Yoko Akama, Vanessa Cooper and Bernard Mees
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and critique frameworks of communication in Australian bushfire management. Achieving bushfire preparedness is a complex process that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and critique frameworks of communication in Australian bushfire management. Achieving bushfire preparedness is a complex process that centres on meaningful communication and relationships between fire emergency agencies and the residents at risk. However, the practice of bushfire communication in Australia might better be described as bricoleur-like, applying and adapting whatever is at hand from the broader media panoply, rather than involving a more deliberative and comprehensively planned approach to preparedness.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper builds on different frameworks of communication, beyond the traditional transmission and power models, to establish alternative ways in which communication may take place in bushfire preparedness. It is built from coupling theoretical and social science approaches to communication and through interviews and fieldwork in four states across Australia. The aggregation of these data became the basis to examine how communication was taking place among these constituents.
Findings
Communication as transmission still remains dominant from the perspective where expertise is marshaled among fire agency specialists and disseminated to the public. Communication as power highlights that the persistence of the transmission process can reinforce power dynamics, diminishing empowerment, participation and capacity-building for change by the community. Recognising the importance for understanding audiences, communication as marketing pays closer attention to attitudes to influence behaviour. Finally, communication as community elaborates the conversational aspects of knowledge flow, through social networks, bringing a particular focus to bear on the greater need for community agency.
Originality/value
The authors put forward these frameworks as ways to analyse, critique and propose different ways that communication can, and does, occur, resulting in different kinds of interaction and impact. The authors argue that an awareness of such frameworks is significant in assisting the communities and fire authorities in bushfire preparedness.
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Vanessa A. Cooper and Sharman Lichtenstein
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance and complexities of the knowledge transfer process in the provision of effective managed after‐sales IT support, when the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance and complexities of the knowledge transfer process in the provision of effective managed after‐sales IT support, when the web is used for service delivery.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper features an interpretive case study of a multi‐national Managed Service Provider (MSP) and a focus group of representatives from five comparable MSPs.
Findings
The paper finds that MSPs that use web‐based channels for the provision of after‐sales IT support services need to address a range of important social and organisational issues in order to realise cost and efficiency‐based benefits.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides a four stage processual model of knowledge transfer in the provision of web‐based managed after‐sales IT support services. The barriers and enablers of knowledge transfer at each stage are identified. The paper adopts a MSP perspective and suggests that further research from the customer perspective is required.
Practical implications
The paper highlights some important social and organisational enablers and barriers, which will guide MSPs when providing managed after‐sales IT support using web‐based channels.
Originality/value
The paper provides the first staged model of inter‐organisational knowledge transfer in a complex multi‐organisational and multi‐channel web‐based context.
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Hugues Séraphin and Vanessa G.B. Gowreesunkar
This introductory paper aims to provide an overview of the significance of the theme issue.
Abstract
Purpose
This introductory paper aims to provide an overview of the significance of the theme issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper sheds lights on issues that post-colonial, post-conflict and post-disaster destinations are facing, and more importantly provides strategies to overcome the issues. The solutions are tailored to the particular profile of the destination.
Findings
For post-colonial, post-conflict and post-disaster destinations to enhance their image to potential visitors and to be able to compete equally with established destinations, it is important to provide solutions that are tailor-made to their own situation and circumstances, as one size does not fit all.
Originality/value
The value of this paper is that it re-visits the realities faced by post-colonial, post-conflict and post-disaster destinations while highlighting their potentials and barriers.
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Vanessa Cooper, Giuseppe Forino, Sittimont Kanjanabootra and Jason von Meding
There is a need to provide more effective learning experiences for higher education (HE) students in transdisciplinary contexts such as disasters and emergency management. While…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a need to provide more effective learning experiences for higher education (HE) students in transdisciplinary contexts such as disasters and emergency management. While much has been written on the value of simulation exercises (SEs) for emergency management practitioners, research has focussed less on their value for HE students. The purpose of this paper is to identify how a practitioner-oriented framework for the design and use of SEs in emergency management is relevant to the HE context and how this framework may need to be adapted to support effective learning by HE students.
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretive approach based on a qualitative content analysis of 16 semi-structured interviews with emergency management practitioners and educators is used to enable an in-depth understanding of the social phenomena to be obtained.
Findings
The paper highlights that a framework for the design and use of SEs for emergency management practitioners is potentially valuable in the HE context but should be applied in a nuanced way.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is based on a small number of interviews and future studies could usefully analyse a wider set of perspectives (e.g. students), using a variety of alternative methods (e.g. surveys), to further test and/or enrich the framework.
