Search results

Telepsychiatry could offer a viable medical service to remote or isolated social communities if it does not generate adverse reactions such as delusional ideation, particularly in patients in settlements without adequate exposure to mainstream culture and internet. We examined subjective reactions to telepsychiatry of randomly selected 84 psychiatric patients from remote locations in Ontario, Canada. They rated the quality of their teleconferencing sessions via 10 item questionnaire and were asked about advantages and disadvantages of telepsychiatry. The majority of patients indicated that they were able to communicate as if physically present (92.9%) and were comfortable with telepsychiatric service (95.2%). They found the sessions as beneficial as direct meetings with their psychiatrist (84.5%) and would use this service again (98.8%). There were no instances of telepsychiatry being associated with adverse reactions in patients from remote communities with inadequate exposure to modern mainstream culture and internet.

This paper examines the historical development of pluralistic ignorance as a construct and its application to organizational studies. Pluralistic ignorance is a social comparison error where an individual holds an opinion, but mistakenly believes that others hold the opposite opinion. Pluralistic ignorance was first developed as an important social construct in the 1920s by social psychologist Floyd Allport, and has been applied to myriad settings in psychology and sociology, including racial segregation, student perceptions of alcohol use, and classroom behavior. Despite work in pluralistic ignorance for over 75 years, it has only recently been applied to management settings. Management scholars have suggested applications of pluralistic ignorance to decision‐making, business ethics, group dynamics, performance appraisal, and burnout. Other management applications are proposed as a means to guide research in pluralistic ignorance in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of the value of Research Parties, a new model of supplementary reference in a social environment.

A survey of multiple choice and open-ended questions was administered to Research Party participants (n = 43) over the course of three semesters to discover the profiles of the undergraduate students who attended and how they heard about the event and to assess the value of the interaction to the student.

Respondents unanimously agreed that their interactions with librarians at Research Parties were helpful because their information seeking needs, including finding sources, learning how to search databases, gaining clarity into the assignment, writing and citing, were met. Respondents also mentioned attributes of the librarian’s disposition or attitude such as enthusiastic conversation, encouragement and patience. Several students reflected on their own learning process and noted that they would seek help from a librarian again.

The results demonstrate that Research Parties are helpful to undergraduate students and a worthwhile model for academic libraries looking to complement their traditional reference services.

While faculty and administrators have verbally expressed excitement about Research Parties, librarian colleagues have anecdotally reported success instituting this model at their institutions, and students have provided informal positive feedback, this is the first time the model has been evaluated more formally to capture its value.

Using a sample of small, regional professional service firms, this paper investigates relationships between firm performance and aspects of strategic planning. Constructs measuring vision, mission, latent abilities, competitor orientation and market orientation are identified using exploratory factor analysis and respondents categorised as non‐planners, informal planners, formal planners and sophisticated planners. Multiple performance measures were used to assess the relationship between these factors and categories and firm performance. While no significant relationship between the performance measures and factors is identified, a significant relationship between net profit and informal planning emerges. These mixed results bring into question the value of the classical strategic planning process as a means of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage in the market analysed.

This paper aims to redefine the peer reference model – using student assistants to staff the reference desk – by expanding it to include upper‐level undergraduate students from various disciplines providing full reference service with minimal supervision as well as performing paraprofessional‐level duties.

Set within a backdrop of budget cuts, severe time and staffing limitations, and increasing demands for library services, the paper assesses the processes and results of implementing this new model of peer reference at a medium‐sized academic library.

The findings suggest that undergraduate students are not only capable but perhaps optimal at providing high‐quality reference service to their peers.

This paper redefines the peer reference model, using a case study carried out in a US university library.