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Article
Publication date: 14 June 2022

Alana Hoare, Catharine Dishke Hondzel and Shannon Wagner

Higher education institutions are required to evaluate program quality through cyclical program review processes. Despite often being considered the “gold standard” of academic…

Abstract

Purpose

Higher education institutions are required to evaluate program quality through cyclical program review processes. Despite often being considered the “gold standard” of academic review, there persists dissatisfaction with the lack of integration of program review findings into other planning processes, such as budgeting, assessment and strategic planning. As a result, the notion of program review action plans “collecting dust on the shelf” is so ubiquitous that the concept is normalized as an expected outcome. The purpose of this paper is to describe a conceptual model whereby teams of faculty members receive education and training from quality assurance practitioners and educational developers, access to institutional resources, opportunities for cross-departmental collaborations and collective advocacy to increase the capacity of faculty members to implement improvement goals resulting from program reviews.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors theorize that a professional learning community is a meaningful approach to program review and present a conceptual model – the Academic Program Review Learning Community (PRLC) – as an antidote to hierarchical, fragmented, compliance-oriented processes. The authors suggest that the PRLC offers a reliable institutional framework for learning through formalized structures and nested support services, including peer learning and external coaching, which can enhance the catalytic capacity of reviews.

Findings

The authors argue that postsecondary institutions should create formal structures for incorporating learning communities because, without a reliable infrastructure for collective learning, decision-making may be fragmented oridiosyncratic because of shifting demands, priorities or disconnected faculty.

Originality/value

A learning community model for program review fits well with a new way to think about program review because faculty are most engaged when they feel ownership over the process. Furthermore, few models exist for conducting program review; as a result, chairs and academics often struggle to conduct reviews without a coherent framework to draw upon.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 January 2024

Alana Vandebeek, Wim Voordeckers, Jolien Huybrechts and Frank Lambrechts

The purpose of this study is to examine how informational faultlines on a board affect the management of knowledge owned by directors and the consequences on organizational…

1294

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how informational faultlines on a board affect the management of knowledge owned by directors and the consequences on organizational performance. In this study, informational faultlines are defined as hypothetical lines that divide a group into relatively homogeneous subgroups based on the alignment of several informational attributes among board members.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses unique hand-collected panel data covering 7,247 board members at 106 publicly traded firms to provide strong support for the hypothesized U-shaped relationship. The authors use a fixed effects approach and a system generalized method of moments approach to test the hypothesis.

Findings

The study finds that the relationship between informational faultlines on a board and organizational performance is U shaped, with the least optimal organizational performance experienced when boards have moderate informational faultlines. More specifically, informational faultlines within boards are negatively related to organizational performance across the weak-to-moderate range of informational faultlines and positively related to organizational performance across the moderate-to-strong range.

Research limitations/implications

By explaining the mechanisms through which informational faultlines are related to organizational performance, the authors contribute to the literature in a number of ways. By conceptualizing how the management of knowledge plays an important role in the particular setting of corporate boards, the authors add not only to literature on knowledge management but also to the faultline and corporate governance literature.

Originality/value

This study offers a rationale for prior mixed findings by providing an alternative theoretical basis to explain the effect of informational faultlines within boards on organizational performance. To advance the field, the authors build on the concept of knowledge demonstrability to illuminate how informational faultlines affect the management of knowledge within boards, which will translate to organizational performance.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 28 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 October 2023

Ashley Wilkinson, Khater Muhajir, Patricia Bailey-Brown, Alana Jones and Rebecca Schiff

Due to ongoing inequities in the social determinants of health and systemic barriers, homelessness continues to be a significant concern that disproportionately impacts racialized…

Abstract

Purpose

Due to ongoing inequities in the social determinants of health and systemic barriers, homelessness continues to be a significant concern that disproportionately impacts racialized communities. Despite constituting a small proportion of the population, Black individuals are over-represented among people experiencing homelessness in many Canadian cities. However, although Black homelessness in Canada is a pressing issue, it has received limited attention in the academic literature. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reported prevalence of Black homelessness across Canada.

Design/methodology/approach

By consulting enumerations from 61 designated communities that participated in the 2018 Nationally Coordinated Point-in-Time Count and two regional repositories – one for homeless counts supported by the government of British Columbia and another from the Rural Development Network – this paper reports on the scale and scope of Black homelessness across Canada.

Findings

Significantly, these reports demonstrate that Black people are over-represented among those experiencing homelessness compared to local and national populations. These enumerations also demonstrate significant gaps in the reporting of Black homelessness and inadequate nuance in data collection methods, which limit the ability of respondents to describe their identity beyond “Black.”

