Search results

Workload is a critical concept in the evaluation of performance and quality in healthcare systems, but its definition relies on the perspective (e.g. individual clinician-level vs unit-level workload) and type of available metrics (e.g. objective vs subjective measures). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of objective measures of workload associated with direct care delivery in tertiary healthcare settings, with a focus on measures that can be obtained from electronic records to inform operationalization of workload measurement.

Relevant papers published between January 2008 and July 2018 were identified through a search in Pubmed and Compendex databases using the Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research Type framework. Identified measures were classified into four levels of workload: task, patient, clinician and unit.

Of 30 papers reviewed, 9 used task-level metrics, 14 used patient-level metrics, 7 used clinician-level metrics and 20 used unit-level metrics. Key objective measures of workload include: patient turnover (n=9), volume of patients (n=6), acuity (n=6), nurse-to-patient ratios (n=5) and direct care time (n=5). Several methods for operationalization of these metrics into measurement tools were identified.

This review highlights the key objective workload measures available in electronic records that can be utilized to develop an operational approach for quantifying workload. Insights gained from this review can inform the design of processes to track workload and mitigate the effects of increased workload on patient outcomes and clinician performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree to which a compulsory induction program for Vietnamese higher education teachers influences participants’ perceptions of curriculum and course design.

This case study uses a qualitative, interpretive approach to data collection. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 program participants before they started the program and immediately after they completed the program. Five program presenters also were interviewed and documents related to the program were analyzed.

The findings reflect the influence of Biggs’ (2003) constructive alignment approach on participants’ curriculum perceptions, although this approach was not explicitly stated in the program guidelines. Upon the completion of the program, participants realized the importance of their voices in curriculum construction and course design, which was absent from the pre-program findings. However, students’ agency in co-constructing the curriculum and the “being” of curriculum were not perceived.

The paper adds to the growing literature on induction programs and their relation to curriculum perceptions.

The paper provides examples of the changes in participants’ perceptions of curriculum and accentuates, what is neglected in the construction of curriculum.

The paper invites reflection on the design and implementation of curriculum from academic developers, education practitioners and researchers in similar contexts.

Sustainable shipping management (SSM) has received much attention from shipping companies in recent years. Grounded on resource accumulation and orientation perspectives, this study aims to identify the antecedents of SSM and examine their effects on the performance (i.e. shippers' loyalty and financial performance) of shipping companies.

A model comprising a network of hypotheses that specifies the relationships between the antecedents, SSM, shippers' loyalty and financial performance was constructed. Subsequently, a survey questionnaire was designed. Survey data were then collected from 294 shipping companies located in Vietnam and analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings indicate that the five antecedents have significant effects on the effectiveness of SSM. They are stakeholders' focus, strategic orientation, supply chain collaboration, sustainability resource development and sustainability technology development. Bootstrapping analysis indicates that SSM has significant direct and indirect effects on financial performance via shippers' loyalty.

Applied perspectives are complementary and offer unique explanations to SSM. However, the orientation perspective offers stronger explanation. This study also improves the allocation of resources and capabilities in managing sustainability to enhance the organisational performance of shipping companies.

This study synthesises the sustainability and strategic management literature to identify the antecedents of SSM.

Presents a special issue, enlisting the help of the author’s students and colleagues, focusing on age, sex, colour and disability discrimination in America. Breaks the evidence down into manageable chunks, covering: age discrimination in the workplace; discrimination against African‐Americans; sex discrimination in the workplace; same sex sexual harassment; how to investigate and prove disability discrimination; sexual harassment in the military; when the main US job‐discrimination law applies to small companies; how to investigate and prove racial discrimination; developments concerning race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; developments concerning discrimination against workers with HIV or AIDS; developments concerning discrimination based on refusal of family care leave; developments concerning discrimination against gay or lesbian employees; developments concerning discrimination based on colour; how to investigate and prove discrimination concerning based on colour; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; using statistics in employment discrimination cases; race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning gender discrimination in the workplace; discrimination in Japanese organizations in America; discrimination in the entertainment industry; discrimination in the utility industry; understanding and effectively managing national origin discrimination; how to investigate and prove hiring discrimination based on colour; and, finally, how to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.

