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1 – 10 of 32
Article
Publication date: 9 March 2015

Phil Brooke and Richard Paige

This paper aims to classify different types of “user-visible cryptography” and evaluate the value of user-visible cryptographic mechanisms in typical email and web scenarios for…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to classify different types of “user-visible cryptography” and evaluate the value of user-visible cryptographic mechanisms in typical email and web scenarios for non-expert IT users.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors review the existing literature, and then identify user stories typical to their users of interest. They analyse the risks, mitigations of risks and the limits of those mitigations in the user stories.

Findings

The scenarios identified suggest that background, opportunistic encryption has value, but more explicit, user-visible cryptographic mechanisms do not provide any further mitigation. Other mechanisms beyond technological mitigations provide the required mitigation for the users.

Research limitations/implications

Further work should be carried out on the trust issues with trusted third parties, as they are intrinsic to global, automated cryptographic mechanisms. The authors suggest that deployed systems should rely on automation rather than explicit user involvement; further work on how best to involve users effectively remains valuable.

Practical implications

Deployed systems should rely on automation rather than explicit user dialogues. This follows from recognised aspects of user behaviour, such as ignoring dialogues and unconsciously making a holistic assessment of risk that is mostly mitigated by social factors.

Social implications

The user populations concerned rely significantly on the existing legal and social infrastructure to mitigate some risks, such as those associated with e-commerce. Guarantees from third parties and the existence of fallback procedures improve user confidence.

Originality/value

This work uses user stories as a basis for a holistic review of the issues surrounding the use of cryptography. The authors concentrate on a relatively large population (non-expert IT users) carrying out typical tasks (web and email).

Details

Information & Computer Security, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4961

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2006

Mohd Syazwan Abdullah, Chris Kimble, Ian Benest and Richard Paige

The goal of this paper is to re‐evaluate the role of knowledge‐based systems (KBS) in knowledge management (KM). While knowledge‐based systems and expert systems were widely used

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Abstract

Purpose

The goal of this paper is to re‐evaluate the role of knowledge‐based systems (KBS) in knowledge management (KM). While knowledge‐based systems and expert systems were widely used in the past, they have now fallen from favor and are largely ignored in the knowledge management literature. This paper aims to argue that several factors have changed and it is now time to re‐evaluate the contribution that such systems can make to knowledge management.

Design/methodology/approach

The role of KBS in KM is explored through a comprehensive analysis of both the management and the technical literature on knowledge. The literature on KBS and expert systems is reviewed and some of the problems faced by them are highlighted. Some of the probable causes of these problems and some of the solutions that might be used to overcome them are indicated. The paper describes how knowledge systems (KS) could be used as an effective tool for managing knowledge.

Findings

The lack of success of KBS technologies for managing knowledge is mainly due to organizational and managerial issues. These problems can be solved through feasibility studies before system development activities. KS technology is now being successfully applied in a variety of newer domains that exploit its capabilities.

Practical implications

Some conclusions are drawn concerning integration of knowledge systems with knowledge management, problems of the early implementation of knowledge systems technology, and possible solution to overcome these problems.

Originality/value

The main contribution of the article is in re‐evaluating the role of knowledge‐based systems as a tool for knowledge management.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 June 2022

Paige M. Hulls, Frank de Vocht, Richard M. Martin and Rebecca M. Langford

Around 400,000 working days per year are lost in the construction industry due to stress, depression or anxiety, but a large proportion of the industry – those primarily not based…

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Abstract

Purpose

Around 400,000 working days per year are lost in the construction industry due to stress, depression or anxiety, but a large proportion of the industry – those primarily not based “on-site” – is not included in these statistics. Little research has been conducted in this group about their experiences of occupational stress. The authors explored how stress was experienced and managed by construction professionals and its perceived impact on health.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors interviewed 32 construction professionals in a British construction company, with varying levels of seniority and years in the industry. Interviews were transcribed, coded and analysed thematically.

Findings

Stress was viewed an inevitable and increasing part of the construction industry, exacerbated by recent economic challenges. Participants talked about a culture of stress and overwork but often felt unable to challenge it due to job insecurity. Senior management acknowledged stress was a problem within the industry and something that potentially threatened company productivity. Company-wide initiatives had been implemented to address stress levels (e.g. Mental Health First Aiders), but were criticised for ignoring underlying issues. Informal means of managing stress were identified, such as careful consideration of team dynamics, which allowed employees to form close bonds and using “banter” and camaraderie to relieve stress. However, the persistence of a macho male image meant some participants were reluctant to talk about their feelings at work. Participants described individual coping strategies, such as exercise, but these were hard to prioritise in challenging times.

