bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Management education: reflective learning on human interaction
Authors: Clydesdale Greg
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to describe an attempt to develop a more effective technique to teach self-awareness and relationship skills.

Design/methodology/approach

A journal is used in combination with a model of human nature. The model lists human characteristics that the management trainee must identify in themselves and others they interact with. Students kept a journal and analysed their interactions in reference to a list of human characteristics.

Findings

Initial plans were disrupted by an earthquake. Analysis in the first journal instalments was limited and students regularly found negative characteristics in colleagues. Feedback was given and the second instalment showed greater quality of analysis. Students regularly found and showed understanding of the characteristics in themselves and others. They also put more thought in to how to manage those traits. The model provided a solution to the problems of marking reflective journals.

Practical implications

A key limitation of this approach is the difference in opinion that may exist between academics as to what characteristics managers should look for in themselves and others. There may be substantial divergence on this.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to management education by suggesting a method for enhancing both relationship skills and self-awareness. Problems in assessing reflection essays and journals can be overcome by grading their knowledge and understanding of the human characteristics.
Authentic leadership for teacher’s academic optimism
Authors: Srivastava Anugamini Priya , Dhar Rajib Lochan
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This study aims to analyse the impact of authentic leadership (AL) on academic optimism (AO) through the mediating role of affective commitment (AC). As this study also examines the moderating role of training comprehensiveness (TC) in strengthening the relation between AC and AO.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from school teachers and their immediate principal and were further analysed through confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis.

Findings

Data analysis provided significant support to the hypotheses presented in the study. AC partially mediated the link between AL and AO, and TC moderated the linkage between AC and AO significantly.

Originality/value

This study provides novel basis to improve the overall functioning of schools and teachers’ performance. It provides ways to improve the overall AO in Indian schools.
Relationship between good governance and integrity system
Authors: Said Jamaliah , Alam Md. Mahmudul , Khalid Maizatul Akmar
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This study aims to measure the relationship between the current practice status of good governance and that of integrity in the public sector of Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected primary data based on a set of questionnaire surveys among heads of 109 departments and agencies under 24 federal ministries, including the Prime Minister Department in Malaysia. The data were analyzed under descriptive statistics, ordinal regression and structural equation model. Furthermore, standard diagnostic tests were also conducted to check the reliability of the data and models.

Findings

Among the factors of good governance, practices of strategic planning, audit and fraud control have statistically significant positive relationship with the practices of integrity in the public sector of Malaysia. Moreover, the practices of strategic alliance and fraud control significantly contribute to determine the integrity practices in the public sector of Malaysia. Therefore, the practices of strategic alliance, strategic planning, audit and fraud control must be given significant attention to improve the integrity system.

Originality/value

This study is an attempt to measure the relationship between the current practice status of good governance and that of integrity in the public sector of Malaysia. The findings of the study will help policymakers improve the reliability and efficiency of the public sector in Malaysia and in other countries.
Re-counting the determinant factors of human development: a review of the literature
Authors: Oladapo Ibrahim Abiodun , Ab Rahman Asmak
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the basic determinant factors of human development using the theory ofMaqasid al Shari’ah(TMS). It also identifies relevant demographic variables that may likely moderate the relationship among the identified factors.

Design/methodology/approach

An in-depth review of the TMS and human capital theory literature was conducted, with a specific attention on their impact to human development.

Findings

The extensive review of the relevant literature shows that human development is not only determined by education, health, income, human rights and social justice but also influenced by some demographic variables like educational attainment and gender composition.

Originality/value

This paper is a novel attempt whereby an extensive review on the factors of human development is conducted using TMS and identifying the narrowness in the existing framework. The paper will help researchers to better their understanding in this context. It will also provide the policymakers with adequate information on the important factors of human development with the aim to chart a comprehensive policy direction.
Heterogeneity in entrepreneurial intent: the role of gender across countries
Authors: Micozzi Alessandra , Lucarelli Caterina
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to improve knowledge of individual heterogeneity in affecting the entrepreneurial attitude, taking socioeconomic drivers under control thanks to a cross-country analysis. The authors operate a “selection” of proxy for individual heterogeneity, mainly based on gender, demographical features, personal attitude and intrinsic motivation.

