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1 – 10 of 43Danny Moss, Gary Warnaby, Sally Sykes and Callum Thomas
This paper explores the role which the public relations function can play in assisting organisations to manage their interface with the environment and, in particular, with their…
Abstract
This paper explores the role which the public relations function can play in assisting organisations to manage their interface with the environment and, in particular, with their key stakeholders. The paper examines the conceptual arguments concerning the importance of the boundary‐spanning role of public relations practitioners and examines how this role was enacted at Manchester Airport, Britain's largest regional airport, during its prolonged campaign to win approval for the construction of a second runway on the airport site. Through analysis of this case study, the paper highlights how practitioner roles may vary according to the situational context, and explores the factors which may influence the extent to which the public relations function is able to contribute to the strategic management of an organisation's interaction with its environment.
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Callum Thomas and Claire Matthews
The purpose of this paper is probe the early data emerging from the KiwiSaver market and to draw insights on KiwiSaver investor behaviour, particularly in respect of the unique…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is probe the early data emerging from the KiwiSaver market and to draw insights on KiwiSaver investor behaviour, particularly in respect of the unique default provider feature of the scheme.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary source of data for this study is a purpose-built database compiled using data from KiwiSaver providers’ annual reports for the period 2009-2011.
Findings
The study finds that KiwiSaver members, like other investors, are chasing performance and seeking to avoid fees. However, an unexpected negative relation is found for bank ownership.
Research limitations/implications
The key limitations of this data source include the low frequency, differing formats and levels of detail disclosed in various annual reports.
Practical implications
Chasing past performance indicates a need for investor education for KiwiSaver members.
Originality/value
The study provides an initial empirical examination of the KiwiSaver market, and the determinants of the flow of funds and members. The results can be used to guide policymakers and providers in their future decision-making around the scheme and individual offerings.
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Lucy Budd, Steven Griggs and David Howarth
This chapter examines the torsions and blind spots that structure the contemporary debate on the politics and policy of aviation. It also generates different scenarios for the…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter examines the torsions and blind spots that structure the contemporary debate on the politics and policy of aviation. It also generates different scenarios for the future of air travel, which can help to unblock the current impasse about the perceived costs and benefits of aviation and its attendant infrastructural needs.
Originality
This chapter characterises and evaluates the competing frames that organise the contested realities of air transport. By mapping out the current fault lines of aviation politics and policy, the chapter is also able to delineate four main scenarios regarding the future of aviation, which we name the ‘post-carbon’, ‘high-modernist’, ‘market regulation’ and ‘demand management’ projections respectively.
Methodology/approach
The chapter problematises and criticises the existing literature, policy reports and stakeholder briefings that inform the contemporary standoff in UK aviation policy. It uses the definition of sustainable development as a heuristic device to map and identify the fault lines structuring contemporary debates on aviation futures. It then builds upon this analysis to delimit four different scenarios for the future of flying.
Findings
The chapter analyses the contested realities of aviation politics. It re-affirms the political nature of such divisions, which in turn structure the rival understandings of aviation. The analysis suggests that the identified fault lines are constantly reiterated by competing appeals to ambiguous and contradictory evidence-bases or policy frames. Ultimately, the chapter claims that any significant reframing of aviation policy and politics rests on the outcome of political negotiations and persuasion. But it also depends on the broader views of citizens and stakeholders about the future challenges facing society, as well as the way in which governments and affected agents put in place and coordinate the multiple arenas in which a dialogue over the future of aviation can be held. Aviation futures cannot be reduced to the narrow confines of the technical merits or claims surrounding the feasibility of policy instruments.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of creativity in work-based research and practice to yield deeper understanding of practice situations. Unexpected insights…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of creativity in work-based research and practice to yield deeper understanding of practice situations. Unexpected insights can lead one (or a team) to identify new approaches, tackling workplace issues differently, leading to unexpected outcomes of long-term impact.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on work conducted for a doctoral thesis, investigating the impact of work-based learning for recent masters graduates of a work-based learning programme. Fiction was incorporated into analysis of the data, creating play scripts to represent key aspects of the researcher's perceptions and interpretations for each participant.
Findings
Research participants experienced personal, professional and organisational impact, although there was considerable variability between individuals. Additionally, societal impact was wished for and/or effected. The approach to representation of analysis, which involved fictionalising participants' experiences, created a strong Thirdspace liminality. This appeared to deepen awareness and understanding.
Research limitations/implications
Such approaches can transform the researcher's perspective, prompting insights which lead to further adventure and development in work-based research and practice.
Practical implications
Managers and employees taking creative approaches in the workplace can prompt wide-ranging development and, with professional judgement, be constructive.
Social implications
Managers and employees taking creative approaches in the workplace can prompt wide-ranging development and, with professional judgement, be constructive.
