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1 – 10 of 18Irene Tempone, Marie Kavanagh, Naomi Segal, Phil Hancock, Bryan Howieson and Jenny Kent
The purpose of this paper is to determine the requirements of accounting graduates in relation to generic attributes. Employers have consistently maintained that graduates are…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the requirements of accounting graduates in relation to generic attributes. Employers have consistently maintained that graduates are deficient in this area. This Australia‐wide, all‐sector study addresses the issue by examining what employers mean when they make demands for universities and academics to deliver work‐ready graduates.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews (recorded, transcribed and analysed with NVivo) with employers, and accounting professional bodies were conducted to ascertain their views of their needs of accounting graduates into the future.
Findings
Employers held the generic attributes of communication, team work and self‐management to be the most critical for graduates in the three areas of recruitment, training and ongoing employment. Demands on universities to deliver work‐ready graduates are not homogeneous. Employers in different sectors construe the meaning of generic attributes in line with their specific needs.
Originality/value
The study was an original piece of work that gauged the opinions of professional accounting bodies and employers of accounting graduates across Australia and in all sectors of the accounting profession. The value of the study is to inform academics as to the ranked importance of generic attributes but also alert them to the different meanings that are assigned to these skills by employers in different sectors.
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The purpose of this paper is to show how early planned PR efforts at the British Family Planning Association [FPA] resulted in an epoch-making television appearance in November…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how early planned PR efforts at the British Family Planning Association [FPA] resulted in an epoch-making television appearance in November 1955, tessellating with current methodological debates in the history of PR.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a qualitative, micro-history approach and original archival document research conducted at Wellcome Collection, London and the BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham, to reconstruct early PR activity at the FPA. It intercedes in debates on historiography, the diversification of the history of PR and the concepts of mediatization and advocacy in historical contexts.
Findings
Attaining broadcast coverage for birth control issues was historically difficult and was made more so by Marie Stopes. The subject was commonly packaged into the less problematic issues of population and infertility. The FPA achieved explicit television coverage in 1955 after establishing a focussed PR plan to stage and exploit a silver jubilee event. This vindicated the FPA's mission, validated service users and created broadcast opportunities.
Research limitations/implications
Research is limited by temporal scope (1870s–1950s), and reliance on document sources, footage of television programmes being unavailable. This paper has implications for the history of PR, contributing to the diversification of the field by suggesting an original approach to the intersection of public relations and social change.
Originality/value
This paper surfaces overlooked primary sources and is the first account of how birth control appeared as a topic on early British broadcast media.
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Rebekah Brennan and Marie Claire Van Hout
Mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant drug causing entactogenic and hallucinogenic effects. A systematic review of all existing empirical research and literature from 2009‐2012 on…
Abstract
Purpose
Mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant drug causing entactogenic and hallucinogenic effects. A systematic review of all existing empirical research and literature from 2009‐2012 on this new psychoactive drug was conducted. This paper aims to report on that review.
Design/methodology/approach
The review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Electronic databases were utilised using the search terms “mephedrone” and product nomenclature; “Plant Food”, “Feeder”, “Meow Meow”, “Miaow”, “Drone”, “Meph” “Bubbles”, “Charge”, and “MCat”. The search was restricted to publications from 2009‐2012, and produced 702 results. Data were collected by one member of the research team and cross checked by another. A primary screening was carried out to exclude inaccurate search results and drugs other than mephedrone. The results were studied and duplicates removed; 598 results were discarded, with 104 deemed suitable for inclusion.
Findings
The review underscores mephedrone's popularity despite legislative controls. Drug displacement patterns from illicit to licit were observed prior to controls, with blending of mephedrone and other substitute cathinones with street drugs thereafter. User consumptive choices are grounded in availability, perceptions of legality and safety, curiosity and perceived quality of drug outcomes within poly drug taking repertoires. Clinical reports indicate that mephedrone has high abuse potential and toxicity, with several dependence symptoms. Risk assessment, detection, diagnosis and treatment of mephedrone use are difficult due to polydrug use and associated mental health disorders.
Research limitations/implications
The review points to the need for further research into the pharmacology and toxicity of mephedrone in order to better equip clinicians with assessment, diagnosis and treatment strategies to reduce morbidity.
Practical implications
The increasingly diversified new psycho stimulant market where mephedrone is a major player poses unprecedented challenges for drug surveillance, policy, community and clinical practice.
Social implications
Stricter legislative controls including internet vendor responsibility for supply of mephedrone have been suggested, along with raising public awareness on an international level through coordinated efforts.