This paper reviews experience with credit union demutualisation to date in the light of increasing discussion about whether demutualisation is a likely (or inevitable) future stage in the evolutionary process. It is argued that the credit union industry faces an inherent demutualisation bias which emerges as the sector develops maturity. Contributing factors include the emergence of professional management pursuing personal objectives, together with the economic realities of technological change, financial liberalisation, increased competition, and prudential regulation based on minimum capital requirements. Demutualisation incentives may partially reflect the unsuitability of the mutual form of governance in larger, more sophisticated financial institutions, but there is also a significant risk of demutualisation based on wealth expropriation motives. Alternative policies and strategies which might avoid this demutualisation bias are examined.

Devotes the entire journal issue to managing human behaviour in US industries, with examples drawn from the airline industry, trading industry, publishing industry, metal products industry, motor vehicle and parts industry, information technology industry, food industry, the airline industry in a turbulent environment, the automotive sales industry, and specialist retailing industry. Outlines the main features of each industry and the environment in which it is operating. Provides examples, insights and quotes from Chief Executive Officers, managers and employees on their organization’s recipe for success. Mentions the effect technology has had in some industries. Talks about skilled and semi‐skilled workers, worker empowerment and the formation of teams. Addresses also the issue of change and the training that is required to deal with it in different industry sectors. Discusses remuneration packages and incentives offered to motivate employees. Notes the importance of customers in the face of increased competition. Extracts from each industry sector the various human resource practices that companies employ to manage their employees effectively ‐ revealing that there is a wide diversity in approach and what is right for one industry sector would not work in another. Offers some advice for managers, but, overall, fails to summarize what constitutes effective means of managing human behaviour.

This paper aims to present a novel modular robot that provides a flexible framework for exploring adaptive locomotion.

A new modular robot is presented called YaMoR (for “Yet another Modular Robot”). Each YaMoR module contains an FPGA and a microcontroller supporting a wide range of control strategies and high computational power. The Bluetooth interface included in each YaMoR module allows wireless communication between the modules and controlling the robot from a PC. A control software called Bluemove was developed and implemented that allows easy testing of the capabilities for locomotion of a large variety of robot configurations.

With the help of the control software called Bluemove, different configurations of the YaMoR modules were tested like a wheel, caterpillar or configurations with limbs and their capabilities for locomotion.

This paper demonstrates that modular robots can act as a powerful framework for exploring locomotion of a large variety of different types of robots. Although present research is limited to exploring locomotion, YaMoR modules are designed to be general purpose and support a variety of applications.

This article examines ways in which graduates of an online teacher certification program integrate technology into social studies instruction. With dramatic growth in the number of online teacher certification programs, educators are faced with how to ensure their graduates incorporate effective teaching strategies, including technology, into classrooms. Research over the past decade indicates that teachers do not integrate technology within social studies instruction in meaningful ways, beyond traditional approaches to teaching (Ravitz & Wong, 1999; Van Fossen & Shively, 2003, 2009). Results from this study indicate that online teacher education graduates, who have access to technology within their schools, find meaningful ways to integrate such technology into social studies instruction. Teacher educators must conduct more research, and receive more funding, to follow online teacher education graduates. Today’s new generation of tech-savvy students deserve teachers who can competently integrate technology into all content areas.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the experience of a white teacher to attain greater understanding of racial identities, especially whiteness, and reconsider the current understandings of whiteness and whiteness pedagogy. The author argues that notions of whiteness are social constructions, and that reconstructions of conventional understandings of whiteness could provide more nuanced understandings of whiteness that might facilitate more sophisticated considerations of how race and whiteness continue to influence schooling practices.

This paper uses autoethnography, a version of narrative inquiry, to consider issues related to the intersection of whiteness and education. The author recounts, reflects on and interprets a body of experiential knowledge to illuminate the experience of being a white teacher in both a racially diverse school and one that was more homogeneously white. These experiences are interpreted and placed in the context of scholarly work to frame an argument regarding a more sophisticated conceptualization of whiteness and its position in efforts toward inclusive and mutli-cultural education.

This paper closes with the argument that whiteness needs to be troubled and understood in more sophisticated ways than a traditional white privilege framework has allowed and accounted for directly in school settings in the USA.

This paper is original and valuable, mostly because it uses narrative to share the unique and complex experience of a white teacher who attempted to account for and consider the presence of whiteness over the 30 years in his career.