Linking physicians' medical practice information needs, resources and barriers to job satisfaction: a moderated mediation model.

Purpose: Medical doctors seek information in order to satisfy their demanding everyday work practices and professional development endeavours. Information seeking is a continuous goal-related process that has impact on how they perceive and experience their job. The purpose of this paper is to explore the association of doctors’ awareness of medical practice information needs (MPIN), their frequency of using online information resources and the barriers they encountered during information seeking with their overall job satisfaction. More specifically, the research examined the mediating role of these information seeking related variables (information needs, online scholarly resources and information barriers) on doctors’ overall job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed a questionnaire survey of 138 medical doctors working within the context of a University Hospital in Greece. The survey took place between February and March 2014. To test the hypotheses the authors conducted regression analysis, hierarchical moderated analysis and bootstrapping using SPSS macro developed by Preacher and colleagues. Findings: The statistical analysis found that higher awareness of MPIN had an indirect effect on doctors’ overall job satisfaction when they used online information scholar resources. In addition, this indirect effect was contingent on information-related barriers. Originality/value: This study provides evidence for supporting the pivotal role of doctors’ information seeking preferences in fostering job satisfaction. This is an understudied research area that deserves a unique focus particularly with the constantly expanding medical information space that has impact on doctors’ medical practices and professional activities

Rethinking Public Organizations as Knowledge-Oriented and Technology-Driven Organizations

Public organizations should rediscover the role of knowledge as a source for designing and implementing internal processes and adopt a knowledge management approach by using and managing technology as means and enabler for building a citizen-centered public management, sustaining democratic and civic values by promoting openness and fostering participation in order to encourage collaboration with citizens for co-producing public services and co-creating public value. Information and communication technologies are driving public organizations as responsive institutions in front of the citizens to proceed towards sustainability as a principle of governance for promoting the public interest and sustaining active citizenship, enhancing both collaboration and interaction between citizens and public administration. Introducing and actively implementing technology in government helps rethink public organizations as knowledge oriented and information based organizations seeking sustainability by involving citizens, businesses and other stakeholders for public value creation, enabling access to information, sustaining openness, transparency and accountability in order to engage citizens and encourage them to be included and actively participate in democratic public life, involving citizens to assume the responsibility for co-production of public services and fostering citizen participation in public policy choices. Technology opens up new opportunities for public organizations seeking sustainability by rediscovering knowledge as source and strategic asset following a knowledge management approach for designing and implementing democratic and administrative processes, redesigning the relationship with citizens, building public trust, encouraging citizen participation and sustaining co-production of public services

Fostering Resilient Characteristics in Individuals with Learning Disabilities

Educational resilience is an important term for teacher candidates in Christian institutions to understand. Resilience can be nurtured and instilled in the lives of individuals with learning disabilities, and teacher candidates can play a vital role in that process. To assist in this course of action, a look at the definition and common characteristics of resilience are discussed. In addition, a closer look at four resilient individuals with learning disabilities is provided. Concrete suggestions on ways to incorporate resilient characteristics into students with learning disabilities are shared

Is a friend in need a friend indeed? Inclusion and exclusion in mutual insurance networks in southern Ghana

Mutual insurance has been shown, theoretically and empirically, to be incomplete and limited by asymmetric information and lack of enforcement mechanisms. While some research has shown that networks based on kinship, neighborhood and ethnicity may provide a locus of insurance and thus a way of overcoming these problems, these studies are not fine enough to predict the inclusion and exclusion of individuals. Using data from rural Ghana, we examine the role of social relations in obtaining assistance in the face of shocks. We examine this at both the intra-household and community levels. At the household level, asking for and receiving assistance from the spouse is related to gender, the quality of the marital relationship, and the wealth of household members. At the community level, asking for and receiving help are correlated with membership in a major lineage, participation in secular organizations, the individual¿s fostering history, and anticipated land inheritance. We also show that these factors differ depending on whether the shortfall was for a household or personal item (as perceived by the respondent). This work helps us to identify individuals who are more likely to fall outside of mutual insurance networks and require interventions to help them cope with ris

Epistemic cooperation scripts in online learning environments

Using online learning environments in higher education offers innovative possibilities to support collaborative learning. However, online learning creates new kinds of problems for participants who have not previously worked with each other. One of these problems is uncertainty which occurs when participants do not know each other. According to the uncertainty reduction theory, low uncertainty level increases the amount of discourse and decreases the amount of information seeking. Therefore, uncertainty may influence online discourse and learning. This study investigates the effects of an epistemic cooperation script with respect to the amount of discourse, information seeking and learning outcomes in collaborative learning as compared to unscripted collaborative learning. The aim was also to explore how and what kind of information learners seek and receive and how learning partners react to such information exchange. The participants were 48 students who were randomly assigned to groups of three in two conditions, one with and one without an epistemic script. The results indicate that the epistemic script increased the amount of discourse and decreased the amount of information seeking activities. Without an epistemic script, however, learners achieved better learning outcomes. The results of two qualitative case-based analyses on information seeking will also be discussed

To what extent does current policy and practice pay adequate attention to the needs of the sons and daughters of foster carers, particularly in the context of planned or unplanned placement endings?

"Overall aim: To undertake an initial scoping study of current knowledge, policy and practice (including aspects of relevance to integrated working) in relation to the impact of placement endings for sons and daughters of foster carers... the work of the team has highlighted the invisibility of sons and daughters in policy, research and practice in fostering services. The research project was designed to test this knowledge base more empirically." - pp. 7-8

Innovation clusters: key concepts

Innovation is easier to describe than it is to systematically analyse, and easier to analyse than it is to effectively promote. Part of the problem, of course, is the imprecise way in which the activity of innovation itself is conceptualised. To achieve more precision, the logic of analysis suggests that innovation should be should be systematically analysed and then divided into rough categories to produce a working taxonomy based on a number of key dimensions. A major part of the purpose of this paper is to develop such a working taxonomy