Craig Mitton, François Dionne and Diane Schmidt
The purpose of this chapter is to describe a method for priority setting that can be used to identify options for disinvestment, and is also meant to serve as a tool for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to describe a method for priority setting that can be used to identify options for disinvestment, and is also meant to serve as a tool for re-allocation of resources to achieve better outcomes with a given pot of resources.
Approach
This chapter draws on findings from the application of a priority setting and resource allocation framework known as Program Budgeting and Marginal Analysis (PBMA). Case studies are used to illustrate key points around implementation including factors for success and guidelines for improving priority setting in practice.
Findings
PBMA has been applied in over 150 settings over the last 30 years. Purposes varied from focusing strictly on disinvestment to examining opportunities for re-allocation. Many organizations report continued use of the framework and decision makers typically express a desire to not revert to historical allocation or political negotiation in deciding on the funding for programs.
Practical implications
Practical implications of this body of work on priority setting abound in that there are significant opportunities to improve resource allocation practice including better engagement of staff, clinicians and public members, greater use of evidence in decision making and improving process transparency.
Social implications
As healthcare resources are limited, particularly in predominantly publicly funded health systems, prudent use of resources is critical. Actually applying the appropriate tools to ensure that funding aligns with organizational and system objectives is paramount.
Originality/value
Although there is a large body of literature on priority setting particularly in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada, this chapter serves to highlight key messages specifically in the context of fiscal constraint and in relation to the concept of disinvestment or service reduction.
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LaVerne Gray, Joseph Winberry and Yiran Duan
The chapter identifies the COVID-19 pandemic as not just a public health crisis but also an information crisis. The authors argue that a deeper understanding of the role of…
Abstract
The chapter identifies the COVID-19 pandemic as not just a public health crisis but also an information crisis. The authors argue that a deeper understanding of the role of culture in information practices is critical for the future of research and theoretical development around humanity’s relationship to information (i.e., why information is or is not created, represented, avoided, sought, retrieved, used, shared, or hidden). This chapter highlights the Black Feminist Information Community (BFIC) framework, especially the voice and information aspect of the model in the context of community justice.
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Maura J. Mills and Leanne M. Tortez
We review the state of the literature concerning work–family conflict in the military, focusing on service members’ parenting roles and overall family and child well-being. This…
Abstract
We review the state of the literature concerning work–family conflict in the military, focusing on service members’ parenting roles and overall family and child well-being. This includes recognition that for many women service members, parenting considerations often arise long before a child is born, thereby further complicating work–family conflict considerations in regard to gender-specific conflict factors such as pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and breastfeeding. Subsequently, we consider more gender-invariant conflict factors, such as the nature of the work itself as causing conflict for the service member as parent (e.g., nontraditional hours, long separations, and child care challenges) as well as for the child (e.g., irregular contact with parent, fear for parent’s safety, and frequent relocations), and the ramifications of such conflict on service member and child well-being. Finally, we review formalized support resources that are in place to mitigate negative effects of such conflict, and make recommendations to facilitate progress in research and practice moving forward.
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While sports have historically provided a space for Black males to experience a high sense of self-efficacy, the question about whether or not it transfers to educational…
Abstract
While sports have historically provided a space for Black males to experience a high sense of self-efficacy, the question about whether or not it transfers to educational endeavors persists. A challenge for practitioners is to ensure that Black males also thrive educationally as well as in their athletic pursuits. The author presents a brief history of Black males’ participation in sport, along with the historical implications of such participation. The utility of empowerment theory is explored within the context of promoting the college and career readiness of Black male student-athletes in high school. High school counselors’ use of empowerment theory is specifically highlighted. Specific indicators of college and career readiness are discussed, and the author posits the use of empowerment theory in counseling and advising can facilitate positive change in this process, assuring that sports remains the positive mobilizing mechanism that it can be for all student-athletes.
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Mumbi Maria Wachira and David Wang’ombe
Though environmental management accounting (EMA) is a globally recognized accounting practice, its application and development within several developing economies remain stunted…
Abstract
Purpose
Though environmental management accounting (EMA) is a globally recognized accounting practice, its application and development within several developing economies remain stunted. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the extent to which EMA practices have been implemented by local manufacturing companies in Nairobi, Kenya.
Methodology
We measure the degree to which EMA methods have been adopted by manufacturing entities and hypothesize that firm size, financial performance, and regulation are positively associated to the extent to which EMA techniques are applied by Kenyan corporations. The chapter employs a mixed methods research approach and combines the use of surveys with semi-structured interviews to gain insights into drivers of EMA and the extent to which these methods are applied locally.
Findings
We find environmental regulation and financial performance are positively associated with the level of EMA practices applied by manufacturing entities.
Originality
The findings illustrate the complexities of applying EMA practices within an emerging context and provide evidence that EMA practices are still predominantly used by entities to meet local regulatory requirements. The qualitative findings indicate there could be some companies who engage with EMA at a more sophisticated level.
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This paper aims to explore the relevance of theoretical developments from critical disability studies to information practices scholarship, particularly that which is attuned to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the relevance of theoretical developments from critical disability studies to information practices scholarship, particularly that which is attuned to how systems of power and inequality create barriers to information. More specifically, this paper aims to interrogate the solutionist ethos that underlies the narrow focus on information access within research concerning information practices and marginalization.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows a critical interpretation synthesis (CIS) review format, which aligns with the overarching interpretivist research objectives. The CIS review method opens up modes of interdisciplinary analysis that question dominant narratives and assumptions within the literature. In the paper, several concepts from critical disability studies are discussed due to their relevance to key concerns of information practices research. These include the political/relational model of disability, bodymind and crip politics. The theoretical framework of political/relational information access outlined in this paper connects and draws comparisons between the above concepts.
