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1 – 10 of 29Claire de Motte, Di Bailey, Melanie Hunter and Alice L. Bennett
The purpose of this paper is to describe the pattern of self-harm (SH) and proven prison rule-breaking (PRB) behaviour in prisoners receiving treatment for personality disorders…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the pattern of self-harm (SH) and proven prison rule-breaking (PRB) behaviour in prisoners receiving treatment for personality disorders (PDs) within a high security prison.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparative quantitative case study design supported the understanding of the frequency and pattern of SH and PRB behaviour across two stages of a PD treatment programme for 74 male prisoners. Data obtained from the prison’s records were analysed using dependent t-tests, χ2 test of independence and time-frequency analyses.
Findings
Inferential statistics showed that the frequency of SH and PRB behaviour statistically increased across two phases of the PD treatment programme; however, the method of SH or type of PRB behaviour engaged in did not change. Mapping the frequencies of incidents using a time-frequency analysis shows the patterns of both behaviours to be erratic, peaking in the latter phase of treatment, yet the frequency of incidents tended to decline over time.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explore SH and PRB behaviours in men across two phases of a PD treatment programme. This study highlights the need for continued psychological support alongside the PD treatment programme with a focus on supporting men in treatment to effectively manage their SH and PRB behaviour.
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Alice Bennett and Melanie Hunter
This paper aims to describe: the need for substance misuse treatment with high risk, personality disordered prisoners, and the implementation of two evidence-based psychological…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe: the need for substance misuse treatment with high risk, personality disordered prisoners, and the implementation of two evidence-based psychological interventions aimed at addressing substance misuse within a high secure, personality disorder treatment unit and potential future evaluation options.
Design/methodology/approach
In addition to the literature base evidencing the need for substance misuse treatment with this population, the Iceberg and ‘InsideOut’ interventions are presented. These interventions adopt a risk reduction and health intervention approach respectively. This includes explanations of how they came to be implemented within a prison based personality disorder treatment service and potential ways to evaluate these services.
Findings
Evidence-based psychological interventions can be implemented for this population whilst being responsive to changing government priorities for substance misuse treatment. The organisation’s research strategy includes an intention to evaluate these interventions in order to inform future delivery.
Practical implications
The high levels of co-morbidity between personality disorder and substance misuse disorders in the high security prison estate highlights the need for substance related treatment for this population. Given the responsivity issues relevant to personality disordered offenders, the format of delivery of evidence-based psychological interventions has to be considered.
Originality/value
This paper discusses the application of evidence-based psychological interventions for substance use within a high secure, personality disordered population which has developed as a result of ministerial changes within the treatment of both substance misuse and personality disorder.
Mandy Siew Chen Sim, Joshua Edward Galloway, Hazel Melanie Ramos and Michael James Mustafa
Drawing on institutional theory, this paper seeks to untangle the relationship between university support for entrepreneurship and students’ entrepreneurial intentions…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on institutional theory, this paper seeks to untangle the relationship between university support for entrepreneurship and students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Specifically, this study aims to examine whether entrepreneurial climates within universities mediate the relationship between university support for entrepreneurship and students’ entrepreneurial intention.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical data is drawn from 195 students across three Malaysian higher education institutions. Partial least squares procedures are used to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Findings show that no element of university support for entrepreneurship had a direct effect on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. However, the entrepreneurial climate was found – to mediate the relationship between perceived business and concept development support and students’ entrepreneurial intentions.
Originality/value
This study represents one of the few efforts in the literature considering the role of entrepreneurial climates within universities in influencing students’ entrepreneurial intention. In considering the mediating role of entrepreneurial climate, in the relationship between university support for entrepreneurship and students’ entrepreneurial intentions, this study provides a complementary and contextualised perspective, to existing studies, which have traditionally focussed on the mediating role of individual attributes. Doing so provides further evidence of entrepreneurial universities in fostering entrepreneurship.
