Steven Alexander Melnyk, William J. Ritchie, Eric Stark and Angela Heavey
Dominant quality standards are present in all industries. Implicit in their use is the assumption that once adopted, there is little or no reason to replace them. However, there…
Abstract
Purpose
Dominant quality standards are present in all industries. Implicit in their use is the assumption that once adopted, there is little or no reason to replace them. However, there is evidence that, under certain circumstances, such standards do get replaced. The reasons for this action are not well-understood, either as they pertain to the displacement decision or to the selection and adoption of the alternative standard. The purpose of this study is to identify and explore these two issues (displacement and replacement) by drawing on data from the American healthcare system. This study is viewed through the theoretical lens of legitimacy theory. In addition, the process is viewed from a temporal perspective. The resulting findings are used to better understand how this displacement process takes place and to identify directions for interesting and meaningful future research.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an explanatory study that draws on data gathered from quality managers in 89 hospitals that had adopted a new healthcare quality standard (of these, some fifty percent had displaced the dominant quality standard – the Joint Commission – with a different standard – DNV Healthcare.
Findings
The combined literature review and case study data provide insights into the displacement process. This is a process that evolves over time. Initially, the process is driven by the need to meet customer demands. However, over time, as the organizations try to integrate the guidelines contained within the standards into the organization, gaps in the quality standard emerge. It is these gaps that motivate the need to displace standards. The legitimacy perspective is highly effective at explaining this displacement process. In addition, the study uncovers some critical issues, namely the important role played by the individual auditors in the certification process and the importance of fit between the standard and the context in which it is deployed.
Research limitations/implications
The data for the propositions in this case study were derived from interviews and survey data from 89 healthcare organizations. It would be interesting to examine similar relationships with other quality standards and industries.
Practical implications
Our findings provide new insights related to motivations to decouple from a dominant quality standard. Results provide a cautionary tale for standards that hold a dominant market share such that perceived legitimacy of such standards is not as stable as originally thought.
Originality/value
This study illuminates the fragile nature of the stability of dominant standards and emphasizes the linkages between legitimacy concerns and divestiture of such standards.
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Eric Stark, Paul Bierly† and Steven R. Harper
This paper aims to explore the interactive influence of conflict, task interdependence and cooperation on individual perceptions of team virtualness levels. The study attempts to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the interactive influence of conflict, task interdependence and cooperation on individual perceptions of team virtualness levels. The study attempts to provide additional insight regarding how or why virtual structures might develop in teams with co-located team members.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 355 upper-level business students assigned to the same team in four class integrated business courses. Moderated hierarchical regression was utilized in examining the moderating role of cooperation with conflict and task interdependence in predicting virtualness.
Findings
Cooperation positively moderates the relationships between relationship conflict and perceived virtualness and between perceived task interdependence and perceived virtualness. In addition, conditional support exists for a cooperation and process conflict interaction in predicting virtualness.
Originality/value
Many teams are mandated to be virtual either by management direction, task and resource requirements or by necessity due to being geographically dispersed. However, additional factors may influence the level of virtualness in teams with co-located members. This study provides preliminary evidence that an individual’s experiences in teams influences the individual’s views regarding the virtual structure of his or her team.
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For many years, science fiction has been perceived as “rayguns and rocket ships” boys' literature. Any number of impressionistic and statistical studies have identified the…
Abstract
For many years, science fiction has been perceived as “rayguns and rocket ships” boys' literature. Any number of impressionistic and statistical studies have identified the typical SF reader as male, between the ages of twelve and twenty and, in the case of adults, employed in some technical field. Yet I continually find myself having conversations with women, only to find that they, like myself, began reading science fiction between the ages of six and ten, have been reading it voraciously ever since, and were often frustrated at the absence of satisfying female characters and the presence of misogynistic elements in what they read. The stereotype of the male reader and the generally male SF environment mask both the increasing presence of women writers in the field of science fiction and the existence of a feminist dialog within some SF novels. This dialog had its beginnings in the mid‐sixties and is still going strong. It is the hope of the feminist SF community that this effacement can be counteracted.
Eric Dahlin, Samantha K. Ammons, Jacob S. Rugh, Rachel Sumsion and Justin Hebertson
While current scholarship on innovation typically examines its antecedents, the purpose of this paper is to provide a more complete account by advocating for social impacts as a…
Abstract
Purpose
While current scholarship on innovation typically examines its antecedents, the purpose of this paper is to provide a more complete account by advocating for social impacts as a critical component of the sociological study of innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a conceptual approach to illustrate the ways in which innovation may generate unequitable outcomes. The authors illustrate the purpose of the paper by discussing strategically selected examples that are intended to reflect prominent themes and topics in the relevant literature.
Findings
The analysis suggests that while innovation yields many positive benefits, pervasive narratives about its virtues can be overstated when, in fact, innovation may generate adverse effects for particular social groups by reproducing or exacerbating inequality. The authors provide a more complete account of innovation by naming social impacts as a critical component of its sociological study and discussing examples that illustrate how innovation can produce disadvantageous effects by race, gender and social class. The authors move forward the discussion of social impacts by elaborating conditions in which innovation is likely to reproduce the status quo as well as ameliorate negative impacts.
