Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the social impact of an initiative (Hockey FIT) aimed at improving the health and well-being of sport fans and their community.

Fans (n=80) participated in 12 weekly health promotion sessions hosted in local hockey club facilities. Objective health measurements, diet and physical activity levels of fans were measured at baseline, 12 weeks and 12 months, to determine the intermediate, long-term, individual and community impact. Furthermore, one-on-one interviews with 28 program participants were conducted to further understand the program’s social impact.

The intermediate impact was noticed as improvements in weight loss, body mass index, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure (BP), steps per day, healthful eating, self-reported overall health and fatty food scores at 12 weeks. The long-term individual impact of Hockey FIT was realized as participants maintained or continued to improve their weight loss, waist circumference, healthful eating, systolic BP and diastolic BP 12 months after the program had been offered. The program was also reported to increase family bonding time and improved the diet, daily physical activity, and general awareness of health promotion programs and components for friends, family members and coworkers.

The positive health-related results from this study contradict prior research that has suggested there is minimal evidence of any substantial contributions from social programs in sport. Through a collective approach to corporate social responsibility, this research demonstrates the ability for sport organizations to contribute to meaningful social change and the positive role that they play within the community.

The Kirton Adaption‐Innovation Inventory was introduced as a survey‐feedback instrument during a team development workshop. The instrument proved easy to apply and interpret. Furthermore, the intervention appeared to provide the participants with a powerful means of dealing with misunderstandings and in‐group conflicts. The instrument deserves further trials by organisational change agents and trainers.

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the “double-jeopardy” in widely adopted women’s leadership development interventions aimed at “fixing” women, explore critical feminist coaching (CFC) perspectives and practices and offer more equitable and just alternatives for developing women leaders.

This paper includes a literature review of post-feminist and critical feminist perspectives and a critical examination of coaching for women leaders from each perspective.

Postfeminist approaches in organizations are little scrutinized because of the dominant postfeminist discourse that women's subordination and oppression have been “resolved” through neoliberal, individualistic interventions, such as postfeminist coaching programs. Infusing the message of “fixing women” through emphasizing “4 C’s” – confidence, control, courage and competition – postfeminist coaching programs have been submitting women leaders to “double jeopardy.” The authors critique this postfeminist coaching paradox from a critical feminist perspective foregrounding “4 R’s” – reflecting, reforming, raising and rebuilding – promising more equitable, just development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe CFC and presentation of a conceptual and practical model of the process. The authors define postfeminist coaching as the disavowal of feminist values and failure to challenge gender hegemony in the coaching process. The authors propose a model of CFC defined as the explicit embrace of feminist values and challenge of gender hegemony in the coaching process. The authors offer alternatives for developing women leaders amid paradoxical, complex, capitalist systems, with a critical lens challenging postfeminism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine women composers’ use of online communities of practice (CoP) to negotiate the traditionally masculine space of music composition while operating outside its hierarchical structures.

The authors employed a mixed methods approach consisting of an online survey (n=225) followed by 27 semi-structured in-depth interviews with female composers to explore the concept and use of CoP. Content analysis was used to analyze the survey responses and interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to interpret respondents’ lived experiences as relayed in the interviews.

The findings reveal that the online environment can be a supportive and safe space for female composers to connect with others and find support, feedback and mentorship, increase their visibility and develop career agency through learning and knowledge acquisition. CoP emerged as an alternative approach to career development for practicing female music workers and as a tool which could circumvent some of the enduring gendered challenges.

The findings suggest that online CoP can have a positive impact on the career development and sustainability of women in male-dominated sectors such as composition.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how a historical event packaged as an iconic heritage cultural brand can be marketized and modified over time to ensure brand longevity and continued emotional commitment and loyalty through the leverage of stories and associations more closely aligned with modern-day audiences. The authors do this through examining the marketization of the New Zealand World War 1 (WWI) nurse to today’s audiences. The periods of study are WWI (1914–1918) and then the modern day. The New Zealand Army Nursing Service (NZANS) during WWI has previously had little attention as a key actor in the Australia and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC), Today ANZAC is held as pivotal in the birth of New Zealand’s perception of nationhood and as an iconic heritage cultural brand. The history and legend of the ANZAC plays an important role in New Zealand culture and is fundamental to the “Anzac Spirit”, a signifier of what it means to be a New Zealander.

A historical case study method is used. The primary source of data is 1914–1918, and includes contemporaneous articles, and personal writings: diaries, letters and published memoirs. More contemporary works form the basis for discussion of marketization as it relates to the NZANS. The article first presents conceptual framing, then the development of the Anzac brand and the history of the NZANS and its role in WWI before turning to discussion on the marketization of this nursing service to today’s audiences and as part of the ANZAC/Anzac brand.