Design/methodology/approach

This exploration is supported by an empirical analysis based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), for the period 2001-2012, and for a selection of 37 countries. It is expected that gender and further individual variables have an impact on the probability to become a nascent entrepreneur (e.g. age, level of education, self-confidence, social perception of self-employment as career choice). This paper evaluates the degree of consistency of these variables across very dissimilar countries.

Findings

Gender and confidence on own skill play a significant and consistent effect on the entrepreneurial attitude, so these personal features are,per se, the driving-strength of entrepreneurial intent. Conversely, fear of failure and belief on the status are not always statistically significant, or not homogenous in their relationship: socioeconomic or country-specific characteristics are strong and sort out in an unpredictable relationship between these variables and the willingness to run new ventures.

Research limitations/implications

A limited selection of individual features constrained by availability of information from the GEM data set.

Practical implications

The motivation of this paper is to focus-back attention on intra-individual features that may affect entrepreneurship and to support evidence of whether individual heterogeneity is able to affect the entrepreneurial attitude, taking socioeconomic drivers under control.

Social implications

An institutional and political commitment should be intensified to reduce the waste of opportunities that is associated with any forms of self-exclusion from entrepreneurship, such as those based on gender (being women) or (low) self-esteem.

Originality/value

Due to the “individual” perspective, this paper adds to previous studies that exploited the GEM data set because they mostly follow an institutional conceptual framework.
Health planning through Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees
Authors: Kumar Virendra , Mishra Anindya Jayanta , Verma Sonia
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide systematic empirical evidence on the health planning through Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees (VHSNCs) in India.

Design/methodology/approach

– A micro-level study was carried out using qualitative study design. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 105 respondents selected from 42 VHSNC sites. A thematic analytical framework approach was used to analyse the data.

Findings

– The research results indicate that VHSNCs are playing a significant role in health planning. However, the committee meetings are not organised by the committee members on the regular basis. Most of the VHSNC members do not make village health plans. There are some challenges associated with the functioning of VHSNCs like insufficient resources, lack of people’s interest, insignificant attention and the unfair behaviour of thePanchayati Rajleaders.

Practical implications

– The implications of the findings suggest that VHSNCs play a significant role in health planning. However, the leadership is ineffective due to their partial capabilities and approach that generate non-conducive environment. Studies of such nature will be helpful for policy makers in understanding the current situation and micro-level picture of VHSNC and also in analysing it in the existing health system.

Originality/value

– VHSNC functions with a broader concern and cover range of social determinants at the village level. This study provides empirical evidence on the VHSNCs as lowest part of the health system.
Improving health care costing with resource consumption accounting
Authors: Ozyapici Hasan , Tanis Veyis Naci
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences between a traditional costing system (TCS) and resource consumption accounting (RCA) based on a case study carried out in a hospital.

Design/methodology/approach

– A descriptive case study was first carried out to identify the current costing system of the case hospital. An exploratory case study was then conducted to reveal how implementing RCA within the case hospital assigns costs differently to gallbladder surgeries than the current costing system (i.e. a TCS).

Findings

– The study showed that, in contrast to a TCS, RCA considers the unused capacity, which is the difference between the work that can be performed based on current resources and the work that is actually being performed. Therefore, it assigns lower total costs to open and laparoscopic gallbladder surgeries. The study also showed that by separating costs into fixed and variable RCA allows managers to benefit from a pricing strategy based on the difference between the service’s selling price and variable costs incurred in providing that service.

Research limitations/implications

– The limitation of this study is that, because of time constraints, the implementation was performed in the general surgery department only. However, since RCA is an advanced system that has the same application procedures for any department inside in a hospital, managers need only time gaps to implement this system to all parts of the hospital.

Practical implications

– This study concluded that RCA is better than a TCS for use in health care settings that have high overhead costs because it accurately assigns overhead costs to services by considering unused capacities incurred by a hospital. Consequently, this study provides insight into both measuring and managing unused capacities within the health care sector. This study also concluded that RCA helps health care administrators increase their competitive advantage by allowing them to determine the lowest service price.