Practical implications
Insights from the paper can inform the design and use of SEs in the HE context with a view to supporting more effective learning that better prepares students to operate during disaster events when they enter the emergency management workforce.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that has investigated the value of a practitioner-oriented framework for the design and use of disaster SEs in the HE context. In so doing, the paper has highlighted how the dimensions of the framework apply in the HE context and has revealed other issues that need to be addressed to support effective learning by HE students.
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Paloma Escamilla-Fajardo, Juan Núñez-Pomar and Vanessa Ratten
The sports field is in constant change and adaptation, which leads to a need to explore new strategies to achieve success. This is why interest in technology has increased in…
Abstract
The sports field is in constant change and adaptation, which leads to a need to explore new strategies to achieve success. This is why interest in technology has increased in recent years. However, despite its undeniable importance, there is no quantitative data that provides a macroscopic view of the existing literature. Therefore, the objective of this study is to carry out a bibliometric analysis that provides structured information on the origin and academic evolution of technology in the sports field. To this end, a total of 170 articles published between 1977 and 2019 in the Web of Science (Core Collection) related to technology in sport have been analyzed. The 170 publications cover 396 authors, 134 journals, 37 countries and 261 institutions. In order to carry out the analyses, authors, journal, institution and country have been taken into account, as well as the co-authoring, co-citation and co-words networks. This information can provide an overview of the three thematic areas found: (i) technology in sport from an educational perspective, (ii) technology in sport from a medical-performance perspective, and (iii) technology in sport from a management perspective.
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The extra-low minimum wage for US restaurant workers has remained unchanged for over 30 years. Periodic campaigns have brought this wage, and its connection to the perpetuation of…
Abstract
The extra-low minimum wage for US restaurant workers has remained unchanged for over 30 years. Periodic campaigns have brought this wage, and its connection to the perpetuation of inequality and exploitative work, to public attention, but these campaigns have met resistance from both employers and restaurant workers. This article draws on a workplace ethnography in a restaurant front-of-house, and in-depth interviews with tipped food service workers, to examine the tipped labour process and begin to answer a central question: why would any workers oppose a wage increase? It argues that the constituting of tips as a formal wage created for workers a two-employer problem, wherein customers assume the role of secondary, unregulated, employers in the workplace. Ultimately, the tipped wage poses a longer-term strategic obstacle for workers in their position relative to management and ability to organize to shape the terms and conditions of their work.
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Sam Rowlands, Vanessa Heaslip, Cassandra Felske-Durksen, Ñusta Carranza Ko, Gwendolyn Albert, Rebecca Rich, Kristin A. Black and Marek Szilvási
This paper aims to draw attention to the global infringement of reproductive rights of Indigenous and racialised Peoples.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to draw attention to the global infringement of reproductive rights of Indigenous and racialised Peoples.
Design/methodology/approach
Narrative literature review. Description and comparative analysis of examples of forced sterilisation.
Findings
Large-scale sterilisation campaigns were identified in three different regions of the world: North America, Latin America and Europe. Within these, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous and racialised Peoples have been forcibly sterilised as part of state-sponsored procedures, predominantly aimed at women and gestating people. These abuses are continuing in the 21st century and have origins in “racial science” theory. The exact nature of the abuses is identified alongside the long-term health and wellbeing implications. Professional attitudes and behaviours that condoned such practices within healthcare settings are identified. The psychological, social and cultural impact of such practices, including on Indigenous body sovereignty and self-determination, are demonstrated.
Practical implications
These are twofold: firstly to eradicate any future practice of forced sterilisation and secondly to provide reparations to those affected.
Originality/value
The analysis brings together scholarship from Indigenous studies alongside that of health and social sciences.
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The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on the relationship of performance management to sports teams.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on the relationship of performance management to sports teams.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explains the importance of performance management to sports teams and justifies the need for the special issue.
Findings
The paper finds that there are a variety of different types of teams that operate in the sports context, including professional league teams, college teams, teams at the workplace, volunteer teams and coaching teams.
Originality/value
This editorial provides an overview of this special issue, which comprises eight original papers that are best practice examples of the latest developments in the research on teams in the sports context. Each of these articles is briefly discussed in terms of its contribution to the literature.
