Distance Matters, Except When It Doesn\u27t: Discontinuities in Virtual Work

Virtual work has become an increasingly common phenomenon in today\u27s organizations. Substantial and continuing changes in organizational processes and IT infrastructure have increased the pace and intensity of working across traditionally impermeable boundaries, enabling diverse forms of collaboration. However, our understanding of the consequences and implications of virtual work still lags and research results have been contradictory. We suggest that some of these inconsistencies have been because the boundaries that characterize virtual work-time, space, culture, organization, and so forth-are objective demarcations that are not uniformly problematic. It is only when those working in virtual settings perceive a boundary to be a discontinuity that it hinders work processes. We develop a model of virtual work that differentiates between boundaries and discontinuities, which helps account for contradictory findings. By examining the process of virtual work in more detail, we can uncover issues that are the underlying cause of problems, rather than deal with the more obvious symptoms that can mask underlying problem. Our model has implications both for research and for those working in virtual environments

Perceived discontinuities and continuities in transdisciplinary scientific working groups

We examine the DataONE (Data Observation Network for Earth) project, a transdisciplinary organization tasked with creating a cyberinfrastructure platform to ensure preservation of and access to environmental science and biological science data. Its objective was a difficult one to achieve, requiring innovative solutions. The DataONE project used a working group structure to organize its members. We use organizational discontinuity theory as our lens to understand the factors associated with success in such projects. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected from DataONE members, we offer recommendations for the use of working groups in transdisciplinary synthesis. Recommendations include welcome diverse opinions and world views, establish shared communication practices, schedule periodic synchronous face-to-face meetings, and ensure the active participation of bridge builders or knowledge brokers such as librarians who know how to ask questions about disciplines not their own

Integration and Continuity of Primary Care: Polyclinics and Alternatives, a Patient-Centred Analysis of How Organisation Constrains Care Coordination

Background An ageing population, increasingly specialised of clinical services and diverse healthcare provider ownership make the coordination and continuity of complex care increasingly problematic. The way in which the provision of complex healthcare is coordinated produces – or fails to – six forms of continuity of care (cross-sectional, longitudinal, flexible, access, informational, relational). Care coordination is accomplished by a combination of activities by: patients themselves; provider organisations; care networks coordinating the separate provider organisations; and overall health system governance. This research examines how far organisational integration might promote care coordination at the clinical level. Objectives To examine: 1. What differences the organisational integration of primary care makes, compared with network governance, to horizontal and vertical coordination of care. 2. What difference provider ownership (corporate, partnership, public) makes. 3. How much scope either structure allows for managerial discretion and ‘performance’. 4. Differences between networked and hierarchical governance regarding the continuity and integration of primary care. 5. The implications of the above for managerial practice in primary care. Methods Multiple-methods design combining: 1. Assembly of an analytic framework by non-systematic review. 2. Framework analysis of patients’ experiences of the continuities of care. 3. Systematic comparison of organisational case studies made in the same study sites. 4. A cross-country comparison of care coordination mechanisms found in our NHS study sites with those in publicly owned and managed Swedish polyclinics. 5. Analysis and synthesis of data using an ‘inside-out’ analytic strategy. Study sites included professional partnership, corporate and publicly owned and managed primary care providers, and different configurations of organisational integration or separation of community health services, mental health services, social services and acute in-patient care. Results Starting from data about patients' experiences of the coordination or under-coordination of care we identified: 1. Five care coordination mechanisms present in both the integrated organisations and the care networks. 2. Four main obstacles to care coordination within the integrated organisations, of which two were also present in the care networks. 3. Seven main obstacles to care coordination that were specific to the care networks. 4. Nine care coordination mechanisms present in the integrated organisations. Taking everything into consideration, integrated organisations appeared more favourable to producing continuities of care than were care networks. Network structures demonstrated more flexibility in adding services for small care groups temporarily, but the expansion of integrated organisations had advantages when adding new services on a longer term and larger scale. Ownership differences affected the range of services to which patients had direct access; primary care doctors’ managerial responsibilities (relevant to care coordination because of its impact on GP workload); and the scope for doctors to develop special interests. We found little difference between integrated organisations and care networks in terms of managerial discretion and performance. Conclusions On balance, an integrated organisation seems more likely to favour the development of care coordination, and therefore continuities of care, than a system of care networks. At least four different variants of ownership and management of organisationally integrated primary care providers are practicable in NHS-like settings

Integration and continuity of primary care: polyclinics and alternatives - a patient-centred analysis of how organisation constrains care co-ordination

