Roy McConkey, Marie-Therese Cassin, Rosie McNaughton and Elaine Armstrong
This paper aims to design and evaluate an innovative community-based service for adults with autism in a rural region of Northern Ireland. The goal was to reduce their social…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to design and evaluate an innovative community-based service for adults with autism in a rural region of Northern Ireland. The goal was to reduce their social isolation through gaining social skills and building social networks.
Design/methodology/approach
Over three years, 54 persons with a median age of 21 years received 12 months of one-to-one, personalised support and opportunities to participate in peer groups and social activities which are detailed in the paper. Quantitative and qualitative information about the impact of the service was obtained from its users, their relatives, as well as service personnel.
Findings
Service users rated themselves to have changed in more ways than did their relatives and staff although there was a consensus that the changes were most marked in terms of spending more time out of the house, engaging in more community activities, being more independent and increased confidence. The main benefits they perceived from participation in the project were socialising, new experiences and learning new things.
Research limitations/implications
As with many service projects, a longer term follow-up of service users was not possible due to resource constraints.
Practical implications
The service could be replicated with suitable staff although current constraints on social care budgets have limited its expansion to more users and extension to other areas in Northern Ireland.
Social implications
Reducing the social isolation of adult persons with autism spectrum disorders needs to be personalised to the person, their living circumstances and the community in which they live. Family carers also stand to gain from community support services.
Originality/value
This low level, low cost service was implemented in a predominantly rural area with a majority of users from socially deprived areas.
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Jean Mary Daly Lynn, Elaine Armstrong and Suzanne Martin
The purpose of this paper is to outline the application of user centred design (UCD) within a research project to support the design, development and evaluation of a brain…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the application of user centred design (UCD) within a research project to support the design, development and evaluation of a brain computer interface (BCI) with associated home-based services and remote therapy station for people with acquired brain injury (ABI).
Design/methodology/approach
A multi- stakeholder UCD approach was adopted to include people living with ABI, their caregivers and therapists providing rehabilitation. A three-phased iterative approach was implemented: Phase 1 was to gather user requirements, Phase 2 an iterative design phase with end user (EU) groups and therapists and finally the verification and implementation phase. The final phase had two strands of a home-based BCI evaluation with target EUs and their caregivers, alongside this, therapists evaluated the final therapist station that supports the use of the BCI at home. Ethical governance, inline with Ulster University, was awarded.
Findings
UCD enabled the co-creation and validation of a home-based BCI system for social inclusion and rehabilitation.
Originality/value
This was the first BCI project to adopt UCD to design and validation a novel home-based BCI system and migrate this from the lab to home. It highlights the importance of UCD to bridge the gap between the technical developers and those whom the technology is aimed at. This complex design process is essential to increase usability and reduce device abandonment.
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YOU ARE probably wondering what has happened to Industrial Library News. In taking over from Alan Armstrong I should like to broaden the coverage of these columns to cover current…
Abstract
YOU ARE probably wondering what has happened to Industrial Library News. In taking over from Alan Armstrong I should like to broaden the coverage of these columns to cover current technical and commercial library news in general. So if you feel that the services you run, committee you serve on or publications you produce would be of interest to others I should be delighted to hear from you at Lambeth Reference Library, Brixton Oval, London SW2 Tel: 01–274 7451 ext 32.
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Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong
In recent years, Canadian women have been flooding into the labour market, into employment and unemployment. While the steadily rising participation rate of women has been…
Abstract
In recent years, Canadian women have been flooding into the labour market, into employment and unemployment. While the steadily rising participation rate of women has been carefully documented and discussed, the more dramatic increase in the female unemployment rate has been largely ignored or dismissed as unimportant. To the extent that these patterns have been analysed, the growing number of women searching for paid work has been explained primarily in terms of changing female aspirations and preferences and has been viewed by some as dangerous, as a threat to male employment. Too many women choosing to work (and, as a corollory, choosing not to have babies) is often seen to be the main cause of the increase in both male and female unemployment. More effort has been directed toward dismissing women's unemployment as insignificant — because they do not need to work, because they are secondary workers, and because they claim unemployment primarily to gain eligibility for benefits, toward explaining away women's unemployment, than toward investigating the economic conditions which give rise to these massive changes in women's labour force behaviour.
