bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Library services for the future: engaging with our customers to determine wants and needs
Authors: Esson Rachel , Stevenson Alison , Gildea Maureen , Roberts Sue 
Published: October 2012

PurposeLike any other customer‐centred organisation, the library has a variety of methods at its disposal to gather information from and about its customers, such as usage data, survey results, focus groups, and face‐to‐face opportunistic encounters. Given that using survey instruments is currently the main way that libraries engage with their customers this paper seeks to look at how librarians can ensure that their surveys are of the best possible quality. It then aims to present two case studies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses successful methods for engaging customers, both online and in person, in conversation with particular reference to new generation learners, and the need to demonstrate to participants that their opinions are heard and have an impact. The paper then discusses two case studies of work undertaken at Victoria University of Wellington Library. In the first case the Library sought student participation and input to Te RōpŪ Whakamanawa, a working group convened to address the needs of Māori and Pasifika academic staff and students. In the second case the Library undertook a larger process of gathering client and stakeholder feedback as part of a wider ranging “Library services for the future” review. The customer engagement was extensive and robust, including 32 focus group sessions with a diverse range of people, and additional online feedback channels for wider university engagement.FindingsThe future‐focussed academic library must be distinguished by the scope and quality of its service programs. To be successful the design and development of those services have to be shaped and informed by the customers.Originality/valueThe paper examines the ways in which academic libraries can seek to understand the expectations of their customers, particularly those in minority groups, in order to be able to plan for the future.
Strategies for integrating information literacy and academic literacy
Authors: MacMillan Margy , MacKenzie Allison 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThe article aims to describe challenges undergraduate students face in using scholarly articles and a workshop on reading designed to address those challenges. It seeks to present a study of senior public relations students' use, attitudes and confidence levels in using scholarly material.Design/methodology/approachFourth‐year students who had participated in a reading workshop in their third year were surveyed before and after a workshop. The survey included qualitative questions on how students used scholarly articles, challenges they faced and strategies for using scholarly articles. A knowledge survey section assessed students' confidence levels in answering questions about a specific article. This section was re‐administered after the workshop.FindingsStudents use articles when they are required by assignments and/or to add authority to arguments. Students find jargon, length and mathematical aspects of articles challenging. They use a variety of strategies including summarizing, highlighting, and discussing articles with others. Some of these strategies correlated with higher knowledge survey scores.Research limitations/implicationsThis was a relatively small study done on senior students in one course, but may be generalizable to students in other disciplines.Practical implicationsThe study provides information on students' use of scholarly articles, and seems to indicate that instruction in techniques for reading has a beneficial effect on student attitudes and confidence levels.Originality/valueThe article provides direction for practice and research in information literacy instruction, expanding it beyond locating scholarly materials to interpreting and using them.
E‐textbooks usage by students at Andrews University
Authors: Marques de Oliveira Silas 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThis study aims at identifying Andrews University's students' perceptions, behavior, use, and attitudes towards e‐textbook and e‐books in general.Design/methodology/approachIn the Fall semester of 2001‐2012, Andrews University's bookstore offered 74 e‐textbooks for purchase. The teachers who had the opportunity of using these e‐textbooks for their classes were asked to distribute two questionnaires to their students: one to those who chose to buy and use the e‐textbook and a slightly different one to those who chose the traditional print textbook. The results were tabulated and compared to the results of similar studies since 2001.FindingsA 65 percent return rate was obtained. Several findings closely replicate results of many studies on this area. For more than a decade, studies show that students prefer the hardcover book over the e‐book for their studies. Lack of awareness, not knowing how to get it, eyestrain, and difficulty of reading are the main culprits for students not using e‐books more often. However, those who use e‐books report they are generally satisfied. Students would like to enjoy fewer restrictions on printing and copying, PDA accessibility, more titles in their area of studies and better e‐book readers. They do not usually read e‐books cover to cover. The library is not their main point of entry or search for e‐books. Students value portability, instant access, light weight and ability to store large amounts of materials.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample population was limited to the classes which had access to an e‐textbook. A broader and more complete understanding could have been obtained if the study included all of the student population. It is not possible to generalize the findings due to the fact that the study was done in a specific academic setting.Practical implicationsUniversities and libraries are highly engaged in this topic at the present moment. Results of studies like this one will provide data useful for collection development policies and the pedagogy adopted by faculty in the classroom.Social implicationsThis is a topic that is of increasing importance in all parts of the world, and is affecting how people and, more specifically, students read and learn. It has the potential of changing reading habits and how students absorb information and knowledge, as well as how they use libraries.Originality/valueE‐books will have a definitive impact in new models of acquiring, accessing, and distributing information materials for and to the academic community. The paper will help the library better understand students' preferences and study habits which will have an impact on decisions regarding types of services it should provide and collection building decisions.
