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1 – 10 of 564Marcus Bengtsson, Lars-Gunnar Andersson and Pontus Ekström
The purpose of the study is to test if it, by the use of a survey methodology, is possible to measure managers' awareness on, and specifically if there exist preconceived beliefs…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to test if it, by the use of a survey methodology, is possible to measure managers' awareness on, and specifically if there exist preconceived beliefs on, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) results. The paper presents the design of the survey methodology as well as a test of the survey in one case company.
Design/methodology/approach
Actual OEE logs from a case company are collected and a survey on the data is designed and managers at the same case company are asked to answer the survey. The survey results are followed-up by an interview study in order to get deeper insights to both the results of the survey as well as the OEE strategy at the case company.
Findings
The findings show that the managers at this particular case company, on a general level, does not suffer too much from preconceived beliefs. However, it is clear that the managers have a preconceived belief that lack of material is logged as a loss much more often than what it actually is.
Research limitations/implications
The test has only been performed with data from one case company within the automotive manufacturing industry and only the managers at that case company has been active in the test.
Practical implications
The survey methodology can be replicated and used by other companies to find out how aware their employees are on their OEE results and if possible preconceived beliefs exists.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt at measuring if preconceived beliefs on OEE results exist.
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Arita Holmberg and Aida Alvinius
Previous studies show that the implementation of gender equality encounters resistance in military organizations, but it is often invisible or seen as confined to anonymous…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous studies show that the implementation of gender equality encounters resistance in military organizations, but it is often invisible or seen as confined to anonymous structures or troubled individuals. This paper aims to show how the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) use organizational principles to resist implementing gender equality measures.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a qualitative analysis of discursive strategies in the SAF’s 2013–2018 annual reports to government.
Findings
The organizing principles of instrumentality and distance, while existing in parallel with gender equality efforts, actually pursue logics that prevents the SAF from implementing gender equality. The principle of instrumentality in this context means that gender equality in the SAF is of secondary interest to organizational members. The principle of distancing from the problem includes strategies that alienate female from male officers.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is the finding that the use of organizing principles represents conscious organizational resistance to gender equality efforts. This kind of use needs to be revealed and criticized to change military organizations.
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Charlotte Bäccman, Linda Bergkvist and Per Kristensson
The purpose of this study is to explore the expectations and experiences regarding a robotic shower, from a dual user perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the expectations and experiences regarding a robotic shower, from a dual user perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This was an explorative qualitative study in which elderly and personnel were interviewed before the robotic shower was installed and again after four or five months of usage.
Findings
The elderly participants found the robotic shower empowering. The personnel’s experiences encompassed their own work conditions, as well as the user value for the elderly. A shared experience for both user groups was a more independent shower situation for the elderly.
Research limitations/implications
Low user frequency among the elderly may have affected the results; more frequent use may lead to different user experiences. Understanding whether and to what extent long-term use affects user experience is important for future adoption and implementation.
Practical implications
Implementation of digital assistive technology (DAT) should focus on the user value of the DAT for all possible user groups, as the different users may experience different values over time. In addition, approaching adoption and acceptance issues of DAT from a learned helplessness perspective may help users find value in the DAT and the independence these aim to provide, helping users maintain or increase quality of life.
Originality/value
This study presents a dual user experience of a DAT in an intimate care situation and shows the importance of including both elderly and personnel to fully understand the value of DATs.
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Ewa Soja and Piotr Soja
Adaptation to the requirements of digital economy is especially difficult for older workers, which is a challenge for today’s organizations due to workforce shrinking and ageing…
Abstract
Purpose
Adaptation to the requirements of digital economy is especially difficult for older workers, which is a challenge for today’s organizations due to workforce shrinking and ageing. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how it is possible to develop older employees’ potential in technology use in the business environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examined how employees at various age perceive barriers during enterprise system (ES) adoption and use. This exploratory study is based on grounded theory and draws from the opinions of 187 Polish ES practitioners.
Findings
With age, emphasis on employees’ perception of mandatory ICT implementation projects is shifting from technology to people-related considerations. For older employees, job security and workload appear the most critical issues in such projects. Age-diverse collaboration appears necessary to address the problems posed by technology-related and demographic changes.
Research limitations/implications
The findings imply that incorporating multiple stakeholder perspectives and age-related considerations into research on ICT adoption appears essential.
Practical implications
ICT adoption in the business environment can be successfully supported by age-balanced team building, cooperation between younger and older employees, and age-adjusted change management initiatives.
Social implications
Supporting older employees during the implementation of mandatory business software should embrace reducing their negative attitudes to ICT-induced change by minimizing their perception of job insecurity.
