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Article
Publication date: 21 March 2016

Basil P. Tucker and Stefan Schaltegger

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast perceptions about the research-practice “gap” as it may apply within management accounting, from the perspective of…

3496

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast perceptions about the research-practice “gap” as it may apply within management accounting, from the perspective of professional accounting bodies in Australia and Germany.

Design/methodology/approach

The findings reported in this paper is based on the collection and analysis of data from interviews with 19 senior representatives from four Australian Professional bodies and 14 representatives of German Professional accounting bodies.

Findings

In Australia and Germany, there exist common as well as unique barriers preventing a more effective engagement of academic research with practice. Common to both countries is the perception that the communication of research represents a major barrier. In Australia, practitioner access to academic research is seen to be a principal obstacle; in Germany, the relevance of topics researched by academics is perceived to represent a significant barrier to academic research informing practice.

Research limitations/implications

This paper directly engages with, and extends recent empirically based research into the extent to which academic research may “speak” to management accounting practice. It extricates both common and specific barriers contributing to the oft-quoted “research-practice gap” in management accounting, and points to the pivotal nature of an intermediary to act as a conduit between academics and practice.

Originality/value

By investigating this issue in two quite different cultural, educational, academic and practice contexts, this paper provides much-needed empirical evidence about the nature, extent and pervasiveness of the perceived research-practice gap in management accounting, and provides a basis for further investigation of this important topic.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 May 2021

Johanna Kiili, Maritta Itäpuisto, Johanna Moilanen, Anu-Riina Svenlin and Kaisa Eveliina Malinen

Children are gradually attaining recognition as service users and their involvement in service development has been advanced in recent years. This study draws on empirical…

1792

Abstract

Purpose

Children are gradually attaining recognition as service users and their involvement in service development has been advanced in recent years. This study draws on empirical research in social and health-care services designed for children and families. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how professionals understand children’s involvement as experts by experience. The focus is on professionalsviews and intergenerational relations.

Design/methodology/approach

The research data comprise 25 individual and 10 group interviews with managers and professionals working in social and health-care services in one Finnish province. The data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis.

Findings

The professionals recognised the value of children’s service user involvement. However, they concentrated more on the challenges than the possibilities it presents. Health-care professionals emphasised parental needs and children’s vulnerability. In turn, the professionals from social services and child welfare non-governmental organisations perceived children as partners, although with reservations, as they discussed ethical issues widely and foregrounded the responsibilities of adults in protecting children. In general, the professionals in both domains saw themselves as having ethical responsibility to support children’s service user involvement while at the same time setting limits to it.

Originality/value

This study confirmed the importance of taking intergenerational relations into account when developing children’s service user involvement. The results indicate that professionals also need to reflect on the ethical challenges with children themselves as, largely owing to the generational position of children as minors, they rarely perceive them as partners in ethical reflection.

Book part
Publication date: 28 May 2019

Jorrit van Mierlo, Raymond Loohuis and Tanya Bondarouk

Large corporate policy changes usually take the form of a top-down approach based on a clearly envisioned routine and an implementation plan. Yet, the authors report on a study of…

Abstract

Large corporate policy changes usually take the form of a top-down approach based on a clearly envisioned routine and an implementation plan. Yet, the authors report on a study of a bottom-up approach in which key members of a service company created a new hiring routine that supported a company-wide new human resource management (HRM) hiring policy without any prior envisioned plan. We pay particularly close attention to the perspectives of this company’s HRM professionals, line managers, and middle-level managers. The authors used the literature on routine dynamics to examine in detail which actions were taken by key members in this organization to create the new hiring routine. Through in-depth interviews, the authors found that line managers, HRM professionals, and middle-level managers significantly differed in their points of view regarding their role in the new hiring routine, and how it should work best. As a result of these different points of view, the actors took different actions that nonetheless contributed to building the new routine including creating new internal and external connections, supplying expertise, and ensuring oversight of the new way of hiring. The authors also observed that the creation of this new routine also implied conflicts as a result of different points of view and actions. Nonetheless, the end result was the establishment of a new company-wide accepted hiring routine that even surpassed the expectations of top management. With this study, the authors contribute to the literature on routine dynamics by demonstrating the generative potential of multiple points of view and conflicts in creating new routines involved in large corporate policy change by showing how misalignments between the actors’ perspectives do not need to hamper the creation of new action patterns but rather support it.

