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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the attitudes of staff and students towards adopting the use of e-portfolios for the purposes of supporting the concept of personal development planning (PDP). The study compares and contrasts the views and opinions of staff and students at one UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) about whether e-portfolios can support PDP.

Adopting a case study approach, this study presents empirical data gathered from two surveys involving 460 students and 182 lecturers from one UK HEI, collected from four different campuses across the West of Scotland.

The results of the surveys showed that the framework the authors used in the research to collect information about students and staffs attitudes was effective and that further research is merited for a more extensive investigation into PDP e-portfolio usage within HEI.

The research was conducted at only one UK HEI so at this stage of the research, it is difficult to assess how generalisable the findings are.

This study provides useful empirical evidence to educators who may be considering employing e-portfolios within an educational context. For example, the views of students and staff identified in this paper can aid towards informing educators about some of the issues that might impact on using e-portfolios for supporting PDP in higher education.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work that presents survey data on both students’ and lecturers’ attitudes towards e-portfolio use to support and facilitate PDP.

This paper aims to report on how an Administrative Division at a research‐intensive Australian university utilised feedback data from the Learning and Growth Survey, to initiate changes.

This paper refers to the actions taken by the Administrative Division to the results obtained from the Learning and Growth Survey. The questionnaire items are based on the “Balanced Scorecard” system outlined by Kaplan and Norton in 1996. It consists of a number of items identified as integral to effective growth and learning strategies for staff‐development. The questionnaire seeks staff perceptions of the individual items and how their needs are met in the current University management practices.

The results of this survey indicate that employees were willing to provide practical feedback on a range of dimensions, which they felt would assist improvement of their development and growth opportunities. Further, this paper demonstrates that in any exercise which involves collecting information on staff perceptions, staff not only expect that the data would be utilized constructively, but also that the institution would also make practical changes based on their feedback and that they would be informed about these changes.

This survey revealed that some of the feedback obtained from participants had limitations as to what actions could be taken within the Administrative Division because of the ramifications for institutional budgets. However, issues related to improvement of the learning and growth environment were possible to address through practical changes within the bounds of the Division's budget. Further, when conducting similar surveys among university staff, it is essential that anonymity of the participants is ensured. It is also vital that the purposes, outcomes, proposed actions and progress in implementation of these actions are well communicated to all the staff.

A growing number of tertiary institutions have recently started conducting surveys among their staff concerning the staff satisfaction with their work in the organisation(s). Despite this growing number of employee surveys, there is a lack of academic literature available describing how such surveys are conducted and the issues that institutions face when designing, implementing and evaluating these surveys. From the available information, it was also unclear what aspects of employee experience these surveys cover and whether they focus on staff learning and development. Therefore, this paper attempts to make a step in that direction by describing an employee survey regularly conducted among staff within administrative units at a large Australian University.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the use of people surveys to enact change in human capital organization and practices in a University library.

The study covers seven years of people surveys and the consequent interventions applied based on this and other data and evidence at the University of York, UK. The case describes measurement of staff’s lived experience, leading to innovation and intervention in management strategies, structures and policies. The research employs a mixed methodology; the paper draws on quantitative evidence from surveys, qualitative evidence from focus groups and desk research on human capital measurement and emotion in the workplace.

The paper describes the findings of investigations across seven years, discusses the available methods for people assessment, and the different theoretical foundations of the engagement, climate and excellence surveys used across the period. Strategic and structural interventions are described and their effectiveness discussed.

The limitations of research in the field of human capital are discussed, including the participant observation of the library director, together with the potential confounding factors affecting data collected during the period of research.

The paper reflects on advances in the understanding and practice of people evaluation in libraries. The development of a people strategy based on evidence, and repetition of surveys to gauge the effectiveness of interventions, with consequent refinement of solutions, appear to have had a real effect on the lived experience, culture and service provided by the case library.

The originality and value of the paper is that it provides a unique long-term case study of people surveys, strategy and structure in an academic research library.

