The MSC's Consultative Document A NEW TRAINING INITIATIVE foreshadows the development of new education and training programmes for young people, particularly the 25 per cent…
Abstract
The MSC's Consultative Document A NEW TRAINING INITIATIVE foreshadows the development of new education and training programmes for young people, particularly the 25 per cent minority who have no school‐leaving qualification. From the document it is possible to discern the main outlines of a policy for applying the large sums devoted to special programmes for the unemployed to more permanent schemes of training. These would centre on the Unified Vocational Preparation courses, a test bed for foundation training for young people in employment who are not apprentices and trainees, and extended WEEP projects of up to a year. Already the Chemical and Allied Products ITB, the Ceramic, Glass and Mineral Products ITB and the Rubber and Plastics ITB have taken the initiative in starting up multi‐occupation, multi‐industry WEEP provisions. Inevitably these schemes are directed at the 16–19 year old but it could be argued that these schemes are too late. There have been some moves like that of the EITB's proposal to extend vocational preparation back into the last years at school and this pattern is common in the schemes in France and Germany which A NEW TRAINING INITIATIVE gives as examples. But it could be that US experience is more helpful.
The present state of management education in the UK is examined,discussing what managers actually do and the skills and competenciesrequired to do it. The idea of Action Learning…
Abstract
The present state of management education in the UK is examined, discussing what managers actually do and the skills and competencies required to do it. The idea of Action Learning is also examined and the ways this method can be employed to overcome current difficulties are outlined.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences for older people’s mental wellbeing of understandings relating to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The MCA seeks to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences for older people’s mental wellbeing of understandings relating to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The MCA seeks to maximise people’s abilities to make decisions and provides a framework for decisions to be made in a person’s best interests should they lack the mental capacity to do so themselves (Graham and Cowley, 2015). Practice varies widely amongst health and social care practitioners and little is known about the nature of interventions under the MCA or the outcomes for service users’ lives and health, especially their mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Design/methodology/approach
By reflecting upon existing evidence this position paper offers a narrative of how practice in applying the principles of the MCA may impact upon the mental wellbeing of older people. Drawing upon court of protection judgements and existing research the author analyses the way the MCA is understood and applied and how institutional mechanisms might hinder good practice.
Findings
There are tensions between policy imperatives and examples of practice linked to the MCA, the spirit of the MCA and tenets of good practice. Despite efforts on promoting choice, control and rights there is growing paradoxical evidence that the MCA is used as a safeguarding tool with the consequences that it constrains older people’s rights and that it may encourage risk averse practice. The consequences of this for older people are considerable and include lack of choice, autonomy and self-determination. This discussion suggests that anxiety in relation to the application of the MCA stills exists in practice and that maximising older people’s capacity and supporting decision making is central in promoting mental health and wellbeing.
Practical implications
This position paper will identify how the MCA might be interpreted in action through consideration of existing evidence. This paper may lead to future research on how understandings of the MCA are constructed and what values underpin its application from conception to outcomes in relation to understandings of risk, risk aversion, decision making and the potential and need for emancipatory practice. Essentially, the paper will discuss how the MCA actually seeks to enhance the mental health and emotional wellbeing of older adults by offering a rather radical approach to understanding people’s wishes and feelings, but how attitudes may lead to misunderstandings and negative outcomes for the individual.
Originality/value
In a climate of serious case reviews identifying concerns and abuses in care it is imperative that understanding of the MCA inform good practice. However, what constitutes good practice requires unravelling and the agendas, requirements and attitudes of interventions need considering from an epistemological perspective as well as to project how the outcomes of decision-making impact upon the mental health of older adults. This paper will discursively add value to the narrative around how the MCA is applied in practice and how chosen practice often constructs the mental wellbeing of older adults.
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This research aims to explore the impact of augmented reality (AR), the digital technology that superimposes virtual elements in a real environment, on consumers in the context of…
Abstract
This research aims to explore the impact of augmented reality (AR), the digital technology that superimposes virtual elements in a real environment, on consumers in the context of experiential marketing. Specifically, this study proposes a research model based on the stimulus-organism-response model, which considers AR media characteristics as external stimuli, consumers’ value perceptions as the organisms, and purchase intentions as the responses. The research model was tested with 248 consumers using structural equation modelling. The results show that informativeness, ease of use, and telepresence have positive effects on consumers’ utilitarian value perception and that telepresence and interactivity have positive effects on hedonic value perception. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on AR and provides actionable insights for managers implementing digital transformation strategies and AR applications in marketing practices.
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This paper examines events management as a Community of Practice (CoP) and to demonstrate that knowledge management and practice within events operate as a CoP. The paper adds to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines events management as a Community of Practice (CoP) and to demonstrate that knowledge management and practice within events operate as a CoP. The paper adds to the events management literature which is currently superficial in considering events conceptually as a CoP.
