Search results
1 – 10 of 719Cheryl Henderson‐Smart, Tracey Winning, Tania Gerzina, Shalinie King and Sarah Hyde
To develop a method for benchmarking teaching and learning in response to an institutional need to validate a new program in Dentistry at the University of Sydney, Australia.
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a method for benchmarking teaching and learning in response to an institutional need to validate a new program in Dentistry at the University of Sydney, Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
After a collaborative partner, University of Adelaide, was identified, the areas of teaching and learning to be benchmarked, PBL approach and assessment, were established. A list of quality indicators for these aspects of teaching and learning were first developed conceptually and then validated by the literature. Then, using a quality enhancement framework, levels of achievement for each indicator were developed.
Findings
The findings are represented as a set of tables. These were mutually developed with the benchmarking partner and represent an agreed model for a benchmarking project to progress to the next stages of implementation and evaluation.
Practical implications
This model can be adapted for any benchmarking project in all levels of education; primary, secondary, tertiary and continuing.
Originality/value
The issue of benchmarking is high on the educational agenda, especially in higher education. The literature reports on a number of projects but with no clear explanation of a method for benchmarking. The fact that this model is evidence‐based in its approach and that it focuses on learning and teaching, also marks it as original and a significant development in this area.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to describe how the British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) is responding to changes in the provision of research content, redefining its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to describe how the British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS) is responding to changes in the provision of research content, redefining its services to suit varying audiences’ requirements and building on a flexible technology platform.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is descriptive in nature.
Findings
The British Library is responding well to the current competitive environment for Inter Library Loan (ILL) and document supply.
Originality/value
This study includes an up-to-date assessment of the BLDSS and the changes, driven by the changing landscape, that are taking place.
Details
Keywords
Sandy Ng, Meredith E. David and Tracey S. Dagger
This paper seeks to investigate the effects of relationship benefits on relationship quality and aspects of service quality, namely technical and functional quality, and the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to investigate the effects of relationship benefits on relationship quality and aspects of service quality, namely technical and functional quality, and the subsequent influence on word‐of‐mouth behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports results from a structural equation model that utilizes data from 591 consumers across a range of services.
Findings
The findings highlight the important role of relationship benefits in driving customer perceptions of technical, functional and relationship quality. While confidence, social and special treatment benefits drive technical and functional quality, it is only confidence benefits that drive relationship quality. Furthermore, it is found that functional and relationship quality drive word‐of‐mouth behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study contribute to the literature by showing the differential impact that relationship benefits have on quality – technical, functional, and relationship – and subsequently the effect that functional and relationship quality have on word‐of‐mouth behavior.
Practical implications
The paper provides firms with the knowledge needed to more effectively implement relationship‐marketing activities. As the service economy continues to grow, competition intensifies, and to ensure service excellence, firms need to establish strong relationships with their customers as the quality of the customer‐provider relationship can increase word‐of‐mouth behavior.
Originality/value
The paper empirically investigates the role of relationship benefits in enhancing perceptions of quality while also providing an analysis of the differential role of functional, technical, and relationship quality in enhancing customers' word‐of‐mouth intentions.
Details
Keywords
Ted Baker, Timothy G. Pollock and Harry J. Sapienza
In this study we examine how resource-constrained organizations can maneuver for competitive advantage in highly institutionalized fields. Unlike studies of institutional…
Abstract
In this study we examine how resource-constrained organizations can maneuver for competitive advantage in highly institutionalized fields. Unlike studies of institutional entrepreneurship, we investigate competitive maneuvering by an organization that is unable to alter either the regulative or normative institutions that characterize its field. Using the “Moneyball” phenomenon and recent changes in Major League Baseball as the basis for an intensive case study of entrepreneurial actions taken by the Oakland A’s, we found that the A’s were able to maneuver for advantage by using bricolage and refusing to enact baseball’s cognitive institutions, and that they continued succeeding despite ongoing resource constraints and rapid copying of their actions by other teams. These results contribute to our understanding of competitive maneuvering and change in institutionalized fields. Our findings expand the positioning of bricolage beyond its prior characterization as a tool used primarily by peripheral organizations in less institutionalized fields; our study suggests that bricolage may aid resource constrained participants (including the majority of entrepreneurial firms) to survive in a wider range of circumstances than previously believed.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to show how decision makers in organizations can emulate the practices of winning organisations and in so doing, improve their own managerial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how decision makers in organizations can emulate the practices of winning organisations and in so doing, improve their own managerial practices. The paper draws on a four‐year empirical study of 11 of Australia's high performing organisations that identified their winning characteristics over a 25 year period. The detailed research outcomes have been published in 2007 in a book titled The First X1: Winning Organisations in Australia and are summarised as a Winning Framework with nine key elements for long‐term success. More recently, the author has been part of a team that has developed a sophisticated web‐based diagnostic survey, the purpose of which is to allow decision makers to benchmark their organisational performance against the best practices identified in the original research.
Design/methodology/approach
The research involved designing a series of 90 questions based on the Winning Framework and building an online diagnostic system for gathering and analysing data for benchmarking studies by organisations in a wide range of industry sectors.
Findings
Concepts for conducting the survey in medium to large organisations are discussed and some initial results and case studies from trials of the survey instruments are also presented. The most valuable reporting techniques appear to be an organisational wide radar map, performance ranges and averages and detailed analysis from different organisational levels.
