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Article
Publication date: 5 September 2017

Karen Dodd, Christine Burke, Alex Gibson, Emma Hines, Patrick Howarth, Jo Jennison, Reiko Mackintosh, Alisdair Radcliffe, Filipe Vieira and Gisela Unsworth

The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of equal access to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) for people with intellectual disabilities.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of equal access to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) for people with intellectual disabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper identifies barriers to access and shows how a reference group can work to solve the barriers and increase access.

Findings

The paper evaluates the authors’ progress to date and how the authors plan to continue to take the work forward.

Practical implications

The paper highlights some of the factors responsible for the authors’ success and gives information that will be helpful to other areas who are interested in facilitating equal access.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates how the focus of a reference group can drive improvements across services to improve access for people with intellectual disabilities to IAPT services.

Details

Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, vol. 11 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-1282

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 July 2019

Rod Sheaff, Joyce Halliday, Mark Exworthy, Alex Gibson, Pauline W. Allen, Jonathan Clark, Sheena Asthana and Russell Mannion

Neo-liberal “reform” has in many countries shifted services across the boundary between the public and private sector. This policy re-opens the question of what structural and…

2596

Abstract

Purpose

Neo-liberal “reform” has in many countries shifted services across the boundary between the public and private sector. This policy re-opens the question of what structural and managerial differences, if any, differences of ownership make to healthcare providers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the connections between ownership, organisational structure and managerial regime within an elaboration of Donabedian’s reasoning about organisational structures. Using new data from England, it considers: how do the internal managerial regimes of differently owned healthcare providers differ, or not? In what respects did any such differences arise from differences in ownership or for other reasons?

Design/methodology/approach

An observational systematic qualitative comparison of differently owned providers was the strongest feasible research design. The authors systematically compared a maximum variety (by ownership) sample of community health services; out-of-hours primary care; and hospital planned orthopaedics and ophthalmology providers (n=12 cases). The framework of comparison was the ownership theory mentioned above.

Findings

The connection between ownership (on the one hand) and organisation structures and managerial regimes (on the other) differed at different organisational levels. Top-level governance structures diverged by organisational ownership and objectives among the case-study organisations. All the case-study organisations irrespective of ownership had hierarchical, bureaucratic structures and managerial regimes for coordinating everyday service production, but to differing extents. In doctor-owned organisations, the doctors’, but not other occupations’, work was controlled and coordinated in a more-or-less democratic, self-governing ways.

Research limitations/implications

This study was empirically limited to just one sector in one country, although within that sector the case-study organisations were typical of their kinds. It focussed on formal structures, omitting to varying extents other technologies of power and the differences in care processes and patient experiences within differently owned organisations.

Practical implications

Type of ownership does appear, overall, to make a difference to at least some important aspects of an organisation’s governance structures and managerial regime. For the broader field of health organisational research, these findings highlight the importance of the owners’ agency in explaining organisational change. The findings also call into question the practice of copying managerial techniques (and “fads”) across the public–private boundary.

Originality/value

Ownership does make important differences to healthcare providers’ top-level governance structures and accountabilities and to work coordination activity, but with different patterns at different organisational levels. These findings have implications for understanding the legitimacy, governance and accountability of healthcare organisations, the distribution and use power within them, and system-wide policy interventions, for instance to improve care coordination and for the correspondingly required foci of healthcare organisational research.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 33 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 January 2015

Krista Soria, Seth Snyder and Alex P. Reinhard

Integrative leadership theories are thriving in the literature, yet very few studies have explored individual characteristics of integrative leadership and conditions that may…

Abstract

Integrative leadership theories are thriving in the literature, yet very few studies have explored individual characteristics of integrative leadership and conditions that may promote individuals’ integrative leadership orientation. In particular, little is known about the factors that may promote undergraduate college students’ development of an orientation toward integrative leadership, although many colleges and universities are charged with developing future leaders to tackle grand societal challenges. The purpose of this study was to examine higher education institutions’ contributions to college students’ civic engagement and multicultural competence as well as the relationships between these contributions and students’ development of an integrative leadership orientation. Using a multi-institutional survey of college seniors (n = 5,922), the results of this study suggest institutional efforts to develop students’ multicultural competence and civic engagement are positively associated with undergraduate students’ development of an integrative leadership orientation.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

Article
Publication date: 4 September 2019

Marina Aferiba Tandoh, Felix Charles Mills-Robertson, Michael David Wilson and Alex Kojo Anderson

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the association between helminth infections, dietary parameters and cognitive performance, as well as the predictors of undernutrition…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the association between helminth infections, dietary parameters and cognitive performance, as well as the predictors of undernutrition among school-age children (SAC) living in helminth-endemic fishing and farming communities in Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach

This was a cross sectional study involving 164 (9 to 12 years old) SAC from fishing (n = 84) and farming (n = 80) communities of the Kwahu Afram Plains South District of the Eastern Region of Ghana, using structured questionnaires and anthropometric and biochemical assessments.

