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1 – 10 of 92Bhawana Maheshwari, Miguel Sarrion, Manoj Motiani, Siobhan O'Sullivan and Rajesh Chandwani
This study aims to explore knowledge sharing (KS) attitudes and intention of healthcare professionals in India through the use of information and communication technology…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore knowledge sharing (KS) attitudes and intention of healthcare professionals in India through the use of information and communication technology platforms such as Web 2.0. The research specifically focuses on individual motivators such as the face, reputation and reciprocity, which, to an extent, are influenced by indigenous culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a cross-sectional survey design to collect data. A sample of 207 was obtained from professionals working in healthcare in India. The data were analyzed using the partial least square-structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results confirmed that attitude toward KS leads to the intention to share knowledge. Attitude toward KS using Web 2.0 was found to be positively related to self-efficacy and reciprocity. Furthermore, face and reputation were found to moderate the relationship between attitude and intention to share knowledge while the moderating effect of rewards was found to be insignificant.
Research limitations/implications
This study was limited to healthcare professionals in India. Knowledge workers in other industries can be considered for further studies.
Practical implications
This study provides useful insights into KS practices using Web 2.0 among knowledge workers. Particularly it emphasizes the individual motivators, which can be manipulated by Web 2.0 designers to nurture a positive attitude toward KS and to encourage user’s participation.
Originality/value
The study investigates, using an integrated theoretical framework, how certain factors act as a motivator or a barrier for sharing knowledge using Web 2.0. in the specific cultural context of healthcare professionals in India.
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Siobhan O’Connor, Sinead McGilloway, Grainne Hickey and Melanie Barwick
This paper aims to outline a knowledge translation (KT) case study undertaken as part of a multi-component research programme aimed at evaluating new parenting supports in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to outline a knowledge translation (KT) case study undertaken as part of a multi-component research programme aimed at evaluating new parenting supports in the earliest years. The study aimed to: explore the influencing factors relating to research use in an early years context; and to use the findings, at least in part, to execute an integrated KT plan – to promote stakeholder engagement, greater research visibility and to enhance the understanding of findings emerging from the research programme.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods study was embedded within a large-scale, longitudinal research programme. In the present study, a national survey (n = 162) was administered to stakeholders working with children and families throughout Ireland. A series of one-to-one interviews were also undertaken (n = 37) to amplify the survey findings. Also, one focus group was carried out with parents (n = 8) and one with members of the research team (n = 3). Several dissemination strategies were concurrently developed, executed and evaluated, based partly on survey and interview findings and guided by the knowledge translation planning template (Barwick, 2008; 2013; 2019).
Findings
The main factors influencing the dissemination of evidence, as identified by the stakeholders – were: a lack of resources; an under-developed understanding of research use and dissemination; insufficient collaboration and communication; and conflicting stakeholder priorities. Despite these challenges, the research programme was found to benefit from a multi-component KT plan to achieve the outlined dissemination goals.
Practical implications
The KT planning process allowed the research team to be more accountable, introspective and to work more efficiently. This helped increase the likelihood of more targeted and successful dissemination of the research findings, delivering a better return on research investment.
Originality/value
This is the first study of its kind (to our knowledge) to provide important insights for stakeholders in Ireland and elsewhere about how to improve the dissemination process. Effective KT planning can ultimately help to bridge the research-policy-practice gap and enable the effective translation of high-quality evidence in the early years’ sector to enhance outcomes for families in the shorter and longer-term.
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Oluwagbenga Tade, Siobhan O’Neill, Kenneth G. Smith, Tracey Williams, Amer Ali, Ali Bayyati and Hwee See
This paper is about best practice in managing legacy drainage assets to support sustainable urban regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to describe best practice sewer asset…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is about best practice in managing legacy drainage assets to support sustainable urban regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to describe best practice sewer asset management (AM) and to adjust the current reactive maintenance approach for sewers, to one that accommodates long-term operational and town planning needs. The development of an improved sewer deterioration model (DM) provided an important tool for this.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyse a total network length of 24,252 km which represents 703,156 records of historic sewer structural condition inspection data. This was used to build an improved DM. These models were used as inputs into a proactive AM approach that improves upon recommendations in the Sewerage Rehabilitation Manual developed by Water Research Centre.