Originality/value
The creation of play scripts, representing an interpretation of participants' stories about their work-based learning experience, is an innovative feature of this work.
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An accessible resource on the role of teachers in perpetuating inequality through Prevent Duty, with guidance on how to change teaching practice to empower Muslim students.
Abstract
Purpose
An accessible resource on the role of teachers in perpetuating inequality through Prevent Duty, with guidance on how to change teaching practice to empower Muslim students.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses critical race theory (CRT) to interrogate power and Whiteness in the interaction of teachers and students when complying with Prevent Duty and delivering lessons on fundamental British values. This is illustrated through a constructed narrative between three characters in a London school, and offers a Freirean approach to empowering students through Prevent delivery.
Findings
A disproportionately White profession is acting in what they perceive to be the best interest of their students, while failing to interrogate their own position of power and not creating opportunities to be guided by Muslim voices. As a consequence Muslim students continue to be oppressed.
Practical implications
Teachers can disrupt Prevent Duty while complying with its legal obligations by interrogating their own position of Whiteness. They can work with students to ensure Muslim voices lead discussion around Prevent and the inequality in society that is being reproduced by Prevent Duty.
Social implications
There is potential for good teaching practice to overcome the structural racism and continued inequality experienced by diverse Muslim communities.
Originality/value
The paper is an accessible application of CRT to Prevent Duty, a resource for teachers, students and activists. It can help in the recognition of the potential for even well-meaning teachers to act in ways that perpetuate inequalities. It provides a clear set of suggestions for teaching practices that can overcome this.
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Kenneth Andrew Searle, Liz Ellis, Marianthi Kourti, Andrea MacLeod, Caroline Lear, Callum Duckworth, Davide Irvine, Harry Jones, Michaela King, Jessica Ling and John Simpson
The purpose of this paper is to address the benefits of a participatory approach to autism research, demonstrating the positive effects of giving autistic project assistants (PAs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the benefits of a participatory approach to autism research, demonstrating the positive effects of giving autistic project assistants (PAs) the opportunity to design and undertake a project researching the experiences of autistic university students.
Design/methodology/approach
A participatory approach was implemented, engaging autistic university students as research assistants. All the research team except project co-ordinators were autistic. Undergraduate autistic students developed and conducted a set of semi-structured interviews, with two autistic alumni responsible for data analysis and both scheduling and moderating focus groups. Participation in dissemination of the findings was open to all.
Findings
The results included in this paper reflect a portion of the overall findings, specifically regarding the participatory approach. The findings of the study indicate the perceptions of respondents being interviewed by autistic researchers in relation to their shared understanding, facilitating positive feelings and a sense of rapport in the interview process. The PAs were able to improve their research skills through the project, which contributed constructively to their CV and allowed them to feel more positive about being autistic, and specifically about being an autistic researcher.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first to discuss the challenges and benefits of including autistic participant researchers at all stages of the research project, including research design, data collection, analysis and dissemination, being co-written by both project co-ordinators and autistic project researchers.
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Jill M. Gradwell, Misty Rodeheaver and Robert L. Dahlgren
From labor conditions to public health and environmental justice, globalization has created an increasingly complex web of issues surrounding human rights. Research in social…
Abstract
From labor conditions to public health and environmental justice, globalization has created an increasingly complex web of issues surrounding human rights. Research in social studies education points to adolescents’ intrinsic curiosity when engaged in these multiple issues, as well as their idealistic thirst for involving themselves in social progress campaigns. Many students desire involvement and believe in the importance of human rights education within the formal educational setting, especially within social studies curriculum. We report the findings from a qualitative study conducted during a two-week intensive summer institute on human rights and genocide studies in western New York in the summer of 2011. In our study, we found while student participants felt empowered by the institute and their desire to take action was heightened during the experience, they questioned the disconnect between the genocide and human rights education in the Institute and the human rights education they experienced in their social studies classrooms. In comparing the two, they wished there were more authentic learning experiences and a higher level of academic rigor in their social studies classes. Although the New York State curricula, at the time of the study, included human rights education related topics, the interviewed student participants did not recognize its presence and felt human rights education is not a prevalent part of the enacted public school curriculum.
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Represents a comprehensive review of the literature by discussing critical factors of TQM in key areas often stressed in implementation case studies, and supported by quality…
Abstract
Represents a comprehensive review of the literature by discussing critical factors of TQM in key areas often stressed in implementation case studies, and supported by quality gurus and writers. Such factors are considered as being conducive to the success of TQM implementation. Discusses these factors from the point of view of how and why. There appears to be little agreement on the what, so an understanding of the “processes” involved in implementation allows for the appropriate framing and objective classification of key factors for TQM implementation. Part I discusses quality factors related to: leadership; internal stakeholders’ management; policy and strategy. In all, 98 examples of best practice are referred to, to illustrate how the various critical fields of TQM have successfully been put in place.
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