Originality/value
Unlike many prior studies, the current research places age in the central role and discusses not only how it is possible to support older employees, but also how to leverage their potential in the process of ICT adoption and use in a mandatory setting.
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Minna Kaljonen, Marja Salo, Jari Lyytimäki and Eeva Furman
The critical role of diet in climate change mitigation has raised behavioural approaches to the top of the agenda. In this paper, the authors take a critical look at these…
Abstract
Purpose
The critical role of diet in climate change mitigation has raised behavioural approaches to the top of the agenda. In this paper, the authors take a critical look at these behavioural approaches and call for a more dynamic, practice-oriented understanding of long-term changes in sustainable food consumption and supply.
Design/methodology/approach
This approach is based on the experiences from a long-term experiment promoting sustainable eating in a workplace lunch restaurant using a series of informational and nudging techniques. In the experiment, the authors found that focussing solely on eating behaviours did not help to capture the multi-level change processes mobilised. The authors therefore propose a more dynamic, practice-oriented methodology for examining long-term changes in sustainable eating. The emprical data of the experiment are based on qualitative and quantitative data, consisting of customer survey, customer and kitchen personnel focus group discussions and monitoring data on the use of food items in the restaurant and their climate impacts.
Findings
The results draw attention to a series of practical challenges restaurants face when promoting sustainable eating. Directing analytical attention to tinkering helped to reveal the tensions brought about by labelling and nudging in menu planning and recipe development. The results show how tinkering required attentiveness to customers' wishes in both cases. Nudging offered more freedom for the restaurant to develop menus and recipes. In the case scrutinised, however, nudging customers towards tastier and more satiating vegetarian dishes included the use of dairy. This partly watered down the climate benefits gained from reduced meat consumption.
Originality/value
Rather than looking separately at changes in consumer behaviour and in the supply of food, the authors show how we need analytical concepts that enable the evaluation of their mutual evolution. Tinkering can assist us in this endeavour. Its adaptive, adjustive character, however, calls for caution. The development of praxis in food services and catering requires critical companions from the transdisciplinary research community. Research can provide systematic knowledge on the impacts of labels and nudges on kitchen praxis. However, research itself also needs to tinker and learn from experiments. This necessitates long-term speculative research strategies.
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James Olaonipekun Toyin and Modupe Cecilia Mewomo
The utilisation of building information modelling (BIM) technology is rapidly increasing among construction professionals across the world. Notwithstanding, recent studies…
Abstract
Purpose
The utilisation of building information modelling (BIM) technology is rapidly increasing among construction professionals across the world. Notwithstanding, recent studies revealed a low level of BIM implementation in the context of the Nigerian construction sector. Moreover, previous studies have established that BIM application comes with its share of various barriers. Therefore, this study aims to carry out an on-site survey on barriers to the application of BIM on construction sites in the Nigerian construction industry.
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive review of literature on BIM barriers was conducted, from where 33 factors were identified as significant BIM barriers peculiar to the developing countries. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to the targeted respondents, who are practicing professionals in the Nigerian construction industry, based on the identified barriers. The data collected were analysed by using both descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings
The principal component analysis revealed that 27 barriers were peculiar to the Nigerian construction industry. The “lack of familiarity with BIM capacity, habitual resistance to change from the traditional style of design and build, and poor awareness of BIM benefit” were identified as the three most critical barriers hindering BIM application on construction sites in the Nigerian construction industry.
Practical implications
This study reveals key information on the peculiar barriers to BIM application in the Nigerian construction industry. The avoidance of these barriers will not only assist various construction stakeholders in the successful implementation of BIM application on a construction project but also promote information management systems and productivity within the construction industry to a great extent. These will further improve post-construction activities.
Originality/value
This study provides a substantial understanding of BIM state of the art in the context of barriers hindering BIM application on construction sites in the Nigerian construction industry.
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Renier Christiaan Els and Helen H.W. Meyer
The successful implementation of quality management in organizations is dependent on people, particularly leaders. It seems as if leaders' affective states (attitudes and…
Abstract
Purpose
The successful implementation of quality management in organizations is dependent on people, particularly leaders. It seems as if leaders' affective states (attitudes and commitment) in the military were connected to their capability to inspire people and a group (corps training unit) to achieve a common goal. The research reported in this article was aimed at examining officers in corps training units' attitudes towards, and commitment to quality management in training in the South African Army.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus group interviews were conducted with a sample of 49 officers on various levels (senior, junior and warrant officers) at six South African Army corps training units.
