Jason Scott, Yvonne Birks, Fiona Aspinal and Justin Waring
Keeping individuals safe from harm and exploitation is a clearly articulated goal within both the health and social care sectors. Two key concepts associated with achieving this…
Abstract
Purpose
Keeping individuals safe from harm and exploitation is a clearly articulated goal within both the health and social care sectors. Two key concepts associated with achieving this common aim are safety and safeguarding. The purpose of this paper is to critically appraise the differences in safety terminology used in health and social care, including opportunities and challenges for greater integration of safety systems across health and social care in England.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents the authors’ viewpoint based on personal, professional and research experience.
Findings
In healthcare, safety is usually conceptualised as the management of error, with risk considered on a universal level. In social care, the safeguarding process balances choice and control with individualised approaches to keeping adults safe, but lacks the established reporting pathways to capture safety incidents. Efforts to safely integrate health and social care services are currently constrained by a lack of shared understanding of the concepts of safety and safeguarding without further consideration of how these approaches to keeping people safe can be better aligned. As such, there is a need for a single, unified discourse of patient safety that cuts across the patient safety and safeguarding concepts and their associated frameworks in health and social care settings.
Originality/value
A single unified concept of safety in health and social care could coincide with an integrated approach to the delivery of health and social care, improving the care of patients transitioning between services.
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Ingela Bäckström, Lina Eriksson and Yvonne Lagrosen
The purpose of this paper is to describe health promotion activities accomplished within a project and to measure the conditions for sustainable health within the case…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe health promotion activities accomplished within a project and to measure the conditions for sustainable health within the case organizations. Also, the purpose is to test a previously developed measurement approach, which measures health‐related quality management.
Design/methodology/approach
A health promotion project currently being carried out at eight Swedish elementary schools has been studied. In earlier research a measurement approach was developed to measure health‐related quality management. The approach was handed out to the co‐workers at the eight different schools in the initial stage of the project. The leaders at the schools were informed of the results of their own school and the mean value of all the eight schools. The consistency and reliability of the statements within the approach was tested.
Findings
A description of health promotion activities accomplished and planned within the project can be found. The results from the measurement of the health‐related quality management in the eight schools are presented, together with the mean score of all schools. The test of the measurement approach is presented and discussed.
Originality/value
A description of health promotion activities can help managers and project leaders to plan and carry out valuable health promotion activities in their striving for both sustainable health among the co‐workers and efficient organizations. This measurement approach can help managers and project leaders to measure the effects of the health promotion activities.
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Stefan Lagrosen and Yvonne Lagrosen
This article concerns a study with the purpose of identifying differences in the management of quality between manufacturing, private service and public service organisations. A…
Abstract
This article concerns a study with the purpose of identifying differences in the management of quality between manufacturing, private service and public service organisations. A questionnaire was sent to members of the Swedish Association for Quality. Some interesting differences were identified. Customer orientation is highest in the private service sector and lowest in the public service sector. The manufacturing companies’ usage of ISO 9000 is extremely high and their usage of the Swedish Quality Award is fairly low whereas the public service organisations use both these two models equally. This corresponds with the finding that ISO 9000 produces better results in the manufacturing sector whereas The Swedish Quality Award produces better results in the service sector. Generally, the indication is that quality management is most successful in the manufacturing sector and least successful in the public service sector. There is also a difference in that improvements in the manufacturing sector are more often about the processes whereas the organisations within the public service sector more often report improvements regarding personnel.
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Yvonne Lagrosen and Stefan Lagrosen
The purpose of this paper is to examine gender differences regarding the experience of workplace health and quality management. In this context, we include some factors of work…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine gender differences regarding the experience of workplace health and quality management. In this context, we include some factors of work environment that have previously been shown to be related to health such as workplace learning, stress, flow and sense of coherence.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire based on previous research was constructed. It was delivered to a population of Swedish upper secondary school teachers. Three hundred eleven responses were returned. They were analysed for gender differences with t-tests and chi-square tests.
Findings
The results show that women's experience of their health is worse than men's despite having a generally better experience of the quality management values, workplace learning and flow. Moreover, women experience more stress, and they are more often subjected to sexual harassment while men more frequently had been exposed to physical violence.
Research limitations/implications
The study has implications for research in that it indicates that although women have better experiences of many of the factors that previous research has shown to be related to workplace health, their health is actually worse. A limitation is that the response rate was low.
Practical implications
The findings should be useful for managers attempting to improve the workplace health of their staff. The finding that women report less health than men even though experiencing quality management values more, means that women's health need a particular focus in secondary schools.
Originality/value
The connection between health and quality management has not been previously studied from a gender perspective.
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Yvonne Lagrosen, Ingela Bäckström and Håkan Wiklund
The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measuring health‐related quality management based on earlier research on the connection between quality management and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measuring health‐related quality management based on earlier research on the connection between quality management and employee health.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was developed and a research study was carried out at a manufacturing company. The constructs were tested for internal reliability using Cronbach's alpha tests. The dimensions’ correlations with employee health were checked using Pearson correlation.
