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1 – 10 of 69This paper aims to consider the ways organised crime exerts influence in legitimate commercial markets through its ability to act through corporate vehicles. Discussion of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to consider the ways organised crime exerts influence in legitimate commercial markets through its ability to act through corporate vehicles. Discussion of weaknesses in company registration procedures and the criminal justice system that enable this to happen. Development of strategic rather than tactical responses is proposed to counter it.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents case studies based on practitioner experience and discusses points that arise.
Findings
This paper considers the extent to which the problem represents a threat to the well-being and competitiveness of domestic commercial markets and how these threats can be most effectively addressed.
Research limitations/implications
This is a point of view paper authored by a practitioner with professional expertise in the field.
Practical implications
There is a need to develop strategic cross-agency responses to this problem. This will develop better levels of precautionary awareness of how these influences can establish footholds in commercial markets and provide a sounder basis for taking effective measures to contain and counter their influence.
Social implications
The social implications relate to the distorting influence of money derived from crime being deployed in legitimate spheres.
Originality/value
The originality/value of this paper is to raise awareness and re-invigorate discussion on the influence of organised crime in legitimate commercial markets.
Lynn Healy, Lisa C. Ehrich, Brian Hansford and Doug Stewart
The research reported in this article formed part of a university/industry collaborative grant in which the role of leaders in managing cultural change across an industry site was…
Abstract
The research reported in this article formed part of a university/industry collaborative grant in which the role of leaders in managing cultural change across an industry site was investigated. The focus of the article concerns the leadership of a district director in a rural setting in Queensland. The study was shaped by the interests of the district director who sought feedback on her leadership style and influence on principals in the district. A team of researchers from the School of Professional Studies in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology conducted semi‐structured interviews with a sample of six principals with whom she had worked over a period of one year to gauge their perceptions of her influence on their thinking and acting. A key finding of the research was that that well‐led conversations can be an effective professional development strategy for learning, growth and change in educational leaders.
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Mona Kratzert and Debora Richey
Over the past 30 years there has been a growing interest in fiction by Native American authors. An increasingly diverse crop of Indian writers have produced innovative and…
Abstract
Over the past 30 years there has been a growing interest in fiction by Native American authors. An increasingly diverse crop of Indian writers have produced innovative and sometimes controversial works, but often critics, readers and the book publishing community have concentrated their attention on older, more established writers. This article identifies younger and up‐and‐coming Native American authors, many of whom are producing major literary works, but have not received the attention they deserve. The article also discusses ways researchers and those involved in collection development can track down information on rising Indian authors and their novels.
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Abstract
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Charlotte A. Sharp, Mike Bresnen, Lynn Austin, Jillian McCarthy, William G. Dixon and Caroline Sanders
Developing technological innovations in healthcare is made complex and difficult due to effects upon the practices of professional, managerial and other stakeholders. Drawing upon…
Abstract
Purpose
Developing technological innovations in healthcare is made complex and difficult due to effects upon the practices of professional, managerial and other stakeholders. Drawing upon the concept of boundary object, this paper explores the challenges of achieving effective collaboration in the development and use of a novel healthcare innovation in the English healthcare system.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study is presented of the development and implementation of a smart phone application (app) for use by rheumatoid arthritis patients. Over a two-year period (2015–2017), qualitative data from recorded clinical consultations (n = 17), semi-structured interviews (n = 63) and two focus groups (n = 13) were obtained from participants involved in the app's development and use (clinicians, patients, researchers, practitioners, IT specialists and managers).
Findings
The case focuses on the use of the app and its outputs as a system of inter-connected boundary objects. The analysis highlights the challenges overcome in the innovation's development and how knowledge sharing between patients and clinicians was enhanced, altering the nature of the clinical consultation. It also shows how conditions surrounding the innovation both enabled its development and inhibited its wider scale-up.
Originality/value
By recognizing that technological artefacts can simultaneously enable and inhibit collaboration, this paper highlights the need to overcome tensions between the transformative capability of such healthcare innovations and the inhibiting effects simultaneously created on change at a wider system level.
