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 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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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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Alemayehu Molla, Ahmad Abareshi and Vanessa Cooper
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the beliefs and attitudinal factors that affect the private sphere pro-environmental behavior of information technology (IT) professionals…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the beliefs and attitudinal factors that affect the private sphere pro-environmental behavior of information technology (IT) professionals in using personal computers.
Design/methodology/approach
A research framework that draws from the belief-action-outcome (BAO) framework and that consisted of 11 hypotheses was developed. Data were collected from a sample of 322 IT professionals and analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results identify the pro-environmental personal computing actions that IT professionals are taking and how their Green IT beliefs, attitudes, information acquisition capability, and organizational fields influence their behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was limited to Australian respondents. The measurement of IT-specific environmental practices was not exhaustive nor were the measures of macro- and micro-antecedents of Green IT belief and attitude.
Practical implications
National, regional, and international professional associations such as the Association of Information Systems can influence pro-environmental behavior among IT professionals through the creation and dissemination of information that shape both general and IT-specific environmental beliefs.
Originality/value
The novelty of this work lies in: first, proposing and testing a research framework that can be leveraged in future studies; second, establishing how organizational fields and availability of information contribute to the formation of IT professionals’ environmental beliefs and attitudes; third, applying and suggesting potential extension to the BAO framework to evaluate the association between IT practices and environmental sustainability among IT professionals.
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The purpose of the research is to identify strategies to maximize fan attendance at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships through the creation of segmented markets based on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the research is to identify strategies to maximize fan attendance at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships through the creation of segmented markets based on consumers' team affiliation.
Design/methodology/approach
The research utilized a survey methodology to examine the motives for attendance at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. The surveys were distributed at each of the three sessions in order to obtain a representative sample (n=140).
Findings
The results of the study demonstrated that fans responded most favorably to sport‐related motives. Additionally, the data also revealed that fans had varying motives for attendance based on their team affiliation.
Research limitations/implications
The ability to segment markets based on team affiliation allows sport managers to create effective promotional strategies to maximize attendance at future conference tournaments.
Originality/value
The results allow the Big Ten Conference to create positive team relationships with media outlets and member institutions in an effort to maximize the fan interest in their college wrestling product.
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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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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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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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Eileen Patterson, Sara Branch, Michelle Barker and Sheryl Ramsay
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of power in cases of upwards bullying by examining the bases of power that staff members use, and how these bases create power…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of power in cases of upwards bullying by examining the bases of power that staff members use, and how these bases create power imbalances.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six managers from several organisations. After completion of each interview, verbatim transcripts were created and examined using NVivo, allowing in-depth thematic analysis. The broad coding schema, developed through a review of the literature, was refined as analysis progressed.
Findings
Three major themes emerged: a loss of legitimate power, coercive power, and structural power. The findings suggest a “power cycle” exists in upwards bullying episodes, which is presented diagrammatically. Discussion focusses on the processes that commence with a decrease or loss of a manager’s legitimate power, associated with a lack of organisational support, and staff members’ perceptions of illegitimacy. Managers indicated vulnerability to inappropriate behaviours by staff members, and the potential for greater power imbalances to build due to these behaviours triggering a feedback mechanism, with managers experiencing a further loss of legitimate power.
Originality/value
The study recommends that research into the perspectives of staff members (such as alleged perpetrators) can further strengthen our understanding of the use of power in workplace bullying, and in upwards bullying in particular. Given the applicability of the outcomes of this research to our understanding of workplace bullying, such theory development can also foster practical approaches to addressing workplace bullying within organisations. Understanding the nature of power within workplace bullying processes can inform organisational strategies to disrupt the cycle of inappropriate behaviours, upwards and otherwise.