The purpose of the population‐based study in the paper is to report on progress in formulating instruments to measure children's resilience and associated protective factors in family, primary school and community contexts.

In this paper a total of 2,794 students, 1,558 parents/caregivers, and 465 staff were surveyed in October 2003. A cross‐sectional research method was used for the data collection. Three surveys (student survey, parent/caregiver survey, and staff survey) were developed and modified to measure student resilience and associated protective factors. Exploratory factor analysis with Oblimin rotation and confirmatory factor analysis were used to analyse the reliability and validity of the scales of the three surveys.

The surveys in this paper find good construct validity and internal consistency for the social support scale of parent/caregiver survey, which had been modified from previous studies. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a goodness of fit for the following scales: student resilience scale of the student survey; the school organisation and climate scale and family functioning scale of the parent/caregiver survey; and the health‐promoting school scale and social capital scale of the staff survey.

The paper specifies aspects of the resilience concept within a holistic or socio‐ecological setting. Measures of validity and reliability indicate that these instruments have the sensitivity to elucidate the complexity of both the resilience concept and the intricacy of working within the multi‐layered world of the school environment.

This paper provides health educators and researchers with reliable and valid resilience measures, which can be used as guidelines in implementing evaluation programmes for the health‐promoting school project and the prevention of mental health problems in children.

Research into the library as place investigates the role of public library buildings as destinations, physical places where people go for various reasons ranging from making use of the library's resources and services or seeking to fulfill an information or reading need to less easily identified reasons that may include using the library's building as a place to make social or business contacts, to build or reinforce community or political ties, or to create or reinforce a personal identity. This study asks: How are one rural US public library system's newly constructed buildings functioning as places? The answer is derived from answers to sub-questions about adult library users, user, and staff perceptions of library use, and observed use of library facilities. The findings are contextualized using a framework built of theories from human geography, sociology, and information studies.

This case study replicates a mixed-methods case study conducted at the main public libraries in Toronto and Vancouver in the late1990s and first reproduced in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2006. It tests methods used in large urban settings in a rural, small-town environment. This study also expands on its antecedents by using thematic analysis to determine which conceptualizations of the role of the public library as place are most relevant to the community under investigation.

The study relies on quantitative and qualitative data collected via surveys and interviews of adult library users, interviews of library public service staff members, structured observations of people using the libraries, and analysis of selected administrative documents. The five sets of data are triangulated to answer the research sub-questions.

Thematic analysis grounded in the conceptual framework finds that public realm theory best contextualizes the relationships that develop between library staff members and adult library users over time. The study finds that the libraries serve their communities as informational places and as familiarized locales rather than as third places, and that the libraries facilitate the generation of social capital for their users.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a Service Improvement Project aimed at assessing the level of knowledge of intimate partner violence (IPV) of clinical staff working in Community Drug and Alcohol Services (CDAS) in four boroughs of South London.

Clinical staff (n=90) completed a survey which was based on the Capability Framework (Hughes et al., 2015), developed to describe the key capabilities required to work with men who misuse drug and alcohol and perpetrate IPV. Two separate surveys were prepared for clinical (core) staff (n=76) and for manager (senior) staff (n=14).

The Capability Framework provided a useful structure for identifying key strengths and gaps in knowledge and skills related to substance use and IPV treatment in frontline CDAS staff. Significant strengths which emerged in the “core staff” survey related to the importance of assessing IPV and being empathic. Gaps related to the confidence in working with these issues and receiving support. Significant strengths which emerged in the “senior staff” survey related to the availability of supervision, information and training on IPV. Gaps related to using the Capability Framework and discussing IPV in supervision.

Findings have important implications for the development of training addressing gaps in current knowledge and skills required when working with IPV in the context of drug and alcohol misuse.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the baseline model required to measure whole-of-organisation agility within a university information services division. The paper seeks to analyse the process of identifying and applying such a model.

