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The quality of voluntary sector-led community health programmes is an important concern for service users, providers and commissioners. Research on the fidelity of programme implementation offers a basis for assessing and further enhancing practice. The purpose of this paper is to report on the fidelity assessment of Living Well Taking Control (LWTC) – a voluntary sector-led, community-based education programme in England focussing on the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes.

This fidelity of implementation (FoI) study was conducted with the Devon-based LWTC programme. A fidelity checklist was developed to analyse audio records of group-based lifestyle education sessions – implementation was rated in terms of adherence to protocol and competence in delivery; the influence of wider contextual factors was also assessed. Kappa statistics (κ) were used to test for inter-rater agreement. Course satisfaction data were used as a supplementary indicator of facilitator competence.

Analysis of 28 sessions, from five diabetes prevention and two diabetes management groups (total participants, n=49), yielded an overall implementation fidelity score of 77.3 per cent for adherence (moderate inter-rater agreement, κ=0.60) and 95.1 per cent for competence (good inter-rater agreement, κ=0.71). The diabetes prevention groups consistently achieved higher adherence scores than the diabetes management groups. Facilitator competence was supported by high participant satisfaction ratings.

An appropriate level of implementation fidelity was delivered for the LWTC group-based education programme, which provides some confidence that outcomes from the programme reflected intervention effectiveness. This study demonstrates the viability of assessing the FoI in a voluntary sector-led public health initiative and the potential of this method for assuring quality and informing service development.

An alcohol prevention programme, consisting of the implementation of an organisational alcohol policy and skills development training for managers, was delivered in Swedish workplaces. Previous findings revealed challenges in policy implementation because of the lack of dissemination amongst managers. This study aims to describe perceived dissemination barriers of the organisational alcohol policy by managers.

A cross-sectional survey (n = 193 managers) was performed to identify common dissemination barriers in the workplace and complementary case illustrations derived from semi-structured interviews (n = 18 managers) were used to understand the dissemination barriers of the organisational alcohol policy. Frequency distributions were presented to describe common perceived barriers.

Sixty-five per cent of managers reported that their workplace had not changed their approach to addressing alcohol-related issues compared to their usual practice before programme delivery. Various organisational factors, such as deprioritisation of programme dissemination, lack of communication and inadequate strategies were some of the common barriers perceived by managers. Moreover, managers reported uncertainties regarding any changes concerning the workplace’s approach for addressing alcohol-related issues. Increased efforts in disseminating the organisational alcohol policy can reduce uncertainties among managers.

A thorough process evaluation to understand processes in programme delivery and implementation is necessary to ensure the uptake of the intervention.

This study highlighted the complexity of disseminating an alcohol policy in a dynamic setting, such as the workplace, and provided the importance of addressing organisational obstacles.

This paper aims to develop and present a new planning framework of social marketing, known as consumer research, segmentation, design of the social programme, implementation, evaluation and sustainability (CSD-IES).

The proposed framework is based on recent theoretical developments in social marketing and is informed by the key strengths of existing social marketing planning approaches.

The CSD-IES planning framework incorporates emerging principles of social marketing. For example, sustainability in changed behaviour, ethical considerations in designing social marketing programmes, the need for continuous research to understand the changing needs of the priority audience during the programme and the need for explicit feedback mechanisms.

The CSD-IES framework is a dynamic and flexible framework that guides social marketers, other practitioners and researchers to develop, implement and evaluate effective and sustainable social marketing programmes to influence or change specific behaviours based on available resources.

This paper makes an important contribution to social marketing theory and practice by integrating elements of behaviour maintenance, consideration of ethical perspectives and continuous feedback mechanisms in developing the CSD-IES framework, bringing it in line with the global consensus definition of social marketing.

The chapter presents an overview of the state of Research Management and Administration (RMA) in Belarus. The country enjoys sound traditions in basic and applied research in some areas relevant to its economy, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The current science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy is focussed on the commercialisation of domestic research and development (R&D) results and the effectiveness of the national STI system.

The majority of competitive budget funds are allocated within different types of programmes that support R&D and innovation. Formal RMA positions exist at the programme level and are based in research centres, universities and companies being grounded on a solid legal basis. Roughly 150–250 people within 50 legal entities are directly involved in RMA. At the project level, the RMA activities are either combined with scientific supervision or informally distributed within the project team.

A possible increase in overall R&D expenditures in the country, the eventual enlargement of the scope of publicly supported STI projects and their collaborative nature, as well as their internationalisation and widening of international cooperation may significantly increase the demand for RMA professionals.

Studies on knowledge management (KM) and its effect on organisational innovation and firm performance have been carried out and subsequently proven. However, the consequence is that KM programmes did not achieve the expected results that they were designed for. Considering the issue mentioned above, a KM shortfall and its underlying challenges seem to exist. The purpose of this study is to assess the current practices of KM, lesson learnt and KM challenges in Malaysian organisations from various types of industries.

The study was conducted with information gathered through a focus group of managers with different hierarchical levels, different types of companies, from multinational corporations to state organisations. This inductive approach was adopted to gain a grounded, rich, local and lived understanding of the process based on the case studies of eight Malaysian organisations that represent the major industries in the Malaysian economic sectors. Additionally, the information gathered was further supported with secondary data that consisted of a case study report of the eight organisations on their KM programmes’ implementation.

The overall results showed that the practice of KM in Malaysian organisations typically displays the following two challenges: (1) process and infrastructure issues and (2) cultural issues. Organisational culture remains the main obstacles faced by most of the organisations in adopting KM. As a lesson learnt, managers should also focus on the after-effect of KM programmes on soft human issues such as employees’ satisfaction and well-being.

