Demonstrates that the quality assurance systems and audit techniques presently being applied throughout the NHS have displaced or succeeded the original goals of the service while…
Abstract
Demonstrates that the quality assurance systems and audit techniques presently being applied throughout the NHS have displaced or succeeded the original goals of the service while increasing its bureaucracy and costs.
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In January 1989 a working group, made up of college and service staff, was formed with the remit of devising a method of assessing the suitability of a clinical area for student…
Abstract
In January 1989 a working group, made up of college and service staff, was formed with the remit of devising a method of assessing the suitability of a clinical area for student nurses to learn the practice of nursing. The group interpreted the remit as the identification of the quality of the learning environment offered by clinical areas. Other UK nursing colleges had devised methods of assessing the quality of learning environments but the working group felt that those studied were too subjective. The group felt that responses to quality matters which were in the form of statements were too difficult to compare and therefore to use as standard‐setting tools. By means of questionnaires, grading forms and direct observation numerical scores were applied to each factor, giving the possibility of setting numerical standards. A pilot study was undertaken which showed the method to be a feasible approach to measuring quality, although some of the measuring methods used require to be refined and the pilot repeated several times to give values to the figures attained.
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Managers today, in looking for ways to manage their staffeffectively and to increase productivity, too often turn to the latest“management tool” or technique as the panacea to all…
Abstract
Managers today, in looking for ways to manage their staff effectively and to increase productivity, too often turn to the latest “management tool” or technique as the panacea to all their manpower problems. Attracted by glossy promises or presentations, these are introduced, generally from the top, without reference to the ever‐growing research evidence. Reviews some of the research into the use of goals in organizations. Concludes that there is research evidence to show that staff at all levels involved in setting their own goals will increase their production, quality and motivation, but that the setting of goals does not require a complex and costly process. The use of any goal is better than no goal but outcomes are better in simple participative systems.
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Defined as perceiving the past via the lens of former peoples, historical empathy engenders rich cognitive and affective understandings. Drawing on Ricoeur's hermeneutics (1981…
Abstract
Purpose
Defined as perceiving the past via the lens of former peoples, historical empathy engenders rich cognitive and affective understandings. Drawing on Ricoeur's hermeneutics (1981, 2004), this paper departs from previous work on historical empathy by conceiving empathy as dialogically mediated by sociocultural and narrative perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach
This hermeneutic phenomenology explores eight adolescents' engagements with primary sources from the Second World War.
Findings
This study reveals the power of empathy to draw the students into the past and to investigate sources. Alternately, the students struggled with fanciful elaborations and overidentifications with historical figures.
Practical implications
Cultivating wise judgments begins with accepting the inherent link between students' historicity and historical empathy and then teaching students to wisely interpret.
Originality/value
This study broadens historical empathy's framework to include Ricoeur's hermeneutic philosophies of narrative and history.
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This chapter points out and tries to describe the (missing) link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social ontology/ontology of the firm. The author believes that…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter points out and tries to describe the (missing) link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social ontology/ontology of the firm. The author believes that this gap in the literature hinders the progress of CSR theoretical/empirical understanding and effectiveness; therefore, the following question is addressed: is a social theory-focused approach to the ontology of the firm relevant to CSR studies? While currently many disciplines are seeking to clarify CSR theory and practice, the role of social ontology has relatively been under-explored despite its foundational importance.
Design/methodology/approach
This chapter provides rationales for identifying a set of interrelated themes to be included in future research projects. A literature review is carried out, and further analysis and desk research can be drawn from the key notions identified.
Findings
This viewpoint conceptual chapter suggests that social ontology can be an important subject of inquiry in order to bridge the existing gaps in CSR/Business Ethics studies. A possible conceptual agreement for a realist and social theory-focused approach to CSR is illustrated.
Research limitations/implications
While encouraging more effort and commitment in this emerging and fascinating field, this chapter concentrates on some selected key aspects such as the meaning of corporate moral agency and the ontological status of social collectives (e.g. firms).
Practical implications
This chapter lays the ground for future pilot exploratory research, and could be instructive for the construction of specific research methodologies/theoretical tools seeking to explore not so much the ways CSR is defined (indeed, there seems to be a broad consensus about it) but rather how CSR is socially constructed, implemented and carried out.
Social implications
This chapter can potentially help grow knowledge about the nexus between CSR, social ontology and the underlying metaphysical issues, thus facilitating a comprehensive inter-/multi-/pluri-disciplinary understanding and giving a contribution to the relevant ongoing scientific and practical debates.
Originality/value
This chapter, while uncovering and exploring the aforementioned novel connections, can enrich the study of CSR with respect to the current mainstream approaches, for example, stakeholder management and engagement, social accounting and reporting, socially responsible investment (SRI).
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Addresses the problem of psychotherapy coming to understand itself formally as a conversation in which healing of distortions and breakdowns in communication occurs. The paper…
Abstract
Addresses the problem of psychotherapy coming to understand itself formally as a conversation in which healing of distortions and breakdowns in communication occurs. The paper proposes making concepts the basis for the psychotherapy conversation by linking psychotherapy to second‐order cybernetics and utilizing Pask’s conversation theory. The first part describes cybernetics as the context for the study of the distortions and breakdowns in communication. The second part discusses conversation theory as a formal description of the procedures of psychotherapy, as a way to converse in psychotherapy, as a way to talk about psychotherapy and as a way to change the conversation of psychotherapy. The final part discusses four distinctive characteristics of the evolving conversation of psychotherapy where psychotherapy composes itself as a conversation. These characteristics are what psychotherapy is (its definition), what it is about (its object), how it proceeds (its methods), and what it is for (its value).
