The purpose of this article is to raise issues about how libraries interact with users in the twenty‐first century, and design and deliver services that make a difference, using…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to raise issues about how libraries interact with users in the twenty‐first century, and design and deliver services that make a difference, using evolving digital reference services as one model.
Design/methodology/approach
The author raises questions relating to a conference theme, “Recognizing the success of reference”, and provides examples from the UCLA Library to illustrate customer‐centered service.
Findings
While there are no easy answers to the provocative questions, they must be asked in order to improve library services.
Practical implications
Stimulates thinking and discussion about reference and other users' services in libraries.
Originality/value
Asks important questions about the status of reference services in today's libraries, and challenges numerous core assumptions about the design and delivery of such services.
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Challenges in modifying an older building to accommodate a contemporary library include many of those inherent in planning for any new building: defining future needs…
Abstract
Challenges in modifying an older building to accommodate a contemporary library include many of those inherent in planning for any new building: defining future needs, anticipating growth, projecting how new technology will affect functions and staffing patterns. An older building presents additional challenges because electrical, plumbing, and other systems often must be retrofitted to accommodate higher demands. The introduction of new technologies also imposes requirements for ventilation, noise suppression, and temperature regulation that are much more complex than old designs anticipated. Sophisticated, contemporary electronic linkages for voice and data communications make demands that were unknown when the building was designed. These challenges are related to the remodeling of the California State Library.
Patricia Ahmed and Rebecca Jean Emigh
Two perspectives provide alternative insights into household composition in contemporary Eastern Europe. The first stresses that individuals have relatively fixed preferences…
Abstract
Two perspectives provide alternative insights into household composition in contemporary Eastern Europe. The first stresses that individuals have relatively fixed preferences about living arrangements and diverge from them only when they cannot attain their ideal. The second major approach, the adaptive strategies perspective, predicts that individuals have few preferences. Instead, they use household composition to cope with economic hardship, deploy labor, or care for children or the elderly. This article evaluates these approaches in five post‐socialist East‐European countries, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Russia, using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The results suggest that household extension is common in these countries and provide the most evidence for the adaptive strategies perspective. In particular, the results show that variables operationalizing the adaptive strategies perspective, including measures of single motherhood, retirement status, agricultural cultivation, and poverty, increase the odds of household extension.
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Virpi-Liisa Kykyri and Risto Puutio
Although emotions are relevant for conflicted interactions, the role of emotions in organizational conflicts has remained understudied. The purpose of this paper is to contribute…
Abstract
Purpose
Although emotions are relevant for conflicted interactions, the role of emotions in organizational conflicts has remained understudied. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this by looking at the role of nonverbal affective elements in conversations.
Design/methodology/approach
Bringing together organizational “becoming” and embodiment approaches, the study focused on a conflict which emerged during a multi-actor consulting conversation. The episode in question was analyzed via a detailed, micro-level discursive method which focused specifically on the participants’ use of prosodic and nonverbal behaviors.
Findings
Changes in prosody were found to have an important role in how the conflict between a consultant and an employee client emerged and was handled. Nonverbal and prosodic means had a central role in creating legitimate space for the employees’ feelings: they helped to validate the feelings and thus led the interlocutors to act in a more constructive manner in their handling of the conflicted situation.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are based on a single case study. Multi-modal analysis proved effective in capturing the relevant interactions in a comprehensive manner.
Practical implications
Conversational “traps” may be observed by becoming alert to interactional patterns involving repeated chains of actions. A nonverbal response, validating the interlocutor as someone who is entitled to her/his feelings, can be sufficient in providing emotional help in consultancy.
Social implications
Nonverbal elements of interactions are important in handling delicate issues in conflicts.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, no previous organizational research has provided a detailed description of a conflicted interaction “as it happened” between clients and a consultant.
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Gary Lamph, Mark Sampson, Debra Smith, Gary Williamson and Mark Guyers
Personality disorder is reported to elicit strong emotional responses and negative attitudes in mental health staff (Bodner et al., 2015). The purpose of this paper is to provide…
Abstract
Purpose
Personality disorder is reported to elicit strong emotional responses and negative attitudes in mental health staff (Bodner et al., 2015). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the design and development of a co-produced e-learning training package for personality disorder awareness and an evaluation of its effectiveness. This study was carried out to explore if e-learning is an effective mode of training delivery for raising personality disorder awareness.
