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This preliminary investigation aims to examine the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients and staff within a high secure service.

To discern the connection between COVID-19-related distress and multiple factors, the study involved 31 patients and 34 staff who completed assessments evaluating coping strategies, resilience, emotional reactivity, ward atmosphere and work-related aspects.

Results demonstrated that around a third of staff (31.2%) experienced COVID-19-related distress levels that met the clinical cut-off for possible post-traumatic stress disorder. Emotional reactivity, staff shortages, secondary traumatic stress and coping strategies were all positively correlated with COVID-19-related-distress. Resilience was negatively associated with distress, thus acting as a potential mitigating factor. In comparison, the prevalence of distress among patients was low (3.2%).

The authors postulate that increased staff burdens during the pandemic may have led to long-term distress, while their efforts to maintain minimal service disruption potentially shielded patients from psychological impacts, possibly lead to staff “problem-focused coping burnout”. This highlights the need for in-depth research on the enduring impacts of pandemics, focusing on mechanisms that intensify or alleviate distress. Future studies should focus on identifying effective coping strategies for crisis situations, such as staff shortages, and strategies for post-crisis staff support.

The authors postulate that the added burdens on staff during the pandemic might have contributed to their distress. Nonetheless, staff might have inadvertently safeguarded patients from the pandemic’s psychological ramifications by providing a “service of little disruption”, potentially leading to “problem-focused coping burnout”. These findings underscore the imperative for further research capturing the enduring impacts of pandemics, particularly scrutinising factors that illuminate the mechanisms through which distress is either intensified or alleviated across different groups. An avenue worth exploring is identifying effective coping styles for pandemics.

Innovation enables growth and helps address social challenges. This research aims to identify evidence that can characterize an innovative university based on its university management. Thus, the authors define the following research problem: How to measure innovation in a Higher Education Institution (HEI) that intends to be innovative based on its university management?

To this end, the authors conducted a literature review, with a qualitative approach, as well as a case study with data collection through the documental analysis of research that was carried out with the community, namely: Undergraduate Students Profile survey, Reputation of the Institution and Innovation Octagon.

The authors noticed that the results presented by Innovation Octagon show an increase in most indexes, mainly Processes and People, followed by Leadership, Strategy, Relationships and Funding. However, there was a reduction in Structure and Culture.

The results point to the relevance of measuring innovation in the institution, mainly through the use of the Innovation Octagon. The longitudinal measurement of innovation in the institution enables the management of the HEI to constantly progress and develop in favor of the society’s demands for the training of competent professionals for their future professional reality.

This study aims to examine the mediating effects of corporate governance mechanisms like the board of directors on the association between disruptive technology adoption by audit clients and the risk of material misstatements, including inherent risk and control risk. In particular, the authors study the mediating effects of board characteristics such as board size, independence and gender diversity.

Based on a sample of 100 audit clients listed on the FTSE 100 from 2015 to 2021, this study uses structural equation modelling to test the research objectives.

The findings indicate a significant and negative association between disruptive technology adoption by audit clients and inherent risk. However, there is no significant evidence observed for control risk. The utilisation of disruptive technology by the audit client has a significant impact on the board characteristics, resulting in an increase in board size, greater independence and gender diversity. The authors also find strong evidence that board independence mediates the association between disruptive technology usage and both inherent risk and control risk. In addition, board size and gender exhibit distinct and differential mediating effects on the association and across the two types of risks.

The study reveals that the significant role of using disruptive technology by audit clients in reducing the risk of material misstatements is closely associated with the board of directors, which makes audit clients place greater emphasis on the construction of effective corporate governance.

This study offers essential primary evidence that can assist policymakers and standard setters in formulating guidance and recommendations for board size, independence and gender quotas, ensuring the enhancement of effective governance and supporting the future of audit within the next generation of digital services.

With respect to relevant stakeholders, it is imperative for audit clients to recognise that corporate governance represents a fundamental means of addressing the ramifications of applying disruptive technology, particularly as they pertain to inherent and control risks within the audit client.

This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating the joint impact of corporate governance and the utilisation of disruptive technology by audit clients on inherent risk and control risk, which has not been investigated by previous research.

Evidence-informed decision-making is considered best practice when choosing interventions in applied settings across health, social care and education. Developing that evidence base, however, is not straightforward. The pupose of this paper is to describe the process implemented by the Sharland Foundation Developmental Disabilities Applied Behavioural Research and Impact Network (SF-DDARIN) that systematically develops an evidence base for behaviorally based interventions.

