Gerard I.J.M. Zwetsloot, Arjella R. van Scheppingen, Anja J. Dijkman, Judith Heinrich and Heleen den Besten
A healthy and vital workforce is an asset to any organization. Workplace health management and health promotion are therefore increasingly relevant for organizations. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
A healthy and vital workforce is an asset to any organization. Workplace health management and health promotion are therefore increasingly relevant for organizations. This paper aims to identify the organizational benefits companies strive for, and analyzes the ways companies use and manage data in order to monitor, evaluate and improve the achievement of organizational benefits through workplace health management.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study was carried out in four frontrunner organizations in health management in The Netherlands. The benefits the companies strived for were systematically investigated, as were the ways in which the companies used and managed their relevant data.
Findings
The organizations had many data that were potentially useful for managing and evaluating the realization of the intended health and business benefits. However, these data were only available and usable in a fragmented manner. As a result, the business impact of health interventions was neither properly evaluated nor consistently managed.
Research limitations/implications
The research was limited to four frontrunner companies in The Netherlands. The results presented are predominantly qualitative.
Practical implications
Suggestions for improving the management of organizational benefits from workplace health interventions are given here; they were formulated though an iterative process with the companies involved.
Originality/value
Research on the combination of health and business benefits of workplace health management has been rather limited thus far. The present paper provides a complete picture of the benefits strived for by four Dutch frontrunner organizations, as well as the data available to them, which are or could be used for guiding and improving workplace health management.
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Judith Lancaster, Jeffrey Braithwaite and David Greenfield
This paper aims to explore how surveying benefits accreditation surveyors and the organisations in which they are regularly employed. The purpose is to examine from the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how surveying benefits accreditation surveyors and the organisations in which they are regularly employed. The purpose is to examine from the perspective of senior executives who pursue this form of secondary professional activity, what they seek from being surveyors and what they believe they gain from the experience.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from recorded interviews with three senior area health executives who also serve as accreditation surveyors for the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. The interviews comprised a series of open‐ended, semi‐structured questions. One hour was allocated for each interview. The questions were designed to explore why senior executive health professionals seek secondary professional activity as surveyors and their perceptions of the benefits they gain from surveying.
Findings
The benefits derived from surveying as a secondary professional activity fall into four categories. First, it exposes the surveyor to new methods and innovations. Second, it provides a unique form of ongoing learning. Third, it serves as a resource for acquiring expertise to enhance quality within the institutions in which the participants were regularly employed and, finally, it provides opportunities to contribute to the process of quality improvement and enhance public health beyond the organisations in which the participants were regularly employed.
Practical implications
This research identifies a key aspect of the accreditation process that has not been the focus of previous research. It provides a reference point for understanding the value of surveying to the surveyor and to the institutions in which they are regularly employed.
Originality/value
The paucity of existing literature on the role of the surveyor – both pre and post accreditation – makes this topic timely and significant. This study is important because almost all accreditation programs world wide rely on external surveyors, and yet we know little about them.
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
This chapter delineates the development of special education in Switzerland from its early first special needs classes in the 19th century to today’s integrated and inclusive…
Abstract
This chapter delineates the development of special education in Switzerland from its early first special needs classes in the 19th century to today’s integrated and inclusive educational system which is promoted via many ventures. Along this developmental path, research revealed not only that self-contained special needs classes were less effective than integrated classes and that the classes contained an overrepresentation of children with migrant backgrounds. However, the movement to an inclusive education system has not always been easy. Included in this path to inclusion are sections on the following: legislative enactments to insure the rights of persons with disabilities, definitions of who is disabled, prevalence data, the influence of a strong private sector on special education practices, the scientific study of special education by researchers and academics, teacher and professional training endeavors, and challenges that remain today.
The goal of this column is not to argue the pros and cons of digital archiving, or to propose solutions to its problems, but to describe it as a research subject and a social…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this column is not to argue the pros and cons of digital archiving, or to propose solutions to its problems, but to describe it as a research subject and a social phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
This column relies on cultural anthropology, in particular the approach that Clifford Geertz championed, and for cultural anthropology, language and its social context matter.
Findings
Archiving systems abound with competing claims about effectiveness. Transparency and evidence of public testing is rare, with a few exceptions. The lack of public testing does not mean that systems do less than they claim, but it does mean that libraries, archives and museums need to press for proof if they want to have confidence in the product.
Originality/value
When betting on the future, these cannot be certainty, but bets placed should be based on knowledge.
Details
Keywords
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains…
Abstract
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.