Olivia McDermott, Jiju Antony, Michael Sony, Angelo Rosa, Mary Hickey and Tara Ann Grant
The main purpose of this study is to investigate Ishikawa’s statement that “95% of problems in processes can be accomplished using the 7 Quality Control (QC) tools” and explore…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this study is to investigate Ishikawa’s statement that “95% of problems in processes can be accomplished using the 7 Quality Control (QC) tools” and explore its validity within the health-care sector. The study will analyze the usage of the 7 QC tools in the health-care service sector and the benefits, challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) for the application of the 7 QC tools in this sector.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to evaluate Ishikawa’s statement and how valid his statement is for the health-care sector, an online survey instrument was developed, and data collection was performed utilizing a stratified random sampling strategy. The main strata/clusters were formed by health-care professionals working in all aspects of health-care organizations and functions. A total of 168 participants from European health-care facilities responded to the survey.
Findings
The main finding of this study is that 62% of respondents were trained in the 7 QC tools. Only 3% of participants in the health-care sector perceived that the seven tools of QC can solve above 90% of quality problems as originally claimed by Dr Ishikawa. Another relevant finding presented in this paper is that Histograms, Cause and Effect diagrams and check sheets are the most used tools in the health-care sector. The least used tools are Stratification and Scatter diagrams. This paper also revealed that the 7 QC tools proposed by Dr Ishikawa were most used in hospital wards and in administration functions. This work also presents a list of CSFs required for the proper application of the 7 QC tools in healthcare.
Research limitations/implications
This research was carried out in European health-care facilities – and there is an opportunity to expand the study across global health-care facilities. There is also an opportunity to study the use of the tools and their impact on hospital performance using the Action Research methodology in a health-care organization.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the very first research within the health-care sector that focused on investigating the usage of all the 7 basic tools and challenging Dr Ishikawa’s statement: “95% of problems in processes can be accomplished using the 7 Quality Control (QC) tools” from his book “What is Quality Control?” The results of this study represent an important first step toward a full understanding of the applicability of these tools in the health-care sector.
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Ann Reich and Paul Hager
This paper aims to problematise practice and contribute to new understandings of professional and workplace learning. Practice is a concept which has been largely taken for granted…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to problematise practice and contribute to new understandings of professional and workplace learning. Practice is a concept which has been largely taken for granted and under-theorised in workplace learning and education research. Practice has usually been co-located with classifiers, such as legal practice, vocational practice, teaching practice and yoga practice, with the theoretical emphasis on the domain – legal, teaching and learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a theory-driven paper which posits a framework of six prominent threads for theorizing practice. It uses examples of empirical research to illustrate each thread.
Findings
A framework of six prominent threads for theorising practice in professional learning is suggested. It understands practices as patterned, embodied, networked and emergent and learning entwined with working, knowing, organizing and innovating. By conceptualising learning as occurring via and in practices, prominent understanding of learning are challenged. The paper discusses each thread with reference to empirical research that illuminates it and indicates the contributions of practice theory perspectives in richer understandings of professional learning and change.
Originality/value
This paper engages with the practice turn in social sciences to reconceptualise professional and workplace learning. It contributes to research on learning at work by supplementing current thinking about learning, particularly the socio-cultural conceptions of learning, with the resources of practice theories that attend to the regularities of practice.
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Ann-Carita Evaldsson and Johanna Svahn
Purpose – In this chapter, we examine an extended gossip dispute event, in which a peer group of 11-year-old girls take action against a girl who has reported about school…
Abstract
Purpose – In this chapter, we examine an extended gossip dispute event, in which a peer group of 11-year-old girls take action against a girl who has reported about school bullying to the teacher by examining how the accused girls construct their own sociopolitical order away from the adults.
Approach – The analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork within a Swedish multiethnic school setting combined with detailed analysis (conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis) of children's language practices.
Findings – It is found that the school's bullying intervention practice sets the stage for a trajectory of a gossip dispute event in which the accused girls work out their own version of the telling as snitching, reallocate blame, and project the future consequences for the girl being accountable for the telling. A moral order emerges via the organization of social actions, alignments, occasion-specific identities, and pejorative person descriptors, rendering the event of telling the teacher a disastrous move for the targeted girl. The micro-politics of the extended gossip dispute is pervasive in terms of how the accused girls strengthen social alignments of power, depict the transgressor by categorizing her as insane, and remedy the norm breaches through justifying their own actions.
