B. Schulte, H. Stover, K. Thane, C. Schreiter, D. Gansefort and J. Reimer
Injection drug use (IDU) and IDU‐related infectious diseases such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are highly prevalent among prisoners…
Abstract
Injection drug use (IDU) and IDU‐related infectious diseases such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are highly prevalent among prisoners worldwide. However, little is known about the prevalence of IDUs, HCV/HIV and the availability of respective treatment options in German prisons. Data provided by prison physicians of 31 prisons, representing 14,537 inmates, were included in this analysis. The proportion of IDUs among all prisoners was 21.9%. Substitution treatment was available in three out of four prisons (74.2%). Overall, 1137 substitution treatments were provided annually with a wide range of treatment aims. The prevalence rate was 14.3% for HCV and 1.2% for HIV. Around 5.5% of all HCV‐infected prisoners were in antiviral treatment annually, 86.5% of all HIV‐positive inmates in antiretroviral HIV‐treatment. Generally, substitution treatment, and HCV and HIV testing and treatment are available. However, due to abstinence‐orientated treatment aims, substitution treatment is rarely available as maintenance treatment, and HCV/HIV‐treatment is mainly provided for patients with an existing treatment before imprisonment. The inconsistent data quality necessitates changes in prison‐related policy to improve surveillance and to generate aggregated data in German prisons. The selection process in this analysis might lead to overestimating the provision of substitution and antiviral HCV‐treatment.
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Timo Kortsch, Eva-Maria Schulte and Simone Kauffeld
In competitive labor markets, promoting employees’ learning becomes a key challenge for companies. However, in small German craft companies, employee development is always…
Abstract
Purpose
In competitive labor markets, promoting employees’ learning becomes a key challenge for companies. However, in small German craft companies, employee development is always connected with worries about employee turnover. This study aims to investigate the current informal learning strategies of craft workers and how they use the strategies, the effect of learning on employees’ internal and external marketability and beneficial workplace characteristics (autonomy, feedback).
Design/methodology/approach
An online prestudy (N = 131) explored current informal learning strategies. In the main study (N = 526), cluster analysis was applied to identify patterns of informal learning strategies. The relations of these patterns to workplace characteristics and marketability were investigated.
Findings
Four informal learning strategies were found (informal learning from oneself, from others, from other sources and from new media). Craft workers used combinations of the strategies (i.e. patterns): three learning patterns (balanced high, person-oriented and balanced low) differed in intensity and combination with the learning strategy use. More intense learning patterns were positively related to internal marketability but were not related to external marketability. Higher autonomy and feedback availability were related to higher learning engagement.
Research limitations/implications
Studies should have a broader view of informal learning strategies concerning different learning patterns. The use of new media is a learning strategy that might increase in the future.
Practical implications
Craft companies could promote different informal learning strategies without worries about employee turnover.
Originality/value
The study reveals how German small- and medium-sized enterprise employees use informal learning strategies in digitalized times and how human resources development can use informal learning strategies.
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Laura Nota, Maria Cristina Ginevra, Ilaria Di Maggio and Salvatore Soresi
The chapter will explore steps that might be taken within the context of schools to encourage the creation of an inclusive social environment. In particular, it examines the roles…
Abstract
The chapter will explore steps that might be taken within the context of schools to encourage the creation of an inclusive social environment. In particular, it examines the roles played by parents of children with and without disability, as co-constructing agents of inclusion. Particular emphasis will be placed on parental attributes of hope, optimism, and courage. At this regards, an international review on these parental resources will be reported, highlighting their key role in enabling parents to face challenging child and family circumstances – including disability, living in poverty, or experiencing cultural segregation and discrimination, and in promoting inclusion. Lastly, qualitative and quantitative assessment instruments to assess these resources will be presented and suggestions to promote them will be provided.
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Andreas Gagel, Christian M¨ller and Karl Schulte
The stiffness and damage evolution in a quasi‐static tensile loaded non‐crimp fabric reinforced epoxy was measured. To determine the effective stiffness of the damaged material…
Abstract
The stiffness and damage evolution in a quasi‐static tensile loaded non‐crimp fabric reinforced epoxy was measured. To determine the effective stiffness of the damaged material numerically a finite element analysis was performed. The finite element analysis bases solely on the measured ±45° and 90°‐ crack densities and on ply properties calculated by the Rule of Mixtures. The measured and calculated effective tensile stiffness were compared and a fair agreement could be found.
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This paper sets out to discuss practical inventory control systems. Orthodox theory revolves around the purchaser and balances ordering costs against charges for carrying goods in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to discuss practical inventory control systems. Orthodox theory revolves around the purchaser and balances ordering costs against charges for carrying goods in stock. However, for any company holding thousands of different items the directives for constructing the best system(s) are confusing and the logic seems inconsistent. The research objective is to clarify this hitherto unsatisfactory situation and to provide robust guidelines for managing such inventories.
Design/methodology/approach
A small number of published examples are described in sufficient detail to reveal what these firms actually do. Each case is dissected to uncover management's motives, since the original reports were not embellished with useful analytical comments. The aim is to reconstruct the overall design process.
Findings
The myopic standpoint of established models neglects the impact of various ordering policies at the supplier's end, where the promotion of cost‐effective and responsive warehouse and transport operations is paramount. As a rule, both areas benefit from stable resources planning, based on cyclic orders and delivery schedules along fixed vehicle routes.
Practical implications
An alternative “top down” approach is proposed. The main thrust is the efficient deployment of a designated transport fleet. Also, some salient points are made concerning the relative merits of P‐ and Q‐type stock replenishment modes.
