Megan Jansen, Chloe Chapman, Thomas Richardson, Peter Elliott and Ron Roberts
Previous studies in the field have highlighted a bidirectional link between mental health and physical health. Students may be at a higher risk of both mental and physical health…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous studies in the field have highlighted a bidirectional link between mental health and physical health. Students may be at a higher risk of both mental and physical health problems because of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours and the commencement of university occurring at the same mean age of onset for many psychiatric disorders. This study aims to examine how physical health variables influence changes in mental health symptoms, and vice versa, over time, in a sample of British undergraduate students.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal design over a one-year time period. A national sample of 430 British undergraduate students completed measures of mental health and physical health online at up to four time-points across their first two years of university.
Findings
General physical health and energy and fatigue predicted more severe depression, anxiety, stress and poorer general mental health over time. Depression and stress predicted poorer physical functioning over time. Greater anxiety predicted poorer general health and more severe pain over time. General mental health was not predictive of general physical health. Overall, poor general physical health appears to exacerbate mental health symptoms in students to a greater extent than mental health problems lead to a deterioration in physical health.
Originality/value
This study adds a longitudinal design to a field that is usually cross-sectional, as well as a lack of consideration of how this relationship may differ within student samples. Early interventions should integrate physical and mental well-being rather than focus on any single health-related behaviour.
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Janine Chapman, Chloe Fletcher, Nadia Corsini and Georgina de Cure
To provide insight into how office workers respond to sedentary health messages following the introduction of the Australian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines.
Abstract
Purpose
To provide insight into how office workers respond to sedentary health messages following the introduction of the Australian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines.
Design/methodology/approach
Via online survey, office workers (n = 185) reported awareness of the Guidelines and sedentary risk, availability of workplace movement-based initiatives, and measures of sitting time, intention, self-efficacy, and perceived barriers to sedentary behaviour. Participants then viewed one of two brief messages (“Occupational Risk” or “Strategies”); indicated their message receptivity and provided written recommendations. Participants who consented to a second survey (n = 126) completed sitting time and psychological measures again after four weeks.
Findings
Only 23% were aware of the Guidelines; willingness to follow public health guidance was mixed. Barriers to adoption were apparent for existing initiatives. Message receptivity was high for both messages. For the follow-up survey, an improvement in psychological variables and workplace sitting was reported in those who viewed the Occupational Risk compared to the Strategies message. Qualitative analysis revealed lack of organisational support and called for increased employer responsibility.
Research limitations/implications
As participants self-selected into the study, the sample may be more health-conscious than the typical office worker.
Practical implications
Workers are receptive to brief messages and the Occupational Risk message showed promise in promoting change. However, sedentary exposure is viewed as an organisational-level issue. A “whole of workplace” approach is needed with co-designed strategies tailored to the culture and working practices within the organisation.
Originality/value
This study offers insight into avenues for improving the management of prolonged sitting and workplace sedentary behaviour.
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Non-dominant voices have been further marginalised in the most recent national curriculum in England (DfE, 2014), and those working across the English teaching profession often…
Abstract
Purpose
Non-dominant voices have been further marginalised in the most recent national curriculum in England (DfE, 2014), and those working across the English teaching profession often find the subject framed according to narrow, assessment-driven models and prescribed skill sets. This paper aims to bring together two perspectives on the importance of literacy education that remains rooted in young people’s everyday experiences of place.
Design/methodology/approach
Chapman is a newly qualified secondary English teacher. She will share examples taken from her own classroom practice of the ways in which she has responded to stories told by young people about the places in which they live.
Findings
Jones is a tutor of initial teacher education (ITE). She suggests that Chapman’s approach provides persuasive exemplification of how engagement with alternatives to a dominant view of literacy should remain a key objective for those working with beginning teachers of English.
Originality/value
For Chapman’s students, urban legends are powerful texts which offer the means to explore what we do when we tell stories, both inside and outside the English classroom. As will be shown, such stories are telling examples of the resources young people can bring to critical literacy learning in current classrooms. In the context of the dominance of a narrow, mandated experience of English as a subject, the imperative becomes even greater to recognise stories such as those shared by Chapman’s students as opportunities for authentic, creative and critical engagement with text.
