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1 – 10 of over 11000Walter Fernandez, Gary Klein, James Jiang and Rasheed M. Khan
Discover how organizations effectively integrate the temporary program outputs into the permanent organization.
Abstract
Purpose
Discover how organizations effectively integrate the temporary program outputs into the permanent organization.
Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory approach deriving knowledge from interviews, field observations and documentary evidence.
Findings
A network of actors integrates the multiteam program system into the overall organization, generating alternate political and implementation impetus.
Research limitations/implications
The paper significantly contributes to the literature of IT-enabled programs by surfacing processes, mechanisms and structures that simultaneously address extant concerns in the program management literature.
Practical implications
The directives of current research and program standards of professional societies identify an individual responsible for integrating the program output into the organization. The study indicates greater autonomy on the responsible actor requiring adjusting to changing stakeholder groups.
Originality/value
The authors add a missing link in understanding how programs can institute effective work structures to address emerging program conflicts and issues, suggesting strategies to foster interaction between temporary and permanent organizations.
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Wendy L. Currie and David J. Finnegan
This paper seeks to report the findings from a seven‐year study on the UK National Health Service on the introduction of an electronic health record for 50 million citizens. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to report the findings from a seven‐year study on the UK National Health Service on the introduction of an electronic health record for 50 million citizens. It explores the relationship between policy and practice in the introduction of a large‐scale national ICT programme at an estimated value of £12.4bn.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a longitudinal research method, data are collected on the policy‐practice nexus. The paper applies institutional theory using a conceptual model by Tolbert and Zucker on the component processes of institutionalisation.
Findings
The findings suggest that institutional forces act as a driver and an inhibitor to introducing enabling technologies in the health‐care environment. A process analysis shows that, as electronic health records force disruptive change on clinicians, healthcare managers and patients, culturally embedded norms, values and behavioural patterns serve to impede the implementation process.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited in its generalisability to national, regional and local ICT implementations due to the complexity of the policy and practical issues at stake. Despite the longitudinal research approach, the use of institutional theory can only offer a flavour of how institutionalised values, norms and behaviours influence health IT policy and practice.
Practical implications
The paper demonstrates the complexity of translating centralised ICT policy in healthcare to practical solutions for clinicians and other stakeholders. It shows how a large‐scale ICT programme based on procurement of technology is unlikely to succeed where important issues of user engagement and a sound “business case” have not been achieved.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the theoretical literature on institutionalism by addressing the dichotomy between institutional and technical environments. While technology is often discussed in isolation of an institutional process, it may become embedded in organisational practices, reaching a process of sedimentation (institutionalisation) or fail to take hold and fade from view.
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Anita D. Bhappu and Ulrike Schultze
Bridging noted gaps in the sharing economy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) literatures, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how an organization-sponsored sharing…
Abstract
Purpose
Bridging noted gaps in the sharing economy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) literatures, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how an organization-sponsored sharing platform – a new class of information technology (IT) and the sharing economy ideal – is given meaning as a CSR program for internal stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
The research involves phone interviews conducted with site coordinators of the Zimride by Enterprise® ridesharing platform in 25 organizations.
Findings
This case study reveals that two component processes of organizational sensemaking – sensegiving and sensebreaking – are underlying micromechanisms used by organizations to enact a sponsored sharing platform as a CSR program. Qualitative analyses demonstrate that every meaning given to Zimride remained open to sensebreaking during its implementation. As such, site coordinators were continuously drawn into sensemaking about Zimride’s cognitive, linguistic and conative dimensions as a CSR program and had to exert ongoing effort to stabilize its socially (re)constructed meaning within their organization. Furthermore, site coordinators’ sensegiving narrative about Zimride was often undermined by their sensebreaking communications and organizational actions, albeit unintentionally.
Research limitations/implications
Sponsoring a sharing platform to facilitate collaborative consumption can deliver triple bottom line benefits for both organizations and their members, but it may not. The key to accruing this potential shared value lies is how site coordinators navigate organizational sensemaking about these IT-enabled CSR programs.
