Search results

This research explores perceptions of knowledge management processes held by managers and employees in a service industry. To date, empirical research on knowledge management in the service industry is sparse. This research seeks to examine absorptive capacity and its four capabilities of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation and their impact on effective knowledge management. All of these capabilities are strategies that enable external knowledge to be recognized, imported and integrated into, and further developed within the organization effectively. The research tests the relationships between absorptive capacity and effective knowledge management through analysis of quantitative data (n = 549) drawn from managers and employees in 35 residential aged care organizations in Western Australia. Responses were analysed using Partial Least Square-based Structural Equation Modelling. Additional analysis was conducted to assess if the job role (of manager or employee) and three industry context variables of profit motive, size of business and length of time the organization has been in business, impacted on the hypothesized relationships.

Structural model analysis examines the relationships between variables as hypothesized in the research framework. Analysis found that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities correlated significantly with effective knowledge management, with absorptive capacity explaining 56% of the total variability for effective knowledge management. Findings from this research also show that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities provide a useful framework for examining knowledge management in the service industry. Additionally, there were no significant differences in the perceptions held between managers and employees, nor between respondents in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Furthermore, the size of the organization and length of time the organization has been in business did not impact on absorptive capacity, the four capabilities and effective knowledge management.

The research considers implications for business in light of these findings. The role of managers in providing leadership across the knowledge management process was confirmed, as well as the importance of guiding routines and knowledge sharing throughout the organization. Further, the results indicate that within the participating organizations there are discernible differences in the way that some organizations manage their knowledge, compared to others. To achieve effective knowledge management, managers need to provide a supportive workplace culture, facilitate strong employee relationships, encourage employees to seek out new knowledge, continually engage in two-way communication with employees and provide up-to-date policies and procedures that guide employees in doing their work. The implementation of knowledge management strategies has also been shown in this research to enhance the delivery and quality of residential aged care.

Family as a domestic group is seen to be crucial for the production and replenishment of human capital from generation to generation. With the consequences of demographic aging process, there is a rethinking into the structure and function of the institution for critically analyzing the contemporary challenges. In India, graying of the population became one among the major reason for scholars to pay more attention to interpret family attributes. Women’s social status, autonomy, and entitlements had marked serious shifts according to subsequent changes that happened. Using mixed methodology, aged women from Hindu families in India were studied. An examination of the existing structure, functions, social duties, and responsibilities in Hindu families, sociocultural constructions of identities within the sphere of family, and the impacts of age identities in determining the health-related quality of life and subjective well-being of aged women were the objectives of the study. While Bourdieu’s concept of habitus was used as a theoretical basis for the study, the researcher gives prepositions for sociocultural constructions of age identities through the concepts of Reverse Metamorphosis and Identity Cocoons. The study reveals that the self and social identity constructs explain interactive behavior as well as the interplay of personal meanings, family dynamics, and informal factors across the life span under the sociocultural underpinnings in a multicultural society like India.

How people spend their time is an indicator of how they live their lives, with time use over the life course conditioned both by age and by participation in age-graded institutions. This chapter uses nationally representative data from the pooled 2008–2020 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to evaluate how time use in 12 activity categories varies by age, gender, and disability status among 137,266 respondents aged 15 and older. By doing so, we quantify the “disability gap” in time use between men and women with and without disabilities, identifying at what age and by how much people with disabilities experience time differentials in activities of daily living (ADLs), instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), and other indicators of social participation. Results indicate that – at many ages – patterns of time use for people with disabilities deviate from those of people without disabilities, with more pronounced differences in midlife. Further, the magnitude of women's disability gaps equals or exceeds men's for sleeping, and nearly all ADLs and IADLs, indicating that disability gaps are also gendered.

Care for the elderly is the most pressing problem now facing Japan. For maintaining a long and healthy life, it is important to refine the self-care of people and to create a well-balanced system of support involving health care, welfare, nursing care, and medical treatment. Mutual support within each local community is also indispensable for restructuring care-minding areas. Due attention should also be paid to the ethical aspects concerning care of the elderly. This chapter attempts to reflect on the brief history of the care for the elderly in Japan.

To describe, analyze, and compare two long-term care (LTC) systems for elders in Germany and Israel.

Secondary analyses of data on LTC beneficiaries, structure of service provision and content analyses of policy documents in a comparative perspective based on the Esping-Andersen welfare state typologies.

Descriptive background of demographic attributes in the two countries; discussion of LTC development laws which in Israel focuses on “aging in place” concept, where in-kind services are geared only to community-dwelling frail elders while in Germany it’s for community and institutionalized elders. Analyses of various service types provided their use, resources invested, and benefits incurred for frail elders and their family caregivers.

The advantages and shortcomings of the two systems were analyzed with recommendations for future developments. Such comparisons across nations can inform social policy debates in Germany and Israel as to how to prepare for population aging. The originality of such comparison can shed light on issues for LTC service development in other countries.

The challenge of an ageing population is a major concern to policymakers and researchers all over the world. As evident in Figure 1, the percentage of people aged 60 and above will increase substantially between 2000 and 2050 in all parts of the world. Europe has the highest proportion; only Japan has a similar age structure. The already high proportion of older people in Europe is expected to rise to an even higher level by 2050, from currently 19 percent to an estimated 34 percent.