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1 – 10 of over 5000
Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 July 2023

Ann Svensson, Linn Gustavsson, Irene Svenningsson, Christina Karlsson and Tina Karlsson

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ practice, where learning is taking place when a digital artefact is implemented for…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ practice, where learning is taking place when a digital artefact is implemented for identification of patients’ cognitive impairment. The use of digital artefacts is increasing in various workplaces, to include professionals in healthcare. This paper aims to explore the following research question: How is the professional learning unfolding in patient-based work when a digital artefact transforms the practice?

Design/methodology/approach

Various data collection methods are used for this study, consisting of dialogue meetings, interviews and a reference-group meeting. Thematic analysis is used to inductively bring forth the themes of the collected data.

Findings

Professionals’ knowledge and experience are of vital importance in learning and changing work practices. Together with their ability to reflect on changes, their knowledge and experience constitute the prefiguration when the introduction of a digital application brings about indeterminacy in the work practice.

Originality/value

This paper makes a contribution to practice-based research as it consolidates previous research and identifies professionals knowledge and learning in a healthcare context. This can be used to further explore and advance the field, as well as to establish the evidence-based importance of transforming practices based on implementation of digital artefacts.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 September 2022

Katharina Resch

Mezirow's theory of transformative learning aims to evoke change on a deeper level of learning. This qualitative study with 38 pre-service teachers enrolled in a Master's degree…

1599

Abstract

Purpose

Mezirow's theory of transformative learning aims to evoke change on a deeper level of learning. This qualitative study with 38 pre-service teachers enrolled in a Master's degree programme for teacher education in Austria used semi-structured interviews to explore how diversity skills can transform after diversity training applying Mezirow's theory of transformative learning. In these trainings, a disorienting dilemma was placed at the centre of the diversity training from which transformative learning took its start.

Design/methodology/approach

In an increasingly diversified school system, diversity skills have become a pedagogical necessity for teachers in their future workplace. However, many teachers state not feeling adequately prepared for diversity within higher education and their attitudes towards diversity oftentimes remain unchanged despite diversity training.

Findings

The findings were deduced from structured content analysis. They show that the diversity trainings led to new cultural frames of reference for the study participants on a cognitive and social level, but to a smaller extent on an emotional level.

Originality/value

The study follows a different approach than “typical” diversity trainings through Mezirow's theory on transformative learning contributing to making a real change to preparing students for their workplaces in diversified Austrian schools.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 October 2021

Eloise Atkinson, John Spillane, Jim Bradley and Tara Brooks

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges faced with mobile information communication technology (M-ICT), more specifically tablet software, in the construction…

1829

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges faced with mobile information communication technology (M-ICT), more specifically tablet software, in the construction phase of UK infrastructure projects. Quality assurance in the context of passive fire protection is scrutinised, where M-ICT use is prevalent, to provide an industry perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The research design is founded on exploratory multiple case study approach. Specific themes are developed, based on a critical review of previous ICT studies. The themes identified are used to inform a qualitative interview protocol for investigating three large UK infrastructure projects. Each project is at different stages in the construction phase, with varying examples of M-ICT implementation in use. Participants are interviewed regarding their experiences of the implementation of M-ICT on each project.

Findings

Findings identify diverse experiences across each project. Single and multiple M-ICT platforms are currently being used, with individual stakeholders using ICT in isolation, and in some instances, multiple project stakeholders are using it together. Complete replacement of paper-based processes is evident in one case study, but more commonly, digital technology is being used in parallel to traditional paper-based processes. The challenges, although varied across each case study, can be categorised under the themes of Technology (IT support, ICT infrastructure, IT security, contractual, software), People (social aspects, user competency, safety), Technical Compliance (technical compliance evidence) and Process (conventional processes).

Originality/value

It is recommended that each theme be reviewed at project commencement, with all key stakeholders, to ensure key aspects are considered prior to M-ICT deployment. This will ensure avoidance of challenges reported and maximise the opportunities that are available through M-ICT in a multi-stakeholder infrastructure project.

Details

International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, vol. 40 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-4708

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 July 2021

James Brackley, Penelope Tuck and Mark Exworthy

This paper examines the contested value of healthy life and wellbeing in a context of severe austerity, exploring how the value of “Public Health” is constructed through and with…

1580

Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines the contested value of healthy life and wellbeing in a context of severe austerity, exploring how the value of “Public Health” is constructed through and with material-discursive practices and accounting representations. It seeks to explore the political and ethical implications of constructing the valuable through a shared consensus over the “facts” when addressing complex, multi-agency problems with long time horizons and outcomes that are not always easily quantifiable.

Design/methodology/approach

The theorisation, drawing on science and technology studies (STS) scholars and Karen Barad's (2007) agential realism, opens up the analysis to the performativity of both material and discursive practices in the period following a major re-organisation of activity. The study investigates two case authorities in England and the national regulator through interviews, observations and documentary analysis.

