Search results

The purpose of this paper is to delineate an approach to quality assurance in education called networked improvement communities (NICs) that focused on integrating the methodologies of improvement science with few of the networks. Quality improvement, the science and practice of continuously improving programs, practices, processes, products and services within organized social systems, is a still-evolving area in education. This paper is the first of seven elaborating upon different approaches to quality improvement in education[1]. It delineates a new methodology called the NICs model. Developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the approach is aimed at continuously improving the quality of practices, processes and outcomes in targeted problem areas in education systems.

The paper presents the historical development, theoretical foundations, core principles and adaptation of key elements of the NICs model for quality improvement in education. A case study specifically examines the problem of fostering new teacher effectiveness and retention in large public school systems in the USA.

The six principles underlying the NICs model are as follows: make the work problem-specific and user-centered, focus on variation in performance, see the system that produces outcomes, improve at scale what you can measure, use disciplined inquiry to drive improvement and accelerate learning through networked communities.

Few theoretical treatments and demonstration cases are currently available that examine the application of common models of quality improvement in education. This paper elaborates on one promising approach. In addition to examining the NICs model, the paper derives added value by allowing comparisons with seven widely used quality improvement approaches treated in this volume.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of mobile technology and related service platforms in supporting informal micro-entrepreneurships in rural Ghana. It aims to extend our knowledge through the development of a conceptual model.

A qualitative research design used in-depth semi-structured interviews with five micro-entrepreneurship owners in the Kwahu South District in the Eastern region of Ghana. Identification of potential case firms was facilitated by a local official. Interview data were analysed thematically.

Mobile technology engendered pride and emotional connectedness and, being easy to use, helped to increase business confidence. Adoption advantages included improved communications with customers and business partners, and effective stock control, providing competitive advantage. Further understanding of mobile technology’s role in improving business processes is needed.

This exploratory research is based on five micro-entrepreneurships in one Ghanaian rural area. Further research is needed using larger samples, additional locations and sectors and larger businesses, to identify other factors influencing mobile technology adoption and associated benefits and problems.

Government policy supporting growth of informal micro-entrepreneurships using mobile phone technology could increase economic advantage. Micro-business owners need education and training in understanding business processes. Telecommunications companies can highlight technological, business and socio-cultural benefits of mobile phone adoption in rural Ghana.

The paper draws upon the experiences of a range of rural-based Ghanaian micro-entrepreneurships to propose a model setting out and linking the technical, business and socio-cultural benefits of mobile phone adoption in supporting business processes.

This research aims at explaining the phenomenon of the “black children” (heihaizi), a very little-known generation who lived with concealment under the one-child policy in China. The one-child policy was officially introduced to nationwide at the end of 1979 by permitting per couple to have one child only, later modified to a second child allowed if the first was a girl in rural China in 1984. It was officially replaced by a nation-wide two-child policy and most existing research focused on the parents’ sufferings and policy changes. The term “black children” has been mainly used to describe their absence from their family hukou registration and education. However, this research aims at expanding the meaning of being “black” to explain the children who were concealed more than at the level of family formal registration, but also physical freedom and emotional bond. What we do not yet know are the details of their lived experiences from a day-to-day base: where did they live? How were they raised up? Who were involved? Who benefited from it and who did not? In this way, this research challenges the existing scholarship on the one-child policy and repositions the “black children” as primary victims, and reveals the family as a key figure in co-producing their diminished status with the support of state power. It is very important to understand these children’s loss of citizenship and human freedom from the inside of the family because they were concealed in so many ways away from public view and interventions. This research focuses on illustrating how their lack of access to continued, stabilized, and reciprocally recognized family interactions framed their very idea of self-worth and identity.

This article aims to provide examples of opportunities to implement disruptive innovation and offer a framework to introduce it in the public sector – proposing a way to use innovation to make public programs radically cheaper without slashing services.

By focusing on the public sector job to be done – promoting public safety through incarceration vs electronic monitoring – can illuminate how to accomplish the core goals of an existing process in a different way.

The paper finds that the best place to start disruptive innovation tends to be in a market segment that is vastly over‐served or not served at all by the current, dominant model of delivery.

Government has an array of tools and channels that can be used to foster the growth of disruptive technologies.

From homeland security to education, from health care to defense, what is needed are innovations that break traditional trade‐offs, particularly that between price and performance. Disruptive innovation offers a proven path to accomplish this goal and in the process transform public services.

