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1 – 10 of 326Discusses the creation of self‐directed teams in the service industry in a bid to improve processing time, reduce the number of “hand‐offs” and create more interesting…
Abstract
Discusses the creation of self‐directed teams in the service industry in a bid to improve processing time, reduce the number of “hand‐offs” and create more interesting customer‐focused jobs for employees. Explores the definition of a self‐directed team, and reviews service organizations which use them. Questions the merits of system and provides three factors for consideration ‐ interdependence, supportive culture and management skill and willingness. Gives a structure for redesigning service organizations into self‐directed teams, and suggests that, when working efficiently, this system can revolutionize the workplace by providing a faster service for customers and greater job satisfaction for employees.
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Jill Kickul, Fiona Wilson, Deborah Marlino and Saulo D. Barbosa
The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons behind the significant gender gaps observed in entrepreneurial interest among adolescents. Specifically, the authors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons behind the significant gender gaps observed in entrepreneurial interest among adolescents. Specifically, the authors aim to test multiple models that analyze direct and indirect relationships between work and leadership experience, presence of a parental role model, self‐efficacy, and interest by teens in becoming entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of over 5,000 middle and high school students participated in the larger study from which the data were drawn. Participants completed measures of entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, entrepreneurial intentions, work and leadership experience, and parental entrepreneurial role model. The authors analyzed the data using structural equation modeling.
Findings
While the study confirmed previous empirical findings regarding the antecedents of entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions, significant differences across gender emerged. First, while boys and girls hold jobs outside of school in comparable numbers, this work experience is much more powerful in generating self‐efficacy among boys. Additionally, the findings indicated that self‐efficacy seemed to have a stronger effect on entrepreneurial interest for girls than for boys, and that having an entrepreneurial mother or father had a significant and positive effect on girls' (but not boys') levels of the entrepreneurial interest.
Research limitations/implications
Common method variance and other typical limitations of cross‐sectional self‐report surveys are acknowledged. Future research should use longitudinal and multi‐method approaches to overcome such limitations.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that feeling like they are able to succeed as entrepreneurs might count more for girls than for boys when considering career options, and demonstrate the value of entrepreneurial role models for young girls, especially those who already have the confidence and perceived skills to launch their own future ventures.
Originality/value
The paper documents research that represents one of the few large‐scale studies of US teens examining entrepreneurial intentions and antecedents across gender.
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Jill Davies and George Matuska
Research into the skills and competencies required by staff working with people with learning disabilities has concentrated on staff views. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Research into the skills and competencies required by staff working with people with learning disabilities has concentrated on staff views. The purpose of this paper is to explore what people with learning disabilities want from the workforce supporting them. The evaluation was commissioned by Health Education England working across Kent, Surrey and Sussex (HEE KSS).
Design/methodology/approach
An easy read questionnaire, co-produced with people with learning disabilities, was completed with 70 participants, 65 of whom attended one of 10 workshops. Two questionnaires were also completed by parents on behalf of their child. The workshops also allowed for open discussion.
Findings
People with learning disabilities value a workforce with a positive attitude, with staff who are skilled in supporting people to gain independence and have a voice.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are relevant to staff recruitment, matching of staff to services and staff training.
Originality/value
Although there is some previous research around service user views, this evaluation had a larger sample size. The findings were similar to previous studies, particularly around the kind of qualities required from staff, which were the ability to listen, have trust and be able to learn specific skills. Although the highest representation was from young people and young adults, participants ranged from 12 to over 65 years. Differences in views according to participant age ranges are also noted.
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Vari M. Drennan, Jill Manthorpe and Steve Ilifffe
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the question of how to meet the needs of older people living at home with dementia who have problems with continence. The paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the question of how to meet the needs of older people living at home with dementia who have problems with continence. The paper is focused on social care practice in community settings.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is practice focused and draws on the authors’ research and experiences in clinical care, workforce development and service improvement.
Findings
This paper summarises research on incontinence and its negative effects on quality of life and care relationships. It describes the impact of incontinence in terms of social embarrassment, restricted social activity, extra work (such as laundry) and costs, but also distress. It links research with care practice, with a focus on people with dementia who may be at particular risk of both continence problems and of assumptions that nothing can be done to assist them.
Social implications
This paper provides questions that could be addressed in commissioning and provision of services and argues that they need to be informed by care practitioners’ experiences. It provides details of sources of support that are available at national and local levels.
Originality/value
This paper draws together research on continence and social care practice to provide a series of self-assessment questions for local services. It focuses on social care workers who are at the frontline of practice including personal assistants and carers.
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Rachel Trees and Dianne Marion Dean
This purpose of this study is to examine the fluidity of family life which continues to attract attention. This is increasingly significant for the intergenerational…
Abstract
Purpose
This purpose of this study is to examine the fluidity of family life which continues to attract attention. This is increasingly significant for the intergenerational relationship between adult children and their elderly parents. Using practice theory, the aims are to understand the role of food in elderly families and explore how family practices are maintained when elderly transition into care.
Design/methodology/approach
A phenomenological research approach was used as the authors sought to build an understanding of the social interactions between family and their lifeworld.
