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1 – 10 of 506Alex J. Ruiz‐Torres, Jianmei Zhang, Edgar Zapata, Arunkumar Pennathur, Russell Rhodes, Carey McCleskey and Marcella Cowen
The focus of this paper is on reliability and availability design goals. It aims to provide top‐level estimates of the safety and maintainability of future spacecraft systems.
Abstract
Purpose
The focus of this paper is on reliability and availability design goals. It aims to provide top‐level estimates of the safety and maintainability of future spacecraft systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The developed design tool uses basic reliability principles to estimate the probability of a safe mission and the need for repairs/replacement during ground processing, before launch and start of mission, based on the characteristics of the vehicle's main systems: the number of subsystems, the mean time to repair, and the per subsystem average reliability.
Findings
A simple reliability, maintainability and safety model is developed to support the top‐level design process of future space transportation vehicles. It also describes how the developed design tool uses various sensitivity analysis functions to improve design decisions.
Originality/value
The goal of the developed tool is to provide engineers/vehicle developers during the early stages of design with a tool that demonstrates the effect on maintainability of improving component reliability and reducing the number of components.
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Kirsten Russell, Fiona Barnett, Sharon Varela, Simon Rosenbaum and Robert Stanton
The mental and physical health of those residing in Australian rural and remote communities is poorer compared to major cities. Physical health comorbidities contribute to almost…
Abstract
Purpose
The mental and physical health of those residing in Australian rural and remote communities is poorer compared to major cities. Physical health comorbidities contribute to almost 80% of premature mortality for people living with mental illness. Leisure time physical activity (LTPA) is a well-established intervention to improve physical and mental health. To address the physical and mental health of rural and remote communities through LTPA, the community’s level of readiness should be first determined. This study aims to use the community readiness model (CRM) to explore community readiness in a remote Australian community to address mental health through LTPA.
Design/methodology/approach
Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted using the CRM on LTPA to address mental health. Quantitative outcomes scored the community’s stage of readiness for LTPA programmes to address mental health using the CRM categories of one (no awareness) to nine (high level of community ownership). Qualitative outcomes were thematically analysed, guided by Braun and Clark.
Findings
The community scored six (initiation) for community efforts and knowledge of LTPA programmes and seven (stabilisation) for leadership. The community’s attitude towards LTPA and resources for programmes scored four (pre-planning), and knowledge of LTPA scored three (vague awareness).
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first Australian study to use CRM to examine community readiness to use LTPA to improve mental health in a remote community. The CRM was shown to be a useful tool to identify factors for intervention design that might optimise community empowerment in using LTPA to improve mental health at the community level.
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Christina Kirsch, Warren Parry and Cameron Peake
In order to gain a deeper understanding of how emotional dynamics play out in organizations, a better understanding of the underlying structure of emotions in the workplace is…
Abstract
In order to gain a deeper understanding of how emotional dynamics play out in organizations, a better understanding of the underlying structure of emotions in the workplace is needed. This study set out to investigate the emotional reality of work teams that are confronted with organizational change and to create a feeling scale that can be used to analyze and evaluate the emotional experience of employees involved in and affected by the change. This chapter outlines the results of an iterative statistical analysis to determine the underlying structure of emotions and basic dimensions on which emotions can be categorized. Feeling scales ranging in length from 22 to 42 feeling items were answered by up to 26,900 respondents as part of employee surveys that were used to investigate the subjective perception of organizational change. Factor analysis and self-organizing maps (SOMs) analysis were used in order to cluster and differentiate the underlying basic categories of emotions. The results show that feelings are mainly differentiated as either positive or negative and that those two main factors consist of seven underlying categories, which are summarized as the emotion scales: “Passion,” “Drive,” “Curiosity,” “Defiance,” “Anger,” “Fear and Distress,” and “Damage.” The basic dimensions of the emotions were “hedonic tone” and “affective focus.”
Peter Mose and Russell Kaschula
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of international library materials aid in primary schools and to outline obstacles to effective utilization for maximum literacy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of international library materials aid in primary schools and to outline obstacles to effective utilization for maximum literacy benefits among primary school children.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered via interviews, observation, focus group discussions and document analyses.
Findings
Findings indicate that teachers were trained by Kenya National Library Services Kisii Branch staff on basics of library materials management before literacy materials were sent to the schools; teachers and pupils reported that development of vocabulary and better essay writing are some of the benefits of the donated materials; and culturally distanced materials and school dynamics impact negatively on the effective utilization of the donated library resources.
Practical implications
The authors recommend that donors work hand in hand with the Ministry of Education and other local stakeholders that it may be possible to address obstacles to proper and highly effective implementation of literacy empowerment projects.
Originality/value
The findings of this study are from original research and the implications must be treated as such.
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Abstract
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The Westminster Parliament is multifaceted, lacks cohesion and collective direction, appearing at times to challenge the very notion of a structured public institution itself…
Abstract
Purpose
The Westminster Parliament is multifaceted, lacks cohesion and collective direction, appearing at times to challenge the very notion of a structured public institution itself. Within an environment with little collective identity, understanding who leads in the UK Parliament is challenging; there are multiple, contestable sites of leadership and governance. The purpose of this article is to explore the understudied concept of legislative leadership, to better understand what goes on inside the legislature. The author presents a decentred and nuanced disaggregation of “leadership as practice” in parliament, examining three faces of legislative leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
Interpretive approaches to studying legislatures have presented new impetus to research in this area and the author utilises such anti-foundationalism. The article draws on ethnographic research into “everyday practices”, conducted during an academic fellowship in the UK Parliament from 2016 to 2019, which involved privileged access to the parliamentary estate. The data used include observations, shadowing and elite interviews collected during the fellowship.
