Search results

Asserts that any benchmarking activity to improve service performance must develop a combined external and internal perspective. Offers advice on benchmarking techniques, useful measurement approaches and how they can be used effectively.

Although adaptation to climate change is a well-researched topic at the individual level and in highly vulnerable industries, its integration into business strategies is poorly researched. In this chapter, we conduct bibliometric analyses on a sample of 368 relevant papers published in business journals to derive descriptive statistics and map the conceptual and intellectual structure of the field. We find an increased interest in adaptation and confirm a strong representation of industry-specific research. We complement the bibliometric analyses with a content analysis focused on emergent themes in the adaptation scholarship. We discuss systemic influences, individual effects, regulations and stakeholders, and exposure as areas likely to attract further scrutiny in future scholarship. For each theme, we derive practical implications for practitioners and policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a dialectical framework for the examination of performance management in schools.

The paper is based upon a qualitative study of ten headteachers that involved in-depth semi-structured interviews.

The findings identified four dialectical tensions that underpin performance management in schools: the responsibility to teachers and the responsibility to pupils; external accountability and professional autonomy; discipline of teachers and support of teachers; fixed processes and improvisational practices.

This paper provides a means of examining the performance management of teachers from an alternative perspective, one that embraces tensions and contradictions and gives headteachers a richer understanding of how teachers are evaluated and judged.

This paper moves beyond the traditional perspective of performance management in schools as a means of subjugation and control and offers an original dialectical framework within which to examine the phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper was to develop a quantitative classroom observation method that is able to analyse the school day to identify Time-on-Task losses comprehensively and systematically, at a level of detail that can be used by teachers and principals to stimulate and focus practical improvement efforts.

The novel Time-on-Task Analysis (TOTA) model was developed by triangulating the conceptual framework of the Overall Equipment Effectiveness metric with the semantics and structure of the target domain. Once developed, the model was tested structurally against a time-series classroom observation data set, after which the resulting TOTA was presented to a sample of 52 education stakeholders, who then gave their perspectives of the analysis in a structured survey.

The ontological model was found to be accurate, complete and without conceptual incongruencies, and its output novel and useful by the sample of education stakeholders. Of the participants, 90.3% found the analysis to provide a new perspective, 94.2% reported that the analysis triggered improvement ideas and 80.8% thought that their school(s) could benefit from a TOTA study.

The TOTA model introduces a time-loss-focused perspective to the field of quantitative classroom observation studies, which is dominated by more sociologic- and pedagogic-focused topics. Its grounding in Overall Equipment Effectiveness also gives it a more detailed and systematic approach than the few Time-on-Task studies done to date, resulting in a model made for the “Gemba”: the school classroom.

To explore the reflections of primary headteachers on a series of major policy initiatives introduced by successive Conservative and Labour governments from 1988 to 2003.

The methodology is an interview‐based survey of six headteachers. The interviews were structured around the headteachers’ recollections of their headship during the period of Conservative government from 1988 to 1997 and, following the election of the Labour Government, from 1997 to 2003.

The headteachers’ reflections have changed from recalling a sense of excitement and anticipation immediately following the introduction of the 1988 Education Reform Act to ones of increasing disillusionment as the period of the Conservative Government drew to a close. However their expectations following the election of the Labour Government in 1977 were quickly dashed and followed by feelings of disappointment and, for some, of frustration.

The small size of the sample is the major limitation but this opens up an agenda for future research.

The implications for government are to limit the number and scope of any new initiatives that schools are expected to implement and to ensure that these are properly funded.

The article presents an alternative view of headship that balances the overly optimistic impression that may be obtained from government and its agencies, leading to a deeper understanding of the realities of headship today.

The emergence of technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA) has led to calls for increased collaboration across and among sectors. Growing recognition of the need for multistakeholder collaboration (MSC) between industry, civil society, government, and academia reflects the number of moving parts involved, the need for specialized knowledge and skills in relation to certain issues, and the importance of recognizing the ways in which interlocking systems of subordination can lead to very different experiences with and impressions of social justice issues (Crenshaw, 1991). Numerous financial, professional, and personal factors incentivize MSC. Notwithstanding growing opportunities and incentives for TFVA-related MSC, collaborative efforts bring with them their own set of challenges. This chapter integrates elements of the literature on MSC, particularly those focusing on risks, benefits, and ways forward, with excerpts from a dialogue between an academic and community organization leader who are collaborating on a research partnership encompassing TFVA against young Canadians.

The purpose of this study is to determine if brand passion shapes attitudinal brand loyalty while driving a series of important brand-related outcomes (i.e. brand advocacy, social media following, sense of community, willingness to pay a premium price and alternative devaluation). These aspects are explored for sports apparel brands after considering the perceptions of Iranian consumers.

This study is based on the analysis of survey data gathered online and face-to-face from a sample of Iranian consumers of sports apparel brands that were analysed using partial least square path modelling.

The key empirical findings obtained confirm that brand passion underpins attitudinal brand loyalty and several important brand-related outcomes. Furthermore, the findings show that attitudinal brand loyalty explains the impact of brand passion on most of the outcomes considered, except for social media following.

This study advances knowledge of brand passion by illustrating its “power” as a strong nuance of relationships between consumers and brands. In particular, this study highlights the importance of brand passion in shaping attitudinal brand loyalty, as well as a driver of several outcomes of theoretical and managerial relevance.

By establishing strategies aimed at enhancing brand passion, brand managers can increase attitudinal brand loyalty, attain important goals such as brand advocacy, premium price and social media following, as well as the devaluation of competing brands.

This study uses a unidimensional theorisation of brand passion to increase the understanding of its role as predictor of attitudinal brand loyalty and driver of relevant outcomes. It also examines the mediating effect of attitudinal brand loyalty, thus illustrating important conceptual links between brand passion and brand loyalty in the context of sports apparel brands in a growing economy (Iran).

THIS issue of The Library World marks the commencement of a new volume, and we take the opportunity of thanking our many readers for their continued good feeling and support. It is a pleasure to us to record the fact that we are able to enlarge this initial number of the volume and that we feel the time has come when we shall make such enlargement a permanency, without any corresponding increase in the subscription price.

To provide an overview of the various ways in which performance management is being implemented in England's primary schools.

A combination of documentary analysis, participant observation and audio‐taped interviews with primary school headteachers, deputy headteachers, teachers and school governors.

Information is provided on the following aspects of performance management in primary schools: the meaning and purposes of performance management in primary schools; education and training for performance management; formulation and content of performance management objectives; measuring the performance of heads and teachers; the effects of performance management on teachers' professional development; and perceptions concerning the appropriateness and reality of performance related pay.

Owing to the relatively small number of research participants, the findings might not be entirely representative of the opinions and experiences of primary school headteachers, teachers and governors throughout England as a whole. The value of introducing performance management into primary schools remains an area for further research.

A useful paper both for managers who are reviewing the operational effectiveness of performance management within their own schools, as well as for organisations that are considering the introduction of performance management into their school system.

This paper might be of particular value to national governments and smaller organisations that wish to consider how to evaluate the effectiveness of the various options before introducing a system of performance management into their whole primary school network.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of Industrial Management & Data Systems is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Industrial Management; Industrial Engineering and Work Study; Industrial Design; Quality Management; Manufacturing Strategy and Production; Information Systems.