The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the evolution of discerning compassion and how it was used in the Ingrebourne Therapeutic Community.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the evolution of discerning compassion and how it was used in the Ingrebourne Therapeutic Community.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is derived from a PhD thesis which was researched through interviews and archival research. The fundamental finding was that the therapeutic community approach was almost unique in providing a structured approach to implementing discerning compassion.
Practical implication
The therapeutic community approach for discerning compassion, in which the response to distress aims to promote flourishing.
Social implications
This paper offers a model that has implications on how care is delivered in other settings.
Originality/value
There is little literature that explores the role of compassion in therapeutic communities or in care environments of any form. The approach taken here places compassion in a historical and philosophical setting and contrasts it with the kindness expressed in traditional psychiatric care that promoted “tranquility”.
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This paper aims to suggest that the language typically used about leadership in healthcare tells us something important about how we see it.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to suggest that the language typically used about leadership in healthcare tells us something important about how we see it.
Design/methodology/approach
Three main metaphors currently adopted for healthcare leadership purposes are explored – military, sporting and finance.
Findings
The language used about leadership sustains the way the world is seen. A more life-affirming use of language is possible, which more accurately reflects what healthcare is about.
Originality/value
The paper builds on the work of Gareth Morgan in applying the use of metaphors to healthcare leadership.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify the centrality of anxiety in health care, especially in the context of leading change. It identifies the importance of emotional labour…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the centrality of anxiety in health care, especially in the context of leading change. It identifies the importance of emotional labour for clinical professionals and the resultant development of defensive routines. The idea of containment is central to addressing anxiety.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach involves identification of anxiety as a key factor in leading change in health care, but one which is often ignored.
Findings
Anxiety is the elephant in the room vis-a-vis leading change in health care. To address the use of defensive routines, a range of activities can act as “containers” for anxiety and help with leading change.
Practical implications
To lead change in health care implies addressing the existence and importance of anxiety and the emotional labour which health-care professionals undertake.
Originality/value
The existence of anxiety and the profound impact it has on leading change in health care has typically been under-estimated or avoided. The paper aims to remedy this.
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This paper aims to propose that healthcare is dominated by a managerialist ideology, powerfully shaped by business schools and embodied in the Masters in Business Administration…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose that healthcare is dominated by a managerialist ideology, powerfully shaped by business schools and embodied in the Masters in Business Administration. It suggests that there may be unconscious collusion between universities, healthcare employers and student leaders and managers.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a review of relevant literature, the paper examines critiques of managerialism generally and explores the assumptions behind leadership development. It draws upon work which suggests that leading in healthcare organisations is fundamentally different and proposes that leadership development should be more practice-based.
Findings
The way forward for higher education institutions is to include work- or practice-based approaches alongside academic approaches.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that there is a challenge for higher education institutions to adopt and integrate practice-based development methods into their programme designs.
Originality/value
The paper provides a challenge to the future role of higher education institutions in developing leadership in healthcare.
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This paper aims to make the case that there is a need to move beyond a focus on an approach to leadership development which is confined to health care only. It argues that, given…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to make the case that there is a need to move beyond a focus on an approach to leadership development which is confined to health care only. It argues that, given the economic, financial, social and organisational context within which health and social care organisations in the UK operate, there is a need to develop leadership within health and social care systems, rather than within the existing “siloed” sectors.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper considers the context within which health and social care organisations in the UK operate; examines the nature of those organisations; makes the case for focusing on the health and social car system through systems leadership; and identifies the need for leadership, rather than leader development.
Findings
There is a danger of health and social care organisations “walking backwards into the future” with eyes fixed on the past. The future lies with treating health and social care as a system, rather than focusing on organisations. The current model is individual leader focused, but the emerging model is one of collective multi-agency teams.
Originality/value
The paper seeks to go beyond a health-care-only focus, by asserting that there is a need to regard health and social care as a single system, delivered by a multiplicity of different organisations. This has implications for the kind of leadership involved and for how this might be developed.
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Mangirdas Morkūnas, Julius Janavicius and Artiom Volkov
This paper embarks on revealing the main factors behind the intentions of youth in Lithuania to get involved in bribery.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper embarks on revealing the main factors behind the intentions of youth in Lithuania to get involved in bribery.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey of 432 respondents served as a source of primary data. The structural equation modelling – partial least squares techniques was employed as a main research tool.
Findings
It was revealed that youth in Lithuania display a high value congruity with their counterparts in Western Europe and a relatively reluctant to offer bribes. It can be stated that youths’ positive attitude towards some shadow economy activities is a forced response to government failures, rather than an intrinsic motivation created by cultural legacy or psychological issues.
Originality/value
It is one of the first scientific attempt to investigate reasons behind the formation of the positive attitude towards bribery and intentions to get involved in bribery among the youth.
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The purpose of this study is to model and explore kindness as a factor in employment contexts. “Kindness among colleagues” is a particular context for the scientific study of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to model and explore kindness as a factor in employment contexts. “Kindness among colleagues” is a particular context for the scientific study of kindness which has been under-researched. There is scope within the burgeoning study of kindness for research concerned with employment contexts and colleagues, adopting an employment context appropriate construct of kindness, generating and considering evidence that might be evaluated rigorously in the employment context where kindness is both advocated and critiqued.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature review identifies and explores the gaps in kindness research in the employment context. A construct distinguishing a set of antecedents of kindness among colleagues was developed to address these gaps. The relevance and usefulness of the construct was tested in semi-structured interviews among some work colleagues in a specific organization setting.
Findings
The results show that the four antecedents of kindness can be used to capture and explore perceptions and experiences of kindness among colleagues. There is scope for analysis at the levels of individuals, teams and organizations using data about these antecedents which allows for individual and more general workplace dynamics to be described and explored.
Research limitations/implications
The antecedents of kindness construct are validated to an extent by this initial study. The potential of this for describing and analyzing kindness and workplace relevant themes makes it worth further development; to refine and validate an instrument for measuring kindness among colleagues.
Practical implications
Kindness among colleagues, if understood in the nuanced way presented here, can help individuals, teams and organizations review and evaluate themselves in diverse contexts. Contexts can be expected to vary with workforce demographics, leadership style and organization cultures.
Social implications
Kindness is a burgeoning theme and concern across diverse social and cultural contexts for various reasons. The scientific contribution to the advocacy or critique of kindness, in this case kindness among colleagues, provides value in rigor, operationalization and evidencing of the case for and against advocacy of the value of kindness in general.
Originality/value
This is a focused review and study of kindness among colleagues which contributes to the nomological and methodological development of a scientific approach to organizational analysis concerns with this important theme in contemporary times.