Originality/value

This research provides an unprecedented examination of Black homelessness across Canada and concludes with recommendations to expand knowledge on this important and under-researched issue, provide suggestions for future iterations of homeless enumerations and facilitate the development of inclusive housing policy.

Details

Housing, Care and Support, vol. 26 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-8790

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 November 2016

Guglielmo Maria Caporale, Luis Alberiko Gil-Alana and Alex Plastun

The purpose of this paper is to provide some new empirical evidence on the weekend effect (one of the best known anomalies in financial markets) in Ukrainian futures prices. The…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide some new empirical evidence on the weekend effect (one of the best known anomalies in financial markets) in Ukrainian futures prices. The analysis uses various statistical techniques.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis uses various statistical techniques (average analysis, Student’s t-test, dummy variables, and fractional integration) to test for the presence of this anomaly, and then a trading simulation approach to establish whether it can be exploited to make extra profits.

Findings

The statistical evidence points to abnormal positive returns on Fridays, and a trading strategy based on this anomaly is shown to generate annual profits of up to 25 per cent. The implication is that the Ukrainian stock market is inefficient.

Originality/value

This paper provides some new empirical evidence on the weekend effect (one of the best known anomalies in financial markets) in Ukrainian futures prices. The analysis uses various statistical techniques (average analysis, Student’s t-test, dummy variables, and fractional integration) to test for the presence of this anomaly, and then a trading simulation approach to establish whether it can be exploited to make extra profits. The statistical evidence points to abnormal positive returns on Fridays, and a trading strategy based on this anomaly is shown to generate annual profits of up to 25 per cent. The implication is that the Ukrainian stock market is inefficient.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 43 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 September 2015

Ioannis A Venetis and Paraskevi K Salamaliki

The purpose of this paper is to examine the time series behavior of Greek labor market series by providing an empirical perspective on trend breaks and unit roots. Trend breaks…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the time series behavior of Greek labor market series by providing an empirical perspective on trend breaks and unit roots. Trend breaks represent aggregate behavior responses to “infrequent” changes in economic fundamentals, including changes in fiscal or labor market conditions, as have been perceived in Greece during the last years. Unit roots reveal whether “regular” shocks have significant effects on the level of the series over a specified finite horizon.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employ recent procedures that deal with the “circular testing problem” between tests on the parameters of the trend function and unit root tests that often arises in empirical applications. These techniques assess trend function stability and are robust regardless of whether the noise component is stationary or having a unit root. Then, conditional on the presence of breaks, the authors test whether the series can be characterized by a stochastic trend.

Findings

The analysis provides evidence of “infrequent” trend breaks that appear to coincide with the recent global economic crisis and the implementation of the counteraction (fiscal) measures to the Greek debt crisis. Allowing for trend breaks does not lead to a rejection of the unit root hypothesis, which might reflect the low flexibility of the country’s labor market operation.

Practical implications

The procedures employed can be viewed as new tools that might help empirical researchers to explore more accurately the characteristics of individual time series and to find reasonable approximations to the true processes of the time series examined.

Originality/value

The paper provides new information on the presence of structural changes in the Greek labor market, and on whether the “aggressive” and “occasional” nature of fiscal measures can be approximated by infrequent changes in the slope of the trend function.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 42 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 December 2023

Veli Yılancı, Mustafa Kırca, Şeri̇f Canbay and Muhlis Selman Sağlam

This study aims to test the unemployment hysteresis hypothesis for Nordic countries by considering age and gender differentials at various frequencies.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to test the unemployment hysteresis hypothesis for Nordic countries by considering age and gender differentials at various frequencies.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the authors test the linearity of the unemployment series and apply appropriate unit root tests based on the linearity test results. The authors use these tests for both original and wavelet-decomposed unemployment rates.

Findings

The authors' findings indicate that the results obtained from the original and decomposed series differ. While the authors find evidence of unemployment hysteresis in the six unemployment rates in the short run, they observe supportive results for hysteresis in the three unemployment rates in the long run.

Originality/value

The authors take into account different age and gender groups. Furthermore, the authors propose a testing strategy for unemployment hysteresis that considers the nonlinearity and structural breaks in unemployment rates. Finally, the authors determine whether the unemployment hysteresis is valid at various frequencies.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 45 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 March 2019

Muhammad Bilal, Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera and Dzuljastri Abdul Razak

This study aims to examine the issues and challenges in contemporary affordable public housing schemes and proposes an alternative affordable public housing model for low- and…

5687

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the issues and challenges in contemporary affordable public housing schemes and proposes an alternative affordable public housing model for low- and middle-income households in Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper applied qualitative research method. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with four government officials were conducted to understand the provision, framework and working mechanism of selected affordable public housing schemes. A focus group with nine participants was conducted with low- and middle-income households to validate pertaining residential issues and problems in affordable public housing schemes.