Originality/value
This paper provides valuable insights into these sensemaking processes and develops a prescriptive framework for enacting an organization-sponsored sharing platform as a CSR program.
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Mahmoud M. Watad and Peter C. Will
Telecommuting programs transform communication patterns, performance management, corporate culture, and potentially the work itself. This study addresses middle managers’ views…
Abstract
Telecommuting programs transform communication patterns, performance management, corporate culture, and potentially the work itself. This study addresses middle managers’ views concerning the introduction of telecommuting programs in their organizations. Middle management views are important, because telecommuting directly impacts their positions, and their support is vital to ensure its successful implementation. The findings indicate that the majority of managers perceived cultural change as the most difficult issue to resolve when introducing a telecommuting program.
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Mahmoud M. Watad and Frank J. DiSanzo
This paper examines the organizational issues that arise when an organization transforms its IT infrastructure. The unanticipated changes in the IT infrastructure forced IS…
Abstract
This paper examines the organizational issues that arise when an organization transforms its IT infrastructure. The unanticipated changes in the IT infrastructure forced IS personnel to set new priorities that caused delays in other aspects of their work. There are several problems such as retention and burnout that IS directors must monitor carefully when their organizations introduce complex IT‐based projects that have strategic implications. This study identifies six major tactics that an organization may employ in order to ensure continuity and flexibility in its IS functions. These are: retaining by continuous training, evaluation by objectives, reward for smooth operations, reducing stress and burnout by encouraging creative ideas, job rotation, and finally involving IS personnel in the hiring process of new employees.
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Jenny Weinstein and Markella Boudioni
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the need for a more holistic approach to mental health training that brings together the medical and the social knowledge and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the need for a more holistic approach to mental health training that brings together the medical and the social knowledge and skills required by today's practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on the authors' experience of developing, delivering and evaluating a joint mental health programme at London South Bank University between 2004 and 2008.
Findings
The authors suggest some advantages of the model as indicated by the scant literature, the findings of a small pilot evaluation study and from information recorded and shared by other university providers of joint programmes – the Joint Programmes Forum. Further investigation is recommended.
Research limitations/implications
The absence of systematic evaluation of joint programmes over the 20 years of their existence and the limitations of the evaluation undertaken by the authors is acknowledged.
Originality/value
It is suggested in the paper that a specialist holistic training that incorporates nursing, social work (and in the future possibly occupational therapy and psychology) knowledge and skills would create well‐prepared professionals to work with mental health and learning disability service user groups (and a similar model could equally be explored for older people and people with physical disabilities or long‐term health conditions). This may be considered as a more successful solution to the effective integration of interprofessional education than the current struggles to superimpose it on uni‐professional courses.
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Loretta Newman-Ford, Sophie Leslie and Sue Tangney
This chapter discusses the pilot study of an Education for Sustainable Development Self-Evaluation Tool (ESD-SET), created by the Quality Enhancement Directorate (formerly the…
Abstract
This chapter discusses the pilot study of an Education for Sustainable Development Self-Evaluation Tool (ESD-SET), created by the Quality Enhancement Directorate (formerly the Learning and Teaching Development Unit) at Cardiff Metropolitan University, as both a means of auditing the extent to which academic programs embed ESD and a catalyst for curriculum development.
The chapter evaluates the effectiveness and usefulness of the self-evaluation for both auditing ESD and curriculum development. Responses to the self-evaluation questions by Programme Directors were analyzed and follow-up interviews carried out with the Programme Directors to explore their experiences of the tool.
Results indicate that the self-evaluation tool is fit-for-purpose as a means of auditing the integration of ESD within academic programs. The self-evaluation exercise promoted team discussion around sustainability issues and raised staff awareness and understanding of the concept of ESD and how to effectively embed sustainability-related themes within their discipline. The exercise had a transformative impact on the way some program teams approached curriculum design and delivery. There was evidence that engagement with the tool contributed to further embedding of sustainability within curricula across all disciplines involved in the pilot study.
