Search results

Events are a significant component of Ireland’s tourism offering. They are an important source of economic activity and an incremental driver of social change and development throughout the country. However, the visual and physical impacts often created by event activities to the environmental and social resource base upon which, events depend, have begun to draw attention to the way events are planned and managed. Although the concept of sustainability has become the topic of much discussion and debate in event management literature, there exist many gaps in relation to its practical application in event management planning in Ireland. This is despite the statutory obligation of local authorities in Ireland to license events and to facilitate the process of planning for large-scale outdoor public events in Ireland. Yet, with the continued expansion of Ireland’s event industry, there is a fundamental need for an evidence-informed approach to planning for event management. Through the application of the European tourism indicator system (ETIS), the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the national event industry in Ireland could be secured. This paper aims to examine and discuss the application of the ETIS as a possible tool to facilitate greater levels of sustainability and accountability within the events industry in Ireland.

This study used a quantitative content analysis approach involving a complete population sample of local authorities in the Republic of Ireland to determine the application of the ETIS within the legal process of planning for event management in Ireland.

While the findings have identified a basic provision for event management within a number of local authority legally required County Development Plans, none, however, were using the ETIS to monitor the impacts of events at the local level. This lack of data collection and benchmarking highlights the need for greater levels of sustainability and accountability within the legal process of planning for event management in Ireland.

This study suggests the ETIS as an easy, cost effective and viable solution to facilitate an evidence-informed approach to planning for event management at the local level. However, the lessons learned from this study may also have implications for destination planners and event managers outside of Ireland.

Health systems are periodically confronted by crises – think of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, H1N1, and Ebola – during which they are called upon to manage exceptional situations without interrupting essential services to the population. The ability to accomplish this dual mandate is at the heart of resilience strategies, which in healthcare systems involve developing surge capacity to manage a sudden influx of patients. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper relates insights from resilience research to the four “S” of surge capacity (staff, stuff, structures and systems) and proposes a framework based on complexity theory to better understand and assess resilience factors that enable the development of surge capacity in complex health systems.

Detailed and dynamic complexities manifest in different challenges during a crisis. Resilience factors are classified according to these types of complexity and along their temporal dimensions: proactive factors that improve preparedness to confront both usual and exceptional requirements, and passive factors that enable response to unexpected demands as they arise during a crisis. The framework is completed by further categorizing resilience factors according to their stabilizing or destabilizing impact, drawing on feedback processes described in complexity theory. Favorable order resilience factors create consistency and act as stabilizing forces in systems, while favorable disorder factors such as diversity and complementarity act as destabilizing forces.

The framework suggests a balanced and innovative process to integrate these factors in a pragmatic approach built around the fours “S” of surge capacity to increase health system resilience.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of self-regulated programming learning on undergraduate students’ academic performance and motivation compared to traditional methods.

This study was conducted with an explanatory sequential mixed method. Participants consist of 31 undergraduate students studying in the department of computer and instructional technologies education. The students were separated into two groups as experimental (n = 15) and control (n = 16) in the robotic programming course. Academic performance tests, programming motivation scale and interview form were used as data collection tools. After collecting quantitative data, interviews were conducted with the students regarding their academic performance and motivation.

The results indicated that the self-regulated programming learning process can contribute positively to students’ academic performance and motivation compared to traditional methods. Students stated that self-regulated learning strategies can positively affect their academic performance and motivation.

In this study, a self-regulated learning support system was designed to encourage students to use self-regulated learning strategies. This study has the potential to contribute to the gap in the literature, especially as a study of adapting the phased model of self-regulated learning to programming teaching. Instructors can use the self-regulating programming learning framework by adapting it to different disciplines.

The purpose of this paper is to examine operational policing practice with reference to reducing sex trafficking.

This is a qualitative study in which in-depth structured interviews were conducted with state police officers in one state of Australia.

The paper reveals that state police officers have a good understanding of sex trafficking and are involved in reactive policing methods in order to reduce this crime type. The data set yields a limitation in proactive policing methods for reducing sex trafficking, primarily due to human and financial resources and the composition of state and federal laws and policing practices in Australia. Those interviewed also noted how sex trafficking can disguise itself as legitimate sex work.

The effectiveness in operational practice at the local, national and international level in reducing sex trafficking can be enhanced through a more co-ordinated response to the problem. Recognition of better communication strategies and partnership working can support a reduction in sex trafficking as well as allowing those who are trafficked the status of “victim”.