Originality/value
Feedback from senior executives indicates that the holistic nature of the survey and the benchmarking process, coupled with the range of alternatives to analyse and display the results, provide unique and valuable insights into those operational and management opportunities that should accelerate their journey towards organisational excellence.
Details
Keywords
Sabrina Bonomi, Francesca Ricciardi, Cecilia Rossignoli and Alessandro Zardini
This study investigates (1) the processes through which social enterprises develop resilient organizational logics and (2) the key resilience factors in the organizational logics…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates (1) the processes through which social enterprises develop resilient organizational logics and (2) the key resilience factors in the organizational logics of successful social enterprises. The organizational logic is conceptualized here as the dynamic system of roles, rules and social expectations that result from the organization's business model, impact model and organizational form.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts an inductive approach to identify emerging resilience factors and processes in an exemplary case of social entrepreneurship (a work integration venture). The longitudinal data collection on this case took place from 2011 to 2016, based on approximately 440 h of participant observation and 10 semi-structured interviews.
Findings
The inductive analysis suggests that social enterprises develop resilient organizational logics through multi-level recursive processes of bridging institutional work. These processes enable the development of an organizational logic that is internally robust while linking distant practices, needs and expectations. The authors conceptualize these characteristics into a novel construct, the organizational logic's bridging power, which is operationalizable through two dimensions (hybridity-based and cocreation-based bridging power) and five sub-dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
Like in all inductive studies, further research is needed to validate the proposed model. The new proposed construct “organizational logic's bridging power” is, interestingly, a meta-theoretical concept encouraging cross-fertilization between the literature on institutional logics and that on value cocreation.
Originality/value
The process development model proposed by this study highlights the importance of network-level institutional work for developing cocreation-based resilience. Furthermore, this study shows how institutional theories could be complemented with other bodies of knowledge in order to understand social enterprise resilience.
Details
Keywords
Grace Enriquez, Victoria Gill, Gerald Campano, Tracey T. Flores, Stephanie Jones, Kevin M. Leander, Lucinda McKnight and Detra Price-Dennis
The purpose of this paper is to provide a transcript of a dialogue among literacy educators and researchers on the impact of generative aritficial intelligence (AI) in the field…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a transcript of a dialogue among literacy educators and researchers on the impact of generative aritficial intelligence (AI) in the field. In the spring of 2023, a lively conversation emerged on the National Council of Research on Language and Literacy (NCRLL)’s listserv. Stephanie initiated the conversation by sharing an op-ed she wrote for Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the rise of ChatGPT and similar generative AI platforms, moving beyond the general public’s concerns about student cheating and robot takeovers. NCRLL then convened a webinar of eight leading scholars in writing and literacies development, inspired by that listerv conversation and an organizational interest in promoting intergenerational collaboration among literacy scholars.
Design/methodology/approach
As former doctoral students of two of the panel participants, webinar facilitators Grace and Victoria positioned themselves primarily as learners about this topic and gathered questions from colleagues, P-16 practitioners and those outside the field of education to assess the concerns and wonderings that ChatGPT and generative AI have raised. The following webinar conversation was recorded on two different days due to scheduling conflicts. It has been merged and edited into one dialogue for coherence and convergence.
Findings
Panel participants raise a host of questions and issues that go beyond topics of ethics, morality and basic writing instruction. Furthermore, in dialogue with one another, they describe possibilities for meaningful pedagogy and critical literacy to ensure that generative AI is used for a socially just future for students. While the discussion addressed matters of pedagogy, definitions of literacy and the purpose of (literacy) education, other themes included a critique of capitalism; an interrogation of the systems of power and oppression involved in using generative AI; and the philosophical, ontological, ethical and practical life questions about being human.
Originality/value
This paper provides a glimpse into one of the first panel conversations about ChatGPT and generative AI in the field of literacy. Not only are the panel members respected scholars in the field, they are also former doctoral students and advisors of one another, thus positioning all involved as both learners and teachers of this new technology.
Details
Keywords
Cassandra Scharber, Kris Isaacson, Tracey Pyscher and Cynthia Lewis
This paper aims to closely examine the features of an urban community-based learning program to highlight the synergy between its educational technology, literate practices and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to closely examine the features of an urban community-based learning program to highlight the synergy between its educational technology, literate practices and social justice ethos that impact youths’ learning and documentary filmmaking. This examination of a learning setting illuminates the “what is possible” and “how it comes to be possible” (Gomez et al., 2014, p. 10), illustrating possibilities for youths’ tech-mediated literacies to facilitate, support and extend engagement in social justice.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in the theoretical and analytical concept of activity theory, this study uses qualitative methods and activity systems analysis. Observations are the primary data source coupled with a detailed activity analysis supported by artifacts, images and interviews. Program participants included 12 youth, 2 youth mentors, 1 adult coordinator and 1 adult facilitator.
Findings
Findings illustrate that all subjects (participants) in the program co-created and shaped the activity system’s object (or purpose). Analyses also reveal the ways in which the program enables and empowers youth through its development of participatory literacy practices that “can facilitate learning, empowerment, and civic action” (Jenkins et al., 2016).
Originality/value
Overall, this study is a contribution to the field as it responds to the need for close examinations of complex technology-mediated learning settings “through the lens of equity and opportunity” (Ito et al., 2013).
Details