Search results

This study aims to improve the efficiency of the assessment process within a Step4 Psychological Therapies Service by identifying factors related to assessment non-attendance and service suitability for referred clients.

Referral and assessment information was accessed between October 2019 and March 2020 from Step4 routine service data, electronic client records where necessary and Step4 staff self-report questionnaires.

All clients offered an assessment during this time attended. Findings indicated several factors could influence service suitability in meeting client need. These included individual differences such as readiness to change, which was not necessarily identified at referral or prior to assessment, and potential systemic factors, such as the opt-in procedure, which possibly impeded access. Though the necessity for assessment in clarifying client needs and treatment was indicated, an assessment (from referral to assessment appointment) that led to discharge could take an excess of one working day of service time, associated with considerable opportunity cost to other clients awaiting assessment. Recommendations are made for improving assessment efficiency.

With a high prevalence of poor mental health in the UK, efforts must be made to identify and reduce additional demand upon service time and resources within mental health services to effectively meet people’s needs. Recommendations to improve assessment process efficiency include the use of a standardised referral form, offer of follow-up support procedures, increased client involvement, a streamlined opt-in battery and ongoing monitoring to ensure shared practice between clinicians. These are transferable to other mental health services, with implications for subsequent quality and timeliness of care.

The purpose of this article is to provide readers with an understanding of how the assessment protocol for executive coaching can be adapted to more effectively meet the different needs of clients who are seeking developmental, transitional, or remedial coaching.

This article is based on the author's 20 years of experience as both an internal executive coach and external consultant. Organizational examples are provided to illustrate key concepts.

The assessment interview can be customized to meet the unique requirements of transitional, developmental, and remedial coaching.

The article provides readers with clear guidelines for adapting the assessment process to meet three different coaching requirements. By following these guidelines, coaches will be able to obtain more detailed and relevant background information on the client's history, organizational setting, goals, and development issues, and in so doing establish a more effective pathway for the coaching intervention.

To the author's knowledge, this article represents the first attempt to consider how assessment interviews might be adapted to the unique requirements of developmental, transitional, and remedial coaching.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether country (Australia or Japan) and client type (public sector or private sector) impact the auditor's client risk assessments, subsequent audit planning decisions (planned audit hours) and audit planning responsiveness to client risk assessments.

The study is based on previously developed audit planning models and uses working paper‐sourced data of planned auditor effort and nine client risk assessments. The study samples are taken from public and private sector audit engagements of two major audit firms in Australia and Japan, respectively.

Evidence is found that country and client type do have an impact on the auditor's client risk assessments and planned total audit hours, but they do not moderate audit planning responsiveness to client risk assessments.

The test variable is confounded by the country and client type characteristics inherent in the study's samples. If the differences are caused by country, this suggests that audit planning decisions vary across countries, even when the same auditing standards are adopted. However, if they are caused by client type, this suggests that the same audit approach (i.e. the audit risk model) is applied differently depending on client characteristics.

These findings are useful to international standard setters, audit practice quality control and training, and audit research.

No prior study has examined the role of country and client type on the auditor's client risk assessments and audit planning decisions. Further, no prior study has examined whether the relationship between the auditor's client risk assessments and audit planning decisions is moderated by country and client type.

Looks at New Zealand’s provision for the disabled. Reports on evidence from observation of the actual assessment process. Empirical data are used about the perceptions of both the assessors and the clients. Determines whether the stated aims of government policy are achieved. Appears that assessment is now fairer and provides for greater dignity and choice for clients. However, there is still room for improvement.

The purpose of this research is to assess an expectations‐based approach to service evaluation by small and medium sized companies (SMEs) of government advice services. These are often criticised for providing what politicians think SMEs need rather than what SMEs want. Little analysis has gone into assessing the expectations of these services. Yet expectations are a crucial datum against which to measure evaluations of the impact and satisfaction with services received.

The author uses new large‐scale survey results of the experience of Business Link in England to assess expectations and outcomes. It compares expectations, through open response format questions, with assessments of how far expectations are met, service impact and satisfaction. Outputs are also compared between “hard” (profit, sales, costs) and “soft” (improving the ability to manage).

The results demonstrate a mixture of expectations ranging from specific service wants (in the majority of cases) to a range of softer and quality elements (which include inter alia, the desire for a “neutral” or “external” view). Comparison of the varied expectations with the level of satisfaction and impact shows Business Link to be strongest where the SME client is most focused in what they seek and where the quality expectations are not too demanding.

The key implication for Business Link design is that it should focus on the primary aim of specialist advice links to subsidised services, primarily with a skills or other technical focus.

The purpose of the present study was to determine, across three distinct national contexts, to what extent the creation of customer‐perceived value, as determined by the measure of the firm’s external effectiveness, was deemed important and implemented within a professional business‐to‐business service industry (commercial banking). External effectiveness is a measure of business performance reflecting the client’s judgement of satisfaction, service quality, future purchase intentions and willingness to recommend the service firm to others. It was postulated that strong relationships would contribute to external effectiveness and that, in order to be effective, a service firm needs to be client‐oriented and develop managerial processes and an organizational culture compatible with the creation of client‐perceived value, the driver of longer‐term profitability. In all three countries, the higher the business client rated the strength of the relationship with their bank, the higher was their assessment of external effectiveness. However, the banks’ service management processes supporting the work of the account manager and the dominant organizational culture were not congruent with the bankers’ perception that their organizations were client‐oriented. Important differences were found in the banking relationships and managerial processes in Mexico as compared to Canada and the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if neurolinguistic programming (NLP) tools and techniques were effective in alleviating the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in clients from the Military and Emergency Services.

