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Climate change has been universally recognized as a major threat to human well-being, necessitating a comprehensive transformation of people's activities. Various measures have been proposed to contain climate change among which the green transformation grabs special attention, thanks to its desirable properties. Within the green transformation process, green tourism comes to prominence with huge potential. As one of the largest carbon emitters, the transition towards green tourism may offer substantial benefits not only for tourism companies but also for the whole economy. Yet, most studies tend to focus on the adverse effects of tourism on climate change while overlooking the potential impact of climate change on tourism. This chapter clarifies the feedback relationship between climate change and tourism and makes some recommendations.

The primary objective of this paper is to show a systematic and methodological approach for the digitalization of critical clinical pathways (CPs) within the healthcare domain.

The methodology entails the integration of service design (SD) and action research (AR) methodologies, characterized by iterative phases that systematically alternate between action and reflective processes, fostering cycles of change and learning. Within this framework, stakeholders are engaged through semi-structured interviews, while the existing and envisioned processes are delineated and represented using BPMN 2.0. These methodological steps emphasize the development of an autonomous, patient-centric web application alongside the implementation of an adaptable and patient-oriented scheduling system. Also, business processes simulation is employed to measure key performance indicators of processes and test for potential improvements. This method is implemented in the context of the CP addressing transient loss of consciousness (TLOC), within a publicly funded hospital setting.

The methodology integrating SD and AR enables the detection of pivotal bottlenecks within diagnostic CPs and proposes optimal corrective measures to ensure uninterrupted patient care, all the while advancing the digitalization of diagnostic CP management. This study contributes to theoretical discussions by emphasizing the criticality of process optimization, the transformative potential of digitalization in healthcare and the paramount importance of user-centric design principles, and offers valuable insights into healthcare management implications.

The study’s relevance lies in its ability to enhance healthcare practices without necessitating disruptive and resource-intensive process overhauls. This pragmatic approach aligns with the imperative for healthcare organizations to improve their operations efficiently and cost-effectively, making the study’s findings relevant.

The current study explores the role of social psychological factors on organizational commitment. It examined the relationships between organizational fairness, inclusion, diversity, sexism, psychological safety and affective commitment.

The study adopted a cross-sectional survey method where data were collected from staff across six higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. A total of 416 responses were collected and the data were analyzed by employing independent sample t-tests to explore gender differences regarding organizational diversity, inclusion, fairness, sexism, psychological safety and affective commitment. The mediating role of psychological safety in the effects of organizational diversity, fairness, inclusion and sexism on staff’s commitment to the organization was evaluated through a series of simple mediation models. Finally, the mediated effect of organizational social psychological factors on affective commitment through psychological safety, moderated by gender was tested.

As hypothesized, men had higher perceptions of organizational inclusion and diversity and viewed their organization as less sexist. Psychological safety mediated the positive effects of organizational diversity, fairness, inclusion and sexism on staff’s affective commitment to the organization. Organizational diversity and sexism played a bigger part in how women evaluate their organizational environment as safe to take risks and be themselves and consequently on how they commit to the organization. On the other hand, organizational fairness and inclusion seem more closely tied to men’s evaluation of their organization as safe to be themselves and consequently stronger commitment.

The findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms that shape affective commitment, that can lead to more inclusive work environments and contribute to systemic change in the Higher Education context.

This work aims to integrate the concepts generated by a systematic literature review on patient flows in emergency departments (ED) to serve as a basis for developing a generic process model for ED.

A systematic literature review was conducted using PRISMA guidelines, considering Lean Healthcare interventions describing ED patients’ flows. The initial search found 141 articles and 18 were included in the systematic analysis. The literature analysis served as the basis for developing a generic process model for ED.

ED processes have been represented using different notations, such as value stream mapping and workflows. The main alternatives for starting events are arrival by ambulance or walk-in. The Manchester Triage Scale (MTS) was the most common protocol referred to in the literature. The most common end events are admission to a hospital, transfer to other facilities or admission to an ambulatory care system. The literature analysis allowed the development of a generic process model for emergency departments. Nevertheless, considering that several factors influence the process of an emergency department, such as pathologies, infrastructure, available teams and local regulations, modelling alternatives and challenges in each step of the process should be analysed according to the local context.

A generic business process model was developed using BPMN that can be used by practitioners and researchers to reduce the effort in the initial stages of design or improvement projects. Moreover, it’s a first step toward the development of generalizable and replicable solutions for emergency departments.

