professionals associated with Maltese maritime industries and key stakeholder groups. The data are analysed through discourse analysis techniques utilising grid matrices to evaluate and ascertain common themes and responses that occur from the discussions and questions asked.

Results point to lessons learnt and future policy directions for the Blue economy and sailing and yachting as drivers for change. Results show that the RMSR can clearly create opportunities for the establishment of new innovative tourism markets. In turn, it is also recognised that this can lead to a stronger sailing and yachting tourism industry not only within Malta but also help regenerate or sustain interest in maritime traditions and stimulate new opportunities for maritime tourism and broader opportunities for the growth of the “blue economy” agenda across the region and further afield.

This single case study can be best described as an “exploratory” study. It deals with how an event is structured, functions and performs particularly within the different inter-organisational partnerships. In this context, the research deals with the case study of a real-life event and therefore its academic value may tend to be rather specific and industry focussed. The empirical value of the enquiry, nonetheless, can provide a platform to draw more general assertions regarding the hosting of sailing and yachting events and consequences more broadly for events management theory and practice.

Evidence from the research also suggests that sailing and yachting has the capability of lending itself to many different areas of investment and new business development opportunities such as overwintering for yachts and corporate business event sponsorships linked to a growing MICE market. The need to engage with local communities at a local level is also recognised as a potential for building recognition and skill capacity. This, in turn, can assist local host communities to familiarise themselves with the discipline of sailing as a life skill simultaneously strengthening and encouraging maritime tradition and opening opportunities for social development, business and employment growth.

The RMSR demonstrates that such an event can assist local host communities to familiarise themselves with the discipline of sailing as a life skill simultaneously strengthening and encouraging maritime tradition and opening opportunities for social development, business and employment growth. The growth potential of the RMSR is thus broad and, in many ways, may continue to assist Malta in diversifying its traditional tourism markets, capitalising assets, developing opportunity for its local communities, encouraging business opportunity and assisting in developing a higher quality tourism focus for the Islands.

Detailed and insightful research on sailing and yachting in Malta remains fairly limited and there is little hard evidence to prove the value of such events since there is little available data on differential spending patterns and little cost/benefit analysis undertaken. The RMSR case provide unique research which sets out to explore the role of the RMSR to Malta’s tourism product, identify and evaluate factors for success, evaluate key contemporary issues and challenges in hosting the event, evaluate the future potential of such events for Malta’s tourism economy and draw broader benefits and lessons for hosting events of this nature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine peer influence in the context of purchasing collectively consumed products. The particular focus of the paper is on strategies used by university students for persuasion and resistance when attending events and festivals.

Five females and three males studying for a degree in the UK were interviewed. Independent analysis of the interview transcripts was undertaken to identify persuasion and resistance strategies, as well as the factors influencing a strategy’s success.

A number of persuasion and resistance strategies are used and certain strategies use specific language techniques. Some of these strategies are only applicable to reference groups who have a history of consuming products together, as they resort to past experiences as a means of producing a persuasion or resistance argument. The extent to which the influence is successful is also discussed as being very subjective and dependent on the particular context of the persuasion exercise.

This is the first paper to exclusively examine peer influence in the context of collectively consumed products, notably influence and resistance strategies and the conditions which can make these effective. The paper illustrates the types of strategies peers use when attending events, in particular those used by people who live in a fairly close social system (university study) and where there is no formal hierarchy (in contrast with parent–children influence). The context can influence the types of strategies used, for example, the nature of the relationship between students, which is based on high levels of trust, makes it inappropriate to use certain strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to address a problem that is commonly faced by manufacturing companies in the plastics industry, where large and different batches of freshly produced units need to be unloaded from the injection‐moulding machines and relocated, using automation.

The new solution is reached through a formal design approach, including a function analysis, a product design specification, a quality function deployment exercise, the generation of a number of conceptual solutions, and concept evaluation using morphological charts, failure mode and effect analysis and a decision matrix.

A single modular end effector that can be easily reconfigured for a large variety of moulds has been developed. The results are also extrapolated to more general applications where an end effector is required to carry out simultaneously several different but well‐defined functions in the presence of high variety.

The critical decision that often needs to be made in industry, between flexibility and reconfigurability, is discussed. It is shown that when batch sizes are large, the penalty incurred in reconfiguration time is well offset by gains in simplicity, reliability and lower cost.

The company involved in this case study will achieve significant savings in costs and in storage space, since it will no longer need dedicated gripping devices for its different products.

This paper demonstrates the application of a formal design and development approach to arrive at a novel reconfigurable solution to a common parts handling problem in industry.

Children's responses to peer victimisation are thought to influence the duration of victimisation, yet research has not clearly indicated the best ways for young people to respond. In the current study, students (n = 403, mean age of nine years, 11 months, 55% female, 53% Caucasian) reported on their peer victimisation experiences and responses at the beginning and end of a school year. Teachers also reported on students' victimisation experiences. Cross‐lagged path analysis indicated a reciprocal association between externalising responses and victimisation. Victimisation early in the school year also resulted in increased internalising responses. Findings also suggest that coping responses are more reliably linked to subsequent victimisation rates in young people who are not yet experiencing high levels of victimisation.

Library buildings are routinely reimagined, remodeled, or built new to meet the changing needs of their community. The move from collection-centric to user-centric service models has generated numerous writings about the library as place and space. The one concept lacking in the scholarly discourse is the changing roles of librarians to meet the needs of these new spaces and places. How do librarians fit in the new equation? When addressing the professional identity of librarians, which aspect of their work will need to evolve and which will need to be let go? A critical facet of sustaining services in new spaces is the need to develop the sustainable librarian – to remove the stigma of the librarian as “jack of all trades, master of none.” In order to realize this new mindset of mastering our domain we need to begin reimagining our work. Some ways, this can be accomplished by writing increased flexibility into position descriptions and creating organizational structures to better support librarians within the new spaces. With these new developments to our professional identities, librarians may learn to employ entrepreneurial skills in order to continuously anticipate services and develop skill sets to aid the library’s ability to fulfill its purpose. The authors provide a literature review to discuss the changing role of the academic librarian to meet the evolution of the library building and services. We will provide an example through findings and practices of Grand Valley State University and how it reimagined roles in the early 2000s and continues to reimagine roles in a new building and a renovated branch library. The change of spaces and places in academic libraries to accommodate user needs and perceptions has impacted how academic librarians work in these spaces and places. Library administrators need to rethink workflows, and organizational charts by examining flexible workloads, cross-training initiatives, professional development around new skills, and the letting go of obsolete practices.

Originality/value – in this chapter, the authors will discuss how library leaders are charged with translating the new roles of their librarians to meet the needs of their community in these new spaces and how library leaders may look beyond the literature of the profession for ways to facilitate change.