The paper comments on the future of professional associations for librarianship and information management as it applies in the New Zealand context.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper comments on the future of professional associations for librarianship and information management as it applies in the New Zealand context.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a concise overview of the history and activities of LIANZA and relates these to the Association's current direction.
Findings
In 2003 LIANZA reviewed its strategic direction in response to static growth in membership. Subsequent decisions and actions have resulted in growth and a positive outlook for 2010 when the Association will celebrate its centenary.
Practical implications
Falling membership and a reduction in number of associations indicates that interest in professional associations is waning. This article discusses recent efforts made by LIANZA to reverse this trend and reinvent itself for relevance in the twenty‐first century.
Originality/value
This article is a case study by the current LIANZA president, reflecting on changes implemented by the Association since he joined the LIANZA National Council.
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Sakibu Seidu, De-Graft Owusu-Manu, Augustine Senanu Komla Kukah, Michael Adesi, Eric Oduro-Ofori and David John Edwards
The demand for energy infrastructure projects has increased steadily over the last few decades and has come at a high cost. Disruptive technologies (DTs) have the inherent…
Abstract
Purpose
The demand for energy infrastructure projects has increased steadily over the last few decades and has come at a high cost. Disruptive technologies (DTs) have the inherent capability to affect the performance of energy infrastructure projects. Therefore, this research aims to explore the implications of DTs on the performance of energy infrastructure projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a positivist philosophical position. A quantitative strategy and deductive approach (based on a survey design) guided this study. Sixty-six respondents participated in the study. The study’s population comprised of experts in energy infrastructure projects who possessed a high level of industrial experience including top- and middle-level management of power generation companies. Cochran’s formula was used to select a sufficient sample for the study. Linear regression, one sample test and Cronbach’s alpha were the analytical tools adopted.
Findings
This study established that there is an 18.4% increase in the performance of energy infrastructure projects in Ghana when DTs are applied. In order of importance, DTs improve speed of operations in energy projects; reduce operating cost and enhance efficiency of energy projects; drive sustainable economic development; enhance security in energy projects; and improve environmental sustainability of projects. The study also revealed that e-commerce technologies, renewable energy technologies, three-dimensional printing, bar code technology, photogrammetry, global positioning systems, geographic information systems and nanotechnologies were the topmost ranked DTs with the most impact on the performance of energy infrastructure projects.
Originality/value
This is a novel investigation on the implications of DTs on the performance of Ghanaian energy infrastructure projects. This study’s practical implication is evident in both policy and practice. Energy sector policymakers should endeavour to adopt DTs in their operations to enhance sustainability and performance.
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The Reformation, as Wolfgang Schivelbusch maintains, which redefined the relationship between the individual and God as a personal one, “took pains to regulate the relationship of…
Abstract
The Reformation, as Wolfgang Schivelbusch maintains, which redefined the relationship between the individual and God as a personal one, “took pains to regulate the relationship of man to alcohol,” and in so doing laid “an essential foundation¦…¦for the development of capitalism.” In the earlier Rabelaisian world, the Church constituted the major site of popular culture. Virtually all work was seasonal in character punctuated by carnivalesque church feasts that numbered over one hundred yearly. Although generally accepted as a safe means to vent communal anxieties, drink comprised an essential element of these festivals, with drunkenness the socially acceptable outcome.16 However, as the Reformation progressed and new modes of aristocratic behavior developed, reformative efforts to separate the secular and the sacred within the church resulted in attempts to abandon the popular culture of the lower classes. A broad consensus emerged that too much drunkenness amounted to social evil, and that alehouses represented an “increasingly dangerous force in popular society.”17 As the influence of the Church declined in the early eighteenth century, Carnival resurfaced in the form of gregarious carnivalesque village and town feasts: “the grotesque body of carnival was being re-territorialized” and writers such as Swift and Pope “perpetually identif[ied] the scene of writing with the fairground and the carnival.”18 Conversely, in keeping with the symmetrical component inherent in the Carnival/Lent theme, Lent transmuted into organizations such as The Society for the Reformation of Manners, which attempted to reduce drunkenness, cursing, swearing and whoring – all tropes of carnivalesque gregariousness. So, during this period, a contradictory cultural dissonance was being enacted. On the one hand, we find a resurgence of Carnival, but on the other hand, we see “a conservative desire on the part of the upper classes to separate themselves more clearly and distinctly from these popular activities.”19
An exit area control for a jet engine comprising a tubular member having an open end whose area is to be varied; a plurality of longitudinally extended louvres; means supported at…
Abstract
An exit area control for a jet engine comprising a tubular member having an open end whose area is to be varied; a plurality of longitudinally extended louvres; means supported at each end of said tubular member to circumferentially dispose said louvres; means to rotatably support said louvres in said last‐mentioned means; and means to rotatably adjust each louver on its longitudinal axis to thereby vary the effective area of said open end.
The concept of maximizing “employee voice” is examined in VW66 (see page 51) which looks at the various techniques which organizations use to provide this facility which may take…
Abstract
The concept of maximizing “employee voice” is examined in VW66 (see page 51) which looks at the various techniques which organizations use to provide this facility which may take the form, for example, of collective bargaining or a grievance procedure. Installing formal processes for employees to be heard appears to be on the increase, ranging from mandatory work councils which are a feature of many western European countries, to the various voluntary mechanisms which predominate in the USA.