Originality/value

– Since the literature review found no study comparing RCA with TCS in a real-life health care setting, little is known about differences arising from applying these systems in this context. Thus, the current study fills this gap in the literature by comparing RCA with TCS for both open and laparoscopic gallbladder surgeries.
Empirically testing some factors affecting HMS usage
Authors: Caccia-Bava Maria do Carmo , Guimaraes Valerie C.K. , Guimaraes Tor
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Without use the expected benefits from healthcare management systems (HMS) cannot be derived. Thus, while use alone may not guarantee success, one can safely assume that the more use the better. HMS has been instrumental in facilitating care providers’ work. However, many hospitals have encountered usage problems and some user-related factors have been recognized in the literature as potentially important to make HMS more successful. The purpose of this paper is to test the importance of the factors proposed in the literature as important determinants of HMS usage measured by the number of hours used and the frequency of use.

Design/methodology/approach

– Several user-related variables such as user participation, user expertise, and user training previously studied separately by different authors are brought together into an integrated model to be tested empirically. Data from 213 nurses using their hospital HMS have been used to test proposed relationships between the independent variables and HMS usage results.

Findings

– The results confirm the importance of these factors and provide the basis for managerial recommendations. Hospital managers can use the resources validated by this study to improve their own operations and improve the likelihood of success implementing HMS. Future research projects may identify other possible factors important for HMS implementation success to improve the model proposed here.

Originality/value

– HMS is a very widely used and an important system for hospitals, but has been neglected in research. This is one of the first rigorous studies of HMS, and the results provide new practical insights for hospital administrators.
Assessing the relationship between patient safety culture and EHR strategy
Authors: Ford Eric W. , Silvera Geoffrey A. , Kazley Abby S , Diana Mark L. , Huerta Timothy R
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between hospitals’ electronic health record (EHR) adoption characteristics and their patient safety cultures. The “Meaningful Use” (MU) program is designed to increase hospitals’ adoption of EHR, which will lead to better care quality, reduce medical errors, avoid unnecessary cost, and promote a patient safety culture. To reduce medical errors, hospital leaders have been encouraged to promote safety cultures common to high-reliability organizations. Expecting a positive relationship between EHR adoption and improved patient safety cultures appears sound in theory, but it has yet to be empirically demonstrated.

Design/methodology/approach

– Providers’ perceptions of patient safety culture and counts of patient safety incidents are explored in relationship to hospital EHR adoption patterns. Multi-level modeling is employed to data drawn from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s surveys on patient safety culture (level 1) and the American Hospital Association’s survey and healthcare information technology supplement (level 2).

Findings

– The findings suggest that the early adoption of EHR capabilities hold a negative association to the number of patient safety events reported. However, this relationship was not present in providers’ perceptions of overall patient safety cultures. These mixed results suggest that the understanding of the EHR-patient safety culture relationship needs further research.

Originality/value

– Relating EHR MU and providers’ care quality attitudes is an important leading indicator for improved patient safety cultures. For healthcare facility managers and providers, the ability to effectively quantify the impact of new technologies on efforts to change organizational cultures is important for pinpointing clinical areas for process improvements.
A survey on design and development of an unmanned aerial vehicle (quadcopter)
Authors: B B V L Deepak , Singh Pritpal
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– In the previous decade, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have turned into a subject of enthusiasm for some exploration associations. UAVs are discovering applications in different regions going from military applications to activity reconnaissance. The purpose of this paper is to overview a particular sort of UAV called quadrotor or quadcopter.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper includes the dynamic models of a quadrotor and the distinctive model-reliant and model-autonomous control systems and their correlation.

Findings

– In the present time, focus has moved to outlining autonomous quadrotors. Ultimately, the paper examines the potential applications of quadrotors and their part in multi-operators frameworks.

Originality/value

– This investigation deals with the review on various quadrotors, their applications and motion control strategies.
Online retail returns management
Authors: Bernon Michael , Cullen John , Gorst Jonathan
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– With the rapid growth of consumer sales being fulfilled through omni-channel retailing, the purpose of this paper is to explore the subsequent impact on the levels of consumer retail returns experienced through online sales and the emergent returns management strategies being affected by retailers in relation to network configuration and returns management processes.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors uses a mixed methods approach from an interpretive perspective. It is appropriate to describe the approach in terms of convergent design, since the authors have collected both qualitative and quantitative data.

Findings

– Return rates for online retailing can be double those for stores, while return levels for “considered purchases” remain similar. The findings suggest that omni-channel returns management has yet to fully mature and the authors find challenges for network design and returns processes in offering a seamless solution.