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In a previous article we have called attention to the danger of eating tinned and bottled vegetables which have been coloured by the addition of salts of copper and we have urged…
Abstract
In a previous article we have called attention to the danger of eating tinned and bottled vegetables which have been coloured by the addition of salts of copper and we have urged upon the public that no such preparations should be purchased without an adequate guarantee that they are free from copper compounds. Copper poisoning, however, is not the only danger to which consumers of preserved foods are liable. Judging from the reports of cases of irritant poisoning which appear with somewhat alarming frequency in the daily press, and from the information which we have been at pains to obtain, there can be no question that the occurrence of a large number of these cases is to be attributed to the ingestion of tinned foods which has been improperly prepared or kept. It is not to be supposed that the numerous cases of illness which have been ascribed to the use of tinned foods were all cases of metallic poisoning brought about by the action of the contents of the tins upon the metal and solder of the latter. The evidence available does not show that a majority of the cases could be put down to this cause alone; but it must be admitted that the evidence is in most instances of an unsatisfactory and inconclusive character. It has become a somewhat too common custom to put forward the view that so‐called “ptomaine” poisoning is the cause of the mischief; and this upon very insufficient evidence. While there is no doubt that the presence in tinned goods of some poisonous products of decomposition or organic change very frequently gives rise to dangerous illness, so little is known of the chemical nature and of the physiological effects of “ptomaines” that to obtain conclusive evidence is in all cases most difficult, and in many, if not in most, quite impossible. A study of the subject leads to the conclusion that both ptomaine poisoning and metallic poisoning—also of an obscure kind—have, either separately or in conjunction, produced the effects from time to time reported. In view of the many outbreaks of illness, and especially, of course, of the deaths which have been attributed to the eating of bad tinned foods it is of the utmost importance that some more stringent control than that which can be said to exist at present should be exercised over the preparation and sale of tinned goods. In Holland some two or three years ago, in consequence partly of the fact that, after eating tinned food, about seventy soldiers were attacked by severe illness at the Dutch manœuvres, the attention of the Government was drawn to the matter by Drs. VAN HAMEL ROOS and HARMENS, who advocated the use of enamel for coating tins. It appears that an enamel of special manufacture is now extensively used in Holland by the manfacturers of the better qualities of tinned food, and that the use of such enamelled tins is insisted upon for naval and military stores. This is a course which might with great advantage be followed in this country. While absolute safety may not be attainable, adequate steps should be taken to prevent the use of damaged, inferior or improper materials, to enforce cleanliness, and to ensure the adoption of some better system of canning.
This study aims to point out and try to describe the (missing) link between “responsible practises” (e.g. CSR – corporate social responsibility) and social ontology. This critical…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to point out and try to describe the (missing) link between “responsible practises” (e.g. CSR – corporate social responsibility) and social ontology. This critical gap in the literature may conceivably be a stumbling block to responsible business/political/societal action and its theoretical/empirical understanding and effectiveness; therefore, we can legitimately ask ourselves whether a social ontology-focused approach can be considered relevant to this field of study.
Design/methodology/approach
As the role of social ontology has presumably been under-explored despite its foundational importance, a set of germane and adjoining themes has been identified, which can be possibly included in future research projects. An overview of relevant literature is provided, and further analysis and desk research can be drawn from the key notions identified.
Findings
It is argued that social ontology – especially the underlying debate in terms of shared agency, collective responsibility and collective intentionality – can be an innovative and promising perspective within business ethics studies. Potentially, CSR management and/or similar responsible practices can re-appraised in similar terms.
Research limitations/implications
This study specifically focuses on some selected key aspects related to the ontological status of social collectives (e.g. groups and organisations), trying to recall the main trajectories/directions of the relevant arguments and debates. More empirical research/pilot case studies validating the approach presented here will be required.
Practical implications
Building on the findings of this study, new emergent research methodologies/theoretical tools will make it possible to explore not so much the ways “responsible” practises are defined (indeed, there seems to be a broad consensus about it), but rather how they are socially constructed, implemented and carried out.
Social implications
This theoretical work can potentially facilitate a comprehensive inter-/multi-/pluri-disciplinary understanding of the novel links explored, namely, between responsibility, social ontology and the underlying longstanding philosophical issues.
Originality/value
The novel thematic approach outlined in this study can challenge and widen the mainstream approaches about CSR management, e.g. stakeholder management and engagement, social accounting and reporting, SRI (socially responsible investment).
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In the first decades of the nineteenth century to the first decade of the twentieth century, the US Federal and Supreme Courts heard several cases on the legal status of ships…
Abstract
In the first decades of the nineteenth century to the first decade of the twentieth century, the US Federal and Supreme Courts heard several cases on the legal status of ships. During this period, Chief Justice John Marshall and Justice Joseph Story determined that a ship was a legal person that was capable to contract and could be punished for wrongdoing. Over the nineteenth century, Marshall and Story also heard appeals on the illegal slave trade and on the status of fugitive slaves crossing state lines, cases that raised questions as to whether enslaved peoples were persons or property. Although Marshall and Story did not discuss the ship and the slave together, in this chapter, the author asks what might be gained in doing so. Specifically, what might a reading of the ship and the slave as juridical figures reveal about the history of legal personhood? The genealogy of positive and negative legal personhood that the author begins to trace here draws inspiration and guidance from scholars writing critically of slavery. In different ways, this literature emphasises the significance of maritime worlds to conceptions of racial terror, freedom, and fugitivity. Building on these insights, the author reads the ship and the slave as central characters in the history of legal personhood, a reading that highlights the interconnections between maritime law and the laws of slavery and foregrounds the changing intensities of Anglo imperial power and racial and colonial violence in shaping the legal person.