Mark A. Prince, Tiffany Jenzer, Whitney Brown, Eleftherios M. Hetelekides, Rachel A. Mumm and R. Lorraine Collins
Cannabis use among young adults is increasing, despite being associated with several negative consequences. Protective behavioral strategies (PBSs) are a potential mechanism of…
Abstract
Purpose
Cannabis use among young adults is increasing, despite being associated with several negative consequences. Protective behavioral strategies (PBSs) are a potential mechanism of behavior change for reducing substance use, yet PBS use for cannabis is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to further define and measure the PBS construct for cannabis.
Design/methodology/approach
A community sample of cannabis users (n=54) participated in eight focus groups discussing the use of PBSs. Participants completed surveys regarding demographics, cannabis use habits and cannabis problems. The authors also administered an existing measure of cannabis PBS and asked them to generate new or unique protective strategies that they had used or had heard of others using.
Findings
Thematic analysis of qualitative focus group data provided information about cannabis users’ reasons for regulating cannabis use (e.g. health or legal problems, interpersonal) as well as strategies to moderate cannabis use or attenuate their risk for experiencing adverse consequences (e.g. distraction, existential/spiritual strategies). Analyses of quantitative survey data revealed that use of PBSs was negatively correlated with cannabis outcomes. Perceived helpfulness of strategies was an important predictor of decreased cannabis use and adverse consequences.
Research limitations/implications
Findings expand the understanding of the definition and measurement of strategies for regulating cannabis use and reducing related risk of experiencing adverse consequences.
Originality/value
This is the first study to examine cannabis-related PBS using both qualitative and quantitative methods, which provide insights into the definition of PBS and for future refinements of PBS measurement.
Details
Keywords
Shannon E. Finn Connell and Ramkrishnan V. Tenkasi
Organizations facing issues related to growth, innovation, and strategy are embracing design thinking, a problem-solving process. This study explores 40 design thinking…
Abstract
Organizations facing issues related to growth, innovation, and strategy are embracing design thinking, a problem-solving process. This study explores 40 design thinking initiatives and identifies operational practices emerge and empirical categories across various contexts. Quantitative analyses of the initiatives and qualitative interview data are used to distinguish four configurations of action analogous to races: training, emphasizing learning-by-doing; marathons, capturing personal reflection over a long project; relays, highlighting team collaboration; and sprints, reflecting fast-paced product innovation. The initiatives are differentiated as designer-led versus team-driven and, low-urgency versus high-urgency. Implications of practicing design thinking in Organization Development and Change are discussed.
Details
Keywords
Sendil K. Ethiraj and Hart E. Posen
In this paper, we seek to understand how changes in product architecture affect the innovation performance of firms in a complex product ecosystem. The canonical view in the…
Abstract
In this paper, we seek to understand how changes in product architecture affect the innovation performance of firms in a complex product ecosystem. The canonical view in the literature is that changes in the technological dependencies between components, which define a product’s architecture, undermine the innovation efforts of incumbent firms because their product development efforts are built around existing architectures. We extend this prevailing view in arguing that component dependencies and changes in them affect firm innovation efforts via two principal mechanisms. First, component dependencies expand or constrain the choice set of firm component innovation efforts. From the perspective of any one component in a complex product (which we label the focal component), an increase in the flow of design information to the focal component from other (non-focal) components simultaneously increases the constraint on focal component firms in their choice of profitable R&D projects while decreasing the constraint on non-focal component firms. Second, asymmetries in component dependencies can confer disproportionate influence on some component firms in setting and dictating the trajectory of progress in the overall system. Increases in such asymmetric influence allow component firms to expand their innovation output. Using historical patenting data in the personal computer ecosystem, we develop fine-grained measures of interdependence between component technologies and changes in them over time. We find strong support for the empirical implications of our theory.
Details
Keywords
N. Kathiravan, S.R. Devadasan and M. Muhammed Zakkeer
To design a quality improvement oriented training and education programme (Q_TEPS) for a company manufacturing milk products and to explore its performance using a financial…
Abstract
Purpose
To design a quality improvement oriented training and education programme (Q_TEPS) for a company manufacturing milk products and to explore its performance using a financial accounting system.
