Search results

This paper proposes to rethink the concepts of relevance and usefulness and their relation to the theory–practice gap in management research.

On the basis of the cognitive-linguistic relevance theory or inferential pragmatics, supplemented by insights from information science, we define relevance as a general conceptual category, while reserving usefulness for the instrumental application in a particular case.

There is no reason to hold onto the difference between theoretical and practical relevance, nor to distinguish between instrumental and conceptual relevance.

This novel approach will help to clarify the confusion in the field and contribute to a better understanding of the added value of management research.

The aims were to evaluate the impact of clinical audit on health professionals' clinical practice by measuring baseline participation levels for comparison with future studies of audit activity in Scottish health service trusts. A survey questionnaire on audit participation in the last year was distributed to a random sample of health professionals from an acute trust in central Scotland. The response rate was 73%. • Overall, 28.8% of respondents had some participation in uniprofessional audit and 23.1%. had some participation in multiprofessional audit. • A greater percentage of doctors participated compared with other professions. • The lowest levels of participation were among professions allied to medicine. • Participants are not normally involved in all the audit stages of a project. • The most usual type of involvement was in collecting data. • The most commonly mentioned benefits of audit were the educational ones. • Educational benefits were most highly valued by health professionals. • Participation in clinical audit projects in this 12‐month period was higher for uniprofessional than for multiprofessional audit. However 70‐80% of health professionals did not participate.

Bandwagon refers to the adoption of popular ideas, thoughts, or practices. Although the inter-organizational (macro) dynamics of the phenomenon have been widely studied, its intra-organizational (micro) aspects have received limited attention. The paper presents a theoretical framework and a model that address intra-organizational aspects of bandwagon drawing on distributed cognition, social relationships, and other elements of the organizational structure such as culture and defensive routines. The analysis of simulated data from the model suggests that the phenomenon is likely to decrease with highly informal culture, promotion of advice taking and giving, low levels of distrust, strong social ties, and minimal defensive routines.

Developing a performance measure and reporting the results to support decision making at an individual level has yielded poor results in many health systems. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the factors associated with the dissemination of performance information that generate and support continuous improvement in health organizations.

A systematic data collection strategy that includes empirical and theoretical research published from 1980 to 2010, both qualitative and quantitative, was performed on Web of Science, Current Contents, EMBASE and MEDLINE. A narrative synthesis method was used to iteratively detail explicative processes that underlie the intervention. A classification and synthesis framework was developed, drawing on knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) literature. The sample consisted of 114 articles, including seven systematic or exhaustive reviews.

Results showed that dissemination in itself is not enough to produce improvement initiatives. Successful dissemination depends on various factors, which influence the way collective actors react to performance information such as the clarity of objectives, the relationships between stakeholders, the system's governance and the available incentives.

This review was limited to the process of knowledge dissemination in health systems and its utilization by users at the health organization level. Issues related to improvement initiatives deserve more attention.

Knowledge dissemination goes beyond better communication and should be considered as carefully as the measurement of performance. Choices pertaining to intervention should be continuously prompted by the concern to support organizational action.

While considerable attention was paid to the public reporting of performance information, this review sheds some light on a more promising avenue for changes and improvements, notably in public health systems.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a framework that examines the dynamics of internationalization strategies employed by export companies in the agricultural sector of emerging economies over time, with a focus on the locus of destination markets of the Chilean fruit sector. Thus, the objective is to identify conceptual and empirical deviations from existing research on export firms participating in non-agricultural sectors of industrialized countries.

The matrix of multi-nationality developed by Aggarwal et al. (2011) is extended by incorporating the firm category of “host region” and the dimensions scale and time. This framework is utilized to classify 233 Chilean fresh fruit exporters according to their internationalization strategies based on a geographical distribution of their exports. A uni- and bivariate longitudinal analysis is conducted over a seven-year period (2009–2015) to explore the dynamics of this internationalization process.

A significant number (12.75 percent) of firms classified as “host regional” are identified, and thus a clear difference in internationalization strategies when compared to non-agricultural sectors in industrialized countries. Simultaneously, similarities in these sectors can be found. Most firms are “transregionally” (65.12 percent) or “globally” oriented (16.06 percent), mainly following a linear internationalization path when considering the number of export markets. But there is also evidence of “born-global” firms, which mainly follow non-linear internationalization paths in more geographically and psychically distant markets.