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Sanjana Arora, Astrid Bergland, Melanie Straiton, Bernd Rechel and Jonas Debesay
The purpose of this paper is to synthesise data from the existent literature on the experiences of non-western older migrants in Europe in accessing and using healthcare services.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesise data from the existent literature on the experiences of non-western older migrants in Europe in accessing and using healthcare services.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 1,606 records were reviewed and 12 studies were selected. A thematic synthesis using Thomas and Harden’s approach was conducted.
Findings
The findings resulted in the three overarching themes: traditional discourses under new circumstances; predisposed vulnerabilities of older migrants and the healthcare system; and the conceptualization of health and the roles of healthcare professionals. The authors found that older migrants’ experience of accessing healthcare is influenced by many factors, such as health literacy, differences in healthcare beliefs and language barriers, and is not limited to cultural and traditional discourses of care. Findings reveal that there is a limited body of knowledge on barriers experienced by older migrant women.
Research limitations/implications
The geographical scope of the study and subsequent type of healthcare systems should be taken into account while understanding barriers to care. Another limitation is that although we studied different migrant groups, the authors synthesised barriers experienced by all. Future research could study migrants as separate groups to better understand how previous experiences with healthcare in their home country and specific social, cultural and economic circumstances shape them.
Originality/value
This paper provides a synthesis of the experiences of migrants from non-western countries who moved to a host country with a very different language, culture and healthcare system.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the competencies that US healthcare organizations require for quality and performance improvement positions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the competencies that US healthcare organizations require for quality and performance improvement positions.
Design/methodology/approach
A US healthcare improvement job posting content analysis was conducted using the HQ Essentials competency framework.
Findings
The HQ essentials competencies most desired for improvement positions include project management, training, data analysis and applied performance improvement methods. Competency requirements varied somewhat by job focus area: performance, quality, or process improvement, and Lean and Six Sigma.
Practical implications
Healthcare leaders may use the author’s results to understand what competencies may be required for various improvement roles and to identify any gaps in required skills and knowledge areas that may need to be addressed. Educators and policy-makers should consider how these competencies align with employers’ needs and what resources or professional development may be needed to address gaps.
Originality/value
This is the first healthcare improvement competencies analysis based on job postings.
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Sarah Leidner, Denise Baden and Melanie J. Ashleigh
The purpose of this paper is to explore how Green (environmental) Human Resource Management (GHRM) policies can elicit green employee behaviours. This study explores the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how Green (environmental) Human Resource Management (GHRM) policies can elicit green employee behaviours. This study explores the role of sustainability advocates, who are leaders and managers in pursuit of their firm’s environmental agenda, in the design and delivery of GHRM policies, communication, recruitment and selection, environmental training, rewards and incentives.
Design/methodology/approach
In this qualitative study, eighteen semi-structured interviews with sustainability advocates in European firms were conducted and analysed.
Findings
GHRM practices are not in themselves peripheral, intermediate or embedded, but shaped by contextual situations. Sustainability advocates’ intentions do not seem to match GHRM policy design, i.e. they try to elicit value-based behaviours by using self-interest-based approaches, leading to misalignments between the attitudes and behaviours policies attempt to elicit, and the type of behaviours they elicit in practice.
Research limitations/implications
This study explores GHRM practice implementation experienced by leaders and managers. Further research on the role of the HR function and recipients of GHRM is needed.
Practical implications
Practitioners need to be aware that organisational incentives (GHRM policies) that reflect self-interest can lead to self-interest-based behaviour and may be short-lived. A careful consideration of contextual factors will inform the selection of suitable GHRM policies. Environmental training completion rates seem an unsuitable metric for senior management bonuses.
Originality/value
This paper investigates the design and implementation stage of GHRM, leading to an identification of GHRM policies as peripheral, intermediate or embedded. This creates an in-depth knowledge on the efficacy of GHRM policies and their relation to the environment.
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David J Finch, Melanie Peacock, Nadege Levallet and William Foster
The increasing demand for post-secondary education, and the ongoing difficulty students’ face in securing appropriate work upon program completion, highlight the importance of an…
Abstract
Purpose
The increasing demand for post-secondary education, and the ongoing difficulty students’ face in securing appropriate work upon program completion, highlight the importance of an enhanced understanding of employability resources for university graduates. Just as organizations achieve a strategic advantage from resources and dynamic capabilities (DCs), university graduates can similarly apply these principles and tactics to be competitive in the job market. The purpose of this paper is to ask the question: how can new graduates enhance their competitive advantage when entering the employment market? To address this question the authors propose to adopt the DCs framework to analyze the competitive advantage of a graduate and argue that university graduates can take specific steps to enhance their own competitive advantage in the labor market.