Originality/value
The last review was published in 2009 by the Psychonaut Webmapping Group. This review brings together a comprehensive new set of data sources as they relate to this drug.
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Anna Marie Johnson, Claudene Sproles, Robert Detmering and Jessica English
The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.
Findings
Information is provided about each source, and the paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
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Wicked problems, cross-sectoral and transregional collaborations, emerging technologies and calls for innovation generate exciting but unpredictable transformations in governance…
Abstract
Purpose
Wicked problems, cross-sectoral and transregional collaborations, emerging technologies and calls for innovation generate exciting but unpredictable transformations in governance. Emerging research suggests humility, rather than certitude, represents a promising ethos for public leaders working to solve problems in tumultuous times. This study examines the nature, value and practice of humility in public administration (PA) leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reviews cross-disciplinary research on the nature and value of humility and emerging findings and debates on humility assessment measures. It analyzes discourse among graduate students in US PA classes and uses ethnographic analysis from workshops with local government leaders to identify institutional dynamics that may influence leaders' willingness to act with humility.
Findings
Findings suggest that although PA students and leaders may value humility, they encounter institutional constraints related to public sector legitimacy and narratives about expertise and risk. The author proposes a framework to guide future research and practice in humility and public leadership.
Research limitations/implications
Potential constraints emerged from a modest study of courses and workshops; further research is required to test the prevalence of themes across public leadership environments.
Practical implications
Public leaders, teachers and coaches may apply these practices and assessment measures to cultivate humility in PA classes and organizations.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to explore leadership humility with attention to how PA context may influence practice.
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Katharina Jahn, Frederike Marie Oschinsky, Bastian Kordyaka, Alla Machulska, Tanja Joan Eiler, Armin Gruenewald, Tim Klucken, Rainer Brueck, Carl Friedrich Gethmann and Bjoern Niehaves
Immersive virtual reality (IVR) has been frequently proposed as a promising tool for learning. However, researchers have commonly implemented a plethora of design elements in…
Abstract
Purpose
Immersive virtual reality (IVR) has been frequently proposed as a promising tool for learning. However, researchers have commonly implemented a plethora of design elements in these IVR systems, which makes the specific aspects of the system that are necessary to achieve beneficial outcomes unclear. Against this background, this study aims to combine the literature on presence with learning theories to propose that the ability of IVR to present 3D objects to users improves the presence of these objects in the virtual environment compared with 2D objects, leading to increased learning performance.
Design/methodology/approach
To test this study’s hypotheses, the authors conducted a 2 (training condition: approach vs avoid) x 2 (object presence: high vs low) between-subjects laboratory experiment that used IVR with 83 female participants.
Findings
The results support this study’s hypotheses and show that training with high object presence leads to greater reactions to cues (chocolate cravings) and improved health behaviour (chocolate consumption).
Originality/value
This study shows that increased object presence leads to unique experiences for users, which help reinforce training effects. Moreover, this work sheds further light on how immersive computer technologies can affect user attitudes and behaviour. Specifically, this work contributes to IVR research by showing that learning effects can be enhanced through an increased degree of object presence.
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The majority of the articles reviewed this time deal with ILL and public libraries in one way or another. The review begins by looking at school libraries and their ability to…
Abstract
The majority of the articles reviewed this time deal with ILL and public libraries in one way or another. The review begins by looking at school libraries and their ability to handle ILL requests satisfactorily amongst themselves and then examines several papers critical of networking in public libraries. There is an argument that public libraries hardly need ILL at all because of the nature of their users and their needs. ILL is an expensive operation and the issue of fees and charges is much debated; the discussion examined here includes the suggestion that users can travel to consult materials and public libraries might ration ILL requests per user including children. The idea of using ILL as a revenue earner, or at least paying for itself, is questioned and a study of commercial document supply services is examined which pays special attention to the performance of the many sources available. A paper on ILL costing almost nothing is criticized as not taking account of all factors. Time, as well as money, is important and a study of supply time to the user shows that more could be done by requesting libraries to speed supply to the end‐user. The impact of network membership on ILL is considered and shows that net borrowers can soon become net lenders and vice‐versa. The reorganization of document supply from the US National Library of Medicine had considerable impact on the use of NLM which is analysed. Finally a note on the political aspects of ILL in southern Africa is noticed as dealing with an issue of potential significance.
Abdulrazaq Kayode Abdulkareem and Razlini Mohd Ramli
This study aims to examine the usefulness of trust in e-government to influence the use and success of e-government services within the context of the information system (IS…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the usefulness of trust in e-government to influence the use and success of e-government services within the context of the information system (IS) success model and public value theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The study proposed a conceptual model comprising 17 hypotheses tested using structural equation modelling-partial least squares. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire from 369 e-government users from Nigeria.
