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With global migration, the number of ethnic minority and migrant women receiving maternity health care in dominantly Anglo-European societies has increased significantly but they consistently have among the worst pregnancy and maternal outcomes. This paper aims to analyse gaps in structural (migration-related inequalities) and cultural (responsiveness to ethno-cultural practices) competencies among maternal health practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ).

Using a semi-structured interview guide, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 maternal health practitioners in NZ. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis framework.

The results highlight significant barriers around language and communication, cultural stereotyping by professionals, ethnic women’s own constraints around family and cultural expectations and their lack of knowledge about reproductive health. In addition, practitioners’ own ethnic differences are inseparable from their approach to structural and cultural competencies; there were instances of ‘over-’ or ‘under-’ reading of culture, practitioner constructions of ideal pregnancies and anti-racism concerns that shaped maternal care practices that were sensitive to, but also marginalised, ethnic migrant women who attended maternity services.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the only study in NZ that examines the impact of complex dynamics of migration and culture on knowledge, beliefs and values of practitioners, in context of their own personal biographies. Identifying strategies to improve the way diversity is practiced in hospital settings can be transformational in improving maternal outcomes for ethnic migrant women in NZ.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the potential role that performance management could play in enabling employees’ adaptability to change and, therefore, successful change implementation.

This research adopted a qualitative case study research design, focussed on seven case studies within the Australian Public Service (APS). This study utilized documentary analysis, semi-structured individual and group interviews.

The findings of this research demonstrate that adaptability to change is integral for high performance; however, the constant change faced by many public servants is disruptive. The authors posit that applying a performance framework developed by Blackman et al. (2013a, b) to change implementation will help overcome, or at least mitigate, these issues. The authors argue that applying this framework will: enable adaptability to change; and provide an ongoing management function that enables change to occur.

This research has been limited to seven organizations within the APS, yet it does reveal interesting implications in terms of the apparent role of performance management in both developing change capacity and supporting espoused outcomes.

This research identifies the potential role that performance management can play in supporting effective change implementation through enabling employees to cope better with the change through enabling clarity, purpose and alignment with the organizational direction.

The originality of this paper stems from the synthesis of different strands of literature, specifically high performance, performance management and change management, and empirical research in the public sector to provide a new way of looking at performance management as a change enabler.

There has been increased policy and research interest in the growing number of female entrepreneurs and their potential contribution to both the local and global economy. Nevertheless, the extant literature on female entrepreneurship is often limited to the start‐up phase of business. An important gap in the literature is an enquiry into the development of these female‐owned organisations from inception to maturity, and their growth in domestic and/or international markets. This paper therefore aims to address key themes such as motivation to start‐up, growing the business, gender issues and the challenges faced by these women.

An innovative, internet‐based methodology was employed to collect the data in the chosen locations. Using internet resources such as online media, company web sites and other pertinent sites, a significant volume of information was gathered. Any information gaps or issues requiring further clarification were then addressed via e‐mail exchanges with the individual entrepreneur.

Initial findings demonstrate threads of commonality between female entrepreneurs in different countries. It also highlights differences in the experiences of these women, not only across countries but also within certain countries. A comprehensive discussion of these findings is contained in the paper.

This research has highlighted a number of issues which merit further investigation; however, the issue of social responsibility within this sample of female entrepreneurs would indicate that women have much more socially‐oriented motives for starting and developing a business. The authors would like to investigate this further using qualitative investigation of a larger sample within one country before drawing any definitive conclusions.

Given a limited understanding of such issues mentioned above, this contribution seeks to provide an insight into the heterogeneous experiences of female entrepreneurs using cross‐national data rather than a one‐country study.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has subjected a considerable strain on the healthcare (HC) systems around the world. The most affected countries are developing countries because of their weak HC infrastructure and meagre resources. Hence, building the resilience of the HC system of such countries becomes essential. Therefore, this study aims to build a resilience-based model on the HC sector of Pakistan to combat the COVID-19 and future pandemics in the country.

The study uses a novel hybrid approach to formulate a model based on resilient attributes (RAs) and resilient strategies (RSs). In the first step, the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique, i.e. full consistency method (FUCOM) is used to prioritize the RAs. Whereas, the fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) is used to rank the RSs.

The findings suggest “leadership and governance capacity” to be the topmost RA. Whereas “building the operational capacity of the management”, “resilience education” and “Strengthening laboratories and diagnostic systems” are ranked to be the top three RSs, respectively.

The model developed in this study and the prioritization RAs and RSs will help build resilience in the HC sector of Pakistan. The policymakers and the government can take help from the prioritized RAs and RSs developed in this study to help make the current HC system more resilient towards the current COVID-19 and future pandemics in the country.

A new model has been developed to present a sound mathematical model for building resilience in the HC sector consisting of FUCOM and fuzzy QFD methods. The main contribution of the paper is the presentation of a comprehensive and more robust model that will help to make the current HC system of Pakistan more resilient.

This paper aims to propose a method to determine which mass customization (MC) characteristics should be prioritized in mass-customized service design.

Looking at manufacturing MC systems and conducting a literature review, it is not possible to observe a methodological step to define customized service design as the one we propose in this work. Results show a systematic classification of MC characteristics based on MC enablers and service enablers. These enablers are related by a quality function deployment (QFD) matrix and rewritten using a reverse QFD procedure.

In the end, it was possible to determine which characteristics should be prioritized in mass-customized services.

Two case studies were performed: one with an electric power supplier and another one with a university.

It shows that despite easy customization, organization is not always interest in service features customization. The explanation in these two cases is customization cost, which compared to the benefit does not seem advantageous for the organization.

This paper creates a methodology to design a first phase in customized services in Latin American services and that is the original contribution.

Although there is a growing evidence base for the value of psychosocial and arts-based strategies for enhancing well-being amongst adults living with dementia, relatively little attention has been paid to literature-based interventions. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of shared reading (SR) groups, a programme developed and implemented by The Reader Organisation, on quality of life for care home residents with mild/moderate dementia.

In total, 31 individuals were recruited from four care homes, which were randomly assigned to either reading-waiting groups (three months reading, followed by three months no reading) or waiting-reading groups (three months no reading, followed by three months reading). Quality of life was assessed by the DEMQOL-Proxy and psychopathological symptoms were assessed by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire.

Compared to the waiting condition, the positive effects of SR on quality of life were demonstrated at the commencement of the reading groups and were maintained once the activity ended. Low levels of baseline symptoms prevented analyses on whether the intervention impacted on the clinical signs of dementia.

Limitations included the small sample and lack of control for confounding variables.

The therapeutic potential of reading groups is discussed as a positive and practical intervention for older adults living with dementia.