Xiqing Sha, Jing (Elaine) Chen and Say Yen Teoh
This study intends to reveal how to manage the dynamic process of information technology business (IT-business) strategic alignment; managing this alignment is an unknown yet…
Abstract
Purpose
This study intends to reveal how to manage the dynamic process of information technology business (IT-business) strategic alignment; managing this alignment is an unknown yet critical issue that must be addressed by any firm trying to unleash the business value of their IT investments.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents our case study of a healthcare organization after healthcare information systems (HIS) implementation and investigates the strategic alignment between the implemented HIS and the organizational strategy from a dynamic perspective.
Findings
Two different patterns of alignment (i.e. an IT-strategy–driven pattern and a business-strategy–driven pattern) are identified, and a process model of the IT-business strategic alignment is developed. Moreover, this study focuses on the social dimension of strategic alignment and examines the role of this dimension, which is critical and fundamental with respect to other dimensions, in achieving strategic alignment.
Research limitations/implications
This paper makes important theoretical contributions to the understanding of strategic alignment by taking a dynamic view of alignment, identifying different patterns of alignment, emphasizing the role of social alignment and developing a comprehensive process model.
Practical implications
From a managerial perspective, managers should periodically scrutinize the IT-business alignment patterns of their organizations and develop dynamic capabilities for strategic alignment.
Originality/value
While most of the literature on the dynamics of strategic alignment have focused on confirming the dynamics of strategic alignment and identifying the factors that create dynamics in alignment, this study examines IT-business alignment as a continuous process over time, thus providing a novel perspective. Moreover, while the role of social alignment and its impact on downstream performance remain unclear in the current literature, this study incorporates the social dimension of alignment to investigate the role of this dimension in achieving IT-business strategic alignment.
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Sally Smith, Thomas N. Garavan, Anne Munro, Elaine Ramsey, Colin F. Smith and Alison Varey
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of professional and leader identity and the maintenance of identity, through identity work as IT professionals transitioned to a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of professional and leader identity and the maintenance of identity, through identity work as IT professionals transitioned to a permanent hybrid role. This study therefore contributes to the under-researched area of permanent transition to a hybrid role in the context of IT, where there is a requirement to enact both the professional and leader roles together.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilised a longitudinal design and two qualitative methods (interviews and reflective diaries) to gather data from 17 IT professionals transitioning to hybrid roles.
Findings
The study findings reveal that IT professionals engage in an ongoing process of reconciliation of professional and leader identity as they transition to a permanent hybrid role, and they construct hybrid professional–leader identities while continuing to value their professional identity. They experience professional–leader identity conflict resulting from reluctance to reconcile both professional and leader identities. They used both integration and differentiation identity work tactics to ameliorate these tensions.
Originality/value
The longitudinal study design, the qualitative approaches used and the unique context of the participants provide a dynamic and deep understanding of the challenges involved in performing hybrid roles in the context of IT.
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The Online Search Tutor (OST) was developed under funding from the British Library Research and Development Department as a self‐contained training package for end‐users of online…
Abstract
The Online Search Tutor (OST) was developed under funding from the British Library Research and Development Department as a self‐contained training package for end‐users of online search services. The software package includes Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) techniques and system simulation (emulation) modules and is based on the QUEST command language of ESA‐IRS. This paper describes the structure of this package and also includes the results of a small‐scale evaluation of its use with a sample of end‐users with no previous experience of online searching. OST runs on an IBM‐PC XT microcomputer.
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Elaine L. Ritch and Julie McColl
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of:The impact of increasing competition occurring within the UK retail environment.Consumers efforts…
Abstract
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of:
The impact of increasing competition occurring within the UK retail environment.
Consumers efforts to reduce the disparity between beliefs and behaviours, as conceptualised within cognitive dissonance theory.
The alignment with marketing, the wider economy and the retail sector as a means to identify ways to shape value creation.