In this case study, the progressive research steps undertaken by the SF-DDARIN to develop the evidence base for an online reading intervention, the Headsprout® Early Reading programme (HER®), which uses behavioural principles to promote learning to read, are described.

A series of discrete projects targeting gaps in the evidence base for HER^® led to funding two randomised controlled trials in England, one in education and one in health and social care.

This case study illustrates an original, creative and effective way of collaborating across academic research departments and applied settings to extend the evidence base for a chosen intervention systematically.

During the evaluation of European Capital of Culture (ECoC) Aarhus 2017, the evaluation organisation rethinkIMPACTS 2017 formulated a set of “dilemmas” capturing the main challenges arising during the design of the ECoC evaluation. This functioned as a framework for the evaluation process. This paper aims to present and discuss the relevance of the “Evaluation Dilemmas Model” as subsequently applied to the Galway 2020 ECoC programme evaluation.

The paper takes an empirical approach including auto-ethnography and interview data to document and map the dilemmas involved in undertaking an evaluation in two different European cities. Evolved via a process of practice-based research, the article addresses the development of and the arguments for the dilemmas model and considers its potential for wider applicability in the evaluation of large-scale cultural projects.

The authors conclude that the “Evaluation Dilemmas Model” is a valuable heuristic for considering the endogenous and exogenous issues in cultural evaluation.

The model developed is useful for a wide range of cultural evaluation processes including – but not limited to – European Capitals of Culture.

What has not been addressed in the academic literature is the process of evaluating ECoCs; especially how evaluators often take part in an overall process that is not just about the evaluation but also planning and delivering a project that includes stakeholder management and the development of evaluation criteria, design and methods.

In this paper, the authors apply the Job Demand-Resource Model to investigate the association between pregnancy-related discrimination (conceptualised as a job demand) and expectant workers' psychological well-being and work engagement, and the moderating role of workplace support (co-worker and supervisor social support and perceived organisational family support (POFS); conceptualised as job resources).

The paper conducted a cross-sectional online survey of vocationally active British workers in their second and third trimesters of pregnancy using purposive sampling techniques. Participants were recruited through online forums and social media platforms. A sample of 186 was used to conduct multiple regression and moderation analysis (SPSS v28 and STATA v17).

The authors observed that higher levels of pregnancy-related discrimination were associated with poorer psychological well-being and work engagement among surveyed expectant workers. Perceived co-worker social support moderated both these relationships for psychological well-being (demonstrating a buffering effect) and work engagement (an antagonist effect). POFS and supervisor support did not moderate this association.

This paper highlights the importance of pregnancy-related discrimination at work as a work stressor, necessitating its reduction as part of organisations' strategies to manage and prevent work-related stress above and beyond their legal requirements to do so under national-level equality legislation. It also sheds light on the potential value of resource-based interventions.

This is the first study to investigate pregnancy-related discrimination and work-related health outcomes within a British sample, and to explore the potential protective health and motivational value of job resources there within.

This study aims at analyzing the detrimental cross-level serial effects of leaders' Machiavellianism and abusive supervision on subordinates' burnout and task performance. The general aggression model and conservation of resources theory guide our research model.

The authors developed a multilevel design and used multisource data. The authors collected data from 50 bank branches located in Pakistan. A total of 50 branch supervisors participated, which yielded 200 supervisor-subordinate dyads. Machiavellianism was self-assessed by the supervisors who further rated the specific task performance of each of their respective subordinates. Burnout and abusive supervision ratings were provided by the subordinates. Abusive supervision scores were aggregated at the group level.

Machiavellianism has an indirect negative effect on individual-level task performance through the serial cross-level mediating effects of abusive supervision at the group level and attendant individual-level burnout.

Findings provide practical implications for the management of task performance and human resources.

This study offers a comprehensive cross-level model to analyze the effect of Machiavellianism on group-level and individual-level outcomes known to affect the effectiveness of leaders.

In a rapidly changing career landscape where lifelong job security is no longer guaranteed, this study investigates how audit firms play an important role in shaping their employees’ career perceptions and the subsequent effects on auditor behavior. Specifically, it explores the link between audit firms’ career development initiatives and auditors’ perceptions of external employability – an important determinant of auditor behavior. Using the framework of social exchange theory, the study investigates how perceived external employability affects both relational and operational behaviors of auditors.

