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Soft systems methods have a proven record in tackling problems in healthcare and are used to model interactions within the National Health Service (NHS). The precepts set down by Stringer and other OR scientists guide an evaluation according to quality and effectiveness of aspects of healthcare management in the NHS from the viewpoints of government, software consultants, health professionals and patients. Effective management of a shared system requires the commitment of all stakeholders to an agreed agenda. It is argued that recent organisational changes and liberalised funding schemes frustrate the co‐operative efforts of those working to provide good healthcare.

This study aims to present a framework for automatically collecting, cleaning and analyzing text (news articles, in this case) to provide valuable decision-making information to destination management organizations. Keeping a record of certain aspects of the projected destination image of an attraction (Cancun in this study) will grant the design of better strategies for the promotion and administration of destinations without the time-consuming effort of manually evaluating high quantities of textual information.

Using Web scraping, news articles were collected from the USA, Mexico and Canada over an interval of one year. The documents were analyzed using an automatic topic modeling method known as Latent Dirichlet Allocation and a coherence analysis to determine the number of themes present in each collection. With the data provided, the authors were able to extract valuable information to understand how Cancun is presented to the countries.

It was found that in all countries, Cancun is an important destination to travel and vacation; however, given the period defined for this study (from July 2021 to July 2022), an important part of the articles analyzed was concerned with the sanitary measures derived from the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, given the rise of violence and the threat of organized crime, many articles from the three countries are focused on warning potential tourists about the risks of traveling to Cancun.

The examination of the relevant literature revealed that similar analyses are manually performed by the experts on a set of predefined categories. Although those approaches are methodologically sound, the logistic effort and the time used could become prohibitively expensive, precluding carrying out this analysis frequently. Additionally, the preestablished categories to be studied in press articles may distort the results. For these reasons, the proposed framework automatically allows for gathering valuable information for decision-making in an unbiased manner.

In this work, we propose an approach to the model based on Markov random field (MRF) as a systematic way for integrating constraints for robust image segmentation. To do that, robust features and their integration in the energy function, which directs the process, have been defined. The suitability of the method has been verified by comparing classic features with the robust ones. In this approach, the image is first segmented into a set of disjoint regions and the adjacent graph (AG) has been determined. This approach is applied by defining an MRF model on the corresponding AG. Robust features are incorporated to the energy function by means of clique functions, and optimal segmentation is then achieved by finding a labelling configuration, which minimizes the energy function using the simulated annealing.

The objectives of this study are: to identify and compare companies' involvement with work‐life balance practices and policies in 14 European countries, and to test whether these practices actually enhance the career advancement of women to senior management positions.

A comparative descriptive analysis shows differences in work‐life balance practices and policies and women's participation in the workforce between countries. In order to test whether work‐life balance practices and policies enhance the career advancement of women to senior management positions a multiple regression analysis is performed.

There are certain differences in the provision of work‐life balance practices and women's participation in the labour force among European companies. A positive influence of work‐life balance policies and practices on women's career advancement into senior management positions was confirmed in only one case – the payment of an additional amount for maternity leave. All other practices were shown to have no significant impact or a significant negative relationship.

An interesting issue is whether work‐life balance practices and policies help remove the glass ceiling. There has been little research on the impact of work‐life balance practices and policies on women's career advancement. This study attempts to redress this dearth by examining the role of work‐life balance practices and policies on women's career advancement.

The purpose of this study is to examine values among public sector employees. Furthermore, this study will identify differences according to several demographical variables with relevant policy making implications.

Once the literature review on public sector values and the description of the tri-axial model is presented, analysis based on a survey of 3,018 public sectors will be undertaken. The sample consists of employees working in the Government of Andalusia, Spain.

Results reveal the domination of pragmatic values, as well as values connected to the ethical axis. The study also shows how these values vary according to several demographic characteristics of the respondents, especially when considering their level of education and their respective tenure.

When managing employees from public organizations, emphasis should be given to the development of an organizational culture that represents a configuration of both pragmatic and ethical axes.

This study was tested with relatively a large sample size (more than 3,000 observations), thus adding significant and original value to the empirical test of the tri-axial model.

This paper seeks to analyse whether the firm model of employment relationships is associated with functional flexibility and organisational learning (exploratory versus exploitative). It also aims to assess the mediating effect of functional flexibility in the relationship between a specific employment mode (mutual investment) and organisational learning.

This research was conducted using a sample of Spanish companies in the food industry, from which data from HR managers and production managers in each firm were collected. Cluster analyses, MANOVA and regression analyses were applied to test the hypotheses.

The results suggest that those firms developing a mutual investment employment relationship outperform other firms in terms of functional flexibility and organisational learning (both exploitative and exploratory learning). The paper also finds a mediating effect of one dimension of functional flexibility (range‐number of activities) between mutual investment and exploitative learning.

The principal limitation of this paper is the cross‐sectional study design, because the dynamic character of learning would require a longitudinal study design. The main research implications are derived from the combination of employment relationships, variety of dimensions of flexibility and learning, and identification of a model of direct and mediating effects among variables.

The results of this paper suggest that a model of employment relationships (mutual investment) favours not only functional flexibility but also ambidextrous learning. Thus, the findings not only provide a broader understanding of the variables associated with HRM, employment relationships and/or flexibility, but also reinforce the strategic role of HRM through its contribution to the development of such a relevant organisational capability that learning represents.

The paper combined a series of variables that previous studies have rarely treated in combination: employment relationships, functional flexibility and exploitative versus exploratory learning. This paper also discusses different dimensions of functional flexibility (range‐number of activities, heterogeneity, mobility, and uniformity), demonstrating the association of some of these dimensions with exploratory or exploitative learning.

The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.

One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.

The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.

The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.

Feedback learning transforms social knowledge into individual knowledge. In this process, tension arises because the current knowledge impedes the assimilation of new learning. Therefore, the feedback requires what Schumpeter refers to as “creative destruction”: discarding, or at least setting aside, the institutional order to enact variations that allow intuitive insights and actions to surface and be pursued. This paper examines the relative importance and significance of “technological systems” on feedback and the effects on the creation of relational capital.

In this paper, the literature is reviewed to identify relevant measures and present a structural equation model, which is validated through an empirical investigation of 151 SMEs in the Spanish technological and information systems sector.

The results indicate that “the creative destruction” depends on the technology system of the company. Furthermore, if the creative destruction is a prior step in the feedback process, then the feedback process is influenced more by the creative destruction.

The results indicate that despite the majority of companies having connections to the internet, managers do not know the potential business benefits of technology systems for their clients, individuals and teams, and ignore the problem of human integration.

The findings are significant, since they introduce the traditional focus of a technology system at the feedback learning process.