Research limitations/implications

– For practitioners the authors identify a number of challenges and offer insights to improve performance in returns management process, while for academic colleagues the authors propose a number of avenues for further research both in the qualitative and quantitative fields.

Originality/value

– While a significant body of extant literature exists, in researching the generalized retail returns management process this paper make a contribution by addressing the emergent managerial implications of omni-channel retail returns.
Retail logistics in the transition from multi-channel to omni-channel
Authors: Hübner Alexander , Wollenburg Johannes , Holzapfel Andreas
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Online retailing changes all retail systems significantly. The growing importance of online sales requires the creation of new fulfillment models. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how retailers develop from separate multi-channel (MC) to integrated omni-channel (OC) fulfillment. OC retailing has an integrated perspective, with seamless interactions between online and bricks-and-mortar channels.

Design/methodology/approach

– More than 60 internationally active retailers and experts from Germany participated in an exploratory survey. With a response rate of 40 percent the authors achieved the goal to adequately depict the German MC and OC retail market. It is currently the largest empirical study of MC and OC fulfillment.

Findings

– It is the first study to comprehensively analyze the logistical development options open to retailers for integrated fulfillment. The authors discuss the conceptual development options and formulate propositions for an advanced OC fulfillment approach. OC retailers aim to pool their organizational units for fulfillment via different channels. Retailers with multiple channels develop their warehouse systems toward channel-integrated inventory enabling flexible and demand-driven inventory allocation. Retailers with channel-integrated inventory also organize their picking procedures in one common zone. The higher the outlet density, the more it becomes beneficial for retailers to introduce pick-up services.

Research limitations/implications

– The research is based on insights from retailers and experts from companies based in Germany.

Practical implications

– The findings provide an insight into designing OC fulfillment and distribution structures. The concepts themselves, archetypes, challenges and development paths are analyzed. Identified logistics levers can be adjusted to pinpoint the steps required to advance integration.

Originality/value

– The authors contribute by deriving propositions and a framework for transitioning from basic MC to integrated, extended OC logistics. Because this research area is still comparatively young, the authors take a more comprehensive, exploratory view of OC fulfillment.
Crafting an iconic wine: the rise of “cult” Napa
Authors: Taplin Ian M.
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the purposive strategy behind the growth of cult wines in Napa California since the 1980s. By leveraging the growing wine reputation of the region, a small number of new owners used extensive financial resources from other ventures to make a finely crafted, high-priced wine, in small quantities and sold through restricted distribution channels. Their aim was to compete with Bordeaux first-growths and create wine that would evoke the luxury connotations of craft, heritage, reputation and exclusivity. Because they were new, they relied upon experts to rate their wine, thus creating instant legitimacy with high scores and appealing to a small group of wealthy wine enthusiasts, many of whom were insecure in their knowledge of high-quality wines.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured in-depth interviews with a sample of 13 cult winery owners, wine makers and a CEO were utilized in addition to descriptive statistics and secondary historical information drawn from public records.

Findings

Certain Napa producers have created iconic wines through purposeful behavior and extensive resources that are rare and difficult to imitate. Their success is also a function of positive accolades by influential wine critics whose scoring sanctioned their status as a luxury good. High prices and limited availability further manufactured the scarcity element that is crucial to maintaining demand for high-status goods.

Originality/value

This study examines the interface between supply of a product, external validation that legitimized it and a small but significant market of wealthy individuals who created the demand for it. This mosaic behind market creation reveals how successful producers have been in realizing the multidimensionality of luxury goods.
Exploring wine knowledge, aesthetics and ephemerality: clustering consumers
Authors: Hall Daniel
Published: June 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between consumer wine knowledge and the aesthetics and ephemerality of wine consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey of 254 respondents for questions relating to objective wine knowledge and frequency of wine consumption, as well as the aesthetics and ephemerality of wine consumption was conducted. Clustering analysis was used to produce four discrete consumer clusters that provide insight into Berthonet al.’s (2009) aesthetic and ontology (AO) framework for the consumption of luxury wine brands.

Findings

The paper finds that four clusters of wine consumers can be identified that exhibit common characteristics outlined in the AO framework.