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Munira Al Wahaibi and Asila Al-Ma’awali
This paper sheds light on one of the educational projects that was launched by Ministry of Education (MOE) in Oman in the academic year 2007–2008. The project, which is called the…
Abstract
This paper sheds light on one of the educational projects that was launched by Ministry of Education (MOE) in Oman in the academic year 2007–2008. The project, which is called the “Cognitive Development Program for Students in Science, Mathematics, and Concepts of Environmental Geography”, was introduced in 741 government schools in response to the low national score in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2007. Hence, the main aim of the program is to develop the students’ science and mathematics capabilities in order to improve their levels in mathematics and science and to give further emphasis to these skills that form the basis of the rapidly changing world. This paper endeavors to acquaint the Gulf Cooperation Council countries with the nature of this program. It also focuses on the impact this program has on mathematics and science teachers’ and on students’ achievements in mathematics, science, and concepts of environmental geography. To achieve this goal, two questionnaires – one for teachers and the other for students – are conducted to measure the effectiveness of the Cognitive Development Program from teachers’ and students’ perspectives. The results of the questionnaires showed that the program has remarkably affected both teachers and students. One of the positive effects of this program was that it has encouraged the teachers to be always updated about what is new in these subject areas and the students are exposed to questions that test their synthesis. However, there are a number of drawbacks to this program from teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Constructive feedback for the program developers and supervisors in the MOE to base improvement is provided.
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Haaveshe Ndeutalala Nekongo-Nielsen and Elizabeth Ndeukumwa Ngololo
Namibian principals are usually placed in leadership positions without orientation and are found to lack skills to supervise teachers in delivering instruction using the English…
Abstract
Purpose
Namibian principals are usually placed in leadership positions without orientation and are found to lack skills to supervise teachers in delivering instruction using the English language. Studies conducted elsewhere in the world found that effective school leadership is needed for the success of professional development programmes. The purpose of this paper is to explore principals’ lived experiences with regard to their roles in the implementation of the English Language Proficiency Programme (ELPP).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper followed a qualitative inquiry with multiple case study designs to explore principals’ lived experiences during the implementation of the ELPP. Ten schools were selected for the analysis, two from each of the five regions. The schools were selected on the basis of remoteness, the total number of teachers who participated in the ELPP, school phases (i.e. primary and combined) and pre-test scores. Principals were interviewed using exploratory open-ended questions, and data analysis produced five categories under which the results were presented.
Findings
The findings indicate that principals applied their individual logic to accommodate and implement the programme. They applied their individual productive leadership habitus to contextualise ELPP activities to ease their workload and appear corporative. Principals had significant influence on teacher learning and ensured successful implementation of a ministerial programme. Moreover, their leadership skills influenced the ways in which teachers received instruction and created a conducive learning environment. Owing to principals’ administrative, instructional and transformational leadership, many teachers participated and transcended upward and some were declared proficient in English.
Research limitations/implications
This study research the effectiveness of leadership regarding English professional development programmes in achieving goals, explore power relations between school principals and education officials when developing and implementing professional development programmes and establish more efficient ways of providing a better leadership model for professional development programmes to achieve goals.
Practical implications
This paper was limited to a few principals at rural schools in selected regions, therefore findings could not be generalised.
Social implications
There is a need for creating opportunities for interactions among all stakeholders who are involved in the development and implementation of English proficiency programmes and to build power relations and work as a team to benefit schools. In order to enhance programme implementation and improve learning outcomes, there is also a need to provide feedback at intervals and find solutions to challenges as a team.
Originality/value
Placing principals in situations without orientation triggered the need for specific leadership logic and particularities to be applied in a context for the success of the programme, which resulted in participation of more teachers in the ELPP. They applied their particularities and productive habitus through administrative, instructional and transformational leadership to enhance learning. Principals appointed English language teachers to instruct and mentor others, and consequently enabled some principals and teachers to exit the programme. Principals achieved these short wins upon realising that one has to cooperate with the authority to ensure achieving desired outcomes.
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