Dirk vom Lehn, Peter M. Allen, Helena Webb, Bruce J.W. Evans, Michael Bowen and Holly Dobrzycki
This paper discusses a collaboration between sociologists and optometrists that involved, first, an investigation of communication and interaction in eye examinations and, second…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper discusses a collaboration between sociologists and optometrists that involved, first, an investigation of communication and interaction in eye examinations and, second, a transformation of the findings into assessable impact. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how from the start of this project close cooperation between academics and practitioners has paved the way for the generation of academic contributions and impact on the teaching and training of optometrists. The authors also briefly discuss how their cooperation has continued since the original research and impact projects to address further issues of relevance to both academics and practicing optometrists.
Design/methodology/approach
This research project was developed to maximise the impact of the research by creating a cooperative relationship between social scientists and optometrists. As the research produced its first findings, the team began to create teaching and training material to help optometrists improve their communication skills. The research project was followed by an college of optometrists ESRC (College of Optometrists co-funded) funded Knowledge Exchange project (KEP) that involved members of the research team, the College of Optometrists (CoO) and practicing optometrists. Together, the authors discussed the research finding and how they could be turned into practical impact, such as educational material, of use for optometrists and those teaching and training optometrists.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of our research has been on the opening of eye examination and on the production of a small number of tests conducted to assess patients’ vision. Future research will include a broader variety of tests and particularly explore the closing of eye examinations as here optometrists who are primarily concerned with clinical questions begin to hand over patients to the commercial arm of the practice. Findings from the extension of the collaboration of social scientists and academics will lead to the advancement of teaching and training material published in professional magazines and offered online to the members of the CoO.
Practical implications
The assessable impact developed from the research findings includes articles and assessments published in professional magazines, workshops delivered at optometry conferences, courses on communication in eye examinations taught at university and an online course for members of the CoO. These activities allow practicing optometrists to collect professional development points (CPD) required to continue practicing as optometrists. Based on the KEP, the authors continued to produce CPD material and together with the CoO developed a credit-bearing online course for the College’s members that within the first year had an enrolment of almost 600 optometrists nine months after its publication.
Social implications
The research and impact case have been used to develop teaching and training material that practicing optometrists use to improve their communication and interaction with patients. Thus, the cooperation between social scientists and optometrists has been effective in contributing to the improvement of a critical health service. Moreover, the project has demonstrated how the close cooperation between social scientists and practitioners in the development and undertaking of a research project can be a powerful way to ensure the practical and social impact of research.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper is grounded in the close cooperation between social scientists and practicing optometrists already at inception of the research project. This cooperation underpins the generation of contributions to academic discourse in the social sciences, such as discussions on interaction in health services, and of practical and social implications. The authors have experienced the cooperation between social scientists and (practicing) optometrists not only as beneficial to the development of assessable impact but also as a project utterly enjoyable and rewarding to all members of the team.
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In the spring of 1982, I published an article in Reference Services Review on marketing libraries and information services. The article covered available literature on that topic…
Abstract
In the spring of 1982, I published an article in Reference Services Review on marketing libraries and information services. The article covered available literature on that topic from 1970 through part of 1981, the time period immediately following Kotler and Levy's significant and frequently cited article in the January 1969 issue of the Journal of Marketing, which was first to suggest the idea of marketing nonprofit organizations. The article published here is intended to update the earlier work in RSR and will cover the literature of marketing public, academic, special, and school libraries from 1982 to the present.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the origins of today's new office concepts, focusing on the emergence of mobile and flexible working practices in the 1960s and 1970s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the origins of today's new office concepts, focusing on the emergence of mobile and flexible working practices in the 1960s and 1970s. Thereby it intends to add a sense of historical awareness to the ongoing debate about the work environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The historical description is based on literature study, looking at research reports, design handbooks and depictions of office life in popular culture such as movies and advertisements.
Findings
The paper demonstrates that today's “new ways of working” are by no means new. It shows that the concepts of mobile offices, paperless offices, videoconferencing and flexible workplaces all originate from the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s. It also shows that these concepts were far from mainstream, standing in stark contrast to the rigidity and conservatism of everyday office life at the time.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is the first result of a larger historical analysis of the recent history of the work environment. Further historical research will add to the presented insight in the evolution of office concepts.
Practical implications
The paper's insight into the historical development of office concepts can help workplace strategists to make better, more careful forecasts of future workplace trends.
Originality/value
Whereas most literature on the office concept tends to look at novel ideas and future developments, this paper looks back at the recent past. It discusses early workplace experiments that have been largely ignored, or remained unidentified, in much of the discourse on new ways of working.
