Shireen J. Fahey, John R. Labadie and Noel Meyers
The aim of this paper is to present the challenges external drivers and internal inertia faced by curriculum designers and implementers at institutions of higher education. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to present the challenges external drivers and internal inertia faced by curriculum designers and implementers at institutions of higher education. The challenges to academics from competing factors are presented: internal resistance to changing existing curricula vs the necessity to continuously evolve programmes to reflect a dynamic, uncertain future. The necessity to prepare future leaders to face global issues such as climate change, dictates changing curricula to reflect changing personal, environmental and societal needs.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the case study method to examine two models of climate change curriculum design and renewal. One model, from an Australian university, is based upon national education standards and the second is a non-standards-based curriculum design, developed and delivered by a partnership of four North American universities.
Findings
The key findings from this study are that the highest level of participation by internal-to-the-programme academics and administrators is required. Programme quality, delivery and content alignment may be compromised with either stand-alone course delivery and learning outcomes, or if courses are developed independently of others in the programme. National educational standards can be effective tools to guide course and programme management, monitoring, review and updating.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for postgraduate level curricula design, implementation and programme evaluation.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to compare, contrast and critique a national standards-based, higher education curriculum and a non-standards-based curriculum.
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Quan Lu, Jiyue Zhang, Jing Chen and Ji Li
The purpose of this paper is to examine the difference between experts and novices when reading with navigational table of contents (N-TOC). Experts refer to readers with high…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the difference between experts and novices when reading with navigational table of contents (N-TOC). Experts refer to readers with high level of domain knowledge; novices refer to readers with low level of domain knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors performed a controlled experiment of three reading tasks (including fact finding task, partial understanding task, and full-text understanding task) on an N-TOC system for 35 post-graduates of Wuhan University who have rich experience in reading with N-TOC. Participants’ domain knowledge was measured by pre-experiment questionnaires; reading performance data including score, time, navigation use, and evaluation of N-TOC were collected.
Findings
The results showed that there was significant difference in neither navigation use nor participants’ evaluation, but domain experts performed significantly better in both score and time of all tasks than domain novices, which revealed an “illusion of control” phenomenon that rich experience in reading with N-TOC enabled domain novices to achieve the same performance as domain experts. In addition, this research found that N-TOC was not suitable for domain novices to solve full-text understanding task because of “cognitive overload” phenomenon.
Originality/value
This study makes a good contribution to the literature on the effect of domain knowledge on reading performance during N-TOC reading and how to provide better digital reading service in the field of library science and information science.
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Karin Falkenburg and Birgit Schyns
The focus of this research paper is on the effects of work satisfaction and organizational commitment on withdrawal behaviours. In order to acquire a better understanding of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The focus of this research paper is on the effects of work satisfaction and organizational commitment on withdrawal behaviours. In order to acquire a better understanding of this relationship, the moderating effects of work satisfaction and organizational commitment are examined.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire study was undertaken with Dutch and Slovakian respondents.
Findings
Although the results do yield support for the claim that work satisfaction and organizational commitment have moderating effects on withdrawal behaviours, not all the hypotheses were confirmed, particularly in the case of sample two.
Research limitations/implications
Although a cross‐sectional design was used, light was shed on the complex relationship between work satisfaction, organizational commitment and withdrawal behaviours.
Practical implications
The results suggest that targeting one employee attitude in order to prevent withdrawal behaviours may not be enough. It is recommended to focus on a combined pattern of attitudes to obtain the desired goals.
Originality/value
Rather than concentrating on single relationships, this paper examines the effects of two employee attitudes on withdrawal behaviours, taking into account moderator effects.
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This chapter will situate the global paradigm shift toward Post-Education-For-All (Post-EFA) not only in the policy trends in the field of international education development, but…
Abstract
This chapter will situate the global paradigm shift toward Post-Education-For-All (Post-EFA) not only in the policy trends in the field of international education development, but also in the academic context of international relations and comparative education.
The chapter highlights three dimensions which characterize the paradigm shift; namely, discourse on norms, diversifying actors, and the changed mode of communication and participation in the global consultation processes. The existing formal structure of the EFA global governance is based on multilateralism which recognizes sovereign nation-states, representing national interests, as the participants. However, such an assumption is eroding, given that there is a growing number of state and nonstate actors who influence decision-making not only through conventional formal channels, but also informally. Urging the revision of theories of multilateralism, the chapter introduces the attention given to nontraditional donors and horizontal networks of civil society actors in this volume.
The introduction also shows that that the widening basis of participation in the global consultation processes on post-EFA and advanced communication technology have changed the ways in which discourse is formulated. While the amount and the speed of exchanging information have been enhanced and different types of actors have been encouraged to take part, it also obliges scholars to adopt innovative methods of analyzing discourse formation.
The chapter also demonstrates the importance of the focus on the Asia-Pacific region, which is composed of diverse actors who often underscore Asian cultural roots in contrast to Western hegemony. By focusing on the discourse, actors, and the structure through which the consensus views on the post-EFA agenda were built, the volume attempts to untangle the nature of the post-EFA paradigm shift, at the global, Asia-Pacific regional, and national levels.