Changing work environments and employee wellbeing: an introduction
Authors: Kalliath Thomas , Kalliath Parveen 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this overview is to provide a brief introduction to the theme of the special issue, the expert commentary, and six papers included in the special issue. The authors conclude by articulating four avenues of future research that are likely to contribute significantly towards building work‐environments in which employees and organizations can flourish.Design/methodology/approachThe International Journal of Manpower's usual double blind review process was used to select the six papers from various parts of the world including Estonia, USA, Australia, Brazil, and Israel that focus on important aspects of the changing work environment and its influence on employee wellbeing. The papers represent a wide variety of research designs, methodologies, and analytic strategies used to investigate the influence of changing work environment on employee wellbeing. An expert commentary provides an overview of current scholarship on changes occurring in the work environment and its impact on employee wellbeing.FindingsThe findings of the studies included in this special issue provide insights into six specific work‐environmental issues influencing employee wellbeing, including workplace bullying; inter‐organizational networks; professional contractor well‐being; inter‐generational differences; commitment and intention to leave; and work‐engagement.Practical implicationsEach article includes practical implications with regard to promotion of employee wellbeing.Originality/valueTaken as a collective, the six papers in this special issue highlight frontier issues in the relationship between changing work environment and employee wellbeing. The expert commentary provides an easy to access summary of the current scholarship in the area and specifies fruitful areas for future research.
Workplace bullying and organizational culture in a post‐transitional country
Authors: Tambur Merle , Vadi Maaja 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThe aim of the study is to explore how organizational culture influences occurrences of workplace bullying in Estonia as a post‐transitional country. Another objective is to produce comprehensive empirical evidence of bullying in the specific cultural context.Design/methodology/approachThe survey is based on the internationally well‐known research instrument, the Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised (NAQ‐R) (Mikkelsen and Einarsen) and the Questionnaire of Organizational Culture (QOC) (Vadi et al.).FindingsVictims of bullying: 22 percent – at least one negative act per week; 9.3 percent – at least two negative acts per week; 0.6 percent – by definition (several times per week or daily); 8 percent – by definition (occasionally). The results reveal a clear negative relationship between bullying and task and relationship orientation of organizational culture.Practical implicationsThe present study indicates clear factors at the organizational level where the preventive actions are needed to diminish the negative impact of bullying on employee's well‐being and encourages a discussion and further studies of workplace bullying in post‐transitional countries.Originality/valueIn Estonia and in other post‐transitional countries workplace bullying has not yet been studied closely. This study provides a comprehensive approach of workplace bullying related to organizational culture in a post‐transitional country.
Professional contractor wellbeing: mutual benefits of organisational support
Authors: McKeown Tui , Cochrane Robyn 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between professional contractor (PC) wellbeing and organisational support as one of mutual benefit for both parties.Design/methodology/approachFour hypotheses were tested via hierarchical regression techniques using survey data gathered from a sample of 375 PCs working in a range of Australian organisations. Content analysis techniques were used to examine PC responses to a related open‐ended question.FindingsThe results demonstrate a positive relationship between self‐efficacy, organisational support, work engagement and knowledge sharing with wellbeing. Adding the PCs’ individualised perspectives provides further insight into the value that PCs bring to an organisation.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to PCs within Australia and examines PCs rather than professionals generally. The authors limit the analysis approach to regression techniques rather than structural equation modelling.Practical implicationsFirst, demonstration of the importance of organisational support to PCs is an important finding for organisations in itself. Second, this finding allows us to suggest specific interventions and guidelines for organisations seeking to efficiently engender contractor engagement and knowledge sharing.Originality/valueThe role of contractor management has become important as organisations increasingly rely on outsourced and contracted work arrangements. The authors consider how organisations and PCs can benefit from organisational practices perceived as being supportive. It is important for both organisations and PCs to be able to identify and develop the key factors which shape the contractual exchange prior to, and throughout, contracted work assignments.
