Search results

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the implementation and potential value of an electronic referral system to improve integrated discharge planning for hospitalised older adults with complex care needs. This new technology formed part of the “Common Assessment Framework for Adults” policy in England.

Mixed methods were undertaken as part of a case study approach within an acute hospital in the North West of England. First, qualitative interviews were undertaken with practitioners to explore early experiences using the new technology. Second, routinely collected administrative data were analysed, comparing referrals made using the new technology and those made through the usual paper-based process.

Qualitative interviews found that an electronic discharge system has, in principle, the potential to improve the efficiency and suitability of integrated care planning. However, the implementation proved fragile to decisions taken elsewhere in the local care system, meaning its scope was severely curtailed in practice. Several “socio-technical” issues were identified, including the loss of valuable face-to-face communication by replacing manual with electronic referrals.

The small number of patients referred during the implementation phase meant that patient outcomes could not be definitively judged. Research into the longer-term implications and value of electronic referral systems is needed.

There is concern that attempts to integrate health and social care are stymied by incompatible systems for recording service user information. This research explores a novel attempt to share assessment information and improve support planning across health and social care boundaries.

This chapter investigates Marx’s Capital as a theoretical resource for analyzing both the form and content of the modern corporation. We assess two recent contributions critiquing the corporation. The chapter argues that Marx advanced from his initial ambivalent comments on the form of the joint stock company and the credit system to a more categorical critique. We assess Marx’s concepts of the concentration and centralization of capital, fictitious capital and rent in analyzing the corporation. Next, we note Engels important contribution filling in from the early limited liability company to monopoly capital and modern imperialism. The chapter ends with two examples of how these concepts apply in concrete analysis. The work is highly preliminary and is intended to open a more theoretically informed approach to analysis and critique of the multinational corporation.

Given the dramatic changes taking place in society, the economy, and technology, 21st-century organizations need to engage in new, more spontaneous, and more innovative ways of managing. I investigate why an increasing number of companies are including artists and artistic processes in their approaches to strategic and day-to-day management and leadership.

Our children may learn about the heroes of the past.

Our task is to make ourselves architects of the future.

The twenty-first century confronts society with challenges that will determine the future of humanity and the planet. Such challenges defy traditional analysis. Paralyzed by the inadequacy of our standard logic, on which much of traditional scholarship relies, we search for meaningful and effective understandings that can guide us – understandings that seem inherently wise and just, and not simply empirically confirmable. Few of us question the need for wisdom, yet to date, academic scholarship has failed to address the role that it plays, and could play, in supporting international organizational processes capable of addressing the world’s most demanding societal challenges.² This chapter explores the nature of pragmatic wisdom – wisdom that incorporates both profound understanding and action. It uses the founding of an international development initiative, Uniterra, to highlight the need for and influence of wisdom in international organizational processes and outcomes. Uniterra’s core structure and central process involve partnering – forming networks of non-hierarchical relationships. The chapter therefore investigates the wisdom needed to create and maintain global partnerships. Given the chapter’s focus on pragmatic wisdom, it also explores the concepts of hope and courage, for without hope and courage, wisdom could never move beyond conceptualization to action. The writing style purposely differs from that of most scholarly articles. Beyond presenting a specific case, the writing offers readers the opportunity to experience wisdom via indigenous proverbs from a wide range of the world’s more pragmatic wisdom traditions. So as not to interrupt readers’ appreciation of the proverbs or reduce their impact or meaning merely to the underlying logical constructs, the chapter uses endnotes rather than more traditional text references.

The literature surrounding appreciative inquiry (AI) has focused little on how the practitioner can work productively when negative emotions such as anger, shame, despair, cynicism, and fear emerge. The author reflects personally on her own process of coming to understand the life-giving tension of light and shadow at the heart of AI, offering insights gained by an AI into her practice, and possibility statements created to support her work. The chapter proposes that creative transcendence is not only possible but critical to the generative potential of AI, and invites the AI community to openly explore how we may work more holistically within this paradox.

Leadership insight describes the importance of and approach to reflection for leaders, using traditional journal writing, leadership wisdom statements, and art work.

The article introduces the multiple ways in which the Leadership Insight journal supports leaders' most profound aspirations.

It explains the ways in which paintings help leaders to go beyond the dehydrated, and limiting, conventional language of management.

Based on the article, managers will be able to use the Leadership Insight journal and reflection process to support their own most important aspirations for contributing to their organization, community, and the world. The article stresses the ability of mangers, by reflecting on a daily basis, to do well by doing good.