Search results

Although wikis are common in higher education, little is known about the wiki user experience in these contexts and how system characteristics impact such experiences. The purpose of this paper is to explore experimentally the hypothesis that changing the anonymity of identity when editing wikis will impact significantly on user editing anxiety and that this may be dependent on the type of edit being conducted.

This hypothesis was explored using a controlled experiment study whereby users were given excerpts to include in their own words on a wiki site used for a psychology course. Users edited the wiki anonymously, using a pseudonym relevant to the context (a matriculation number) and using a full named identity. Users were also either asked to add content to the wiki or to delete and replace content on the wiki site.

The paper found that users experienced significantly less anxiety when editing anonymously compared to when editing with a pseudonym or full name and that the type of edit being conducted did not impact the anxiety felt.

The research highlights that the effects of anonymity discussed are also in operation in a wiki context, a more fundamentally anonymous context compared to blogs, bulletin boards or general computer-mediated communication tools.

The purpose of this paper is to show that new technologies have significantly changed the way that customers interact with their bank. Whilst a trip down to the local branch was mandatory in the past for a customer to do their banking, all that is required now in many situations is simply to send a text message or log on to the internet. However, the idea of exploiting customer competency with new technologies to create new distribution channels has become a double‐edged sword. Although the distance between the bank and its customer is shortened in that direct contact can be established within a matter of seconds with these new technologies, the impact on the customer's perceived relationship with the brand remains an issue of strategic importance that needs to be evaluated. In order to exploit the advantages of technology, a full understanding of the factors and processes involved in the customer‐brand relationship associated with use of self‐service banking channels is necessary.

The methodology is an empirical study using bank customers as participants, which was conducted to examine the impact of salient relationship norms on customers' perceptions of their relationship with their bank.

Based on the experiment data, the paper establishes the relevance of the concepts of communal and exchange relationship norms in the study of customer‐brand relationships in a business context.

The implications from the findings provide insights into the importance of relationship theory in explaining customers' perceived relationship with brands, specifically that of their bank.

Public sectors have responded to grand societal challenges by establishing collaboratives – new inter-organizational partnerships to secure better quality health services. In the UK, a proliferation of collaboration-based healthcare networks exists that could help to enhance the value of investments in quality improvement programs. The nature and organizational form of such improvements is still a subject of debate within the public-sector literature. Place-based collaboration has been proposed as a possible solution. In response, the purpose of this study is to present the results and findings of a place-based collaborative network, highlighting challenges and insights.

This study adopted a social constructionist epistemological approach, using a qualitative methodology. A single case study was used and data collected in three different stages over a two-year period.

The study finds that leadership, data-enabled learning through system-wide training and development, and the provision of an enabling environment that is facilitated by an academic partner, can go a long way in the managing of healthcare networks for improving quality.

Regardless of the tensions and challenges with place-based networks, they could still be a solution in maximizing the public value required by government investments in the healthcare sector, as they offer a more innovative structure that can help to address complex issues beyond the remit of hierarchical structures. This study is limited by the use of a single case study.

Across countries health systems are moving away from markets to collaborative models for healthcare delivery and from individual services to population-based approaches. This study provides insights to inform leaders of collaborative health models in the design and delivery of these new collaborations.

As demand rises (as a result of increasing complexity and demographics) in the western world, health systems are seeking to redefine the boundaries between health service provision and community self-reliance and resilience. This study provides insights into the new partnership between health institutions and communities, providing opportunities for more social- and solidarity-based healthcare models which place patients and the public at the heart of change.

The city place-based network is the first of such organizational form in healthcare collaboration in the UK.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

ARNOLD BENNETT was a man of two worlds. In the terms of Max Beerbohm's cartoon “Old Self” was plump, wealthy, self‐assured, a landmark of the London scene, a familiar of press magnates, the owner of a yacht; “Young Self” was thin, ambitious, far‐sighted, industrious, secretly terribly anxious to justify himself to himself and decidedly provincial.

In recent years, the number of journals focusing on a single literary figure has increased substantially. No longer are only a few select authors the sole focus of a journal or newsletter. With the proliferation of single‐author periodicals, implications for their use in locating literary criticism increases the importance of identifying such publications and recommending them to users. The importance of the effective use of journals devoted to a single author is highlighted by the fact that many such titles are not indexed in MLA International Bibliography, long deemed the most complete of the traditional sources for locating literary criticism. Perhaps the greatest strength of the relatively recent American Humanities Index lies is its coverage of single‐author titles. Humanities Index and Abstracts for English Studies also provide access to such journals. Arts and Humanities Citation Index does include a number of the titles too, but it is relatively difficult to use because of its subject approach.

FOLLOWING ON from Roy Tomlinson's article (NLW July), while agreeing with much that he says I would like to enlarge on some points. I had hoped that the educational technology argument had been laid to rest after the publication in the Times higher educational supplement of correspondence occasioned by the Library Association's statements on resource centres.

MANY who realise the implications of White's book on The Organisation Man have probably closed it with the self‐satisfied reflection that ‘it can't happen here.’ That is the anodyne we generally swallow to protect us from disagreeable fears.

Reference is often made to the concept of groupthink in books on organizational behaviour intended primarily for students of management. Yet the few examples of its occurrence that are adduced are by now rather archaic or rely on the original case researched by Janis. This paper seeks to remedy this deficiency by considering two recent cases of possible groupthink in British corporate management at BA and Marks & Spencer. A notable feature of groupthink was that it tended to take place in conditions of concurrence‐seeking. In conditions that might induce such behaviour, senior management of both BA and Marks & Spencer announced globalization strategies in the early 1990s. Taking its cue from a previous study of groupthink by McCauley, the main body of the paper uses content analysis of press reports on management at BA and Marks & Spencer in the 1990s to suggest that groupthink was present, causing blocked management communications and leading to the fall in reputation and stock market valuation of these two companies.