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1 – 10 of over 104000Martin Vaughan, Rebecca Milne, Gary Dalton and Steven Retford
High-stake crime investigations include cases such as murder and rape. The purpose of this paper is to outline the components of an interview strategy for suspects. In the UK…
Abstract
Purpose
High-stake crime investigations include cases such as murder and rape. The purpose of this paper is to outline the components of an interview strategy for suspects. In the UK, these interviews are often managed by Interview Managers who are tasked with developing effective interview strategies with the aim of ensuring all parties involved in the interview process are dealt with ethically and legally using research-based methods.
Design/methodology/approach
This practitioner paper is based on the experience of the authors who have provided advice and support during high-stake crime investigations both nationally and internationally using the research-base to underpin their practical advice.
Findings
To be effective, a suspect strategy constructed by an Interview Manager in high-stake crime investigations should be designed within a framework that covers the provision of strategic advice on research-based interview processes including: co-ordination of the interview process, monitoring of the interview process and evaluation of the interview process.
Practical implications
To ensure interviews are effectively managed during high-stake crime investigations, the suspect interview strategy must be developed to a professional standard to allow for quality assurance and outside scrutiny.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first published paper that outlines the nature of a suspect strategy that is based on a Framework consistent with elements of the UK National Occupational Standards.
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The interview is still the main tool in selection, and rather ironically the pressure put on users of psychological tests by the Sex Discrimination and Race Relations Acts may…
Abstract
The interview is still the main tool in selection, and rather ironically the pressure put on users of psychological tests by the Sex Discrimination and Race Relations Acts may lead to even more emphasis being placed on interviews—despite the questions raised about their effectiveness. The research literature on interviewing is substantial and covers a wide range of variables. Strangely, however, one element of the interview situation has scarcely been touched by this research and that is the interviewee. The picture one gets from most studies is that of an inert lump of material being placed in front of the interviewers for them to respond to—the candidate is simply a passive source of information, and the real interest is in how the interviewers go about eliciting and processing this information. Some researchers even dispense with real candidates altogether, preferring to use written pen‐pictures which the “interviewers” assess.
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the successful strategy formulation process of a new purchasing department at an international engineering group.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the successful strategy formulation process of a new purchasing department at an international engineering group.
Design/methodology/approach
The strategy formulation was co-created by the department manager and employees at a storytelling workshop, facilitated with interview technique from narrative therapy, and later authorized by the business area director. The organizational intervention preceded the scholarly inquiry.
Findings
Employees’ retrospective storytelling about working at the company enabled them to formulate a joint mission statement using words and expressions from their own stories. Prospective storytelling enabled them to formulate a joint medium- and long-term vision and a corresponding action plan. This paper proposes interview technique from narrative therapy as a new practice-oriented strategic management tool and calls for further experimentation in rethinking best practices in strategy development.
Originality/value
Introducing narrative therapy interview technique in an organizational context is valuable because it may facilitate affinity of employees to strategy through storytelling thus contributing to contextualized strategy formulation and paving the way for subsequent implementation. This “from practice to research” approach can serve as inspiration for action researchers interested in driving organizational change.
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The purpose of this paper is to educate forensic interviewers about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and tools for interviewing youth with ASD when there are concerns of child…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to educate forensic interviewers about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and tools for interviewing youth with ASD when there are concerns of child sexual abuse (CSA).
Design/methodology/approach
Research is reviewed to discuss risk factors for CSA in youth with ASD, why CSA is often not recognized and research-based strategies for forensically interviewing youth with ASD.
Findings
Youth with ASD are at increased risk of CSA compared to neurotypical peers, but recognition of CSA in youth with ASD can be difficult. Forensic interviewing strategies can help interviewers obtain reports of CSA from youth with ASD.
Practical implications
Given the increase in prevalence of ASD and the increased risk of CSA, forensic interviewers need to have information about ASD, about why CSA may not be recognized, about risk factors for CSA and, especially, about how to accommodate for ASD when conducting forensic interviews.
Originality/value
This paper provides a novel framework for considering evidence-based practices for forensically interviewing youth with ASD when there are concerns of CSA. Specifically, this paper includes multiple, but related areas, in one article including research related to ASD, risk factors for CSA in those with ASD, obstacles to identifying CSA and the implications of this research for specific strategies regarding how to forensically interview youth with ASD when there are concerns of CSA.
