While previous research acknowledges the influence of roles on routine dynamics, roles are largely taken for granted. The purpose of this paper aims at examining how roles and…
Abstract
Purpose
While previous research acknowledges the influence of roles on routine dynamics, roles are largely taken for granted. The purpose of this paper aims at examining how roles and routines interplay in accomplishing work in organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
A four-year ethnography of an emergency department (ED) at a university hospital was conducted through observations, interviews and documents.
Findings
Roles and routines are formed by scripted and unscripted patterns, which are brought into performances following a situational assessment. Performances trigger patterning processes prompting the co-construction of role and routine patterns.
Practical implications
This study highlights the importance of designing flexible structures. Managers can benefit from identifying unscripted patterns critical to work performance and making them part of scripted patterns. Managers should contemplate the influence that individuals, their relations and context have on how work is done.
Social implications
This study suggests that the existence of different patterns impacts the length of wait times in EDs, a societal issue worldwide because of the effects that waiting can have on the patient's health condition and the unnecessary costs it carries. This study can help design solutions to decrease wait times.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to research on routine dynamics by providing a more nuanced explanation of the sources of endogenous change and how these enable organizational stability and flexibility.
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The use of organizational ethnography has grown significantly during the past decades. While language is an important component of ethnographic research, the challenges associated…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of organizational ethnography has grown significantly during the past decades. While language is an important component of ethnographic research, the challenges associated with language barriers are rarely discussed in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to open up a discussion on language barriers in organizational ethnography.
Design/methodology/approach
The author draws on her experience as a PhD student doing an organizational ethnography of an emergency department in a country where she initially did not speak the local language.
Findings
The paper examines the author's research process, from access negotiation to presentation of findings, illustrating the language barriers encountered doing an ethnography in parallel to learning the local language in Sweden.
Research limitations/implications
This paper calls for awareness of the influence of the ethnographer's language skills and shows the importance of discussing this in relation to how we teach and learn ethnography, research practice and diversity in academia.
Originality/value
The paper makes three contributions to organizational ethnography. First, it contributes to the insider/outsider debate by nuancing the ethnographer's experience. Second, it answers calls for transparency by presenting a personal ethnographic account. Third, it contributes to developing the methodology by offering tips to deal with language barriers in doing ethnography abroad.
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Previous work has conceptually explored the value of the humanities for tourism education and has considered the pressures that likely serve as barriers to its greater inclusion…
Abstract
Previous work has conceptually explored the value of the humanities for tourism education and has considered the pressures that likely serve as barriers to its greater inclusion in curricula. This chapter moves the debate from the conceptual level to the ground, reporting the results of a survey of tourism educators with regard to the role of the humanities in the programs in which they teach. The study explores the prevalence of the humanities as primary and supporting course content at the undergraduate and graduate levels, sheds light on barriers faculty members identify for incorporating more humanities content into their curricula, and offers examples of creative ways some educators are currently engaging with such content.
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Mattias Jacobsson and Malin Näsholm
Based on the well-known risks associated with deviating from established routines in primary healthcare and the positive consequences of upholding them, the purpose of this study…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the well-known risks associated with deviating from established routines in primary healthcare and the positive consequences of upholding them, the purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the role of meaningfulness in the enactment of organizational routines.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on 24 semi-structured interviews with three different professional categories in primary healthcare in Sweden. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis on a latent level, combined with a two-factor model as sensitizing concepts.
Findings
Differences are identified between factors that reduce meaninglessness (called “sufficiency factors”) and those that enable meaningfulness (called “meaningfulness factors”). Nine sufficiency factors and six meaningfulness factors explain what makes organizational routines perceived as meaningful by the different professional groups. A two-factor matrix is developed that highlights the intricate challenges associated with routine enactment based on these factors.
Originality/value
The study is unique in that it is the first to integrate research on organizational routines and meaningfulness. However, understanding meaningful organizational routines is not only essential because it is an overlooked area in both of these two streams of research but also because of its clear, practical relevance in the primary healthcare setting.