Findings
The paper develops the political/relational model of information access, which interrogates dominant narratives that situate information as a resolve for marginalization. Extending insights from critical disability studies and activism, the framework underscores how access to information and information more broadly are sites of collective contestation that are constantly in flux. Political/relational information access situates information and access as political and relational entities through which to collectively refuse the hierarchies of value and normalizing logics attached to them.
Originality/value
The connections between critical disability studies and information practices research have been previously underexplored. The literature review develops the political/relational model of information access, which extends insights from critical disability studies to the growing areas of critical inquiry within information practices scholarship and library and information science research more broadly.
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Dwight V. Denison and J. Bryan Gibson
Jefferson County, Alabama undertook a series of risky financial maneuvers in 2003 that included issuing large amounts of variable rate and auction rate securities as well as…
Abstract
Jefferson County, Alabama undertook a series of risky financial maneuvers in 2003 that included issuing large amounts of variable rate and auction rate securities as well as engaging in numerous interest rate swaps in order to lower the burgeoning costs of repairing its sewer system to comply with federal regulations. These complex financial instruments, intended to lower debt service costs on the countyʼs $3 billion in outstanding sewer warrants, led the county to financial bankruptcy in the wake of the financial markets collapse. This paper explores the choice of securities by analyzing the risk of adjustable rate securities and interest rate swaps, examining the Jefferson County case in detail, and providing some lessons for future financial management within the context of unexpected events such as the current recession.
Lynn M. Martin, Izzy Warren-Smith and Gemma Lord
UK higher education has faced an unprecedented period of change due to multiple UK governmental policies over a short period – coupled with demographic change and the vote to…
Abstract
Purpose
UK higher education has faced an unprecedented period of change due to multiple UK governmental policies over a short period – coupled with demographic change and the vote to leave the European Union. This pressures universities to meet third mission aims by engaging effectively with society and business, generating income in the process to address reduced funding. Support from the UK Government includes over 20 years of funding for universities to develop entrepreneurial structures and processes, termed entrepreneurial architecture (EA). While the government regularly collects data on funds generated through third mission activities, less is known about how EA is perceived by those inside the university. The purpose of this paper is to meet that gap by exploring the perspectives of those employed specifically as part of EA implementation, as knowledge exchange intermediaries.
Design/methodology/approach
The study takes a phenomenological approach to achieve deeper insights into those routines and norms resulting from the application of EA. This is a purposeful sample with what is reported to be an under-researched group (Hayter, 2016); those employed as internal knowledge intermediaries across 15 universities (two from each). These university employees are specifically charged with business engagement, knowledge exchange and research commercialization; their contracts are funded and designed as a part of the EA rather than for research or teaching. An initial pilot comprising four semi-structured interviews indicated suitable themes. This was followed up through a set of three interviews over 18 months with each participant and a mapping of EA components at each institution.
Findings
Despite EA strategies, the picture emerging was that universities had embedded physical components to a greater or lesser degree without effective social architecture, shown by conflicts between stated and actual routines and norms and by consistent barriers to third mission work. Power and perceived power were critical as participants felt their own worth and status was embedded in their senior manager’s status and power, with practical difficulties for them when he or she lost ground due to internal politics.
Research limitations/implications
The benefits of this study method and sample include deep insights into the perspectives of an under-reported group. The purposeful sample might be usefully expanded to include other countries, other staff or to look in depth at one institution. It is a qualitative study so brings with it the richness, insights and the potential lack of easy generalizability such an approach provides.
Practical implications
In designing organizations to achieve third mission aims, EA is important. Even where the structures, strategies, systems, leadership and culture appear to be in place; however, the resulting routines and norms may act against organizational aims. Those designing and redesigning their institutions might look at the experience suggested here to understand how important it is to embed social architecture to ensure effective actions. Measuring cultures and having this as part of institutional targets might also support better results.
Social implications
Governments in the UK have invested resources and funding and produced policy documents related to the third mission for over 20 years. However, the persistent gap in universities delivering on policy third mission aims is well documented. For this to change, universities will need to ensure their EA is founded on strong underlying supportive cultures. Knowledge sharing with business and community is unlikely when it does not happen in-house.
Originality/value
The study adds new knowledge about how EA is expressed at individual university level. The findings show the need for more research to understand those routines and norms which shape third mission progress in UK universities and how power relations impact in this context, given the pivotal role of the power exerted by the senior manager.
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MARTIN AVIS and VIRGINIA GIBSON
In the first of this pair of articles we set out the broad problems and components of time‐share (TS) valuation and talked in general terms of the use of DCF techniques that might…
Abstract
In the first of this pair of articles we set out the broad problems and components of time‐share (TS) valuation and talked in general terms of the use of DCF techniques that might more realistically incorporate the risks involved in TS from a purchaser's point of view. This second article includes a worked example using first an ‘optimistic single‐point best estimate DCF’ and then a DCF which incorporates a range of values for each of the main variables, using random selection, finally forming a distribution of the 500 valuations actually run.