Sonia Hunter and Brian H. Kleiner
A grievance may be defined as any dispute that arises between an employer and employee, which relates to the implied or explicit terms of the employment agreement (Britton…
Abstract
A grievance may be defined as any dispute that arises between an employer and employee, which relates to the implied or explicit terms of the employment agreement (Britton, 1982:12). The validity of a grievance depends upon whether or not there is “just cause” or reason for such complaint. Certain tests are used in determining whether a company had just cause for disciplining an employee (BNA Editorial Staff, 1959‐1987:1). Anyone having an affiliation with an organisation can file a grievance on behalf of or against that organisation. Some of the most common complaints by employees include unfair treatment by the employer, broken employment agreement, and employer communications and defamation. The most common employers’ complaints are absenteeism, insubordination, misconduct, substance abuse, unsatisfactory performance, and safety and health violations. For grievance handling to be effective, the employer has to follow certain guidelines. In disciplining employees, management should mainly use penalties such as warnings, suspensions, and discharge (BNA Editorial Staff, 1959‐1987:11).
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Keith Adamson, Nancy Searl, Sonia Sengsavang, John Yardley, Mark George, Peter Rumney, Judy Hunter and Sakeena Myers-Halbig
Hospitals must systematically support employees in innovative ways to uphold a culture of care that strengthens the system. At a leading Canadian academic pediatric rehabilitation…
Abstract
Purpose
Hospitals must systematically support employees in innovative ways to uphold a culture of care that strengthens the system. At a leading Canadian academic pediatric rehabilitation hospital, over 90 percent of clinicians viewed Schwartz Rounds™ (SR) as a hospital priority, resulting in its formal implementation as a quality improvement initiative. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the hospital implemented SR to support the socio-emotional impact of providing care.
Design/methodology/approach
This quantitative descriptive study provides a snapshot of the impact of each SR through online surveys at four assessment points (SR1-SR4). A total of 571 responses were collected.
Findings
All four SR addressed needs of staff as 92.9-97.6 percent of attendees reported it had a positive impact, and 96.4-100 percent of attendees reported each SR was relevant. Attendees reported significantly greater communication with co-workers after each SR (p<0.001) and more personal conversations with supervisors after SR2 and SR4 (p<0.05) compared to non-attendees. Attending SR also increased their perspective-taking capacity across the four SR.
Practical implications
As evidenced in this quality improvement initiative, SR addresses staff’s need for time to process the socio-emotional impacts of care and to help reduce those at risk for compassion fatigue. SR supports and manages the emotional healthcare culture, which has important implications for quality patient care.
Originality/value
This research details an organization’s process to implement SR and highlights the importance of taking care of the care provider.
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Sonia Cointet, Jean Alexander, Margaret Campbell and Lorna Hunter
This is a locality case study which starts with a detailed overview of an inter‐agency process to study the feasibility of integrating occupational therapy services, and concludes…
Abstract
This is a locality case study which starts with a detailed overview of an inter‐agency process to study the feasibility of integrating occupational therapy services, and concludes with a brief description of the model proposed.
Rick Iedema, Raj Verma, Sonia Wutzke, Nigel Lyons and Brian McCaughan
To further our insight into the role of networks in health system reform, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how one agency, the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI)…
Abstract
Purpose
To further our insight into the role of networks in health system reform, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how one agency, the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI), and the multiple networks and enabling resources that it encompasses, govern, manage and extend the potential of networks for healthcare practice improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a case study investigation which took place over ten months through the first author’s participation in network activities and discussions with the agency’s staff about their main objectives, challenges and achievements, and with selected services around the state of New South Wales to understand the agency’s implementation and large system transformation activities.
Findings
The paper demonstrates that ACI accommodates multiple networks whose oversight structures, self-organisation and systems change approaches combined in dynamic ways, effectively yield a diversity of network governances. Further, ACI bears out a paradox of “centralised decentralisation”, co-locating agents of innovation with networks of implementation and evaluation expertise. This arrangement strengthens and legitimates the role of the strategic hybrid – the healthcare professional in pursuit of change and improvement, and enhances their influence and impact on the wider system.
Research limitations/implications
While focussing the case study on one agency only, this study is unique as it highlights inter-network connections. Contributing to the literature on network governance, this paper identifies ACI as a “network of networks” through which resources, expectations and stakeholder dynamics are dynamically and flexibly mediated and enhanced.
Practical implications
The co-location of and dynamic interaction among clinical networks may create synergies among networks, nurture “strategic hybrids”, and enhance the impact of network activities on health system reform.
Social implications
Network governance requires more from network members than participation in a single network, as it involves health service professionals and consumers in a multi-network dynamic. This dynamic requires deliberations and collaborations to be flexible, and it increasingly positions members as “strategic hybrids” – people who have moved on from singular taken-as-given stances and identities, towards hybrid positionings and flexible perspectives.
