The aim of this research is to determine the impact of a learning organisation (LO) on developing quality improvement practices (QIPs) and to propose knowledge-sharing (KS) as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to determine the impact of a learning organisation (LO) on developing quality improvement practices (QIPs) and to propose knowledge-sharing (KS) as a moderator which is anticipated to support the beneficial effect of a LO on QIP. A further objective is to establish whether training provision raises the abilities of healthcare organisations (HCOs) to attain greater standards of QIP via a LO and KS.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 240 responses, obtained from employees working at private HCOs in Jordan, comprised the valid dataset. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilised for data analysis. Multigroup analysis (MGA) was performed to compare the impact of workers who had or had not undergone training.
Findings
The findings indicated that QIP was significantly enhanced by LO. HCOs with the objective of converting a KS-moderated LO could attain improved QIP standards, but within the surveyed establishments, this effect was only appreciated at modest degrees. By performing MGA, no variations were identified in the impact of workers.
Practical implications
Managers should place more emphasis on training and learning within HCOs. However, respondents did indicate that their establishments had notable degrees of KS, suggesting a potential strength that could be used positively by the managerial hierarchy.
Originality/value
This study encompasses an original contribution to contemporary scholarship in the field of knowledge management and quality through its examination of the moderating effect of KS on LO and QIP.
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The 1997-98 financial crisis has had a profound effect on how East Asian economies the role of the IMF and its strategic interests relative to those of the United States in the…
Abstract
The 1997-98 financial crisis has had a profound effect on how East Asian economies the role of the IMF and its strategic interests relative to those of the United States in the international financial regime. It has prompted them to create a regional mechanism for financial and monetary cooperation, ranging from deeper policy dialogue and surveillance, to a system of financial cooperation, and common exchange rate arrangements. This paper analyses the economic and strategic motivations behind this and outlines recent developments in financial cooperation in East Asia to provide possible directions for the future.
A network of bilateral swap arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative(CMI) needs stronger policy dialogue and surveillance to develop into a regional financing facility, a sort of East Asian IMF. The facility plays a role as an regional lender of last resort, providing short-term funds to a member country facing a temporary liquidity shortage and for market intervention to stabilize foreign exchange rate. East Asian countries need to achieve regional exchange rate stability. In the long run, the region may develop a common currency arrangement, but it cannot be expected in the very near future because there is no convergence of macroeconomic conditions, economic structure and systems. A realistic approach would be for East Asian developing countries to adopt a currency basket system to minimize the impact of dollar/yen exchange rate volatility on their economies. Strong political will and a vision for regional integration will be required to introduce it.
Tamer Elshandidy, Philip J. Shrives, Matt Bamber and Santhosh Abraham
This paper provides a wide-ranging and up-to-date (1997–2016) review of the archival empirical risk-reporting literature. The reviewed papers are classified into two principal…
Abstract
This paper provides a wide-ranging and up-to-date (1997–2016) review of the archival empirical risk-reporting literature. The reviewed papers are classified into two principal themes: the incentives for and/or informativeness of risk reporting. Our review demonstrates areas of significant divergence in the literature specifically: mandatory versus voluntary risk reporting, manual versus automated content analysis, within-country versus cross-country variations in risk reporting, and risk reporting in financial versus non-financial firms. Our paper identifies a number of issues which require further research. In particular we draw attention to two: first, a lack of clarity and consistency around the conceptualization of risk; and second, the potential costs and benefits of standard-setters’ involvement.
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Henrique Lemos dos Santos, Cristian Cechinel and Ricardo Matsumura Araújo
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a comparison among three different approaches for recommending learning objects (LO) inside a repository. The comparison…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a comparison among three different approaches for recommending learning objects (LO) inside a repository. The comparison focuses not only on prediction errors but also on the coverage of each tested configuration.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors compared the offline evaluation by using pure collaborative filtering (CF) algorithms with two other different combinations of pre-processed data. The first approach for pre-processing data consisted of clustering users according to their disciplines resemblance, while the second approach consisted of clustering LO according to their textual similarity regarding title and description. The three methods were compared with respect to the mean average error between predicted values and real values. Moreover, we evaluated the impact of the number of clusters and neighborhood size on the user-coverage.
Findings
Clustering LO has improved the prediction error measure with a small loss on user-coverage when compared to the pure CF approach. On the other hand, the approach of clustering users failed in both the error and in user-space coverage. It also became clear that the neighborhood size is the most relevant parameter to determine how large the coverage will be.
Research limitations
The methods proposed here were not yet evaluated in a real-world scenario, with real users opinions about the recommendations and their respective learning goals. Future work is still required to evaluate users opinions.
Originality/value
This research provides evidence toward new recommendation methods directed toward LO repositories.
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Silva Karkoulian, Leila Canaan Messarra and Richard McCarthy
The goal of this research is to empirically assess whether knowledge management (KM) and learning organizations (LO) are distinct concepts and if so, to test whether KM enhances LO…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this research is to empirically assess whether knowledge management (KM) and learning organizations (LO) are distinct concepts and if so, to test whether KM enhances LO more or vice versa.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose an approach by which they first empirically assess the independence of those two concepts, then KM's fundamental processes, being knowledge acquisition, sharing, and utilization, are hypothesized to have a positive relationship with the different LO dimensions. Retail business employees working in organizations in Lebanon were surveyed. KM processes were first designated as dependent variables and then as independent variables. Bartlett's test, Pearson correlation, factor analysis, and regression analysis were used to test the hypothesis.
Findings
The results indicated that the two dimensions LO and KM are distinct and that KM enhances LO more than LO enhances KM.
Practical implications
This research extends the impact of knowledge management to include informal processes. It provides empirical evidence that managers should seek to implement formal and informal knowledge management processes into their organizational culture to enable a dynamic learning environment.
Originality/value
This research is significant in that up to this point the relationship between KM and LO has been posited and supported through anecdotal evidence and observation. This research provides empirical evidence of the relationship and forms the basis for further study in this area.