Social implications – The success with which the girls here manage to turn the school's bullying intervention practice into a system of retaliation emphasizes the need for highlighting the micro-politics, of children's everyday practices away from adults.
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Gustavo Morales-Alonso, Yilsy Núñez Guerrero, Juan Francisco Aguilera and Carlos Rodríguez-Monroy
This study aims at shedding light on entrepreneurial aspirations on both developed and developing economies, in terms of contextual and individual values. Among the former…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at shedding light on entrepreneurial aspirations on both developed and developing economies, in terms of contextual and individual values. Among the former, economic development and inequalities are sought after, while among the latter national culture is the variable under study.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used are extracted from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for a panel of countries, where the entrepreneurial aspirations of individuals of each country are measured through the Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA). The influence of cultural values as defined by Hofstede (individualism-collectivism (IDV), masculinity–femininity (MAS) and uncertainty avoidance (UAI)), moderated by the development level of the country and the existing inequalities are analyzed through artificial neural network (ANN) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) techniques.
Findings
Results show that in the post-crisis era, entrepreneurial aspirations are negatively linked to individualism in developing countries. In developed countries, however, entrepreneurship is not linked to individualism but to inequalities.
Originality/value
Entrepreneurial aspirations have not been thoroughly studied in the post-crisis era. We prove that entrepreneurial orientations have changed, together with the world, in the last decade. Cultural differences between countries tend to moderate, especially among developed ones, which speak of homogenization of national cultures. In this regard, inequalities are the determining factor. Contrarily, in developing countries, the differences in individualism are noticeable when it comes to analyzing entrepreneurial aspirations.
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Purpose: Researchers and advocates alike have noted that persons with disabilities and older persons are the two groups most marginalized by neoliberal economic policies and…
Abstract
Purpose: Researchers and advocates alike have noted that persons with disabilities and older persons are the two groups most marginalized by neoliberal economic policies and therefore could come together as a broad-based movement against the roll back of their rights. Yet, these two groups fail to collaborate, and instead compete against one another for an ever-shrinking pool of benefits. This chapter explores the barriers to their collaboration within the context of structural adjustment in Jamaica.
Methods/Approach: The author engages in a critical analysis of neoliberalism's effect on the advocacy strategies of the disability and older persons' movements in Jamaica based on 32 semi-directed depth interviews, participant observation of numerous events, and a survey of media written by local advocates.
Findings: The disability movement makes claims on behalf of their members by focusing on the potential returns that society will gain by providing the opportunities that will make young persons with disabilities productive employees over their lifetime. The older persons' movement advocates by portraying themselves as “vibrant” and worthy of social investment because of the contributions they make. Both of these arguments for inclusion are also exclusionary. The disability movement excludes older persons as potential contributors and the older persons' movement similarly excludes persons with disabilities.
Implications: The only way neoliberalism will successfully be rolled back and universal rights returned is if the disability movement and older persons' movements build an alliance that is more inclusive, including of one another, by rejecting the language of investment and productivity, and instead focus on rights and inherent dignity.
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The purpose of this paper is to inform healthcare providers and healthcare facility leadership about the statutory, administrative, criminal, and tort law implications related to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to inform healthcare providers and healthcare facility leadership about the statutory, administrative, criminal, and tort law implications related to preventable harms from unsafe injection practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Review of legal theory and precedents.
Findings
The law can address disputes over unsafe injection practices in a variety of ways. Administrative agencies may hold a provider or facility responsible for preventable harms according to specific statutory and regulatory provisions governing licensure. State courts can compensate victims of certain actions or inactions based on tort law, where a breach of a legal duty caused damages. Prosecutors and the public can turn to criminal law to punish defendants and deter future actions that result in disability or death.
Research limitations/implications
The state law findings in this review are limited to legal provisions and court cases that are available on searchable databases. Due to the nature of this topic, many cases are settled out of court, and those records are sealed from the public and not available for review.
Practical implications
Preventable harm continues to occur from unsafe injection practices. These practices pose a significant risk of disease or even death for patients and could result in legal repercussions for healthcare providers and facility leadership.
Originality/value
This article reviews emerging law and potential legal implications for health care and public health related to unsafe medical practices related to needle, syringe, and vial use.
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A. Banu Goktan, Alka Gupta, Subhendu Mukherjee and Vishal K. Gupta
The link between social interaction and entrepreneurial activity has attracted considerable attention in the entrepreneurship literature. In this study, we focus on individual…
Abstract
The link between social interaction and entrepreneurial activity has attracted considerable attention in the entrepreneurship literature. In this study, we focus on individual cultural values, shaped by interactions in the social space, as they relate to opportunity evaluation, a cornerstone of the entrepreneurial process. We test our predictions in India, a non-Western society that has sustained one of the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity in the world. Our findings suggest that value orientation of high power distance is negatively associated with opportunity evaluation whereas uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, and femininity are positively associated with opportunity evaluation.