The authors believe that further research is required considering KM challenges and employee satisfaction or well-being to improve KM performance among different groups of employees through such methods as research survey.

The findings can act as a guideline for any organisations to address when adopting KM. Identification of the KM challenges provides the basis for organisations to attach considerable importance to employees’ satisfaction and well-being to enhance the chances of successful KM programmes. Managers should take a proactive approach in creating an appropriate atmosphere to cultivate KM culture among employees.

This study offers not only challenges in implementing and sustaining an effective KM system within organisations but also promotes moving the KM literature to the next stage where there is a lack of concern on KM implementation effect on “soft” human issues from the perspectives of employees. This is due to organisations tend to eradicate people’s performance in terms of employee well-being and satisfaction and to the author’s knowledge, this has been largely unexplored in previous research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how participants in diverse schools newly implement the Sanford Harmony social and emotional learning (SEL) program and perceive its benefits for students and overall school climate.

The current study employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design with a sample of five elementary schools in the western USA. Measures included classroom observations, administrator interviews, teacher interviews and focus groups, student focus groups, and a teacher questionnaire.

Findings indicated expected variation in implementation across schools, although all participants reacted favorably to the program and, importantly, would recommend the program to others. Administrators, teachers and students all saw the value of the program, particularly in terms of student relationship building and improved school climate. Implementation challenges experienced by schools were consistent with research on diffusion of innovations.

The present study demonstrates the importance of effective professional development, continued support, collective decision making and intentional integration of the SEL program throughout a school to support robust implementation and ultimately achieve intended outcomes.

Researchers have yet to examine in-depth implementation of the Sanford Harmony program and how best to support scale-up and more intentional implementation in schools. As implementation fidelity is a key component of a program achieving intended outcomes, the findings from the present study contribute to the knowledge base of supporting SEL program implementation.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of the economic revitalization programme, One District One Product (ODOP) implemented in the state of Uttar Pradesh of India in 2018, examine its strategy, and analyze its impact on employment generation, export promotion and economic growth of the state from 2018 to 2020.

Along with extensive literature, this paper uses case study approach for discussion. Arguments and facts are based on secondary data comprising of research by scholars, international agencies, government publications, websites, news reports, etc.

This paper presents positive impact of the systematically crafted ODOP programme. Nevertheless, for desired success, it signifies the inevitability of active participation and engagement of public that has always been a precarious subject in the literature of public administration and governance.

This paper offers a guiding live example for other states/countries to successfully implement ODOP programme which is a transformational step for realizing the true potential of each district. Strategies like ODOP may serve as an agent of change and be of immense help to governments in solving the problems of economic inequalities and regional imbalances.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the limited body of empirical knowledge on the impact of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) program implementations on organizational performance in financial services by investigating how antecedents of Lean Six Sigma program success (motivations, selected LSS methods and challenges) affect organizational performance enhancement via LSS program performance.

A sample of 198 LSS professionals from 7 countries are surveyed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is performed to test the questioned relations.

This study’s findings comprise: (1) LSS program performance partially mediates the relationship between motivations for LSS implementation and organizational performance, (2) selected LSS method applications has a fully (mediated) indirect impact on organizational performance, (3) LSS implementation challenges also have an indirect (mediated) impact on organizational performance and (4) LSS program performance has a positive impact on organizational performance.

The findings of this research predominantly provide nuances and details about LSS implementation antecedents and effects, useful for managers in advising their business leaders about the prerequisites and potential operational and financial benefits of LSS implementation. Furthermore, the paper provides evidence and details about the relationship between important antecedents for LSS implementation identified in existing literature and their impact on organizational performance in services. Thereby, this research is the first in providing empirical, cross-sectional, evidence for the antecedents and effects of LSS program implementations in financial services.

The TARGET approach aims at establishing a reflexive gender equality policy in research performing and research funding organisations. Monitoring has enormous potential to support reflexivity at both the institutional and the individual levels in the gender equality plan (GEP) development and implementation context. To exploit this potential, the monitoring system has to consist of meaningful indicators, which adequately represent the complex construct of gender equality and refer to the concrete objectives and policies of the GEP. To achieve this, we propose an approach to indicator development that refers to a theory of change for the GEP and its policies. Indicator development thus becomes a reflexive endeavour and monitoring a living tool. This requires constant reflection on data gaps, validity of indicators and the further development of indicators. Furthermore, we recommend the creation of space for reflexivity to discuss monitoring results with the community of practice.

Calls for the development and dissemination of evidence-based programs to support children and families have been increasing for decades, but progress has been slow. This paper aims to argue that a singular focus on evaluation has limited the ways in which science and research is incorporated into program development, and advocate instead for the use of a new concept, “scientific accompaniment,” to expand and guide program development and testing.

A heuristic is provided to guide research–practice teams in assessing the program’s developmental stage and level of evidence.

In an idealized pathway, scientific accompaniment begins early in program development, with ongoing input from both practitioners and researchers, resulting in programs that are both effective and scalable. The heuristic also provides guidance for how to “catch up” on evidence when program development and science utilization are out of sync.

While implementation models provide ideas on improving the use of evidence-based practices, social service programs suffer from a significant lack of research and evaluation. Evaluation resources are typically not used by social service program developers and collaboration with researchers happens late in program development, if at all. There are few resources or models that encourage and guide the use of science and evaluation across program development.