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1 – 10 of over 4000Marianne Thejls Ziegler and Christoph Lütge
This study aims to analyse the differences between professional interaction mediated by video conferencing and direct professional interaction. The research identifies diverging…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the differences between professional interaction mediated by video conferencing and direct professional interaction. The research identifies diverging interests of office workers for the purpose of addressing work ethical and business ethical issues of professional collaboration, competition, and power in future hybrid work models.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 28 qualitative interviews conducted between November 2020 and June 2021, and through the theoretical lens of phenomenology, the study develops explanatory hypotheses conceptualising four basic intentions of professional interaction and their corresponding preferences for video conferences and working on site.
Findings
The four intentions developed on the basis of the interviews are: the need for physical proximity; the challenge of collective creativity; the will to influence; and control of communication. This conceptual framework qualifies a moral ambivalence of professional interaction. The authors identify a connectivity paradox of professional interaction where the personal dimension remains unarticulated for the purpose of maintaining professionality. This tacit human connectivity is intertwined with latent power relations. This plasticity of both connectivity and power in direct interaction can be diminished by transferring the interaction to video conferencing.
Originality/value
The application of phenomenology to a collection of qualitative interviews has enabled the identification of underlying intention structures and the system in which they affect each other. This research identifies conflicts of interests between workers relative to their different self-perceived abilities to persevere in competitive professional interaction. It is therefore able to address consequences of future hybrid work models at an existential and societal level.
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Elizabeth Ries, Erica Steinitz Holyoke, Heather Dunham, Murphy K. Young, Melissa Mosley Wetzel, Criselda Garcia, Katherina Payne, Annie Garrison Wilhelm, Veronica L. Estrada, Alycia Maurer and Katie Trautman
There is an urgent need for teacher preparation programs to equip teachers to teach in innovative and transformative ways, meeting the needs of diverse learners. Coaching is an…
Abstract
Purpose
There is an urgent need for teacher preparation programs to equip teachers to teach in innovative and transformative ways, meeting the needs of diverse learners. Coaching is an instrumental tool for supporting change and development, especially in contexts with decentralized teacher preparation guidelines.
Design/methodology/approach
This multicase study examines cross-institutional programmatic innovations for coaching teacher candidates (TCs) and centering equity using improvement science and equity coaching. The authors explore the networked improvement community’s (NIC’s) examination of problems of practice through plan–do–study–act cycles in three coaching contexts within and across seven institutions.
Findings
Qualitative methods revealed that adapting coaching protocols can center equity and build equity-focused practices. This work highlights revisions to coaching within and across teacher preparation programs (TPPs), which the authors hope inspires extending equity-centered coaching and improvement science to new contexts. This cross-case analysis revealed program innovations for coaches, digital technologies and alignment.
Practical implications
This study addresses ongoing challenges faced by TPPs in the United States, including TCs' understandings of equity in teaching and decentralized teacher preparation that results in varied and incongruent understandings about quality teaching. This study builds on previous scholarship that examines shifts in coaching practices by disrupting silos in TPPs as examined innovations.
Originality/value
The paper offers a unique view of cross-institutional collaboration in coaching to improve transformative teaching experiences in teacher preparation field experiences.
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Lukasz Porwol, Agustin Garcia Pereira and Catherine Dumas
The purpose of this study is to explore whether immersive virtual reality (VR) can complement e-participation and help alleviate some major obstacles that hinder effective…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore whether immersive virtual reality (VR) can complement e-participation and help alleviate some major obstacles that hinder effective communication and collaboration. Immersive virtual reality (VR) can complement e-participation and help alleviate some major obstacles hindering effective communication and collaboration. VR technologies boost discussion participants' sense of presence and immersion; however, studying emerging VR technologies for their applicability to e-participation is challenging because of the lack of affordable and accessible infrastructures. In this paper, the authors present a novel framework for analyzing serious social VR engagements in the context of e-participation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a novel approach for artificial intelligence (AI)-supported, data-driven analysis of group engagements in immersive VR environments as an enabler for next-gen e-participation research. The authors propose a machine-learning-based VR interactions log analytics infrastructure to identify behavioral patterns. This paper includes features engineering to classify VR collaboration scenarios in four simulated e-participation engagements and a quantitative evaluation of the proposed approach performance.