This project ran at the “Healing the Wounds” charity in Bridgend. All clients were opportunistic, having self-referred to a charity specifically set up to support Veterans from the Armed Forces. In total, 29 clients from an initial cohort of 106 clients provided pre and post data using Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) and the NLP Wheel of Life scale. Interventions included a range of NLP techniques, addressing self-reported symptoms.

Differences between DASS scores before and after treatment are very highly significant. t-test analysis infers that these results are indicative of the overall response from the clients in this study.

Limitations of the study include: client group; significant levels of incomplete data for the total study group; therapist effect and therapist training; treatment methodology.

Data suggest that NLP has potential as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of symptoms of anxiety and depression associated with a self-report of PTSD. An observation is proposed that these candidates experience an improvement in their emotional state when NLP is used which is statistically significant (p<0.001) both for overall DASS score averages and also for each of the three DASS categories (Depression, Anxiety and Stress). Stress was the highest scoring category prior to treatment for these clients; the reduction in their stress symptoms contributed most substantially to the overall reduction in average DASS score, indicating an improvement in their emotional state.

This chapter presents two established pedagogical techniques to increase student engagement, simulations and peer assessment. The use of each technique, its benefits and drawbacks, and how content knowledge and student engagement increase are detailed. While each of the approaches can be utilized independently to create active learning environments, this chapter illustrates the potential to extend these approaches further. An overview of an MBA-level elective on competitive analysis structured around a simulation and peer assessment is presented. The result is a highly interactive and engaging course where the simulation and peer assessments achieve symbiotic benefits. Learning and performance in the simulation is enhanced by the application of competitive analyst reports which are used by peer “clients.” Assessment in turn leads to greater insights to the simulation, and subsequently higher levels of performance on both the simulation and future analysis work. Insights on these instructional methods, their limitations, and potential barriers to adoption are offered with the hope of inspiring others to utilize and experiment with novel approaches for further enhance learner engagement.

Experiential learning projects require students to go further than the typical theoretical and conceptual MBA coursework requiring them to draw on their previously acquired skills to solve actual business problems from a real-world client. The purpose of this paper is to offer a detailed overview of an experiential learning global consulting project and its potential benefits, along with practical classroom recommendations.

This paper describes a global consulting project embedded in an MBA international consulting course involving a German manufacturing company operating a single production facility in the USA.

Findings suggest that in post-class assessments students were quite supportive, touting is as one of the most beneficial to their MBA education and their job placement upon graduation.

This experiential project has largely been assessed through qualitative feedback from both the students and the client. Future research efforts should assess the project in a more robust fashion. Going forward, the use of survey assessments on the project as a whole would provide more objective feedback. Obtaining feedback from graduates 1 to 5 years post-graduation would provide a valuable perspective on the project’s overall effectiveness.

The global consulting project described in this manuscript provided students with a vehicle to mimic a consulting engagement with an actual client in a real-world context.

The global consulting project described in this manuscript provided students with an opportunity to develop further their global and cultural competence. In addition, it provides an opportunity for students to fully develop the critical thinking skills, business acumen and the soft skills required of them to be successful in their future careers.

The combination of an international context and high degree of client engagement on this project make it a unique learning opportunity. This project is different as it provides a comprehensive, step-by-step, integrated approach that begins with an extensive interview process to secure a spot on the team with limited openings, then client discussions to identify the problem and determine the scope of engagement, which includes a client contract that outlines the objective and the deliverable of the engagement, followed by personal skill assessment to draw upon meta-competences necessary for the project’s success. Immersing the students in the client engagement, wherever it may take them both intellectually as well as physically (i.e. domestic and international locations) creates a template from which they can draw upon periodically as they progress in their professional.

This study aims to examine the unique nature of family firms by investigating the moderating effect of chief executive officer (CEO) identity on CEO career horizon and the auditor’s client risk assessment. Consistent with literature on family businesses, the level of CEO attachment to socio-emotional wealth (SEW) varies among family businesses.

This study used a longitudinal sample of 2,063 non-financial family firm-year observations from 2005 to 2016 listed on the Bursa Malaysia. The study used the general method of moments (GMM), which controls for endogeneity concerns.

The results reveal that, without the moderating effect of CEO identity, the relationship between CEO career horizon and auditor’s risk assessment is positive, which suggests that the auditor’s risk perception of retiring CEOs is very high. However, the interaction of CEO identity reverses the relationship as evidenced by the negative and significant coefficient on the interacted terms. The finding suggests that the auditor’s perceived risk associated with CEO career horizon is lower in family firms with CEOs affiliated to family members or in which the CEO has an equity stake. Overall, the findings provide compelling evidence that the extent of the CEO’s attachment to the firm’s SEW affects the auditor’s client risk assessment.

The findings of the study serve as an enlightenment to policymakers such as Bursa Malaysia and Security Commission that within the family-controlled firms, differences still exist; therefore, there might be a need for future regulatory initiative to cater for the specific need of family-controlled firms.

The study contributes to prior literature by departing from the agency theory adopted in previous studies on auditor choice in family firms under the assumption that family firms are homogenous.