Jason Rhode, Stephanie Richter, Peter Gowen and Murali Krishnamurthi
As faculty professional development increasingly occurs online and through social media, it becomes challenging to assess the quality of learning and effectiveness of programs and…
Abstract
Purpose
As faculty professional development increasingly occurs online and through social media, it becomes challenging to assess the quality of learning and effectiveness of programs and resources, yet it is important to evaluate such initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how one faculty development center experimented with using analytics to answer questions about the use and effectiveness of its web and social media resources.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study was based on direct observation of the center’s practice and review of selected data generated by the analytic tools.
Findings
Unfortunately, while some analytics are available from a variety of sources, they are often distributed across tools and services. The center developed an analytics strategy to use data from Google Analytics and social media reporting tools to assess the use of online and social professional development resources. Initial results show that the center’s online and social professional development resources are widely used, both within and outside the university. However, more work is necessary to improve the strength and scope of the available analytics.
Practical implications
As a result of the analysis, the center has streamlined online resources, targeted social media use, and has begun developing methods to allow faculty to report online resource use as professional development for academic personnel purposes.
Originality/value
Many faculty development centers have not explored methods of evaluating online and social media resources. This paper outlines a strategic evaluation plan to measure the usage of online resources as well as engagement and interaction through social media.
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Nigel Newbutt and Ryan Bradley
The potential of head mounted displays based virtual reality (HMD-based VR) for autistic groups has been well documented. However, the deployment and application of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The potential of head mounted displays based virtual reality (HMD-based VR) for autistic groups has been well documented. However, the deployment and application of this technology, especially in schools, has been extremely limited. One of the main criticisms in this field has been the lack of involvement from practitioners in research on educational approaches for autistic populations and the gap between research and practice in real-life settings.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual article focuses on our research in a UK-based special needs school that sought to examine the effects and potential use of VR-HMDs, while seeking to establish best practices for safe and ethical application using this technology. This draws upon ethical and participatory research guidance, including British Educational Research Association and Autism Participatory Research.
Findings
The authors make recommendations on planning and implementing a participatory, safe and ethical approach to researching the use of VR-HMDs in special needs schools and engaging with the priorities of autistic children and young people and their teachers.
Originality/value
This conceptual article provides an initial first consideration of ways we can better include autistic people and their views in research that is with and about them. The value in this will mean we are able to better support autistic groups moving ahead using VR HMD-based technologies. Without this paradigm shift and including autistic people (and their stakeholders) the field might continue to build initiatives around medical-based models of disabilities rather that what the community need/want.
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This paper gives a comparative analysis of the foundation of sinology in two Canadian universities. Despite not having diplomatic exchanges, Canada's new relationship with the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper gives a comparative analysis of the foundation of sinology in two Canadian universities. Despite not having diplomatic exchanges, Canada's new relationship with the People's Republic of China (PRC) ignited a China interest in the Canadian academe. Through York University and the University of Guelph (U of G)'s experiences, readers will learn the rewards and challenges that sinology brings to Canadian higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper offers an overview of the historical foundation of sinology in the Canadian academe. Who pushes through this process? What geopolitical developments triggered young and educated Canadians to learn about China? This paper assesses York and Guelph's process in introducing sinology by relying on university archival resources and personal interviews. Why was York University successful in its mission, which, in turn, made into a comprehensive East Asian Studies degree option in 1971? What obstacles did the U of G face that prohibited it from implementing China Studies successfully?
Findings
After 1949, Canada took a friendlier relationship with the PRC than its neighbor in the south. As China–Canada relations unfolded, Canadian witnessed a dramatic state investment in higher education. The 1960s was a decade of unprecedented university expansion. In the process, sinology enjoyed its significant growth, and both York University and the U of G made their full use of this right timing. However, China Studies at the U of G did not take off. Besides its geolocation disadvantage, Guelph's top-down managerial style in the 1960s, which resulted in collegial disillusionment, was also a significant barrier to this program's success.