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Shawn Carraher, John A. Parnell and John E. Spillan
The purpose of this paper is to test the feasibility of using a biodata inventory to measure service‐orientation – one's disposition to be helpful, thoughtful, considerate, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the feasibility of using a biodata inventory to measure service‐orientation – one's disposition to be helpful, thoughtful, considerate, and cooperative – across cultures in a sample of 1,324 owners of businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
Subjects in Austria, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, and Slovenia are given the inventory in order to predict their on‐the‐job service‐oriented performance.
Findings
Within the samples, the service‐orientation ratings are highly correlated with extroversion and openness to experience in all six countries, and agreeableness in five countries and conscientiousness in four countries. The correlations of these scales with service‐orientation are as high as or higher than those generally obtained with measures of service‐orientation with customer service representatives.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis lends credence to the notion that service‐orientation may be effectively measured by biodata within small organizations across multiple cultures.
Originality/value
This paper examines the utility of a personality‐oriented biodata inventory for explaining levels of customer service‐oriented performance across six countries. Little cross‐country research has been done on the owners of business thus this paper helps to fill in gaps in the literature dealing with business owners and the importance of personality attributes to explain service‐oriented performance.
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Elena Iarskaia‐Smirnova and Pavel Romanov
This article seeks to uncover the gendered nature of discourses in social services and social work textbooks and their impact on the professional identity of social workers in…
Abstract
Purpose
This article seeks to uncover the gendered nature of discourses in social services and social work textbooks and their impact on the professional identity of social workers in Russia.
Design/methodology/approach
It is based on qualitative methodology, referring to interview material, and discourse analysis of the Russian textbooks used in social care education. It addresses three dimensions of gender: labour market policies and women's work/low wages; identity constructions of the social workers; and the discourse of gender in teaching material and textbooks.
Findings
The research shows that, by setting up inadequate wage policies for social workers, the state has reinforced the societal assumption of cheap women's labour. In addition, power relations in social work practice reinforce social inequalities. The ideology of a specific female work‐capacity is reproduced in social work, as in other forms of care work.
Research limitations/implications
The findings highlight that gender differences are represented as biologically materialised substances, while social conditions of their construction are not taken into account. Single mothers are often portrayed as immoral or unfortunate and considered dangerous for their own children and society as a whole.
Practical implications
In the education and professional development of social workers, major emphasis needs to be given to anti‐discriminatory practice and critical thinking.
Originality/value
The lack of professionalisation of social work is explained in terms of gender inequality in the social order, which is mirrored in the conditions of labour market and therefore especially in “female work”.
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Zahidul Islam, Jason A. Doshi, Hanif Mahtab and Zainal Ariffin Ahmad
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between team learning, top management support (TMS) and new product development (NPD) success.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between team learning, top management support (TMS) and new product development (NPD) success.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a quantitative research by nature. A questionnaire derived from previous studies and covered by 27 NPD projects in the high‐tech semiconductor industry in Malaysia. Stepwise regression was adopted to test hypothesis.
Findings
Out of the four independent variables, knowledge acquisition and information interpretation were found to have a signification relationship with NPD success. The findings also confirmed that TMS is a moderator in the relationship between team learning and NPD success.
Research limitations/implications
The relationships investigated in this research deserve further investigation. Because the data analyzed were collected from the high‐tech semiconductor industry in Malaysia. More studies are required before general conclusion can be drawn.
Practical implications
It is reasonable to conclude, on these findings, that NPD can be successful in the high‐tech semiconductor industry with given emphasis on team learning and TMS.
Originality/value
The paper reinforces the body of knowledge relating to NPD in the high‐tech semiconductor industry.
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Douglas J. Ernest and Lewis B. Herman
In recent years, guides to hiking trails and wilderness areas have enjoyed an increase in popularity. Here, Douglas J. Ernest and Lewis B. Herman evaluate more than 100 such books.