Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide some thoughts following on from reading “Evaluating service users’ experiences of using Talking Mats®”.

This commentary outlines some considerations for the continued discussions about how to engage people who have profound and multiple learning disabilities.

The literature is not clear on the involvement of people with more profound and multiple learning disabilities, or for those who do not use much spoken language. Some papers have explored the notions of involvement and interpretation of pre-intentional communicators’ desires and interests.

There needs to be a robust discussion across carer, academic and service user communities to consider what the communication rights and needs are for people who have profound and multiple disabilities.

There are many definitions of profound and multiple learning disabilities. Most definitions include having a high degree of learning disability in conjunction with at least one other severe impairment, such as visual, auditory or physical impairments (Male, 1996; Ware, 1996; Lacey, 1998). Bunning (1997) adds that people with such disabilities are very reliant on others for support, including support in taking part in communicative events. Establishing reliable and consistent methods of communication may be exceptionally difficult (Florian et al, 2000). However, it is important to consider the individuality and extreme diversity of this population (Detheridge, 1997; Hogg, 1998), which includes variability in communication strengths and needs (Granlund & Olsson, 1999; McLean et al, 1996). Communication is often given little attention when services are planning ways of supporting individuals to participate, develop independence and make choices (McGill et al, 2000). While the individual's communication strengths and needs should remain central within any discussion, the significant others and the environment will also have an important influence. This article explores some of the communication issues experienced by people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and highlights the importance of the communication partnership within interventions.

This paper identifies considerations for managing the risks of abuse during intimate and personal care for people with learning disabilities and complex needs. Drawing on insights gleaned from research involving interviews with staff, policies and procedures in specialist day and residential services, and the development of a staff training resource, the paper identifies a framework for adult protection practice in this critical area of support.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of preferences when small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are confronted with the practical problems associated with implementing frequent and large-scale changes to their working policies and practices. This paper aims to alleviate some of the concerns as claimed in positioning and change agency theory by introducing “preferential role positioning” to organizational change.

This study uses a qualitative case study approach and change agency and positioning theories to find out the extent to which staff and management experienced the practical difficulties and challenges and what resolution actions they took. Eighty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2004/2005 and 2011 with the staff and management of four SMEs in the UK. An interpretative analysis was conducted on the case data in the tradition of Husserl and Schutz. In the first set, participants were asked to elucidate the difficulties faced in their roles and how these were experienced whilst the second focused on impacts and strategies. Three independent researchers reviewed and interpreted the qualitative data and helped with the coding and thematization.

This paper's main results are based on the data's three stages showing how SME members chose to deal with the practical difficulties namely “new structures and procedures” (stage 1); “new ways of communicating” (stage 2) and “new collaborations” (stage 3). The combination of the stages' aspects led to the emergence of “preferential role positioning” as the study's theoretical contribution to the gap on preferences in organizational change research.

The eighty-five interviews from UK-based SMEs constrained the sample size thereby limiting the number of questionnaire categories asked. The findings and their analysis cannot be generalized to non-SMEs that seek to address similar difficulties.

Managers need to be aware of the adverse impacts of using draconian, top-down disciplinary and punishment measures/structures as a way to implement change. Other practical lessons include the fact that managers should contextualize people's anxieties, dissatisfaction, resistance and disengagement as a platform from which social knowledge can be generated with all change agents in order to resolve implementation challenges in the longer term. Staff developed the ability to deal with some practical issues such as navigating through the new departmental structures, new working procedures and new ways of talking with management and with each other to implement change more successfully.

The social value of the findings demonstrates that preferences can be imported from other social science disciplines into Organizational Studies to show the value of what people can contribute and how they choose to do so (i.e. via what discourse, using what types of interactions and capabilities to do so). In addition, the results show that management need to consider employees in their plans as they try to implement change firstly to facilitate greater interaction and success, secondly to minimize implementation difficulties and thirdly as a recognition that there are multiple change agents and multiple role-enacting positions in developing sociological knowledge that can be of value.

This study's three-stage approach has shown that a successful implementation and management of change in SMEs should also include a bottom-up recognition of the difficulties, adversities, conflicts and tensions and a resolution to deal with the structural and communicative constraints via dialogue and “preferential role positioning”.

The purpose of this paper is to provide some thoughts following on from reading: “Experiential learning: changing student attitudes towards learning disability”.

This commentary outlines some considerations for the continued development of using service users in tertiary education as educators.

The literature is not clear on the involvement of people with more profound and multiple learning disabilities, or for those who do not use much spoken language in tertiary level teaching.

A further cultural shift is needed to ensure that all people with learning disabilities regardless of their communication style have the opportunity to share their experiences within a teaching and learning context.

The purpose of this paper is to present an evaluation of a programme of training and support provided to staff, which aimed to encourage supported communication environments for people with learning disabilities.

Training, monitoring and support for communication, specifically augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies, was provided by speech and language therapy staff to two residential services over 46 weeks. Staff and service user communications were observed pre- and post-intervention.

In one provision there was an increase in service user initiations and the use of some AAC strategies by support staff. In the other provision there was no change in service user initiations and a decrease in the range of AAC strategies used. It appears that some forms for AAC remain challenging for staff to implement.

This evaluation explores ways of using specialist support services to improve communication environments for people with learning difficulties. Possible reasons for differences in the outcome of the intervention are discussed. Future research into the types of communication interactions experienced by people with learning disabilities across the range of communication styles may be useful so that support staff can be better helped to provide sustained and enriched communication environments.

This chapter is an appreciation of and a critical reflection on Sarasvathy's work on the causation and effectuation models of entrepreneurship. While Sarasvathy has made significant contributions to the field, it is suggested that more fruitful results can be achieved if two modifications are made. First, it is argued that the six dimensions on which the two models differ are independent and therefore it is more fruitful to focus on the dimensions rather than on the two models. Second, it is argued that a pragmatic view of entrepreneurship is most fruitful when it is not applied at the level of the entrepreneurial process, but at the level of underlying human actions.

Adherence is a critical factor for success, for both the health of the customer and the financial outcomes of the firm. Central to the success of adherence behavior is the co-productive role of the customer which is determined by service perceptions as well as individual attributes. Based on social cognition theory, the aim of this paper is to examine the factors that influence past adherence behavior, and whether past adherence behavior predicts future intentions.

The model was tested using structured equation modeling on a sample of 771 weight-loss customers.

The authors show how service quality influences role clarity, which leads to increases in self-efficacy. The study also demonstrates the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in increasing efficacious beliefs. Past adherence behavior was found to predict future intentions.

This study was undertaken with a single service industry, and based on data which was collected at a single point in time. Limitations associated with common method bias inherent in cross-sectional designs, as well as limitations related to the use of self-report measures are acknowledged.

The findings suggest that interventions to promote health outcomes should target customer skills in service consumption. By providing quality interactions, providers can increase customer role clarity which produces efficacious beliefs. Interventions should also address EI training in customers given its role in influencing self-efficacy.

The simultaneous examination of traditional service factors and socio-cognitive factors contributes to theory by considering the individual health and organizational outcomes of these factors. The finding of a direct path between past adherence behavior and future intentions provides a unique insight into the prediction and control of behavior in a number of domains.