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Lydia A. Beahm and Bryan G. Cook
The research-to-practice gap occurs when practices supported as effective by research are infrequently used in applied settings, such as classrooms. This gap may be due to…
Abstract
The research-to-practice gap occurs when practices supported as effective by research are infrequently used in applied settings, such as classrooms. This gap may be due to teachers preferring to use practices they find to be trustworthy, usable, and accessible. Instead of relying on research, teachers frequently use resources from other teachers, which may be because teachers prefer practices that are supported by evidence developed in applied settings (i.e., practice-based evidence [PBE]). Using PBE to support the application of evidence-based practices (EBPs) may increase the latter's use in classrooms. In this chapter, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both EBPs and PBE and how the two can complement each other to help lessen the research-to-practice gap. We also discuss mixed-methods approaches that can be used to combine EBPs with PBE.
Matthias Fuchs, Peter Fredman and Dimitri Ioannides
This chapter offers an experience-based report about the development of the first Scandinavian PhD program in tourism studies at Mid-Sweden University. This process is documented…
Abstract
This chapter offers an experience-based report about the development of the first Scandinavian PhD program in tourism studies at Mid-Sweden University. This process is documented through a framework which, rather than having the coherence of a single clearly bounded discipline, focuses on tourism as a study area encompassing multiple disciplines. Tourism knowledge is derived through a synthesis of fact-oriented positivist methodologies and critical theory. The theoretical framework employed to develop the graduate program in tourism studies is presented by critically discussing its multidisciplinary base and briefly outlining future veins of further development.
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This chapter presents an innovative learning opportunity for tourism students, International Tourism and Hospitality Academy at Sea, that has been in operation for the last 10…
Abstract
This chapter presents an innovative learning opportunity for tourism students, International Tourism and Hospitality Academy at Sea, that has been in operation for the last 10 years. The program could render itself as a case study of Kolb’s experiential learning theory according to which knowledge is created by transforming experience. Its uniqueness and complexity lie in its diversity. This program has involved between 80 and 130 tourism students yearly from four to six institutions from different countries participating in new scholarly inputs by non-resident professors and instructors.
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Inquiry learning points is based on questions and requires students to work independently to solve problems. Instructors are facilitators of learning, not people who give right…
Abstract
Inquiry learning points is based on questions and requires students to work independently to solve problems. Instructors are facilitators of learning, not people who give right answers and instructions to learners. Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences Porvoo campus in Finland is a new concept for learning. The lecturers have changed from traditional ones to coaches aiming at new competences with new tools to enhance learning. Their own implementation of inquiry learning has been assessed by themselves with an ongoing self-assessment process as a part of the normal tasks of instructional teams. Self-assessment is a part of action research that aims to develop an organization and the work in it.
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This concluding contribution draws together key issues discussed in the various chapters of the book and connects them with future trends for tourism education. It places task in…
Abstract
This concluding contribution draws together key issues discussed in the various chapters of the book and connects them with future trends for tourism education. It places task in the changing world of higher education in general, and discusses changes in knowledge acquisition, ways of learning, knowledge content, and the role of educators in the future. This coverage leads to new learning technologies and their impact on the learning spaces of the future. Finally, the chapter discusses how projected tourism education programs can be designed to address society’s needs at this critical juncture in the history of the mankind. Creating responsible leaders for this global industry is perhaps the most important goal of future tourism education.
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For the islands of the Caribbean, tourism is more than an industry to be managed. Significantly, it is a socioeconomic phenomenon that if managed effectively can address some of…
Abstract
For the islands of the Caribbean, tourism is more than an industry to be managed. Significantly, it is a socioeconomic phenomenon that if managed effectively can address some of the challenges facing the region. Tourism higher education plays a critical role in preparing graduates to shape an improved Caribbean tourism society and in performing research. Over the years, its tourism education has been framed by “Western models” that have not taken sufficient account of the Caribbean reality. The focus of this chapter is to define Caribbean education and to propose a tourism higher education strategy for the implementation in part of this education.