Findings
By looking at the legislature from the inside, the author can better understand elite behaviour. This helps to explain motives, daily pressures and performative skills deployed in displays of autonomous, decentred leadership. The legislative leadership the author observed was atomised and could be stretched to accommodate the incumbent office holder. There were multiple relationships both formally constituted and informally constructed, but little collaborative or consensus leadership.
Originality/value
This article fulfils an identified need to study leadership in legislatures – and in particular key elites – from the inside.
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Peter Furmedge, Carl Hughes, Alan Southern and Matt Thompson
Post-pandemic renewal has to be much more radical. In this chapter we develop a considered response to reimagining the public sector with a focus on Liverpool City Region, its…
Abstract
Purpose
Post-pandemic renewal has to be much more radical. In this chapter we develop a considered response to reimagining the public sector with a focus on Liverpool City Region, its local economy and local government. By drawing on wider ideas of new municipalism, new narratives of how to make local economies more social through public investment, accountability and democratic governance can be made. The local scale offers the frame through which this can be examined as we make the case for new municipalism in the Liverpool City Region.
Design/Method
As scholar-activists we have been involved in responding to the continuous austerity imposed on local government. We research and debate the social and economic problems faced in the Liverpool City Region and present some of our findings here. In our work, through an organisation known as ‘Beacon’ – a grass roots movement agitating for new municipalism – we make the case for new policy initiatives and seek to demonstrate a need for a different type of public sector reform through local government.
Findings
In the context of the ‘levelling up’ agenda of the UK government, there remains concern across the city region about how local government can function given the ongoing austerity imposed from the centre. We have a public sector that has faced disinvestment in communities for over a decade and because of this, we reimagine public sector renewal by advocating for a new municipalism based on strategies of economic and political innovation that can lead to greater levels of democracy, accountability, wealth creation and distribution. We show examples outside of the UK, such as in the US and Spain, where embryonic forms of new municipalism are evident.
Originality
Our work sets out a roadmap to achieve a new municipalist agenda in the Liverpool City Region through an activist movement, Beacon. We bring together ideas and practices that are often underway elsewhere that have real political and economic impacts. In articulating the need for renewal, not only must we critically reflect on underpinning problems but seek to campaign for the change we advocate. The challenge we face is one of coordination and scale.
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Bashir Tijjani, Shafiq Ur Rehman, Zachariah Peter, Ishtiaq Ahmad Bajwa and Muhammad Ajmal Khan
This study aims to examine the quantitative research productivity of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) globally by using the bibliometric approach. The method was…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the quantitative research productivity of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) globally by using the bibliometric approach. The method was applied to articles indexed in the Scopus database to analyze the publication patterns, trends and research productivity of the selected papers.
Design/methodology/approach
Bibliometric analysis is applied to analyze research productivity of IFRS from 2003 to 2020. The method was applied to articles indexed in the Scopus database to analyze the publication patterns and research productivity of the selected papers.
Findings
This study finds that a good number of articles have been published on IFRS, the top five countries are the USA, UK, Australia, Germany and Canada. This clearly shows that developed markets have the highest number of publications on IFRS. This could be as a result of the early adoption of IFRS by those economies and owing to the interest of researchers in those markets. Most of the studies are quantitative in nature; this study indicates that publication on accounting standards is popular as the number of citations is significant; most of the articles have two or more authors and were published in top-ranking journals.
Practical implications
This study provides up-to-date literature on the global research productivity of IFRS; as a result, it supports the development of policies by the users of this accounting standards. The findings of this study also serve as a reference point for firms and regulators around the world. Given the thoroughness of the methodology of this study, the results make it easier to effectively identify the direction of research on the implementation of IFRS in organizations.
Originality/value
This study provides a more comprehensive bibliometric analysis on the growth of IFRS literature (2003–2020) in the Scopus database; most of the prior studies have covered relatively few areas of focus as well as a fewer number of high impact factor journals. The relevance of this finding is in uncovering different areas of IFRS research productivity globally.
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Shahla Namak, Fadi Aboud Syriani, Margaret Singer and Parissa Jahromi Ballard
During the refugee resettlement process, women are often subject to discriminatory policies, which may put them at risk of a difficult transition. This study aims to extend and…
Abstract
Purpose
During the refugee resettlement process, women are often subject to discriminatory policies, which may put them at risk of a difficult transition. This study aims to extend and contextualize previous findings documenting the barriers Arabic-speaking refugee and immigrant women face with regards to gaining education and employment.
Design/methodology/approach
Through telephone-based surveys, the authors examined the social situations, barriers and assets to gaining education and employment among Arabic speaking refugee and immigrant women (N = 50) in North Carolina.
Findings
Findings include barriers to education and employment such as the need for childcare, English proficiency and lack of transportation. Assets include connections to the community and special skills such as cooking and sewing.
Research limitations/implications
This study has limitations such as a lack of representation among asylees, reliance on self-report and small sample size. Implications: this study’s findings have implications for community and medical providers’ efforts to assist refugees and immigrant’s women in education and employment and to close the gap in the social determinants of health as well as for research in this area. Minimizing the barriers that prevent them from learning English or attaining employment will require coordinated efforts across the local community, county and even the state.
Practical implications
The findings from this study inform research that may be relevant to other communities seeking an understanding of the social challenges faced by Arabic-speaking refugees and immigrant women, Muslim and Christian.
Originality/value
This study adds important information about the health and social lives of an understudied population. The authors’ discuss the implications of these findings for community members and health practitioners to better assist this population in a successful resettlement process.
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