Findings

The overall findings reveal that the growing plights of unaffordability, poor maintenance and mismanagement have undermined the performance of affordable public housing schemes in Malaysia. The paper indicates that Islamic Public–Private Housing Co-operative Model (IPHCM) possibly has a comparative advantage in its design and operation and therefore can be implemented as an alternative model to address these issues in contemporary affordable public housing schemes in Malaysia. The findings also offer guidelines to government officials and managers of public housing schemes to implement the IPHCM model that can help in reducing the financial burden on low- and middle-income households, improving maintenance work and enforcing effective management practices with residents’ participation.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is limited to develop a new Shariah-compliant affordable public housing model. The paper presents a design and defines the underlying Shariah concept and contracts and their working mechanisms in the proposed model. The paper has not considered other related areas in the development of IPHCM model including Shariah and subject matter expert’s perspective, consumer behavioural intention, legal and regulatory requirements.

Originality/value

The paper has relevance for policymakers and government institutions offering affordable public housing schemes to ensure successful deliverability of sustainable and affordable public housing for low- and middle-income households in Malaysia.

Details

International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, vol. 12 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 May 2014

Heather M.L. Wallace, Kristine F. Hoover and Molly B. Pepper

Responses to diversity management have resulted in disappointment to many organizations (Cox, 2001). Previous work has situated rational for diversity in deontological ethics by…

3369

Abstract

Purpose

Responses to diversity management have resulted in disappointment to many organizations (Cox, 2001). Previous work has situated rational for diversity in deontological ethics by equality scholars, while the business case for diversity has commonly rested on utilitarian ethics (van Dijk et al., 2012). The purpose of this paper is to examine a possible shift in rational for diversity – to explore if and how the ethic of care has been utilized in the diversity statements of companies earning recognition as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2012.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilized visual rhetoric analysis and was designed to examine multiple elements of these diversity statements as published in the company web sites, including presence of the ethic of care, visual communication, and logistics.

Findings

Of note are the results of the presence of the ethic of care as a primary or secondary rationale in 70 percent of the statements studied. Statistically significant results were found in the number of images of people from diverse backgrounds, as well as levels pleasantness and activation of the tone of the ethics statements.

Originality/value

This study contributes to a better understanding of identifiable characteristics of these diversity statements at organizations which have been identified by their employees and the Great Place to Work Institute.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 33 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 5 August 2022

Aysel Sultan and Marta Rychert

313

Abstract

Details

Drugs, Habits and Social Policy, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2752-6739

Article
Publication date: 5 October 2023

Melanie Maksin and Debra J. Bucher

In describing these projects, the authors hope to encourage academic librarians and archivists to participate in, and even facilitate, similar work at their own institutions…

Abstract

Purpose

In describing these projects, the authors hope to encourage academic librarians and archivists to participate in, and even facilitate, similar work at their own institutions. Although both of these projects began in the library and included readings and discussions related to library and archival practices, the most generative conversations rapidly shifted from “how should the library handle these materials?” to “what might this institution do to reckon with its history?” When traditional library practices were de-centered and community perspectives were sought on the college archive, the authors were able to have more inclusive, authentic conversations about the college's history and future.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study explores two projects undertaken at a liberal arts college: a working group and a credit-bearing course intended to reckon with racist, xenophobic or otherwise harmful materials in the college archive. Both projects were informed by the authors' engagement with Tema Okun's White Supremacy Culture and guided by inclusive pedagogies and practices that participants had explored in workshops and within the context of the college's Engaged Pluralism Initiative.

Findings

The working group and the course underscore the centrality of relationships, trust-building and time to the work of addressing difficult histories. The “campus-wide conversations” the authors had hoped to have about the college archive evolved into smaller spaces developed with intention and care. The diverse perspectives of working group members and students in the course demonstrate the value of bringing together viewpoints from outside the library and beyond institutional or disciplinary silos, to consider far-reaching systemic issues.

Practical implications

Many US colleges and universities have begun, or will begin, to investigate the myriad ways in which racism, racial exclusion, or racial violence have marked their institutions and how these troubled legacies persist in the present day. This case study proposes possible approaches that academic libraries and librarians may take to contribute to this essential work.

Originality/value

These two projects propose that work that typically happens solely within libraries and archives (cataloging and description of potentially harmful materials) or within institutional or disciplinary silos (reckoning with legacies of racism and bias) can be discussed, debated, and shared among the campus community. All of the participants in the working group and the course, regardless of their title, role, or academic credentials, bring necessary expertise and experience to these projects. Inclusive practices, when paired with grassroots energy, suggest ways in which a college archive can be used as a site of evidence, reflection, interrogation, and repair.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 52 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Keywords

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