Findings
This is a paradigm shift and goes beyond the current culture of OFWAT (Water Services Regulation Authority) supervision, five-year asset management period and occasional environmental penalties. A new legislative model may be needed; especially because a report by UKWIR (Water Industry Research) in 2015 identified that nationally the rate of sewer network deterioration is outpacing available investment and significant health problems may arise in addition to those from developmental pressures.
Research limitations/implications
The authors have researched and managed old sewer networks and present a review of the new issues raised by intensive development, particularly for the London region, but applicable elsewhere, and how these must lead to a modified risk, and novel incentive-based approach to AM, if the system is not to fail.
Originality/value
Large, legacy databases of several decades of sewer network performance records have been combined and analysed as stratified, heterogeneous sets with Gaussian distributions; thereby improving on previous assumptions of homogeneous data. The resulting rigorous DMs are the foundation of new approaches to sustainable risk management of large urban networks.
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Siobhan O'Mahony and Karim R. Lakhani
The concept of a community form is drawn upon in many subfields of organizational theory. Although there is not much convergence on a level of analysis, there is convergence on a…
Abstract
The concept of a community form is drawn upon in many subfields of organizational theory. Although there is not much convergence on a level of analysis, there is convergence on a mode of action that is increasingly relevant to a knowledge-based economy marked by porous and shifting organizational boundaries. We argue that communities play an underappreciated role in organizational theory – critical not only to occupational identity, knowledge transfer, sense-making, social support, innovation, problem-solving, and collective action but also, enabled by information technology, increasingly providing socioeconomic value – in areas once inhabited by organizations alone. Hence, we posit that organizations may be in the shadow of communities. Rather than push for a common definition, we link communities to an organization's evolution: its birth, growth, and death. We show that communities represent both opportunities and threats to organizations and conclude with a research agenda that more fully accounts for the potential of community forms to be a creator (and a possible destroyer) of value for organizations.
Katherine K. Chen and Siobhán O’Mahony
Although extant theory has illuminated conditions under which organizations mimic each other in form and practice, little research examines how organizations seek to differentiate…
Abstract
Although extant theory has illuminated conditions under which organizations mimic each other in form and practice, little research examines how organizations seek to differentiate themselves from conventional forms. Our comparative ethnographic studies examine how the Burning Man and Open Source communities developed organizations to help coordinate the production of an annual temporary arts event and nonproprietary, freely distributed software. Both communities sought to differentiate their organizations from reference groups, but this was not a sufficient condition for sustaining organizational novelty. We found that the ability to pursue a differentiated strategy was moderated by environmental conditions. By exploring the organizing decisions that each community made at two critical boundaries: one defining individuals’ relationship with the organization; the second defining the organization's relationship with the market, we show how organizing practices were recombined from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors in unexpected, novel ways. This comparative research contributes a grounded theoretical explanation of organizational innovation that adjudicates between differentiation and environmental conditions.
Margaret O'Rourke, Sean Hammond, David O'Sullivan, Ciara Staunton and Siobhan O'Brien
LifeMatters is a cognitive behavioural coaching programme that provides tools and techniques for developing and applying five areas of life skill competency: taking care of the…
Abstract
Purpose
LifeMatters is a cognitive behavioural coaching programme that provides tools and techniques for developing and applying five areas of life skill competency: taking care of the body, feeling positive, thinking wisely, acting wisely, and taking care of the spirit. The purpose of paper is to evaluate the viability of the LifeMatters programme with a cohort of secondary school students (12-15 years) in Ireland.
Design/methodology/approach
Open-ended feedback obtained from 196 participants who completed an open-ended questionnaire. These responses were subjected to a thematic analysis. Subsequent quantitative analysis of the resulting categorical data were carried out using correspondence analysis.