The qualitative methodology applied is that of a single case study. The organisation analysed was an Australian university’s information services division. A structured survey, based on Wendler (2014), was administered to all staff as part of a multi-phased approach, thus facilitating a triangulation process.

The current research has confirmed the applicability of Wendler’s model to the higher education information technology sector. Application of the model establishes not only a baseline agility maturity score across the whole-of-organisation but also provides granular scores based on organisational units. Triangulation of survey results is recommended to achieve a more in-depth perspective.

Further research comparing similarly and differently sized universities could provide valuable insights. More research is needed to extend the applicability of Wendler’s model to a wider range of domains and industries.

The grouping of survey questions under particular broad themes reflected the strategic focus of the division being surveyed. Organisations implementing the proposed model will need to select themes that correspond with their respective strategic goals and culture.

The paper has extended the research and resultant model developed by Wendler by applying them not only to both managers and staff but also to a different domain, specifically higher education.

This paper aims to discuss the challenges of conducting research with homelessness services frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between 2015 and 2019, the research team surveyed frontline staff in three cities about their psychosocial stressors and needs. In 2020, the authors replicated the previous study and expanded data collection to seven cities across Canada to determine the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the well-being of frontline staff. This report describes how the authors adapted the research methodologies to continue work throughout the pandemic, despite various restrictions.

The original studies had very high participation rates because of several methodological approaches that minimized barriers, especially in-person data collection. During the pandemic, distancing requirements precluded replication of these same methods. Research strategies that enabled staff participation during working hours, with designated time allotted for participation, was key for ensuring high participation rates, as access to technology, availability of free time and other factors frequently make online survey research a hardship for these staff. Restrictive interpretation and regional variations of COVID-19 guidelines by some research ethics boards were also a challenge to rapid and responsive data collection.

Few studies describe the experiences of frontline workers in the homelessness sector, and quantitative reports of their experiences are particularly scant. Consequently, little is known about specific methodologies that facilitate large-scale data collection in the homelessness services sector. The present research advances the field by providing lessons learned about best practice approaches in pre and post COVID-19 front line worker contexts. A strength of this research is the well-controlled design. The authors collected data within several of the organizations that had previously participated. This fortunate baseline provided opportunity for comparison before and during the pandemic; the authors can highlight factors that might have had influence during the pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the “Mobile 23 Things” survey results from the program offered by Guldborgsund-bibliotekerne (a public library in Denmark) and present the findings as support for professional development (PD) models to increase library staff familiarity with emerging technologies.

Using an integrated, exploratory approach, a web-based survey tool, developed for a previous Learning 2.0 study, was adapted for this study, with survey questions translated English – Danish, and responses Danish – English. The data gathered from both pre- and post-program surveys are presented and analyzed.

The research results identify that 23 Mobile Things increases familiarity with movable technologies, promotes inclusive learning, and can be an effective model for delivering PD.

This paper reports on the first research study to evaluate the 23 Mobile Things model and provides evidence that this model of library staff PD can be an overall beneficial experience that increases staff knowledge and expertise related to mobile devices and applications.

This chapter reports the results of a 20-year longitudinal study of how American unions have adapted their internal administrative practices to meet the significant external challenges they face. In previous scholarly work, researchers have reported that the administrative practices of American unions were far more informal, ad hoc, and political than those of business, government, and other nonprofit organizations. The authors’ 2010 survey asked US-based national and international unions to provide data concerning their internal administrative practices. The results were compared with findings from similar surveys conducted in 1990 and 2000. The results of these surveys indicate a steady increase in unions’ adoption of more formal personnel policies, budget practices, strategic planning processes, and efforts to evaluate planned activities over the 20-year period studied. They also indicate that unions increasingly recruit individuals meeting college, technical, and professional qualifications. Taken together, the results suggest a recognition on the part of many unions that adapting their internal administrative practices to the new realities they face is a fundamental and a necessary part of any effort at organizational renewal.