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1 – 10 of 166Jon Freeman, Andrew Vidgen and Ellen Davies‐Edwards
This paper seeks to explore staff experiences of working in Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT). There is a paucity of research in the area and a particular lack of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore staff experiences of working in Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT). There is a paucity of research in the area and a particular lack of in‐depth qualitative accounts of staff experiences with most research focused on output and outcomes of CRHTs, including inpatient admission and bed‐occupancy rates.
Design/methodology/approach
Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to investigate participants' experiences of working in this service context. Five CRHT workers were interviewed about their experiences, including the aspects of their work that they found enjoyable and those that they found stressful, and how they coped with challenges related to the work.
Findings
Three master themes, each with corresponding subordinate themes, emerged from the analysis. These were: “motivating factors”, “stressors” and “coping”. These findings indicated these subjective experiences emphasised the opportunities to make a difference and help service users and build therapeutic relationships. Perceived stressors were understood in the context of a complex service context, operational issues, responsibility for service users, and supervision and training needs.
Research limitations/implications
The implications of the research for CRHT staff are discussed as well as the limitations of this study.
Originality/value
This study offers a timely development in understanding the experiences of staff working in CRHTs.
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Stephen Keith McGrath and Stephen Jonathan Whitty
The purpose of this paper is to create a “refined” (with unnecessary elements removed) definition of the term stakeholder, thereby removing confusion surrounding the use of this…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to create a “refined” (with unnecessary elements removed) definition of the term stakeholder, thereby removing confusion surrounding the use of this term from the general and project management arenas.
Design/methodology/approach
A method of deriving refined definitions for a group of terms by ensuring there are no unnecessary elements causing internal conflict or overlap is adopted and applied to resolve the confusion.
Findings
The refined definitions of stake and stakeholder are in terms of an interest and activity. This avoids all extensions of meaning introduced by defining particular types of stakeholders and/ or their degrees of impact. It also resolves the multiplicity of conflicting meanings possible when silent or assumed qualifiers of a word are ignored, restricting definition to, for example, project stakeholders or stakeholders of a firm. These definitions are carried forward into a mapping of the stakeholder locus of interest on an activity rather than a company base, enabling generic categorisation of stakeholders to be proposed for use in both private and public sectors. A governance difficulty with the term customer also emerged and a resolution to this is proposed.
Research limitations/implications
Resolution of the academic contention around the definition of stakeholders will facilitate future research endeavours by removing confusion surrounding the term. It can also provide clarity in governance arrangements in public and private sectors. Verification of the method used through its success in deriving this “refined” definition suggests its suitability for application to other contested terms.
Practical implications
Projects and businesses alike can benefit from removal of confusion around the definition of stakeholder in the academic research they fund and attempt to apply.
Social implications
A refined definition of the stakeholder concept will facilitate building social and physical systems and infrastructure, benefitting organisations, whether public, charitable or private.
Originality/value
Clarity results in the avoidance of confusion and misunderstanding together with their consequent waste of time, resources and money.
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Jon McNaughtan, Ryan Litsey and Nichole Morelock
Many scholars and practitioners have attempted innovative teaching practices in an effort to make complex ideas easier to comprehend and retain. The purpose of this study was to…
Abstract
Purpose
Many scholars and practitioners have attempted innovative teaching practices in an effort to make complex ideas easier to comprehend and retain. The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between learning and the use of 3D models created to provide physical representations of abstract concepts students could hold and manipulate.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a quasi-experimental design, we test both the students' initial comprehension of the concept and their retention of the information four weeks later when the course concluded.
Findings
Findings included an initial boost in information retention and a likely increased retention of the information, showing promising trajectories for incorporating 3D objects to enhance teaching in the classroom.
Originality/value
This study provides a unique analysis of the use of 3D printing technology to illustrate abstract concepts. This teaching innovation provides another example of how technology can enhance and engage students through active learning. We find that this approach can increase student retention of material.
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Denise Linda Parris, Adrien Bouchet, Jon Welty Peachey and Danny Arnold
Creating value through service innovation requires new processes and ways of communicating to multiple stakeholders. Institutions and stakeholders within the service ecosystem…
Abstract
Purpose
Creating value through service innovation requires new processes and ways of communicating to multiple stakeholders. Institutions and stakeholders within the service ecosystem, however, often resist change. Adopting a new service strategy entails two distinct costs – monetary and psychological. The tensions between an organization’s need to generate incremental revenue and the challenges of balancing business as usual and the costs associated with service innovation are explored. Specifically, this paper aims to explore the adoption of a customer relationship management (CRM) technology solution in a bureaucratic setting, and the sequence of events needed for successful implementation, with emphasis on overcoming various barriers and hurdles.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study methodology is used to gather and analyze data on how the Arizona State University (ASU) athletic department responded to the changing competitive environment via adopting a CRM technology solution. Data collection consisted of ten semi-structured interviews.
