Search results

The dual purpose of this paper is to question some of the taken‐for‐granted assumptions that underpin change management approaches and to suggest a framework for implementing change in organizations.

The paper develops a framework based on qualitative data gathered through action‐based research.

The paper provides a case study of one organization's experiences to illustrate the framework. The case study shows that managers can focus their actions to bring about changes to behaviors in the context of activities and practices that people perform on a day‐to‐day basis.

The research was undertaken in larger organizations (more than 750 employees) and the extent to which the framework can be applied to smaller organizations is to be demonstrated.

The paper encourages managers to refocus their efforts on the implementation of change rather than just the design of the change. It makes the case for action to be taken in the context of activities and practices that people should be doing rather than expending significant design efforts on what is done currently.

PRISMA is the only example of a co‐ordinated‐type model to be developed and fully implemented with a process and outcome evaluation. The PRISMA model was implemented in three areas (urban, rural with or without a local hospital) in Quebec, Canada and an implementation evaluation was carried out using mixed (qualitative and quantitative) methods. Over four years, the implementation rates went from 22% to 79%. The perception of integration by managers and clinicians working in the various organisations of the network shows that most interactions are perceived as at the co‐operation level, some getting the highest collaboration level. The perception of the efficacy of case managers was very high. Implementing such a model is feasible, and the decision to generalise it was made in Quebec. This model might be more appropriate for a universal publicly funded health care system like those in Canada, the UK and the Scandinavian countries.

In providing specialized care for older individuals the skills of many disciplines are often needed to provide the most effective care. At the time of referral, it is not always clear which patients are best served by a medical approach and which ones require psychiatric input. When patients are referred to the less appropriate service, diagnosis and treatment may be delayed to the detriment of the patient. A wide spectrum of specialized services for the elderly is offered at the Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation, a four‐site teaching hospital in Ontario. The authors describe the development of a common intake process which provides rapid triage to the most appropriate services, and facilitates a combined medical and psychiatric approach where indicated. The end result is a single entry point for referrals, more efficient triage and a net reduction in the number of staff needed to accept and process referrals.

The purpose of this paper is to employ the case of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data repositories to examine the potential of blockchain technology in the context of addressing basic contemporary societal concerns, such as transparency, accountability and trust in the policymaking process. Current approaches to sharing data employ standardized metadata, in which the provider of the service is assumed to be a trusted party. However, derived data, analytic processes or links from policies, are in many cases not shared in the same form, thus breaking the provenance trace and making the repetition of analysis conducted in the past difficult. Similarly, it becomes tricky to test whether certain conditions justifying policies implemented still apply. A higher level of reuse would require a decentralized approach to sharing both data and analytic scripts and software. This could be supported by a combination of blockchain and decentralized file system technology.

The findings presented in this paper have been derived from an analysis of a case study, i.e., analytics using data made available by the OECD. The set of data the OECD provides is vast and is used broadly. The argument is structured as follows. First, current issues and topics shaping the debate on blockchain are outlined. Then, a redefinition of the main artifacts on which some simple or convoluted analytic results are based is revised for some concrete purposes. The requirements on provenance, trust and repeatability are discussed with regards to the architecture proposed, and a proof of concept using smart contracts is used for reasoning on relevant scenarios.

A combination of decentralized file systems and an open blockchain such as Ethereum supporting smart contracts can ascertain that the set of artifacts used for the analytics is shared. This enables the sequence underlying the successive stages of research and/or policymaking to be preserved. This suggests that, in turn, and ex post, it becomes possible to test whether evidence supporting certain findings and/or policy decisions still hold. Moreover, unlike traditional databases, blockchain technology makes it possible that immutable records can be stored. This means that the artifacts can be used for further exploitation or repetition of results. In practical terms, the use of blockchain technology creates the opportunity to enhance the evidence-based approach to policy design and policy recommendations that the OECD fosters. That is, it might enable the stakeholders not only to use the data available in the OECD repositories but also to assess corrections to a given policy strategy or modify its scope.

Blockchains and related technologies are still maturing, and several questions related to their use and potential remain underexplored. Several issues require particular consideration in future research, including anonymity, scalability and stability of the data repository. This research took as example OECD data repositories, precisely to make the point that more research and more dialogue between the research and policymaking community is needed to embrace the challenges and opportunities blockchain technology generates. Several questions that this research prompts have not been addressed. For instance, the question of how the sharing economy concept for the specifics of the case could be employed in the context of blockchain has not been dealt with.

The practical implications of the research presented here can be summarized in two ways. On the one hand, by suggesting how a combination of decentralized file systems and an open blockchain, such as Ethereum supporting smart contracts, can ascertain that artifacts are shared, this paper paves the way toward a discussion on how to make this approach and solution reality. The approach and architecture proposed in this paper would provide a way to increase the scope of the reuse of statistical data and results and thus would improve the effectiveness of decision making as well as the transparency of the evidence supporting policy.