Design/methodology/approach
The e-learning was uniquely developed by subject matter experts working in co-production with people with lived experience. Self-reported measures were completed at three separate intervals to evaluate the effectiveness of the training: at pre-, post- and three-month follow up. Quantitative data were collected via these questionnaires.
Findings
The results from this evaluation show that e-learning is an effective mode of delivery for raising the awareness of personality disorder among mental health professionals, achieving similar outcomes to those reported following face-to-ace training.
Research limitations/implications
Attrition at follow-up phase was high which was consistent with other similar studies. The evaluation was led by the lead contributors and in the geographical area of its development. The study was relatively small and the participants were self-selected, therefore findings should be treated with caution.
Practical implications
E-learning can provide flexible training to compliment and act as an alternative to face-to-face personality disorder training. E-learning may provide an alternative refresher course to knowledge and understanding framework or other face-to-face methods. Co-produced training can be mirrored within an e-learning programme, careful planning to ensure the service user voice is heard and that their lived experience is embraced is required.
Originality/value
This is the first evaluation of a co-produced e-learning only personality disorder awareness training. It is also the first paper to carry out a review of the published evaluations of personality awareness training in the UK with comparisons explored across the studies.
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Gary Garrison, Michael Harvey and Nancy Napier
This paper examines the role of managerial curiosity as a critical factor in determining the future impact of disruptive information technologies in a global organization…
Abstract
This paper examines the role of managerial curiosity as a critical factor in determining the future impact of disruptive information technologies in a global organization. Specifically, this paper presents curiosity as a managerial characteristic that plays an important role in identifying disruptive information technologies and facilitating their early adoption. Further, it uses resource‐based theory as a theoretical lens to illustrate how managerial curiosity can be a source of sustained competitive advantage. Finally, it examines the individual decision styles that are best suited in assessing disruptive information technologies.
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Stacey Kaden, Gary Peters, Juan Manuel Sanchez and Gary M. Fleischman
The authors extend research suggesting that external funders reduce their contributions to not-for-profit (NFP) organizations in response to media-reported CEO compensation levels.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors extend research suggesting that external funders reduce their contributions to not-for-profit (NFP) organizations in response to media-reported CEO compensation levels.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing a maximum archival sample of 44,807 observations from US Form 990s, the authors comprehensively assess the extent that high relative NFP CEO compensation is associated with decreases in future contributions.
Findings
The authors find that donors and grantors react negatively to high relative CEO compensation but do not react adversely to high absolute executive compensation. Contributors seem to take issue with CEO compensation when they perceive it absorbs a relatively large portion of the organizations’ total expenses, which may hinder the NFP’s mission. Additional findings suggest that excess cash held by the NFP significantly exacerbates the negative baseline relationship between future contributions and high relative CEO compensation. Finally, both individual donors and professional grantors are sensitive to cash NFP CEO compensation levels, but grantors are more sensitive to CEO noncash compensation.
Research limitations/implications
The authors’ data are focused on larger NFP organizations, so this limits the generalizability of the study. Furthermore, survivorship bias potentially influences their time-series investigations because a current year large-scale decrease in funding due to high relative CEO compensation may cause some NFP firms to drop out of the sample the following year due to significant funding reductions.
Originality/value
The study makes three noteworthy contributions to the literature. First, the study documents that the negative association between high relative CEO compensation levels and future donor and grantor contributions is much more widespread than previous literature suggested. Second, the authors document that high relative CEO compensation levels that trigger reductions in future contributions are significantly exacerbated by excess cash held by the NFP. Finally, the authors find that more sophisticated grantors are more sensitive to noncash CEO compensation levels as compared with donors.
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President Bill Clinton has had many opponents and enemies, most of whom come from the political right wing. Clinton supporters contend that these opponents, throughout the Clinton…
Abstract
President Bill Clinton has had many opponents and enemies, most of whom come from the political right wing. Clinton supporters contend that these opponents, throughout the Clinton presidency, systematically have sought to undermine this president with the goal of bringing down his presidency and running him out of office; and that they have sought non‐electoral means to remove him from office, including Travelgate, the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster, the Filegate controversy, and the Monica Lewinsky matter. This bibliography identifies these and other means by presenting citations about these individuals and organizations that have opposed Clinton. The bibliography is divided into five sections: General; “The conspiracy stream of conspiracy commerce”, a White House‐produced “report” presenting its view of a right‐wing conspiracy against the Clinton presidency; Funding; Conservative organizations; and Publishing/media. Many of the annotations note the links among these key players.