Comparing the impact of management on public and private sector nurses in the UK, Italy, and Australia

The research examined the impact of management upon employee outcomes (perceptions of discretionary power, well-being, engagement, and affective commitment), comparing public and private sector nurses in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Overall, 1,945 nurses participated in a self-report survey within these core- and laggard-New Public Management countries. While management influenced employee outcomes for each country, there were significant differences between the public and private sectors, with private sector nurses reporting higher perceptions of outcomes. Importantly, nurses’ engagement was affected by management practice for each country. This study raises important implications for nurse managers, especially public sector managers, described within

Coordination in climbing: effect of skill, practice and constraints manipulation

BACKGROUND: Climbing is a physical activity and sport involving many subdisciplines. Minimization of prolonged pauses, use of a relatively simple path through a route and smooth transitions between movements broadly define skilled coordination in climbing. OBJECTIVES: To provide an overview of the constraints on skilled coordination in climbing and to explore future directions in this emerging field. METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted in 2014 and retrieved studies reporting perceptual and movement data during climbing tasks. To be eligible for the qualitative synthesis, studies were required to report perceptual or movement data during climbing tasks graded for difficulty. RESULTS: Qualitative synthesis of 42 studies was carried out, showing that skilled coordination in climbing is underpinned by superior perception of climbing opportunities; optimization of spatial-temporal features pertaining to body-to-wall coordination, the climb trajectory and hand-to-hold surface contact; and minimization of exploratory behaviour. Improvements in skilled coordination due to practice are related to task novelty and the difficulty of the climbing route relative to the individual's ability level. CONCLUSION: Perceptual and motor adaptations that improve skilled coordination are highly significant for improving the climbing ability level. Elite climbers exhibit advantages in detection and use of climbing opportunities when visually inspecting a route from the ground and when physically moving though a route. However, the need to provide clear guidelines on how to improve climbing skill arises from uncertainties regarding the impacts of different practice interventions on learning and transfer

Evaluating economic development officers through the lens of managerial flow

When globalization affects jobs and economies, policy makers strive to plan, design and implement actions to support their communities and businesses (Ansell and Gash 2007). Furthermore, local development policies are at the core of international cooperation programs or more in general represent a challenge for emerging countries. They could refer to infrastructure, entrepreneurship innovation or urban renewal. However, more frequently than not, development policies, which involve different institutional levels and public and private players, fail due to poor implementation management. This research book presents a managerial approach (the so called Managerial Flow) that could help the closure of gaps that hamper an efficient and effective policy execution. The managerial flow model observes the phenomenon of policy implementation for economic development through managerial lens. In the book, the research team has empirically identified five gaps in practice whereupon public policy implementation falls down. As a response Managerial Flow model outlines sets of managerial actions that can be adopted to facilitate a clear ‘flow’ from policy development through to implementation. This book expands on the Managerial Flow model, and acts as both a practical guide to stimulate evidence based policy implementation in governments and as theoretical contribution to policy and strategy execution. Written for researchers and academics, this book begins by outlining the theoretical foundations of Managerial Flow and moves to unpack application and cases, based in different sectors and countries, in order to discuss and show how the Managerial Flow approach can concretely support managers in the implementation of economic development policies. It reviews and discusses how the managerial flow could be relevant in the implementation of a set of sectorial policies and uses the managerial flow concept to analyse cases of economic development and establish lessons for broader management scope

Managerial flow

When globalization affects jobs and economies, policy makers strive to plan, design and implement actions to support their communities and businesses (Ansell and Gash 2007). Furthermore, local development policies are at the core of international cooperation programs or more in general represent a challenge for emerging countries. They could refer to infrastructure, entrepreneurship innovation or urban renewal. However, more frequently than not, development policies, which involve different institutional levels and public and private players, fail due to poor implementation management. This research book presents a managerial approach (the so called Managerial Flow) that could help the closure of gaps that hamper an efficient and effective policy execution. The managerial flow model observes the phenomenon of policy implementation for economic development through managerial lens. In the book, the research team has empirically identified five gaps in practice whereupon public policy implementation falls down. As a response Managerial Flow model outlines sets of managerial actions that can be adopted to facilitate a clear ‘flow’ from policy development through to implementation. This book expands on the Managerial Flow model, and acts as both a practical guide to stimulate evidence based policy implementation in governments and as theoretical contribution to policy and strategy execution. Written for researchers and academics, this book begins by outlining the theoretical foundations of Managerial Flow and moves to unpack application and cases, based in different sectors and countries, in order to discuss and show how the Managerial Flow approach can concretely support managers in the implementation of economic development policies. It reviews and discusses how the managerial flow could be relevant in the implementation of a set of sectorial policies and uses the managerial flow concept to analyse cases of economic development and establish lessons for broader management scope