Originality/value

There is growing recognition that health and well-being must be given greater priority in the construction industry. Industry pressures and competitive practices undermine efforts to improve staff well-being. Action must be taken at senior levels to address this conflict, while building on existing informal mechanisms of support and stress relief.

Details

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, vol. 15 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8351

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 September 2015

Izaskun Rekalde, Jon Landeta and Eneka Albizu

The purpose of this paper is to provide a classified list of the factors that are most influential in the success of an executive coaching process, arranged in order of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a classified list of the factors that are most influential in the success of an executive coaching process, arranged in order of importance.

Design/methodology/approach

Selection of factors from an exhaustive literature review, and development of a qualitative investigation, applying a Focus Group, a Nominal Group technique, and the Delphi method to a group of experts comprising coaches, coachees, and human resources managers, in order to complete and assess the factors selected.

Findings

The most outstanding factors needed in executive coaching are confidentiality, trust, and empathy between coach and coachee; the coach’s ability to generate trust, and her/his competence in communication skills, vocation and commitment; the coachee’s need, motivation, responsibility for his/her own development and commitment to the process; and a guarantee from the organization of the confidentiality of that process.

Practical implications

This research furnishes a quantitative criterion for the evaluation and ranking of the determining factors in coaching success, which facilitates a justified selection of factors, both for research and professional purposes.

Social implications

This study makes it possible to better channel the allocation of resources and gearing of business decisions for the implementation of coaching programs.

Originality/value

This paper provides a systematic review of the empirically based literature dealing with the main success factors in the effective application of executive coaching, and contributes new factors derived from the knowledge of professional experts, along with a classified and ranked list of those factors, assessed in terms of their relevance to the satisfactory outcome of a coaching process.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 53 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 November 2018

Ming-Huei Chen, Yu-Yu Chang and Ju-Yun Pan

The rise of creative economy has been the subject of considerable interest in the recent literature. Despite the growing effort to investigate entrepreneurship in creative…

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Abstract

Purpose

The rise of creative economy has been the subject of considerable interest in the recent literature. Despite the growing effort to investigate entrepreneurship in creative industries, little work has been done to scrutinize the relationship between individual attributes of creative entrepreneurs and the new venture outcomes. Prior research shows that entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition are the major determinants of entrepreneurs’ behavioral posture in the new venture process. Therefore, this study aims to explore the typology of creative entrepreneurs’ attitude to new venture creation using entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition to categorize entrepreneurs in creative industries.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 291 entrepreneurs in creative industries of Taiwan and cluster analysis was used to categorize the research data.

Findings

The results identify four types of creative entrepreneurs, namely “creative constructionist”, “creative opportunist”, “creative designer” and “creative producer”. To better understand the role of creative entrepreneurs in affecting new venture success, the career outcomes perceived by entrepreneurs were compared between different categories. Results suggest that entrepreneurs who are categorized as “creative constructionist” have better career success in firm’s creative performance, personal career achievement, social reputation, entrepreneurial satisfaction and entrepreneurial happiness. Moreover, findings also suggest that constructionist type of creative entrepreneurs have the lowest intention to quit the entrepreneurial career.

Originality/value

This paper confirms that entrepreneurial creativity and opportunity recognition complement each other to accomplish entrepreneurs’ career success. Its findings shed light on entrepreneurs’ attribute typology as well as how the typology is linked to entrepreneurial career success in creative industries. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

Details

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, vol. 12 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6204

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 July 2013

Bruce D. Bonta

Peaceful societies, groups of people described by social scientists as experiencing little if any internal or external violence, embrace the need for peacefulness, in contrast to…

Abstract

Purpose

Peaceful societies, groups of people described by social scientists as experiencing little if any internal or external violence, embrace the need for peacefulness, in contrast to most of the contemporary world, which accepts violence as normal and inevitable. The purpose of this article is to examine the ways that people in those societies view peacefulness, and to compare those ways with more “normal” violent societies.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach taken is a literature review of salient trends about anti‐violence among some of the more highly peaceful societies, and comparable trends in two state‐level societies—Norway, a relatively peaceful state, and the USA, a relatively more violent one.

Findings

The findings show that some of the peaceful societies avoid violence through nonresistance—not resisting aggression. In addition, many base their commitments to peacefulness on religious and mythological beliefs, though for others, peacefulness is based on cultural values or is seen as a practical, reasonable way to order their lives. The societies that appear to have very firm commitments to nonviolence are the ones where structures of peacefulness thrive.

Originality/value

The practical value of this research is that it points out how the peaceful societies can be contrasted with modern nation states, and it may suggest ways to challenge general patterns of violence.