The study employs structural equation modeling on survey data from 359 auditors.

The results indicate that when audit firms actively support career development, it positively contributes to auditors’ perceived external employability. A higher perceived external employability, in turn, leads to positive behavioral outcomes among auditors, including stronger relational behaviors (such as professional commitment) and operational behaviors (including heightened professional skepticism and reduced behaviors that could compromise audit quality).

This study uncovers a paradox where perceived external employability, typically viewed as a risk, emerges as a potent driver of desirable auditor behavior. In today’s dynamic career landscape, emphasizing individual-centered and flexible careers, these results highlight the benefits of perceived external employability. Rather than undermining audit services, increased perceived external employability driven by firm investments in auditors’ careers acts as a catalyst for desirable auditor behavior. Organizational support in terms of career development practices creates an environment where auditors are more committed, professionally skeptical and uphold the quality of audit services.

Australian agriculture is facing increasingly uncertain weather patterns which is impacting financial performance, exacerbated by worsening terms of trade and a decline in commodity prices. Increasing the resilience and adaptive capacity of the primary production sector is of key importance. Governments and farmer groups often depict technology adoption as the salvation of farming, frequently ignoring the importance of decision-making processes and soft information skills and needs. The purpose of this study is to explore farmer decision-making and resilience and, in doing so, address ongoing challenges with soft information, including the inaccessibility of accounting data and a lack of awareness of its formal role in strategic decisions.

Drawing on a strategic choice perspective, we explore the links between farmer characteristics, attitudes, technology orientation, decision-making and financial performance to investigate how accounting data and tools could better support growers’ adaptive capacity. Detailed on-farm interviews were conducted with 25 grape growers across the Riverland in South Australia, with information thematically and descriptively analysed.

Results show that farmers with low operating profit margins spend double the time making decisions and struggle with minimising variable costs, especially water costs. Lower profit growers were also less likely to perceive climate change as a threat and demonstrated lower resilience.

The results highlight the potential for accountants to make more use of data-driven technological advances and for this information to be used to enhance on-farm strategic decision-making and support innovative business models. Simply packaged biophysical and financial data could also support strategic decisions and adaptation of farmers struggling to make a profit.

Knowledge is companies’ crucial asset, especially when they are inserted in continuous collaboration and value co-creation. However, problems related to knowledge may occur without proper management, which can compromise the strategic objectives associated with a business collaboration network. Given the presented gap, this study aims to propose and test a business-to-business (B2B) knowledge management (KM) framework focused on value co-creation. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the following guiding questions: what are the main elements that a KM model should present in a context of value co-creation between companies? What are the limitations? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Is there any group that would benefit most from it?

This is an exploratory study grounded on mixed methods, having a qualitative approach (systematic literature review and content analysis) followed by a quantitative approach (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis), which grounded the proposed framework.

The qualitative approach grounded on the systematic literature review resulting in 38 articles that were submitted to content analysis, which resulted in six record units: active communication between the organization, employees and other stakeholders; documents and organizational knowledge stored; knowledge map; collaborative network; searching tools and database, which provided the KM elements to develop and test the proposed framework by the quantitative approach. The results have shown that the framework may assist in managing knowledge in B2B value co-creation relationships.

As an exploratory study, the chosen research approach used nonprobabilistic for convenience sampling. Therefore, the results may lack generalizability. Thus, researchers are encouraged to use probabilistic sampling techniques to ensure generability. Also, more and better items should be used to upgrade the initial questionnaire, improving it and, by doing so, have a better scale.

Assuming the proposed framework’s effectiveness, company managers can use it to drive knowledge within the network of interested parties to promote cooperative products and services. In addition, due to the theoretical framework’s broad vision, it can serve as a strategic aid to leverage innovation, productivity and competitive advantage. This study also provides an initial instrument that assists in understanding KM elements, which may assist in value co-creation.

It was learned that the elements, tools, concepts and KM preconized solutions can assist in value co-creation. Considering that value assists business performance, and value co-creation is one way to enhance it, furthermore, by knowledge sharing, the value co-creation may occur in the B2B ecosystem. Also, it is the first theoretical KM framework proposed to assist companies to understand better ways that could get advantages on structuring knowledge, meaning mapping it, sharing it through a system that can retain what is needed and release it to the ones that need and have the defined access to receive it.