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Article
Publication date: 1 December 2001

Jeff Gold and David Holman

Social constructionist perspectives are becoming increasingly influential in organisational and management studies. Evaluates an experientially based personal development module…

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Abstract

Social constructionist perspectives are becoming increasingly influential in organisational and management studies. Evaluates an experientially based personal development module on a management diploma that was re‐designed according to social constructionist ideas about learning and managerial activity. In particular, the paper assesses whether storytelling and argument analysis are viable elements in experientially based teaching, and considers how they mediate the processes of learning and action. It is concluded that storytelling and argument analysis are viable techniques, that they facilitate multiple perspective taking and negotiation and help in the creation of intelligible solutions in joint action with others. While accepting that there are a number of difficulties with the approach, we suggest that it provides management educators with another method of experiential learning, and that it is particularly appropriate to those wishing to encourage managers to explore and develop social constructionist perspectives in a practical and action orientated way.

Details

Career Development International, vol. 6 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1362-0436

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 January 2019

John Storey, Richard Holti, Jean Hartley and Martin Marshall

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings arising from a three year research project which investigated a major system-wide change in the design of the NHS in England…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings arising from a three year research project which investigated a major system-wide change in the design of the NHS in England. The radical policy change was enshrined in statute in 2012 and it dismantled existing health authorities in favour of new local commissioning groups built around GP Practices. The idea was that local clinical leaders would “step-up” to the challenge and opportunity to transform health services through exercising local leadership. This was the most radical change in the NHS since its inception in 1948.

Design/methodology/approach

The research methods included two national postal surveys to all members of the boards of the local groups supplemented with 15 scoping case studies followed by six in-depth case studies. These case studies focused on close examination of instances where significant changes to service design had been attempted.

Findings

The authors found that many local groups struggled to bring about any significant changes in the design of care systems. But the authors also found interesting examples of situations where pioneering clinical leaders were able to collaborate in order to design and deliver new models of care bridging both primary and secondary settings. The potential to use competition and market forces by fully utilising the new commissioning powers was more rarely pursued.

Practical implications

The findings carry practical implications stemming from positive lessons about securing change even under difficult circumstances.

Originality/value

The paper offers novel insights into the processes required to introduce new systems of care in contexts where existing institutions tend to revert to the status quo. The national survey allows accurate assessment of the generalisability of the findings about the nature and scale of change.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2003

Denise Laframboise, Rodney L. Nelson and Jason Schmaltz

The new management paradigm states that managing people is about managing feelings. For many people, change is a verypersonal and emotional issue, and can be difficult, especially…

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Abstract

The new management paradigm states that managing people is about managing feelings. For many people, change is a very personal and emotional issue, and can be difficult, especially when it involves their work environment. Employee resistance can pose significant obstacles to the planning and development of an office space relocation, particularly for projects that attempt to change the way in which people work. The relocation of employees is expensive, in terms of both operational costs and investments. This paper deals with both the psychological as well as the economic impacts of introducing a change. It is intended to equip facility managers who are delivering projects to understand not only the change process, but also more importantly, to discern why employees resist change and provide them with a multifaceted approach to facilitating the change process. One key element for managing the resistance to change is the use of effective, ongoing and varied communication vehicles. This paper includes an inventory of recommended communication tools that have proved to be both effective and successful. It will share experiences through ‘lessons learned’, that will demonstrate how ‘skipping steps’ in the process can jeopardise the success of the project. It is hoped to establish that time and resources expended towards the management of the resistance to change equate to time and effort well spent and can make the difference between success and failure.

Details

Journal of Facilities Management, vol. 1 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-5967

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2000

John Storey and Elizabeth Barnett

Large numbers of organizations are taking great interest in the idea of knowledge management and many are launching knowledge management initiatives and programmes. A large…

13935

Abstract

Large numbers of organizations are taking great interest in the idea of knowledge management and many are launching knowledge management initiatives and programmes. A large proportion of such initiatives will fail. Yet, despite the injunctions to “learn from failure”, little detailed attention has been paid to why and how these apparently popular initiatives run into difficulties. The purpose of this article is to examine, in some unusual detail, a significant example of a failed knowledge management initiative in order to analyse what went wrong and to identify the key learning points.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 June 2009

David Johnstone

In this article, David Johnstone describes an innovative community mentoring service in Devon that is delivering a personalised service to people over 50 who have experienced some…

Abstract

In this article, David Johnstone describes an innovative community mentoring service in Devon that is delivering a personalised service to people over 50 who have experienced some kind of downturn in their lives, alongside community capacity building activity that is providing opportunities for many excluded older people in Devon.