Design/methodology/approach
A company manufacturing milk products was visited and the processes were studied. The literature on Q_TEPS was referred to design Q_TEPS unique to the milk product manufacturing company. The feasibility of implementing Q_TEPS in the company was checked by interviewing the executives. A financial accounting system was used to evolve the income and expenditure account and the balance sheet pertaining to Q_TEPS in the company. The feedback collected using questionnaires was used to establish the validity of Q_TEPS and their financial accounting system in the company.
Findings
The implementation of Q_TEPS in the milk manufacturing company would enable the company to reap a considerable number of tangible and intangible benefits.
Research limitations/implications
It being a government run company, test implementing Q_TEPS was not possible. The income and expenditure account and balance sheet were developed by projecting the performance of Q_TEPS in the company. However, this exercise was done with the consultation of the executives in the company and hence the values projected in the above statements may not deviate considerably from the real time performance of Q_TEPS.
Practical implications
The feedback on Q_TEPS and their financial accounting system led to an impression that they can be implemented in practice. However, in order to enable this, the business procedures must be made simple, flexible and friendly to experiment such research programmes in the future.
Originality/value
The literature review indicates that no work has been done on implementing Q_TEPS in a milk product producing company. Also, it is discernable that the performance of Q_TEPS has not been viewed using financial values. The contribution of this paper would lead to the attainment of these research and practical imperatives.
Details
Keywords
Recently, practitioner literature in English education has taken up the issue of writing-related shame in classrooms, calling for teachers to help students develop resilience. One…
Abstract
Purpose
Recently, practitioner literature in English education has taken up the issue of writing-related shame in classrooms, calling for teachers to help students develop resilience. One possible approach for nurturing shame resilience around writing is dialogic collaging: students make and dialogically engage with collages and with colleagues to explore the self-as-writer and to connect with others around writing struggles and joys. The purpose of this paper is to share and critically reflect on this pedagogical approach.
Design/methodology/approach
To share, interpret and consider the limitations and implications of the dialogic collaging pedagogy in service of writing-related shame resilience, the authors offer a multi-voiced narrative about one classroom instantiation of college, from the perspective of a university writing teacher and a student of writing.
Findings
On the interpretation, this story unfolds three central themes as follows: dialogic collaging can help students to develop a more realistic and situated sense of self-as-writer. That is, students can come to appreciate how “becoming a writer” is a process they – and others around them – are already in, rather than an unreachable achievement at which they will inevitably fail. The stance of playfulness nurtured through the dialogic collage process can provide a helpful distance between self and writing. These processes may – under certain conditions – support shame resilience.
Research limitations/implications
The conclusion reflects on whether more explicit attention to shame could be fruitful and on the dynamics of teacher vulnerability in writing classrooms.
Practical implications
The authors hope to inspire writing teachers – particularly in secondary, post-secondary and adult education – to engage with dialogic collaging as part of their pedagogical repertoires.
Originality/value
Dialogic collaging is a pedagogical approach not previously discussed in the literature on secondary and post-secondary writing instruction, offering one promising way to address writing-related shame. It can make visible and build solidarity around how others are also in the midst of a process of becoming – as writers and/or with writing. This appreciation can help nurture a more realistic, playful and shame-resilient stance toward self-as-writer.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to examine participants’ perspectives in organization-sponsored training and provides support for further research positioning the trainer as an organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine participants’ perspectives in organization-sponsored training and provides support for further research positioning the trainer as an organizational leader.
Design/methodology/approach
The interactions described in the trainees’ experiences were examined through a social constructivist lens. Interviews were conducted to collect data. Narratives were analyzed to reach interpretation.
Findings
Interview results identified four themes, namely, relevance and applicability of training received, the formation of attitudes and preferences among the trainee participants, immediacy in the use of the training received and relational and organizational influence that furthers leader-member exchange in the workplace.
Research limitations/implications
This study examined participants’ perspectives in workplace training and provides support for further research: examining communication’s role in workplace learning; exploring the training process; and positioning the trainer as an organizational leader.