This chapter discusses how the real options theory can be useful for understanding the adoption of human resources management (HRM) practices. The authors review how the real options theory has provided insights into the processes through which firms manage uncertainties involved in the adoption of HRM practices. The authors offer propositions for future HRM research from the real options perspective. The authors contend that analyzing HRM practice adoptions through the lens of real options theory can enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which firms choose which HRM practices to adopt and how they adjust the timing, scale, and methods of investment in these practices. Specifically, the authors suggest that differences in information relevant to valuation of HRM options are the source of distinct choices of HRM options across firms. Finally, the authors propose advancing knowledge on HRM practice adoptions by using a portfolio of options approach, as well as considering factors like competitors, path dependence, and switching options.

Education tends to colonize. Established authorities (teachers, curricula, and examinations) instruct newcomers, extending conditional membership. This presents a dilemma for teachers seeking to instill in their students habits of critical, creative, and lateral thinking. In Australia as elsewhere, blueprint educational documents embody lofty aspirational statements of inclusion and investment in people and their potential. Yoked to this is a regime routinely imposing high-stakes basic-skills testing on school students, with increasingly constrictive ways of doing, while privileging competition over collaboration. This chapter explores more informal, organic learning. This self-study narrative inquiry explores my career in terms of a struggle to be my most evolved, enlightened self, as opposed to a small-minded, small-hearted mini-me. To balance this, I examine responsible autonomy (including my own), rather than freedom. This chapter also explores investment in humans, with the reasonable expectation of a return on that investment. It draws and reflects upon events in or impacting my hometown, Sydney, Australia, focusing largely on WorldPride, the Women's World Cup, and a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament, all of which took place as I compiled this chapter. Accordingly, the narrative focuses primarily on sexuality, gender, and race. I explore the capacity of my surroundings to teach me and my capacity to learn from my surroundings. The findings and discussion comprise diary-type entries of significant events and their implications for (my) excessive entitlement. The final section of this chapter reviews what and how I have learned.

The manoeuvring of everyday spaces to nudge the population towards a physically active lifestyle or active living has been the hallmark of the policy modes of instrumental thinking for combating physical inactivity, particularly in urban spaces across the world. Thus, the active promotion of fitness activities by the postcolonial state signifies the centrality of the body in disciplining docile and inactive individuals to produce fit and active citizens. Such a population-based approach has often raised concerns about social and spatial justice and expressions of identity, liberty, and surveillance, even as everyday spaces in cities continue to exhibit elements of colonial governmentality. In the midst of this, the body continues to be central to the ways in which such a population makes sense of being physically active and ‘being healthy’ in their everyday lives. By employing a multi-sited ethnography conducted over a period of 10 months in different public parks in Delhi, the present chapter aims to understand the ways in which fitness activities are performed, produced, and practised in the city. While public parks themselves are a product of colonial urban governmentalities in Delhi, this chapter argues that active bodies engaged in everyday sports in the parks also emerge as the critical site for the bodily inscription of global standards of physical activity. Driven by Western fitness regimes, individuals tend to understand themselves as entrepreneurial selves that can bring to life this imagination of the body ideal even while being engaged in various fitness and leisure activities aimed at being ‘healthy’.

The emergence of the gig economy, with the growth of technology and increased use of digital solutions, has been transforming the nature of work and its organisation in different ways. The differences in technical infrastructure, access to the internet, availability of cloud computing, and ownership of digital devices influence how countries manage this transition. Besides promoting economic growth and employment opportunities, the expansion of gig work offers wider possibilities for addressing some of the structural problems that the Indian economy has faced in recent years. In this chapter, we review the nature of the gig economy in the context of informalisation, flexibility, and vulnerability associated with gig work. In many contexts, gig workers are neither formal nor informal; they are independent contractors, enjoying no benefits as formal or informal workers do. We explore the links between gig workers and those workers engaged in the informal economy; both operate with a certain degree of flexibility but are vulnerable to many risks associated with occupation, health, and social problems. The discussion also highlights the importance of making gig work more inclusive by extending its flexible employment options to more women, persons with disabilities, and those from marginalised backgrounds and utilising the gig economy in formalising the economy in general.

Over decades, tourism has been over-valorized as a mechanism that leaves developing economies from poverty and pauperism. In fact, development theory has enthusiastically emphasized the nature of tourism as a sustainable activity that boosts local economies. Quite aside from this, some critical voices not only have questioned to what extent tourism alleviates local poverty but also the connection between tourism and poverty. An emerging field within tourism studies has plausibly discussed the conditions laying for poverty to become a commodity or a tourist attraction. In this context, the classic paradigm of tourism development has been radically shifted. There is a type of emerging morbid consumption (morbid taste) that makes the Other's pain a question of attraction. This chapter not only ignites a hot debate revolving around the nature of poverty tourism but also its main contradictions. These contradictions can be very well begged in a question: if we start from the premise poverty seems to be the main commodity to exchange for local culture, how can the industry of tourism eradicate poverty?