Katherine M. Tsui, Eric McCann, Amelia McHugh, Mikhail Medvedev, Holly A. Yanco, David Kontak and Jill L. Drury
The authors believe that people with cognitive and motor impairments may benefit from using of telepresence robots to engage in social activities. To date, these systems have not…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors believe that people with cognitive and motor impairments may benefit from using of telepresence robots to engage in social activities. To date, these systems have not been designed for use by people with disabilities as the robot operators. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted two formative evaluations using a participatory action design process. First, the authors conducted a focus group (n=5) to investigate how members of the target audience would want to direct a telepresence robot in a remote environment using speech. The authors then conducted a follow-on experiment in which participants (n=12) used a telepresence robot or directed a human in a scavenger hunt task.
Findings
The authors collected a corpus of 312 utterances (first hand as opposed to speculative) relating to spatial navigation. Overall, the analysis of the corpus supported several speculations put forth during the focus group. Further, it showed few statistically significant differences between speech used in the human and robot agent conditions; thus, the authors believe that, for the task of directing a telepresence robot's movements in a remote environment, people will speak to the robot in a manner similar to speaking to another person.
Practical implications
Based upon the two formative evaluations, the authors present four guidelines for designing speech-based interfaces for telepresence robots.
Originality/value
Robot systems designed for general use do not typically consider people with disabilities. The work is a first step towards having our target population take the active role of the telepresence robot operator.
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Alexandra L. Ferrentino, Meghan L. Maliga, Richard A. Bernardi and Susan M. Bosco
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in…
Abstract
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.
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Jill Haldane and Philip Davies
This chapter presents a discussion of innovations in pedagogic approaches for high-achieving, pre-degree pathway program students at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.The…
Abstract
This chapter presents a discussion of innovations in pedagogic approaches for high-achieving, pre-degree pathway program students at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The question under discussion in the academic language classroom is the extent to which dynamic cohorts of multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary students are being enabled to fulfill individual learning goals as well as the institution’s expectations of pathway learners and academic language users. Wingate (2015) argues that in the absence of an epistemological and socioculturally embedded literacy instruction, students are not equitably prepared for success in the discipline or the wider institution. The chapter reviews critiques of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and Academic Literacies by addressing “the best of both worlds” (Wingate & Tribble, 2012, p. 492) approach.
The chapter continues with a case study into the Academic Vocabulary in Literacy strand of the Foundation EAP course on the International Foundation Programme at Edinburgh University. There then follows close analysis of innovation by course designers to adapt the “best of both traditions” model (Wingate & Tribble, 2014, p. 2) into an integrated academic language and literacy approach. It is posited that this approach could enable attempts at transition for high-achieving foundation students by experiencing language in dynamic and multi-modal genres.
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Jill Flint-Taylor and Alexander Davda
The study’s aim was to design and test a leadership development approach using blended learning, to equip leaders for strengthening their own resilience and that of their teams.
Abstract
Purpose
The study’s aim was to design and test a leadership development approach using blended learning, to equip leaders for strengthening their own resilience and that of their teams.
Design/methodology/approach
A contextualised leadership development intervention was produced and evaluated following the principles of design-based research. Participants were from three organisations that work internationally to address the impact of economic disadvantage. Initial research used the behavioural event interview technique. Online assessment incorporated measures of situational judgement, emotion recognition and attributional style. Validity measures were multi-rater feedback (criterion), and NEO-PI 3 (construct). Individual feedback and a simulation-based peer workshop were followed by a four-to-six month period of experience-driven development and a final peer workshop for consolidating and evaluating learning outcomes.
Findings
The online assessment was a valid measure of leaders’ personal resilience resources and their resilience-building capability. Overall, the intervention improved participants’ understanding of, and engagement with, the processes of strengthening individual and collective (team) resilience.
Research limitations/implications
The target sample size for the study was relatively small, to ensure it would be practical to replicate the approach when designing similar interventions for a senior leadership population in other contexts. Significant results provided robust evidence for the validity of the assessment approach. Findings for the workshops and experience-driven development phase were more tentative, but the value of the design iterations was clearly demonstrated.
Practical implications
The leadership development approach is suitable for application in other organisations, if similar principles are followed to produce and evaluate materials relevant to each broad sector context. Roll-out is cost-effective, with relatively few hours of blended or virtual delivery supporting experience-driven learning.
Social implications
The impact leaders have on the wellbeing of those who report to them is well established, but less has been done to develop and formally evaluate practical, cost-effective interventions to improve this impact. The approach validated in this study can be applied more widely to benefit employee wellbeing as well as performance.
Originality/value
The study developed and evaluated a new approach to preparing leaders for the challenge of building team resilience, an aspect of leadership capability that has been given relatively little attention to date.
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SO much controversy has raged around the subject of newsrooms in the past two years, that librarians are, as a rule, utterly tired of it, and the appearance of still another…
Abstract
SO much controversy has raged around the subject of newsrooms in the past two years, that librarians are, as a rule, utterly tired of it, and the appearance of still another article upon the subject is not calculated to tone down the general spirit of vexation. It requires no little courage to appear in the arena in this year of Grace, openly championing those departments of our institutions which were originally intended to convey the news of the day in the broadest manner.
Analyses how the departments and schools of library and informationstudies (LIS) in the UK might contribute to continuing professionaldevelopment (CPD). Looks at the diversity of…
Abstract
Analyses how the departments and schools of library and information studies (LIS) in the UK might contribute to continuing professional development (CPD). Looks at the diversity of the profession, outlines the changing natures of LIS professional education, and considers some areas for future professional training and development. Using the School of Information Studies, UCE, Birmingham, as a model, suggests that existing taught modules might be offered as part of a structured CPD programme.
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Epaminondas Epaminonda, Johnny Chaanine, Demetris Vrontis, Alkis Thrassou and Michael Christofi
The paper aims to identify, analyze and discuss the links between information and communications technology (ICT) and knowledge management (KM), on the one hand, and job…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to identify, analyze and discuss the links between information and communications technology (ICT) and knowledge management (KM), on the one hand, and job satisfaction (JS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT), on the other hand, in hospitals in Lebanon.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods approach has been adopted that utilizes both quantitative and qualitative primary data, along with supportive and peripheral secondary ones. Specifically, a survey measuring variables was conducted among health-care professionals, with whom interviews were also conducted for greater depth and to refine the findings and relationships under study.
Findings
The results of the quantitative study find no statistically significant relationships between the variables. The qualitative study suggests that this is likely because of the subjectivity of the evaluations and/or their mutual canceling. This is further partly explained not only through technical/functional deficiencies of the system but also through the impact of implicit and peripheral forces, adjacent to contextual aspects.
Originality/value
The research adds significant and focused knowledge on the subject of the linkage of ICT and KM with JS and CSAT, in the context of emerging economies.