Details

Routine Dynamics in Action: Replication and Transformation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-585-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 September 2022

Judith Amudjie, Kofi Agyekum, Emmanuel Adinyira, Samuel Amos-Abanyie and Victoria Maame Afriyie Kumah

This study examines the level of awareness and practice of the principles of circular economy (CE) among built environment (BE) professionals in Ghana.

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines the level of awareness and practice of the principles of circular economy (CE) among built environment (BE) professionals in Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach

A structured questionnaire survey was used to solicit the views of 162 BE professionals working in construction, consulting and developer firms on the issue under investigation. Data were analysed through descriptive and inferential analysis.

Findings

The findings revealed that the BE professionals possessed moderate awareness of the six CE principles (i.e. repair, recycle, reuse, renewable energy usage, reduce and redesign) examined. The findings further revealed that only two out of the six principles (i.e. repair and reuse) received some moderate level of practice among the professionals.

Practical implications

Practically, the findings would be relevant to government, policymakers, researchers and other construction professionals. For the government and policymakers, these findings would inform them on the laws and policies to enact to increase awareness and practice of CE principles. For researchers, these findings will assist in exploring gaps for further studies. For the construction professionals, the findings would inform them of the need to step up measures to practice the various principles of CE in their firms adequately.

Originality/value

This study provides insights into an under-investigated topic in the construction industry worldwide. It offers new and additional insights into the current state-of-the-art practice of CE principles among BE professionals.

Details

Built Environment Project and Asset Management, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-124X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2018

Per Echeverri and Maria Åkesson

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key elements of professional identity in service work in order to provide more in-depth theoretical explanations as to why service…

1363

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key elements of professional identity in service work in order to provide more in-depth theoretical explanations as to why service workers do as they do while co-creating service.

Design/methodology/approach

This study takes a multi-perspective on professional identity, i.e. using both an employee and a customer perspective, arguing that the phenomenon mainly consists of what these interactants jointly do during the service interaction and of the meanings that are attributed to it. The authors draw on a detailed empirical study of professionals working at a customer centre. Methodologically, the study is based on practice theory, which helps us to illuminate and analyse both the micro practices and the meaning attributed to the professional identity of service workers.

Findings

The key elements of professional identity in service work are outlined within a framework that describes and explains three different facets of the service workers’ professional identity, i.e. as a core (i.e. individual resources, cognitive understanding, interaction), as conditions (i.e. service prerequisites), and as contour (i.e. demeanour and functions).

Research limitations/implications

The findings are based on an empirical data set from a public transport customer centre. As the results are limited to one context, they do not provide statistical generalizability. Although limited to one service industry, the findings may still be of high relevance to a wide range of service organisations.

Practical implications

The study shows the significance of managers not just talking about the importance of being service-minded; more exactly, a wide range of service prerequisites, beyond cognitive understanding, needs to be in place. It is crucial that service workers are given the time to develop their contextual knowledge of their customers, and of other parts of the service organisation.

Originality/value

This study offers original empirical contributions concerning the key elements of professional identity. An alternative conceptualization of professional identity is provided, through which the paper adds to service research, explaining more specifically what kinds of knowledge and skills are in use during the co-creation of services.

Details

Journal of Service Theory and Practice, vol. 28 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2055-6225

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2002

Pauline Allen, Bronwyn Croxson, Jennifer Roberts, Shirley Crawshaw, Kate Archibald and Lynda Taylor

This paper reports a national study which investigated the involvement of infection control professionals in (and their views about) the formal processes of contracting for health…

522

Abstract

This paper reports a national study which investigated the involvement of infection control professionals in (and their views about) the formal processes of contracting for health care in the NHS internal market. Health care professionals needed to be involved contracting, if it was to be effective. The study found that many infection control professionals were not, in fact, involved in contracting, while the importance of both contracts and informal professional networks were recognised. But respondents did not think that their professional networks entirely compensated for their lack of involvement in contracting. As formal agreements continue to be central to achieving quality of care in the post‐internal market NHS, infection control professionals need to be involved in specification and implementation of these arrangements.