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Heidi Korin, Hannele Seeck and Kirsi Liikamaa
The literature on the past triggering learning in strategy practice is scant. To fill this gap, this study aims to examine the meaning of the past to learning in strategy practice…
Abstract
Purpose
The literature on the past triggering learning in strategy practice is scant. To fill this gap, this study aims to examine the meaning of the past to learning in strategy practice and expands on the strategy-as-practice (SAP) literature. Understanding the relationship between the past and learning in strategy practice is important because learning is what keeps strategy practice in motion and remains in place, even if organizations and strategy practitioners change.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a longitudinal case study design combined with historical methods to examine how the past is embedded in present strategy practice. To capture learning in strategy practice over time, the authors applied a four-stage methodology in our analysis of document and interview data.
Findings
The authors identified four dimensions of the past embedded in the present strategy practice. These dimensions emerged from the analysis of the interviews and document data. The study’s results showed that the past appears in structures and routines, materiality, positioning and reflecting over repeated rounds of strategic planning. According to the study’s results, reflecting on strategy practice draws on past structures and routines, positioning and materiality. The past facilitates reflecting and reflecting on the past enables learning in strategy practice.
Originality/value
The authors constructed a conceptual model and showed that in strategy practice, reflection triggers learning. The authors contributed to theory development by demonstrating how the past is embedded in present strategy practice and is available for use by strategy practitioners. The authors showed that strategy practice is a continuous learning process.
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Basil P. Tucker and Lee D. Parker
This aim of this study is to explore the relationship between management control systems (MCSs) and the formulation of strategy in not‐for‐profit (NFP) organisations.
Abstract
Purpose
This aim of this study is to explore the relationship between management control systems (MCSs) and the formulation of strategy in not‐for‐profit (NFP) organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper views the relationship between MCS and strategy through the contrasting lenses of new‐institutional and contingency theory, using data collected from semi‐structured interviews of CEOs and senior executives in 32 Australian NFPs.
Findings
Strategy is formulated predominantly by intended means, through structured strategic planning processes. Emergent strategy is typically a rare means by which strategy is developed, and is in fact often actively discouraged in the NFPs investigated. Contrary to expectations, control is predominantly exercised through informal means, rather than by formally designed systems.
Originality/value
With strategy and control being central concerns for most NFPs, this sector provides a unique vehicle for exploring the “robustness” of prior MCS strategy empirical findings. Investigating the MCS strategy relationship within a highly complex NFP context is thus an “acid test” of existing understanding of the MCS‐strategy nexus. As one of the few studies to investigate the relationship between control and strategy as it may apply in this context, this study refines and further develops extant management control theory.
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Chia-Hsun Chang, Jingjing Xu, Jingxin Dong and Zaili Yang
Container shipping companies face various risks with different consequences that are required to be mitigated. Limited empirical research has been done on identifying and…
Abstract
Purpose
Container shipping companies face various risks with different consequences that are required to be mitigated. Limited empirical research has been done on identifying and evaluating risk management strategies in shipping operations with different risk consequences. This paper aims to identify the appropriate risk mitigation strategies and evaluate the relative importance of these strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature review and interviews were used to identify and validate the appropriate risk mitigation strategies in container shipping operations. A questionnaire with a Likert five-point scale was then conducted to rank the identified risk mitigation strategies in terms of their overall effectiveness. Top six important strategies were selected to evaluate their relative importance under three risk consequences (i.e. financial, reputation and safety and security incident related loss) through using another questionnaire with paired-comparison. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was then conducted to analyse the paired-comparison questionnaire.
Findings
After conducting a systematic literature review and interviews, 18 mitigation strategies were identified. The results from the first questionnaire show that among the 18 strategies, the top three are “form alliances with other shipping companies”, “use more advanced infrastructures (hardware and software)” and “choose partners very carefully”. After conducting fuzzy AHP, the results show that shipping companies emphasize more on reducing the risk consequence of financial loss; and “form alliance with other shipping companies” is the most important risk mitigation strategy.
Originality/value
This paper evaluates the risk mitigation strategies against three risk consequences. Managers can benefit from the systematic identification of mitigation strategies, which shipping companies can consider for adoption to reduce the operational risk impact.
