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Article
Publication date: 20 March 2020

Kate L. Reid, Annabel L.M. Ahuriri-Driscoll, Catriona R. Mackay, Pauline Barnett and Ann K. Richardson

to provide a bicultural perspective on the views of people who have completed cancer treatment and, of health providers.

Abstract

Purpose

to provide a bicultural perspective on the views of people who have completed cancer treatment and, of health providers.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 29 individuals (people who had recently completed cancer treatment and health providers). General inductive analysis was undertaken with all interview data, and a Kaupapa Māori approach was employed with the data from Māori participants.

Findings

Themes for Māori participants are as follows: (1) understanding health information is enhanced by connection and relationship; (2) the “professional” is personal and (3) enduring beyond cancer is “our” responsibility. Themes for non-Māori participants are as follows: (1) from survivorship to living with and beyond cancer; (2) from the hospital to primary care and (3) support for living with and beyond cancer.

Practical implications

Positive relationships, communication and self-determination are important for Māori making the transition from hospital to the community after cancer treatment. Well-coordinated processes and services are vital for supporting transitions from hospital to community for non-Māori living with and beyond cancer.

Originality/value

This research presents the diversity of Māori and non-Māori experiences of living with and beyond cancer, adding to the limited New Zealand literature regarding post-treatment supportive care. This paper is among the first to undertake separate interviews and thematic analyses of Māori and non-Māori experiences, and to report these separately. Determinants of positive survivorship experiences are identified, specifying a central and expanded role for cancer care services.

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 November 2018

Mark Fordjour Owusu, Arindam Basu and Pauline Barnett

The purpose of this paper is to assess policy and management of hypertension and diabetes in Ghana.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess policy and management of hypertension and diabetes in Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted 26 key informant interviews with policy makers, payers, providers and participants from advocacy groups associated with the management of hypertension and diabetes both at national and district levels in Ghana; conducted focus group discussions with a total of 18 hypertensive and diabetic patients; and analyzed documentation detailing activities that have been undertaken in response to the management of hypertension and diabetes in Ghana. The authors then conducted a content analysis after combining the three sources of information.

Findings

Using a stepwise policy process, the Ghanaian health sector has developed overarching policies and strategies on management of diabetes, hypertension, other non-communicable diseases, tobacco, alcohol and nutrition-related issues. Availability of funds and over-concentration on communicable diseases are the main barriers to the implementation of policies. Besides, response of the health sector to address the problems of hypertension and diabetes is focused more on clinical management than prevention; while the structures and processes to manage diabetes and hypertension is available at all levels of service delivery, more needs to be done on preventive aspects.

Originality/value

This is the first study in Ghana to combine individual interviews, focus groups and document analysis to review policy development, implementation and response activities on the management of hypertension and diabetes. The authors believe that the evidence from this research will inform future policy initiatives on hypertension and diabetes management in Ghana.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 33 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 November 2016

Onalenna Stannie Seitio-Kgokgwe, Robin Gauld, Philip C. Hill and Pauline Barnett

The purpose of this paper is to assess the management of the public sector health workforce in Botswana. Using institutional frameworks it aims to document and analyse human…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the management of the public sector health workforce in Botswana. Using institutional frameworks it aims to document and analyse human resource management (HRM) practices, and make recommendations to improve employee and health system outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws from a large study that used a mixed methods approach to assess performance of Botswana’s Ministry of Health (MOH). It uses data collected through document analysis and in-depth interviews of 54 key informants comprising policy makers, senior staff of the MOH and its stakeholder organizations.

Findings

Public health sector HRM in Botswana has experienced inadequate planning, poor deployment and underutilization of staff. Lack of comprehensive retention strategies and poor working conditions contributed to the failure to attract and retain skilled personnel. Relationships with both formal and informal environments affected HRM performance.

Research limitations/implications

While document review was a major source of data for this paper, the weaknesses in the human resource information system limited availability of data.

