M. Dooris, L. Sedgley and L. Dugdill
This paper sets out to provide an overview of the development processes, key drivers and the impact of a workplace health strategy developed in the North West of England, between…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to provide an overview of the development processes, key drivers and the impact of a workplace health strategy developed in the North West of England, between 2005 and 2007. The strategy is led by a Regional Workplace Health Co‐ordinator (funded for two years by regional‐level bodies), and is aimed at a broad range of stakeholders across every layer of influence.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper consists of narrative which was co‐constructed by the Guest Editor (third author of the paper) and the co‐authors of the original strategy (first and second authors of the paper). A reflective interview was conducted with the first and second authors, who were interviewed by the third author in the summer of 2008. This interview was transcribed verbatim and then used to co‐construct the paper that follows. The key questions that the narrative was designed to answer were: why and how was the strategy developed? What was the interplay between national and regional levels of the system? What was the value/impact of the strategy?
Findings
The strategy provided an important platform from which regional players could develop actions that would, in the long term, positively influence the health of workers in the region. The scope and breadth of the regional strategy further informed national developments, but its effective delivery within the North West region was seriously hampered by the lack of co‐ordination, governance and ownership. The long‐term impacts of the strategy are not being measured as no funding was available for its evaluation.
Originality/value
Although many workplace health strategies have been developed, few are ever critically evaluated.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of supervisor support on the relationship between work schedule flexibility and job stress.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of supervisor support on the relationship between work schedule flexibility and job stress.
Design/methodology/approach
For the study a survey methodology was used and 232 software developers attached to offshore outsourced software development firms responded.
Findings
It was found that supervisor support moderates the relationship between work schedule flexibility and job stress.
Originality/value
The findings of this study will provide useful information for both practitioners and academics to better understand the nature of strategies to be adopted in mitigating job stress.
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Zhiyue Zhao, Da Shi, Xiaoxiao Qi, Yawen Shan and Xiyi Liu
People with autism and their families struggle with travel because of its complexity. This study aims to promote travel participation by exploring the travel needs and patterns of…
Abstract
Purpose
People with autism and their families struggle with travel because of its complexity. This study aims to promote travel participation by exploring the travel needs and patterns of people with autism and their families.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 28 participants were interviewed. Data were analyzed via constructivist grounded theory.
Findings
People with autism and their families displayed five travel patterns: mutual support, relatives’ visitation, independent travel, expanded socialization and package tours. These patterns were adopted in a stepwise fashion as the autistic individuals’ abilities improved. The travel challenges and support needs of Chinese autistic people and their families were identified.
Practical implications
The findings can inform accessibility tourism, promote an understanding of autistic people’s tourism activities among the public and industry marketers and offer strategic guidance about family travel for this population.
Originality/value
This effort responds to a call to investigate disability-related issues. The study evaluated the travel behavior of people with autism and their families, from a developmental perspective, presenting a new angle in research on accessibility tourism.
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Raphaela Stadler, Allan Stewart Jepson and Emma Harriet Wood
Reflecting, reliving and reforming experiences enhance longer-term effects of travel and tourism, and have been highlighted as an important aspect in determining loyalty…
Abstract
Purpose
Reflecting, reliving and reforming experiences enhance longer-term effects of travel and tourism, and have been highlighted as an important aspect in determining loyalty, re-visitation and post-consumption satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to develop new methodological approaches to investigate emotion, memory creation and the resulting psychosocial effects.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a unique combination of physiological measures and photoelicitation-based discussions within a longitudinal design. A physiological measuring instrument (electrodermal activity [EDA] tracking technology through Empatica E4 wristbands) is utilised to capture the “unadulterated” emotional response both during the experience and in reliving or remembering it. This is combined with post-experience narrative discussion groups using photos and other artefacts to give further understanding of the process of collective memory creation.
Findings
EDA tracking can enhance qualitative research methodologies in three ways: through use as an “artefact” to prompt reflection on feelings, through identifying peaks of emotional response and through highlighting changes in emotional response over time. Empirical evidence from studies into participatory arts events and the potential well-being effects upon women over the age of 70 is presented to illustrate the method.
Originality/value
The artificial environment created using experimental approaches to measure emotions and memory (common in many fields of psychology) has serious limitations. This paper proposes new and more “natural” methods for use in tourism, hospitality and events research, which have the potential to better capture participants’ feelings, behaviours and the meanings they place upon them.
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The long controversy that has waxed furiously around the implementation of the EEC Directives on the inspection of poultry meat and hygiene standards to be observed in poultry…
Abstract
The long controversy that has waxed furiously around the implementation of the EEC Directives on the inspection of poultry meat and hygiene standards to be observed in poultry slaughterhouses, cutting‐up premises, &c, appears to be resolved at last. (The Prayer lodged against the Regulations when they were formally laid before Parliament just before the summer recess, which meant they would have to be debated when the House reassembled, could have resulted in some delay to the early operative dates, but little chance of the main proposals being changed.) The controversy began as soon as the EEC draft directive was published and has continued from the Directive of 1971 with 1975 amendments. There has been long and painstaking study of problems by the Ministry with all interested parties; enforcement was not the least of these. The expansion and growth of the poultry meat industry in the past decade has been tremendous and the constitution of what is virtually a new service, within the framework of general food inspection, was inevitable. None will question the need for efficient inspection or improved and higher standards of hygiene, but the extent of the organization in the first and the enormous cost of structural and other alterations to premises in the second, were seen as formidable tasks, and costly. The execution and enforcement of the new Regulations is assigned to local authorities (District, Metropolitan and London Borough Councils), who are empowered to make charges for inspection, licences, etc., to recoup the full costs of administration. The Government had previously promised that the cost of this new service, which when fully operative, will be significant, would not fall upon the already over‐burdened economies of local authorities. The figure of a penny per bird is given; in those areas with very large poultry processing plants, with annual outputs counted in millions of birds, this levy should adequately cover costs of enforcing the Regulations, but there are many areas with only one of a few small concerns with annual killings of perhaps no more than 200,000 birds—this much we know from perusing annual health reports received at the offices of this Journal—and the returns from charges will certainly be inadequate to cover the cost of extra staff. The Regulations require the appointment of “official veterinary surgeons” and “poultry meat inspectors”, both new to local government.
Maurício C. Coutinho and Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak
Though contemporaries, Adam Smith and Sir James Steuart are commonly portrayed as if they belonged to different eras. Whereas Smith went down in history as both founder of the…
Abstract
Though contemporaries, Adam Smith and Sir James Steuart are commonly portrayed as if they belonged to different eras. Whereas Smith went down in history as both founder of the science of political economy and patron saint of economic liberalism, Steuart became known as the last, outdated advocate for mercantilist policies in Britain. Smith himself was responsible for popularizing the notion of the “system of commerce” as an approach to political economy that dominated the early modern period. As a historiographical concept, the mercantile system became a misguided international trade theory grounded upon the Midas fallacy and the favorable balance of trade doctrine. Smith’s treatment of international trade in the Wealth of Nations, however, was criticized for its inconsistencies and lack of analytical clarity even by some among his own followers. Given Smith’s doubtful credentials as an international trade theorist, the chapter investigates the reasons that led him and Steuart to be placed on opposite sides of the mercantilist divide. The authors analyze the works of both authors in depth, showing that their disagreements had chiefly to do with different views on money and monetary policy. Additionally, the authors explore how early nineteenth-century writers such as Jean-Baptiste Say and J. R. McCulloch helped forge the intellectual profiles of both Steuart and Smith.