Findings
The authors link theoretical dimensions of e-participation online interactions with specific user-behavioral patterns in VR engagements. The AI-powered immersive VR analytics infrastructure demonstrated good performance in automatically classifying behavioral scenarios in simulated e-participation engagements and the authors showed novel insights into the importance of specific features to perform this classification. The authors argue that our framework can be extended with more features and can cover additional patterns to enable future e-participation immersive VR research.
Research limitations/implications
This research emphasizes technical means of supporting future e-participation research with a focus on immersive VR technologies as an enabler. This is the very first use-case for using this AI and data-driven infrastructure for real-time analytics in e-participation, and the authors plan to conduct more comprehensive studies using the same infrastructure.
Practical implications
The authors’ platform is ready to be used by researchers around the world. The authors have already received interest from researchers in the USA (Harvard University) and Israel and run collaborative online sessions.
Social implications
The authors enable easy cloud access and simultaneous research session hosting 24/7 anywhere in the world at a very limited cost to e-participation researchers.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the very first attempt at building a dedicated AI-driven VR analytics infrastructure to study online e-participation engagements.
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Nur Mardhiyah Aziz and Nurshuhada Zainon
The synergy of lean construction and building information modelling (BIM) is an important change and transformation driver in the construction industry. It adds value and…
Abstract
Purpose
The synergy of lean construction and building information modelling (BIM) is an important change and transformation driver in the construction industry. It adds value and increases the productivity of construction processes. However, the implementation of lean-BIM in Malaysia is still lacking despite the accelerating BIM adoption rate. This study, therefore, aims to explore factors that potentially drive construction players to adopt lean-BIM for construction projects.
Design/methodology/approach
Exploratory interviews were conducted with five construction players knowledgeable in lean and BIM to identify the driving factors for them to implement lean-BIM. Respondents were obtained through the snowball sampling technique, initiated by approaching a government agency that oversees Malaysia's construction industry. Findings were then analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Findings have shown that four driving factors for construction players initiating the use of lean-BIM in construction projects are (1) top management support, (2) standardisation (3) comprehensive training and (4) financial support.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the exploratory nature of this study and the chosen research design, the conclusions cannot be generalised but can become the indicators for lean-BIM future works in Malaysia or any other developing countries.
Practical implications
The insights from this study provide preliminary indicators for driving the adoption of lean-BIM. This discovery may also help construction companies and policymakers plan appropriate initiatives or strategies to present the need for lean-BIM further development in Malaysia.
Originality/value
The findings are expected to contribute to the lean-BIM research in terms of the demographic context, particularly in Malaysia and possibly assist lean and BIM researchers, practitioners and policymakers in developing countries' perspective.
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Agana Parameswaran, K.A.T.O. Ranadewa and Akila Pramodh Rathnasinghe
The proliferation of lean principles in the construction industry is offset by the enduring uncertainty among industry stakeholders regarding their respective roles in lean…
Abstract
Purpose
The proliferation of lean principles in the construction industry is offset by the enduring uncertainty among industry stakeholders regarding their respective roles in lean implementation. This uncertainty is further compounded by the scarcity of empirical investigations in this area. Consequently, this study undertakes the task of bridging this knowledge gap by identifying the critical roles of lean learners and their indispensable contributions to achieving successful lean implementation.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative exploratory approach informed by an interpretivism perspective was adopted. The case study strategy was employed to gather data from three contracting organisations that had implemented lean practices. Empirical data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with fifteen industry experts and complemented by document reviews. To analyse the data, a code-based content analysis approach was employed using NVivo software, while Power BI software was utilised to develop a comprehensive force-directed graph visualisation.
