Search results

Describes an empirical research study focusing on a specific form of personal development for managers – the use of the outdoors. This development activity is believed to enhance managers′ understanding of themselves and the ways in which they interact with others, enabling them to operate more effectively in today′s turbulent business environment. Four outcome hypotheses were tested: increased self‐awareness, increased ability to “learn how to learn”, positive changes to individual′s self‐concept and increased use of “openness” behaviours. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used in testing the hypotheses. Although discrepancies arose between the qualitative and quantitative results, they do indicate that participants in the programme realized higher levels of self‐esteem and reported increased use of “openness” behaviours six months after the end of the programme.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospection on the importance, origins and development of the research programs in the author’s career.

The study uses an autobiographical approach.

Most of the articles, research monographs and books that constitute this research and publishing efforts can be categorized into seven distinct, but related, research programs: channels of distribution; marketing theory; marketing’s philosophy debates; macromarketing and ethics; relationship marketing; resource-advantage theory; and marketing management and strategy. The value system that has guided these research programs has been shaped by specific events that took place in the author’s formative years. This essay chronicles these events and the origins and development of the seven research programs.

Chronicling the importance, origins and development of the seven research programs will hopefully motivate and assist other scholars in developing their own research programs.

The case deals with an ethical dilemma of an entrepreneur. Chandran, a qualified contractor, had secured an electrical contract from a premier government organization. It was a turnkey project to be executed in a given period of time. In the process of work, he comes across major problems. He could not abandon the project or compromise on his moral values. He wanted a way out to salvage this project that was slowly slipping from his control. This case examines the ethical issues that confront small businesses, employees, suppliers and key stakeholders of every organization and explores the mindset of participants, their personal values and their decision making rationale. The participants get an opportunity to identify with the difficult choices a business situation may throw when ethical mindset clashes with the decision making process.

Following research into the application of Electronic Monitoring (EM), Criminal Justice Order (2016) no. 954 was published, which introduced EM for offenders leaving custody in England and Wales (Ministry of Justice, 2016). EM was later extended to include those subjected to release on temporary licence (ROTL). The purpose of this study is to be the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to evaluate a pilot project using EM during the ROTL process. The outcome allowed for recommendations to be made regarding the continued use of EM within the open prison estate.

This is a qualitative research project involving semi-structured interviews with staff and residents. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis which resulted in exploration of 4 themes and 11 sub-themes and recommendations for future research/practice.

Results demonstrated that both staff and residents evaluated the use of EM as helpful with regard to evidencing compliance with ROTL conditions. In addition, staff also found it helpful for providing additional reassurance to victims and providing evidence for ROTL breaches.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was the first qualitative evaluation of EM relating to the ROTL process. The evaluation improves understanding of the value of EM for policymakers and the Ministry of Justice, especially in terms of the ROTL process. The recommendations made in this paper evidence the value of EM use in the future.

This evaluation supports continued use of EM and its integration into policy and procedures for residents subject to temporary licence. This paper concluded that consistent and reliable use of EM may contribute to victim reassurance and reduce recidivism of residents during ROTL, subsequently increasing the public’s perception of safety.

Over the past decade, the push for recovery-oriented services has birthed a growth in the recruitment of peer providers in mental health services: Persons who live with and manage their mental health challenges and are employed to support persons currently using mental health services. The aim of this paper is to compare the responses of government and non-government organisations to the implementation of peer provision.

Employing a qualitative study design, 15 people who supervised peer providers or who were strategically involved in peer provision were recruited using snowball sampling. Participants completed an in-depth interview that explored how peer provision services operated at their organisation and factors that shaped the way peer provision operates. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using Moore's Strategic Triangle. Synthesised member checking and researcher triangulation ensued to establish trustworthiness.

The way in which peer provision operated sat along a continuum ranging from adoption (where practices are shaped by the recovery ethos) to co-option (where recovery work may be undertaken, but not shaped by the recovery ethos). Political and legal mandates that affected the operational capacities of each organisation shaped the way peer provision services operated.