Findings
The experience of ASU illustrates that the primary benefits of a CRM technology solution include the generation of incremental revenue, capturing data and personalized marketing. The main challenges are coordinating adoption, obtaining commitment, developing competency, estimating costs and creating content.
Research limitations/implications
A conceptual framework emerged from the data that describes the likelihood of a service technology’s successful implementation based upon the interaction of the strength of key actors, organizational situation perception and organizational commitment. The model extends the proposed duality of service innovation outcomes as either success or failure to acknowledge the likelihood of a partial implementation where marginal success is achieved.
Practical implications
The sequence of events needed for successful implementation of a service technology is highlighted, with emphasis on overcoming various barriers and hurdles. Implementation steps are provided, as well as a model to help pinpoint issues.
Originality/value
The case study provides insight for overcoming pitfalls and barriers to adopting a new service technology in a traditionally bureaucratic organization where resistance to change is the norm, and innovation is not.
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This paper aims to show how organisation theory can be used to understand the controversy between the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives. Rationalistic and open system…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show how organisation theory can be used to understand the controversy between the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives. Rationalistic and open system theories may enhance research on corporate governance by offering well-defined concepts and by specifying core relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper applies descriptions of the two perspectives in organisation theory as a “method” for illustrating how they are linked to and support the shareholder versus the stakeholder perspectives.
Findings
The controversy stems from the fact that the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives address different relationships. The shareholder perspective captures two relationships that accord with rationalistic organisation theory: shareholders are managing the managers and the organisation, and managers are managing the corporation on behalf of the owners. The stakeholder perspective focuses on three relationships that are not concordant with system theory: managers are managing the shareholders (i.e. the symbolic management of stockholders), managers are managing the corporation (i.e. general management theory) and managers are managing the stakeholders.
Research limitations/implications
Organisation theory provides suggestions for more fruitful definitions of the often-used concepts of direction, control, administration and influence. These terms may be substituted with the well-defined concepts of management, power and control.
Practical implications
Proponents of organisation theory find it theoretically difficult to deal with the topic of corporate governance, if they do at all. When they do, they do it only perfunctorily.
Originality/value
Organisation theory may strengthen research on corporate governance if we insist on both theoretical clarifications of major relationships and on the use of more strictly defined concepts.
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Some scholars have claimed that CEOs make decisions, while boards of directors control these decisions by applying the concepts of decision management and decision control. These…
Abstract
Purpose
Some scholars have claimed that CEOs make decisions, while boards of directors control these decisions by applying the concepts of decision management and decision control. These concepts were suggested more than 30 years ago and are still applied in corporate governance research. They are now challenged on the basis of scholarship on corporate governance and management.
Design/methodology/approach
Corporate governance addresses the authority and responsibility that boards of directors and executives have. Management theory addresses planning and control in corporations.
Findings
The relationship between the owners (the boards of directors) and the top managers is hierarchical. This paper concludes that owners or boards of directors make decisions on main and strategic goals. Decisions cannot be controlled, but the implementation and outcomes of plans can. The latter is managers’ responsibility. The terms “decision management” and “decision control” are undefined and do not describe what takes place in organizations.
Research limitations/implications
This paper does not contain any new empirical data.
Originality/value
Management theory offers clear definitions of decisions, decision-making and control. The concepts of decision management (initiation and implementation) and decision control (ratification and monitoring) neither properly describe who makes major and strategic decisions nor how and who controls the consequences of these decisions.
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The purpose of this paper is to argue for an archaeological expedition of sorts, to search for and to uncover a host of stories which might assist us in piecing together a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue for an archaeological expedition of sorts, to search for and to uncover a host of stories which might assist us in piecing together a framework worth dedicating our future lives to understanding ageing.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a theoretical paper on ageing.
Findings
An individual's experience of ageing is integrally bound to questions of culture – particularly the systems of meaning within culture – and context. Just as there is not “one true story of aging”, so the paper suggests that we must have multiple narratives to assist us in building our own models of successful ageing.
Originality/value
Narratives of successful ageing, like all narratives, are never told in a vacuum. Rather, there must be those who are able to hear them, often stretching themselves beyond their own experiences, even beyond their own cultural frameworks. This has strong implications for researchers of successful ageing: together, we must try to meet the challenge of listening to diversity.
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