Gender opportunity recognition and the role of internal networks

Women’s entrepreneurship research and the understanding of factors influencing the growth of women-owned business have advanced significantly over the last decade. Yet, challenges remain. Women Entrepreneurs and the Global Environment for Growth provides wide-ranging insights on the challenges that women entrepreneurs face growing their businesses and how these may be addressed. [Book Synopsis

Improving labour outcomes in the creative industries : the role of creative workers\u27 social network structure and organisational business acumen

Individuals who work in artistic, cultural and creative fields are increasingly conceptualised as a labour force. Yet, a growing body of research indicates that ‘creative workers’ experience particularly poor labour outcomes, insofar as they work longer hours, for lower incomes, and have little job security. This thesis examines the impact of creative workers’ organisational business acumen and social network structure on their labour outcomes (exploitation, labour precarity and earnings satisfaction). The study is situated within an Australian context, and a total of three hundred people were involved in the data collection

IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS POLICIES WITHIN THE AUSTRALIAN CONTEXT: THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS WITHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

One strategy used by some Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) governments to stimulate national competitiveness is to encourage innovation via programmes aimed at assisting firms to collaborate. Economic Development Officers operate within a multi-government bureaucratic maze in order to implement these programmes. This paper examines what factors affect the way Economic Development Officers implement an array of government policies that foster collaboration amongst firms and the implications of those factors. The findings suggest that a number of factors compromise their ability to implement these policies effectively, especially since the implementation of New Public Management. In particular, the findings suggest that organisational bureaucratic communication processes moderate the way Economic Development Officers' perceive a chronic lack of resources and multi-stakeholder accountability. The findings reiterate the importance of ensuring that there is synergy between business policy goals and resourcing and accountability mechanisms for those expected to implement the programmes intended to foster collaboration amongst firms.Business policies, Economic Development Officers

Regional Development: The Importance of a Relationship with Government

This paper examines the role of Economic Development Officers (EDOs) in implementing policies aimed at assisting businesses to grow as a strategy of regional growth. Page’s (2006) policy framework (principles, policy lines, measures and practices) is used to examine the issues with implementation. The strongest theme emerging from the findings is that the business owner/managers were very dissatisfied with the processes involved in applying for funding; the instruments, although, most suggested that they were more satisfied once the funding arrived. The business owner/managers identified public departments working as independent “silos”, the maze of bureaucracies and the long lead times as significant problems. Such findings provide a plausible reason to explain why Australian businesses have such a low take up of government programs aimed at promoting innovation via a collaboration strategy

The impact of supervisor-subordinate relationships on nurses\u27 ability to solve workplace problems: implications for their commitment to the organization

This chapter uses the structural and relational dimension of social capital theory (SCT) as a lens for examining the impact of the supervisor–subordinate relationship on nurses\u27 perceptions of the usefulness of their workplace networks, sociability, and affective commitment. A survey was used to collect data from 1,064 Australian nurses. The findings suggest that nurses rely on very small workplace networks (typically only one other person) with which they have strong ties. Further, in over half of the cases, the supervisor (the Nurse Unit Manager (NUM)) holds the centric position. Moreover, for those nurses who did not include the NUM in their workplace network, their position appears even worse. For example, the usual reason given by nurses for not including the NUM was that the NUM was unavailable. This is a concern for health care management because the past two decades have delivered many changes to the nursing profession, including a reduction in the number of nursing positions and subsequent higher workloads. The consequences suggest that without effective workplace networks, nurses are working under conditions where solving problems is more difficult