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Chloe A. Thompson, Madeleine Pownall, Richard Harris and Pam Blundell-Birtill
An important facet of student’s sense of belonging is students’ relationships with, and time spent in, the university campus. The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion…
Abstract
Purpose
An important facet of student’s sense of belonging is students’ relationships with, and time spent in, the university campus. The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion that access to campus “green space”, including parks, fields and gardens, may bolster students’ sense of belonging, improve well-being feelings and promote place attachment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors surveyed students in different locations (including three green and one non-green campus spaces) across a large UK campus-based Northern institution. 146 students participated in the study in one of the four campus locations. The authors investigated how being in green spaces on campus may impact students’ sense of belonging, well-being and place attachment. The authors also qualitatively explored students’ perceptions of campus spaces through Ahn’s (2017) 10 Words Question measure.
Findings
Analyses demonstrate that students surveyed in green spaces reported significantly more positive sense of belonging, compared to students surveyed in non-green campus spaces. Campus location did not impact well-being, however. Students associated green spaces on campus with “calm”, “positive emotion” and “nature” words and non-green spaces with “busy”, “social” and “students”.
Practical implications
Taken together, the results of this paper suggest that access to green spaces can be important for campus sense of belonging. Thus, efforts should be made to ensure the sustainability of these important spaces across university campuses.
Originality/value
This study crucially examines how occupying green spaces on university campuses may impact students’ feelings of belongingness. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that uses field-based methods to understand students’ feelings whilst occupying green spaces.
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Chloe Chadderton and Robin Croft
It is likely that deception in commerce has been evident since the growth of trading and the development of marketplaces in early history. But from the mid 20th century the tools…
Abstract
It is likely that deception in commerce has been evident since the growth of trading and the development of marketplaces in early history. But from the mid 20th century the tools and practices of marketing provided commentators new moral targets, in the dubious advertising and selling practices of modern corporations. But what is the morality of the process whereby consumers actively participate in deceiving themselves — in order, for example, to purchase and enjoy something they want but which they manifestly do not need? The term ‘seduction’ was applied to this type of deceptive transaction by Deighton and Grayson in a landmark paper in 1995. Yet despite the influence the work has had on the study of business ethics there has been surprisingly little testing of the concept. This paper seeks to address the imbalance between the conceptual development of the seduction concept and its empirical bases. Based on depth interviews describing recent purchasing decisions, subjects talked through their experiences and the impact they felt that marketing had on their behaviour. The research found evidence in several of the interviews of self‐deception and what has been described as seductive practice, and goes on to suggest an agenda for further study.
Carole Lalonde and Chloé Adler
The purpose of this paper is to revisit Schein’s proposed process-consultation approach as a general framework for management consulting in the light of some premises of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to revisit Schein’s proposed process-consultation approach as a general framework for management consulting in the light of some premises of the agency theory, namely the behavior induced by the asymmetry of information between the principal (leader-client) and the agent (consultant).
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical research consisted of an in-depth, qualitative and phenomenological analysis of 13 cases of organizational intervention based on the practice of four senior consultants in a Canadian management consulting firm whose philosophy is based on organizational development principles and practices. All the cases chosen are characterized by a situation of strategic change as a result of governmental reforms in the healthcare sector between 2005 and 2008.
Findings
Overall, the study shows that the relationship between leaders-clients and consultants varies from one stage to another throughout the consultation process and that the information asymmetry does not always benefit the agent as stated in the agency theory. The consultants are required to play diverse roles, either in combination or alternation, during the consultation process; the facilitator’s role, stated as the more efficient role in Schein’s perspective and the more altruistic from the point of view of the agency theory, is not necessarily the role preferred by managers. Moreover, results highlight the idiosyncrasies of healthcare organizations, namely the phenomenon of escalating indecision that comes into play during the implementation phase of change, worth taking into account in the practice and theories of management consulting.
