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Article
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Shay O’Toole, Jim Maguire and Pearse Murphy

The use of exercise as an intervention to improve health in the general population is well documented. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether an exercise referral scheme…

Abstract

Purpose

The use of exercise as an intervention to improve health in the general population is well documented. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether an exercise referral scheme can be an effective health promotion tool for male prisoners in Ireland, presenting with mental health symptoms.

Design/methodology/approach

This mixed methods study with a pre- and post-intervention design was conducted in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, which has a capacity for approximately 790 prisoners. Reliable and validated symptom assessment scales were used to assess levels of depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem and anger amongst a sample of 40 prisoners pre- and post-intervention. The scales used were the Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale or DASS-42 (Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995), the Novaco Anger Scale (Novaco, 1994), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and the Zung Self-Rated Anxiety Scale (Zung, 1971). Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with a subset of the participants post-intervention to further test and contextualise the symptom ratings. The data gathered from the self-rating scales were imported into SPSS 22 for statistical testing for significance. Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test was then used to measure significance of changes. Thematic analysis was performed on the qualitative data.

Findings

In the post-intervention, significant levels of improvement were achieved in the levels of depression, anxiety (DASS), anxiety (Zung), stress, anger, and self-esteem for 29 of the 30 prisoners who completed the study. The incidence of normal mood scores rose from 33 to 90 per cent after the intervention; the incidence of extremely severe scores for anxiety changed from 40 to 7 per cent, severe stress scores changed from 27 to 3 per cent, normal stress levels rose from 17 to 73 per cent, marked anger ratings reduced from 40 to 3 per cent and low self-esteem levels reduced from 20 per cent of participants pre-intervention to 7 per cent post-intervention. In the main, participants perceived the experiences and outcomes of the intervention positively.

Research limitations/implications

There are some limitations to the design of this study. Operational circumstances within the prison at the start of this study prevented the authors from accessing a larger sample. A control group would add greatly to the study but this was not possible within a single prison setting. The possible influence of extraneous variables such as increased attention and social contact, and more time out of one’s cell may have contributed to improved symptom scores as much as the exercise intervention in this study. This possibility was recognised from the outset but the authors proceeded because the aim was to test if an exercise referral package (and all that inevitably goes with that) would make a difference for symptomatic prisoners.

Practical implications

The organisation and smooth running of the intervention and the positive results therein underpinned the practicality of this project. The significantly positive results contribute new knowledge to the profile of Irish male prisoners’ mental health.

Social implications

This study could be the foundation for a larger study or set of studies which should include a control group and one or more female prisoner cohorts. The impact of positive changes in prisoners’ mental health on the prison staff and environment could also be researched. This type of study could lead to important social implications in relation to its impact on prisoner rehabilitation.

Originality/value

This study was the first of its kind to explore the effectiveness of exercise referral as a health promotion intervention for Irish male prisoners presenting with mental health symptoms.

Details

International Journal of Prisoner Health, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-9200

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 February 2020

S.M. Riad Shams and Rajibul Hasan

Transnationalism and transnational concept are extensively researched in many social science areas; however, transnational management and transnational marketing is relatively a…

Abstract

Purpose

Transnationalism and transnational concept are extensively researched in many social science areas; however, transnational management and transnational marketing is relatively a less explored research domain. Also, knowledge management for transnational education (TNE) marketing is not well-researched. Capacity building is an established research-stream, with a key focus on socio-economic and ecological development; however, prior research on capacity building from the context of TNE’s knowledge management and marketing is scarce. The purpose of this study is to analyse TNE marketing mix, to understand the influence of transnational stakeholders’ causal scope(s) on knowledge management in TNE to uphold their transnatioalisation processes through capacity building in TNEs’ marketing management.

Design/methodology/approach

An inductive constructivist method is followed.

