Dima Faour-Klingbeil, Victor Kuri and Ewen Todd
The objectives of this study were to compare the hygiene standards and food handling practices between sole-proprietor and the corporate-managed restaurants in Lebanon and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The objectives of this study were to compare the hygiene standards and food handling practices between sole-proprietor and the corporate-managed restaurants in Lebanon and to determine whether the variations between both groups are explained by and directly related to the type of management.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth observation assessment of food safety environment and practices was conducted on a convenient sample of 50 food businesses in Beirut, which are typical of foodservice outlets in Lebanon and in many countries of the Middle East. The observation assessment checklist comprised six constructs of 2–7 components for analysis. It covered all areas including documentation and record-keeping requirements, which are crucial parts of a food safety system.
Findings
There was a significant difference in the visual assessment score between sole-proprietor (77.9 ± 18.4) and corporate group (48.5 ± 12.8). Food handlers' behavior and hygiene standards were significantly associated with the type of management. However, there were still critical gaps in the food safety performance of the corporate group suggesting other underlying factors than the type of management.
Practical implications
Additional elements were drawn from this study for future food safety culture research. Understanding the food safety attitudes and perception of risks of the management representatives, leaders, or food business owners is vital to develop appropriate food safety interventions and foster a positive food safety culture in the foodservice industry.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study not only in Lebanon (or MENA) but also in other regions to measure the association of management type, that is, sole-proprietor management and corporate management, with the food hygiene standards and food safety practices in the foodservice establishments. This paper presents new findings that will be of value for researchers in food safety and will complement the existing literature on food safety culture in the foodservice industry.
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Jean Kennedy, Michelle Worosz, Ewen C. Todd and Maria K. Lapinski
The purpose of this research paper is to segment US consumers based on their attitudes towards food safety and to demographically characterize each segment so that effective risk…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research paper is to segment US consumers based on their attitudes towards food safety and to demographically characterize each segment so that effective risk communication strategies and outreach programs may be developed to target vulnerable groups.
Design/methodology/approach
Factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were applied to data on consumer food safety attitudes of a probability sample of US adults, collected by telephone questionnaires (n=1,014).
Findings
The diversity of consumer attitudes was based on five factors; concern, trust, desire for a high level of regulation, acceptance for the number of people who are ill, hospitalized or die from foodborne illness, and preference for the right to purchase foods that are not guaranteed to be safe. The consumer segments identified on the bases of these factors can be classified as “confident,” “independent”, “trusting”, “cautious”, or “apprehensive” consumers. Socio‐demographic characteristics; education, income, person with allergy in the household, and person under the age of six living in the household, varied significantly between each consumer segment.
Practical implications
This study can inform effective food safety intervention strategies and target consumers most in need of food safety education that may enhance overall food safety knowledge and/or lead to changes in their behavior.
Originality/value
This paper uses exploratory factor analysis to identify the factors that underlie consumers' attitudes towards food safety. It is the first study to segment US consumers based on these factors and to demographically characterize each segment.
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Peter Murphy, Katarzyna Lakoma, Peter Eckersley and Russ Glennon
This chapter reviews the new inspectorate, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and the new Inspection Framework for Fire and Rescue Services in…
Abstract
This chapter reviews the new inspectorate, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and the new Inspection Framework for Fire and Rescue Services in England. It will look at the antecedents of the inspectorate and the history of inspections in both the police and in the fire and rescue services. Prior to the Policing and Crime Act 2017, Fire and Rescue Services in England were without a dedicated independent inspectorate for almost 10 years and the government promised a new independent and a rigorous inspection regime. This chapter critically evaluates the government's response and the early development of the new regime.
This paper seeks to explore how repertory grids can be used to address IT team performance issues. The technique is introduced along with the process of creating and analyzing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore how repertory grids can be used to address IT team performance issues. The technique is introduced along with the process of creating and analyzing repertory grid data.
Design/methodology/approach
To explore the application of the repertory grid technique to team performance issues. An example focused on eliciting the essential soft skills needed by programmers to effectively interact with IT team members is illustrated.
Research limitations/implications
To researchers, the main benefit of this paper is that it introduces a technique that is easy to use, enables the researcher to easily determine the relationship between constructs, is free from researcher bias, and can be applied to a wide variety of team‐related research studies.
Practical implications
This research presents a means by which human resource managers, hiring personnel, and team leaders can easily determine essential skills needed on the IT teams of the organization, thereby deriving a “wish list” from key IT groups as to the desired non‐technical characteFristics of potential new team members.
