Search results
1 – 10 of 31Lisa Worrall, Katy Harris, Roy Stewart, Andrew Thomas and Peter McDermott
This paper aims to identify the main barriers that lead to the under‐representation of women in the UK construction industry. The study, funded by ConstructionSkills, seeks to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the main barriers that lead to the under‐representation of women in the UK construction industry. The study, funded by ConstructionSkills, seeks to explore the issues that women face and investigate the potential positive impact that continuous professional development (CPD) may have upon improving the retention and career progression of women.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses an open‐ended grounded theory (GT) approach, including 231 semi‐structured questionnaires and nine focus groups with women from a range of professional occupations. All the findings were analysed using keyword analysis to identify the top two barriers that women face, alongside a series of cross‐cutting key themes and issues.
Findings
The findings reveal that male‐dominated organisational cultures and inflexible working practices are the main barriers to women in the UK construction industry, irrespective of job role or profession. This paper concludes by arguing for a sea‐change in the expansion of CPD opportunities for women in managerial, confidence and communication based skills, with accompanying networking and support systems to facilitate the retention and advancement of women in the industry sector.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the research approach, the data are not generalisable. Therefore, researchers are advised to research and test the findings with a larger group. Researchers are also recommended to investigate the impact of expanded CPD opportunities for both men and women.
Originality/value
The paper puts forward a business case for the advancement of specific CPD training for women, to facilitate the expansion of equality and diversity in the workforce in the UK construction industry.
Details
Keywords
Charlotte N. E. Tompkins, Joanne Neale, Laura Sheard and Nat M. J. Wright
Imprisonment is common among drug users. However, historically healthcare for injecting drug users in prison in England and Wales has not been equivalent to that offered in…
Abstract
Imprisonment is common among drug users. However, historically healthcare for injecting drug users in prison in England and Wales has not been equivalent to that offered in community settings. Fiftyone injecting drug users who had a history of imprisonment were interviewed. Interviews focused on the experiences of drug‐related care and treatment in prison. The interviews were analysed using the Framework method. Accounts of prison drug treatment experiences provided valuable insights into drug treatment in the English prison. The participants’ accounts provided a historical perspective, many of which reflected the different practices of different prisons and prison staff and the changes in policy and practice that have occurred in prison healthcare over recent decades. Positive and negative experiences of healthcare and drug treatment in prison were discussed. Issues that affected levels of drug use inside prisons and their receipt of care, support and treatment in prison included prescribing policies, illicit drug availability and prison staff and doctor attitudes. Whilst negative experiences of prison and drug treatment prevailed, users identified that recent policy and practice changes had positively influenced healthcare provision for drug users in prison, particularly the provision of opiate maintenance therapy. Drug users often saw prison as an opportunity to detoxify and contemplate their drug use. Further work needs to build on the positive experiences identified to ensure that prison drug treatment in England and Wales is consistent, effective and efficient in the future.
Details
Keywords
Gaurangi Laud, Cindy Yunhsin Chou and Wei Wei Cheryl Leo
Recent marketing research provides conceptual models to investigate the well-being of collectives, but service system well-being (SSW) remains untested empirically. This research…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent marketing research provides conceptual models to investigate the well-being of collectives, but service system well-being (SSW) remains untested empirically. This research conceptualises and develops a measure for SSW at the micro, meso and macro levels.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a series of studies, a multidimensional SSW scale is developed and validated to ensure its generalisability. After the development of preliminary items, Study 1 (N = 435 of service employees) was used to purify items using factor analyses. Study 2 (N = 592 of service employees) used structural equation modelling (SEM) with AMOS and SmartPLS to test the scale's dimensionality, reliability and validity.
Findings
The results confirm the validity and reliability of the nine dimensions of SSW. The measure was validated as a third-order micro-, meso- and macro-level construct. The dimensions of existential and transformative well-being contribute to micro-level well-being. The dimensions of social, community and collaborative well-being contribute to meso-level well-being. Government, leadership, strategic and resource well-being drive macro-level well-being. In addition, a nomological network was specified to assess the impact of SSW on service actor life satisfaction and customer orientation.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to services literature by theorising SSW as a hierarchical structure and empirically validating the dimensions and micro-meso-macro levels that contribute to SSW.