The extended framework developed in this research can be applied to future studies, particularly in the case of economies where a significant proportion of firms are predominantly focusing their export strategies on one single international market. Since this study focuses on one national sector as a prime example, further studies on other countries and sectors may provide additional evidence of its generalizability.

Based on the findings, concrete measures have been suggested to aid Chilean policy makers in implementing evidence-based economic policies, as well as Chilean public trade organizations and private export associations in the fruit sector, in relation to services such as training, strategy consulting and trade network development that they provide to export firms.

The study contributes to the existing literature by introducing the firm category “host regional” into the matrix of multi-nationality, and empirically verifies its existence among agricultural export firms in emerging economies. Furthermore, it also shows that even when it might result counterintuitive, firms from the agricultural sector share similarities in internationalization strategies with firms from industrial sectors.

Maintaining user-focused integrated team working in complex care is one of the demands made of UK health and social care (H&SC) organisations who need employees that are resilient, resilience being the ability to persevere and thrive in the face of exposure to adverse situations (Rogerson and Ermes, 2008, p. 1). Grant and Kinman (2012) write that resilience is a complex and multi-dimensional construct that is underexplored in social care team work. The purpose of this paper is to capture the views of managers in H&SC to explore the making of resilient teams, identify factors that influence team performance and inform organisational workforce development strategy.

A general inductive approach (Silverman, 2011) was applied. Five focus groups were facilitated (n=40) each with eight participants all of whom were leaders and managers of teams in H&SC, working in the integrated care context in the UK.

Findings indicate that further investment in strategies and resources to sustain and educate employees who work in teams and further research into how organisational systems can facilitate this learning positively may contribute to resilient teams and performance improvement. The authors note specifically that H&SC organisations make a distinction between the two most prevalent team types and structures of multi-disciplinary and inter-professional and plan more targeted workforce development for individual and team learning for resiliency within these team structures. In doing so organisations may gain further advantages such as improved team performance in problematic care situations.

Data captured are self-reported perceptions of H&SC managers. Participant responses in the focus group situation may have been those expected rather than those actually modelled in the realities of team work practice (Tanggaard, 2008). Further, in the sample all participants were engaged in a higher education programme and it is possible participants may have been more engaged with their practice and thinking more critically about the research questions than those not currently undertaking postgraduate study (Ng et al., 2014). Nor were the researchers able to observe the participants in team work practice over time or during critical care delivery incidents.

The preliminary link made here between multi-disciplinary and inter-professional team type, and their different stress points and subsequent workforce intervention, contributes to the theory of resilient teams. This provides organisations with a foundation for the focus of workplace learning and training around resilience. H&SC practitioner views presented offer a greater understanding of team work processes, together with a target for planning workforce development strategy to sustain resilience in team working.

This preliminary research found that participants in H&SC valued the team as a very important vehicle for building and sustaining resilience when dealing with complex H&SC situations. The capitalisation on the distinction in team type and individual working practices between those of interprofessional and multidisciplinary teams and the model of team learning, may have important consequences for building resilience in H&SC teams. These findings may be significant for workforce educators seeking to develop and build effective practice tools to sustain team working.

To compare and contrast the cultural characteristics of “high” and “low” performing hospitals in the UK National Health Service (NHS).

A multiple case study design incorporating a purposeful sample of “low” and “high” performing acute hospital Trusts, as assessed by the star performance rating system.

These case studies suggest that “high” and “low” performing acute hospital organisations may be very different environments in which to work. Although each case possessed its own unique character, significant patternings were observed within cases grouped by performance to suggest considerable cultural divergence. The key points of divergence can be grouped under four main headings: leadership and management orientation; accountability and information systems; human resources policies; and relationships within the local health economy.

As with any study, interpretation of findings should be tempered with a degree of caution because of methodological considerations. First, there are the limitations of case study which proceeds on the basis of theoretical rather than quantitative generalisation. Second, organisational culture was assessed by exploring the views of middle and senior managers. While one should in no way suggest that such an approach can capture all important cultural characteristics of organisations, it is believed that it may be at least partially justified, given the agenda‐setting powers and influence of the senior management team. Finally “star” performance measures are far from a perfect measure of organisational performance. Despite such reservations, the findings indicate that organisational culture is associated in a variety of non‐trivial ways with the measured performance of hospital organisations.

Highlights considerable cultural divergence within UK NHS hospitals.