The paper describes the results of consumer research undertaken by the Co‐operative Wholesale Society which influenced it to develop a code of practice for labelling pre‐packed…
Abstract
The paper describes the results of consumer research undertaken by the Co‐operative Wholesale Society which influenced it to develop a code of practice for labelling pre‐packed foods. Areas where consumers feel they are misled by current labelling practice are highlighted. The content of the code is described against a background of current legal requirements. Its principal areas of application concern the name of the food, origin marking, presentation, nutrition labelling and claims and quantitative ingredient declaration. The further development of the code is outlined by reference to industry and consumer contributions and its potential within the Food Standards Agency.
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Sarah A. Humphries and Catherine Whelan
This study aims to investigate the relationship between national culture and best practices as recommended in country-level corporate governance codes.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationship between national culture and best practices as recommended in country-level corporate governance codes.
Design/methodology/approach
Measures for four corporate governance variables – board independence, gender composition, board leadership and meeting frequency – were collected from corporate governance codes for 55 countries. Scores from Hofstede’s cultural dimensions – power distance, individualism vs collectivism, masculinity vs femininity and uncertainty avoidance – were gathered for these same countries. Average scores on the cultural dimensions were compared for groups of countries based on each of the corporate governance variables.
Findings
Data analyses reveal significant relationships between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the four characteristics of corporate governance examined in this study. Results highlight the importance of understanding cultural influences on board characteristics for companies considering international expansions or partnerships.
Originality/value
While prior studies have focused on the influence of national culture at the company level, this study examines the relationship at the regulatory level through review of country-level corporate governance codes.
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Niamh Humphries, Karen Morgan, Mary Catherine Conry, Yvonne McGowan, Anthony Montgomery and Hannah McGee
Quality of care and health professional burnout are important issues in their own right, however, relatively few studies have examined both. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Quality of care and health professional burnout are important issues in their own right, however, relatively few studies have examined both. The purpose of this paper is to explore quality of care and health professional burnout in hospital settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a narrative literature review of quality of care and health professional burnout in hospital settings published in peer-reviewed journals between January 2000 and March 2013. Papers were identified via a search of PsychInfo, PubMed, Embase and CINNAHL electronic databases. In total, 30 papers which measured and/or discussed both quality of care and health professional burnout were identified.
Findings
The paper provides insight into the key health workforce-planning issues, specifically staffing levels and workloads, which impact upon health professional burnout and quality of care. The evidence from the review literature suggests that health professionals face heavier and increasingly complex workloads, even when staffing levels and/or patient-staff ratios remain unchanged.
Originality/value
The narrative literature review suggests that weak retention rates, high turnover, heavy workloads, low staffing levels and/or staffing shortages conspire to create a difficult working environment for health professionals, one in which they may struggle to provide high-quality care and which may also contribute to health professional burnout. The review demonstrates that health workforce planning concerns, such as these, impact on health professional burnout and on the ability of health professionals to deliver quality care. The review also demonstrates that most of the published papers published between 2000 and 2013 addressing health professional burnout and quality of care were nursing focused.
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Drawing on “Strategic Alliance” literature and qualitative research methods, the purpose of this study is to examine the initiation and operations phases of the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on “Strategic Alliance” literature and qualitative research methods, the purpose of this study is to examine the initiation and operations phases of the relationship between Australian litigation funders and class law firms. The initiation phase examines factors such as complementarity between needs and assets compatibility between the funder and the class law firm goals of the alliance trust and alliance structure. The operations phase considers factors such as governance, communication and risk management and accountability. Because of its focus on the fairness of settlement, case law provides limited understanding of the drivers of the class law firm and funder relationship. An “inside look” of how the funder-law firm is initiated and made operational provides a more accurate picture and has important implications for the management of the ethical issues that arise during the course of that relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a content analysis and contains qualitative interviews.
Findings
The strategic alliance between class law firms and litigation funders has evolved within an institutional climate that has acknowledged the benefits that the alliance can bring to the conduct of class actions. That same institutional environment has led to an alliance which is informal and transactionally oriented, where each of the parties maintains a demarcation in function. Although they share aspects of the strategic management of class actions, funders continue to be diligent monitors of class law firms, and class law firms continue to advance the legal rights of class members.
Research limitations/implications
It is observed that the size of the sample is small driven by a number of market participants.
Practical implications
The paper confirms that the litigation funder–law firm strategic alliance works well as a result of institutional constraints.