Today the story of the WWI NZANS nurse, previously seldom heard, has been co-opted and is becoming increasingly merged as an integral part of the Anzac story. The history of the NZANS during WWI has a great deal of agency today as part of that story, serving many functions within it and providing a valuable lever for marketization.

To date, there is a scarcity of marketing analysis that examines the marketization of history. By focusing on New Zealand WWI nursing as a contributor to the Anzac story, the authors contribute to the understanding of how marketers package and contemporize history for appeal to audiences through both sustaining and reworking cultural branding.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness of the concept to thinking about Research Data Management (RDM). The concept of “wicked problems” seeks to differentiate very complex, intractable challenges from tamer issues where approaches to problem solving are well-understood.

The paper is based on and co-authored by a collaboration of practitioners from libraries, information technology and research administration, with facilitators from the Sheffield Information School. Participants worked together in two-day-long workshops to understand the wicked problem concept and advice on leadership in wicked problem contexts.

Participants concurred that RDM had many features of a wicked problem and most of Grint’s advice on leadership for wicked problems also resonated. Some elements of the issue were simple; participants were optimistic about improving the situation over time. Participants were resistant to the more negative or fatalistic connotations of the phrase “wicked problem”. Viewing RDM as a wicked problem is an interesting way of looking at it as a challenge for support professionals.

The notion of a wicked problem is a generative concept that can be usefully added to professional vocabulary.

The paper captures an in-depth response from practitioners to the notion of wicked problems as a lens for examining RDM.

As television has grown from the mild diversion it was in the early 1950s to the national obsession it has now become, so our cultural watchdogs have warned us that, amongst other things, it would be instrumental in killing the function of reading. Yet there is evidence that this is by no means true; the burgeoning years of paperbacks have coincided with the boom years of TV, and how much ‘serious’ reading has in fact been stimulated by TV's more cultural offerings? Whatever the truth of the matter, D.H. Noble argues that currently we are witnessing a resurgence in the bookshop business.

This article examines the careers and changing roles of British production and operations managers through three surveys covering the last quarter of the twentieth century. Careers are examined in terms of both their organisational context and the subjective experiences of those who have chosen this field, during a period of great turbulence for manufacturing due to growing global competition. The persistent features of such roles and responsibilities are contrasted with the changes in focus and demands. The managers' sources of satisfaction and frustration are outlined as are their perceptions of their situation in relation to managers in other areas. The article concludes by considering what has changed and what needs to change, in order for manufacturing to gain maximum benefit from the contribution of these managers.

This paper provides a thematic analysis of an IUCN Red-Listed bird, the houbara bustard, which Pakistan uses as a fungible resource to appease its wealthy Arab benefactors.

Thematic analysis of relevant media reports and government ministry and NGO websites comprise the study's data. Media reports were located using Dow Jones' Factiva database.

Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues wealthy Arabs special permits for hunting the houbara bustard as a “soft” foreign diplomacy strategy aimed at propping up the country's fragile economy. Although illegal under international and Pakistan's own wildlife laws, resource dependence theory helps explain how various country-specific issues (e.g. dysfunctional political and judicial systems) enable Pakistan's unlawful exchange of hunting permits for Arab oil and short-term financing. Surrogate accountability and agencement are examined as two means for arresting the bird's trajectory toward extinction.

Media reports comprise the primary data. Pakistani government officials were approached for interviews, but failed to reply. Although unfortunate, the pervasive corruption and mistrust that characterise Pakistan's culture would have likely tainted the responses. For this reason, media reports were always the primary data sought.

The present study extends prior literature by exploring how country context can subvert the transferability of social and political approaches used in developed countries to address environmental accounting issues and challenges. As this study shows, a developing country's economic vulnerability, combined with its dysfunctional political systems, impotent judiciary and feckless regulatory mechanisms, can undermine legislation meant to protect the country's natural environment, in general, and a threatened bird's existence, in particular.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the precarious nature of creative industries (CIs) work in Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, with a focus on job security, initial and on-going training and education, and access to benefits and protection.

The paper reports from a largely qualitative study featuring an in-depth survey answered by 752 creative workers in the three locations.

Survey data identified common themes including an increase in non-standard forms of employment and the persistence of precarious work across the career lifespan; criticism of initial education and training with particular reference to business skills; the need for and challenges of life-long professional learning; and lack of awareness about and access to benefits and protection. Respondents also reported multiple roles across and beyond the CIs.

The presence of common themes suggests avenues for future, targeted creative workforce research and signals the need for change and action by CIs educators, policy makers and representative organizations such as trade unions.

While precarious labour is common across the CIs and has attracted the attention of researchers worldwide, a lack of comparative studies has made it difficult to identify themes or issues that are common across multiple locations.