Search results

Presents a structured and radically new approach to SPC. Applied to measure any process within an organization. A hierarchy of charts creates ownership of the process, which ultimately measures success against “World‐class” standards. Adopted successfully by teams, vastly reduces the time to solve problems. In practice, showing over 30 per cent improvement in performance. Replaces the traditional approach to chart selection. Uses a filter process to define a simpler and more reliable method. Creates an opportunity to set realistic targets continually against process performance. Provides an ideal and effective technique to improving business performance through teamwork.

This study aimed to explore how forensic mental health service users make sense of their past adverse experiences. Secondly, it aimed to explore whether service users considered their adverse experiences to be related to their current stay in a forensic mental health setting.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse interviews with eight service users in low and medium secure care. Six of the participants were male and two were female.

Four super-ordinate themes emerged from the data: “Living amongst adversity”; “Managing adverse experiences”; “Making sense of going into secure care”; and “Coping with the past in the present”. All participants referred to multiple adverse experiences throughout their lives and used harmful coping strategies to manage these. Individual differences in how they related their past experiences to their detention in secure care were evident.

Author guidelines state that this section is optional. Implications for clinical practice are discussed at length in the discussion section.

This study offers an insight into the way in which forensic mental health service users make sense of their past traumas in relation to their current admission to secure services. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research has previously addressed this from the perspective of service users.

The purpose of this paper is to recount the history of the marketing of the maritime passenger industry (known today as the cruise industry). This is a unique industry that has survived and thrived for almost 175 years despite dramatic environmental changes. This history focuses on passenger shipping in and out of the USA first from/to European ports, later focusing on cruises from the USA to the Caribbean, today’s most popular cruise destination.

This study adapts the Hollander et al. (2005) approach and incorporates primary data such as fare lists, advertisements and promotional materials, as well as secondary data from a variety of expert works and government reports.

This study finds that the industry’s marketing history can be divided into six periods or phases: immigration and luxury (mid-nineteenth century to 1914); World War I (1914-1918); tourism, alcohol and luxury (1918-1939); World War II (1939-1946); jet age emergence (1946-1970); and cruising for all (1970 to the present day). Continuing industry growth; increasing focus on new geographic, and every-smaller demographic and psychographic markets; promotional emphasis on cuisine and activities; and positioning as a mass-consumed luxury are trends for the future.

Space constraints limit the information mostly to Europe-to-North America sailings of British and German transatlantic lines early in the paper, and to USA-to-Caribbean cruises in later phases.

This study illustrates how an industry can completely reinvent all elements of its marketing strategy in response to changing social and technological forces. It adds to a growing body of industry marketing histories.

Although much has been written about maritime history, no known work has examined the history of the marketing of the maritime passenger industry. It augments the growing body of industry-specific marketing histories.

This paper aims to assess the impact of the presence/absence of risk management practices on the risk of merger and acquisition (M&A) failure.

An agency theoretic perspective is adopted, along with a mixed-methods approach to study managerial complexity beyond simply “good” and “bad”. The focus is on an agency conflicts.

The authors first present an integrated framework that classifies managerial behaviour and risk management, where M&A bids can become vehicles for maximising managerial benefits rather than shareholder value. The authors proceed to consider M&A activity that benefits both managers and shareholders in the presence of risk management strategies.

The paper highlights the benefits of multiple paradigms and research paths that address dimensions captured by an agency theoretic perspective.

The authors regard this paper as having particular significance in that the global financial crisis has impacted M&A activities and objectives, shifting the employment and related risks faced by managers.

The paper suggests future research paths to advance the understanding of the complex behaviour of managers involved in M&A activities that go beyond the classification of “good” and “bad” managers.

This paper contributes to a dialogue about the psychoanalytic concept of free association and its application in the context of qualitative research interviewing. In doing so, it also adds to wider discussion regarding the relationship between clinical psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and qualitative research.