Findings
The research findings substantiated nine lean learners and unveiled a set of seventy-three roles associated with them. The force-directed graph facilitated the identification of lean learners and their connections to the emerged roles. Notably, the graph highlighted the pivotal role played by project managers and internal lean trainers in ensuring the success of lean implementation, surpassing the contributions of other lean learners.
Originality/value
The implications of findings extend to industry professionals seeking to establish a robust lean learning framework to expedite lean implementation within the construction sector. This study not only provides a comprehensive definition of lean learners’ roles but also transcends specific construction types, making it a significant catalyst for global impact.
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The design documents are products of a process that aims to provide sufficient details to enable the contractor to efficiently implement the project at a realistic cost…
Abstract
Purpose
The design documents are products of a process that aims to provide sufficient details to enable the contractor to efficiently implement the project at a realistic cost. Accordingly, it is expected that these design documents must be of high quality to engender the attainment of the desired project objectives. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that affect the quality of design documentation in construction projects in the context of a developing country.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a descriptive research design involving professionals from firms offering services in areas of design and documentation, mainly architectural, quantity surveying and engineering. A total of 80 out of 84 questionnaires were received and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25, and a factor analysis approach was used to categorize the factors into smaller five groups.
Findings
The factors were subsequently categorized according to size, time, staff, quality and training-related factors. Collectively, large size of the project, inadequate supervision of junior design staff, low professional fees, procurement process and system, failure to adopt quality management systems and allocation or assigning of staff to more than one project at the same time have high influence (component loading of 700) in respective groups.
Research limitations/implications
The reliance on data to analyze the factors of design documents in construction projects in developing economies context, using a Tanzanian exemplar, is considered a limitation. Developing countries with similar economic characteristics, procurement systems and cultural setup could benefit from the results of this study.
Practical implications
The study of factors affecting quality of design and documents in construction projects serves as a guide for built environment firms in Tanzania in conducting effective business and ensuring quality design documents, hence improved project performance. Understanding the nature of relationship between the design and construction teams as well as the impact of design documents on project performance is of great importance for the design teams of future projects and other decision-makers to pay attention when preparing design and related documents, especially during design stage of construction projects in developing countries.
Originality/value
The study contributes the knowledge by providing useful insights on the subject through a categorization of the factors affecting the quality of design documentation and exploring the nature of relationship between the design and construction teams in construction projects within a previously unexplored Tanzanian context focusing on a traditional procurement system for future improvement of project delivery, hence project success.
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Albert Plugge, Shahrokh Nikou, Henry Robben and Henk Kievit
To co-create value through dynamic collaborations, enterprises and their suppliers need to orchestrate the integration of complementary resources when providing business services…
Abstract
Purpose
To co-create value through dynamic collaborations, enterprises and their suppliers need to orchestrate the integration of complementary resources when providing business services. As such enterprises' strategic decision to apply a plural sourcing strategy to establish dynamic collaborations with their suppliers implies that both in-house and outsourced business services should be bundled into a business services portfolio. However, the antecedents that affect a business services portfolio have rarely conceptually been identified.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on resource orchestration theory, the authors theoretically developed and empirically validated a business services portfolio conceptual model. The model aims at explaining the critical antecedents to a business services portfolio based on a unique data set, comprising 121 international enterprises with variation in the degree of outsourcing, size, geographies and maturity. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationships among the antecedents and a business services portfolio.
Findings
The findings show that the antecedent, i.e. plural sourcing strategy, modularised business processes and customer orientation have a direct and significant effect on the enterprises' business services portfolio orchestration. The results of the mediation test indicate that modularised business processes fully mediate the relationships between three independent variables with the orchestration of business services portfolio.
Originality/value
This study is the first to analyse the impact of plural sourcing strategy, modularised business processes and customer orientation on the business services portfolio orchestration from a plural sourcing context. Additionally, it examines the mediating role of modularised business processes in the relationship between the antecedents and business services portfolio orchestration.
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