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1 – 10 of over 1000Emma Hawkins, Kate Grant, Mariann Szabo and Kate Hewett
The purpose of this study was to review and make changes to the performance management process in place for teachers in a school for autistic children with learning disabilities…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to review and make changes to the performance management process in place for teachers in a school for autistic children with learning disabilities. The performance management process consisted of line managers setting targets for their staff and points were given for targets met. Targets were related to improving outcomes for the children in the school. Teacher engagement in the performance management process was measured by the number of teachers reporting their points monthly and the number of points earned monthly.
Design/methodology/approach
The PDC (Austin, 2000) was conducted to determine changes to the process to improve teacher engagement with the performance management system. These changes to the performance management process consisted of an antecedent and information intervention (flowchart implemented summarising performance management process), equipment and processes interventions (change to graphing requirement, set rolling targets implemented) and consequence interventions (teachers set rolling targets to meet with their line manager regularly and to report on targets met monthly).
Findings
The number of teachers completing and submitting monthly summary forms increased following the changes made to the performance management process. The average number of points received increased significantly during the intervention. The intervention implemented following the use of the PDC led to increased teacher engagement in the performance management process and thus potentially improved the outcomes for the children within the school.
Originality/value
The PDC is a fairly simple tool to use to identify solutions to problems in the workplace. The procedure used herein is replicable across many settings and different workplace issues.
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This paper aims to explore how gay men and lesbians draw upon workplace friendship for developing and sustaining managerial careers and identities.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how gay men and lesbians draw upon workplace friendship for developing and sustaining managerial careers and identities.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a qualitative design, using data collected from semi‐structured interviews with four lesbians and eight gay men, all employed in managerial roles in the UK.
Findings
Data reveal the importance of workplace friendship as a resource for mentoring, climbing managerial career ladders, fitting into existing work cultures and developing gay and lesbian managerial identities. A significant finding is that participants preferred to befriend heterosexual colleagues, to that end complicating previous research that suggests gay and lesbian friendship preferences tend to be marked by similarity in regard to sexual identity. Work friends enable and constrain the development and visibility of gay and lesbian managerial identities and careers.
Research limitations/implications
Although the data are not generalisable, it is of concern that gay men and lesbians continue to be disadvantaged by heteronormative constructions of gender and sexuality. While gender and sexual norms can limit the visibility and embodiment of gay and lesbian managers in the workplace, the study reveals also how gay sexualities can be utilised as a resource for developing influential friendships.
Originality/value
This article provides insights into issues not previously covered or understudied in the organisation studies literature such as the agency of gay men and lesbians in constructing different types of workplace friendships as a resource for developing managerial identities and careers.
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Anne Eyre and Kate Brady
The aim of this paper is to highlight key themes and issues relating to the recovery phase of disaster. Particular emphasis is given to psychosocial and community dimensions and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to highlight key themes and issues relating to the recovery phase of disaster. Particular emphasis is given to psychosocial and community dimensions and the lessons identified by and for those working in recovery‐related programmes. The paper starts with a review of the research undertaken as a result of two Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fellowships, and is followed by a discussion of the meaning and application of recovery in relation to emergency management.
Design/methodology/approach
Both Churchill projects shared the common aim of seeking to understand the meaning of psychosocial recovery following disaster from the perspective of those directly involved in community‐based activities. A snowball sampling approach enabled further contacts to develop beyond initial interviewees identified. The following themes informed the topics explored and questions asked: comparative experiences of community impacts of disasters and approaches to psychosocial support strategies; post‐disaster activities that supported the wellbeing of people and communities following major emergencies (and those which did not work so well); and lessons and implications for future post‐disaster recovery agendas.
Findings
The purpose and key principles of psychosocial recovery are highlighted, including the importance of focusing on people, facilitating community engagement and addressing organizational and personal resilience among recovery personnel. The need to plan for and address psychosocial recovery as part of an integrated and holistic approach to emergency management is a key message in this paper and, it is argued, is of relevance to all involved in dealing with disasters: “if there is an emergency to respond to, there is something to recover from”, as Kate Brady wrote in 2010 in Best Practice Psychosocial Recovery following Emergencies.