Practical implications

This paper presents an argument for the need for consideration of formal and informal environments in developing effective HRM strategies.

Originality/value

This research provides a rare system-wide approach to health HRM in a Sub-Saharan African country. It contributes to the literature and evidence needed to guide HRM policy decisions and practices

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 30 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1997

Michael Cash

Organizations are immersed in their myths and stories which they proclaim through their annual reports, budgets and other formal and informal communications and enact through…

923

Abstract

Organizations are immersed in their myths and stories which they proclaim through their annual reports, budgets and other formal and informal communications and enact through their “biography”. These stories are seen as “stories within a story”. Organizational stories are governed by a dominant myth that bounds and constrains the context and content of the organizational learning. Argues that myths are founded in paradox. Story types that challenge the myth (parable above all) surface the assumptions underlying the paradox, leading to a higher level of learning or consciousness and, ultimately, a new myth. Examines the dominant business myth within recent (post‐1984) New Zealand experience, a period of radical restructuring, called internationally “The New Zealand Experiment”. From this repetoire of stories, several parables are chosen which demonstrate the role of parable in perplexing paradox, thereby generating new and surprising learning. Suggests that there exist “peoples of paradox”, communities of place and practice, operating out of alternate myths, with the capacity to enlarge the learning/consciousness space, and to develop higher levels of learning, or “third‐loop learning”. The challenge for organizational learning and research is to integrate insights from the study of narrative and organizational learning to better understand how this higher consciousness can be fostered. This is the territory in which the quantum leaps for business will take place.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 4 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2007

Alan Lowe and Andrea McIntosh

Managers at the company attempt to implement a knowledge management information system in an attempt to avoid loss of expertise while improving control and efficiency. The paper…

1493

Abstract

Purpose

Managers at the company attempt to implement a knowledge management information system in an attempt to avoid loss of expertise while improving control and efficiency. The paper seeks to explore the implications of the technological solution to employees within the company.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports qualitative research conducted in a single organization. Evidence is presented in the form of interview extracts.

Findings

The case section of the paper presents the accounts of organizational participants. The accounts reveal the workers' reactions to the technology‐based system and something of their strategies of resistance to the system. These accounts also provide glimpses of the identity construction engaged in by these knowledge workers. The setting for the research is in a knowledge‐intensive primary industry. Research was conducted through observation and interviews.

Research limitations/implications

The issues identified are explored in a single case‐study setting. Future research could look at the relevance of the findings to other settings.

Practical implications

The case evidence presented indicates some of the complexity of implementation of information systems in organizations. This could certainly be seen as more evidence of the uncertainty associated with organizational change and of the need for managers not to expect an easy adoption of intrusive IT solutions.

Originality/value

This paper adds empirical insight to a largely conceptual literature.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 20 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 June 2017

Dafna Merom and Robert Korycinski

The mid-1990s marked a paradigm shift in the way physical activity is promoted, and walking is now considered the most suitable type of physical activity for widespread promotion…

Abstract

The mid-1990s marked a paradigm shift in the way physical activity is promoted, and walking is now considered the most suitable type of physical activity for widespread promotion. Accurate measurement underpins public health practice, hence the aims of this chapter are to: (1) provide a typology for the measurement of walking; (2) review methods to assess walking; (3) present challenges in defining walking measures; (4) identify issues in selecting instruments for the evaluation of walking and (5) discuss current efforts to overcome measurement challenges and methodological limitations. The taxonomy of walking indicates that secondary purpose walking is a more complex set of behaviours than primary purpose walks. It has many purposes and no specific domain or intensity, may lack regularity, and therefore poses greater measurement challenges. Objective measurement methods, such as accelerometers, pedometers, smartphones and other electronic devices, have shown good approximation for walking energy expenditure, but are indirect methods of walking assessment. Global Positioning System technology, the ‘Smartmat’ and radio-frequency identification tags are potential objective methods that can distinguish walkers, but also require complex analysis, are costly, and still need their measurement properties corroborated. Subjective direct methods, such as questionnaires, diaries and direct observation, provide the richest information on walking, especially short-term diaries, such as trip records and time use records, and are particularly useful for assessing secondary purpose walking. A unifying measure for health research, surveillance and health promotion would strongly advance the understanding of the impact of walking on health.

