Search results

Professional networks are conduits for career insight, vehicles for career exploration and incubators of professional identity. Accordingly, LinkedIn is a rich environment for university students' careers and employability learning. In this article, the authors review how the pedagogical use of LinkedIn has been conceived, implemented and evaluated in higher education research.

The authors conducted a scoping literature review on research articles and chapters investigating the use of LinkedIn for careers and employability learning. The authors conducted a systematic database search and screened the results, resulting in 30 eligible studies. Each study was analysed for research characteristics, theoretical foundations, reported affordances or outcomes and critical concerns.

The authors find little evidence of cohesion or consistency in the existing research. Studies draw on different theoretical and methodological approaches and use different measures of networking behaviours and competencies. Studies tend not to consider ethical concerns about using LinkedIn as a pedagogical tool.

The authors argue this is not yet a body of research that supports the synthesis necessary for a reliable evidence base. The authors recommend that educators employing LinkedIn in the curriculum ground their work in more coherent, cohesive and integrated theories of careers and employability learning.

This review summarises a body of literature on the use of LinkedIn as a pedagogical tool for careers and employability learning in higher education. This review describes and critiques the beginnings of an evidence-base from which educators can further investigate how students can be supported to develop their online professional networking skills.

Discussion of the relationship between TQM and information and communications technology (ICT) normally focuses either on technological issues, or on the role of ICT in enabling the achievement of quality goals by means of business process re‐engineering. Less attention has been paid to the effects that the increased utilisation of ICT is having on management style, and on the quality of relationships. This paper reports on research undertaken into the development, implementation and enforcement of codes of conduct designed to govern employees' use of ICT. A study of 125 London‐based employers found that, although such codes had been introduced in nearly three‐quarters of the organisations, the majority failed to address a key issue of concern to customers – privacy of personal data. Furthermore, the codes themselves were seen to have little influence on the behaviour of employees. The reasons for this are discussed within a TQM framework, and suggestions made as to how compliance might be improved in future.

The purpose of this paper is to review the current LIS literature for document supply and related topics.

The paper is based on the reading of about 150 journals, reports and web sites.

This study finds that the prices of the big deals are under greater attack than ever. Alternatives are being actively explored. A more assertive approach is being adopted to expand the role of open access. Resistance is growing, particularly in the UK, to the publishers' ability to override copyright law in their contracts with libraries.

This is the only regular literature review that focuses on document supply.

Researcher Highlight: Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950)

The purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes among church administrators to church tourism, and the vexing challenge of categorizing church properties as tourist attractions for the city visitor. Furthermore, it seeks to ascertain if in the current economic climate, evidence of a collaborative inclination exists between core and peripheral supply‐stakeholders towards delivering a church tourism trail in this visitor‐rich area of Dublin city.

Data were gathered to coincide with the busiest period of the tourist season. Using a qualitative methodology involving a series of semi‐structured interviews, initial research concentrated on attitudes to church tourism among both church administrators and church visitors. Subsequent interviews with key informants from both core and peripheral stakeholder groups focused on their attitudes to stakeholder collaboration in the development of a localized church tourism trail.

The findings of this paper would suggest broad support among most church administrators towards tourism and contextualising church properties as heritage attractions. However, operational dissonances associated with “church ethos” and “collaborative engagement”, particularly when embedded within individual fears of being associated with an official “tourist trail” were viewed as collaborative impediments among some traditional and peripheral stakeholders.

As international competition for the urban tourist intensifies, this paper, in adopting a supply‐sided perspective has, through counterpointing psychological barriers to the development of a church tourism product, with the absence of collaboration champions in the area, highlighted a number of limiting factors to adding value to the visitor experience in Dublin's Liberties. Challenges abide!

The purpose of this paper is to explore the transition to and early experience of secondary school for students with autism from the perspective of their parents. It aimed to gather the parents’ personal accounts of their views of the transition experience for their child and of their perceptions of both the positive and the negative factors inherent in the process of transition. There was an emphasis on seeking useful information for others from the parent’s perception, views and choices.

As parents were reporting on their own perceptions and also their child’s experiences, a qualitative exploratory descriptive method was required. Thematic analysis was used as a pragmatic method to report on the experiences, meanings and the reality of the transition to secondary school from a parent’s perspective (Braun and Clarke, 2012).

A variety of supports and strategies were described, parents were unanimous in their emphasis of the importance of communication to them. Parents were concerned about secondary schools not fully understanding the nature of autism, and the impact this can have on their child as an individual. Despite differing perceptions and views on the purpose or end product of secondary educations for their child, all the parents communicated a desire for their child to reach their potential and make progress within the secondary school system.

This was a small qualitative study with a self-selected group of parents in the Republic of Ireland, with fathers underrepresented. It did not take any account from any other stakeholders or the students themselves.

Parents would benefit from more practical support and communication during this time in the child’s education. Their recommendations and personal experiences may serve as a useful reference point for parents preparing for this time in their child’s school life.

The study highlights the need to better understand how children with autism can be supported in making social attainments and connections within mainstream secondary schools in Ireland.

There is a small body of knowledge related to the secondary school experience for students with autism. It contributes the parental perspective and highlights areas for further research and practice.

The main objective of this study is to investigate what are the critical success factors that exist for continuous improvement (CI) methodology deployment in the Irish medical technology (MedTech) industry. The research will, in particular, seek to establish if the highly regulated nature of the global MedTech industry is an additional critical failure factor (CFF) for the deployment of CI methodology. The study involves the analysis of the benefits, challenges, CFFs and tools most utilised for the application to the deployment of CI methodologies in the Irish medical device (MD) industry.

A quantitative survey was utilised in this study. The main participants were made up of senior quality professionals working in operational excellence, quality consultants, quality directors, quality engineers, quality managers and quality supervisors working in both manufacturing and service sectors from Irish MD companies. A total of 94 participants from the Irish MedTech industry responded to the survey.

The main finding of this study is that 42% of participants perceived that a highly regulated environment was a CFF to CI, whilst 79% of respondents utilised Lean Six Sigma in their organisations, and productivity and financial factors were found to be the highest reasons for CI deployment amongst the Irish MedTech industry. The top CFFs highlighted for CI in regulated industries were fear of extra validation activity, compliance versus quality culture and a regulatory culture of being “safe”. Another relevant finding presented in this paper is that just over 48% of participants felt that CI tools are very strongly integrated into the industries quality management systems (QMSs) such as the corrective and preventative action system, non-conformance and audit systems.

All data collected in the survey came from professionals working for Irish indigenous and multinational MedTech companies. It is important to highlight that n = 94 is a low sample size, which is enough for a preliminary survey but reinforcing the limitation in terms of generalisation of the results. A further study on a wider European and global scale as well as a comparison with the highly regulated pharma industry would be informative.

The authors understand that this is the very first research focussed on the CFFs for CI in the MedTech/MD manufacturing industry with a specific focus on the highly regulated nature of the industry as a potential CFF. The results of this study represent an important first step towards a full understanding of the applicability and use of CI in the medical-device-manufacturing industries on a global scale.