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1 – 10 of 83Fábio M.R.R. Gonçalves, Carlos J.F. Cândido and Isabel Maria Pereira Luís Feliciano
The purpose is to analyse the influence of inertia and group conformity on loyalty in healthcare.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to analyse the influence of inertia and group conformity on loyalty in healthcare.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation model developed from the literature and tested with cross-sectional data from a patient online survey.
Findings
Inertia is a significant antecedent of loyalty and has a stronger effect in healthcare than in other service sectors. Group conformity has no significant effect in healthcare.
Research Implications
The strength of the impact of inertia [group conformity] on loyalty depends on the importance of the customer need that the service industry satisfies, in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Where inertia (stability need) is equally or more [less] important than the customer need, the influence of inertia on loyalty should be positive and strong [weak or insignificant]. In services that satisfy needs more [equally or less] important than group conformity (belonging need), there may be an insignificant [significant] influence of group conformity on customer loyalty, even [especially] in credence services.
Practical implications
Healthcare providers can exploit the stronger effect of inertia in healthcare through development of inertia-based loyalty policies. Regulatory authorities should be vigilant to ensure that these policies are not detrimental to patients. ‘Inert’ patients must become responsible for assessing their loyalties. Authorities and reference groups must stimulate customer loyalty assessments, and assist by providing impartial information.
Originality/value
This is the first study to address the influence of inertia and group conformity on loyalty in the healthcare sector and, from the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it is the first to do so in any service sector.
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Isabel Pereira and Lucía Ramírez
Colombia has been one of the main cocaine producing countries. The state’s response has been a repressive approach against the primary levels of the coca economy, such as…
Abstract
Colombia has been one of the main cocaine producing countries. The state’s response has been a repressive approach against the primary levels of the coca economy, such as cultivators and consumers. Although recent literature has documented the gendered impacts of drug policy, that is not the case for women who grow illicit crops. This chapter examines the ways drug policy has impacted women coca growers, cocaleras, in Putumayo, Colombia. Cocalero or cocalera is the term referred to rural workers dedicated to the cultivation and harvest of coca leaf. The term is a vindication from these communities, dignifying the rural activities they perform. In this chapter, we will use the term cocalera to refer to women coca growers.
From an intersectional gender perspective, the chapter explores the implications of rural life, gender, armed conflict and illegality over the trajectories of cocaleras in Putumayo, southern Colombia, a region where non-state armed actors, poverty and a precarious state presence converge. In this context, cultivating coca has become the main livelihood for rural families. It has transformed women’s roles within their communities, providing them with economic autonomy they previously did not have, but also located them in vulnerable positions. This chapter – which is an adaption from some chapters of the book ‘Voices from the coca fields: Women Building Rural Communities’ (Dejusticia, 2018 ) – is the outcome of research undertaken through in-depth interviews and social mapping exercises.
Julia Buxton, Lona Lauridsen Burger and Giavana Margo
This chapter presents a broad introduction to women’s varied interactions with drugs and drug markets. It provides a brief overview of the international framework of drug control…
Abstract
This chapter presents a broad introduction to women’s varied interactions with drugs and drug markets. It provides a brief overview of the international framework of drug control and the ways in which drug policy enforcement differently impacts women and men. It highlights the negative and disproportionate impacts on women of criminalisation-based approaches and how drug policy serves to reinforce existing problems of structural discrimination. This provides context for the contributions to this edited collection, which are summarised in the introduction. The book situates drug policy reform as a crucial and underlooked feminist issue.
Vítor Costa, Samuel Monteiro, Ana Isabel Cunha, Henrique Pereira and Graça Esgalhado
The purpose of this study is to systematically review the recent empirical literature on job stress and burnout among prison staff with a focus on predictors, outcomes of stress…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to systematically review the recent empirical literature on job stress and burnout among prison staff with a focus on predictors, outcomes of stress and burnout and the mediating role that stress and burnout can play between its predictors and outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors followed systematic literature review (SLR) protocols for the social sciences, and searches were done on two large research databases: SCOPUS and Web of Science. Articles included in the study were from January 2015 to March 2020. After the screening and eligibility processes, 48 articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, and 33 articles were included in the full-text qualitative analysis.