Social implications
Further research might build on the themes identified here and draw further comparisons across other case studies in terms of the meaning of recovery and what “success” might mean in terms of recovery programmes. In the UK, a longitudinal perspective might also offer researchers opportunity to examine the experiences and lessons associated with psychosocial recovery across those communities affected by the decade of disasters in the 1980s, soon approaching their 30th anniversaries.
Originality/value
Based on primary research, the article reinforces and illustrates key themes and principles in the field of disaster recovery. It focusses on the psychosocial dimension, an aspect sometimes neglected in disaster management. Its messages are of value to both researchers and practitioners within the field of emergency management.
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Numerous studies have shown that community service during adolescence is associated with positive youth outcomes and future civic engagement (Reinders and Youniss, 2006; Yates and…
Abstract
Purpose
Numerous studies have shown that community service during adolescence is associated with positive youth outcomes and future civic engagement (Reinders and Youniss, 2006; Yates and Youniss, 1996). However, less is known about the ways in which students participate in and perceive intermittent, noncurricular community service. The purpose of this study is to examine seventh and eighth grade students' (N = 22) experiences during a common school-wide community service event: the canned food drive.
Design/methodology/approach
Data include students' journal responses to questions about the food drive including their feelings about the event, learning that took place, positive parts of the drive and challenges. An inductive qualitative analysis was used.
Findings
Analysis of students' responses revealed that most students perceived themselves and their classmates as being very helpful to the community and described feeling happiness and pride from the event, even when participation was minimal or nonexistent. While some students reported awareness of poverty and inequality after the food drive, many of their comments about those receiving the donations included deficit-oriented terminology and cognitive distancing by positioning those experiencing food insecurity as “the other” and different from themselves.
Practical implications
Findings highlight the benefits and shortcomings of community service, as class biases and surface-level ideas about helping may be unintentionally reinforced. Recommendations to address these issues are discussed.
Originality/value
Given the prevalence of community service in schools, qualitative research is needed to understand firsthand how students experience these events.
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Examines a team system using a case study approach in a sewn products plant that transitioned to the team system almost ten years ago. The theoretical framework utilized in the…
Abstract
Examines a team system using a case study approach in a sewn products plant that transitioned to the team system almost ten years ago. The theoretical framework utilized in the analysis of data was participative management, wherein it has been found that there is a relationship between employee knowledge and performance. Specific themes that arose were successes in the transition to the new team system, including benefits to the plant, and ongoing challenges of the new team system. Data were based on 16 in‐depth personal interviews, observations, written documents, and informal conversations with plant employees. The key elements of success in the transition were commitment by upper level managers, education for all employees, and the establishment of open communication among employees and with management. The team system resulted in a number of benefits and challenges to the plant as a whole.
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Christian Novak, Lukas Pfahlsberger, Saimir Bala, Kate Revoredo and Jan Mendling
Digitalization, innovation and changing customer requirements drive the continuous improvement of an organization's business processes. IT demand management (ITDM) as a…
Abstract
Purpose
Digitalization, innovation and changing customer requirements drive the continuous improvement of an organization's business processes. IT demand management (ITDM) as a methodology supports the holistic governance of IT and the corresponding business process change (BPC), by allocating resources to meet a company's requirements and strategic objectives. As ITDM decision-makers are not fully aware of how the as-is business processes operate and interact, making informed decisions that positively impact the to-be process is a key challenge.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors address this challenge by developing a novel approach that integrates process mining and ITDM. To this end, the authors conduct an action research study where the researchers participated in the design, creation and evaluation of the approach. The proposed approach is illustrated using two sample demands of an insurance claims process. These demands are used to construct the artefact in multiple research circles and to validate the approach in practice. The authors applied learning and reflection methods for incrementally adjusting this study’s approach.
Findings
The study shows that the utilization of process mining activities during process changes on an operational level contributes to (1) increasing accuracy and efficiency of ITDM; (2) timely identification of potential risks and dependencies and (3) support of testing and acceptance of IT demands.
Originality/value
The implementation of this study’s approach improved ITDM practice. It appropriately addressed the information needs of decision-makers and unveiled the effects and consequences of process changes. Furthermore, providing a clearer picture of the process dependencies clarified the responsibilities and the interfaces at the intra- and inter-process level.
