Farooq Mubarak and Michael Nycyk
This paper aims to explore how older people in developed and developing countries are affected by the grey digital divide. It argues country type and culture influence older…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how older people in developed and developing countries are affected by the grey digital divide. It argues country type and culture influence older people’s willingness to access and learn internet skills. Using the knowledge from researchers informs policy, funding and delivery of appropriate skilling to minimize this divide.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature search using specific keywords to locate digital divide research, specifically pertaining to older people across country types.
Findings
Despite increased internet access and affordability, older people still face challenges in learning internet skills. Country type, economic challenges and cultural beliefs need to be considered in minimizing the grey divide. Governments recognize the importance of funding such teaching but evidence-based research must continue to inform policy to maximize funding and solve the many physical age and cultural issues affecting older people’s access to internet skills learning.
Originality/value
This paper argues that research in developing countries into minimizing the grey digital divide is a crucial undertaking. As the internet continues growing in developing countries, finding solutions that consider cultural and age differences issues is crucial to the success of having internet literate societies that have growing populations of older people seeking to use it.
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This paper is an autoethnographic account of field dilemmas encountered while undertaking research in a construction organization. The purpose of this paper is to provide a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is an autoethnographic account of field dilemmas encountered while undertaking research in a construction organization. The purpose of this paper is to provide a reflexive account for those who undertake organizational field studies and focusses on the issue of field relationships and data collection.
Design/methodology/approach
Vignettes are used providing vivid accounts of field interactions between author, informants and research team members, followed by a reflection on the consequences of these. Field notes and reflective journaling were used in the construction of the vignettes.
Findings
Data collection in organizations where informants have limited time for researchers involves building relationships that need much attention, compromise and addressing of dilemmas which arise. This autoethnography highlights this and reflects on lessons learnt of how to manage dilemmas in field relationships that require attention when they hinder data collection and prove detrimental to the research project’s progress.
Practical implications
This study informs those undertaking research in commercial organizations about the importance of managing relationships and solving potential field dilemmas.
Originality/value
This autoethnography adds to the discussion about how researchers negotiate complex relationships and the dilemmas that constrain data collection. The value of being reflective of dilemmas lies in understanding that challenging organizational field studies involves careful tending to informants’ and research stakeholders’ needs whilst remaining focused on one’s own research goals.
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Margaret Redsell and Michael Nycyk
As computers further pervade the lives of older adults, the need for relevant affordable training grows. Older adults experience the digital divide sharply, not through frailty or…
Abstract
As computers further pervade the lives of older adults, the need for relevant affordable training grows. Older adults experience the digital divide sharply, not through frailty or age but because accessing training can be difficult. The intent of this paper is to suggest successful ways of teaching computers through the discussion of a case study of Skylarkers 60 and Better Program and a longitudinal study conducted there. Centre managers can benefit from knowing the types of teaching methods that may make their computer training beneficial and useful to older adults.
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This paper aims to present findings from research undertaken in Australian construction companies that describes some issues faced in the management of records on large‐scale…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present findings from research undertaken in Australian construction companies that describes some issues faced in the management of records on large‐scale projects.
Design/methodology/approach
Ethnographic data were collected from several projects by observations, interviews and looking at records management systems. Thematic analysis was employed, where common descriptions of practice and frequency of themes emerged.
Findings
This paper found three themes Australian construction companies experience in daily records work. A construction project's pace means project staff create records, but neglect to share them amongst other team members. Secondly, there are differences between overseas trained project staff and local staff in the way they give importance to records management issues. Thirdly, the pace of modern construction projects and managing the many data types that now make up records causes difficulty in keeping records current. Learnt work habits and resistance to changing practices is common despite pressures to ensure records are current, accurate and easily retrievable.
Practical implications
The paper's findings discuss the merits and drawbacks of ethnographic research suggesting strategies for undertaking such work. Using ethnographic methods is a way of uncovering micro‐level reasons for resistance to change and what work practices hinder successful records management. These findings produce an account of daily practice that provides detailed information to management to identify areas of change.
Originality/value
This paper provides a description of one way of researching records management issues and an insight into such issues occurring in the Australian construction industry.
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The purpose of this paper is to suggest that a user-centered approach to records management may result in more sustainable, intuitive and defensible records management programs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest that a user-centered approach to records management may result in more sustainable, intuitive and defensible records management programs compared to alternatives.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-part methodology is adopted: part one explores the literature for records management programs that impose a high degree of control over records at cost to users, and part two explores the author’s experience of developing tools that facilitate a user-centred approach.
Findings
To adopt a user-centred approach to records management requires reassessing the degree of control that should be imposed over records.
Originality/value
This paper provides an original analysis of the field of records management through the lens of usability, as well as original solutions in the form of technology that supports usability.
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This paper aims to show agential realism as the basis for a pertinent framework with regard to the entwined, on-going and interpretative aspects of knowledge.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show agential realism as the basis for a pertinent framework with regard to the entwined, on-going and interpretative aspects of knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The knowledge flow phenomenon in the form of entanglement and agential “cuts” within the workplace is studied and described across a phenomenological ethnographic case study of two workgroups within an aircraft engine manufacturing context.
Findings
The boundary construction phenomenon is a key process helping us to depict knowledge entanglement (tacit and explicit) across dialogue and non-verbal actions. Dialogue brings forth the aspect of knowledge as interpretations or “cuts.” A phenomenological analysis allows us to identify and describe various levels of tacit–explicit knowledge entanglement depending on the mode of coping at hand. Also highlighted was the importance of heuristics carried out by knowledge experts, often in the form of abduction (i.e. leading to rules of thumb).
Research limitations/implications
It is acknowledged that the relatively narrow context of the empirical work limits the ability to generalize the findings and arguments. As such, additional work is required to investigate the validity of the findings across a wider spectrum of workgroup contexts.
Practical implications
Agential realism allows for the analysis of organizations as a world of practice and actions, whereby long-established categories can be requestioned and challenged with the aim of sharing the full richness and benefit of embodied knowledge between human actors.
Originality/value
Ethnographic descriptions of the entwined nature of tacit and explicit knowledge, the embodied and activity-based dimension of knowledge and learning, as well as the characteristic of knowledge as possession, correspond well to an agential realist concept of phenomenon, entanglement and cuts. Furthermore, agential realism offers the opportunity to view the workplace as individuals (or groups) who act out embodied tacit-explicit knowledge in conjunction with non-human entities (such as objects, as well as communication and information technologies), with the latter acting as enhancers of knowledge creation and sharing.