To ensure those who are trafficked for sexual servitude are viewed and treated as victims within the law. To review how state police forces in Australia are resourced in order to proactively address sex trafficking. To ensure state police forces can engage in more proactive policing initiatives in order to prevent sex trafficking. Reflect on examples of good practice between federal and state police forces in Australia to implement a co-ordinated approach for combatting sex trafficking.

This is one of just a few studies examining organised crime from the perspective of law enforcement personnel within Australia.

Referring to the theory of organizational empowerment, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of organizational support and perceived environment on quality of care and job satisfaction, with organizational commitment as a mediator for the first variable.

This study employed a cross-sectional research design and data was collected from seven private and public sector hospitals in Pakistan, involving 352 nurses on a voluntary basis through a self-administered survey.

The results showed that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between organizational support and job satisfaction with the quality of care. Moreover, the perceived environment has an impact on job satisfaction and quality of care.

Healthcare service quality seems strictly dependent on the perceived quality of care and job satisfaction among healthcare workers. Theoretical and practical implications for policymakers and HR management are discussed.

Most police agencies in the USA make the claim that they use social media, and such use is drawing a great academic attention. Most studies on police use of social media focus on the content of police social media websites. Little research, however, has been conducted regarding what types of police agencies are in fact making use of social media. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap in the knowledge.

The study reported here analyzes the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) data set to identify the principal organizational characteristics of police agencies associated with the use of social media. Binary logistic regression is used to identify significant independent predictors of police use of social media, viewed here as a form of innovation.

The findings indicate that the workforce size (commissioned and civilian personnel) of a police agency, the level of participation in multi-jurisdictional task forces and the early use of an official agency website to communicate with the public are the predictors of police use of social media.

Three theories pertaining to organizational behavior (i.e. contingency theory, institutional theory, and resource dependency theory), as well as Maguire’s (2003) study, are used to establish the theoretical framework for the research reported here.

Viewed as a pioneering study testing organizational theories related to police use of social media, the current study sets forth findings that help deepen the collective understanding of contingency theory, institutional theory and resource dependency theory as frameworks for explaining organizational behavior in policing.

Our preoccupation with the Repertory Grid Technique has left little time and attention to the core ideas articulated in Kelly’s (1955) Theory of Personal Constructs. After more than 20 years engaging with the method, I have (re)discovered his theorizing about man’s quest for knowing, to be the most insightful. This chapter shares my reflections/reflexions about the crucial role he placed on the notion of “anticipation.” I position this importance within the context of the challenges of our times and advocate that his “psychology of the unknown” is just as important today as it was 62 years ago.

Sociology of sport in the United Kingdom is as old as the subdiscipline itself but was uniquely shaped by the prominence of football hooliganism as a major social issue in the 1970s and 1980s. While it remains a somewhat niche activity, the field has been stimulated by the growing cultural centrality of sport in UK society. This quantitative and qualitative development has been recognized in recent governmental evaluations of research expertise. Current research reflects this expanded range of social stratification and social issues in sport both domestically and on a global level, while the legacy of hooligan research is evident in the continuing concentration on studies of association football. Historically, this empirical research has largely been underpinned by figurational, Marxist/neo-Marxist, or feminist sociological theories, but there is now a greater emphasis on theoretical synthesis and exploration. As a consequence of the expansion of the field, allied to its empirical and theoretical diversity, there is a burgeoning literature produced by UK sociologists of sport that spans entry-level textbooks, research monographs, and the editorship of a significant number of specialist journals. The chapter concludes by noting the future prospects of the sociology of sport in the United Kingdom in relation to teaching, research, and relations with other sport-related subdisciplines and the sociological mainstream.

This chapter outlines a method for developing simulation code from case-based data using narrative sequence analysis. This analytical method allows researchers to systematically specify the ‘real-world’ behaviours and causal mechanisms that describe the research problem and translate this mechanism into simulation code. An illustrative example of the process used for code development from case-based data is detailed using a well-documented case of photovoltaic innovation. Narrative sequence analysis is used to analyse case data. Micro-sequences are identified and simplified. Each micro-sequence is presented first in pseudo-code and then in simulation code. This chapter demonstrates the coding process using Netlogo code. Narrative sequence analysis provides a rigorous and systematic approach to identifying the underlying mechanisms to be described when building simulation models. This analytical technique also provides necessary and sufficient information to write simulation code. This chapter addresses a current gap in the methodology literature by including case data within agent-based model building processes. It benefits B2B marketing researchers by outlining guiding processes and principles in the use of case-based data to build simulation models.