Findings
This study extends theory on the relationship between the elderly parent and their family and explores through practice theory how families performed their love, how altered routines and long standing rituals provided structure to the elderly relatives and how care practices were negotiated as the elderly relatives transitioned from independence to dependence and towards care. A theoretical framework is introduced that provides guidance for the transition stages and the areas for negotiation.
Research limitations/implications
This research has implications for food manufacturers and marketers, as the demand for healthy food for the elderly is made more widely available, healthy and easy to prepare. The limitations of the research are due to the sample located in East Yorkshire only.
Practical implications
This research has implications for brand managers of food manufacturers and supermarkets that need to create product lines that target this segment by producing healthy, convenience food.
Social implications
It is also important for health and social care policy as the authors seek to understand the role of food, family and community and how policy can be devised to provide stability in this transitional and uncertain lifestage.
Originality/value
This research extends the body of literature on food and the family by focussing on the elderly cared for and their family. The authors show how food can be construed as loving care, and using practice theory, a theoretical framework is developed that can explain the transitions and how the family negotiates the stages from independence to dependence.
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Vocational education and training (VET) programmes are key contributors to skill and talent development for nations worldwide, as aligned with the UN’s sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
Vocational education and training (VET) programmes are key contributors to skill and talent development for nations worldwide, as aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). The purpose of this paper is to explore gender inclusion in VET programmes from an economic feminist (EF) theoretical perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This integrative literature review identified and analysed relevant empirical studies to create a more comprehensive representation of supports for global gender equity and economic growth through VET.
Findings
A gap exists between EF theory, human resource development and VET practices. Consequently, instructor preparation and practice do not adequately contribute to equitable workplaces beyond VET programmes. VET programmes continually struggle to create inclusive environments that support women and challenge masculinized fields and workplace norms.
Research limitations/implications
This paper limits empirical studies addressing gender in VET. Future empirical work should investigate the value to students, instructors and communities when masculine industry norms are reconstructed and redesigned for gender inclusivity.
Practical implications
VET advisors and instructors are influential in contextualizing vocational fields for students and influencing students’ career trajectories. Women need more accessible training and employment in traditional masculine industries.
Originality/value
This comprehensive review of gender in VET can aid in inclusivity efforts of programmes and employers and support nations’ efforts to achieve the UN’s SDGs.
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Changing organisations is not only challenging but all too often atime when the newly hired manager has a high propensity to fail. Onecritical dimension of success in a…
Abstract
Changing organisations is not only challenging but all too often a time when the newly hired manager has a high propensity to fail. One critical dimension of success in a new job ‐the relationship with the boss – is explored, outlining five critical aspects of building this relationship.
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THAT WAS A BRAVE and surprising report that Prof. Elie Kedourie sent in to the Centre for Policy Studies, the more so because the professor is himself working at London University.
THE enterprise of two London newspapers, the Tribune (for the second time) and the Daily Chronicle, in organizing exhibitions of books affords a convenient excuse for once…
Abstract
THE enterprise of two London newspapers, the Tribune (for the second time) and the Daily Chronicle, in organizing exhibitions of books affords a convenient excuse for once again bringing forward proposals for a more permanent exhibition. On many occasions during the past twenty years the writer has made suggestions for the establishment of a central book bazaar, to which every kind of book‐buyer could resort in order to see and handle the latest literature on every subject. An experiment on wrong lines was made by the Library Bureau about fifteen years ago, but here, as in the exhibitions above mentioned, the arrangement was radically bad. Visiting the Daily Chronicle show in company with other librarians, and taking careful note of the planning, one was struck by the inutility of having the books arranged by publishers and not by subjects. Not one visitor in a hundred cares twopence whether books on electricity, biography, history, travel, or even fairy tales, are issued by Longmans, Heinemann, Macmillan, Dent or any other firm. What everyone wants to see is all the recent and latest books on definite subjects collected together in one place. The arrangements at the Chronicle and Tribune shows are just a jumble of old and new books placed in show‐cases by publishers' names, similar to the abortive exhibition held years ago in Bloomsbury Street. What the book‐buyer wants is not a miscellaneous assemblage of books of all periods, from 1877 to date, arranged in an artistic show‐case and placed in charge of a polite youth who only knows his own books—and not too much about them—but a properly classified and arranged collection of the newest books only, which could be expounded by a few experts versed in literature and bibliography. What is the use of salesmen in an exhibition where books are not sold outright? If these exhibitions were strictly limited to the newest books only, there would be much less need for salesmen to be retained as amateur detectives. Another decided blemish on such an exhibition is the absence of a general catalogue. Imagine any exhibition on business lines in which visitors are expected to cart away a load of catalogues issued separately by the various exhibitors and all on entirely different plans of arrangement! The British publisher in nearly everything he does is one of the most hopeless Conservatives in existence. He will not try anything which has not been done by his grandfather or someone even more remote, so that publishing methods remain crystallized almost on eighteenth century lines. The proposal about to be made is perhaps far too revolutionary for the careful consideration of present‐day publishers, but it is made in the sincere hope that it may one day be realized. It has been made before without any definite details, but its general lines have been discussed among librarians for years past.