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Industrial relations, organizational behavior, and human resource management scholars have studied numerous aspects of internal workplace conflict resolution, ranging from the…
Abstract
Purpose
Industrial relations, organizational behavior, and human resource management scholars have studied numerous aspects of internal workplace conflict resolution, ranging from the design of conflict resolution systems to the processes used for resolving conflicts to the outcomes of the systems. Scholars from these specialties, however, have paid considerably less attention to external workplace conflict resolution through litigation. This chapter analyzes certain areas of such litigation, focusing specifically on workplace conflicts involving issues of managerial and employee misclassification, independent contractor versus employee status, no-poaching agreements, and executive compensation.
Methodology/approach
Leading recent cases involving these issues are examined, with particular attention given to the question of whether the conflicts reflected therein could have been resolved internally or through alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods rather than through litigation.
Practical implications
Implications of this analysis are drawn for workplace conflict resolution theory and practice. In doing so, I conclude that misclassification disputes could likely be resolved internally or through ADR rather than through litigation, but that no-poaching and executive compensation disputes could very likely not be resolved internally or through ADR.
Originality/value
The chapter draws on and offers an integrated analysis of particular types of workplace conflict that are typically treated separately by scholars and practitioners. These include misclassification conflicts, no poaching and labor market competition conflicts, and executive compensation conflicts. The originality and value of this chapter are to show that despite their different contexts and particular issues, the attempted resolution through litigation of these types of workplace conflicts has certain common, systematic characteristics.
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Paolo Andrei, Federica Balluchi and Katia Furlotti
In current economic systems, the role played by non-profit and voluntary organisations is relevant. Several studies analyse the development of these organisations and suggest…
Abstract
In current economic systems, the role played by non-profit and voluntary organisations is relevant. Several studies analyse the development of these organisations and suggest reasons related to the dissemination of policies that first consider public intervention and then ‘the third way’ of the economy as a way to increase wealth and support economic development. In this context, it should be noted that:
Modern non-profit organisations (NPOs) take the form of enterprises encouraging the development of capabilities to satisfy human needs in terms of production of goods and utilities.
A systematic cooperation with the local context (i.e. enterprises and Public Administration) is becoming increasingly more important for the survival and development of NPOs.
Excellent opportunities for economic and social growth and for mutual development can develop from this type of cooperation.
Starting from this premise, the purpose of the research is to suggest some insight on the theme of cooperation between for-profit and non-profit world in the light of the thought of Church’s Social Doctrine, and in particular, of the Encyclical Letter of Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate – On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth. In this sense, the contribution is a conceptual work; the study could improve with empirical research concerning the level of diffusion and the form of collaborations for-profit/non-profit in the Italian context.
Modern non-profit organisations (NPOs) take the form of enterprises encouraging the development of capabilities to satisfy human needs in terms of production of goods and utilities.
A systematic cooperation with the local context (i.e. enterprises and Public Administration) is becoming increasingly more important for the survival and development of NPOs.
Excellent opportunities for economic and social growth and for mutual development can develop from this type of cooperation.
Starting from this premise, the purpose of the research is to suggest some insight on the theme of cooperation between for-profit and non-profit world in the light of the thought of Church’s Social Doctrine, and in particular, of the Encyclical Letter of Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate – On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth. In this sense, the contribution is a conceptual work; the study could improve with empirical research concerning the level of diffusion and the form of collaborations for-profit/non-profit in the Italian context.
From a methodological point of view, after a literature review on NPOs and corporate social responsibility, the chapter analyses reasons, strategies and tools of collaborations between non-profit and for-profit worlds (the role of Public Administration and hybrid organisation is excluded). Then, focus moves up on Church’s Social Doctrine and Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate with particular attention to the topic analysed in this chapter (collaboration for-profit/non-profit enterprises). The vision emerging from the Encyclical is that the dichotomy between for-profit and NPOs should be resolved by striving for the development of a ‘civil economy’ with the capacity to promote the overall development of the human being. The research highlights the importance of dissemination of initiatives promoted predominantly by NPOs, with the objective of stimulating and supporting the implementation of forms of structured collaboration; we are sure that a ‘connection point’ between for-profit and non-profit is now necessary.