Findings

Organisational learning from the context of transnational market and socio-economic competitive factors, based on analysing the transnational stakeholders’ causal scope(s) is imperative for proactive knowledge management capacity in TNE marketing. Following the analysis of transnational stakeholders’ causal scope(s) to learn about the cause and consequence of the transnational stakeholders’ relationships and interactions, an initial conceptual framework of knowledge management for TNE marketing is proposed. Practical insights from different TNE markets are developed in support of this novel knowledge management capacity building framework of TNE, and its generalisation perspectives and future research areas are discussed.

Practical implications

These insights will be useful for TNE administrators to better align their knowledge management perspectives and propositions with their transnational stakeholders to underpin TNE marketing. Academics will be able to use these insights as a basis for future research.

Originality/value

This study proposes a novel conceptual stakeholder-centred capacity building framework for TNE’s knowledge management to uphold TNE marketing and supports the framework, based on practical insights from three different transnational markets.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 July 2022

Kirsi Aaltonen and Virpi Turkulainen

In this study, we develop further understanding of how institutional change is created within a mature and local industry. In this pursuit, we examine how a collaborative large…

2126

Abstract

Purpose

In this study, we develop further understanding of how institutional change is created within a mature and local industry. In this pursuit, we examine how a collaborative large project governance model was institutionalized at an industrial sector-level through both industry-level activities and “institutional projects”.

Design/methodology/approach

This study builds on the foundations of institutional fields and institutional change, suggesting that projects are not only shaped by their contexts but also produce institutional change themselves. We conducted extensive fieldwork on the institutionalization of a collaborative project governance model in Finland.

Findings

The findings illustrate how institutional change in governance of large and complex inter-organizational projects is created at the institutional field level. The institutionalized collaborative project governance model includes aspects of both relational and contractual governance. The change was facilitated by temporal links between the institutional projects as well as vertical links between the institutional projects and the field-level development programs.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to address how a collaborative large project governance model becomes the norm at the institutional field level beyond the boundaries of an individual project or organization.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 42 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 October 2018

Donald Sinclair

The Jonestown massacre of 1978 was the largest such event in modern history; it assumes the status of a prototype in many discussions of cult dynamics and mass suicide. This paper…

Abstract

Purpose

The Jonestown massacre of 1978 was the largest such event in modern history; it assumes the status of a prototype in many discussions of cult dynamics and mass suicide. This paper aims to make the case that Jonestown should be memorialised and made into a dark tourism attraction.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is principally the outcome of secondary research conducted over a number of years on the theme of dark tourism. The paper also benefited from direct interviews and conversations with political and ex-military personnel in Guyana who were in some way involved with Jonestown.

Findings

The research establishes that Jonestown remains a matter of great sensitivity and even national embarrassment, with many in the tourism sector reluctant to highlight what they regard as a very negative association, in the market, of Guyana with Jonestown and Jonestown only.

Practical implications

Expressed in context, the paper discusses the place of Jonestown in dark tourism and proposes an operational formula by which the semiotic of Jonestown, as contained in the tourist narrative, transforms tourism into catharsis.

Originality/value

For the author, Jonestown is tourism-imperative because not much longer after that apocalyptic event, the “Jonestown massacre” became a reference in the discourse on dark tourism. Jonestown is too large and archetypal an event to escape research and discussion of its place in the realm of dark tourism. This paper therefore explores, from both theoretical and policy perspectives, the ways in which the narratives of dark tourism can serve to expiate guilt by confronting it and therefore still deserve a place in the tourism imaginary of 2025. As such, the paper should be of value to not only scholars and researchers but also those engaged in tourism planning and destination management.