Originality/value
Before the Internet age, universities were the first venues for most Canadians to acquire their initial academic knowledge of China. After the Second World War, sinology became popular among students as China became one of the world's “Big Fives”. More Canadians became romanticized with Maoism while opposing America's containment policy. York and Guelph exemplified this trend in Canadian history. Contrary to popular belief, historian Jerome Chen did not establish York's China Studies. Likewise, an ex-US diplomat John Melby did not bring China into Guelph, sinology arrived due to individual scholastic initiatives. Visionaries saw envisioned China's importance in the future world community.
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One explanation for why people wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 focuses on political party affiliation. This study explores the role of values in attempts by five…
Abstract
Purpose
One explanation for why people wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 focuses on political party affiliation. This study explores the role of values in attempts by five South Dakota cities to pass local mask mandates.
Methodology/Approach
A nonrandom convenience sample used search engines to find documents on mask mandates in South Dakota. The working hypotheses are: (1) the debate over mask mandates is a form of value conflict over freedom of choice and the role of government that reflect those held by Emerson, Thoreau, and Spencer and (2) the mandates themselves prescribe Value-Rational rather than Instrumental-Rational action to control the pandemic.
Findings
Antimaskers valued freedom of choice, and were willing to defy authority while promasker health professionals valued science and were willing to sacrifice themselves for the health of their patients. South Dakota cities encouraged mask wearing but did not include penalties for noncompliance. The vociferous opposition to the mask mandates resembles the opposition cities encountered when deciding to fluoridate drinking water in the 1950s and 1960s.
Research Limitations/Implications
A case study cannot be generalized and may reflect sampling and researcher bias. Future research could include a content analysis of documents and videos presenting both sides of the debate.
Originality/Value of Paper
This case study may provide the first in-depth analysis of values in the masking debate.
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Muhammad Zia Ul Haq, Minhao Gu and Baofeng Huo
Despite the importance, no study exists which investigates the role of human resource (HR) in supply chain (SC) learning. This study aims to investigate the effects of…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the importance, no study exists which investigates the role of human resource (HR) in supply chain (SC) learning. This study aims to investigate the effects of high-performance human resource management (HRM) practices on different types of the SC learning (i.e. supplier, customer and internal learning) and innovation performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model based on data collected from 213 manufacturing firms in China.
Findings
The findings indicate that empowerment improves all three dimensions of SC learning, whereas training improves supplier and internal learning and teamwork is not related to any dimension of SC learning. These HRM practices also interactively influence SC learning dimensions. Moreover, customer and internal learning are directly related to innovation performance, while supplier leaning has a complementary effect with internal leaning but a substitutional effect with customer learning to innovation performance.
Research limitations/implications
This study only selects training, teamwork and empowerment to manifest high-performance HRM practices. The impacts of high-performance HRM practices on different dimensions of SC learning and innovation performance are tested empirically with cross sectional-data collected only from manufacturing firms in China.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that managers can promote SC learning through the empowerment and training of their employees. Moreover, managers should place more emphasis on customer and internal learning to improve innovation performance.
Originality/value
Combining HRM and supply chain management (SCM) fields, this study offers a new framework to understand linkages between high-performance HRM practices, SC learning and innovation performance by using an empirical method.
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Temidayo Oluwasola Osunsanmi, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa, Wellington Didibhuku Thwala and Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke
This chapter aimed to uncover the gaps in the existing construction supply chain management (CSCM) models. Organisational culture and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR…
Abstract
This chapter aimed to uncover the gaps in the existing construction supply chain management (CSCM) models. Organisational culture and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) components are the two gaps that were identified through reviewing existing CSCM models. The 4IR is driven by three components which are smart management, virtualisation and cyber-physical system. It was proposed in this chapter that the practice of CSCM should be in tandem with the components of 4IR. This chapter recommended that for the effective practice of the construction supply chain (CSC) in the 4IR era, construction stakeholders should adopt an innovative and collaborative organisational culture. The organisational culture adopted by a construction firm performs a crucial role in encouraging construction stakeholders in adopting 4IR components for CSCM. Each of the 4IR components is driven by technologies like autonomous robots, building information modelling (BIM), radio frequency identification (RFID), the internet of things (IoT) and others. Among all the technologies, it was discovered that RFID and BIM had gained prominence in most CSC literature. The chapter recommended that blockchain, digital twins and the cyber-physical system are the next trending technology for CSCM.