Details

Working with Older People, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-3666

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1984

Rhea Joyce Rubin

Bernard Malamud said “…a short story packs a self in a few pages predicating a lifetime. The drama is tense, happens fast, and is more often than not outlandish. In a few pages…

Abstract

Bernard Malamud said “…a short story packs a self in a few pages predicating a lifetime. The drama is tense, happens fast, and is more often than not outlandish. In a few pages the story portrays the complexity of a life while producing the surprise and effect of knowledge…” According to Helen Haines, “The short story may be, perhaps, best defined as the equivalent in fiction to the lyric in poetry and the one‐act play in drama: the intensified, concentrated expression of an idea or theme…It demands greater, but less sustained, mastery of style than does the novel…The brevity of the short story, while it limits, also makes for freedom…” The freedoms it allows include posing problems without solutions, ignoring logical development to a conclusion, and referring to vague ideas which are never detailed. These allowable omissions of the short story lead to its great power for the reader. For a short story is only completed through the interaction of its reader. “The readers are forced into active collaboration: they flesh out the story through memory, sympathy, and insight, and they feel its truth as immediately as a toothache.”

Details

Collection Building, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0160-4953

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1947

R.S. MORTIMER

It is now forty years since there appeared H. R. Plomer's first volume Dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to

Abstract

It is now forty years since there appeared H. R. Plomer's first volume Dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667. This has been followed by additional Bibliographical Society publications covering similarly the years up to 1775. From the short sketches given in this series, indicating changes of imprint and type of work undertaken, scholars working with English books issued before the closing years of the eighteenth century have had great assistance in dating the undated and in determining the colour and calibre of any work before it is consulted.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1991

John West is one of Britain's most famous and best known brands, easily recognised on any supermarket shelf, not only for its canned fish products, but also for a wide range of…

Abstract

John West is one of Britain's most famous and best known brands, easily recognised on any supermarket shelf, not only for its canned fish products, but also for a wide range of other canned food lines, which include fruits, in particular fruits in juice, and meats, such as corned beef. But it's for its fish that John West is best known, having earned an unrivalled reputation for quality and excellence among all its customers. From the ever popular salmon and tuna, to more specialist items such as dressed crab or king prawns, John West Foods prides itself in supplying the very best possible product.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science, vol. 91 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1935

OF old the public library was wont to take its reputation from the character of the newsroom. That room, as everyone knows, attracts every element in the community and it may be…

Abstract

OF old the public library was wont to take its reputation from the character of the newsroom. That room, as everyone knows, attracts every element in the community and it may be it attracts especially the poorer elements;—even at times undesirable ones. These people in some towns, but perhaps not so often now‐a‐days, have been unwashen and often not very attractive in appearance. It was natural, things being as they are, that the room should give a certain tone to the institution, and indeed on occasion cause it to be avoided by those who thought themselves to be superior. The whole level of living has altered, and we think has been raised, since the War. There is poverty and depression in parts of the country, it is true; but there are relief measures now which did not exist before the War. Only those who remember the grinding poverty of the unemployed in the days, especially the winter days, before the War can realise what poverty really means at its worst. This democratic levelling up applies, of course, to the public library as much as to any institution. At present it may be said that the part of the library which is most apparent to the public and by which it is usually judged, is the lending or home‐reading department. It therefore needs no apology if from time to time we give special attention to this department. Even in the great cities, which have always concentrated their chief attention upon their reference library, to‐day there is an attempt to supply a lending library service of adequate character. We recall, for example, that the Leeds Public Library of old was first and foremost a reference library, with a lending library attached; to‐day the lending library is one of the busiest in the kingdom. A similar judgment can be passed upon Sheffield, where quite deliberately the city librarian would restrict the reference library to works that are of real reference character, and would develop more fully the lending library. In Manchester, too, the new “Reference Library”—properly the new Central Library—has a lending library which issues about 1,500 volumes daily. There must be all over the country many libraries issuing up to a thousand volumes each a day from their central lending departments. This being the case the department comes in for very careful scrutiny.

Details

New Library World, vol. 38 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 19 February 2018

Andrew Stott and Helena Priest

Existing literature has examined what recovery means to people with co-occurring difficulties, but does little to examine experiences of recovery as a process. The purpose of this…

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Abstract

Purpose

Existing literature has examined what recovery means to people with co-occurring difficulties, but does little to examine experiences of recovery as a process. The purpose of this paper is to use a narrative approach to explore the process of recovery as an individual journey in a social context. It focuses on people who use alcohol in order to explore the impact of alcohol’s specific cultural meanings on the recovery journey.

Design/methodology/approach

Ten interviews with people with coexisting mental health and alcohol misuse difficulties were conducted, audio-recorded, and transcribed. The transcriptions were analysed using narrative analysis.

Findings

Most participants’ narratives shared a three-part structure, from a traumatic past, through an episode of change, to an ongoing recovery phase. Change and recovery were attributed to several factors including flexible and practical support from services, therapeutic relationships with key professionals, and peer support. Some participants redefined themselves and their alcohol use in relation to ideas of what it is to be “normal”.

Research limitations/implications

The research excluded people who recover outside of services, replicating a shortcoming of much research in this area.

Practical implications

The value placed on professionals having specialised therapeutic skills in working with trauma highlights the need for training in this area. The role for practical and material support underlines the importance of multi-agency working.

Originality/value

The narrative methodology enables the study to draw links between personal stories of recovery and wider social influences, allowing comment on the implications for services. Further, the experiences of people with coexisting mental health and alcohol misuse difficulties have rarely been studied apart from the dual diagnosis population in general, so this paper is able to investigate the specific challenges for this population.

Details

Advances in Dual Diagnosis, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-0972

Keywords

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