Practical implications

By clustering consumers and mapping these clusters, the AO framework provides wine marketers with a useful tool to segment the luxury wine market and to develop and deploy tailored wine marketing strategies to target each segment effectively.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first to investigate the relationship between consumer wine knowledge, aesthetics and ephemerality. It offers luxury wine marketers useful insights into targeting wine consumers according to their common characteristics.
Prototyping, customer involvement, and speed of information dissemination in new product success
Authors: Tih Siohong , Wong Kok-Kee , Lynn Gary S. , Reilly Richard R.
Published: June 2016

Purpose

Rapid prototyping can potentially accelerate the entire process of new product development (NPD), enabling a high level of customer involvement and hence new product success (NPS). This study aims to examine the relationship between prototyping and NPS, and the moderating effect of customer involvement, as well as the influence of speed of information dissemination on customer involvement.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using the survey method through structured questionnaires. The key participants were management and team leaders from technology-based companies.

Findings

The results indicate that prototyping positively correlates with NPS, particularly when customer involvement is high. The speed of information dissemination, both from customers and on competitive products, has a positive impact on customer involvement.

Research limitations/implications

The study was limited by the undefined development stage of the prototype when offered for customer feedback. Future studies could focus on how customer involvement at each stage of prototype development affects NPS through a moderating effect.

Practical implications

The study confirms that investing in prototyping equipment for NPD increases the probability of NPS. Information capturing customers’ views and on competitive products in the market should be shared among the NPD teams. This could encourage better sharing of opinions and perceptions with customers about whether new products meet their wishes and expectations.

Originality/value

This study demonstrates that customer involvement moderates the relationship between prototyping and NPS. The degree of customer involvement depended on the speed of response of the customers themselves and on how well competitive product information was disseminated within the NPD team.
Contractual control, the propensity to trust, active trust development: construction industry
Authors: Lu Shao Kai , Yan Hong
Published: June 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the assumptions concerning how the processes that foster trust are influenced by contractual control and managers’ propensity to trust. More specifically, the paper investigates the extent to which distinct types of trust (i.e. cognition- and affect-based trust) are differentially and interactively associated with contractual control and the propensity to trust.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected survey data on 260 architect–contractor project-based relationships in China.

Findings

The results of this paper show that contractual control and a project manager’s propensity to trust are positively related to the managers’ trust in their partners. However, the interaction of the propensity to trust and contractual control has a negative effect on cognition-based trust. Cognition-based trust, in turn, is linked to the unique and interactive relationships between contractual control, the propensity to trust and affect-based trust.

Research limitations/implications

While this paper adds to the literature on trust and control, future research is needed to fully understand the differences in interpersonal trust across alliances and countries.

Practical implications

These findings provide important implications for firms hoping to facilitate active trust development processes.

Originality/value

More is now known about the trust in inter-organizational settings at the individual level.
Un-rational behaviour? What causes discrepancies between teachers’ attitudes towards evidence use and actual instances of evidence use in schools?
Authors: Brown Chris , Zhang Dell
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Whilst beneficial, the use of evidence to improve teaching and learning in schools is proving difficult to achieve in practice. The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on this issue by examining the applicability of a model of rational behaviour as relates to the notion of evidence-informed practice (EIP). Specifically, exploring the question: “if EIP is rational behavior, why are not all teachers engaged in it?”, the authors examine whether the beliefs and perspectives of teachers in relation to EIP, align with their evidence-use behaviours. The authors then assess what factors prevent teachers/schools from engaging in EIP.

Design/methodology/approach

– To examine beliefs, instances of, and barriers to evidence use, the authors employ a Gradient Boosted Tree predictive model to analyse data from a survey of 696 practitioners in 79 schools.

Findings

– The findings suggest that, should they wish to increase EIP within their schools, school leaders need to: first, promote the vision for evidence-use (i.e. actively encourage its use); second, illustrate how research and evidence can be effectively employed to enhance aspects of teaching and learning; and third, establish effective learning environments, in which learning conversations around the use of evidence, can flourish.