Findings
The results show that trust in e-government is directly influenced by all information quality, service quality and actual use. Also, trust in e-government predicts the public value of e-government, among other variables. Trust in e-government mediates the relationship between the quality dimensions and the public value of e-government. Also, the quality dimensions predict the actual use and user satisfaction with e-government. The most significant effect was established in the relationship between trust in e-government and the public value of e-government.
Research limitations/implications
This study used a targeted and small sample size compared to the teledensity of Nigeria, limiting analysis that might influence the relevance of the variables’ relationships. Other individual characteristics such as self-efficacy and access to information and communication technologies (ICT) and digital literacy were not included in the study.
Practical implications
It is expected that public service managers and ICT implementers would learn and take advantage of the system’s strengths and limitations and resolve expectations to enhance its value.
Originality/value
This study extended the DeLone and Mclean IS success model to incorporate public values as the net benefits of e-government. The public value of e-government was treated as a second-order construct.
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The purpose of this paper is to surface and discuss issues associated with employee performance appraisal as a multi-staged social interaction reportedly the butt of managerial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to surface and discuss issues associated with employee performance appraisal as a multi-staged social interaction reportedly the butt of managerial dissatisfaction, especially when used to inform decisions around pay and other rewards.
Design/methodology/approach
To substantiate the territory, existing management-based evidence from the published literature is curated and discussed to frame issues for investigation under the rubric of performance appraisal as an activity that may be understood as combining interaction between forms of administrative, social and psychologically oriented control. Primary evidence, drawn from recent research sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which combines data sets informed by a survey of HR specialists and a follow-on focus group, is then used to illustrate views on relevant themes across a sample of UK-based private, public and third sector organizations (n=715).
Findings
A significant number of organizations apply performance appraisal approaches, somewhat mediated by sector and size, and in turn use the results to inform various forms of HRM decision making – in particular reward management. While claims have been circulating in popular media suggesting the widespread abandonment of traditional performance appraisal, and while the study finds dissatisfaction regarding the utility of existing bureaucratic elements of appraisal mechanisms, the position is more nuanced.
Practical implications
Corporate management attention is drawn to choices of the extent to which they are investing in building line management capabilities to address the consequences of policy decisions to amplify the importance of informal alongside formal performance management processes, and potential reward decision making, mindful of the indeterminate character of the employment relationship and its dynamic, socially constructed character.
Social implications
Performance appraisal may benefit from re-interpreting the balance between emphasis on administrative, social and self-control, given changing expectations among workforce members and those who evaluate organizational effectiveness in contemporary society, and the ongoing contested nature of organizational control.
Originality/value
Employee performance appraisal as an institutional process central to organizational control systems is a topic of interest to both organizational effectiveness academics and the managerial practitioners they study. Using data that broadly represent recent developments in managerial practice across “UK plc”, the paper informs reflection on theory and practice.
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Pádraig Cotter, Eirini Papasileka, Mario Eugster, Varsha Chauhan, Eshia Garcha, Marie Kunkler, Michelle Brooks, Iulia Otvos, Abberaame Srithar, Irene Pujol, Christina Sarafi and Tom Hughes
The purpose of this study is to outline a process-oriented psychology informed view of the impact of ever-increasing acuity within an adult inpatient system and conceptualise how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to outline a process-oriented psychology informed view of the impact of ever-increasing acuity within an adult inpatient system and conceptualise how an integrated therapies team (ITT) can work with the chaos that this brings.
Design/methodology/approach
A reflective scientist-practitioner based approach was used over a two-year period.
Findings
Several factors lead to “chaos” in an inpatient unit, including societal inequality, the trauma and adversity it creates and the impact of this at a systemic, interpersonal and intrapersonal level. Chaos is one means of coping and can dominate inpatient working, whereas understanding the underlying distress is often marginalised. Developing an ITT can support working with chaos. The ITT holds the therapeutic perspective for the wider multi-disciplinary team (MDT) and therapeutic and facilitation skills are central to how it operates. Processing the chaos and working with the underlying distress is its overarching function.
Practical implications
Developing an ITT offers a robust structure for evolving inpatient MDT working to cope with increasing acuity in a psychologically informed way.
Social implications
The chaos in question is often viewed as patients’ issue but from a collectivist perspective it is something that all members of society are responsible for.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to conceptualise the chaos on an inpatient ward as a process needed by the system as a way of coping and propose the addition of an ITT to inpatient working.
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