On the Interface Between Operations and Human Resources Management

Operations management (OM) and human resources management (HRM) have historically been very separate fields. In practice, operations managers and human resource managers interact primarily on administrative issues regarding payroll and other matters. In academia, the two subjects are studied by separate communities of scholars publishing in disjoint sets of journals, drawing on mostly separate disciplinary foundations. Yet, operations and human resources are intimately related at a fundamental level. Operations are the context that often explains or moderates the effects of human resource activities such as pay, training, communications and staffing. Human responses to operations management systems often explain variations or anomalies that would otherwise be treated as randomness or error variance in traditional operations research models. In this paper, we probe the interface between operations and human resources by examining how human considerations affect classical OM results and how operational considerations affect classical HRM results. We then propose a unifying framework for identifying new research opportunities at the intersection of the two fields

ESP For Ecotourism: Discourse Skills,Technology,And Collaboration For Job Contexts

This capstone’s primary aim was to design a companion instructional guide for teachers of English for Specific Purposes for ecotourism professionals in Mexico. It identified gaps left by traditional EFL courses that tend to lack strong connections between language instruction and real-world job requirements for English usage. It looked at curricular reform efforts in other world regions with the intention to innovate ESP instruction in Mexico. Findings include recommendations for student-centered curricula that incorporate multimodal learning activities and authentic contexts for tourism jobs. Multiliteracies pedagogy drove the creation of the instructional guide’s components, which provide support in conducting small-group projects to develop interactive discourse, online research, and digital design skills within communities of practice. The guide includes resources, materials, and instructions to conduct needs analysis, foster mutual support, build collaboration among stakeholders, facilitate situated practice with applied technology, and increase knowledge for cross-cultural communication

Accelerating Expertise to Facilitate Decision Making in High-Risk Professions Using the DACUM System

The purpose of this research was to determine whether the process of achieving occupational expertise could be accelerated enabling operators in high risk vocations to make effective decisions earlier in their careers. Scholars have hypothesized good decision making skills are largely a result of relevant experience within the specific domain. The rationale being that the greater the experience an individual has the more likely the operator has experienced similar situations and can apply solutions that have been successful in the past. Two distinct methods of decision making have been identified: traditional decision making and naturalistic decision making (NDM). The ability to implement the traditional decision making method effectively is contingent on the availability of sufficient information and adequate time for the individual to examine the information, construct and weigh options, and ultimately choose the action that the operator deems most appropriate given the data at the time. Naturalistic decision making is a process an operator can employ in a high risk, dynamic situation (e.g., military personnel in combat, fireground commanders on-scene, police officers confronting armed criminals) to make decisions when data may be incomplete and time is critically short. Both processes depend on the operator\u27s domain expertise. Research has shown the naturalistic decision making process is the method many high risk operators revert to when conditions do not permit a deliberate, analytical decision-making approach. These conditions include ambiguous situations, serious time constraints, or inadequate information. Studies have determined that the fundamental element of NDM is domain experience, i.e., the seasoned decision-maker compares the current situation to a similar experience from the past. This pattern recognition enables the decision maker to apply tactics that successfully resolved previous problems. The overarching limitation in NDM is gaining the requisite domain experience. One pedagogical process that has been recognized to enable occupational instructors to identify requisite skills and accelerate the process of placing operators in their chosen vocation is the method known as Design A Curriculum (DACUM). The DACUM process breaks an occupation down into areas of competence and the skills required within each area. Each skill level is given a numerical rating indicating the minimum performance standard for that skill. An operator with skills from a similar occupation can test for that skill and if the minimum performance level is achieved the operator is given credit for that skill and can focus subsequent efforts on other areas or skills. The DACUM process can help accelerate the training process and place an operator into the vocation sooner and thus begin gaining experience in the domain. The DACUM process was employed for this research. A panel of expert firefighter instructors were assembled and spent two days analyzing the occupation of acquired structure live burn instructor

Advancing self-escape training : a needs analysis based on the National Academy of Sciences report "improving self-escape from underground coal mines."

"This report summarizes a needs analysis and actions taken by NIOSH based on the National Academy of Sciences recommendations specific to advancing self-escape training, with an emphasis on preparing rank-and-file mineworkers for self-escape. This report also provides the foundation for the practical guidance offered in its sister publication, the NIOSH Information Circular (IC) "Self-escape Core Competency Profile: Guidance for Improving Underground Coal Miners' Self-escape Competency" [NIOSH 2023], which offers an evidence-based self-escape competency framework derived from the results of this work." - NIOSHTIC-2NIOSHTIC no. 20067688Suggested citation: NIOSH [2023]. Advancing self-escape training: a needs analysis based on the National Academy of Sciences report, \u201cImproving Self-escape from Underground Coal Mines.\u201d By Hoebbel CL, Bellanca JL, Ryan ME, Brnich MJ. Pittsburgh PA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2023-134, https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHPUB2023134