Findings
The findings indicate that the attitudes of leaders played a significant role to ensure that quality management of training is conducted effectively. Participants experienced that leaders in the South African Army were mostly responsible for the negative attitudes of officers in corps training units. Inadequate leadership support and lack of trust contributed to a lack of transparency and poor communication that resulted in poor commitment among officers at corps training units. The investigation further revealed that a positive affective state (attitudes and commitment) of leaders is essential in ensuring effective quality management of training.
Originality/value
The potential usefulness of this research may provide insight into how leaders' affective state could be improved to ensure effective quality management. This research may also be of interest to other organizations that conduct in-house training.
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Pia Sirola, Annu Haapakangas, Marjaana Lahtinen and Virpi Ruohomäki
The purpose of this case study is to investigate how the personnel in an organization experienced the process of change when moving from private offices to an activity-based…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this case study is to investigate how the personnel in an organization experienced the process of change when moving from private offices to an activity-based office (ABO) and how their perceptions of change were associated with changes in their satisfaction with the work environment a year after relocation.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparative pre-post study design and mixed methods were used. Survey data was obtained from 154 employees before the relocation and 146 after the relocation. The data on the 105 employees who responded to both surveys were statistically analyzed. Representatives of different units were interviewed (n = 17) and documentary material was analyzed as complementary material.
Findings
The personnel’s criticisms concerned the reasons for the change, their opportunities to influence the office design and the extent to which their views were taken into account. Environmental satisfaction decreased after moving to the ABO. The personnel’s ratings of the workplace change process before the relocation were associated with the later change in environmental satisfaction. Based on logistic regression, the degree of agreement with management’s reasons for the change was the strongest predictor of the change in environmental satisfaction.
Practical implications
Organizations that move from private offices to an ABO should invest in high-quality change management and simultaneously develop both work and facilities. Special attention should be paid to clarifying the rationale for the change to the employees and to providing them with opportunities to influence during the change. Organizations should continue to monitor user experiences and evaluate the effects of the change after the office redesign and should take corrective action as needed.
Originality/value
This empirical case study is unique as it combined qualitative and quantitative methods and investigated the process of relocation and its outcomes in a one-year follow-up. This approach captured the importance of managing change and assessing the long-term effects of office redesign when moving from private offices to an ABO.
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C.E. Oude Weernink, E. Felix, P.J.E.M. Verkuijlen, A.T.M. Dierick-van Daele, J.K. Kazak and J. van Hoof
In the domain of healthcare, both process efficiency and the quality of care can be improved through the use of dedicated pervasive technologies. Among these applications are…
Abstract
Purpose
In the domain of healthcare, both process efficiency and the quality of care can be improved through the use of dedicated pervasive technologies. Among these applications are so-called real-time location systems (RTLS). Such systems are designed to determine and monitor the location of assets and people in real time through the use of wireless sensor networks. Numerous commercially available RTLS are used in hospital settings. The nursing home is a relatively unexplored context for the application of RTLS and offers opportunities and challenges for future applications. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper sets out to provide an overview of general applications and technologies of RTLS. Thereafter, it describes the specific healthcare applications of RTLS, including asset tracking, patient tracking and personnel tracking. These overviews are followed by a forecast of the implementation of RTLS in nursing homes in terms of opportunities and challenges.
Findings
By comparing the nursing home to the hospital, the RTLS applications for the nursing home context that are most promising are asset tracking of expensive goods owned by the nursing home in order to facilitate workflow and maximise financial resources, and asset tracking of personal belongings that may get lost due to dementia.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to provide an overview of potential application of RTLS technologies for nursing homes. The paper described a number of potential problem areas that can be addressed by RTLS.
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The purpose of this study is to follw the process perspective approach in post-M&A (mergers and acquisitions) integration studies, with a focus on human resource function, to make…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to follw the process perspective approach in post-M&A (mergers and acquisitions) integration studies, with a focus on human resource function, to make the research literature relevant to HR integration process up to date.
Design/methodology/approach
To the best of the author’s knowledge, limited systematic literature review and study in this interface has previously been published.
Findings
Therefore, this conceptual study filled in the research gap by pointing out a clear framework on HR integration in cross-border post-acquisitions, reviewing both the content and process of HR integration. This paper contributes to future research on the HR integration process perspective in theoretical directions.
Originality/value
It addresses the gap in research and opens the avenues for M&A researchers to consider HR as the strategic partner during M&As and to study HR aspects in an integrated process perspective view. This approach complements socialized reviews and it suggests a process perspective on how to dispersed themes and interrelate topics. It provide a clear process perspective helps to develop a concurrent research agenda, which can guide future work in the field.
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