Originality/value

– Using a new, innovative model of rationality, the authors conclude that despite the focus on EIP in many school systems world-wide, evidence use will never be meaningfully realized unless school leaders prioritize EIP as a school commitment. Simultaneously, given the high-stakes accountability environments facing many school systems it is unlikely that prioritization of EIP will occur until EIP forms part of any education system’s accountability regime.
The influence of typologies of school leaders on teacher retention
Authors: Urick Angela
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– While school leadership literature has searched for practices with the largest effect on outcomes, we know little about how these behaviors vary by context. Further, recent shifts to include teachers in leadership have prompted a need for purposeful distinction between teacher and principal perceptions and roles. Person-centered statistics offer a means to study differences in how teachers and principals perceive leadership by context, how these perceptions interact, and the extent to which this interaction influences teacher decisions, such as whether or not to remain at their current school. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study applies a two-level latent class analysis (LCA) with a cross-level interaction to the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS),n=35,560 teachers acrossn=7,310 US public schools. SASS includes a comprehensive set of leadership measures, not found in other surveys, collected when US schools restructured to include teachers in leadership. Multilevel LCA helps to identify different types of teachers and principals in leadership, the distribution of teacher types across principal types and to test the extent that these types predict teacher retention decisions.

Findings

– Teacher and principal types were best defined by the survey items that addressed their own role not the role of the other. The highest and lowest responding teacher types were evenly distributed across principal types. Teacher types who reported the lowest principal-directed leadership were more likely to leave their school regardless of principal type.

Originality/value

– This study provides evidence for how leadership differs across perceptions and context and, in turn, influences teacher retention.
Characteristics of effective leadership networks
Authors: Leithwood Kenneth , Azah Vera Ndifor
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to inquire about the characteristics of effective school leadership networks and the contribution of such networks to the development of individual leaders’ professional capacities.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study used path-analytic techniques with survey data provided by 450 school and district leaders in Ontario to test a path model of effective network characteristics. Variables in the model included network leadership, structure, health, connectivity, outcomes and unintended challenges.

Findings

– Results confirmed that the model was a very good fit with the data, and as a whole, explained 51 percent of the variation in network outcomes. Network leadership had the largest total effect on network outcomes (R2=0.56), followed closely by the effects of network health (R2=0.49) and network connectivity (R2=0.46).

Research limitations/implications

– The study was limited to leadership networks intentionally organized within districts, not networks organized by school leaders themselves or networks arising spontaneously by their members. Results cannot be generalized to other types of networks.

Practical implications

– In addition to a focus on single unit leadership development in districts, systematic initiatives should be designed to help prepare network leaders to foster the forms of collaboration that are so central to professional capacity development.

Originality/value

– Results of the study offer explicit guidance to network leaders about how to improve the contribution of network participation to their colleagues’ capacities; it is one of a very small number studies in educational contexts to provide such guidance.
General practitioners’ decisions about discontinuation of medication: an explorative study
Authors: Nixon Michael Simon , Vendelø Morten Thanning
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how general practitioners’ (GPs) decisions about discontinuation of medication are influenced by their institutional context.

Design/methodology/approach

– In total, 24 GPs were interviewed, three practices were observed and documents were collected. The Gioia methodology was used to analyse data, drawing on a theoretical framework that integrate the sensemaking perspective and institutional theory.

Findings

– Most GPs, who actively consider discontinuation, are reluctant to discontinue medication, because the safest course of action for GPs is to continue prescriptions, rather than discontinue them. The authors conclude that this is in part due to the ambiguity about the appropriateness of discontinuing medication, experienced by the GPs, and in part because the clinical guidelines do not encourage discontinuation of medication, as they offer GPs a weak frame for discontinuation. Three reasons for this are identified: the guidelines provide dominating triggers for prescribing, they provide weak priming for discontinuation as an option, and they underscore a cognitive constraint against discontinuation.

Originality/value

– The analysis offers new insights about decision making when discontinuing medication. It also offers one of the first examinations of how the institutional context embedding GPs influences their decisions about discontinuation. For policymakers interested in the discontinuation of medication, the findings suggest that de-stigmatising discontinuation on an institutional level may be beneficial, allowing GPs to better justify discontinuation in light of the ambiguity they experience.
“Nudge” and the epidemic of missed appointments
Authors: Aggarwal Ajay , Davies Joanna , Sullivan Richard
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Missed appointments constitute a significant problem in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and this remains an area where improvements could yield substantial efficiency savings. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that nudge policies based on behavioural theories may help target interventions to improve patient motivation to attend appointments.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors propose two policies to reduce missed appointments. The first attempts to empower patients through making the appointment system more individualised to them and utilising their intrinsic feelings of social responsibility. The second policy utilises a financial commitment given by the patient at the time of booking. The different mechanisms of influencing patient behaviour are based on two different views of what motivates individuals’ actions. The first policy is based on individuals being “knights”. They are altruistic and have well-intentioned values. The second policy option is constructed on the premise that an individual is governed by self-interest, and they are in fact “knaves”.