The purpose of the paper is multifold. First, an understanding for creativity in an organizational setting is elaborated. Second, the emergence of creativity as a universal phenomenon is discussed. Third, an integrated framework focusing upon processes and group composition to affect co‐creativity is developed. Additionally, this paper begins an intercultural exploration for business and managerial purposes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The methodology is a literature search of theoretical and empirical plus cultural studies to support this paper that includes a process model for future application. Since there are cultural studies available mostly about individual countries in the Arab world the cultural variables will be isolated and they will be referred to in order to exemplify an assessment of creativity in MENA.

This paper contributes to the literature by exploring answers to the business world's questions of what could be barriers and enhancers of creativity not only in the Western world but also in the Arab world. In order to stimulate co‐creativity as quickly and as effectively as possible in the Arab world, there must be flexibility, generosity, loyalty, trust, fairness, shared communication and synthesized ideas. Most probably these factors are universal for co‐creativity.

Organizations are striving for transformation in order to be creative and/or innovative. Precisely, transformation needs co‐creativity as most transforming acts in organizations are based on interactive situations. However until now, it is not clear what co‐creativity is and how to foster co‐creativity. The value of this paper is to integrate a universal definition and understanding of co‐creativity while examining the cultural context of MENA.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of staff in a large, public health service involved in transitioning support services to a shared services model. It aims to understand their perceptions of the benefits and risks arising from this change.

Thematic analysis of qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with both service provider and customer agency staff was used to identify, analyze and report patterns of benefits and risks within data.

Staff expressed the need for relevant subject-matter-experts to work within customer agencies to facilitate effective communication between the customer agency and shared services provider, reflecting observations found in out-sourcing literature.

Results point to significant challenges continuing to occur for shared services in healthcare. Risks identified suggest a more intimate relationship between clinical and support services than previously discussed.

Previous discussion of the shared services model has not considered the skills, knowledge and ability required by staff in the customer agency. This research indicates that in the absence of such consideration, the concepts of the shared services model are weakened.

The 2005 APSR article by John Alford, Carolyn Funk, and John Hibbing presented data from the Virginia 30,000 Health & Lifestyle Questionnaire (VA30K), AARP twin studies, and an Australian twin study (ATR) to test their hypothesis that political attitudes are influenced by genetic as well as environmental factors. Political attitudes, they suggested, were expected to be highly heritable and particularly so on issues most correlated with personality. They employed survey responses from the Wilson–Patterson Attitude Inventory to measure political attitudes. To gauge heritability, they utilize the 2:1 genetic ratio between monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins. The authors argued that while previous studies in political attitudes had concentrated on measuring the influence of environmental variables, their test added explanatory power by considering heritability (Alford, Funk, & Hibbing, 2005).

The purpose of this paper is to understand faculty mentoring experiences across career stages and the influence of mentoring relationship quality on job satisfaction. The study participants were faculty members from a consortium of liberal arts colleges in the USA. The theoretical lens draws from scholarship on career stages, developmental networks, and working alliances.

The analysis is based on a subset of 415 faculty member responses about mentoring from a larger data set on faculty development. The online survey was conducted in Spring 2014. Frequencies, χ², regression equations, and confirmatory factor analysis were computed using R statistical software.

Over half the faculty members were both mentors and protégés; although, a sizable minority of faculty members did not engage in mentoring. Early-career faculty members were significantly more likely to have a mentor than were mid- or late-career faculty members. For both mentors and protégés, the higher they rated the quality of the mentoring relationship, the more job satisfaction they reported; this finding was greatest for mid-career (associate rank) faculty members. Participants reported significantly higher relationship quality with their mentors than with their protégés.

The results may not generalize to faculty members who work at other institution types, for example, research-intensive or two-year schools, or to non-US higher education contexts. Statements made regarding those who do not participate in mentoring are speculative on the part of the authors.

Institutions may need to develop support for faculty members who may not desire to engage in mentoring. More attention may be warranted to create individual and institutional supports focused on high-quality mentoring.

This study extends the literature on mentoring by establishing that many employees serve in mentor and protégé roles simultaneously. Further, employees engage in mentoring relationships across career stages as mentors and as protégés. The authors developed a reliable measure of mentoring relationship quality that may be used in future mentoring studies. Higher quality mentoring relationships were associated with significantly greater job satisfaction.