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This paper aims to identify and discuss the concept of servant leadership, find some dimensions and understand how staffs in organizations make sense of this style of leadership.

Multiple exploratory case studies in six Portuguese organizations/firms were performed. As data-collecting instruments, several interviews, direct observations made on-site and documentary analysis were used.

From thematic analysis, the authors found nine dimensions associated with servant leadership in the organizations/firms studied: empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first, ethical behaviour, altruistic calling, wisdom or vision, organizational stewardship, family atmosphere and identification with the leader.

Based on these dimensions identified, the authors constructed an analytical framework for servant leadership. This study contributes to theoretical development by integrating the servant leadership literature and organizational behaviour literature and should help servant leadership gain legitimacy as an important and relevant leadership theory.

This study is innovative because contributes to knowledge about organizations that follow a servant style of leadership, and in so doing form consistent dimensions that can represent benchmarking for other organizational structures.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the concept of responsible leadership, find some dimensions and understand how staff in organizations make sense of this style of leadership.

Multiple exploratory case studies in six Portuguese organizations were performed. As data-collecting instruments, several interviews and documentary analysis were used.

The authors found four dimensions associated with responsible leadership in the organizations studied here: aggregate of virtues; stakeholder involvement; model of leader’s roles; and principles and ethical values. These organizations integrate relationships which seek human well-being, institutions of reference considered good examples to work in and where the best of human nature is stressed. In particular, the modus operandi of their responsible leadership implants dynamics which lead to the development of individuals’ strengths, resilience and vitality.

The emphasis of this leadership style points mainly to the existence of modern leaders with an integrating, holistic view of stakeholders where the focus is on carrying out their various roles where virtuousness and ethical values play a determinant role. Interpersonal relationships, ethical principles regarding the environment, peers and the community were also practices identified as associated with responsible leadership.

The study contributes to advancing theory in the field of leadership and presents a new framework (dimensions) about responsible leadership. The study is also innovative because contributes to more knowledge about organizations that follow a responsible style of leadership, and in so doing form consistent practices that can represent benchmarking for other organizational structures, even taking into account the natural idiosyncrasies inherent in the Portuguese organizational and business sector.

The purpose of this study is to compare different models integrating the TOC and Lean approaches.

The models of reference were identified through a comprehensive literature review. A qualitative and comparative analysis was carried out by pointing out the strengths, weaknesses and gaps of models integrating the TOC and Lean based on the production system requirements.

The findings indicate that these models can be improved by introducing aspects related to the system structure such as main key performance indicators, type of shop layout and performance metrics to evaluate the improvements implemented in the production system. The results provided evidence that the TOC and Lean are complementary approaches, and the individual gaps of each approach seem to be, in the most part, offset by the virtues of the other.

This study enables decision makers and industrial managers to evaluate the practices adopted in the production environment, as well as the use of the different set of continuous improvement practices. This article also minimizes the literature gap regarding whether and how integrated Lean and TOC approach can be used in the firms.

This study contributes to the body of literature on Lean by comparing three different models integrating Lean and the TOC. Furthermore, a research agenda is suggested for future research aimed at developing new models integrating both approaches, aiming to increase the competitiveness of the production systems.

The paper aims to present a case of integration between process engineering and the thinking process of the theory of constraints (TP‐TOC) through the analysis of an organization's processes, pointing out the complementary aspects between the two theories and their benefits for the organization.

The paper has used an Institution of Higher Education as its case study. The research has started by identifying the processes of the institution and choosing one to model according to the process engineering approach. The process was then analyzed through the elaboration of the current reality tree technique. After the analysis, the evaporating clouds technique was applied in order to breach the assumptions that were avoiding the problems to be solved. Finally, the process has been redesigned based on the results of the previous steps.

The analysis of this case contributes towards understanding and identifying the causes of the current problems in the studied processes, providing a systemic and systematic view through the proposed approach.

The paper proposes an approach that enables a systematic and systemic analysis of organizations' processes through the use of process engineering and the TP‐TOC.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) among 448 HIV-infected prisoners from 32 prisons in Mozambique.

All HIV seropositive prisoners were screened for HBV.