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The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with tools to help change their organizational culture. Specifically, this chapter investigates the importance of leadership…
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with tools to help change their organizational culture. Specifically, this chapter investigates the importance of leadership in understanding and changing culture within organizations and explores different change management models to effectively change culture within organizations. This chapter summarizes tools from the Leadership and Change Management literature, including findings from the author’s studies, and best practices from a variety of industries.
Tools are provided so that readers can target leadership changes in preparation for cultural change. Leadership behaviors at the top of an organization are discussed using the full-range leadership model, with a specific focus on understanding, developing, and harnessing transformational leadership behaviors within an organization. Leadership at the top of an organization is complemented with a discussion of the importance of middle leadership throughout the organization including a model to understand and develop those behaviors. The chapter ends with seven different approaches to structuring and managing change that organizations can adopt to improve the probability of driving successful change in their organizations.
For organizations seeking to develop or improve their safety culture, these tools provide a roadmap for harnessing the needed leadership behaviors and organizational tools to effectively make change. By understanding and applying these tools, organizations can find success in their culture change initiatives faster and with fewer problems.
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WE hope that all London librarians will give full consideration to the project of the London Branch of the Library Association to provide a union catalogue of the non‐fiction…
Abstract
WE hope that all London librarians will give full consideration to the project of the London Branch of the Library Association to provide a union catalogue of the non‐fiction Stocks of Metropolitan libraries. They are to be asked if they will co‐operate in the scheme by providing cards of their Stock of uniform size, or by making some contribution (a more difficult matter this) to the cost of the catlogue. Such a catalogue kept at the Central Library for Students, combined with the telephone and general goodwill, would bring about a co‐ordination of libraties on a voluntary basis with results in good as yet scarcely realized. The idea is not novel; it was rejected a score of years ago as visionary or impractable. It may have been visionary then; it is not so now. Modern librarians simply must get together if they wish to avoid being made to do so.
Erin Meier, Andrew Nelson Brown, Barry Chovitz, Dominique Zwinkels, Michael Egharevba, Bridget McHenry, Joseph Kabatende and Ines K. Gege Buki
This practice forum paper aims to present a theoretical framework to better develop the required supply chain management (SCM) competencies and the workforce needed for managing…
Abstract
Purpose
This practice forum paper aims to present a theoretical framework to better develop the required supply chain management (SCM) competencies and the workforce needed for managing public health supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
This framework is driven by iterative systems thinking, a deeper consideration of the SCM labor market and a comprehensive mapping of human resource system requirements. The framework centers around three tools. A labor market analysis assesses factors influencing supply of and demand for health SCM workers in a country context. To improve supply of and demand for workers, the SCM Professionalisation Framework provides reference documents to establish health SCM as a recognized profession. The human resources for SCM Theory of Change explains and assesses the conditions required to achieve optimal workforce performance at the organizational level. The Ministry of Health in Rwanda applied these three tools sequentially to assess and improve the supply and performance of its health SCM workforce.
Findings
The authors describe this framework, how the tools were applied in Rwanda, and early impressions of the results.
Practical implications
Practitioners can apply this approach to improve SCM competence and promote the attractiveness of health SCM positions by formalizing their professional status. This could lead to a pool of individuals who seek SCM qualifications and, in time, overcome the current shortage of health SCM workers. Employers can apply this approach to structured roles and workforce needs to meet health SCM system requirements. This would lead to a greater demand for and use of appropriately trained personnel.
Originality/value
This paper presents a novel, iterative, systems-thinking approach to develop human resources in public health supply chains. Rwanda is the first country to apply all three tools using this framework.