Findings

The paper demonstrates the deeply ethical and political entanglements of accounting representations as objectivity, consensus and collective action are constructed and resisted in practice. It goes on to demonstrate the practical challenges of constructing “alternative accounts” and “intelligent accountabilities” through times of austerity towards a shared sense of public value and suggests austerity measures make such aims both more challenging and all the more essential.

Originality/value

Few studies in the accounting literature have explored the full complexity of valuation practices in non-market settings, particularly in a public sector context; this paper, therefore, extends familiar conceptual vocabulary of STS inspired research to further explore how value(s), ethics and identity all play a crucial role in making things valuable.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 16 June 2023

Davide de Gennaro, Simona Mormile, Gabriella Piscopo and Paola Adinolfi

In light of the new way of interpreting work spearheaded by Generation Z, the objectives of this study are to investigate (1) whether young entrepreneurs identify their start-ups…

1191

Abstract

Purpose

In light of the new way of interpreting work spearheaded by Generation Z, the objectives of this study are to investigate (1) whether young entrepreneurs identify their start-ups with “zebras” – that is, as a concrete response to the evanescence and fantasy of “unicorns” based on the simultaneous pursuit of profit and social value, mutualism and resilience – and (2) whether they adopt a “teal” organizational configuration – that is, one characterized by evolutionary purpose, self-management and wholeness.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a qualitative approach with 41 interviews, this study focuses on start-uppers and companies that are particularly innovative and promising in the Italian context, as selected by Forbes magazine in its ranking of the brightest entrepreneurs, leaders and stars under 30.

Findings

The results suggest that young entrepreneurs recognize the importance of the common themes of the zebra movement and therefore identify their startups with zebras. More specifically, Generation Z entrepreneurs: (1) pursue a dual (economic and social) purpose, (2) are mutualistic and (3) build their organizations with resilience and capital efficiency. In addition, the interviews show that the organizational approach taken follows the paradigm of teal organizations, particularly in terms of evolutionary purpose, distributed leadership and decision-making power, and employee wholeness and empowerment.

Originality/value

This is the first study to analyze the evolutionary trends of animal entrepreneurial “species” led by Generation Z entrepreneurs and organized on the basis of the teal paradigm.

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 30 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 August 2022

Sarah J.R. Cummings and Diana E. Lopez

To interrogate the grand narrative of “entrepreneurship for development” that dominates international development circles, by applying a feminist critical discourse analysis that…

1610

Abstract

Purpose

To interrogate the grand narrative of “entrepreneurship for development” that dominates international development circles, by applying a feminist critical discourse analysis that prioritizes women's situated experiences as local stories.

Design/methodology/approach

Two existing frameworks for analysing women's entrepreneurship, namely the 5M (Brush et al., 2009) and the 8M (Abuhussein and Koburtay, 2021) frameworks, are used to examine the local stories of women in rural Ethiopia to provide a counter-narrative to the grand narrative of “entrepreneurship for development”. The local stories are derived from 16 focus group discussions and 32 interviews.

Findings

The findings provide a counter-narrative to the grand narrative of “entrepreneurship for development”, evident in Ethiopia and in international development generally, while demonstrating larger structural issues at play. They challenge entrepreneurship's solely positive effects. While women recognize the benefits of having a business, particularly in terms of financial gains, empowerment and social recognition, they also highlight negative consequences, including uncertainty, concerns for their own personal safety, criticism, stress, limited social life and fear of indebtedness and poverty.

Practical implications

Policymakers, scholars and development professionals are urged to reflect on the limitations of “entrepreneurship for development” and to consider the negative effects that promoting an acritical grand narrative of entrepreneurship could have on women's lives.

Originality/value

The article advances an innovative partnership between feminist analysis and established women's entrepreneurship frameworks to contest dominant assumptions in the fields of entrepreneurship and international development studies. It adds to the limited empirical evidence on women's entrepreneurial activity in Ethiopia, tests the adequacy of the 5M and 8M frameworks in the rural low-income context of Ethiopia, and proposes a 7+M framework as an alternative to study rural women's entrepreneurship in low and middle income countries.

Details

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-6266

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 January 2020

Sina K. Feldermann and Martin R.W. Hiebl

This paper aims to examine the current practice of reporting on translation issues in qualitative, interdisciplinary accounting research. Based on an analysis of the…

3760

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the current practice of reporting on translation issues in qualitative, interdisciplinary accounting research. Based on an analysis of the methodological consideration of the translation of quotations from non-English interviews and additional interviews with experienced researchers, the authors aim to develop recommendations for the reporting on such translation procedures in future accounting research relying on interviews not conducted in English.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis is based on papers published in four highly ranked interdisciplinary accounting journals: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ), Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS), Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA) and Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management (QRAM). The subjects of the analysis are publications of non-English-speaking researchers who conducted non-English interviews and therefore were confronted with translation issues when attempting to get published in these English-language journals. Additionally, to gain deeper insights into reporting decisions on language and translation issues, the authors conducted interviews with experienced researchers in the field of qualitative, interdisciplinary accounting research whose mother tongue is not English. The authors combine these empirical insights with current developments in translation studies.