Originality/value
Shows how repertory grids can be used to address IT team performance issues.
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The purpose of the article is to examine whether, if Bernays can be cast as “Dr Jekyll”, the personification of “good”, respectable public relations, and Goebbels as “Mr Hyde”…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the article is to examine whether, if Bernays can be cast as “Dr Jekyll”, the personification of “good”, respectable public relations, and Goebbels as “Mr Hyde”, “evil”, disreputable propaganda, a comparison of their writing and work provides an insight into public relations as an activity distinct from propaganda or rather adds weight to the conclusion that both are behaviours of “self-presentation for attention and advantage”.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparative analysis of writings and work of contemporaries, Bernays and Goebbels, gathered from original documents, speeches and interviews from the 1920s to the mid-1940s, as well as secondary academic and historical sources, was carried out. The analysis of their views on propaganda and “public relations” was organised using the point-by-point method.
Findings
The findings support the conclusion that both activities are behaviours of “self-presentation for attention and advantage”. For Bernays and Goebbels, public relations and propaganda were always self-advantaging communication that drew attention to the positive values and behaviours of the interests they represented and masked the negative ones.
Originality/value
There are striking parallels between contemporaries, Bernays and Goebbels, including working in public opinion management for their respective governments and embracing propaganda as a means of “engineering consent”. Yet, while Bernays has been lauded as the “father of public relations” and “the PR profession's first philosopher and intellectual”, Goebbels is remembered as a “master manipulator”, “probably the most overt and arguably the most important, exponent of propaganda in history”. To the researcher's knowledge, there are no other point-by-point analyses of their work with a view to distinguishing public relations as an activity distinct from propaganda.
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Heather M. Caruso and Anita Williams Woolley
To reap the value in diverse teams, leaders may try to manipulate structural interdependence – through task design – to foster synergistic collaboration. However, ambiguity about…
Abstract
To reap the value in diverse teams, leaders may try to manipulate structural interdependence – through task design – to foster synergistic collaboration. However, ambiguity about the nature and appropriate intersections of members’ unique and valuable cognitive perspectives can make it difficult to fully anticipate collaborative activity in task design. Here, teams need emergent interdependence – members must develop the desire and expectation to work interdependently for the benefit of the work. We therefore present a model of how leaders can promote emergent interdependence for diverse team success, identifying key antecedents and discussing psychological safety as a condition which can enhance their efforts.
BC BLOOMFIELD, PAT LAYZELL WARD, EV CORBETT, JON ELLIOTT, JOHN SMITH, PETER LEWIS, HAROLD NICHOLS and CAVAN McCARTHY
RECENTLY I picked up a copy of NEW LIBRARY WORLD and browsed through it, detecting, or so I thought, a certain bias in its editorial approach towards the public librarian, and…
Abstract
RECENTLY I picked up a copy of NEW LIBRARY WORLD and browsed through it, detecting, or so I thought, a certain bias in its editorial approach towards the public librarian, and mentally discounted most of what I read until, emerging through the advertisements, I came to ‘The Shallow End’. Recognising yet another example of Parkinson's law (journalism expands to fill the space available) and style, I nevertheless, as they graphically say, ‘read on’. It was quickly borne in on me that the feelings expressed by the noxious Thrasher in the March and June issues were, with some modification and emendation, precisely what I uneasily felt in regard to the rôle of modern public library in this country. Both articles raise some very serious points and I thought I might expose some of my jaundiced qualms to the judicious discussion of others more nearly concerned.
Craig S. Fleisher and Natasha M. Blair
This paper examines the evolution of two separate fields, which are essentially concerned with the same issues but are framed by different academic and professional disciplines…
Abstract
This paper examines the evolution of two separate fields, which are essentially concerned with the same issues but are framed by different academic and professional disciplines and practice. It appears that public affairs management researchers often fail to take into account parallel literature from the discipline of public relations — even when purporting to offer an interdisciplinary approach. Equally, the public relations literature frequently fails to speak the language of business management and narrowly defines such key business activities as marketing, policy and strategy. In this paper, the authors present evidence prescribing the differing evolution of public affairs and public relations. They compare and contrast public affairs and public relations in terms of their definitions, scholarship, survey evidence, leading writers, academic and professional associations and educational programme content. They conclude by offering several suggestions for closing the gap between the two areas.