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Perceptions Of E-Leaders On Virtual Team Leadership

Corporations are facing a more complex and challenging global business environment, and many have implemented a virtual workforce to maintain their competitive advantage through maximizing productivity, reducing product time to market, and cost reduction. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of virtual leadership, as seen through the eyes of study participants (Merriam, 2009). Participants included fifteen Fortune 500 virtual team leaders who had prior experience leading traditional co-located teams. Data collected through telephone interviews were transcribed verbatim and NVivo 11 assisted in the coding, analyses, and presentation. The data analysis emerged with four major themes: (a) establishing and maintaining rapport with subordinates in the absence of physical cues; (b) monitoring and assessing individual performance and the importance of follow-up on observed performance issues; (c) having inherent people skills to bridge the distance created by working over a virtual platform and across different time zones and geographic locations; and (d) establishing effective virtual communications systems and workflow processes (Lepsinger, 2014)

Review of research and evaluation on improving adult literacy and numeracy skills

The purposes of this literature review are threefold. First, this review summarises findings of the research from the last decade in six fields identified by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as critical to its forward planning: (1) the economic, personal and social returns to learning; (2) the quality and effectiveness of provision; (3) the number of learning hours needed for skills gain; (4) learner persistence; (5) the retention and loss of skills over time; (6) the literacy and numeracy skills that are needed. Second, this review assesses this evidence base in terms of its quality and robustness, identifying gaps and recommending ways in which the evidence base can be extended and improved. Thirdly, this review attempts to interpret the evidence base to suggest, where possible, how returns to ALN learning for individuals, employers and wider society might be increased through effective and cost-effective interventions

Gender- specific aspects of health literacy in persons with a migration background

Background: Gender is one of the major factors that shape our social lives. As men and women have been found to handle information differently, gender may also influence the ability to access, understand, appraise, and apply health-related information. This ability is called health literacy. Persons with a migration background consistently report lower health literacy than the general population. Low health literacy, however, is connected to worse health outcomes. Moreover, migration, which continues to take place on a high level worldwide, causes persons to move between different cultures with different understandings of gender and gender roles that may affect their health literacy. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to explore how gender influences the health literacy of persons with a migration background. Methods: This dissertation applies a multi-method approach. It entails three studies. Study I, a systematic review and meta-analysis, was conducted to find out whether gender differences of health literacy exist in persons with a migration background, assessed with standardized instruments. For Studies II and III, two different qualitative content analyses of the same focus group discussions with German healthcare professionals were conducted to explore their views on a) how gender as a personal determinant of health literacy affects interactions with migrant patients (Study II) and b) how societal and environmental determinants, situational conditions, and personal factors influence health literacy in transcultural treatment settings (Study III). Results: In Study I, twenty-two studies were meta-analyzed, finding a small, but significant difference in favor of female migrants’ health literacy and a clear shortage of studies on the health literacy of male migrants. Study II found gender aspects such as severe language issues in women of the first Turkish immigrant generation, or husbands restricting their wives to receive treatment by male healthcare professionals, to hinder the effective exchange of health information. Study III revealed general issues, e.g., systemic lack of time, cost pressure and a high workload as especially detrimental to the communication between healthcare professionals and migrant patients. Healthcare professionals reported to need more time and funding for translators and cultural mediators. Discussion Five main findings were derived from the joint examination of the three studies: 1) Health literacy seems higher in female than in male migrants, 2) health literacy is gender-specific, with men and women facing different challenges and especially women providing gender-specific solutions to these challenges, 3) the genders’ health literacies are interdependent, as men’s and women’s health literacy can limit (husbands restricting access of their wife) or enhance (women as pioneers for the acceptance psychotherapy also by men) each other, 4) there is little known about men’s health literacy, and 5) health literacy issues concerning the general population can be seen in persons with a migration background as if under a magnifying glass. More gender-sensitive, participative research on health literacy in migrants is necessary to explore the particular advantages of females and males and shortcomings in this realm. This allows to investigate the concrete interactions of the genders’ health literacies, to shed light on the neglected health literacy of male migrants, and to learn about health literacy-related challenges and solutions that concern the whole population but may be seen clearer and earlier in migrants

Developing manual handling skills in relative social isolation: A case study of Australian home care workers

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. This paper elaborates how home care workers develop skills in their workplaces after only brief classroom manual handling training and suggests how this development may be supported in situations of relative social isolation. A qualitative approach was adopted for this inquiry, in which new home care workers were directly observed and interviewed in their workplaces at two points over a 12-week predetermined training trajectory. When developing skills in their socially isolated workplaces, these workers followed a pathway that differs from traditional accounts. They developed procedural capacities first, rendered this knowledge and skill into principled understandings and then adapted these understandings to become skillful in a range of other tasks. Moreover, these workers placed high value on sociality in developing their skills. Consequently, a training format which focuses on the development of procedural knowledge and provides opportunities for shared practice is most important for learning in circumstances of relative social isolation