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With three credited scriptwriters and five credited directors, the 1967 release of Casino Royale saw a gang of multifaceted James Bond 007s facing off against an army of…
Abstract
With three credited scriptwriters and five credited directors, the 1967 release of Casino Royale saw a gang of multifaceted James Bond 007s facing off against an army of beautiful, hypersexualised, personality-less female spies, headed by the real James Bond’s neurotic, insecure, American nephew Jimmy. Perhaps this wasn’t Fleming’s intended storyline for Bond’s first outing at Casino Royale, but the resulting parodic outing absorbed and commented upon some of the inherent gendered archetypes of Fleming’s work. What the 1967 Casino Royale accomplishes is a narrative which contrasts varieties of masculinity which are segmented forms of the masculinity defined by Fleming’s Bond. This chapter compares the masculinity of Bond developed in Fleming’s novel, before examining the representations of masculinity inherent within the four key male characters: Sir James Bond (David Niven), Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), Cooper (Terence Cooper) and Dr Noah/Jimmy Bond (Woody Allen). By showing the depictions of masculine elements each of these characters embodies, along with the metanarrative elements of each performer’s persona, this chapter aims to identify how the 1967 Casino Royale both faithfully depicts the masculine elements of Bond while at the same time satirizing Bond’s particular brand of masculinity. This examination ultimately argues that this segmentation of Bondian masculinity is the core point of cohesion in a deeply incoherent, parodic film adaptation of Fleming’s novel.
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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01425459110002349. When citing the…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01425459110002349. When citing the article, please cite: Adrian Wilkinson, Peter Allen, Ed Snape, (1991) “TQM and the Management of Labour”, Employee Relations, Vol. 13 Iss: 1, pp. 24 - 31.
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01425459110002349. When citing the…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01425459110002349. When citing the article, please cite: Adrian Wilkinson, Peter Allen, Ed Snape, (1991) “TQM and the Management of Labour”, Employee Relations, Vol. 13 Iss: 1, pp. 24 - 31.
Manufacturing manager, Alan Jackson and senior production engineer, Peter Allen talk to Jack Hollingum about Lewmar Marine's major investment in robot‐automated cell manufacture.
An unfortunate design paradox prevalent in many of America's libraries is that these bastions of well‐designed books, records, and pamphlets assault the user with a variety of…
Abstract
An unfortunate design paradox prevalent in many of America's libraries is that these bastions of well‐designed books, records, and pamphlets assault the user with a variety of rag‐tag signs and graphic devices; indeed, so much visual clutter. At best, these homemade sign “systems” are the undertakings of a well‐meaning library staff trying to reach out to the public in a cost‐effective way.
Adrian Wilkinson, Peter Allen and Ed Snape
Total Quality Management (TQM) looks like beingone of the management fashions of the 1990s. Inthis respect the academic and prescriptiveliterature on TQM is reviewed. The factors…
Abstract
Total Quality Management (TQM) looks like being one of the management fashions of the 1990s. In this respect the academic and prescriptive literature on TQM is reviewed. The factors which have encouraged organisations to introduce TQM are discussed and some of the implications for the management of labour outlined. It is suggested that TQM is consistent with a move towards human resource management.
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James S. Baldwin, Peter M. Allen and Keith Ridgway
The purpose of this is to add both to the development of complex systems thinking in the subject area of operations and production management and to the limited number of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this is to add both to the development of complex systems thinking in the subject area of operations and production management and to the limited number of applications of computational models and simulations from the science of complex systems. The latter potentially offer helpful decision‐support tools for operations and production managers.
Design/methodology/approach
A mechanical engineering firm was used as a case study where a combined qualitative and quantitative methodological approach was employed to extract the required data from four senior managers. Company performance measures as well as firm technologies, practices and policies, and their relation and interaction with one another, were elicited. The data were subjected to an evolutionary complex systems (ECS) model resulting in a series of simulations.
Findings
The findings highlighted the effects of the diversity in management decision making on the firm's evolutionary trajectory. The CEO appeared to have the most balanced view of the firm, closely followed by the marketing and research and development managers. The manufacturing manager's responses led to the most extreme evolutionary trajectory where the integrity of the entire firm came into question particularly when considering how employees were utilised.
Research limitations/implications
By drawing directly from the opinions and views of managers, rather than from logical “if‐then” rules and averaged mathematical representations of agents that characterise agent‐based and other self‐organisational models, this work builds on previous applications by capturing a micro‐level description of diversity that has been problematical both in theory and application.
Practical implications
This approach can be used as a decision‐support tool for operations and other managers providing a forum with which to explore: the strengths, weaknesses and consequences of different decision‐making capacities within the firm; the introduction of new manufacturing technologies, practices and policies; and the different evolutionary trajectories that a firm can take.
Originality/value
With the inclusion of “micro‐diversity”, ECS modelling moves beyond the self‐organisational models that populate the literature but has not as yet produced a great many practical simulation results. This work is a step in that direction.