Search results

In this first of two articles, the authors assess the implications of policy developments in partnership and contestability, commissioning and procurement, and local jurisdiction for adult services joint ventures. They argue for creative responses to service delivery in which policy implementation is seen as an opportunity for local health and social care agencies to honour the history of, and future aspirations for, local partnerships. A second article will detail the very different responses to the policy agenda of four case study sites, exploring the local contours and aspirations underlying their decisions, with the intention of provoking discussion about the art of the possible in the broader community of interest.The papers draw on the authors' work funded by the Integrated Care Network (ICN) and Care Services Improvement (CSIP), which comprised a series of workshops to inform the further development of the plans of four local health and social care communities ‐ Portsmouth, Wolverhampton, Barnsley and Milton Keynes ‐ for commissioning and provision of adult care services, providing a community of interest in which aspirations, challenges and emerging solutions were exchanged and explored. Here we summarise transferable learning for the broader community of interest, drawn from the more detailed reports available from the ICN (Freeman & Peck, 2006, 2007).

Draws attention to recent broad trends in UK employment regulation that refocus the emphasis in employment rights away from a primary concern with safeguarding collective rights toward a more differentiated approach privileging more individual concerns.

Seeks to explain the reasons and consequences of this development.

Argues that rights are defended on the basis of their ability to secure greater employee motivation and productivity.

Explains that this is a business-case defense rather than a requirement for social justice.

Advances the view that modern Conservatives see society as made up of a broad range of actors and not reducible to state action.

Claims that the extension of the minimum period of employment required before an employer may be taken to tribunal to two years, together with a greatly increased fee required to bring a case, mean that cases are much more difficult to make.

In this second and concluding paper on adult care joint ventures, the authors detail the very different approaches to adult care services taken by four case study sites, exploring the local contours and aspirations underlying their decisions. These are not intended as ‘off the shelf’ solutions for wide dissemination, rather to encourage others to engage with the legacy of previous partnership working and specific local contingencies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of organisational and structural change on the evolution of quality and safety in health organisations, specifically in mental health services.

Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews. In total, 25 executive management team members in both public and private mental health services were interviewed and data were analysed using Burnard’s framework.

Three overarching themes emerged: organisational characteristics, leadership and accountability; sustaining collaboration and engagement with stakeholders; and challenges to and facilitators of quality and safety. Taken together, the findings speak to the disruptive and disorienting impact of on-going organisational change and restructuring on leaders’ ability to focus on, and advance, the quality and safety agenda.

Typical with qualitative research of this nature, the potentially limited generalisability of the findings must be acknowledged.

There is a need for strategies to implement change that are informed by evidence and theory and informed by decades of research on this topic, rather than introduced ad hoc. Change agents must pair effective change management and implementation science strategies to specific contexts, depending on what is being implemented and ensure appropriate evaluation of organisational change to bolster the evidence base around quality and safety and inform future decision-making.

The study explores an identified gap in the literature on the impact of on-going organisational re-structuring and transformation on the evolution of quality and safety in mental health services.

In parallel with the rising importance of innovation and digital technologies, research on platform ecosystems is rapidly accumulating. This study aims to summarize the current research published in leading technical and innovation management (TIM) journals and provide recommendation for future research.

In this paper, the authors combine multiple quantitative literature review methods (social network analysis, citation analysis and co-citation analysis) with a systematic literature review of articles published in the 13 most influential TIM journals over a 15-year period.

The citation network of 168 selected papers is sparse, with low network density indicating the emerging nature of the field. Using network centrality values, the authors identified the 33 most influential articles. The review of methodologies in these articles found that conceptual and case study research dominate, suggesting the need for additional confirmatory and quantitative analysis. Co-citation analysis of the references identified six research clusters: foundation, network-centric innovation, complementor management, platform competition, ecosystemsand product platforms.

This analysis is among the first to examine the knowledge structure of platform ecosystem research in the TIM domain by using multiple evidence-based analysis methods. The authors also apply the theory, context, characteristics and methodology framework to suggest areas for future research.

The paper aims to examine the effect of employees' perceived physical attractiveness on the extent to which their voices are “listened to” by management.

Using an experimental research design, the paper estimates main effects of employee attractiveness and possible moderating effects of employee race and gender as well as the gender of their “managers.”

The results suggest that, with few exceptions, more physically attractive employees are significantly more likely to have their suggestions acted upon by managers than less attractive employees, pointing to a powerful form of workplace discrimination. This finding holds across races, with more attractive white, black, and Asian employees exerting a more impactful voice than their less attractive counterparts, although the moderation appears to be stronger for whites than ethnic minorities.

The results have important implications for the extant literatures on employee voice, diversity and discrimination.

This is among the first studies to demonstrate that less attractive employees suffer from an “employee voice deficit” vis-à-vis their more attractive counterparts.

The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities in which the firms are engaged are outlined to provide background information for the reader.