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Da Yang, John Dumay and Dale Tweedie
This paper examines how accounting either contributes to or undermines worker resistance to unfair pay, thereby enhancing our current understanding of the emancipatory potential…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how accounting either contributes to or undermines worker resistance to unfair pay, thereby enhancing our current understanding of the emancipatory potential of accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
We apply Jacques Rancière's concept of politics and build on recent calls to introduce Rancière's work to accounting by analysing a case based on workers in an Australian supermarket chain who challenged their employer Coles over wage underpayments.
Findings
We find that in this case, accounting is, in part, a means to politics and a part of the police in Rancière's sense. More specifically, accounting operated within the established order to constrain the workers, but also provided workers with a resource for their political acts that enabled change.
Originality/value
This empirical research adds to Li and McKernan (2016) and Brown and Tregidga (2017) conceptual work on Rancière. It also contributes more broadly to emancipatory accounting research by identifying radical possibilities for workers' accounting to bring about change.
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A qualitative, feminist, case study methodology was used to research the feminist leadership of three women principals of coeducational secondary schools. Information was…
Abstract
A qualitative, feminist, case study methodology was used to research the feminist leadership of three women principals of coeducational secondary schools. Information was collected by interviewing and observing the three feminist principals, interviewing 24 staff, and collecting documents. Research indicated that being student focused was central to the practice of feminist educational leaders. This thesis explored how they were able to remain student focused in a New Zealand, neo‐liberal, education context with increased financial, accountability and marketing responsibilities. By resisting and appropriating the opportunities and demands created by the reforms, the feminist principals were, to some extent, able to resist the pressure to be less student focused. However, in doing so they worked very long hours. Their personal value systems and the school context were also important influences on their practice. There were both commonalities and diversity among the women’s leadership.
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Katherine J. C. Sang and Steven Glasgow
This chapter explores the potential for the classroom to be a space for activism and hope within the contemporary business school. Drawing on the extant literature, a reflexive…
Abstract
This chapter explores the potential for the classroom to be a space for activism and hope within the contemporary business school. Drawing on the extant literature, a reflexive account of our own teaching and learning practice, and a small number of interviews with academics using feminist material in their teaching in business schools, we explore the challenges, opportunities and joys experienced in the feminist classroom. We suggest that engaging in feminist teaching practice and theory can offer an opportunity for academics to engage in the critical management studies practice which is often said to be lacking within management research. We begin by setting out the extant positioning of Critical Management Studies, moving to an analysis of the educational context. Interwoven through this are our own perspectives. Our own reflections do not reveal the identities of students.
Martin Robinson, Michelle Templeton, Carmel Kelly, David Grant, Katie Buston, Kate Hunt and Maria Lohan
Young incarcerated male offenders are at risk of poorer sexual health, adolescent parenthood and lack opportunities for formative relationship and sexuality education (RSE) as…
Abstract
Purpose
Young incarcerated male offenders are at risk of poorer sexual health, adolescent parenthood and lack opportunities for formative relationship and sexuality education (RSE) as well as positive male role models. The purpose of this paper is to report the process of co-production and feasibility testing of a novel, gender-transformative RSE programme with young male offenders to encourage positive healthy relationships, gender equality, and future positive fatherhood.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a rights-based participatory approach, the authors co-produced an RSE programme with young offenders and service providers at two UK prison sites using a sequential research design of: needs analysis, co-production and a feasibility pilot. Core components of the programme are grounded in evidence-based RSE, gender-transformative and behaviour change theory.
Findings
A needs analysis highlighted the men’s interest in RSE along with the appeal of film drama and peer-group-based activities. In the co-production stage, scripts were developed with the young men to generate tailored film dramas and associated activities. This co-production led to “If I Were a Dad”, an eight-week programme comprising short films and activities addressing masculinities, relationships, sexual health and future fatherhood. A feasibility pilot of the programme demonstrated acceptability and feasibility of delivery in two prison sites. The programme warrants further implementation and evaluation studies.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is the generation of an evidence-based, user-informed, gender-transformative programme designed to promote SRHR of young male offenders to foster positive sexual and reproductive health and well-being in their own lives and that of their partners and (future) children.
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