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Article
Publication date: 20 October 2014

Tina Byrom and Verity Aiken

Work-based learning (WBL) is increasingly viewed as important in students’ higher education (HE) experiences. Drawing from the process of revalidating a Joint Honours in Education…

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Abstract

Purpose

Work-based learning (WBL) is increasingly viewed as important in students’ higher education (HE) experiences. Drawing from the process of revalidating a Joint Honours in Education (JHE) programme, the purpose of this paper is to highlight challenges involved in ensuring a meaningful placement experience for students that is fully embedded within their course. Primary challenges included the disparate number of subject strand combinations and concomitant career aspirations, wider university requisites on developing Graduate Attributes and student expectations of their placement opportunities. In broadening the scope and number of placement opportunities, the authors simultaneously increased the partnership links with employers to attract increased student buy-in to the opportunities available to them.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study utilizes staff reflections, stakeholder contributions and student evaluations to illuminate the process involved in revalidating a JHE programme to incorporate increased placement opportunities. A particular focus is placed on consideration of the tensions inherent within WBL opportunities and the ways in which such experiences can be successfully embedded within a HE degree programme. Whilst the authors are able to report on successful integration of placement opportunities in Year 1, the authors utilize student perspectives to gain understanding of the importance, or otherwise, they place on placements through the duration of their degree.

Findings

Whilst placements are widely accepted as a positive feature of HE, inherent tensions emerged from some students who questioned the value and purpose of placements and time away from university. Conversely, employers saw placement and particularly the assessment of students whilst on placement as critical in students’ development into professional workers. The inclusion of placements in HE is therefore problematic, particularly in light of increased tuition fees. This case study, however, suggests that meaningful and disparate placement opportunities can be successfully embedded within each year of an HE degree programme and can be viewed as enhancing the student academic experience.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is located within a body of research that focuses positively on placement/WBL opportunities for undergraduate students, but does raise some emerging tensions linked to the marketization of HE and resulting student perspectives on “value”. Although generic themes can be applied to curriculum design elsewhere, outcomes may be different and linked to differing institutional habituses that influence practice. In addition, this paper reports solely on a single case that has developed a degree course to support the unique needs of its students within a particular context.

Practical implications

The WBL model presented here facilitates student empowerment in tailoring their degree to their interests and career aspirations. It requires effective internal and external partnerships to inform curriculum design and the organization of placements. This paper will therefore be of interest to HE practitioners who are faced with the challenges of providing a broad range of placement opportunities for large and diverse groups of students with differing career aspirations. In addition, it will also be attractive to employers that have strong links with universities and are in the position to influence curriculum design.

Social implications

The focus on employability and the development of key generic skills is interconnected with structures influencing social mobility. The range of students entering HE and the concomitant expectations on their degree to have “value” in the employment “market” on graduation is becoming increasingly important – particularly for students categorized as widening participation. Offering increased opportunities for placements and linking assessment to work-based competencies can therefore be viewed as an integral part of HE's responsibilities to students.

Originality/value

This case study highlights the versatility of WBL that on one hand, requires the academy to embrace alternatives ways of learning, but on the other hand, creates new and innovative ways of engaging students. In addition and critically, it illuminates an approach to embedding WBL into an overarching degree structure that enables students to tailor their degree to their interests and career aspirations.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, vol. 4 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

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Article
Publication date: 20 October 2014

Ruth Brooks and Judie Kay

5012

Abstract

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Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, vol. 4 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

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Article
Publication date: 8 October 2024

Devaki Rau, Luis Flores and Aditya Simha

This study builds on the practice-based view of strategy to examine whether the three most commonly prescribed strategic planning best practices – scanning, communication openness…

89

Abstract

Purpose

This study builds on the practice-based view of strategy to examine whether the three most commonly prescribed strategic planning best practices – scanning, communication openness and participative decision-making – actually strengthen the planning-performance relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses objective performance data and data from a survey of 159 managers from 43 publicly listed US firms to test the hypothesized moderation effects of best practices. The analysis uses hierarchical regression.

Findings

At high levels of planning, firms high in participative decision-making and low in openness and scanning outperform firms low in participation and high in openness and scanning. The results reverse at low levels of planning.