Originality/value
The paper provides a new perspective on stock control that brings theory into line with modern supply chain management concepts.
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Ambrose Jones and Cynthia P. Guthrie
This study, based on our analysis of survey data from 1,242 partners and employees of a U.S. national public accounting firm, examines the impact on psychological well-being from…
Abstract
This study, based on our analysis of survey data from 1,242 partners and employees of a U.S. national public accounting firm, examines the impact on psychological well-being from the moderating effects of flexibility and role clarity on work-home conflict experienced by public accountants. Most prior research in public accounting deals with the antecedents and consequences of role stress and primarily focuses on job outcomes of turnover intentions and job satisfaction as dependent variables. Public accounting firms have responded to stressors with worker-friendly policies, largely by introducing flexibility and clarity in their organizational culture. Using a multi-disciplinary research model, we analyze the causal relationships of flexibility and clarity as moderators of the bi-directional nature of work-home conflict (work interference with home and home interference with work) on psychological well-being. Our study finds that perceptions of flexibility and role clarity drawn from a career position in public accounting can mitigate role conflict between work and home environments and contribute to enhanced psychological well-being. We also find that certain relationships described in the model are moderated by family status and age, but not by gender. Results of our study have implications to both individual public accountants and to their firms.
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Kei Nomaguchi and Marshal Neal Fettro
Past studies suggest that full-time maternal employment may be negatively related to children’s cognitive development. Most studies measure maternal employment at one time point…
Abstract
Past studies suggest that full-time maternal employment may be negatively related to children’s cognitive development. Most studies measure maternal employment at one time point, while mothers’ work hours may not be stable during early childrearing years. Using data from the 2001 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort (N ≈ 6,500), the authors examine stability in mothers’ work hours across four waves when children are 9 and 24 months old, in preschool, and in kindergarten, mothers’ background characteristics associated to it, and its link to child cognitive development. Results show that the majority of mothers change work hours across the four waves. Analysis using multinomial logistic regression models suggests that mothers’ older age, fewer children, and higher household income are related to working full time at all four waves compared to varying work hours across the waves; more children and less than high school completion are related to staying home at all four waves; and mothers’ older age, being White, no change in partnership status, and holding a college degree are related to working part time at all four waves. Compared to mothers’ changing work hours, mothers’ stable work hours, full time or part time, at all four waves is related to children’s better reading, math, and cognitive scores in kindergarten, whereas mothers’ staying home at all four waves is negatively related to these scores. These associations disappear when background characteristics are controlled for in ordinary least squares regression models. These findings underscore the role of background characteristics in shaping both mothers’ stable employment and children’s cognitive development.
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Sarah Carpentier, Karel Neels and Karel Van den Bosch
The administration of social assistance benefits is devolved to local agencies in Belgium, which raises questions about how much variation in spell lengths of benefit receipt is…
Abstract
The administration of social assistance benefits is devolved to local agencies in Belgium, which raises questions about how much variation in spell lengths of benefit receipt is associated with differences across agencies. We address this issue by analysing the monthly hazard of benefit exit using administrative record data for 14,270 individuals in 574 welfare agencies. Our random-effects model allows for differences in both the observed and unobserved characteristics of beneficiaries and of local agencies. There are large differences in median benefit duration for individuals serviced by different welfare agencies: the range is from two months to more than 24 months. We find strong associations between beneficiary characteristics (sex, age, foreign nationality, citizenship acquisition, work history and being a student) and spell length. The estimates show higher odds of exiting social assistance receipt in bigger municipalities and in agencies which provide more generous supplementary assistance, and also strong evidence of shorter episodes in agencies where active labour market programme participation rates are higher.
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Carrie Anne Platt, Renee Bourdeaux and Nancy DiTunnariello
This study investigated how college students’ pace of life and perceptions of communication technologies shape the choices they make when engaging in mediated communication with…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigated how college students’ pace of life and perceptions of communication technologies shape the choices they make when engaging in mediated communication with their parents.
Methodology
We conducted 21 interviews to explore how students’ understandings of various communication technologies, the rules and patterns of technology use in their families, and the circumstances surrounding their use of technologies while at college influence the number and type of media they use to communicate with their parents.
Findings
We found that perceived busyness and generational differences played a large role in limiting technologies used, with environmental factors, the purpose of communication, and complexity of message also contributing to technology choices.
Originality
This study extends media multiplexity theory by investigating media choice and relational tie strength in an intergenerational context.
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Nidhi Singh, Sushma Vishnani, Vinay Khandelwal, Saumyaranjan Sahoo and Satish Kumar
This review study aims to explore the prevalent paradoxes in digital transformation (DTN) of business and provide insights on how businesses can effectively navigate them.
Abstract
Purpose
This review study aims to explore the prevalent paradoxes in digital transformation (DTN) of business and provide insights on how businesses can effectively navigate them.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conducts a systematic literature review, utilizing findings from a bibliometric analysis. A sample of 229 articles published in top-tier journals, retrieved from the Scopus database, is reviewed to identify nine clusters representing different sectors and paradoxes in DTN.
Findings
The review identifies and summarizes studies addressing the paradoxes that arise during DTN in various sectors. Scholars have analyzed the growing need for digital innovations and the benefits they bring, but this study aggregates high-quality research to address the gap in understanding prevalent paradoxes.
Originality/value
This study provides valuable insights into the paradoxes of DTN and offers guidance to businesses on effectively managing these challenges. It contributes to the existing literature by consolidating and presenting key research findings in this domain.