Findings

As suggested by translation studies, translation is an act of sense making and reconstruction of meaning, and therefore is a complex task that needs to be carried out with caution. However, the findings suggest that in current interdisciplinary, qualitative accounting research, the reporting of language and translation issues, especially with regards to the translation of quotations from interview data, have so far received only limited attention. The authors therefore call for more awareness of and sensibility toward dealing with language and translation issues, which should be reflected in more transparent reporting on translation processes to support the credibility and authenticity of qualitative accounting studies based on non-English interviews.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is limited to the reporting on the methodological consideration of translating quotations from non-English interviews in papers published in AAAJ, AOS, CPA and QRAM between 2004 and 2015. For future accounting research that relies on such interviews, the authors call for more transparency and provide specific recommendations. This in turn should strengthen the awareness that language and translation are factors to be considered and reported.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to develop recommendations for the reporting of translation processes in accounting research studies, which are based on interviews not led in the English language.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 4 October 2023

Nuria Fuentes-Peláez, Gemma Crous and Judit Rabassa

This chapter reflects on the use of interviews as a method of data collection with children and presents an innovative tool to encourage children and youth to express their views…

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the use of interviews as a method of data collection with children and presents an innovative tool to encourage children and youth to express their views and opinions about different areas of their life, especially their experiences in foster care. The innovative tool presented is a gamified interview called ‘Play&Talk: The Magic Cards of Foster Care’. The interview progresses through three levels based on the complexity of the topic to be discussed, and the children or young people decide which topics to discuss and in what order to discuss them. Seventeen children in nonkinship foster care participated for the first time in the Play&Talk interviews in a research context. Based on this experience, this chapter discusses ethical issues relevant to promoting children's expression and fully realising their right to be heard and express their opinions. The age of the children (6–11 and 12–17 years old) was considered in design and data collection. It conditioned how children received the research information, how they completed informed consent, the use of language, the selection of questions and feedback regarding the results. In addition, the chapter discusses how to involve children and youth in research and their relationship with researchers. This research tool is an example of how to offer children a more participatory role in research interviews and illustrates the importance of age-appropriate designs.

Details

Participatory Research on Child Maltreatment with Children and Adult Survivors
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-529-3

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 December 2017

Stuart Capstick, Sarah Hemstock and Ruci Senikula

This study aims to investigate the role of the visual arts for communicating climate change in the context of the Pacific islands, through the perspectives of artists and climate…

4247

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the role of the visual arts for communicating climate change in the context of the Pacific islands, through the perspectives of artists and climate change practitioners.

Design/methodology/approach

As part of an “Eco Arts” project carried out in Fiji, semi-structured research interviews were undertaken with artists and climate change practitioners.

Findings

Participants’ motivations to produce art reflected their personal concerns about, and experiences of, climate change. There was an intention to use art-based approaches to raise awareness and promote action on climate change. The artwork produced drew on metaphors and storytelling to convey future climate impacts and aspects of climate change relevant to Fijian and Pacific communities.

Research limitations/implications

The study reports the perspectives of participants and discusses the potential uses of arts communication. Conclusions cannot be drawn from the findings regarding the effectiveness of specific artwork or of arts communication as a general approach.

Practical implications

The research offers suggestions for the inclusion of creative approaches to climate change communication within education and vocational training. A consideration of the perspectives of artist–practitioners has implications for the design and conduct of climate change communication.

Social implications

The involvement of artist–practitioners in the communication of climate change offers the potential for novel discussions and interpretations of climate change with individuals and within communities, which complement more formal or scientific communication.

Originality/value

The present study identifies the motivations and objectives of artist–practitioners involved in climate change communication. The authors highlight the role of personal experience and their use of artistic concepts and creative considerations pertinent to the geography and culture of the Pacific region.

Details

International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-8692

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 March 2017

Christina Scholten and Hope Witmer

This paper aims to reveal gendered leadership constructs that hinder a competency-based view of leadership in Swedish-based global companies and the implications for leadership…

6107

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to reveal gendered leadership constructs that hinder a competency-based view of leadership in Swedish-based global companies and the implications for leadership recruitment and development to top management positions.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews, which have been analyzed using a gender analytic framework to identify how senior management, Human resource management and leadership trainees are discussing leadership and career development.

Findings

Three themes were identified as clouding the issue of gender-equal leadership practices thereby creating an opaque gendered lens of who is defined as eligible for leadership positions. The three themes were: symbols as gendered images, counting heads – preserving the existing system and illusive gender inclusion.

Research limitations/implications

Recruitment practices were identified as contributors to homosocial practices that perpetuate male-dominated leadership representation. However, specific recruitment practices were not fully explored.

Practical implications

The potential use of gender equality as a sustainable management practice for competitive organizations to recruit and develop talented people.

Social implications

To create resilient and gender-equal recruitment and leadership development practices.

Originality/value

This research offers an original perspective on gender representation at the senior management level in global companies by revealing gendered leadership constructs in the leadership recruitment and development process as antecedents to unequal gender representation in senior management positions.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 32 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 5000