Research limitations/implications

This is a cross-sectional study with a small sample. The response rate was modest; hence, the results should be treated as exploratory. Since the sample is not random, the results may not be generalizable.

Practical implications

While managers may find a best practice label helpful, the best practices implemented within a firm need to fit existing planning processes in order to increase planning effectiveness.

Originality/value

While academic scholarship sometimes struggles with generating actionable prescriptions for improving strategic planning, recommendations by practitioners lack empirical backing. This study builds on the practice-based view of strategy to bridge this gap. These results are consistent with both academic and practitioner literature on strategic planning in finding that the best practices of scanning, openness and participative decision-making strengthen the planning-performance relationship at different planning levels, possibly by underpinning the firm’s dynamic capabilities.

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Management Decision, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

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Article
Publication date: 1 May 1965

THE Manchester School of Librarianship was founded in October 1946, one of the original five schools opened in the autumn of that year. It was attached to the Department of…

70

Abstract

THE Manchester School of Librarianship was founded in October 1946, one of the original five schools opened in the autumn of that year. It was attached to the Department of Industrial Administration in the Manchester College of Science and Technology and was thus something of an exception, as the majority of schools of librarianship were attached to Colleges of Commerce or general Colleges of Further Education. As accommodation was very limited in this rapidly expanding college, the then City Librarian of Manchester, Charles Nowell, kindly offered the use of two rooms in the Central Library, so after a brief period in the College building, the students were moved to the Central Library, though the School remained administratively a part of the College. Many former students must have memories of those two curving rooms, the Manchester Room and the Lancashire Room, with their old‐fashioned school desks.

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New Library World, vol. 67 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Publication date: 8 October 2020

Jeremy D. Mackey, Charn P. McAllister, Liam P. Maher and Gang Wang

Recently, there has been an increase in the number and type of studies in the organizational sciences that examine curvilinear relationships. These studies are important because…

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increase in the number and type of studies in the organizational sciences that examine curvilinear relationships. These studies are important because some relationships have context-specific inflection points that alter their magnitude and/or direction. Although some scholars have utilized basic techniques to make meta-analytic inferences about curvilinear effects with the limited information available about them, there is still a tremendous opportunity to advance our knowledge by utilizing rigorous techniques to meta-analytically examine curvilinear effects. In a recent study, we used a novel meta-analytic approach in an effort to comprehensively examine curvilinear relationships between destructive leadership and followers' workplace outcomes. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an actionable guide for conducting curvilinear meta-analyses by describing the meta-analytic techniques we used in our recent study. Our contributions include a detailed guide for conducting curvilinear meta-analyses, the useful context we provide to facilitate its implementation, and our identification of opportunities for scholars to leverage our technique in future studies to generate nuanced knowledge that can advance their fields.

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Advancing Methodological Thought and Practice
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-079-2

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Article
Publication date: 12 December 2019

Srikanth P.B.

More than a decade of research on abusive leader behaviors suggests a consensus regarding its deleterious effects on employees’ contextual performance. Therefore, research on how…

1020

Abstract

Purpose

More than a decade of research on abusive leader behaviors suggests a consensus regarding its deleterious effects on employees’ contextual performance. Therefore, research on how to cope with abusive leader behaviors is both theoretically and practically important. The purpose of this paper is to examine how individuals’ personality and appropriate coping strategy may jointly help in weakening the negative effects of abusive leader behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

The study examines the relationship between social support coping strategy and agreeableness. Data collected from full-time employees and their reporting managers were used for analyses. Data were analyzed using moderated regression techniques followed by conditional indirect effects testing.

Findings

The study provides supports to the evidence that the relationship between abusive leader behaviors and contextual performance was weaker for employees high in agreeableness. Additionally, the use of social support coping strategy facilitated a negative relationship between abusive leader behaviors and contextual performance. Finally, the moderating effects of agreeableness were mediated by the use of social support coping strategy.

Research limitations/implications

The study contributes to theories of abusive supervision, personality and coping strategies. The results offer insights into the joint roles of personality and the social support coping strategy that may weaken the negative influence of abusive leader behaviors and contextual performance.