Details

Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, vol. 10 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4217

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Information Services for Innovative Organizations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-12465-030-5

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 17 October 2017

Abstract

Details

Reflections on Sociology of Sport
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-643-3

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1979

B.O. Pettman, B. Showler and M. Maguire

This monograph presents the results of a two‐year study (1975–77) of the impact of British Government vocational training (GVT) measures in the North Humberside local labour…

Abstract

This monograph presents the results of a two‐year study (1975–77) of the impact of British Government vocational training (GVT) measures in the North Humberside local labour market. This section briefly outlines the general training policy background within which the local provision has operated and outlines the structure of this monograph.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 6 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Book part
Publication date: 27 January 2022

Katie Liston

This chapter examines the (in)visibility and symbolism of women in sports governance on the island of Ireland, taking as its main empirical focus available data on the boards of…

Abstract

This chapter examines the (in)visibility and symbolism of women in sports governance on the island of Ireland, taking as its main empirical focus available data on the boards of government-funded national governing bodies, north and south. The distinctiveness of the Irish case is explained by three factors: the governance minefield, itself a legacy of Irish-British relations and partition in the 1920s, recognisable patterns in gender relations north and south and the functioning of sport as a safe, largely unquestioned and intriguingly vague symbolism for inclusion and peace in Northern Ireland. These conditions have resonance today, not only for women in sport and the approach to quotas, for instance, but that also play out in the delivery of Brexit and the struggles that characterise Irish-British relations more generally. The chapter concludes with a consideration of future challenges and areas for further research.

Details

Gender Equity in UK Sport Leadership and Governance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-207-9

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 January 2022

Torbjörn Ljungkvist, Börje Boers and Jim Andersén

This paper strives to understand the role of resource orchestration (RO) in the rapid growth of high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

1156

Abstract

Purpose

This paper strives to understand the role of resource orchestration (RO) in the rapid growth of high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a comparative case study, RO is compared between a high-tech family firm and a high-tech non-family firm. To capture the complexity of RO, this study applies a longitudinal approach using a large volume of archival and interview data gathered over ten years.

Findings

The configuration of family-firm paradoxical growth-oriented RO emphasizes RO based on collectivism and responsibility, although relying on large-scale conforming normative control. In contrast, the configuration of non-family-firm growth-oriented RO emphasizes administrative-based delegation and management-supported value creation.

Originality/value

By suggesting ownership-based RO configurations, this study provides insights into how ownership types, i.e. family firms and non-family firms, affect RO in firms operating in complex and dynamic environments. These configurations explain how and why RO is arranged in a growth context.

Details

Journal of Family Business Management, vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-6238

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2012

Mark Button, Jim Gee and Graham Brooks

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence, from the analysis of 132 fraud risk measurement exercises, of the average costs and rates of fraud. It advocates greater use of…

3782

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence, from the analysis of 132 fraud risk measurement exercises, of the average costs and rates of fraud. It advocates greater use of more accurate measurement which if monitored and repeated can secure reductions which could amount to a new competitive advantage.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper has analysed 132 fraud risk measurement exercises from nine countries in a range of different sectors. Only those which assess a statistically valid sample which have sought and examined information indicating the presence of fraud, error or correctness in each case within that sample; have been completed and reported; have been externally validated; have a measurable level of statistical confidence; and have a measurable level of accuracy were included. Each exercise has been assessed to determine the percentage loss rate (PLR) and the fraud frequency rate (FFR). These data were analysed using Excel to determine average rates and further comparable data.

Findings

Fraud and error losses in an organisation should currently be expected to be at least 3 per cent, probably more than 5 per cent and possibly more than 9 per cent. The PLR when first measured has been found to be 5.40 per cent and 4.61 per cent when last measured, representing an average reduction of just under 15 per cent. The paper shows fraud and error can be measured and if regularly this incentivizes action to reduce it reaping financial benefits to the organization.

Research limitations/implications

The vast majority of the data are drawn from fraud risk measurement exercises in the public sector in large organizations.

Practical implications

The paper advocates greater use of fraud risk measurement and counter fraud strategies tailored to reduce losses.

Originality/value

This is the first analysis of fraud risk measurement exercises across the globe.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

1 – 10 of 67