Originality/value
This paper is novel in that it identifies a critical feature of health service reform and large system transformation: network governance is empowered through the dynamic co-location of and collaboration among healthcare networks, particularly when complemented with “enabler” teams of people specialising in programme implementation and evaluation.
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Lucia Mesquita, Gabriela Gruszynski Sanseverino, Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos and Giuliander Carpes
This study examines three significant collaborative journalism projects in the Americas: The Panama Papers, from the United States-based International Consortium of Investigative…
Abstract
This study examines three significant collaborative journalism projects in the Americas: The Panama Papers, from the United States-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ); “América Latina, Región de Carteles,” by Colombian-based Connectas; and the first phase of the Brazilian-based project, Comprova, supported by Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalists (Abraji) and First Draft. The work investigates what encompasses collaborative journalism; and explores whether it is a recent phenomenon of the news ecosystem, a consequence of the institutional crisis of journalism, and if it is influenced by a network-based and platformed society. A mixed-method approach is applied in a three-stage analysis: (1) desk research; (2) quantitative content analysis; and (3) qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews. To gain a broader picture of the organizations and their respective projects, documental and bibliographical research was carried out with a focus on data from press releases, corporate reports, and articles published on the websites of the organizations coordinating the projects. Furthermore, a quantitative content analysis of 10 news articles published by each of these collaboration partnerships was completed. Finally, qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the directors, managers, and professional journalists’ part of the organizations and project. This study emphasizes the importance of collaborative practices, demonstrates how collaborative practices contribute to a new modus operandi of the news ecosystem; and considers why journalists and media organizations have turned to collaborative journalism as a model of production, circulation, and distribution of journalistic investigations.
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A VERY interesting winter lies ahead for all students and other librarians; for, we suppose, almost immediately attempts will be made to harmonize the practice of the Library…
Abstract
A VERY interesting winter lies ahead for all students and other librarians; for, we suppose, almost immediately attempts will be made to harmonize the practice of the Library Association with the expressed wishes of its last Annual Meeting. We publish some notes in Letters on Our Affairs on the crisis, if it may be so called, but we would add such voice as we have to that of those who plead for moderation. Violent changes are rarely justified, and violent expressions still less rarely, and as there appears to be now a disposition to bury hatchets and to get to work we hope that every advantage will be taken of it.
Sónia Cardoso and Cristina Sin
Internationalisation is one of the significant manifestations of the ongoing transformation of doctoral education. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the perspectives of…
Abstract
Purpose
Internationalisation is one of the significant manifestations of the ongoing transformation of doctoral education. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the perspectives of Portuguese universities and doctoral students regarding the importance of internationalisation and the strategies to achieve it in doctoral education.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 118 doctoral programme websites from 27 universities (15 public, 12 private) served as the data source of university perspectives of internationalisation. Doctoral students’ perspectives on the same topic were collected through 31 interviews, 27 conducted in seven focus groups and four individually, with first-year doctoral students from three Portuguese public universities. Content analysis was performed on the two sets of data.
Findings
According to university and doctoral students’ perspectives, internationalisation assumes an important role in Portuguese doctoral education and is being integrated through specific strategies. Strategies for attracting and recruiting international students appear to take a back seat compared to strategies which offer students international experience through immersion in international environments in their home institutions. While expressing the potential impediments, undesirable side effects and conditions that internationalisation must meet, students seem to take a critical stance towards it and towards the institutional strategies designed to promote it.
Originality/value
This paper addresses a topic which does not appear to receive much attention in doctoral education research and, to this extent, advances knowledge on the internationalisation of doctoral education.
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Disabled women are reported to be between twice and five times more likely to experience sexual violence than non-disabled women or disabled men; when these are hate crimes they…
Abstract
Background
Disabled women are reported to be between twice and five times more likely to experience sexual violence than non-disabled women or disabled men; when these are hate crimes they compound harms for both victims and communities.
Purpose
This user-led research explores how disabled and Deaf victims and Survivors most effectively resist the harm and injustice they experience after experiencing disablist hate crime involving rape.
Design/methodology/approach
Feminist standpoint methods are employed with reciprocity as central. This small-scale peer research was undertaken with University ethics and supervision over a five year period. Subjects (n=522) consisted of disabled and Deaf victims and Survivors in North of England.
Findings
The intersectional nature of violence against disabled women unsettles constructed macro binaries of public/private space violence and the location of disabled women as inherently vulnerable. Findings demonstrate how seizing collective identity can usefully resist re-victimization, tackle the harms after disablist hate crime involving rape and resist the homogenization of both women and disabled people.
Practical implications
The chapter outlines inequalities in disabled people’s human rights and recommends service and policy improvements, as well as informing methods for conducting ethical research.
Originality/value
This is perhaps the first user-led, social model based feminist standpoint research to explore the collective resistance to harm after experiencing disablist hate crime involving rape. It crossed impairment boundaries and included community living, segregated institutions and women who rely on perpetrators for personal assistance. It offers new evidence of how disabled and Deaf victims and Survivors can collectively unsettle the harms of disablist hate crime and rape and achieve justice and safety on a micro level.