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretive and inductive approach was adopted for the research which incorporated quantitative and qualitative methods undertaken in a United Kingdom setting. Twenty-five in-depth semi-structured interviews with event professionals were conducted and this was complemented by a survey of 215 event professionals.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that within the evolving events industry, as well as reflected in aspects of the academic literature, events can be depicted as a “domain” which connects event professionals to a “community”. The themes emerging revealed that there are modes of working, shared values and practices, a shared identity and a desire to work as a wider collective in order to maintain and enhance knowledge and practice, which are in keeping with a CoP framework.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides new insight on an under-researched area concerning knowledge and practice development within events management.
Originality/value
This is a novel study that considers how the emergent field of events management should be considered as a CoP. It addresses a gap in the literature pertaining to knowledge and practice creation within events management from a CoP perspective.
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Paul Hildreth, Chris Kimble and Peter Wright
Modern commercial organisations are facing pressures which have caused them to lose personnel. When they lose people, they also lose their knowledge. Organisations also have to…
Abstract
Modern commercial organisations are facing pressures which have caused them to lose personnel. When they lose people, they also lose their knowledge. Organisations also have to cope with the internationalisation of business forcing collaboration and knowledge sharing across time and distance. Knowledge management (KM) claims to tackle these issues. This paper looks at an area where KM does not offer sufficient support, that is, the sharing of knowledge that is not easy to articulate. The focus in this paper is on communities of practice in commercial organisations. We do this by exploring knowledge sharing in Lave and Wenger’s (1991) theory of communities of practice and investigating how communities of practice may translate to a distributed international environment. The paper reports on two case studies that explore the functioning of communities of practice across international boundaries.
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Irma Bogenrieder and Peter van Baalen
Most people participate in various groups and communities simultaneously. Many authors have pointed to the importance of multi‐membership for knowledge sharing across communities…
Abstract
Purpose
Most people participate in various groups and communities simultaneously. Many authors have pointed to the importance of multi‐membership for knowledge sharing across communities and teams. The most important expected benefit is that knowledge that has been acquired in one community of practice (CoP) can be applied into another CoP or group. This paper seeks to discuss the consequences of multi‐membership for knowledge sharing in a CoP.
Design/methodology/approach
The concept of multiple inclusion is used to explain why and how multi‐membership can hold up knowledge sharing between groups.
Findings
This case study shows that knowledge transfer between CoPs and teams can be problematic when norm sets between these two groups conflict.
Originality/value
This paper concludes that CoPs can sustain when the “practice” remains at a safe distance from the “real” project work in teams that are guided by managerial objectives.
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Peter Love, David Edwards, Joanne Love and Zahir Irani
Knowledge is recognised as a valuable resource for organizational growth and sustained competitive advantage, especially for organizations operating in uncertain and challenging…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge is recognised as a valuable resource for organizational growth and sustained competitive advantage, especially for organizations operating in uncertain and challenging environments such as construction. Within the construction industry, communities of practice (CoP) have not been effectively embraced as a strategic tool for knowledge creation and sharing within and between organizations. Accordingly, this paper aims to review CoP and present a pragmatic approach for their utilisation.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the literature on CoPs is provided and examples from the authors' experience are provided to demonstrate their usefulness in addressing problems that are being confronted within the construction industry.
Findings
The construction industry is sceptical about adopting “management fads” and gimmick technologies that provide no strategic competitive advantage. Evidence of this can be seen with the industry's reluctance, particularly in Australia, to embrace re‐engineering and concepts associated with lean construction. The industry has been informally using CoP, or aspects thereof, for many years but it has not been formally recognised as a performance improvement tool. Organizations may find it difficult to build, sustain and integrate CoP within their organization, especially when staff are geographically spread over numerous remote locations. It is suggested that the underlying concept of CoP can create and sustain learning and knowing in projects.
Originality/value
The challenge for construction organizations is not necessarily to use intra‐organizational forms of CoP, but to learn how they can use them within the project environment within which they operate. A proposal for using communities of practice, namely “champions of practice” (CoPE), at an inter‐organizational level is proposed in this paper. This hybrid form of CoP is dependent on the sharing of knowledge within and across organizational boundaries. For this to happen effectively within a project environment, the right set of communication tools, incentives, motivation, organizational and managerial mechanisms need to be in place for “best practice” to be formalised and shared in a meaningful and reflective way.
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David O’Donnell, Gayle Porter, David McGuire, Thomas N. Garavan, Margaret Heffernan and Peter Cleary
John Seely Brown notes that context must be added to data and information to produce meaning. To move forward, Brown suggests, we must not merely look ahead but we must also learn…
Abstract
John Seely Brown notes that context must be added to data and information to produce meaning. To move forward, Brown suggests, we must not merely look ahead but we must also learn to “look around” because learning occurs when members of a community of practice (CoP) socially construct and share their understanding of some text, issue or event. We draw explicitly here on the structural components of a Habermasian lifeworld in order to identify some dynamic processes through which a specific intellectual capital creating context, CoP, may be theoretically positioned. Rejecting the individualistic “Cogito, ergo sum” of the Cartesians, we move in line with Brown’s “we participate, therefore we are” to arrive within a Habermasian community of practice: we communicate, ergo, we create.