Critical consideration of different perspectives on the application of free association in the qualitative research interview, extending earlier work addressing this issue. Differences and similarities in the way the concept of free association is articulated are examined regarding its framing in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy.

Whether researchers see themselves as borrowing, applying or drawing inspiration from free association, there is scope for muddling distinct ways of viewing it as it is conceived in psychoanalysis.

Considerations are outlined for researchers interested in psychoanalytically informed methods to be mindful of.

A change in leadership can often be stressful for an organization. Miriam, the Founding Executive Director of a supporting foundation for a rural hospital, was primarily a servant leader, providing volunteers and staff with the tools needed for successful fundraising. As the initial Executive Director for this small nonprofit organization, she established an organizational culture that fit the needs of the community; volunteers became accustomed to that culture and the organization flourished. Upon Miriam’s retirement, her replacement brought a very different type of leadership rooted in hierarchical structures and authoritarianism. Accustomed to a more supportive organizational culture, many volunteers flatly refused to work with the new executive director. He exacerbated the problem by refusing to acknowledge any missteps he might have taken and was not receptive to any ideas not his own. He was not supportive of staff or even the organization’s own board members. The new executive director was accustomed to being in control and misunderstood managing the needs of multiple stakeholders. He moved too quickly to consolidate his own power without consideration of the organization’s needs. He tried to instill a “heroic” leadership style in a culture of shared leadership. The credibility of the organization suffered as a result, not only among volunteers and hospital staff, but, as they talked within the community, publically as well.

Fraudulently claiming symptoms of mental disorder can be very lucrative for those in society who are willing to do so. One context that lends itself well to those willing to fraudulently claim symptoms of mental disorder is the road traffic accident. Previous research has indicated that the assessment practices of those charged with investigating psychological damages in the UK are not suitable in terms of detecting malingering. The purpose of this paper is to provide a “practitioner ready review” that outlines the structured psychometric assessment tools that are recommended and validated by academic research for aiding with the detection of feigned mental disorder.

The paper takes a primarily conceptual approach utilising a narrative literature review which is aimed at the forensic practitioner who conducts assessments for psychological damages in contexts where malingering may be of concern.

The findings of the present paper will be of use not only to forensic practitioners, but also will be of interest to those who instruct assessments in similar contexts, those who conduct research within this area and those who interpret reports written by forensic practitioners such as the courts.

To the author’s knowledge the present paper is the first of its kind, which attempts to bridge the gap between academic literature and professional practice to assist forensic examiners incorporate suitable psychometric instruments within their practice. As a result, the paper makes a substantial contribution to the improvement of forensic reporting in the disciplines of psychology and psychiatry.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre undertook the development and piloting of a new adult safeguarding outcome measure (a face-to-face survey) for local authorities (LAs) that could be added to the adult social care outcomes framework (ASCOF). The ASCOF is a national collection of social care outcomes performance indicators collected from the perspective of people receiving partial or total funding from a LA for care services. The projected costs of introducing the survey as a new statutory measure in England were assessed. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

An outcome measure (a face-to-face interview based survey consisting of seven questions) was piloted during 2014 in 40 LAs with 20 adults at risk (or other informant) in each site who had been the subject of a safeguarding investigation (n=382). LAs were asked to estimate the cost to their LA of conducting the survey for two years, interviewing at least 15 per cent of their completed safeguarding cases each year.

Extrapolating cost findings to the full 152 LAs in England would give an estimated total cost of implementing the survey of approximately £3 million in Year 1 and £2.1 million in Year 2. Set-up costs for the survey can therefore be estimated at around £900,000. Wide variations were identified in the costs per interview between LAs and reasons for this are discussed.

The benefits of this unique survey are it enables LAs to measure how they are undertaking their adult safeguarding work from the perspective of adults at risk and others with a close interest. It also enables LAs to meet their new obligations under the Care Act 2014 Guidance to “understand what adults at risk think of adult safeguarding”.