Decentralizing analytic artifacts will add to existing open data practices an additional layer of benefits for different actors, including but not limited to policymakers, journalists, analysts and/or researchers without the need to establish centrally managed institutions. Moreover, due to the degree of decentralization and absence of a single-entry point, the vulnerability of data repositories to cyberthreats might be reduced. Simultaneously, by ensuring that artifacts derived from data based in those distributed depositories are made immutable therein, full reproducibility of conclusions concerning the data is possible. In the field of data-driven policymaking processes, it might allow policymakers to devise more accurate ways of addressing pressing issues and challenges.

This paper offers the first blueprint of a form of sharing that complements open data practices with the decentralized approach of blockchain and decentralized file systems. The case of OECD data repositories is used to highlight that while data storing is important, the real added value of blockchain technology rests in the possible change on how we use the data and data sets in the repositories. It would eventually enable a more transparent and actionable approach to linking policy up with the supporting evidence. From a different angle, throughout the paper the case is made that rather than simply data, artifacts from conducted analyses should be made persistent in a blockchain. What is at stake is the full reproducibility of conclusions based on a given set of data, coupled with the possibility of ex post testing the validity of the assumptions and evidence underlying those conclusions.

Focuses on the need to exploit modern technology to fight crime, remembering that information is only data until it is shared ‐ and it needs to be shared quickly and globally. Describes the RECOL initiative of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; its objective is to give citizens a single entry point, via the Internet, to lodge a complaint about any fraud and have it directed efficiently to the appropriate agency, wherever that may be, for actioning. Speculates that this could be the model for the future if separate police forces can be made to talk to each other, and refers to the G8 stewardship of the RECOL project; all crime could be reported this way, using digital photography and facial recognition software. Allows that there are privacy concerns, however, especially in regard to recognition software.

The purpose of this paper is to extend to accounting and accounting texts the arguments of Phillips which suggest that organisational analysis can be enriched by a greater interface with narrative fiction as a means to bring organisations to life. The paper also introduces the work of Bottin which argues that accounting manuals can be considered as source documents for economic history, more than simply being of purely pedagogical value. Both approaches inform the research into the specialised accounting manual, the Guide du Commerce of Gaignat de l'Aulnais.

This paper uses archival‐based historical methods to examine the Guide du Commerce and the social and economic milieu presented therein. It has developed its analysis through the examination of both primary and secondary sources to underscore the business and social networks of the milieu and to illustrate accounting as narrative.

In his manual, Gaignat recreates merchant activities and commercial relations of eighteenth century France. Gaignat does not content himself with re‐copying material at his disposal or with creating fictitious examples. Rather, through his in‐depth development of case studies and examples of actual accounting methods, he offers the reader insights into the strategic nature of the social and economic milieu in which commercial success might be achieved.

The research approach is transferable to other settings, motivating renewed interest in the history of accounting literature. The stories related in the Guide du Commerce point to the potential value of accounting manuals and other similar documents as historical sources when such sources no longer exist or are limited.

The research method is original in that the methodological approach is new to accounting history, but part of a debate within history more generally.

YOU MAY recall that the December 1974 issue of NLW contained a Christmas Quiz. Readers were asked to identify various libraries described in passages extracted from a motley and heterogeneous selection of books the compiler had chanced upon in half‐a‐lifetime's casual reading. In all honesty the response to the quiz was a little less than heartening and never reached even modest expectations. Not to put too fine a point on it, there was not one single entry. Clearly the books from which the passages were quoted lacked any discernible theme and the odds against anyone duplicating the compiler's miscellaneous reading habits were so outrageous that this caused no surprise.

Care integration has been the hallmark of most proposed solutions to current and prospective challenges of health systems. However, it is an imprecise umbrella term encompassing heterogeneous models and little substantive knowledge exists on the basic mechanisms leading to positive outcomes. This study aims to address this gap by identifying the environmental conditions and the configurations of factors associated with service delivery success in integrated care initiatives.

On the basis of an extensive literature review, an analytical framework aimed at structuring and interpreting the relations between contextual, cultural and organizational factors and the outcomes of integrated care initiatives is proposed. The framework is applied to four successful cases of care integration in the USA, Canada, Italy and Switzerland.

The results suggest that positive outcomes mainly depend on the correct matching of macro‐level factors with a balanced mix of operating means at the micro‐level, rather than on the intense focus on any one element of the framework.

The analysis infers, from a small‐purposive sample, that successful initiatives are a matter of appropriate configuration of contextual, organizational and technical factors. Generalizability of results would benefit from additional international cases and using the framework on decentralized health systems.

This framework can guide future research efforts in the field as it is adaptable and relatively easy to operationalize. It can also be a useful tool for practitioners and policy‐makers, to bring structure and reduce the complexity of efforts aimed to design, evaluate and improve integrated care initiatives.

After considering the search process and functions of index entries, a classification of entry types is offered, based on index term context, predominant term order, and between‐term function words. Then a multiple entry generation scheme is described, comprising rules for term manipulation, input and output. After discussing access points and cross reference measures, a preliminary linguistic analysis is given, showing links with psycholinguistics. The study forms the basis of a current laboratory investigation (EPSILON) into a number of entry types.

This is an adaptation of the opening address given by Sister Elizabeth Davis to the Canadian Healthcare Association’s intramural session for its Distance Education programme. The intramural session is an intensive week of plenary and programme‐specific sessions, working groups and student presentations.