Practical implications
This study provides empirical data to support changes in instructional communication models and exploring the process of training. Trainers’ relational building with trainees could impact many outcomes in their training efforts that are detailed in this study.
Originality/value
This study uses a collection of methods to address the trainees’ experience in formal workplace learning. It demonstrates the power of trainers to influence what the trainees think of training content, format and relational learning.
Details
Keywords
Mohammad Jashim Uddin, Yasuo Nasu, Kazuhisa Mitobe and Kou Yamada
Presents the manipulation methods of a low powered direct‐drive robot‐arm for heavy object manipulation using a suspension device. Considers manipulation of a suspended tool in…
Abstract
Presents the manipulation methods of a low powered direct‐drive robot‐arm for heavy object manipulation using a suspension device. Considers manipulation of a suspended tool in the horizontal plane. Presents the algorithm of the hybrid position/force tracking scheme with respect to the dynamic behavior of suspended tools in the horizontal plane. To manipulate the suspended robot‐arm vertically, the hybrid position/force dynamic model has been developed by considering the gravity compensation of the spring balancer. In order to show the possible industrial applications chamfering operations have been carried out. Simulations and experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed systems.
We investigate the effects of technological capabilities on firms’ survival chances during market-fusing technological change. Our context is the matured U.S. machine tool…
Abstract
We investigate the effects of technological capabilities on firms’ survival chances during market-fusing technological change. Our context is the matured U.S. machine tool industry. During the period of our study, 1975 through 1995, a drastic shift in demand conditions prompted the buyers of machine tools to demand more versatile products to improve their productivity. The advent of microprocessors enabled manufacturers to meet these demands by combining the functions of previously distinctive products. As a result, market segments fused and machine tool manufacturers in once disparate product categories came into direct competition with one another. We propose that incumbents with broader component and architectural capabilities will be better able to adapt to and hence survive market-fusing technological change. Our results, based on a panel data set of U.S. machine tool incumbents, support the value of broad component capabilities but reveal no adaptive advantage of architectural capabilities.
There is a growing academic interest in the examination and exploration of work intensification in a wide range of healthcare settings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a growing academic interest in the examination and exploration of work intensification in a wide range of healthcare settings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the differing staff perceptions in emergency ambulance services in the UK. It provides evidence on the challenges for the paramedic professionalisation agenda and managing operational demands and work intensity in emotionally challenging circumstances, with significant implications for patient safety.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the evidence from an empirical study in a large National Health Service ambulance trust in England, this paper examines the challenges and differing staff perceptions of the changing scope and practice of ambulance personnel in the UK. Amidst the progress on the professionalisation of the paramedic agenda, individual trusts are facing challenges in form of staff attitudes towards meeting performance targets, coupled with rising demand, fear of loss of contracts and private competition.
Findings
Research findings highlight differing perceptions from various sub-cultural groups and lack of clarity over the core values which are reinforced by cultural and management differences. Need for greater management to explore the relationship between high sickness levels and implications for patient safety including the need for policy and research attention follows from this study. The implications of work intensity on gender equality within the ambulance settings are also discussed.
Research limitations/implications
Ambulance services around the world are witnessing a strain on their operational budgets with increasing demand for their services. Study evidence support inconclusive evidence for patent safety despite the growing specialist paramedic roles. Organisational implications of high staff sickness rates have been largely overlooked in the management literature. This study makes an original contribution while building upon the earlier conceptions of work intensification.
Practical implications
The study findings have significant implications for the ambulance services for better understanding of the staff perceptions on work intensity and implications for patient safety, high sickness absence rates amidst increasing ambulance demand. Study findings will help prepare the organisational policies and design appropriate response.
Social implications
Societal understanding about the organisational implications of the work intensity in an important emergency response service will encourage further debate and discussion.
Originality/value
This study makes an original contribution by providing insights into the intra-organisational dynamics in an unusual organisational setting of the emergency ambulance services. Study findings have implications for further research inquiry into staff illness, patient safety and gender issues in ambulance services. Evidence cited in the paper has further relevance to ambulance services globally.