Social implications
Each of the alliance partners was keen to ensure that neither they nor their partner acted in a way which might attract judicial disapproval. Each also believed that they played a positive role in promoting class member interests, albeit that their primary motivation was to earn fees or a commission. The success of the alliance between class law firms and litigation funders has substantially improved access to justice in Australia for small claims holders.
Originality/value
The paper provides insight into a strategic alliance which is formed primarily for the benefit of third parties. This is one of the first papers to consider the litigation funder–law firm relationship through the lens of strategic alliance literature.
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Sheeba Asirvatham and Maria Humphries-Kil
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on career aspirations and experiences explored with senior women organizational scholars employed in neoliberally driven public…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on career aspirations and experiences explored with senior women organizational scholars employed in neoliberally driven public universities in Aotearoa (New Zealand) legally mandated to serve as a critic and conscience of society.
Design/methodology/approach
Over the 18 months period, three sequential research conversations were conducted with each of 12 participants known for their commitment to social justice and planetary well-being. The conversational approach allowed for spontaneous participant-lead development of ideas. Sequencing of conversations allowed for reflection on matters raised in previous conversations.
Findings
Vitality and creativity deemed essential to scholarly careers were reportedly under pressure. Career concepts in use indicate a protean commitment to self-direction but also recognized constraints of institutionally driven neoliberal output regimes. Detrimental impacts of neoliberal values permeating their employing institutions were offered spontaneously often in radical feminist terms but paradoxically given liberal feminist remedies.
Research limitations/implications
The 12 diverse transcripts of participant conversations generated remarkable similarities that indicate the influence of career articulations on the social construction of reality. The implications of this interpretation invite further reflection on the consequences of normalization of career metaphors and their implication in the intensification of institutional control, the weakening of professional autonomy and the system preserving restriction of career-related responsibilities.
Practical implications
Highlighting constraints to creativity and vitality necessary for scholarly work can inform further research into professional influences on justice and environmental matters in and beyond the Academy.
Social implications
In this paper a short review of Aotearoa (New Zealand) as in vanguard of neoliberal intensification globally, the implication of this doctrine in neoliberally driven universities and the impacts on career opportunities, degradations and responsibilities of scholars are explored.
Originality/value
The conversational research process contrasts with more tightly framed empirical research methods by generating spontaneous participant-led articulations of career-related dynamics explored and expanded over subsequent conversations.
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This paper is the first to use the individual level, longitudinal catch-up growth of boys and girls in a historical population to measure their relative deprivation. The data is…
Abstract
This paper is the first to use the individual level, longitudinal catch-up growth of boys and girls in a historical population to measure their relative deprivation. The data is drawn from two government schools, the Marcella Street Home (MSH) in Boston, MA (1889–1898), and the Ashford School of the West London School District (1908–1917). The paper provides an extensive discussion of the two schools including the characteristics of the children, their representativeness, selection bias and the conditions in each school. It also provides a methodological introduction to measuring children’s longitudinal catch-up growth. After analysing the catch-up growth of boys and girls in the schools, it finds that there were no substantial differences between the catch-up growth by gender. Thus, these data suggest that there were not major health disparities between boys and girls in late-nineteenth-century America and early-twentieth-century Britain.
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Zawiyah M. Yusof and Robert W. Chell
This is the second part of a two‐part article which examines the various definitions accorded to the two key terms in records management – the records and records management…
Abstract
This is the second part of a two‐part article which examines the various definitions accorded to the two key terms in records management – the records and records management. Variations in their definition have lead to confusion which affects the formulation of theory to underpin the discipline. Having discussed the changing definition of a record in Part 1 in this part the authors discuss the various definitions of records management.
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In terms of education attainment in the United Kingdom, the white working class remains the lowest performing ethnic group, and their academic underperformance has ominous…
Abstract
In terms of education attainment in the United Kingdom, the white working class remains the lowest performing ethnic group, and their academic underperformance has ominous implications for their long-term life chances. This chapter investigates how white working-class boys experience pathologization and deficit discourses in their schooling as they negotiate the discipline structures in three educational sites in South London (two state comprehensive schools and one Pupil Referral Unit). Drawing upon empirical data from an in-depth sociological study of 23 white working-class boys (Stahl, 2015), this chapter makes theoretical connections between how pathologization – both within the school and wider society – contributes to how these young men become constructed with and through deficit discourses contributing significantly toward low academic achievement. Where whiteness often equates to power and entitlement, in the schooling contexts of this study whiteness was often socially constructed as undesirable and equated with low aspirations, stagnation, and antieducational stances.