Findings
Characteristics of the samples, main authors and journals and measures used to assess stress and burnout are presented, showing that most research was done in the USA, with cross-sectional studies using similar measures of stress and burnout. Results from the qualitative analysis were organised around the main research questions. Most studies explored the antecedents of stress and burnout in the context of the job demands – resources model. Common predictors that consistently increase stress and burnout among different samples include perceived dangerousness of the job and work–family conflict. Participation in decision-making and social support consistently decrease job stress.
Originality/value
This paper presents a SLR on stress and burnout among prison officers in a pre-COVID-19 pandemic era, providing an important picture of the published scientific research on the topic as well as implications for theory and practice.
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Silvia Pereira de Castro Casa Nova, Isabel Costa Lourenço and Renato Ferreira LeitãoAzevedo
This study aims to analyse the impacts of an institutional change process on a specific higher education institution in Europe and the trade-offs between the faculty perceptions…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the impacts of an institutional change process on a specific higher education institution in Europe and the trade-offs between the faculty perceptions of success and the organization image during this process, in light of the identity institutional theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The impacts of this institutional change are analysed and discussed based on in-depth interviews conducted with faculty members of the accounting department in which they reflected upon academic success vis-a-vis the career assessment system adopted, followed up by those faculty members’ answering an electronic questionnaire about organizational identity and image perception (Gioia et al., 2000).
Findings
Considering the individual perspectives, faculty are concerned about their vocations and aspirations, with feelings of apprehension and insecurity, perceiving the institutional goals as too high and potentially unattainable. By shifting the priority towards research, costs in terms of losing the institutional excellence in teaching might arise, which has been traditionally keen to the institute’s organizational identity and consistent with faculty’s perceptions of academic success.
Research limitations/implications
As in any research endeavour, some limitations might emerge. First, the authors addressed the context of a specific business school, in a European country. It is certainly true that culture plays a role in terms of both organizational and national levels. The authors acknowledge this as a limitation. Nevertheless, this research takes a “local” stance, the logic of academic evaluation and its impacts on institutional and individual identity formation processes is a worldwide phenomenon. Second, in defining the authors’ selection criteria, the authors excluded the possibility of other voices to be heard, both in the department itself and in the business school. Regarding the department, the authors argue that those are the ones who could influence future decisions, considering that they are the only ones eligible for the governing bodies under the institute’s regulations. Regarding the business school, adding other department(s) means adding other discipline(s) to the authors’ analysis with specific and different dynamics of researching, publishing and teaching, which also impacts the expectations regarding career and academic success.
Practical implications
First, before beginning an institutional change process, it is necessary to assess the vocations and aspirations of its members. The solution requires to reanalyse academic career premises and to reconsider the weights given to each academic activity, or furthermore, to offer more than one career path, so as to make it flexible for each faculty to follow their vocations and aspirations or to adapt to life demands. Second, in terms of organizational identity and image, the challenge is to minimize the gap between the construed external image and the internal identity, striving to achieve a balance between teaching, research, outreach and service.
Originality/value
Because of the nature of the academic work, the authors propose that the application of the theory should be preceded by a careful consideration of what is academic success. The misalignments studied and reported here reveal a multilevel phenomenon, wherein individual academic identities are often in conflict with the institutional image. The authors’ study entails a contribution to the application of the identity institutional theory to academic institutions.
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Ricardo Luiz Pereira Bueno, Fernando Antonio Ribeiro Serra and Isabel Cristina Scafuto
This article aims to examine the related effects between out-of-class activities, mediated by in-class activities, on the perception of course and teacher performance in a flipped…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to examine the related effects between out-of-class activities, mediated by in-class activities, on the perception of course and teacher performance in a flipped classroom institutionalized setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors argue that institutionalized out-of-class (content) and in-class (learning) activities positively impact course and teaching quality perception. This study used a sample of 978 responses from MBA students to conduct a path model analysis to test four hypotheses developed from literature from flipped classroom proposing the positive relationship of out-of-class activities in in-class activities and its influence on the course and teaching performance.
