Sarah Richardson, Sonny Nwankwo and Bill Richardson
Aims to provide a clear rationale as to why customer responsivenessis an essential aspect of an organizational system, focusingspecifically on higher education (HE) institutions…
Abstract
Aims to provide a clear rationale as to why customer responsiveness is an essential aspect of an organizational system, focusing specifically on higher education (HE) institutions. Introduces and discusses material from the political contingency and competitive positioning schools of thought. Identifies key strategic issues presently at work in the HE market and explains how and why each of these gives additional power to customers of the HE system and why they thus require HE institutions to become more proactive and effective customer responsiveness systems.
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Brenda Ellington Booth and Karen L. Cates
This case describes a newly promoted middle manager in a global, multi-cultural organization who is challenged by a number of factors in the workplace which are impacting her and…
Abstract
This case describes a newly promoted middle manager in a global, multi-cultural organization who is challenged by a number of factors in the workplace which are impacting her and her team's ability to perform to the expectations of her regional manager. While it would be easy to blame the new manager, deeper analysis in fact reveals that many forces are at work here in addition to her inexperience including communication of strategy and performance objectives, mismanaged team members, cultural inconsistencies, and a lack of leadership direction and/or skill from the very top to her supervising manager.
After reading and analyzing the case, students should be able to 1) analyze and diagnose unmet expectations for performance at work, 2) apply motivation theories and constructs to common behavioral and attitudinal challenges in a team setting, and 3) learn to avoid the fundamental attribution error described in the social psychological literature on judgment in decision-making.
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Jean-Laurent Domingue, Steve F. Michel, Carole Cléroux, Tom Dobson, Jean-Michel Fréchette, Nina Fusco, Lara Jaroudi, Robert Konecki, Donna Power, Sara Richardson-Brown, Richard Robins, Tony Stufko, Sarah Telford and Whitney Wesley
Forensic mental health programs (FMHPs) in Ontario, Canada provide rehabilitation and supervision services. However, models available to guide their delivery are primarily adapted…
Abstract
Purpose
Forensic mental health programs (FMHPs) in Ontario, Canada provide rehabilitation and supervision services. However, models available to guide their delivery are primarily adapted from fields outside of forensic mental health. To partially fill this gap, this paper aims to provide a general review of the process a multi-professional team took to develop the Integrated Forensic Program [IFP]-Ottawa Model of Risk Management & Recovery.
Design/methodology/approach
Working groups were initiated to identify the needs of patients in their local setting, conduct a literature review on care delivery models in forensic mental health and build a service delivery model specific to forensic mental health.
Findings
The resulting model places patient engagement at its centre and encompasses eight domains of need that contribute towards the patient’s recovery and the management of the safety risk they pose to the public, namely, the basic needs, diversity and spirituality, social, occupational, psychological, substance use, physical health and mental health domains.
Practical implications
The IFP-Ottawa Model of Risk Management & Recovery provides a framework to which therapeutic group services for persons in FMHPs can be aligned.
Originality/value
The leadership teams in FMHPs could use this framework and the method used for its development to ensure group services provided at their FMHPs are evidence-informed and coincide with their patients’ specific needs.
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Máire O Sullivan and Brendan Richardson
This paper aims to highlight the role of consumption communities as a self-help support group to ameliorate loneliness. The authors suggest that the self-help element of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the role of consumption communities as a self-help support group to ameliorate loneliness. The authors suggest that the self-help element of consumption communities has been overlooked because of a focus on communities pursuing hegemonic masculinity. Instead, the authors focus on a female-led and – dominated consumption community.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal ethnography was undertaken with the aim of understanding consumer behaviour in a “hyper-feminine” environment. Participant observation, depth interviews and netnography were carried out over five years within the Knitting community, focussing on an Irish Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group.
Findings
A dimension of consumption communities has been overlooked in the extant literature; this female-led and -dominated community functions as a self-help support group used as a “treatment” for loneliness. It also demonstrates all the characteristics of a support group.
Research limitations/implications
This study offers a framework with which new studies of community consumption can be examined or existing studies can be re-examined, through rather than cases of loneliness and self-help support groups.
Practical implications
Marketers have an opportunity to build supportive consumption communities that provide a safe space for support where commerce and brand-building can also occur. Groups aimed at ameliorating loneliness may wish to consider integration of the consumption community model.
Originality/value
Calls have been made for a reconceptualisation of consumption communities as current typologies seem inadequate. This paper responds with a critical examination through the lens of the self-help support group, while also taking steps towards resolving the gender imbalance in the consumption community literature. The paper explores loneliness, a previously underexamined motivator for consumption community membership.