The findings of the study highlight the need to reconsider where peer provision services fit in the mental health system. Research investigating the value of peer provision services may attract the support of funders, service users and policy makers alike.

In employing Moore's strategic triangle to evaluate the alignment of policy (the authorising environment) with the operational capacity and practice of peer provision services (the task environment), this study found that organisational response to peer provision is largely influenced by political and legal mandates externally. The successful implementation of peer provision is mediated by effective supervision of peer providers.

An inquiry into the constitution of the experience of patienthood. It understands “becoming a patient” as a production of a subjectivity, in other words as a process of individuation and milieu that occurs through an ontology of production. This ontology of production can, of course, also be understood as a political ontology. Therefore, this is, first of all, an inquiry into a mode of production, and, secondly, an inquiry into its relation to the issue of social justice – because of effects of digital divisions. In these terms, it also reflects on how expert discourses, such as in medical sociology and science studies (STS), can (and do) articulate their problems.

An integrative mode of discourse analysis, strongly related to discursive institutionalism, called semantic agency theory: it considers those arrangements (institutions, informal organizations, networks, collectivities, etc.) and assemblages (intellectual equipment, vernacular epistemologies, etc.) that are constitutive of how the issue of “patient experience” can be articulated form its position within an ontology of production.

The aim not being the production of a finite result, what is needed is a shift in how “the construction of patient experience” is produced by expert discourses. While the inquiry is not primarily an empirical study and is also limited to “Western societies,” it emphasizes that there is a relation between political ontologies (including the issues of social justice) and the subjectivities that shape the experiences of people in contemporary health care systems, and, finally, that this relation is troubled by the effects of the digital divide(s).

A proposal “to interrogate and trouble” some innovative extensions and revisions – even though it will not be able to speculate about matters of degree – to contemporary theories of biomedicalization, patienthood, and managed care.

In the last two decades, online computer-marked assignments (CMAs) have been widely used in accounting education. Although there is a growing body of research on this form of online assessment, most of the previous studies relied on small samples of respondents or focused on student self-report using survey methods. This exploratory mixed-method study aims to combine a quantitative analysis of learners’ academic performance on an online Financial Accounting course with a more in-depth exploration of learner experiences using qualitative methods. The quantitative findings suggest that student previous educational qualifications, age and experience of studying a similar subject are strongly associated with CMA completion, which is also linked to scores on other pieces of assessed work. The qualitative results show that from the learners’ perspective, diversifying assessment methods, introducing low-stakes assessment activities and creating opportunities for situational interest are viewed as key aspects of online CMA design. This paper concludes with discussing the implications of the study for designing and delivering online courses in accounting, particularly in the light of the growing popularity of massive open online courses (MOOCs).

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources and research and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the twenty‐first to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1994. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

Faraoyść is a translinguistic portmanteau neologism that describes the moment when oppressive systems are shaken and appear to be coming to an end, and joyful, liberated worlds feel within reach. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that faraoyść helped participants helped participants to expand their situated imaginings, which increased their capacity to imagine decolonized worlds.

This research was guided by faraoyść as a conceptual framework that explores the empirical experience of joy through collaborative world-building activities. These praxis-based exercises were tested in a series of workshops both at the 2020 UNESCO Futures Literacy Summit and in collaboration with Negligence Refugees from Lebanon.

When activated by collaboratively designed speculative objects and stories generated through the lens of faraoyść, participants created spaces of rhizomatic world-building that allowed them to imagine beyond the boundaries of their situated imaginings. Once participants had mapped the ways their imaginations were limited by current colonial systems of power, they were able to reorient their roles and develop new means to act within decolonized systems.

Faraoyść is a novel conceptual framework that contributes to current movements to decolonize futuring and foresight. This paper also introduces the concepts of rhizomatic world-building – an emergent approach to co-imagination, and situated imaginings, which are the systemic frameworks within which one imagines the ways the world has, is, will and must work. In practice, faraoyść is grounded in abundance and the power of liberatory joy to strengthen and celebrate local traditions, storytelling, world-building and community power.