Findings
The findings reported that out-class and in-class activities and educator performance influenced course performance perception. In-class activities mediated the out-of-class activities’ impact and directly impacted educator’s and course performance. Educator performance is positively correlated with course performance. Overall, executives have a positive perception on institutionalized flipped classroom for MBA courses as an effective provision form. The flipped classroom is able to mobilize their experiences and enrich learners’ educational experience.
Research limitations/implications
Only one unit of the higher education organization was studied, and the authors do not consider indirect effects of the environment on variable’s relationships nor the indirect effects whose would be a suggested for future studies.
Originality/value
The present study provides new insights on flipped classroom. This study evidenced that flipped classroom planned and standardized in an institutional level positively impacts the outcome within the context of executive education.
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Suzana Paula Gomes Fernando da Silva Lampreia, José Fernando Gomes Requeijo, José António Mendonça Dias, Valter Martins Vairinhos and Patrícia Isabel Soares Barbosa
The application of condition-based maintenance on selected equipment can allow online monitoring using fixed, half-fixed or portable sensors. The collected data not always allow a…
Abstract
Purpose
The application of condition-based maintenance on selected equipment can allow online monitoring using fixed, half-fixed or portable sensors. The collected data not always allow a straightforward interpretation and many false alarms can happen. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Statistical techniques can be used to perform early failure detection. With the application of Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) Modified Charts and the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) Charts, special causes of variation can be detected online and during the equipment functioning. Before applying these methods, it is important to check data for independence. When the independence condition is not verified, data should be modeled with an ARIMA (p, d, q) model. Parameters estimation is obtained using the Shewhart Traditional Charts.
Findings
With data monitoring and statistical methods, it is possible to detect any system or equipment failure trend, so that we can act at the right time to avoid catastrophic failures.
Originality/value
In this work, an electro pump condition is monitored. Through this process, an anomaly and four stages of aggravation are forced, and the CUSUM and EWMA modified control charts are applied to test an online equipment monitoring. When the detection occurs, the methodology will have rules to define the degree of intervention.
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Teresa Pereira Eugénio, Isabel Costa Lourenço and Ana Isabel Morais
This study aims to identify the legitimacy strategies employed by one of the largest Portuguese cement companies to defend and downplay its sustainability performance and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify the legitimacy strategies employed by one of the largest Portuguese cement companies to defend and downplay its sustainability performance and activities related to two major controversies involving the company: co‐incineration and the location of the Outão plant.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study methodology is employed for the empirical research. Sustainability reports were analysed in order to identify TimorL's sustainability disclosure practices, and semi‐structured interviews were conducted to complement the case analysis. This paper emphasises legitimacy theory and legitimacy repair strategies that were identified by Suchman.
Findings
Legitimacy strategies, including “don’t panic”; “create monitors”; “justify”; “disassociate” and “explain”, were identified in the actions TimorL took after the above‐mentioned controversies. The company initiated a series of actions to respond to the company's “crisis”. The conclusions of the study support the argument that sustainability strategies remain a powerful legitimacy tool.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the scarce research available on the sustainability disclosure and practices of companies by providing new empirical data. It contributes to a better understanding of how companies behave when they are faced with legitimacy gaps and how they act to restore their legitimacy.
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Ana María Barrera-Rodríguez, Paola Andrea Echeverri-Gutiérrez, Isabel Redondo-Ramírez and Leidy Hernández-Ramírez
This article develops a review of the university social responsibility literature to identify the most influential countries, authors, journals, and institutions, their structure…
Abstract
Purpose
This article develops a review of the university social responsibility literature to identify the most influential countries, authors, journals, and institutions, their structure, and research lines.
Design/methodology/approach
The review was carried out from a bibliometric and network analysis of documents published in the Web of Science database.
Findings
In total, 192 documents were found that were scientifically mapped in this field. From the network analysis, four research perspectives were identified: strategic impact management policy, user and its stakeholders, service-learning and its contribution to user, and theories, approaches, and strategies of University Social Responsibility (USR). Finally, the agenda for future research are presented.
Originality/value
The present work carries out a bibliometric and network analysis that seeks to contribute to the literature on USR, identifying its current perspectives and future lines of research.
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