Findings

Overall, 51.2% of the children were males, with no significant gender difference between the communities (p = 0.88). Average age of the children was 10.5 ± 1.25 years, with no significant difference between the farming and fishing communities (p = 0.90). About 53.1% of all children were anemic, with no significant differences between farming versus fishing communities (p = 0.87). Helminth-infected children were significantly anemic (p = 0.03). Mean serum zinc level of all children was 13.1 ± 4.57 µmol/L, with zinc deficiency being significantly higher in children in the farming community (p < 0.0001). About 7.5% of all the children were underweight, whilst 13.8% were stunted with a higher proportion of stunting occurring among older children (p = 0.001) and girls (p = 0.117). There was no significant difference in the Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices cognitive test scores between the two communities (p = 0.79). Predictors of anemia were helminthiasis and pica behavior.

Originality/value

These findings are relevant and have the prospect of guiding the development of intervention programs in addressing the persistent problem of nutritional and cognitive deficits among SAC.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science , vol. 50 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2023

Alex H. Cohen, Jorge E. Fresneda and Rolph E. Anderson

This research seeks to fill a gap in the service and retailing marketplace experience literature as well as retailing practice by extending Attribution and Expectancy…

Abstract

Purpose

This research seeks to fill a gap in the service and retailing marketplace experience literature as well as retailing practice by extending Attribution and Expectancy Disconfirmation Theories to the large and growing market of consumers with vision disabilities. It reveals how accessibility-related service failures with a retailer's website can lead to anti-firm reactions from blind and low vision consumers, including social media sharing, negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) and avoidance of the retailer's other sales channels even if they are accessible.

Design/methodology/approach

Blind respondents were recruited from national blindness organizations to participate in this study using a within-subjects design to test reactions to accessibility-related propositions in two different scenarios involving varying degrees of effort.

Findings

In both high- and low-effort conditions, an accessibility-related service failure leads to the anti-firm consequences of NWOM, social media sharing and avoidance of the retailer's sales channels. Additionally, blind and low vision consumers who also feel inaccessible websites are discriminatory develop stronger anti-firm attitudes toward the offending retailers. Further, we aver that the retailer's entire website including all its features, not just the homepage, should be made accessible to the growing market of vision-impaired consumers and thereby obtain substantial competitive advantages.

Originality/value

This research pertains to the service failure and recovery nomological network. It extends the existing paradigm to include accessibility-related service failures experienced by consumers with disabilities into the specialized category of discrimination-based service failures in instances where service recovery is not easily achieved. Empirical investigations of these experiences have been rare, despite the frequency with which they occur.

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. 33 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 March 2020

Damiano Cortese and Alex Murdock

The paper suggests moral imagination as an approach to picture sustainable scenarios in the food industry, which are based on knowledge sharing among stakeholders and knowledge…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper suggests moral imagination as an approach to picture sustainable scenarios in the food industry, which are based on knowledge sharing among stakeholders and knowledge management. This can lead to a wider awareness, consequently a deeper understanding and finally more sustainable behaviors and choices in the food sector.

Design/methodology/approach

The research paper analyzes the relevant literature on sustainability, stakeholder theory, knowledge management and moral imagination. It proposes a moral imagination process and provides some cases to clarify its applicability.

Findings

Inter-stakeholder shared knowledge and consequent knowledge management can lead to the projection of more aware sustainable scenarios over time, overcoming a short-sighted or partial vision. The process of moral imagination can be an approach and tool for coping with sustainability-related critical issues, challenges and dilemmas in the food sector.

Research limitations/implications

The article is a research paper, but the suggested process of moral imagination intends to provoke further reasoning and contributions to moral imagination and the stakeholders' role, responsibility and awareness related to sustainability in the food industry.

Practical implications

Even if theoretical, the paper can have well replicable managerial implications and applications in the design of sustainable scenarios in the food sector overcoming the asymmetries and bias. In particular, it is very useful conceiving the choices and outlining the behaviors upon which the firm's actions are based.

Originality/value

The article considers the broad spectrum of sustainability and its wide global reflection as well as the role of all stakeholders without a solely strategic focus and implications.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 122 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 April 2018

Alex G. Gillett and Kevin D. Tennent

Existing studies of the finance of English Association Football (soccer) have tended to focus on the sport’s early years, or on the post-1992 Premiership era. The authors examine…

Abstract

Purpose

Existing studies of the finance of English Association Football (soccer) have tended to focus on the sport’s early years, or on the post-1992 Premiership era. The authors examine a case from the turbulent 1980s charting the struggle for economic survival of one club in a rapidly changing financial, economic, political and demographic landscape. The purpose of this paper is to examine not only the financial management of a football club during this time, but also the interventionist role of the local authority during this turbulent period.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors investigate the financial difficulties of a sport business, Middlesbrough Football and Athletic Company Limited, examining the broader economic context, drawing on unseen archival sources dating from the 1980s to analyze the relationship between club, local and national government and the regional economy.

Findings

They not only examine the financial management of the football club but also analyse the interventionist role of the local authority in supporting the club which had symbolic value for the local community.

Practical implications

This paper is relevant to policymakers interested in the provision of local sports facilities and the links between elite sport and participation.