Findings

– A policy, which avoids the use of financial penalties is likely to be more culturally acceptable within the NHS. It could also prevent the phenomenon of “crowding out” whereby the desire to act dutifully gets displaced by the motivation to avoid incurring a monetary fine.

Originality/value

– Testing both strategies would provide insight into patient attitudes towards health care and society. This would help optimise behavioural strategies which may influence not only appointment attendances but also have wider implications for encouraging rational health care consumption.
Fit for purpose? Introducing a rational priority setting approach into a community care setting
Authors: Cornelissen Evelyn , Mitton Craig , Davidson Alan , Reid Colin , Hole Rachelle , Visockas Anne-Marie , Smith Neale
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Program budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) is a priority setting approach that assists decision makers with allocating resources. Previous PBMA work establishes its efficacy and indicates that contextual factors complicate priority setting, which can hamper PBMA effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to gain qualitative insight into PBMA effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

– A Canadian case study of PBMA implementation. Data consist of decision-maker interviews pre (n=20), post year-1 (n=12) and post year-2 (n=9) of PBMA to examine perceptions of baseline priority setting practicevis-à-visdesired practice, and perceptions of PBMA usability and acceptability.

Findings

– Fit emerged as a key theme in determining PBMA effectiveness. Fit herein refers to being of suitable quality and form to meet the intended purposes and needs of the end-users, and includes desirability, acceptability, and usability dimensions. Results confirm decision-maker desire for rational approaches like PBMA. However, most participants indicated that the timing of the exercise and the form in which PBMA was applied were not well-suited for this case study. Participant acceptance of and buy-in to PBMA changed during the study: a leadership change, limited organizational commitment, and concerns with organizational capacity were key barriers to PBMA adoption and thereby effectiveness.

Practical implications

– These findings suggest that a potential way-forward includes adding a contextual readiness/capacity assessment stage to PBMA, recognizing organizational complexity, and considering incremental adoption of PBMA’s approach.

Originality/value

– These insights help us to better understand and work with priority setting conditions to advance evidence-informed decision making.
First and foremost, physicians: the clinical versus leadership identities of physician leaders
Authors: Quinn Joann Farrell , Perelli Sheri
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Physicians are commonly promoted into administrative and managerial roles in US hospitals on the basis of clinical expertise and often lack the skills, training or inclination to lead. Several studies have sought to identify factors associated with effective physician leadership, yet we know little about how physician leaders themselves construe their roles. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– Phenomenological interviews were performed with 25 physicians at three organizational levels with physicians affiliated or employed by four hospitals within one health care organization in the USA between August and September 2010. A rigorous comparative methodology of data collection and analysis was employed, including the construction of analytic codes for the data and its categorization based on emergent ideas and themes that are not preconceived and logically deduced hypotheses, which is characteristic of grounded theory.

Findings

– These interviews reveal differences in how part- vs full-time physician leaders understand and value leadership roles vs clinical roles, claim leadership status, and identify as physician leaders on individual, relational and organizational basis.

Research limitations/implications

– Although the physicians in the sample were affiliated with four community hospitals, all of them were part of a single not-for-profit health care system in one geographical locale.

Practical implications

– These findings may be of interest to hospital administrators and boards seeking deeper commitment and higher performance from physician leaders, as well as assist physicians in transitioning into a leadership role.

Social implications

– This work points to a broader and more fundamental need – a modified mindset about the nature and value of physician leadership.

Originality/value

– This study is unique in the exploration of the nature of physician leadership from the perspective of the physician on an individual, peer and organizational level in the creation of their own leadership identity.
Significance of scientific evidence in organizing care processes
Authors: Hasson Henna , Blomberg Staffan , Dunér Anna , Sarvimäki Anneli
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to analyze how staff and managers in health and social care organizations use scientific evidence when making decisions about the organization of care practices.

Design/methodology/approach

– Document analysis and repeated interviews (2008-2010) with staff (n=39) and managers (n=26) in health and social care organizations. The respondents were involved in a randomized controlled study about testing a continuum of care model for older people.