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Julie White, Sarah Drew and Trevor Hay
In this paper we narrate a story of working on a large project funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant the ‘Keeping Connected: Young People, Identity and Schooling’…
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In this paper we narrate a story of working on a large project funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant the ‘Keeping Connected: Young People, Identity and Schooling’ project. The purpose of the study is to consider the social connection and schooling of young people who have experienced long‐term chronic illness. While the research involves both quantitative and qualitative elements, the qualitative component is the largest and involves the most researcher time and diversity. At an early stage of the project, three of the researchers working on the qualitative team consider why the study was framed as a series of case studies rather than as ethnography. The second issue considered in this paper is the different approaches to data collection, data analysis and truth claims we might take.
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Plagued by doubt and methodological unease, two researchers from a large Australian study resolve their quandary by revisiting methodological literature related to narrative…
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Plagued by doubt and methodological unease, two researchers from a large Australian study resolve their quandary by revisiting methodological literature related to narrative inquiry, visual approaches and contemporary interviewing to find that the application of poststructuralist theory to methodology provides a useful way of addressing their concerns. Before embarking on extensive writing about the project, they trouble issues of data authenticity, analytic integrity and the problem of voice. The main value of this deliberation is its applicability to the wider discourse about contemporary qualitative inquiry that other researchers facing analytical dilemmas may also find helpful.
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Michelle Myall, Carl May, Alison Richardson, Sarah Bogle, Natasha Campling, Sally Dace and Susi Lund
The purpose of this paper is to explore what happens when changes to clinical practice are proposed and introduced in healthcare organisations. The authors use the implementation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore what happens when changes to clinical practice are proposed and introduced in healthcare organisations. The authors use the implementation of Treatment Escalation Plans to explore the dynamics shaping the translational journey of a complex intervention from research into the everyday context of real-world healthcare settings.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative instrumental collective case study design was used. Data were gathered using qualitative interviews (n = 36) and observations (n = 46) in three English acute hospital trusts. Normalisation process theory provided the theoretical lens and informed data collection and analysis.
Findings
While each organisation faced the same translational problem, there was variation between settings regarding adoption and implementation. Successful change was dependent on participants' ability to manage and shape contexts and the work this involved was reliant on individual capacity to create a new, receptive context for change. Managing contexts to facilitate the move from research into clinical practice was a complex interactive and iterative process.
Practical implications
The paper advocates a move away from contextual factors influencing change and adoption, to contextual patterns and processes that accommodate different elements of whole systems and the work required to manage and shape them.
Originality/value
The paper addresses important and timely issues of change in healthcare, particularly for new regulatory and service-oriented processes and practices. Insights and explanations of variations in implementation are revealed which could contribute to conceptual generalisation of context and implementation.
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Gail Crimmins, Alison L. Black, Janice K. Jones, Sarah Loch and Julianne Impiccini
The authors, seven women–writers–performers–artists–academics, have been working collectively for a year, storying, de-storying and re-storying the experience of our lives. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors, seven women–writers–performers–artists–academics, have been working collectively for a year, storying, de-storying and re-storying the experience of our lives. The authors write to “taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect” (Nin, 1976), to uncover and learn ourselves through writing (Richardson, 1997), to take the “risky” steps of talking to each other about our inner lives (Palmer, 1998). Cognisant of the limitations and masculinities of traditional academic discourses, in form and content, and heavily confined by neoliberal expectations to count and be counted, we write and express the stories of lives the authors did not choose or imagine – lives we are given and live through. Our expression inhabits aesthetic, contemplative and sensory ways of knowing and employs poetry, image, song and story to create a polyvocal account of women’s lives, voices, struggles and learning. The authors share here part of our collective memoir and its development. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is designed as a collective memoir.
Findings
The authors write and express the stories of lives we did not choose or imagine – lives we are given and live through. The expression inhabits aesthetic, contemplative and sensory ways of knowing and employs poetry, image, song and story to create a polyvocal account of women’s lives, voices, struggles and learning. The authors share here part of our collective memoir and its development.
Research limitations/implications
The research focuses on autoethnography and lived experience.
Originality/value
Auto-ethnography/lived experience offers rich insights into the personal and political actions and actors within higher education.
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The purpose of this study is to learn what factors liaison librarians in academic research libraries consider in determining whether to refer chat reference patrons to subject…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to learn what factors liaison librarians in academic research libraries consider in determining whether to refer chat reference patrons to subject specialists.
Design/methodology/approach
Subject specialists were asked what policies guided their decisions to refer to a specialist and then assessed unreferred chat session transcripts both within and outside their specializations to determine need for a referral.
Findings
Few respondents were guided by formal policies. Contrary to an initial hypothesis, subject area was not a key factor in referring chat. A broader set of criteria included reference interviewing, provision of relevant resources and information literacy instruction. Respondents valued both the depth that subject specialists can provide to reference interactions and the ability of a skilled generalist to support information literacy.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are most applicable to large, public doctoral universities with liaison librarian programs. Assignment of respondents to subject specialist categories was complicated by their broad range of background and expertise.
Practical implications
The study contributes new understanding of referrals to subject specialists who have potential to guide development of formal referral policies in academic library virtual reference services.
Originality/value
The study is the first empirical examination of chat reference referral decisions.