Details

Journal of Management in Medicine, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-9235

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 15 August 2004

Janet Carson

This study takes the position that the vitality of academic libraries is grounded in the working experiences of its librarians. It suggests that a full understanding of problems…

Abstract

This study takes the position that the vitality of academic libraries is grounded in the working experiences of its librarians. It suggests that a full understanding of problems facing contemporary information professionals in the post-industrial workplace requires an analysis of the labouring aspects as well as the professional nature of their work. The study of changes in the academic library work experience thus depicts the state of the library, and has implications for other intellectual workers in a social environment characterized by expanding information technologies, constricted economic resources, and the globalization of information production. Academic librarians have long recognized that their vocation lies not only in the classical role in information collection, organization, and dissemination, but also in collaboration with faculty in the teaching and research process, and in the contribution to university governance. They are becoming increasingly active in the protection of information access and assurance of information quality in view of information degradation on the Internet and various compromises necessitated by interaction with third party commercial information producers.

Details

Advances in Library Administration and Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-284-9

Book part
Publication date: 7 November 2018

Brandon A. Jackson

Black professionals in predominantly white workspaces must often make use of the professional pose – styles, behaviors, and practices meant to help navigate middle-class white…

Abstract

Black professionals in predominantly white workspaces must often make use of the professional pose – styles, behaviors, and practices meant to help navigate middle-class white professional settings – to assuage interactions with white colleagues and clients at work. Previous research has noted the emotional toll this often takes upon black workers. Based on two years of observations and interviews with a college organization of black men, this project builds upon previous work and investigates how collegiate black men frame those practices associated with the professional pose. Instead of framing these behaviors as only being emotionally taxing, these college men expressed that these behaviors were a necessity meant to prepare them for the real world of working alongside white coworkers, as a performance they could take pride in, and as a way to combat negative stereotypes regarding black men. These behaviors, though not necessary for their white peers, were necessary for the men if they sought to find success in the labor market they were preparing to enter.

Details

Race, Identity and Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-501-6

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 12 June 2015

Mary Kandiuk and Harriet M. Sonne de Torrens

With a focus on Canada, but framed by similar and shared concerns emerging in the United States, this chapter examines the current status of what constitutes and defines academic…

Abstract

With a focus on Canada, but framed by similar and shared concerns emerging in the United States, this chapter examines the current status of what constitutes and defines academic freedom for academic librarians and the rights and the protections individual, professional academic librarians have with respect to the freedom of speech and expression of their views in speech and writing within and outside of their institutions. It reviews the historical background of academic freedom and librarianship in Canada, academic freedom language in collective agreements, rights legislation in Canada versus the United States as it pertains to academic librarianship, and rights statements supported by Canadian associations in the library field and associations representing members in postsecondary institutions. The implications of academic librarians using the new communication technologies and social media platforms, such as blogs and networking sites, with respect to academic freedom are examined, as well as, an overview of recent attacks on the academic freedom of academic librarians in the United States and Canada. Included in this analysis are the results of a survey of Canadian academic librarians, which examined attitudes about academic freedom, the external and internal factors which have an impact on academic freedom, and the professional use of new communication technologies and social media platforms.

Details

Current Issues in Libraries, Information Science and Related Fields
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-637-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 October 2018

Stinne Glasdam and Jeppe Oute

The purpose of this paper is to explore how, and under what conditions, professionals involve relatives in clinical practice.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how, and under what conditions, professionals involve relatives in clinical practice.

Design/methodology/approach

Two cases were constructed from two studies in Denmark, theoretically inspired by Bourdieu’s concepts of doxa and position and analyzed with focus on the involvement of relatives from the perspective of professionals.

Findings

Support to relatives in practice is rarely included in the way that treatment and care are organized in healthcare. Professionalsviews of the involvement of relatives were characterized by the values of neoliberal ideology and medical-professional rationality, in which relatives are not regarded as a subject of care and support in clinical practice. The involvement of relatives aimed to ensure patients’ participation in randomized clinical trial and to help professionals to care for patients when the professionals were not absolutely needed. Professionals were relatively higher positioned in the clinic than relatives were, which allowed professionals to in – and exclude relatives. Neoliberal ideology and medical-professional rationality go hand in hand when it comes to patient treatment, care and the involvement of relatives; it is all about efficiency, treatment optimization and increased social control of the diagnosed patient. These neoliberal, organizational values consolidate doxa of the medical field and the positions that govern the meeting with patients’ relatives – if it takes place at all.

Originality/value

The results put into perspective how the combination of neoliberalism and medical logic work as an organizing principle in contemporary healthcare systems, and challenge a normative, humanistic view on involving patients’ relatives in the medical clinic.

Details

Journal of Organizational Ethnography, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-6749

Keywords

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