Virginia Cathro, Paula O’Kane and Deb Gilbertson
The purpose of this paper is to suggest ways in which business educators can interact successfully with reflective learning journals (RLJs). Specifically, the research was…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest ways in which business educators can interact successfully with reflective learning journals (RLJs). Specifically, the research was interested in how students used RLJs and how educators assessed these RLJs.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 31 RLJs, submitted as part of an international communication course involving a global virtual team exercise, were analysed. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes discussed by participants, while content analysis, based upon Kolb’s learning cycle, was used to assess the depth of student reflection.
Findings
Students appear to have engaged with depth and understanding and were able to articulate their skill level, but there was variance in their reflective ability across different skills.
Practical implications
An interpretation of Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle as a method to assist educators to assess RLJs is presented. Specifically, educators need to provide more guidance to students to enhance their ability to reflect. The authors suggest that a rubric based on Kolb could fulfil this objective.
Originality/value
This study responds to the call for more research examining depth of reflection (Lien et al., 2012); it also offers contribution to the variety of models characterising reflective depth (Ash and Clayton, 2009; Chamberlain, 2012; Lien et al., 2012) drawn from experiential learning in the form of written RLJs.
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Robert P. Robinson and Jordan Bell
The purpose of this study is to analyze the first major federal education policy, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and the most recent federal policy, the Every…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze the first major federal education policy, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and the most recent federal policy, the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, through a Black critical theory (BlackCrit) lens to understand better how these educational policies have served as antiblack projects. Furthermore, this study locates examples of educational Freedom Dreams in the past and present to imagine new possibilities in Black education.
Design/methodology/approach
By analyzing education policy documents and history through BlackCrit methods, the authors expose how education policy is inherently an antiblack project. Freedom Dreams catalyze possibilities for future education.
Findings
The data confirms that while these policies purport equity and accountability in education, they, in practice, exacerbate antiblackness through inequitably mandated standardized testing, distributed funding and policed schooling.
Originality/value
This paper applies BlackCrit analysis of education policy to reimagine Black educational possibilities.
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Sofia Wagrell and Enrico Baraldi
This paper aims to address the crucial interactions that a start-up enacts with actors from the public sphere in a context of medical technologies. The public actor commonly plays…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the crucial interactions that a start-up enacts with actors from the public sphere in a context of medical technologies. The public actor commonly plays multiple roles, ranging from co-developers and financiers to large-scale users, which are all pivotal to the development and survival of the new venture. The paper investigates the possible “dark sides” of a start-up’s marriage with a public partner, departing from three specific roles the public sphere can assume in relation to a start-up: as a development partner, as a financer and as a customer.
Design/methodology/approach
The study builds on an in-depth empirical case study of a Swedish med-tech startup company.
Findings
The authors find the financing role to be least problematic, whereas the customer role is the most problematic in that it provides numerous barriers to the possible development and growth of a start-up firm striving to get new customers in a public setting. Examples of the most prominent barriers found are regulations, complex decision-making processes and assessment elements of med-tech products that are outside the control of the startup firm, hence issues that cannot be handled within inter-organizational relationships.
Originality/value
The study builds on 27 in-depth interviews, which were undertaken during 2005-2013, thus contributing detailed data about a start-up’s many and crucial interactions with different public actors. Departing from three different roles, a public partner can adopt in relation to a start-up, (development, co-financer and customer) provides results with managerial implications for start-up’s and policy implications for health-care policy.
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Wan Edura Wan Rashid and Hj. Kamaruzaman Jusoff
This paper attempts to explore the concept of service quality in a health care setting.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper attempts to explore the concept of service quality in a health care setting.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper probes the definition of service quality from technical and functional aspects for a better understanding on how consumers evaluate the quality of health care. It adopts the conceptual model of service quality frequently used by the most researchers in the health care sector. The paper also discusses several service quality dimensions and service quality problems in order to provide a more holistic conception of hospital service quality.
Findings
The paper finds that service quality in health care is very complex as compared to other services because this sector highly involves risk.
Originality/value
The paper adds a new perspective towards understanding how the concept of service quality is adopted in a health care setting.
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Gerry Larsson and Bodil Wilde‐Larsson
The paper's purpose is to develop a care‐context adapted version of the emotional stress reaction questionnaire (ESRQ), which is based on the cognitive‐phenomenological writings…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper's purpose is to develop a care‐context adapted version of the emotional stress reaction questionnaire (ESRQ), which is based on the cognitive‐phenomenological writings of Lazarus, and, using this instrument, to explore the relationship between quality of care from a patient perspective and patient satisfaction while taking key antecedent conditions into account.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 624 patients at 16 Swedish out‐patient clinics (75 per cent response rate). Patients responded to the ERSQ, the quality from the patient's perspective questionnaire (QPP), the single‐item measures of personality (SIMP), and questions related to the outcome of the visit. Dimensionality of the ESRQ was analysed using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The relationship between the theoretical concepts was explored with logistic regression analysis.
Findings
A care‐context adapted version of the ESRQ was developed with meaningful factors and satisfactory psychometric properties. Care‐episode specific appraisal and coping processes covaried as predicted with emotional responses. The theoretical model was partly confirmed when assessed against two outcome criteria: intention to follow the doctor's advice and hesitation to visit the same out‐patient clinic again.
Practical implications
The scales used are easy to administer and interpret.
Originality/value
The suggested theoretical model of the relationship between quality of care from a patient perspective and patient satisfaction is new, as is the emotion‐oriented approach to assessing patient satisfaction.