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Noel Hyndman and Mariannunziata Liguori
The purpose of this paper is to focus on strategies and “spoken discourses” used to construct legitimation around change at the individual level. Comparing changes in financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on strategies and “spoken discourses” used to construct legitimation around change at the individual level. Comparing changes in financial accounting, budgeting and performance management at two government levels (Westminster and Scotland), it explores the use of legitimation strategies in the implementation of accounting change and its perceived outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on semi-structured interviews, six legitimation/delegitimation strategies are used to code the transcribed data. Patterns with the perceived outcomes of change are explored.
Findings
Changes introduced to enhance “rational” decision making are often received as pushed by some source of authority. Regardless of the interviewees’ background and level, the results suggest that for radical accounting change to embed, it is necessary for it to be perceived as rational, rather than merely driven by authorisation-based pressures. Conversely, incremental change is associated with modest legitimation via rationalisation and delegitimation based on pathos and rationalisation.
Research limitations/implications
The study deals with actors’ legitimation strategies and perceptions of change. These may not correspond to actual substantial change. Taken-for-granted ideas often remain “under the radar”, therefore care must be taken in interpreting the results. The focus of the empirical study is on the UK, therefore conclusions are restricted to this context.
Originality/value
Existing studies struggle to explain organisations’ heterogeneity and practice variation; this study sheds light on how individual legitimation, which may lead to different organisational results, occurs. Differences in how actors interpret changes may be based on their position (central vs devolved administration) and on their ownership of the changes.
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Arménio Rego, Miguel Pina E. Cunha and Solange Souto
This paper shows how the perceptions of people regarding five dimensions of workplace spirituality (team’s sense of community, alignment with organizational values, sense of…
Abstract
This paper shows how the perceptions of people regarding five dimensions of workplace spirituality (team’s sense of community, alignment with organizational values, sense of contribution to society, enjoyment at work, and opportunities for inner life) predict affective, normative, and continuance commitment, as well as self‐reported individual performance. One sample in Portugal and another in Brazil were collected. The findings show that employees’ perceptions of workplace spirituality predict significant variance of commitment and individual performance in both samples. The empirical evidence suggests that workplace spirituality is a pertinent construct for researchers and an important concern to be taken into account by managers.
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David Waggoner and Paul Goldman
What is the rhetoric that higher education institutions use when they develop and publish policies to improve student retention? Using the organization literature on institutional…
Abstract
Purpose
What is the rhetoric that higher education institutions use when they develop and publish policies to improve student retention? Using the organization literature on institutional environments, this study examines the nature and evolution of institutional rhetoric used by three public universities in a single state over a 20‐year period. Consistent with the intent of the larger volume, this study provides an example of how the frameworks and concepts provided by organization theory can be used to complicate thinking about educational organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Stinchcombe's definition of institutions as “communities of fate” and key concepts from the organizational ecology and institutional literatures provide the framework for this study. Using a qualitative methodology, over 2,800 retention‐oriented statements were used as study data. These were analyzed using codes generated from the institutional theory and student‐retention literatures.
Findings
Study data suggest that, while each institution developed a unique, defining identity over time, an institutional isomorphism emerged around student‐retention in these same institutions. This ideology centered on the creation of a “caring and student‐friendly” campus environment and played an important role in the development of student‐retention policies on each campus.
Originality/value
Research in student retention theory and policy has almost exclusively studied retention practice and student persistence. The research for this paper was deliberately designed to operationalize theoretical concepts in organizational ecology literature and to examine their manifestation in universities over time.
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Ciaran Connolly, Noel Hyndman and Mariannunziata Liguori
This paper seeks to explore the way charity accountants understand, interpret and legitimate or delegitimate the introduction of accounting and reporting changes (embedded in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore the way charity accountants understand, interpret and legitimate or delegitimate the introduction of accounting and reporting changes (embedded in the extant charity statement of recommended practice), before these are actually implemented.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on 21 semi-structured interviews with accountants in large UK and Republic of Ireland charities, the manner and extent to which forthcoming changes in charity accounting are legitimated (justified) or delegitimated (criticised) is explored.
Findings
Acceptance of accounting changes in the charity sector by formal regulation may not be necessary for future required adjustments to practice to be legitimated. Using interviews carried out before the implementation of required changes, the results suggest that other factors, such as national culture, identity and mimetic behaviours, may play a major role in the homogenisation and acceptance of accounting and reporting rules. In particular, it is argued that mimetic pressures can be much more influential than regulative pressures in legitimating change in the charity sector and are more likely to lead to the embedding of change.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it explores rhetoric and legitimation strategies used before changes are actually implemented. Second, it contributes to filling a gap in charities’ research related to intra-organisational legitimation of managerial and accounting changes, illustrating institutional-field identity at work to preserve shared organisational values and ideas. Finally, the research illuminates the importance of particular contextual pressures and individual legitimation arguments during accounting-change processes.
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Liubov Skavronskaya and Noel Scott
There is need for definitional clarity when using psychological concepts in tourism research. The same term used in ‘folk psychology’, or behavioural or cognitive psychology can…
Abstract
There is need for definitional clarity when using psychological concepts in tourism research. The same term used in ‘folk psychology’, or behavioural or cognitive psychology can have quite different definitions and associated paradigmatic assumptions. This chapter argues that an understanding of mainstream cognitive psychology is needed when using concepts that are within its explanatory scope. Emotion is one such concept that has been extensively studied in cognitive psychology. The chapter discusses emotion and related terms such as feelings, novelty, unexpectedness and surprise to provide conceptual clarity. This will benefit researchers studying psychology of tourism emotions, tourism behaviour and decision-making.