Originality/value

The authors show that professional sports clubs are driven by a different institutional logic to state organizations and the findings enable them to define these differences, thereby refining Thornton et al.’s (2012) typology of institutional orders. Furthermore, the case study highlights practices involving informal partnership between state and sport that the authors label as shadow hybridity.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 March 2018

Louca-Mai Brady, Lorna Templeton, Paul Toner, Judith Watson, David Evans, Barry Percy-Smith and Alex Copello

Young people’s involvement should lead to research, and ultimately services, that better reflect young people’s priorities and concerns. Young people with a history of treatment…

4483

Abstract

Purpose

Young people’s involvement should lead to research, and ultimately services, that better reflect young people’s priorities and concerns. Young people with a history of treatment for alcohol and/or drug problems were actively involved in the youth social behaviour and network therapy study. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of that involvement on the study and what was learnt about involving young people in drug and alcohol research.

Design/methodology/approach

The initial plan was to form a young people’s advisory group (YPAG), but when this proved problematic the study explored alternative approaches in collaboration with researchers and young people. Input from 17 young people informed all key elements of the study.

Findings

Involvement of young people needs to be dynamic and flexible, with sensitivity to their personal experiences. Engagement with services was crucial both in recruiting young people and supporting their ongoing engagement. This research identified a need to critically reflect on the extent to which rhetorics of participation and involvement give rise to effective and meaningful involvement for young service users. It also highlights the need for researchers to be more flexible in response to young people’s personal circumstances, particularly when those young people are “less frequently heard”.

Research limitations/implications

This research highlights the need for researchers to be more flexible in response to young people’s personal circumstances, particularly when those young people are “less frequently heard”. It highlights the danger of young people in drug and alcohol research being unintentionally disaffected from involvement through conventional approaches and instead suggests ways in which young people could be involved in influencing if and how they participate in research.

Practical implications

There is an apparent contradiction between dominant discourses and cultures of health services research (including patient and public involvement) that often do not sit easily with ideas of co-production and young people-centred involvement. This paper provides an alternative approach to involvement of young people that can help to enable more meaningful and effective involvement.

Originality/value

The flexible and young people-centred model for involvement which emerged from this work provides a template for a different approach. This may be particularly useful for those who find current practice, such as YPAG, inaccessible.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 August 2018

Albert Puni, Alex Anlesinya and Patience Dzigbordi Akosua Korsorku

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and intention in Ghana…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and intention in Ghana, Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

In all, 357 questionnaires from final year undergraduate students at a public university in Ghana are analysed using linear multiple regression.

Findings

The study reveals that entrepreneurship knowledge acquisition and opportunity recognition as dimensions of entrepreneurship education positively affect entrepreneurial intention (EI) and self-efficacy. Also, ESE increases the development of EI. The results further show that ESE mediated the relationship between the two measures of entrepreneurship education and EI.

Practical implications

The findings imply that when students are exposed to entrepreneurship knowledge and opportunity recognition skills via entrepreneurship education, they can develop high ESE and intention to engage in venture creation. Findings therefore urge stakeholders in the education sector in Africa to formulate policy guidelines for the design and teaching of entrepreneurship education. Such policies and guidelines should emphasise more students’ acquisition of adequate knowledge in venture creation and management, and the development of skills for identifying business opportunities while instilling confidence in their abilities to become successful entrepreneurs.

Originality/value

The mediating role of ESE in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and intention has been under-researched globally not just in Africa. Hence, this first study to the best of the knowledge in a Sub-Saharan African context, contributes further empirical evidence by demonstrating that ESE is a central psychological mechanism that can convert entrepreneurship education into EI. Besides, the study defies some of the findings in advanced economies by indicating that a theoretical entrepreneurship education course in Africa may work differently than in advanced economies and may actually foster the development of EI unlike in advanced economies.

Details

African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, vol. 9 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-0705

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Peter Cauwelier, Vincent M. Ribière and Alex Bennet

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate if the concept of team psychological safety, a key driver of team learning and originally studied in the West, can be applied in teams…

3004

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate if the concept of team psychological safety, a key driver of team learning and originally studied in the West, can be applied in teams from different national cultures. The model originally validated for teams in the West is applied to teams in Thailand to evaluate its validity, and the views team members have on the antecedents of team psychological safety are analyzed.

Design/methodology/approach

The core of the sequential explanatory mixed method research was an experiment with nine teams from a single engineering organization (three teams from each the USA, France and Thailand). Team learning behaviors were analyzed from the conversations between team members. Team psychological safety was analyzed through a quantitative instrument and one-on-one structured interviews with each team member.

Findings

The results showed that the original model is confirmed for the teams from the USA and France but not confirmed for teams from Thailand. The thematic analysis of the one-on-one interviews highlights important differences between teams from the USA and France on the one hand and teams from Thailand on the other hand when it comes to the role of the team manager and the views that team members have on the diversity between them.

Originality/value

This research confirms that the concept of team psychological safety, and its impact on the way teams learn, needs to be adjusted if it is to be applied to teams in countries with national cultures different from those prevalent in the West. The implications are that researchers who develop theories in the social sciences field should evaluate how cultural differences impact their models, and that managers who implement learning and solutions should take national cultural differences into consideration.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 23 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

1 – 10 of 171