Details

Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, vol. 5 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-6599

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 May 2018

Naoum Mylonas and Eugenia Petridou

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether predicting factors of conventional ventures’ performance are appropriate in interpreting the creative industries context…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether predicting factors of conventional ventures’ performance are appropriate in interpreting the creative industries context. Moreover, this paper introduces a way to measure venture performance in creative industries.

Design/methodology/approach

A structured questionnaire was used to address this research objectives, based mainly on scales tested in previous studies. Data were collected from a sample of 371 female entrepreneurs of creative industries. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the research hypotheses.

Findings

In congruence with the hypotheses, the findings demonstrated that venture performance in creative industries can be predicted by factors that affect conventional venture performance. Creative personality and professional network ties are regarded according to the empirical analysis presented in this paper as the factors with the highest impact.

Research limitations/implications

Data were pulled from female entrepreneurs in Greece, especially from the two biggest cities Athens and Thessaloniki. Consequently, it was precarious to fulfill the condition of generalizability. Additionally, a snowball sampling method was used, because of the absence of creative industries firms’ directory in Greece.

Originality/value

Based on authors’ knowledge and review, no prior study has examined predictors’ effect on creative industries venture performance.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 33 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2009

Associate and Vick

Visual representations of teachers and teachers’ work over the past century and a half, in both professional literature and popular media, commonly construct teachers’ work as…

Abstract

Visual representations of teachers and teachers’ work over the past century and a half, in both professional literature and popular media, commonly construct teachers’ work as teacher‐centred, and built around specific technologies that privilege the teacher as the active, dominant and legitimate principal agent in the educational process. This article analyses a set of photographs that represent an ‘alternative’ educational approach to normalised mainstream schooling, to explore the ways such practices might enact pedagogy within different social relations. Butler’s discussions of performativity and Foucault’s concept of technologies of self, offer a theoretical framework for understanding the educative and political work such visual representations of teachers work might perform, in the construction of capacities to imagine what teachers’ work looks like, with implications for capacities to enact teaching. The photographs analysed present a pedagogy in which the teacher is less visibly central and less overtly directive in relation to children’s learning than in normalised pedagogy. Thus, in important respects, they offer material from which to construct a different vision of what teachers’ work looks like, and, consequently, to enact teachers’ work differently. In this article I explore a set of photographs of Montessori methods at Blackfriars School in Sydney in the early twentieth century. I do so in order to establish whether such photographs offer a representation of teaching that differs significantly from conventional ‘normalised’ understandings of teachers’ work. This in turn is intended to inform one part of a transformative agenda to address problematic aspects of contemporary schooling.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 38 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Jessica L. Robinson, Karl Manrodt, Monique Lynn Murfield, Christopher A. Boone and Paige Rutner

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a dual pathway model whereby addressing the question, “What are the effects of supply chain orientation and organizational…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a dual pathway model whereby addressing the question, “What are the effects of supply chain orientation and organizational identification on internal integration and supplier integration?”.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey design was performed to collect data from supply chain professionals regarding their organization’s supply chain orientation (SCO), organizational identification (OI) and achieved states of both internal and supplier integration. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was performed to test the dual mediating pathways.

Findings

The results show that internal integration partially mediates relationships between SCO and supplier integration and for OI and supplier integration. In comparing the mediating effects to test competing theories, the SCO path yields stronger complementary partial mediation. This supports the proposition that SCO and OI mutually exist within an organization and influence achieved integrative behaviors. Additionally, results suggest the behavioral spillover effect exists for an internally integrated organization that has also achieved supplier integration.

Originality/value

This research makes several contributions to extant literature, including finding that SCO contributes to levels of achieved integration. Also, this research theoretically integrates literature on the social dilemma associated with supplier integration and the behavioral spillover effect, suggesting that SCO allows for positive internal integrative behaviors to spillover to integrated suppliers. Finally, this research contributes to research on OI by finding achieved integration is an outcome, which refutes a dominate theory that explains OI facilitates negative behaviors toward external organizations.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 29 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1961

An introductory course for graduates entering information or special library work, and other persons put in charge of library or information departments without previous…

Abstract

An introductory course for graduates entering information or special library work, and other persons put in charge of library or information departments without previous experience, will be held at Aslib from 30th October to 3rd November 1961. Lectures will introduce students to the basic principles governing the handling of information, and acquaint them with some of the practical details of the operation of an information service or library. There will be a practical session and a discussion session, and visits to a number of libraries and information departments, including Aslib library and information department, have been arranged. The lectures will be given by the Education Officer, Mr Jack Bird. The fee for the course will be £10. Further details and application forms can be obtained from Aslib.

Details

Aslib Proceedings, vol. 13 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0001-253X

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