Background An ageing population, the increasing specialisation of clinical services and diverse health-care provider ownership make the co-ordination and continuity of complex care increasingly problematic. The way in which the provision of complex health care is co-ordinated produces – or fails to produce – six forms of continuity of care (cross-sectional, longitudinal, flexible, access, informational and relational). Care co-ordination is accomplished by a combination of activities by patients themselves; provider organisations; care networks co-ordinating the separate provider organisations; and overall health-system governance. This research examines how far organisational integration might promote care co-ordination at the clinical level. Objectives To examine (1) what differences the organisational integration of primary care makes, compared with network governance, to horizontal and vertical co-ordination of care; (2) what difference provider ownership (corporate, partnership, public) makes; (3) how much scope either structure allows for managerial discretion and ‘performance’; (4) differences between networked and hierarchical governance regarding the continuity and integration of primary care; and (5) the implications of the above for managerial practice in primary care. Methods Multiple-methods design combining (1) the assembly of an analytic framework by non-systematic review; (2) a framework analysis of patients’ experiences of the continuities of care; (3) a systematic comparison of organisational case studies made in the same study sites; (4) a cross-country comparison of care co-ordination mechanisms found in our NHS study sites with those in publicly owned and managed Swedish polyclinics; and (5) the analysis and synthesis of data using an ‘inside-out’ analytic strategy. Study sites included professional partnership, corporate and publicly owned and managed primary care providers, and different configurations of organisational integration or separation of community health services, mental health services, social services and acute inpatient care. Results Starting from data about patients’ experiences of the co-ordination or under-co-ordination of care, we identified five care co-ordination mechanisms present in both the integrated organisations and the care networks; four main obstacles to care co-ordination within the integrated organisations, of which two were also present in the care networks; seven main obstacles to care co-ordination that were specific to the care networks; and nine care co-ordination mechanisms present in the integrated organisations. Taking everything into consideration, integrated organisations appeared more favourable to producing continuities of care than did care networks. Network structures demonstrated more flexibility in adding services for small care groups temporarily, but the expansion of integrated organisations had advantages when adding new services on a longer term and a larger scale. Ownership differences affected the range of services to which patients had direct access; primary care doctors’ managerial responsibilities (relevant to care co-ordination because of their impact on general practitioner workload); and the scope for doctors to develop special interests. We found little difference between integrated organisations and care networks in terms of managerial discretion and performance. Conclusions On balance, an integrated organisation seems more likely to favour the development of care co-ordination and, therefore, continuities of care than a system of care networks. At least four different variants of ownership and management of organisationally integrated primary care providers are practicable in NHS-like settings. Future research is therefore required, above all to evaluate comparatively the different techniques for coordinating patient discharge across the triple interface between hospitals, general practices and community health services; and to discover what effects increasing the scale and scope of general practice activities will have on continuity of care

Discontinuities and Best Practices in Virtual Research Collaboration

Research collaboration has become increasingly global, as collaboration technologies continue to advance and as research problems become more interdisciplinary and global. Virtual research teams have processes and challenges that are unique from a typical virtual team, and we need a better understanding of how such teams can utilize virtual research environments to their advantage. We examine this question from a review of the relevant literature and an analysis of experiences and reflections from a doctoral seminar that studied and experienced the process of virtual research collaboration

Understanding work behaviors in remote work environments during the COVID-19 pandemic: Transaction cost theory perspective

Previous studies on remote work have not fully understood which roles are suitable for remote work. In our study, we performed the literature review method and developed a conceptual model inspired by transaction cost theory. Additionally, we believe remote work is an optional option in the context of hybrid work during COVID-19. Our conceptual model leads us to believe that remote workers incur some additional perceived costs in the remote work process. We analyze the following four different roles to understand their perceived costs of working remotely: CEO, product manager, database engineer, and administrative employee. We are expected to provide theoretical explanations for what factors influence remote workers\u27 perceived transaction costs

Real-time dynamic articulations in the 2-D waveguide mesh vocal tract model

Time domain articulatory vocal tract modeling in one-dimensional (1-D) is well established. Previous studies into two-dimensional (2-D) simulation of wave propagation in the vocal tract have shown it to present accurate static vowel synthesis. However, little has been done to demonstrate how such a model might accommodate the dynamic tract shape changes necessary in modeling speech. Two methods of applying the area function to the 2-D digital waveguide mesh vocal tract model are presented here. First, a method based on mapping the cross-sectional area onto the number of waveguides across the mesh, termed a widthwise mapping approach is detailed. Discontinuity problems associated with the dynamic manipulation of the model are highlighted. Second, a new method is examined that uses a static-shaped rectangular mesh with the area function translated into an impedance map which is then applied to each waveguide. Two approaches for constructing such a map are demonstrated; one using a linear impedance increase to model a constriction to the tract and another using a raised cosine function. Recommendations are made towards the use of the cosine method as it allows for a wider central propagational channel. It is also shown that this impedance mapping approach allows for stable dynamic shape changes and also permits a reduction in sampling frequency leading to real-time interaction with the model

Towards a Political Philosophy of Management: Performativity & Visibility in Management Practices

Phenomenological, process-based and post-Marxist approaches have stressed the immanent nature of the ontogenesis of our world. The concept of performativity epitomizes these temporal, spatial and material views. Reality is always in movement itself: it is constantly materially and socially ‘performed’. Other views lead to a pre-defined world that would be mostly revealed through sensations (i.e. ‘representational perspectives’). These transcendental stances assume that a subject, although pre-existing experience, is the absolute condition of possibility of it. In this paper, we develop another view of performativity (either complementary or interrelated to an immanent stance), one that re-introduces transcendence in the analysis but sees in it something dialogical to the process itself. We draw from the notions of visibility-invisibility and continuity-discontinuity (Merleau-Ponty 1945/2013, 1964) in order to show how everyday activity both performs and makes visible the world. From that perspective, modes of visibility appear as conditions of possibility of performativity itself. We draw some implications for the conceptualization of management practices