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Vanessa Gaitree Gowreesunkar, Hugues Seraphin and Mohammad Nazimuddin
Begging is undoubtedly an ancient phenomenon but when explored from the tourism perspective, it is relatively new. Begging has existed across several historical periods, but with…
Abstract
Purpose
Begging is undoubtedly an ancient phenomenon but when explored from the tourism perspective, it is relatively new. Begging has existed across several historical periods, but with sophistication and savviness, it has developed into a lucrative form of tourism business. While previous studies have reasonably explored the beggar–tourist interaction in several socio-economic contexts, the present one attempts to research an unusual aspect of these encounters which is termed as “black market tourism.” In the current study, black market is explained as a clandestine but visible market where tourism transactions take place within three important stakeholders, namely, the beggars, the tourists and shopkeepers. The transaction is found to have some aspects of illegality, but ultimately, serves the manifest function of yielding money and growing the underground network. This triangular interaction is therefore of relevance to understand the functioning of this black market involving those key stakeholders. With this notion as foundation, this study aims to empirically and conceptually explore the phenomenon of black market tourism which is derived from the beggar–tourist– shopkeeper encounter in an important city of India called Hyderabad. The specific location of the study was Chaar Minaar, a popular tourism city with ancient monument and shopping places in Hyderabad (India). Tourism in India is undeniably infused with the notions of color and culture, but how this colorful context gradually developed into a colorless black market tourism economy is worthy of study.
Design/methodology/approach
From a methodological point of view, this conceptual paper draws on unobtrusive research methods (written records, non-participant observations, informal interviews and occasional photography).
Findings
Findings show that begging is developing into a lucrative industry without costly investment and beggars operate in a cartel. The black tourism market is found to be an emerging underground tourism economy with established stakeholders, who are rapidly progressing and growing their network. The network is seen to be increasingly attracting educated and young professionals.
Research limitations/implications
The research is explorative and provides a consistent and empirically based starting point for research on black market tourism involving beggar–tourist and beggar–shopkeeper interactions in Indian cities. The sample being very limited, it is important to stress the limited possibilities to generalize the findings of this study to other destinations. Moreover, the assumption that the background of the local researcher might have influenced the interpretation of primary data need not be neglected, thus suggesting a further examination to confirm validity of the results.
Practical implications
The study provides information not only to destination managers interested to diversify the tourism product, but also to policymakers who are fighting against begging in the city of Hyderabad. The beggar experience can be used to attract more tourists seeking authenticity, provided that the process is improved by adding in some level of professionalism. For instance, beggars could be trained to perform decently in a town hall where tourists are invited to attend cultural shows. To some extent, this study may also help empowering beggars to become part of the tourism ecosystem. This is important, as modern society has disempowered economically disadvantaged members of the community (Hutton, 2016). Ultimately, the study attempted to show that disempowered members of the community are not always passive and powerless. They can create business out of another business (a re-invented form of beggarism that has potential to generate money from tourism).
Social implications
The study has a social aspect as it takes the involvement of three stakeholders, namely, the tourists, the beggars and the shopkeepers. The study shows how begging transactions affect the three stakeholders and it sheds light on its overall impact on Hyderabad, as a tourism destination.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, no tourism study (academic and non-academic) has so far considered the beggar–tourist encounter from a black market perspective. The findings offer new information on a reinvented form of beggarism and unveils that this black market is a well-entrenched system operated by an educated pool of people and professionals. Ultimately, the study attempts to show that disempowered members of the community (beggars) are not always passive and powerless. They can create business out of another business (a re-invented form of beggarism that has potential to generate money out of tourism).
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Ana Claudia Mazzonetto, Ana Carolina Fernandes, Aretusa Dias de Souza, Vanessa Mello Rodrigues, Tailane Scapin, Paula Lazzarin Uggioni, Marcela Boro Veiros, Greyce Luci Bernardo and Rossana Pacheco da Costa Proença
This study aimed to examine the perceptions and preferences of Brazilian adult consumers about four different front-of-pack (FOP) food labeling systems proposed by the Brazilian…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to examine the perceptions and preferences of Brazilian adult consumers about four different front-of-pack (FOP) food labeling systems proposed by the Brazilian National Health Regulatory Agency.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study conducted with 33 participants allocated in six focus groups. Four different types of FOP labels were displayed on processed and packaged bread: three interpretive warning labels (black triangle, black octagon and red ellipse) and a hybrid model (nutritional traffic light). Thematic analysis was used to identify the key topics addressed by participants.
Findings
Three topics were identified: label design, clarity and precision of information. The results demonstrated an influence of labels on product development and consumers' food choices. Most participants expressed a preference for black warning labels and reported the importance of statements endorsed by the Ministry of Health, which provide credibility and could influence food choices. Furthermore, participants agreed that the traffic light system provides more information but is difficult to interpret when comparing products. Warning labels were reported to have the greatest influence on purchase decisions. However, participants were concerned about how to understand the lack of warning labels on some products.
Practical implications
The results may help and support the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency to identify and recommend the most effective FOP labeling system to be adopted in Brazil.
Originality/value
Few studies investigating adult consumers' perceptions of different FOP label formats have been conducted in the Brazilian context. Our study contributes to the small pool of evidence on the topic by demonstrating that FOP labels can be helpful for consumers when they are presented in an intuitive, interpretative and trustworthy format.