Practical implications

Human resource practitioners may benefit from formally institutionalizing social support through mentoring programs and informally through “buddy” programs for newly joined employees, to understand the organization culture and voice their concerns.

Originality/value

While most studies on abusive leader behavior focused on the deleterious effects, this study is one of the few that explores the role of coping strategy while dealing with abusive leader.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 49 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

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Article
Publication date: 3 June 2014

Colin Dale

98

Abstract

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Journal of Intellectual Disabilities and Offending Behaviour, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-8824

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Article
Publication date: 20 July 2020

Tzu-Ting Lin and Yuanhsi Liao

Despite more and more researchers recommend that time-related issues should be considered into the resilience research, temporal issue is still largely neglected in empirical…

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Abstract

Purpose

Despite more and more researchers recommend that time-related issues should be considered into the resilience research, temporal issue is still largely neglected in empirical domain. The purpose of this study is to introduce the concept of future temporal focus, while investigating whether and when leader resilience contributes to subordinates' level of conveyed resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey responses from a two-source field study involving 222 supervisor–subordinate dyads were collected. Regression-based moderation and bootstrapping analyses were adapted to analyze data and test hypotheses by using the PROCESS syntax in SPSS software.

Findings

Results showed that there is no significant effect of leader resilience on subordinate resilience. However, consistent with hypotheses, leader's future temporal focus and resilience had a significant interactive effect on subordinate's resilience. That is, when leaders had higher level of future temporal focus, their resilience would be positively correlated with subordinate resilience.

Practical implications

The findings of the study provide important practical insights into developing relevant training and intervention programs in organizations to cultivate employee resilience. These can also be strengthened by encouraging leaders' future-oriented cognition on work-related domains and leader–member exchange relationship.

Originality/value

Overall, this study introduced temporal focus into resilience theory by providing evidence of its impacts on employee behaviors, and emphasized the important role of future temporal focus of leader.

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 41 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

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Article
Publication date: 7 August 2017

Vicente Roca-Puig and Ana B. Escrig-Tena

A thorough analysis of nonlinear relationships between quality management (QM) and organizational outcomes has largely been ignored in the current empirical QM literature, which…

523

Abstract

Purpose

A thorough analysis of nonlinear relationships between quality management (QM) and organizational outcomes has largely been ignored in the current empirical QM literature, which can have profound theoretical and managerial implications. The existence of nonlinear relationships implies taking a contingent view in that QM practices are more effective depending on their level of implementation in an organization. The purpose of this paper is to focus on this possibility and undertake an in-depth study of the sparse nonlinear relationship suggested by the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors introduce an empirical study carried out on a sample of 168 service firms belonging to sectors experienced in QM and, through polynomial regression analysis, identify the nature of the relationship between QM and financial performance (return on assets).

Findings

The results, by showing an S-shaped curve, support a nonlinear association between these two variables. The presence of this functional form provides a satisfactory solution to the growing debate among researchers who, from a linear perspective, defend the positive effects of QM on organizational outcomes, those who find no significant effect, and still others who claim that QM has a negative effect.

Originality/value

The results show that in organizations with a low level of QM implementation, managers should increase investment in QM, even though this increase will not be correspondingly beneficial in the same proportion. In contrast, in organizations with a high level of QM implementation, managers are advised to reflect on undertaking projects that represent an additional investment in QM, with the aim of finding their optimal level.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 34 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 2004

James E. Sinden, Wayne K. Hoy and Scott R. Sweetland

The construct of enabling school structure is empirically analyzed in this qualitative study of high schools. First, the theoretical underpinning of enabling school structure is…

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Abstract

The construct of enabling school structure is empirically analyzed in this qualitative study of high schools. First, the theoretical underpinning of enabling school structure is developed. Then, six high schools, which were determined to have enabling structures in a large quantitative study of Ohio schools, were analyzed in depth using semi‐structured interviewing techniques. The inquiry fleshes out the specifics of the performance of principals and teachers in such organizations and describes the dynamics of enabling school structures in terms of their formalization, centralization, and functioning. Finally, the research demonstrates a natural and symbiotic relation between quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of schools.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 42 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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