Findings
Categorical analysis produced statistically significant sex and age differences showing that males and females differed in their experience of the programme. Girls benefited more from a focus upon stress and self-confidence whereas boys benefited more from a focus on relationship building.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates the viability of the LifeMatters programme for secondary school students as an aid to develop life skills. It highlights the different needs of boys and girls in this area.
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This chapter attempts to explain why the community of scholars at Stanford University generated an unparalleled amount of highly influential theory and research on organizations…
Abstract
This chapter attempts to explain why the community of scholars at Stanford University generated an unparalleled amount of highly influential theory and research on organizations in the last three decades of the 20th century.1
Siobhán O'Higgins, Jane Sixsmith and Saoirse Nic Gabhainn
The shared language of youth includes understandings of concepts that can be different from those of adults. Researchers, in their efforts to explore and illuminate the health…
Abstract
Purpose
The shared language of youth includes understandings of concepts that can be different from those of adults. Researchers, in their efforts to explore and illuminate the health behaviours and decision‐making processes of young people, use generic terms in their data collecting protocols. This study aims to explore what adolescents understand by the words “healthy” and “happy”.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews were conducted in three post‐primary schools with 31 students aged 12 and 13 years. Drawing on a grounded theory approach, interviews were transcribed and subjected to thematic content analysis.
Findings
The students provided a description and explanation of what health and happiness meant to them and how they intended to maintain both as they grew older. Perceptions of these two concepts were found to contain gendered nuances. This was clear in relation to descriptions of how friends were part of well‐being; the girls were more likely to talk about feeling restricted and resentment at being treated like children and only the boys talked of looking forward to things.
Originality/value
In order to gain an understanding of young people's perspectives about what matters and what influences their health behaviour, a clearer view of the different perspectives held by researcher and researched needs to be established so that more accurate conclusions can be drawn from data generated by young people.
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Saoirse Nic Gabhainn, Jane Sixsmith, Ellen‐Nora Delaney, Miriam Moore, Jo Inchley and Siobhan O'Higgins
The purpose of this paper is to outline a three‐stage process for engaging with students to develop school level indicators of health; in sequential class groups students first…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline a three‐stage process for engaging with students to develop school level indicators of health; in sequential class groups students first generated, then categorised indicators and finally developed schematic representations of their analyses. There is a political and practical need to develop appropriate indicators for health‐promoting schools. As key stakeholders in education, students have the right to be fully engaged in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample in this paper comprised 164 students aged 16‐17 years in three medium‐sized Dublin schools. In the first classroom, students answered the question “If you moved to a new school, what would it need to have to be a healthy place?” on individual flashcards. In the second classroom students classified the flashcards into groups using a variation of the card game “snap”. In the third classroom, students discussed the relationships between the developed categories and determined how the categories should be presented. These procedures were repeated twice in three schools, resulting in six developed schemata.
Findings
The paper finds that the six sets of categories showed remarkable similarity – physical aspects of the school predominated but emotional and social health issues also emerged as potential indicators. The schema demonstrated the holistic perspectives of students. They illustrate the importance of relationships and the physical and psycho‐social environment within schools.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates that students can productively engage in the process of indicator development and have the potential to act as full stakeholders in health‐promoting schools. The methods enabled student control over the data generation, analysis and presentation phases of the research, and provided a positive, fun experience for both students and researchers.
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Victor P. Seidel, Kelley A. Packalen and Siobhan O’Mahony
Scholars have studied how entrepreneurs acquire resources but have not examined how resources may be bundled with constraints, which can threaten entrepreneurial autonomy…
Abstract
Scholars have studied how entrepreneurs acquire resources but have not examined how resources may be bundled with constraints, which can threaten entrepreneurial autonomy. Organizational sponsors, such as incubators and accelerators, provide entrepreneurs with resources, but how do entrepreneurs sustain autonomy while seeking resources and support? We studied five entrepreneurial firms in a business incubator over a six-month period. While benefitting from incubator resources, entrepreneurs also experienced unexpected constraints, including mentor role conflict, gatekeeper control, and affiliation dissonance. By showing how entrepreneurs unbundled the incubator’s resources from constraints, we explain how entrepreneurs manage the tension between acquiring resources and preserving autonomy.
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