Findings
Three of the dimensions were correlated with the perception of employee health: “presence/communication” and “integrity” derived from leadership commitment, and “influence” derived from everybody's participation. These findings substantiate earlier studies indicating a relationship between visible, clear leadership and employee health. They are also in line with earlier findings of how the possibilities to influence their own work promote employee health and work ability. The paper provides a proposal as to how managers can proceed in the measurement and evaluation of quality management efforts related to employee health.
Research limitations/implications
The research is conducted as a single research study in one industrial manufacturing company. Further research should be conducted in other organizations from different lines of business with the same conditions and in organizations with different conditions.
Practical implications
This approach can be used by managers for gaining insight into underlying mechanisms in the organizational culture related to employee health from a quality management perspective. This could lead to improved employee well‐being, satisfaction and motivation. It could be used as a first step for improvements when implementing health‐related quality management “to break the ice” and it could be followed up by qualitative methods.
Originality/value
Traditional ways of measuring health are rarely connected to quality management. Only requiring small resources, this approach to measuring health‐related quality management can add to an understanding of underlying mechanisms.
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Yvonne Lagrosen and Stefan Lagrosen
The purpose of this paper is to shed light upon the connections between quality management, employee health and organisational learning in a school setting.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shed light upon the connections between quality management, employee health and organisational learning in a school setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a quantitative survey. Items measuring health status and values of quality management were included in a questionnaire addressed to teachers in a random sample of 20 schools. The items were checked for reliability with Cronbach's alpha tests and the correlation was measured with Pearson's correlation test.
Findings
The Cronbach's alpha tests showed that the reliability of all the indices measured was sufficient. Moreover, correlations were found between all the indices of quality management values and the health index. This indicates that the health status of the school employees is related to the level of adoption of the quality management values. A framework depicting the findings from an organisational learning perspective is proposed.
Research limitations/implications
The study strengthens the knowledge of the connections between quality management and health. The study was carried out in Sweden and the possibilities for generalising the findings to other countries are not certain. In addition, the relevance of the study for other organisations than schools remains unproven. A discussion regarding the possibilities of generalising the findings is included.
Practical implications
The findings and the proposed framework are helpful for improving school quality and employee health in schools.
Social implications
Improved school quality is important for society as a whole.
Originality/value
Previous research has indicated links between quality management and health in industrial manufacturing. This is the first study to explore this link in the school sector. Furthermore, the connections to organisational learning represent a novel approach.
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The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains…
Abstract
The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.
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Gordon Heggie, Neil McPherson and Yvonne Harkness
This chapter will consider the spatial implications in disrupting hierarchies and shifting identities in the undergraduate environment and explore the extent to which space can…
Abstract
This chapter will consider the spatial implications in disrupting hierarchies and shifting identities in the undergraduate environment and explore the extent to which space can act as an agent of change in this process. Drawing on research and empirical evidence, the chapter explores the link between the re-design of learning and the design of the physical space. As this chapter will illustrate, when the active learner is centrally positioned in the learning spaces of the future, space can support relational and dialogic learning experiences and promote learner agency and reflexive learner engagement in a way that has the potential to become a platform for transformative educational change. As educational spaces are re-conceptualised, recognising a fundamental shift has taken place in how, when and where we learn, it can be argued that space is acting as an ‘agent of change’ facilitating change in pedagogic practice, relationships and methods.
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Naval Bajpai, Gunjan Sharma, Prince Dubey and Kushagra Kulshreshtha
The purpose of this paper is to examine elder abuse (EA) tendency in the context of social integration and caregiver stress (CGS). Afterward, the attempt has been made to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine elder abuse (EA) tendency in the context of social integration and caregiver stress (CGS). Afterward, the attempt has been made to examine the role of mens rea or intention in the incidence of EA.
Design/methodology/approach
For examining the opinion on EA through the perspective of the elderly and caregiver, a questionnaire was developed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Afterward, a z-test was used for analyzing the results obtained from the elderly and caregivers.
Findings
The results showed that in the context of EA, the opinion of caregivers differs from the elderly. This finding was attributed to the theory of ignorance. Based on this, the legal action for every incidence of EA was discouraged by seeking endorsement from the attachment theory especially for the EA incidences arising due to factors such as social isolation or CGS.
Research limitations/implications
This research addresses the presence and non-presence of mens rea or intention in the incidence of EA. Future studies may be conducted by taking a sample from two more developed and developing economies. Moreover, based on the findings the recommended framework can be empirically examined by future researchers.
Practical implications
Understanding the study through the perspective of the caregiver may facilitate the academicians and practitioners in keeping the fabric of relationships stronger among the elderly and caregiver.
Originality/value
Based on the results obtained from the elderly and caregiver, this study proposes a conceptual framework for examining the EA through the lens of mens rea/intention of the caregiver. It is recommended that initiating legal action for every incidence of EA must be discouraged. However, the incidences such as physical abuse (assault), financial abuse, sexual abuse and alike for which the law itself assumes the presence of intention must not be exempted.