Anjum Naweed, Joshua Trigg, Matthew Allan and Janine Chapman
The rail driver workplace is full of challenges for effective health management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how known barriers in rail driving may be overcome by…
Abstract
Purpose
The rail driver workplace is full of challenges for effective health management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how known barriers in rail driving may be overcome by seeking enablers of positive health status and lifestyle.
Design/methodology/approach
Five focus groups were conducted with 29 rail drivers from four rail organisations across three Australian states. Transcribed data were analysed using directed content analysis and thematic coding to develop health enabler themes and categories.
Findings
Formal initiatives to manage health were piecemeal. Efforts to maintain health involved countering deteriorative, and promoting restorative, health factors. Themes systematically illustrated work environmental, adaptational, and autonomous features of health management. Participants expressed many different approaches to enabling positive health status, and how these connected to known barriers.
Research limitations/implications
Discussion of personal health issues within the rail industry is considered a taboo topic by some, therefore participants who took part in this study data may be more representative of health-conscious drivers.
Practical implications
Occupational health in rail can be enabled in multiple ways, including: improving social support, scheduling certainty, and cross-communication around health behaviours; increasing flexibility and environmental support for health behaviours; and directly promoting dietary control and physical activity engagement. Given the diversity and global representativeness of rail systems found within Australia, the findings have international application.
Originality/value
This study uses a strength-focussed approach to highlight multiple leverage points for organisational rail-driver health interventions across three levels of the system, helping improve health intervention efficacy despite the intractable nature of their environments.
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Janine Chapman, Chloe Fletcher, Nadia Corsini and Georgina de Cure
To provide insight into how office workers respond to sedentary health messages following the introduction of the Australian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines.
Abstract
Purpose
To provide insight into how office workers respond to sedentary health messages following the introduction of the Australian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines.
Design/methodology/approach
Via online survey, office workers (n = 185) reported awareness of the Guidelines and sedentary risk, availability of workplace movement-based initiatives, and measures of sitting time, intention, self-efficacy, and perceived barriers to sedentary behaviour. Participants then viewed one of two brief messages (“Occupational Risk” or “Strategies”); indicated their message receptivity and provided written recommendations. Participants who consented to a second survey (n = 126) completed sitting time and psychological measures again after four weeks.
Findings
Only 23% were aware of the Guidelines; willingness to follow public health guidance was mixed. Barriers to adoption were apparent for existing initiatives. Message receptivity was high for both messages. For the follow-up survey, an improvement in psychological variables and workplace sitting was reported in those who viewed the Occupational Risk compared to the Strategies message. Qualitative analysis revealed lack of organisational support and called for increased employer responsibility.
Research limitations/implications
As participants self-selected into the study, the sample may be more health-conscious than the typical office worker.
Practical implications
Workers are receptive to brief messages and the Occupational Risk message showed promise in promoting change. However, sedentary exposure is viewed as an organisational-level issue. A “whole of workplace” approach is needed with co-designed strategies tailored to the culture and working practices within the organisation.
Originality/value
This study offers insight into avenues for improving the management of prolonged sitting and workplace sedentary behaviour.
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Barbara Pocock, Sara Charlesworth and Janine Chapman
This paper aims to explore recent changes in Australia's work‐family policies and programs and their implications for gender (in)equality.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore recent changes in Australia's work‐family policies and programs and their implications for gender (in)equality.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors critically assess a suite of new work/family‐related policies, including the introduction of a government‐funded national paid parental leave scheme, a limited right to request flexible working conditions, and the extension of state and federal anti‐discrimination legal protections for workers with family responsibilities.
Findings
The analysis suggests a lack of coherence and integration between various work/family related policies and the need for a wider range of reforms, particularly in relation to domestic work and care. It is found that the gendered use of flexibility rights, like the new right to request, do not necessarily improve gender equality and may work to entrench it in the face of strong gendered workplace and societal norms and practices around work and care. As a consequence women workers and mothers – who have been constructed as the work/family problem to be “fixed” – are left even more rushed and pressed for time.
Originality/value
This empirically‐informed analysis shows the power of the broader gender political and normative context and the limits of modest and piecemeal policy reform in relation to work‐family issues – even where economic conditions remain relatively positive. The paper concludes that without robust, multi‐faceted and integrated policy reform around work and family, in which gender equality outcomes are a central objective, policy reforms will fail to achieve a more equal sharing of paid and caring work between men and women, and greater equality between women and men more generally.
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Abigail Gregory, Susan Milner and Jan Windebank
The purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview of the wider debates concerning the evolution of work‐life balance practice and policy since the onset of the “Great…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview of the wider debates concerning the evolution of work‐life balance practice and policy since the onset of the “Great Recession” of 2008 and to draw out some comparisons of the issues raised by the papers in the special issue by focusing particularly on the example of the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The editorial analyses how the direction and pace of changes in work‐life balance practice and policy varies between different national contexts and welfare regimes and also asks whether, within the same national context, the changes taking place are always consistent.
Findings
The special issue draws together an international overview of work‐life balance measures which focuses particularly on measures for fathers, an EU‐wide analysis of the use of flexible employment and its relationship with work‐family conflict and a number of specific country case studies from Southern Europe where recession has been particularly severe (Spain and Italy) and the Southern hemisphere (Australia) where the recession has been less deep. It finds that economic crisis and austerity have resulted in a variety of labour market changes and policy responses in different national settings, some but not all of which map onto existing welfare regime typologies. The articles raise a wider set of questions about what type of policy best promotes employees' work‐life balance. The editorial argues in favour of legislative support for work‐life balance to help address structural inequalities.