Affective commitment of generational cohorts of Brazilian nurses
Authors: Nelson Silvia A. 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use generational cohort and professionalism theories as the framework to examine the interaction between supervisor‐subordinate relationships, work‐family conflict, discretionary power and affective commitment at the work‐life interface for Northeast Brazilian public sector professional nurses.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative data were collected from 550 public hospital nurses in North‐Eastern Brazil. Path and multivariate analysis were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that the impact of the independent variables on affective commitment was statistically significant but low. The impact of NPM factors such as contracting out and multiple job‐holding was a major influence on affective commitment and work‐life interface across generational cohorts. The analysis revealed significant differences between generational cohorts and suggested that affective commitment may well be enhanced by improving the quality of the work‐life interface and consequently, the wellbeing of nurses.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is confined to the Northeast of Brazil and confined to public sector hospitals. The self‐reporting techniques used in this study to gather information may be open to common method bias.Originality/valueThe contribution of this research includes the provision of new information about the working context of professional nurses in Brazil, which is a fast growing BRICS economy where the issues surrounding the practice of nursing and nurse management are not well studied to date (i.e. NPM impact on nurse environment). North‐eastern Brazilian managers need to be more aware of generational differences and their impact on levels of affective commitment and the quality of the work‐life interface and wellbeing.
The influence of job, team and organizational level resources on employee well‐being, engagement, commitment and extra‐role performance
Authors: Albrecht Simon L. 
Published: October 2012

PurposeWorker well‐being continues to be fundamental to the study of work and a primary consideration for how organizations can achieve competitive advantage and sustainable and ethical work practices (Cartwright and Holmes; Harter, Schmidt and Keyes; Wright and Cropanzano). The science and practice of employee engagement, a key indicator of employee well‐being, continues to evolve with ongoing incremental refinements to existing models and measures. This study aims to elaborate the Job Demands‐Resources model of work engagement (Bakker and Demerouti) by examining how organizational, team and job level factors interrelate to influence engagement and well‐being and downstream outcome variables such as affective commitment and extra‐role behaviour.Design/methodology/approachStructural equations modelling of survey data obtained from 3,437 employees of a large multi‐national mining company was used to test the important direct and indirect influence of organizational focused resources (a culture of fairness and support), team focused resources (team climate) and job level resources (career development, autonomy, supervisor support, and role clarity) on employee well‐being, engagement, extra‐role behaviour and organizational commitment.FindingsThe fit of the proposed measurement and structural models met criterion levels and the structural model accounted for sizable proportions of the variance in engagement/wellbeing (66 percent), extra‐role‐behaviour (52 percent) and commitment (69 percent).Research limitations/implicationsStudy limitations (e.g. cross‐sectional research design) and future opportunities are outlined.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates important extensions to the Job Demands‐Resources model and provides researchers and practitioners with a simple but powerful motivational framework, a suite of measures, and a map of their inter‐relationships which can be used to help understand, develop and manage employee well‐being and engagement and their outcomes.
