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Book part
Publication date: 1 October 2013

Rebecca Moran, Julie Hollenbeck and Cassandra Phoenix

This chapter proposes a way to deepen our understanding of the health impacts of climate change. It explores how and why individuals and communities may experience the climate…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter proposes a way to deepen our understanding of the health impacts of climate change. It explores how and why individuals and communities may experience the climate change-human health interface in different ways.

Design/methodology/approach

We suggest that the concepts of structural vulnerability and narrative inquiry can provide a thick (ethnographic) description of how and why individuals and communities experience and give meaning to the health impacts of climate change. We begin by defining the two concepts before bringing them together to explore the relationship between climate change and health.

Findings

The combination of these two concepts offers the potential to advance our knowledge in two key ways. Firstly, they facilitate a critical and interpretive approach to both the notion of agency and the public health paradigm of the ‘rational-actor’. Secondly, they reveal how vulnerability to climate change is embodied at the level of the mundane and everyday.

Social implications

These concepts, when applied to the climate change–human health interface, can help demonstrate how vulnerability is often a social construction, and, with sufficient political will, may be ameliorated. We see the combination of the concepts discussed here as an opportunity for research to address inequality and justice.

Originality/value

This paper takes two innovative and established concepts in medical anthropology (structural vulnerability) and social science (narrative inquiry) and invites their application to our understanding of climate change and human health. Research analysed via these concepts will provide a clearer understanding of the impacts of climate change and experiences of vulnerability.

Details

Ecological Health: Society, Ecology and Health
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-323-0

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 1 October 2013

Abstract

Details

Ecological Health: Society, Ecology and Health
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-323-0

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 May 2023

Rebecca Gilligan, Rachel Moran and Olivia McDermott

This study aims to utilise Six Sigma in an Irish-based red meat processor to reduce process variability and improve yields.

1572

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to utilise Six Sigma in an Irish-based red meat processor to reduce process variability and improve yields.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a case study within an Irish meat processor where the structured Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control (DMAIC) methodology was utilised along with statistical analysis to highlight areas of the meat boning process to improve.

Findings

The project led to using Six Sigma to identify and measure areas of process variation. This resulted in eliminating over-trimming of meat cuts, improving process capabilities, increasing revenue and reducing meat wastage. In addition, key performance indicators and control charts, meat-cutting templates and smart cutting lasers were implemented.

Research limitations/implications

The study is one of Irish meat processors' first Six Sigma applications. The wider food and meat processing industries can leverage the learnings to understand, measure and minimise variation to enhance revenue.

Practical implications

Organisations can use this study to understand the benefits of adopting Six Sigma, particularly in the food industry and how measuring process variation can affect quality.

Originality/value

This is the first practical case study on Six sigma deployment in an Irish meat processor, and the study can be used to benchmark how Six Sigma tools can aid in understanding variation, thus benefiting key performance metrics.

Details

The TQM Journal, vol. 35 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2731

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 March 2014

Alison Hurst, Anna Price, Rebecca Walesby, Moira Doolan, Wendy Lanham and Tamsin Ford

Despite an increasing policy focus, routine outcome monitoring (ROM) is not common practice in UK children's services. This paper aims to examine whether it is feasible and valid…

Abstract

Purpose

Despite an increasing policy focus, routine outcome monitoring (ROM) is not common practice in UK children's services. This paper aims to examine whether it is feasible and valid to use measures from ROM of evidence-based parenting programmes (EBPPs) to assess the impact of services and to drive service improvements through feedback mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a secondary analysis of ROM measures collected from a London clinic offering EBPPs over five years. Demographic information from referrals was compared for attendees and non-attendees. Changes in parent reported child behaviour were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).

Findings

No significant differences were found in socio-demographic characteristics of attendees and non-attendees. Statistically significant differences were found between pre- and post-scores on parent reported SDQ scores and VAS concerns, as well as the SDQ Added Value Score. The data collected did not allow for investigation of a dose-response relationship between the level of attendance and any improvement made.

Originality/value

This study illustrates that ROM can provide useful information about the impact of EBPPs in a particular clinical context. Demographic data could support service managers to evaluate reach and uptake while evidence of improvements can be communicated back to parents and support future funding bids. Incomplete data limited the inferences that could be drawn, and collaborations between research centres and clinics may be a way to optimise the use of ROM to drive service improvement and innovation.

Details

Journal of Children's Services, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-6660

Keywords

Abstract

Organizational researchers studying well-being – as well as organizations themselves – often place much of the burden on employees to manage and preserve their own well-being. Missing from this discussion is how – from a human resources management (HRM) perspective – organizations and managers can directly and positively shape the well-being of their employees. The authors use this review to paint a picture of what organizations could be like if they valued people holistically and embraced the full experience of employees’ lives to promote well-being at work. In so doing, the authors tackle five challenges that managers may have to help their employees navigate, but to date have received more limited empirical and theoretical attention from an HRM perspective: (1) recovery at work; (2) women’s health; (3) concealable stigmas; (4) caregiving; and (5) coping with socio-environmental jolts. In each section, the authors highlight how past research has treated managerial or organizational support on these topics, and pave the way for where research needs to advance from an HRM perspective. The authors conclude with ideas for tackling these issues methodologically and analytically, highlighting ways to recruit and support more vulnerable samples that are encapsulated within these topics, as well as analytic approaches to study employee experiences more holistically. In sum, this review represents a call for organizations to now – more than ever – build thriving organizations.

Details

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-046-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2020

Rebecca J. Collie, Helena Granziera and Andrew J. Martin

The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which several workplace factors are implicated in school principals' well-being. Two job resources (i.e. participatory climate…

1219

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which several workplace factors are implicated in school principals' well-being. Two job resources (i.e. participatory climate and collegial climate) and two job demands (i.e. barriers to professional learning and staff shortages) were investigated, along with two well-being outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and occupational commitment). Interaction effects between the job resource and job demand variables were also tested.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were from 5,951 principals in 22 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries that participated in the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013. Path analysis of direct and interaction effects was tested, along with multigroup path analysis to determine any differences in results across nations.

Findings

The results showed that staff shortages and collegial climate predicted job satisfaction. All of the job resources and demands predicted occupational commitment. In addition, one interaction effect was significant showing that a participatory climate was especially important for occupational commitment under conditions of high staff shortages. The findings were similar across the 22 countries.

Originality/value

The study yields important knowledge about the cross-national salience of four job resources and demands that are associated with principals' well-being at work.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 58 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Financial Derivatives: A Blessing or a Curse?
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-245-0

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1996

Rebecca A. Proehl

In this article, the author begins with the assumptions that 1) groups are becoming an increasingly popular way of dealing with organizational challenges and problems and 2…

Abstract

In this article, the author begins with the assumptions that 1) groups are becoming an increasingly popular way of dealing with organizational challenges and problems and 2) organizations are becoming increasingly multicultural in their membership. Dr. Proehl seeks to demonstrate that the traditional ways of working with groups are not effective when the membership is multicultural. To support this contention, she identifies six commonly accepted assumptions about how to develop high performing groups and then challenges each assumption from a crosscultural perspective. The author closes the article by offering suggestions for working effectively with multicultural groups.

Details

Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7606

Content available

Abstract

Details

Place, Race and Politics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-046-4

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