Originality/value
While many studies have explained the conditions that foster innovation, this study pushes the boundaries of the study of innovation – a timely topic for practitioners and scholars in the fields of not only sociology, but management, education and public policy. Accordingly, we move forward the discussion of the social impacts of innovation by identifying the ways in which innovation is likely to reproduce structural inequalities.
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A. Christian Morgan, Diana L. King, Rick D. Rudd and Eric K. Kaufman
Programs in agricultural leadership are continuing to enjoy success in institutions around the country. To this point, there has been a lack of research conducted to (a) identify…
Abstract
Programs in agricultural leadership are continuing to enjoy success in institutions around the country. To this point, there has been a lack of research conducted to (a) identify objectives for these programs, (b) identify courses that should be taught in these programs, (c) identify the need for and objectives of an internship requirement, or (d) determine future placements of program graduates. This study sought the opinions of 15 agricultural leadership experts from across the nation to address these questions. Although the panel came to consensus on these areas it was apparent that the experts in agricultural leadership must continue to work toward national goals and standards for agricultural leadership programs.
Jun Yang, Eric Zengxiang Wang and Yunbi An
The purpose of this paper is to study filer identities and voting outcomes of Canadian shareholder proposals and their impact on shareholders' wealth during the period from 2001…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study filer identities and voting outcomes of Canadian shareholder proposals and their impact on shareholders' wealth during the period from 2001 to 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 762 Canadian shareholder proposals and related information on targeted firms were collected from the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) and the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) databases. Statistical analyses are carried out on the features of shareholder proposals. Regression analyses are performed on voting outcomes, and an event study is conducted to test the impact of shareholder proposals on stock prices.
Findings
The authors' analyses show that proposals submitted by institutions or coordinated shareholder groups receive stronger support than those submitted by individuals and religious groups. Targeted firms are more willing and more likely to reach agreements with institutional investors, which in turn prompts activists to withdraw their proposals. The voting behavior of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) has a significant impact on voting outcomes. The targeted firms' stock prices respond substantially to news on proposals submitted by institutional and coordinated investors and proposals on social and environmental issues.
Originality/value
In addition to in‐depth analyses (issues, filers, voting outcomes, and impacts on stock price) of Canadian shareholder proposals, this paper explores the voting behaviour and impact of a large institutional shareholder that has been passive in filing shareholder proposals. Special attention is paid to Canadian features of shareholder activism, and differences between Canadian and US shareholder proposals are highlighted and discussed. The paper thus extends shareholder activism studies from focusing on open shareholder activists to investigating passive institutional shareholders.
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Lisa A. Hutton and Joyce H. Burstein
This descriptive study reports results from surveys and interviews to extend a 2004 study of K-5 elementary teachers. Results show the continued trend of teachers spending a…
Abstract
This descriptive study reports results from surveys and interviews to extend a 2004 study of K-5 elementary teachers. Results show the continued trend of teachers spending a minimal amount of time teaching history-social science compared to reading/language arts and mathematics. Teachers are pressured to focus on reading/language arts and increase test scores on standardized tests and history-social science is being marginalized in the elementary curriculum. In the 2006 data collection, teachers reported their commitment to teaching history-social science and related their struggles in teaching it. Many of the surveyed teachers are finding creative ways to carve out time in the school day to focus on history-social science. The article concludes with an appeal to social studies educators and professional organizations to reaffirm the importance of history-social science in the elementary curriculum with a clear articulation and dissemination of the goals and benefits of history-social science education.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of illness-driven agriculture income shocks on remittance payments in Ghana using a nationally representative household…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of illness-driven agriculture income shocks on remittance payments in Ghana using a nationally representative household pseudo-panel data set for 1991/1992, 1998/1999 and 2005/2006.
Design/methodology/approach
The two-stage least square instrumental variable technique is used. This is compared with the ordinary least squares estimator.
Findings
The author finds that households in Ghana use remittances to protect themselves from negative agriculture income shocks. The study further reveals that the protection is resilient in female-headed households.
Research limitations/implications
The question of remittances as a safety net mechanism is interesting, but the limitation is the challenges involving the counterfactual setup in studying the effects of endogenous migration choices.
Practical implications
The study provides that, as far as microeconomic factors are concerned, remittances increase in times of negative agriculture income shocks attributed to illness in Ghana.
Social implications
The finding points to the fact that remittance payments play an essential role as an informal safety net during illness-driven agriculture income shock especially for female-headed households in Ghana. This has an important implication for poverty reduction in Ghana.
Originality/value
It provides an empirical test of the claim that remittance flows buffer idiosyncratic shock with micro-level household data that incorporates both internal and international remittances. The paper introduces gender dimension into idiosyncratic shocks’ impact. Also, the data set makes it possible to provide a reliable set of agriculture income shock estimates.