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M.K.C.S. Wijewickrama, Nicholas Chileshe, Raufdeen Rameezdeen and J. Jorge Ochoa
The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, to identify the information-centric strategies of external stakeholders that influence the quality assurance (QA) in the reverse…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, to identify the information-centric strategies of external stakeholders that influence the quality assurance (QA) in the reverse logistics supply chains (RLSC) of demolition waste (DW) and, secondly, to recognize the determinants for using each strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 professionals representing five external stakeholder groups: state and local government agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs), forward supply chain upstream and downstream actors. The data was analyzed based on Creswell's five-step process, and the conventional content analysis was used for coding and generating themes.
Findings
The study found seven information-centric influence strategies: regulating, monitoring, leading, incentivizing, demolition approval, forming contracts and specifications. The state government organizations were the most dominant in influencing the QA in RLSC. All external stakeholders use both aggressive and cooperative strategies. The urgent, legitimate and economic core of the issue decides the type of strategy to exert an information-centric influence over the QA in RLSC of DW.
Originality/value
To the author's best knowledge, this study is one of the first investigations performed based on a theoretical basis within the context of RLSC in the construction industry (CI). This study used empirical data to elaborate the stakeholder theory while providing new knowledge on stakeholder influence, particularly those relevant to information sharing. Thus, this study developed a theoretical base that future researchers in the study domain could use.
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Monir Zaman Mir and Abu Shiraz Rahaman
This paper aims to provide a stakeholder analysis of the environmental management strategies and a two‐dimensional (economic and environmental) performance of an Australian energy…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a stakeholder analysis of the environmental management strategies and a two‐dimensional (economic and environmental) performance of an Australian energy company that seeks environmental excellence. Unlike the dominant largely positivistic studies which seek an association between environmental and financial performance, the paper aims to use the richness of a case study methodology to gain a deeper understanding of how environmental concerns are handled and what outcomes in terms of environmental and economic performance are achieved.
Design/methodology/approach
An in‐depth case study approach involving interviews, archival material and site visits is used in this paper. It starts with a brief engagement with the largely positivistic literature, highlighting the major deficiencies of this scholarship and then presents a more interpretive empirical analysis using an Australian energy company.
Findings
The paper finds that there are socio‐political processes that are enlisted to control, monitor, and instil discipline in the organization's pursuit of its social initiatives, which help to improve both its financial and environmental performance.
Practical implications
The paper provides evidence that environmental and economic performance are not always mutually exclusive, and corporate entities can excel in both simultaneously. The paper also provides evidence that the environmental strategies may be overt attempts at pushing the socio‐political agenda of the dominant stakeholder group. What seems like a win‐win situation may only represent a political‐ethical attempt to promote environmentalism in the Australian energy sector.
Originality/value
This paper uses a two‐stage investigation process to extend one's understanding of the relationship between corporate environmental and financial performance. First, evidence of improving environmental and financial performance of an energy company is provided, and then the paper explores why and how this relationship exists in the second stage of the analysis. The mainstream and critical accounting literature is bridged by focusing on issues that are largely the domain of one sub‐literature with a differentiated case study that is largely encouraged in the other.
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Susanne Kjærbeck and Marianne Wolff Lundholt
The purpose of this paper is to investigate employees’ conflicting perspectives on the business strategy in a Danish housing association through a narrative approach, in order to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate employees’ conflicting perspectives on the business strategy in a Danish housing association through a narrative approach, in order to gain insight into the relation between master- and counter-narratives. The authors discuss the possibility of integrating counter-narratives as a resource in strategy processes. Finally, the usefulness and challenges of the applied narrative approach are addressed.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was undertaken as a case study of strategy communication in a private housing association. The empirical material consists of 16 qualitative interviews from all levels of the organization as well as recordings of meetings where management presents a new strategy to the employees. The study adopts a mixed methods interpretivist approach using focus groups and interviews as data and with a focus on narratives as sense-making resources. The applied method of analysis is based on narratology, sociological action analysis and the concept of “framing.”
Findings
Employees’ counter-narratives focus on practical problems regarding the implementation of the business strategy. They materialize through temporal structures and framing strategies through which employees’ perspectives are presented indirectly and with great care. In spite of their oppositional content, these counter-perspectives cannot be considered to be resistance; on the contrary, employees take great interest in solving the reported problems. Counter-narratives are seemingly useful resources in a form of “reality check” in the organization, in order to elucidate the implementation of the business strategy and make necessary adjustments. The research furthermore points to a more dialogical strategy communication where employees are involved earlier in the process rather than marginalized to “resistant bystanders.”
Originality/value
These findings give insight into the use of narratives as practical meaning construction in an organizational context, and in relation to strategy communication and change.