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The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of individual and group factors that facilitate successful collaborative work in e‐learning environments. The aim of the paper is to develop a conceptual framework and a methodology for implementing the framework.

A theoretical framework is developed. The framework is an integration of two innovative methodologies (CEDA and RAPAD) which have been implemented in previous research.

The operationalisation of the integrated methodology enables the development of a learning environment by structured reflection and negotiation on preferred learning related characteristics.

The proposed approach facilitates student learning at the individual and group level. Extending the framework to training procedures locates the research to a broader societal context.

There are currently over 300,000 offenders in England and Wales and the majority, around 240,000, are in the community on probation. However, there is a paucity of research on their health and healthcare needs. The purpose of this paper is to explore issues around health and access to health services for those on probation. In particular the paper explores what people on probation consider to be the key health issues currently affecting them, and to identify barriers to accessing healthcare in the community.

The authors ran six focus groups with a total of 41 participants; two were with staff and the others with men and women on probation. In each focus group, the researchers used semi-structured guide and the discussions were recorded electronically and then transcribed. The paper adopted a thematic analytical framework and used NVivo 7 to facilitate analysis.

Both probationers and professionals largely agreed about the key issues which included substance use and mental health problems. However, the most important issue for probationers was dealing with the stress of being on probation which was not generally recognised by professionals. All participants recognised the impact of issues such as housing, finances and employment on the wellbeing of probationers and were concerned about the lack of access to health services, in particular mental health and alcohol services.

This was a small study conducted in one part of England and therefore it is not clear that the findings are generalisable. However, it raises important issues about the mental health needs of probationers and the lack of appropriate services for them. Effective services may have positive impact on re-offending and further research is needed to evaluate models of care.

The challenge remains for local health service commissioners and providers and the probation service to work together to provide appropriate and accessible services for all those on probation.

Nearly one-quarter of a million people are on probation at any one time in the UK but the existing evidence on their health is patchy and dated. Little is known about effective health interventions or the extent to which their health needs are met. This study shows that probationers see the stress of being on probation as their most important health concern. Both probationers and staff recognise that mental health and substance use are persistent problems and that these important health needs in these areas are not being met by existing services.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand how and why adoption and implementation of healthcare IT innovations occur. The authors examine two IT applications, computerised physician order entry (CPOE) and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) at the meso and micro levels, within the context of the National Programme for IT in the English National Health Service (NHS).

To analyse these multi-level dynamics, the authors blend Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory (DoIT) with Webster’s sociological critique of technological innovation in medicine and healthcare systems to illuminate a wider range of interacting factors. Qualitative data collected between 2004 and 2006 uses semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 72 stakeholders across four English NHS hospital trusts.

Overall, PACS was more successfully implemented (fully or partially in three out of four trusts) than CPOE (implemented in one trust only). Factors such as perceived benefit to users and attributes of the application – in particular speed, ease of use, reliability and flexibility and levels of readiness – were highly relevant but their influence was modulated through interaction with complex structural and relational issues.

Results reveal that combining contextual system level theories with DoIT increases understanding of real-life processes underpinning implementation of IT innovations within healthcare. They also highlight important drivers affecting success of implementation, including socio-political factors, the social body of practice and degree of “co-construction” between designers and end-users.

The originality of the study partly rests on its methodological innovativeness and its value on critical insights afforded into understanding complex IT implementation programmes.

A theme emerging from research into the determinants, content and consequences of market orientation is that developing a market‐oriented culture exerts a profound influence on the organizational culture of a company. Explores and describes the manner and forms of front‐line employees’ responses to market‐oriented culture change initiatives. The paper begins with a brief overview of existing literature discussing the definition and components of a market orientation. Thereafter, extant research into the consequences of developing a market‐oriented culture is reviewed critically. After detailing the research design and methodology adopted in this study, the summary findings of two in‐depth case studies are presented. The findings indicate that front‐line employees respond differentially to market‐oriented culture change programmes. Concludes with a series of implications for both marketing and culture theorists and practitioners.

Drawing on qualitative interviews with formerly imprisoned people in Canada, we show that most prisoners experience reentry into communities with little to no prerelease planning, and must rely upon their own resourcefulness to navigate fragmented social services and often informal supports. In this respect, our research findings contrast with much US punishment and society scholarship that highlights a complex shadow carceral state that extends the reach of incarceration into communities. Our participants expressed a critical analysis of the failure of the prison to address the needs of prisoners for release planning and supports in the community. Our findings concur with other empirical studies that demonstrate the enduring effects of the continuum of carceral violence witnessed and experienced by prisoners after release. Thus, reentry must be understood in relation to the conditions of confinement and the experience of incarceration itself. We conclude that punishment and society scholarship needs to attend to a nuanced understanding of prisoner reentry and connect reentry studies to a wider critique of the prison industrial complex, offering more empirical evidence of the failure of prisons.

The purpose of this paper is to study and quantify musicians' creativity in order to tune music library services and pinpoint potential musical creative activities.

Webster's conceptual framework for the creative thinking process in music is informing our survey while the analysis adopts a multiple criteria method for quantifying musical creativity. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is also adopted developing strategic decisions based on musicians' creativity behaviours.

Mental representations of the music heard (listening) is the most important dimension for creative thinking in music while dimensions such as recorded improvisations (improvisation), written analysis (analysis) and composed music scores (composition) follow. SWOT analysis provides further indications for music library services development based on musicians' creativity behaviours.

This study proposes a novel research vein based on multicriteria analysis within the contexts of musical creativity for managing music library services.

Machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic traits are often viewed as negative or undesirable personality traits. However, recent research demonstrates that individuals with these traits possess qualities that may be personally beneficial within the business contexts. In this chapter, we conceptualize a balanced perspective of these traits throughout the entrepreneurial process (opportunity recognition, opportunity evaluation, and opportunity exploitation) and discuss human resources management strategies that can be employed to enhance the benefits, or minimize the challenges, associated with Machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic traits. Specifically, we propose that Machiavellian qualities are most beneficial in the evaluation stage of entrepreneurship, and Machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic qualities are beneficial in the exploitation stage of entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive analysis of how sentiments may be a part of, or adjacent to, status generalization. We demonstrate why this problem is so difficult to solve definitively, as many resolutions may exist. Sentiments may present the properties of graded status characteristics but may also be disrupted by processes of the self. Sentiments may have status properties enacted within dyadic interactions. However, sentiments may also be status elements during triadic constellations of actors. Finally, we discuss current research that is underway to provide more empirical evidence to offer confirmation or disconfirmation for some of our proposed models.

We provide a synthesis of literatures, including pieces from group processes, neuroscience, psychology, and network scholarship, to address the relation between sentiment and status processes. Accordingly, this is a conceptual chapter.

We attempt to motivate future research by exploring the many complications of examining these issues.

Understanding how social inequalities may emerge during group interaction allows researchers to address their deleterious effects. Positive sentiments (in other words, “liking”) should bring actors closer together to complete tasks successfully. Ironically, when paired with negative sentiments within task groups, inequalities in group opportunities may result. To address these social inequalities, a thorough understanding of how they develop is necessary, so that efficacious interventions can be adopted.

This deep dive into the relation between sentiment and status processes joins the 25-year quest to understand the issues surrounding this relationship.