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive review of the existing human resource and strategic management literature was used to develop a conceptual DCs model of employability. The core dimensions of the conceptual model were refined using 26 one-on-one interviews with employers of new university graduates. This study concludes by recommending specific empirical and experimental research to further test the model.
Findings
The results from the qualitative study identified the importance of four specific resources that university graduates should possess: intellectual, personality, meta-skill and job-specific. In addition, the authors suggest that integrated DCs are crucial for enhancing the value of these individual resources. Both pre-graduate application and the construction of personal narratives are essential signals that university graduates can mobilize individual resources in a complementary and strategic manner, in real-world settings, to maximize value.
Research limitations/implications
This is an exploratory study and is designed as a foundation for future empirical and experiential research.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that, in order to increase employability, university students need to assume a DCs view of competitive advantage. As a result, students need to reflect on both their intrinsic and learned resources to create a systematic competitive advantage that is valued, rare and difficult to replicate or substitute.
Social implications
This paper challenges students to assume a holistic view of education by recognizing education extends far beyond a classroom. Therefore, differentiation and value creation is reflected in the synthesis and application of both intrinsic and learned resources.
Originality/value
The integration of strategic management and human resource literature is a unique theoretical approach to explore the drivers of graduate employability.
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Kathy Brock and Robert P. Shepherd
According to the traditional view of public administration, a critical component of good policy formulation is the provision of frank and fearless advice to elected…
Abstract
Purpose
According to the traditional view of public administration, a critical component of good policy formulation is the provision of frank and fearless advice to elected decision-makers. This advice can be provided by permanent public officials or by the people selected by the elected governments to fill key and continuing posts. However, there are major questions as to whether new Governor-in-Council (GIC) appointment processes rooted in new public governance (NPG) are yielding the expected results promised, such as less partisanism, as a consideration for appointment.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a mixed methods approach to examine the GIC process as it is used in Canada. In using these methods, the authors employed interviews with senior officials, governmental documents review and expert validation interviews to triangulate its main findings.
Findings
The paper uses the case of the revised appointment process for GIC appointments in Canada and suggests that the new arrangements do not deliver on merit-based criteria that ensures independence is protected between political executive and senior bureaucratic officials. Although new processes may be more open and transparent than past processes, the paper suggests that such processes are more susceptible to partisan influence under the guise of being merit-based.
Research limitations/implications
The research was limited to one country context, Canada. As such, it will be necessary to expand this to other Westminster countries. Testing whether manifestations of new public governance in appointment processes elsewhere will be important to validate whether Canada is unique or not.
Practical implications
The authors are left to wonder if this innovation of merit-based appointments in the new administrative state is obscuring the lines of accountability and whether it forms the basis for good policy advice despite promises to the contrary.
Social implications
Trust in the government is affected by decisions behind closed doors. They appear partisan, even when they may not be. Process matters if only to highlight increased value placed on meritorious appointments.
Originality/value
Previous studies on GIC appointments have generally been to explore representation as a value. That is, studies have questioned whether diversity is maintained, for example. However, few studies have explored appointment processes using institutional approaches to examine whether reforms to such processes have respected key principles, such as merit and accountability.
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The deeply embedded perception that human beings are violent by nature is a worldview that becomes instrumental for justifying armed conflict. Prominent authors in multiple…
Abstract
The deeply embedded perception that human beings are violent by nature is a worldview that becomes instrumental for justifying armed conflict. Prominent authors in multiple scholarly disciplines have challenged the myth of the violent human being. This article approaches the complexity of challenging political violence by identifying common ground among different disciplines and putting scholarly research in dialogue with recent developments in war and peace across the globe. This article describes the cultural, political and institutional dimensions that sustain violence, and suggests a specific approach for addressing these three strands.
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