Influences of culture and market convergence on the international advertising strategies of multinational corporations in North America, Europe and Asia
Authors: Jiang Jing , Wei Ran 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to study creative strategy and execution as opposed to all elements of marketing and advertising standardization. It explores the standardization model (e.g. global, glocal, local, and single case strategy) by examining the international advertising strategies that multinational corporations (MNCs) from North America, Europe, and Asia used in their advertising campaigns targeting two culturally different markets: the United States and China.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of 210 print advertisements compares the extent of standardization in creative strategy and execution across product country of origin (Japan, Korea, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States). Western versus non‐Western cultural cues are also coded and examined.FindingsOverall, MNCs are more likely to adopt the glocal strategy than any other strategies in their international campaigns. Specifically, EU‐based MNCs tend to pursue the global strategy, whereas the North America‐based MNCs seem to favor the glocal strategy and Asia‐based MNCs tend to use local strategy. Western and non‐Western cultural values are found to manifest in the American and Chinese ads similarly, indicating a trend of increasing similarity in international advertising in face of global consumer culture.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this content analysis provide a fuller picture in understanding the long‐standing issues of standardization in international advertising because of an approach to analyze creative strategy separately from execution. However, content analysis is inherently limited in inferring causality between observed patterns and mechanisms/variables that account for the patterns. Also, the time frame for sample selection, which is set as a year prior to the 2008 global financial crisis, is another limitation of the study.Practical implicationsThere is an ongoing trend of using “one‐creative, multiple‐execution” strategy in international advertising. MNCs may distinguish advertising creative strategy from execution when developing their international advertising campaigns.Originality/valueFirst, this study addresses the issue with a clear conceptual definition of standardization and differentiates the strategic and tactic standardization. Second, this is the first attempt to explore the standardization model using a sample of 51 multinational brands from North America, Europe, and Asia. The authors find that MNCs are practicing some standardization advertising strategy, but to varying degrees. Third, this study identifies and empirically tests two external factors – culture and convergence of external markets – that influence standardization.
On the misuse of national culture dimensions
Authors: Brewer Paul , Venaik Sunil 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the ongoing misapplication of the Hofstede and GLOBE national culture dimensions at the individual level of analysis in both research and teaching. It provides suggestions as to how these national level constructs might be used in analysis and the challenges such use presents to researchers.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used by Hofstede and GLOBE in their calculation of national culture dimensions is discussed together with the implications.FindingsThe consequences of the national nature of the Hofstede and GLOBE national culture dimensions are that the dimensions do not exist at the individual level. The paper explains why, in spite of this, the dimensions continue to be misapplied to individuals.Practical implicationsThere are important implications for practitioners. The cultural assumptions often made about individuals in different countries based on the Hofstede and GLOBE dimension scores are invalid. Practitioners should not use national culture dimension scores in individual‐level culture related decision making.Originality/valueThe paper is the first that is focused on the invalid projection of national culture dimensions onto individuals and which highlights the origins and the ongoing nature of this problem.
Resistance to industry technological change in communities of practice
Authors: Schiavone Francesco 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThis paper seeks to contribute to the literature about the resistance to industry technological change in old technology‐based communities of practice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports an explanatory case study in order to achieve this purpose: the resistance to technological change of “hams”, the worldwide community of radio amateurs. The case study integrates primary and secondary data and information.FindingsChange agents are critical actors in order to support the adoption of new technology into the community (but not the substitution of the old technology). These actors, in fact, work on the social and learning conditions affecting the process of diffusion of innovation within the “resisting” community.Originality/valueThe paper sheds light on the ambivalent responses to industry technological change in social systems by applying a specific multi‐level theoretical model of analysis about the limits to the diffusion of innovation within social systems.
Resisting change: organizational decoupling through an identity construction perspective
Authors: Pitsakis Konstantinos , Biniari Marina G. , Kuin Thijs 
Published: October 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a framework that explains how individual organizational members' self‐construction processes motivate them to support or reject decoupling as a form of resistance to institutionally mandated change.Design/methodology/approachMost studies have looked at powerful organizational actors and top management teams that decide to decouple. This paper broadens the understanding through a micro‐level approach that focuses on the role of individual members within organizations. Specifically, it looks at what happens inside organizations after the decision to decouple has been taken.FindingsThis paper identifies three alternative self‐identity construction pathways that members may choose following the decision of an organization to decouple: strong identification with the organization; strong identification with the institutional pressure; and adoption of both organizational and institutional identities. The framework specifies how and under which conditions the way individuals identify and manage identity multiplicity impacts organizational resistance to change.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could test the proposed framework particularly through case studies or qualitative designs that look deep into organizational processes and individual attitudes towards decoupling.Practical implicationsPractitioners, particularly top management teams, can adopt a moderating role in influencing the identification process of their employees. They can also communicate better why efficiency is more important than the mandated changes, and why decoupling must be supported to safeguard the organization's “efficient” identity.Originality/valueThe paper integrates institutional theory's macro‐perspectives with micro‐perspectives of individual members' identity and self‐construction processes within organizations. It contributes to existing institutional accounts of agentic change and resistance to change through a dynamic framework that prescribes individual interests and preferences based on identification processes.