Originality/value
This editorial and special issue is one of the first to review the small but growing literature on the effect of recession on individuals' experience of work‐life balance, organisations' approach to work‐life balance and reconciliation policy since 2008.
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This chapter considers the current state of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ+) librarianship in the United Kingdom. It begins with a question: at the…
Abstract
This chapter considers the current state of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ+) librarianship in the United Kingdom. It begins with a question: at the time of writing, there seems to be more of a focus on LGBTQ+ issues in museums and archives than there is in libraries. Why is this so? To answer this, the chapter focuses briefly on the wider social setting; looks at current library provision; discusses what “queer librarianship” might involve; considers whether LGBTQ+ library staff’s and LGBTQ+ library users’ voices are heard; and then looks at the question of mainstreaming provision, and considers whether this would be a positive step forward.
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Clare Lynette Harvey, Jonathan Sibley, Janine Palmer, Andrew Phillips, Eileen Willis, Robert Marshall, Shona Thompson, Susanne Ward, Rachel Forrest and Maria Pearson
The purpose of this paper is to outline a conceptual plan for innovative, integrated care designed for people living with long-term conditions (LTCs).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline a conceptual plan for innovative, integrated care designed for people living with long-term conditions (LTCs).
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual plan delivers a partnership between the health system, the person with LTCs (chronic), their family, and the community. The partnership aims to support people at home with access to effective treatment, consistent with the New Zealand Government Health Strategy. This concept of people-owned care is provided by nurses with advanced practice skills, who coordinate care across services, locations and multiple LTCs.
Findings
With the global increase in numbers of people with multiple chronic conditions, health services are challenged to deliver good outcomes and experience. This model aims to demonstrate the effective use of healthcare resources by supporting people living with a chronic condition, to increase their self-efficacy and resilience in accordance with personal, cultural and social circumstance. The aim is to have a model of care that is replicable and transferable across a range of health services.
Social implications
People living with chronic conditions can be empowered to manage their health and well-being, whilst having access to nurse-led care appropriate to individual needs.
Originality/value
Although there are examples of case management and nurse-led coordination, this model is novel in that it combines a liaison nursing role that works in partnership with patients, whilst ensuring that care across a number of primary and secondary care services is truly integrated and not simply interfaced.
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Janine Burghardt and Klaus Möller
This study examines the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. Meaningful work is an important driver of individual performance…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. Meaningful work is an important driver of individual performance of managers, and employees and can be enabled by sufficient use of management controls. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on bibliometric analyses and a structured literature review of academic research studies from the organizational, management and accounting literature, the authors develop a conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work.
Findings
First, the authors propose that the use of formal management controls in a system (i.e. the levers of the control framework) is more powerful than using unrelated formal controls only. Second, they suggest that the interaction of a formal control system together with informal controls working as a control package can even stretch the perception of meaningful work. Third, they argue that the intensity of the control use matters to enhance the perception of meaningful work (inverted u-shaped relationship).
Originality/value
This study presents the first conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. It provides valuable implications for practice and future research in the field of performance management.
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Janine Burghardt and Klaus Moeller
This study aims to investigate which configurations of organizational-level and group-level management controls support an identity fit for management accountants in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate which configurations of organizational-level and group-level management controls support an identity fit for management accountants in the management accounting profession. It aims to complement recent qualitative management accounting research. This stream just begun to use role and identity theory to investigate role expectations, conflicts and coping strategies of management accountants when they struggle with their work identity.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on configuration theory, this study uses a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to indicate all possible configurations of formal and informal management controls that improve management accountants’ sense of their identity in an organization. The analyses are based on the results of a cross-sectional survey of 277 management accountants from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Findings
The results show that a strong group culture and high psychological safety at the group level are relevant conditions for a high identity fit. Further, the configurations differ regarding the career stages of management accountants.
Originality/value
This study contributes to work identity research of management accountants and to research on formal and informal control configurations as a control package. It is of particular importance for various professions that are affected by role change, as from the findings on management accountants’ identity fit, implications can also be made for other organizational functions that need to engage in identity work.
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Ashley S. Boyd and Janine J. Darragh
The purpose of this paper is to explore how preservice teachers conceive of and implement social actions on their college campuses related to a chosen social problem developed in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how preservice teachers conceive of and implement social actions on their college campuses related to a chosen social problem developed in a young adult novel and to examine how social action projects develop teacher candidates’ critical literacies.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative exploratory multiple case study (Stake, 2005) investigated 70 pre-service teachers on two college campuses over two semesters as they engaged in social action projects. The researchers engaged in layers of open and thematic coding through the theoretical lens of critical literacies.
Findings
Preservice teachers engaged in a range of direct and indirect action and, as a result, experienced varying levels of self-efficacy and impact. While most felt their endeavors were successful, those who conducted awareness campaigns noted an inability to measure the effects they had on their communities. Their development of critical literacies through social action was evidenced in the partnerships across campus they established as well as their levels of engagement with peers and local officials.
Originality/value
While the results of conducting social action with youth in secondary classrooms are well established in the literature, lesser well known are ways to engage preservice teachers in such endeavors. This study illustrates not only how teacher candidates can engage in social action as aligned with young adult literature but also offers insights gained from those processes.
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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.