John Bancroft, Krish Saha, Di Li, Gabor Lukacs and Xavier Pierron
The purpose of this paper is to examine England’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) arm of the National Health Service (NHS). It considers the positive impact that Lean has had and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine England’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) arm of the National Health Service (NHS). It considers the positive impact that Lean has had and Six-Sigma can have in A&E departments to improve the quality and reliability of the service offered, in an area that is facing performance challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
Independent variables average monthly temperature data (degrees Celsius) obtained from the Met Office and weekly A&E data, patient volume is analysed alongside the dependent variable, the percentage of patients seen in 4 h or less.
Findings
The model produced a robust positive impact when Lean Six-Sigma is adopted, increasing the likelihood of A&E dependents meeting their performance objective to see and treat patients in 4 h or less.
Research limitations/implications
Further variables such as staffing levels, A&E admission type should be considered in future studies. Additionally, it would add further clarity to analyse hospitals and trusts individually, to gauge which are struggling.
Practical implications
Should the NHS further its understanding and adoption of Lean Six-Sigma, it is believed this could have significant improvements in productivity, patient care and cost reduction.
Social implications
Productivity improvements will allow the NHS to do more with an equal amount of funding, therefore improving capacity and patient care.
Originality/value
Through observing A&E and its ability to treat patients in a timely fashion it is clear the NHS is struggling to meet its performance objectives, the recommendation of Six-Sigma in A&E should improve the reliability and quality of care offered to patients.
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Julianna Boros and Eszter Gergye
This chapter aims to provide a short overview about the situation of Roma in Hungary. Starting from the question ‘Who are the Roma, Gypsy in Hungary?’, this chapter introduces…
Abstract
This chapter aims to provide a short overview about the situation of Roma in Hungary. Starting from the question ‘Who are the Roma, Gypsy in Hungary?’, this chapter introduces several researches on Hungarian Roma. The linguistic groups of Roma are briefly outlined to make it clear how much the Hungarian Roma are heterogeneous. The social situation of the Roma, as minority in Hungary, is also detailed by introducing geographical location and housing and employment regarding to Roma. Based on these general data on Hungarian Roma, this chapter aims to focus on educational situation of the Roma minority in Hungary, including – primary and secondary school education, education in special schools, education in college and university, adult education, school success supporting educational initiatives and programmes like extracurricular programmes. As a summary, this chapter introduces some further researches by short abstracts in order to provide a suitable starting point for those who are willing to get know more about this minority in Hungary.
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Masum Miah, S.M. Mahbubur Rahman, Subarna Biswas, Gábor Szabó-Szentgróti and Virág Walter
This study aims to examine the direct effects of Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) practices on employee green behavior (EGB) in the university setting in Bangladesh and to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the direct effects of Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) practices on employee green behavior (EGB) in the university setting in Bangladesh and to find the indirect effects of how GHRM promotes EGB through sequentially mediating employee environmental knowledge management (EEKM) (environmental knowledge and knowledge sharing) and green self-efficacy (GSE).
Design/methodology/approach
For the empirical study, the researcher uses partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the proposed conceptual model built on existing literature for greening workplaces in the university in Bangladesh. The study has collected data from 288 Bangladeshi university employees using convenient sampling.
Findings
The findings that GHRM practices positively and significantly promote EGB, which captures the employee's tendencies to exercise green behavior in daily routine activities such as turning off lights, air conditioning, computers and equipment after working hours, printing on both sides, recycling (reducing, repair, reuse), disseminating good green ideas, concepts, digital skills and knowledge to peers and champion green initiatives at work. Moreover, the findings also revealed the sequential mediation of EEKM (environmental knowledge and knowledge sharing) and GSE of employees between the link GHRM and EGB. At last, the findings suggested that HR managers can implement the GHRM practices to promote green behaviors among the academic and non-academic staff of the university.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the field by extending knowledge of Social Cognition Theory and Social Learning Theory for greening workplaces in Bangladesh, particularly universities. Specifically, this empirical study is unique to the best of our knowledge and highlights the role of EEKM and GSE as mediation between GHRM and EGB association.
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This article takes its point of departure from the intellectual milieu in the mid-1980s that gave rise to Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s book, On Justification: Economies of…
Abstract
This article takes its point of departure from the intellectual milieu in the mid-1980s that gave rise to Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot’s book, On Justification: Economies of Worth. It shows how exposure to ideas and concepts in that book came to take varied forms as they were elaborated and modified in the work of an American sociologist across several decades of research in diverse empirical settings.
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Karl P. Benziger and Richard R. Weiner
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 shook the Soviet Union to the core and provided the West with the iconic image of the freedom fighter willing to risk all for the cause of…
Abstract
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 shook the Soviet Union to the core and provided the West with the iconic image of the freedom fighter willing to risk all for the cause of freedom. The pathos of the lost cause provided Hungarians with a new set of heroes akin to those of the failed 1848 Revolution, the best known being Prime Minister Imre Nagy who was executed for siding with the revolutionaries in their bid to establish a sovereign republic. His belated funeral on June 16, 1989 undermined the moral and political authority of the communist regime that had attempted to consign Nagy and his confederates to oblivion and seemed to mimic Emile Durkheim's analysis of piaculum and the conscience collective. But the spectacle of Nagy's funeral only temporarily shrouded significant differences between and within those factions demanding pluralist society, most recently revealed in the acrimonious celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. These debates are rooted in Hungary's deeply troubled past that strongly questioned republican values in contrast to the authoritarian values of the Hapsburg monarchy, alliance with the Axis, genocide, and its relationship to communism in the wake of the disaster of World War II. Jacques Derrida tells us that it is not easy to exorcise our ghosts; instead, we are prompted to reconstruction. Memory studies, stimulated by studies of the Holocaust, transformed the sociological imagination (especially Friedlander, 1993; LaCapra, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 1998d). There has been what Michael Roth referred to as “a turning of oneself so as to be in relation to the past” as an act of witness. The traumatic memory of the 1956 Revolution provides yet another case in which a traumatic past is still salient to the political actors in the contemporary arena. This chapter immerses itself in the emergence of historical sociology and with it “memory studies,” that is: (1) the relationship between identity, memory, and embodiment; and (2) the relationship between historical circumstance and collective memory formation (described in diverse approaches such as Adorno, 1959; 1997; Nora, 1989; Postone, Martha, & Kobyashi 2009). In particular, there is in historical sociology an emergent interest in (1) commemorative practices, memorializing addresses, memento; and (2) the struggles over memory, remembering, and forgetting.