Details

Walking
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-628-0

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2015

Pauline J. Sheldon

This concluding contribution draws together key issues discussed in the various chapters of the book and connects them with future trends for tourism education. It places task in…

Abstract

This concluding contribution draws together key issues discussed in the various chapters of the book and connects them with future trends for tourism education. It places task in the changing world of higher education in general, and discusses changes in knowledge acquisition, ways of learning, knowledge content, and the role of educators in the future. This coverage leads to new learning technologies and their impact on the learning spaces of the future. Finally, the chapter discusses how projected tourism education programs can be designed to address society’s needs at this critical juncture in the history of the mankind. Creating responsible leaders for this global industry is perhaps the most important goal of future tourism education.

Details

Tourism Education: Global Issues and Trends
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-997-3

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 March 2017

Obert Jiri, Paramu L. Mafongoya and Pauline Chivenge

This study aimed to determine factors that increase resilience and cause smallholder farmers to adapt better to climate change and vulnerability.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to determine factors that increase resilience and cause smallholder farmers to adapt better to climate change and vulnerability.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the authors used the vulnerability to resilience model and binary logit model to analyse the factors influencing household decisions to adapt.

Findings

Households with increased access to climate information through extension services were likely to have better adaptation abilities. It was also shown that younger farmers were likely to adapt to climate change given their flexibility to adopt new techniques and their access and use of modern information and technology. Larger households were found to have higher probability of adapting as most adaptation strategies are labour intensive. Household’s possession of livestock and access to credit significantly enhanced adaptation. However, households with higher farm income have lesser incentives to adapt to because their current farming practices might already be optimum.

Research limitations/implications

Given that most of the smallholder farmers are vulnerable, such as women-headed households and the elderly, who are labour constrained, there is need for research and development of labour saving technologies to increase resilience to climate change and vulnerability.

Originality/value

These findings underscore the importance of enabling farmer access to information and better technologies which enable them to increase adaptive capacity and resilience.

Details

International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-8692

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2007

Duncan Shaw, Matthew Hall, John S. Edwards and Brad Baker

Many managers would like to take a strategic approach to preparing the organisation to avoid impending crisis but instead find themselves fire‐fighting to mitigate its impact…

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Abstract

Purpose

Many managers would like to take a strategic approach to preparing the organisation to avoid impending crisis but instead find themselves fire‐fighting to mitigate its impact. This paper seeks to examine an organisation which made major strategic changes in order to respond to the full effect of a crisis which would be realised over a two to three year period. At the root of these changes was a strategic approach to managing knowledge. The paper's purpose is to reflect on managers' views of the impact this strategy had on preparing for the crisis and explore what happened in the organisation during and after the crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper examines a case‐study of a financial services organisation which faced the crisis of its impending dissolution. The paper draws upon observations of change management workshops, as well as interviews with organisational members of a change management task force.

Findings

The response to the crisis was to recognise the importance of the people and their knowledge to the organisation, and to build a strategy which improved business processes and communication flow across the divisions, as well as managing the departure of knowledge workers from an organisation in the process of being dissolved.

Practical implications

The paper demonstrates the importance of building a knowledge management strategy during times of crisis, and draws out important lessons for organisations facing organisational change.

Originality/value

The paper represents a unique opportunity to learn from an organisation adopting a strategic approach to managing its knowledge during a time of crisis.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 20 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 August 2018

Paul A. Pautler

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and…

Abstract

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Details

Healthcare Antitrust, Settlements, and the Federal Trade Commission
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-599-9

Keywords

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