Of the 448 HIV seropositive prisoners, 51 (11.4 percent, 95%CI: 9.3–13.9 percent) were HBsAg-positive and was significantly higher in prisoners aged<25 years.

Data from this study show for the first time that the frequency of HBV among HIV-infected prisoners is high, suggesting that immediate interventions are needed during incarceration.

This research theorizes the condition of human beings reduced to being users (and only users) in human-computer interaction (HCI), a condition that favors them becoming objects or targets of commercial dark patterns, racialized profiling algorithms, generalized surveillance, gendered interfaces and heteromation.

The reconceptualization of the users’ condition is done by confronting HCI theories on users with a dialectical-existential perspective over human ontology. The research is presented as a conceptual paper that includes analyzing and revising those theories to develop a conceptual framework for the user oppression in HCI.

Most HCI theories contribute to the user oppression with explicit or implicit ontological statements that denies their becoming-more or the possibility of users developing their handiness to the full human potential. Put together, these statements constitute an ideology called userism.

HCI needs to acknowledge its role in structuring oppression not just in sexism, racism, classism and ableism, but also the specific relation that pertains to HCI: userism. Similar to other fields, acknowledging oppression is the first step toward liberating from oppression.

The user is an existential condition for HCI theories, yet few theories can explain in depth how this condition affects human development. From the dialectical-existential perspective, the user condition can be dehumanizing. Computers may intensify existing oppressions through esthetic interactions but these interactions can be subverted for liberation.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The São Lourenço River (SLR) is used to supply potable waters for the cities of São Lourenço da Serra and Juquitiba, but receives the residues from the water treatment plants (WTPs) and sewage treatment plants (STPs), respectively. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of the discharges of Juquitiba’s WTP and STP on the quality of the SLR, by using an integrated approach based on different lines of evidence.

Six sampling sites were established along the river and comprised areas situated upstream and downstream of the discharges. Five sampling surveys were performed between 2004 and 2006 for collecting water and sediment samples for ecotoxicological assays. In two of these campaigns, benthic community structure and geochemistry (metals, nutrients and sediment texture) were also assessed.

Concentrations of P, Fe and Al in waters exceeded the national standards, but sediments were not considered to be contaminated by metals or nutrients. Water and sediments tended to exhibit marginal toxicities, excluding the sediments from JQT007 and JQT008 that were frequently toxic. Combination of geochemistry, toxicity and ecological indices indicated that some sites are not degraded, but in some stations the benthic alteration may be due to non-measured contaminants, especially in JQT007 and JQT008.

As the use of waters from SLR for public supply has increased, these results show that action should be taken in order to reverse the environmental degradation of SRL.

This research combined sediment and water quality assessments in order to provide a more suitable and reliable diagnostic of the environmental quality of the SLR.

Ever since Portugal joined the European Union, Portuguese organisations have been struggling with both the challenges of new competitors flooding in from other European countries and taking advantage of the opportunities the new enlarged integrated market offered them. This is because Portuguese companies have in general low average rates of productivity growth while they lack techniques to improve not only these rates but also overall organisational performance. The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the high-performance organisation (HPO) framework, a holistic improvement technique developed on the basis of worldwide data, is valid for the Portuguese context and therefore can support Portuguese organisations in their efforts to achieve better performance.

Managers in Portuguese organisations, which were found in the Spain balance sheet analysis system database, were approached to fill in the HPO questionnaire on their company. In total, data was received from 163 organisations. This data was subsequently statistically analysed using a confirmatory factor analysis.

The study shows that the 35 items of the HPO framework are valid for the participating Portuguese organisations and as such form a reliable HPO framework for these organisations. Thus, the HPO framework can be reliably applied at Portuguese organisations to evaluate their current level of organisational performance and to propose recommendations to improve performance.

This research study fills the gap of the currently rather limited literature on the application of holistic and effective improvement techniques in Portugal, and as such future researchers can use the framework to conduct a more in-depth study of performance gains in the Portuguese context. Portuguese managers now have at their disposal a holistic improvement technique validated for their context, so they can use the HPO framework with confidence to start improving their own organisations.