Practical implications
This analysis raises a number of questions about the general understanding and applicability of the process consultation as defined by Schein. Perhaps the four consultants have not perfectly mastered the interpersonal skills that Schein’s model presupposes. One may also conclude that the model does not always respond to the expectations and needs of leaders and managers and that, for many consultants, it is difficult to adopt only one role model throughout the consulting process. One may also question its realism in a context of interventions in public organizations, with a plurality of interest groups and ambiguity of goals, where governmental reforms are pressuring managers to control costs.
Originality/value
According to Eisenhardt (1989) and Hendry (2002), the agency theory offers promising avenues if combined with other theoretical anchors such as the field of organizational behavior. This study scrutinizes the leader-consultant relationship, and more specifically the type of assistance requested by healthcare leaders as they experienced strategic change and how consultants responded to these requests.
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THE training model to be discussed is based on an integrated set of manual and mechanised indexing systems, all handling the same body of information from a limited subject field…
Abstract
THE training model to be discussed is based on an integrated set of manual and mechanised indexing systems, all handling the same body of information from a limited subject field. By extending the scope of the model's operations to include prior and subsequent activities like the selection and abstracting of the documents to be indexed, and the preparation and dissemination of material through the use of the indexes, the model may be used for a wide range of documentation training, principally at three levels: demonstration by the lecturer to the students; use by the students in the retrieval and dissemination of information; and development by the students through the selection and abstracting of documents, the indexing and storage of information and ultimately the use of feedback from the dissemination stage to improve the systems.
Karnica Tanwar and Amresh Kumar
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between employer brand dimensions and employer of choice (EOC). The paper also analyses the role of person-organisation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between employer brand dimensions and employer of choice (EOC). The paper also analyses the role of person-organisation fit in transferring employer brand dimensions to EOC status, and the moderating role of social media in the relationship between person-organisation fit and EOC.
Design/methodology/approach
Factor analysis has been conducted to validate the “employer attractiveness” scale for identifying the dimensions of employer brand. Structural equation modelling has been used to conduct mediation and moderation analysis. The results are based on the perceptions of college students regarding employer brand dimensions and EOC status.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights on how the person-organisation fit helps in transferring employer brand dimensions to EOC status. The results indicate that the person-organisation fit acts as a full mediator, indicating that for becoming a EOC, the dimensions of employer brand must be linked to the person-organisation fit. Also, the moderation analysis results highlight the importance of social media towards obtaining EOC status.
Originality/value
The authors believe that the study is the first of its kind to investigate drivers of EOC, and to identify the role of the person-organisation fit as a mediating variable and social media as a moderating variable.
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Defining and describing research methodologies is difficult. Methodologies have similarities and resonances, and overlapping characteristics. Familiar labels of case study, action…
Abstract
Purpose
Defining and describing research methodologies is difficult. Methodologies have similarities and resonances, and overlapping characteristics. Familiar labels of case study, action research and ethnography may not be adequate to describe new and creative approaches to qualitative research. If we simply transfer old ways to new contexts, we risk limiting our understanding of the complexities of real life settings. The call to set aside old dualisms and devise new methodological approaches has been sounded. Accordingly, this article sets out to describe a fledgling new methodological approach, and how it was operationalized in a small‐scale study of digitally‐mediated classroom learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology combines elements of action research and case study with an ethnographic approach. It was devised for a study of the use of Facebook as an educational resource by five dyslexic students at a sixth form college in north‐west England. Its flexibility and attention to detail enabled multiple data collection methods. This range of methods enabled meticulous analysis of many of the group's online and offline interactions with each other and with Facebook as they co‐constructed their group Facebook page.
Findings
Reflexively combining elements of case study, action research and ethnography thus helped capture the “connected complexities” (Davies) of this contemporary classroom setting. This is necessary if researchers are to obtain any meaningful understanding of how learning happens in such contexts.
Originality/value
The author hopes to contribute to the discourse on qualitative methodology and invites other researchers studying similar contexts to consider a similar approach.