Practical implications
The SSW scale is a useful diagnostic tool for assessing levels of well-being across different systems and providing insights that can help develop interventions to improve the well-being of collectives.
Originality/value
The research is the first study to theorise the micro, meso and macro levels of service system well-being and operationally validate the SSW construct.
Details
Keywords
Katy J. Mason and Lloyd C. Harris
Although much has been written about the antecedents and consequences of market orientation, and previous studies have generated useful insights into different “forms” of market…
Abstract
Purpose
Although much has been written about the antecedents and consequences of market orientation, and previous studies have generated useful insights into different “forms” of market orientation, little is known of the emphases placed on different dimensions of market orientation, and no published research to date has explicitly focused on the environmental factors that may contribute to the development of particular orientation emphases. Accordingly, the study reported here aims to explore the divergent varieties of emphasis in practice, and to identify the environmental factors that contribute to that variation.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper begins with a comprehensive review of the literature of market orientation. The study it then reports adopted a realist perspective and used techniques usually associated with qualitative research and “grounded theory”, a departure from the positivist approach and survey methodology typically found in published studies of market orientation. Data were collected in 114 face‐to‐face, in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews in more than 50 UK‐based firms.
Findings
Results uncover four variations of market orientation, each of which exhibits a different emphasis, linked to environmental factors at the micro, meso and macro levels. The emphasis placed on the different dimensions of market orientation appears to be dynamic, and driven by changing environmental factors.
Practical implications
Marketing planners need to consider which emphasis of market orientation is most suited to stated strategic objectives. After instituting strategic change, managers need to ensure that the form of market orientation developed continues to reflect and respond to environmental conditions.
Originality/value
This paper offers interesting insights to practitioners concerned with the wider implications of market orientation.
Details
Keywords
Jennifer Elizabeth Marshall, Colm Fearon, Marianne Highwood and Katy Warden
The purpose of this paper is to explore the key issues surrounding teacher/staff disability disclosures in the UK's further education (FE) sector.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the key issues surrounding teacher/staff disability disclosures in the UK's further education (FE) sector.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted in a medium-sized FE college (case study) setting in the South East of England. To compare the experiences, views and perceptions of leaders, managers and teachers, interviews were carried out with leaders and managers who are accountable for ensuring disability legislation is adhered to, and with teachers who are responsible for complying with equality and disability legislation. The 15 interviewees who volunteered to take part in this research represent the various layers of the organisational structure and different academic departments in the college.
Findings
Two major themes discussed include: the desire for teaching staff to “come out” and make a disability disclosure and the perception of disability as a “deficit”. A number of staff that disclosed their hidden disabilities stated they would not do so again. To avoid the negative side effects, developing a “culture of disability disclosure” and providing long-term employer support are required.
Research limitations/implications
This is an exploratory qualitative case study that highlights some of the key issues from a teacher/staff perspective. It is not meant to be generalisable research, but the ideas therein should help to develop a wider (empirical) research agenda.
Originality/value
There is an abundance of critical and sociological research concerning disability disclosure in general; there are also a number of scholarly studies that focus on disability issues from the student perspective. However, this is the first scholarly study that explores the key issues involving FE staff.
Details
Keywords
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 and its amendment – the Trade and Competitive Act of 1988 – are unique not only in the history of the accounting and auditing…
Abstract
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 and its amendment – the Trade and Competitive Act of 1988 – are unique not only in the history of the accounting and auditing profession, but also in international law. The Acts raised awareness of the need for efficient and adequate internal control systems to prevent illegal acts such as the bribery of foreign officials, political parties and governments to secure or maintain contracts overseas. Its uniqueness is also due to the fact that the USA is the first country to pioneer such a legislation that impacted foreign trade, international law and codes of ethics. The research traces the history of the FCPA before and after its enactment, the role played by the various branches of the United States Government – Congress, Department of Justice, Securities Exchange commission (SEC), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the contributions made by professional associations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICFA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the American Bar Association (ABA); and, finally, the role played by various international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). A cultural, ethical and legalistic background will give a better understanding of the FCPA as wll as the rationale for its controversy.