Findings

– Scientific evidence had no practical function in the social care organization, while it was a prioritized source of information in the health care organization. This meant that the decision making regarding care practices was different in these organizations. Social care tended to rely on ad hoc practice-based information and political decisions when organizing care, while health care to some extent also relied in an unreflected manner on the scientific knowledge.

Originality/value

– The study illustrates several difficulties that might occur when managers and staff try to consider scientific evidence when making complicated decisions about care practices.
Patient, co-producer and consumer in one person
Authors: Ewert Benjamin
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Integrated health care lacks a theoretical concept of the user figure that is appropriate to reflect users’ various claims and multi-dimensional interrelations in the care process. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

– Key goals of integrated health care, such as a continuity of care, seamless services and better health outcomes depend strongly on users’ capabilities to engage themselves in the care process. These goals are hardly reachable if integrated health care schemes operate with a one-dimensional understanding of users’ identity.

Findings

– The suggested concept of users’ identity facets suggests that users draw from different sources while receiving integrated health care. Thus, users are patients, co-producers, citizens, consumers and community members in one person and at the same time. Each facet of the user identity gains or loses relevance depending on health care contexts, health statuses, personal values and the design of service arrangements. As demonstrated by the example of disease management programmes (DMPs), care schemes for chronically ill persons, users have to apply different facets of their identities in order to benefit best from service provision. Moreover, addressing users’ identity may facilitate the extent of integration in DMPs.

Originality/value

– Integrated health care schemes are challenged to invent strategies that facilitate and support coherence among users’ diverse identities in the process of service provision. Lessons could be learned from small-scale and localized integrated health care networks.
Open source hardware in libraries: an introduction and overview
Authors: Yuvaraj Mayank , Maurya Ambrish Kumar
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to introduce the concept of open-source hardware to the library professionals and gives a brief of the outlook of its current and potential application in libraries

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on a literature review.

Findings

Open source already aids libraries and has great potential but is hobbled by its intrinsically technical appeal.

Originality/value

The paper makes first observation towards the concept of open-source hardware with a slant towards librarianship.
Hosting an Appy Hour in the library
Authors: Loughmiller Lucas
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to give a detailed description of tablets (specifically iPads) in the author’s school district and the Appy Hours they offered to support instructional use.

Design/methodology/approach

Collaborating with other districts and staff, the author developed Appy Hours to give teachers and librarians a chance to showcase how to use the devices in their schools, classrooms and libraries.

Findings

Offering Appy Hours in the libraries was an easy fit for collaboration and idea sharing. Rotating them between buildings made them more appealing to teachers, and having classroom teachers and librarians present made them more appealing to other staff members.

Originality/value

Appy Hours are not an entirely new concept. The author’s district used them effectively to spread new ideas and concepts through the libraries.
Stakeholders’ interest in sustainability assurance process
Authors: Bepari Md Khokan , Mollik Abu Taher
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to critically analyse the content of the assurance statements of corporate sustainability reports to examine the degree to which assurance statements enhance and uphold organisational transparency and accountability to stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach

This framework of content analysis draws on a research instrument developed by O’Dwyer and Owen (2005), as well as the most recent assurance guidelines (Global Reporting Initiative) and standards AA1000AS, 2008 and ISAE 3000.

Findings

Due to the lack of stakeholders’ engagement in the assurance process, due to the scope limitation placed on the assurance engagement and due to the reluctance of the assuror to address the assurance statements to the stakeholders groups, sustainability assurance practice cannot be considered as the accountability enabler. With persistent focus on internal systems, process, data generation and data capture, assurance practice is serving more as an internal control tool than as a social accounting/auditing instrument.

Research limitations/implications

A single country context is studied. However, to the extent that assurances are conducted using common sets of assurance standards and guidelines, there is external validity of the findings.

Practical implications

Despite the institutional initiatives by the global and local institutions regarding social and environmental sustainability reporting and assurance, the assurance practice has not yet emerged as a tool of social accountability.

Originality/value

This study provides a comprehensive and up-to-date empirical assessment of the degree to which the sustainability assurance practice encompasses the issue of stakeholders’ interests and forms the potential basis for policy implications to the assurance practice and to the assurance standard setting process.