Details
Keywords
Carlos A. Diaz Ruiz, Jonathan J. Baker, Katy Mason and Kieran Tierney
This paper aims to investigate two seminal market-scanning frameworks – the five-forces analysis and PESTEL environmental scanning tool – to assess their readiness for…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate two seminal market-scanning frameworks – the five-forces analysis and PESTEL environmental scanning tool – to assess their readiness for anticipating market-shaping acts.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the market-shaping literature that conceptualizes markets as complex adaptive systems, this conceptual paper interrogates the underlying assumptions and “blind spots” in two seminal market-scanning frameworks. The paper showcases three illustrative vignettes in which non-industry actors catalyzed market change in ways that these market-scanning frameworks would not be able to anticipate.
Findings
Marketing strategists can be “blindsided” as seminal market-scanning frameworks have either too narrow an interpretation of market change or are too broad to anticipate specific types of market-shaping acts. The assumptions about markets that underpin these market-scanning frameworks contribute to incumbents being slow to realize market-shaping acts are taking place.
Research limitations/implications
The authors extend market-scanning to include a type of managerial myopia that fails to register the socially embedded, systemic nature of complex contemporary markets. Furthermore, the paper provides an “actors-agendas-outcomes” scanning framework that offers awareness of market-shaping acts.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to consider market-scanning frameworks from a market-shaping perspective.
Details
Keywords
THE First two weeks of February, 1959, should be long remembered by public librarians, for they saw the announcement of the new award by the National Joint Council for…
Abstract
THE First two weeks of February, 1959, should be long remembered by public librarians, for they saw the announcement of the new award by the National Joint Council for librarians‐in‐charge and the publication of the Roberts Report. As far as the latter is concerned, THE LIBRARY WORLD has invited a number of eminent librarians to comment on the Report and their views will be published in subsequent issues. A brief study of the recommendations indicates that the Committee has been concerned to present practical propositions likely to appeal to a wide range of librarians and local authorities without provoking political controversies in Parliament. It is idealistic without being cloudy; it presents a new principle—that of a responsible Ministry with powers to enforce an improvement in library services—without being revolutionary.
Ulla Hytti, Päivikki Kuoppakangas, Kati Suomi, Chris Chapleo and Massimo Giovanardi
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how healthcare professionals understand a new organisational brand and examine the ideas discussed in relation to it within healthcare…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how healthcare professionals understand a new organisational brand and examine the ideas discussed in relation to it within healthcare organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a discursive approach that facilitates understanding how the informants perceived a new organisation brand and how that might shape their activities in the enterprise.
Findings
The study identified four distinct interpretative repertoires: the organisational brand as an economic solution, the magic wand, the factory and a servant to the customer. The new brand was understood in terms of economic and business-like functions marked by external branding and its signs (logos, etc.). The brand is not communicated to patients or colleagues and the factory metaphor is applied to work practices. Hence, several potential dilemmas arise concerning the brand promise, customer expectations, economic and efficiency gains and the professional values of employees.
Research limitations/implications
Adoption of private-sector practices in semi-public or public-sector organisations is common. This study focuses on how private-sector ideas diffuse into the organisations and how they are translated within them.
Practical implications
The authors suggest a stronger emphasis on internal branding as a reconciliation to enhance legitimacy, high-quality customer service and staff wellbeing.
Originality/value
Theoretically, the unique contribution of the study is drawing upon healthcare branding, dilemma theory and discursive institutionalism in its interpretation. Consequently, it demonstrates how ideas about the brand and public healthcare are translated and communicated in the examined discourses and how those ideas reconstruct understanding and change behaviour within the organisations.
Details