Moving Beyond Human and Organizational Incongruence

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is offer an understanding on how value creation, on both a human and organizational level can be found and constructed through a shift away from Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes theoretical foundations on the concept of congruence and it purports to demonstrate the co-relation between incongruence and dysfunction in both organizations than individuals. Findings – The congruence theory, originally developed by Williams, co-author of this paper, refers to the capacity of individuals to align the individual stances to the organizational ones, thus leading to a system based on a system of balance among elements, conceptually paradoxical among themselves. The paper manages to demonstrate that performance needs to be found in system of reference other than the fiscal or financial diligence and more within the human dimensionality. Originality value – This paper explores the factors that block the creation of congruence in people and organizations and explores strategies that can simultaneous and congruently move people and organizations to a path of sustainabilityhuman sustainability; congruence and system thinking and theory

Insights into the impact of clinical encounters gained from personal accounts of living with advanced cancer.

Aim To describe the impact of interactions with health care professionals revealed by people’s accounts of living and dying with cancer; to explore reasons for the observed effects; and thus, to consider the implications for practice. Background The importance of practitioner–patient interactions is enshrined within professional values. However, our understanding of how and why the consultation impacts on outcomes remains underdeveloped. Stories recounted by people living and dying with cancer offer important insights into illness experience, including the impact of contact with health services, framed within the context of the wider social setting in which people live their lives. From our recent study of distress in primary palliative care patients, we describe how people’s accounts revealed both therapeutic and noxious effects of such encounters, and discuss reasons for the observed effects. Method A qualitative study with a purposive sample of 19 primary palliative care patients: (8 men, 11 at high risk of depression). In-depth interviews were analysed using the iterative thematic analysis described by Lieblich. Findings Living with cancer can be an exhausting process. Maintaining continuity of everyday life was the norm, and dependent on a dynamic process of balancing threats and supports to people’s emotional well-being. Interactions with health care professionals were therapeutic when they provided emotional, or narrative, support. Threats arose when the patient’s perception of the professional’s account of their illness experience was at odds with the person’s own sense of their core self and what was important to them. Our findings highlight the need for a framework in which clinicians may legitimately utilize different illness models to deliver a personalized, patient-centred assessment of need and care. The work provides testable hypotheses supporting development of understanding of therapeutic impact of the consultation

A Study of the Relationship Between the Amount of Fountain Solution Used on a Sheet-fed, Single-unit Offset Press and the Degree of Picking Encountered on Coated, Sheet-fed Offset Paper

The research conducted for this thesis was essentially a continuation of the previously mentioned experiment. The objectives of this experiment, however, were broader than were those of the first one. It was the writer’s intention to bring together an array of specific facts concerning the problem of picking and combine them with an experiment to determine the effects of the amount of fountain solution used on the press and the propensity of a coated sheet of paper to pick. The greater the depth of inquiry into the problem of picking, the greater the cognizance of its enormity and nebulous nature. Little is concrete; much is theory. Dr. Werner Gerlach of Capitol Printing Ink Company had this to say about the interaction of ink, water and tack

Parental brain injury : children's relationships and the role of systemic family therapy

The following thesis consists of three papers; a literature review, an empirical paper and a reflective paper. The literature review summarises current knowledge regarding the efficacy of systemic family therapy in neurorehabilitation. Studies investigating the impact of brain injury on the family suggest that all family members should be included in their injured relatives’ rehabilitation programme due to the risk of developing relational difficulties. In view of this, family therapy has become increasingly popular amongst Clinical Psychologists and other professionals working in neurorehabilitation. This review aims to critically evaluate the efficacy of systemic family therapy within neurorehabilitation. Methodological considerations and implications for future research are discussed, as well as clinical and service implications. The empirical paper explores changes in children’s relationships when a parent acquires a brain injury. The findings of the study highlight the positive and negative changes children experience in their relationships as a result of their parents’ acquired brain injury (ABI). Results are discussed in relation to the current literature, consideration of the strengths and limitations of the research, clinical implications and recommendations for future research. The reflective paper discusses the researcher’s own experience of carrying out the research. The researcher utilised the ‘Heartstrings’ activity used in the empirical study to help them reflect on changes in their relationships throughout the research process

Exercise agency? The role of elite actors in local democracy in English local government: the local democracy maker.

The way in which employed senior elites in English local government exercise their agency in the practice of local democracy and local governance is considered in this thesis. The research posits the notion that elite Officers act as Local Democracy Makers as they draw on their own traditions and ideologies in responding to the dilemmas of changing policy and politics in the public realm. The study is located in the latter part of New Labour?s term of office and applies an interpretive and reflexive approach to three studies of the exercise of well being powers. The approach is one of applied ethnography through the examination of literature reviews, interviews and observations of decisions taken in the exercise of the powers of economic, environmental and social well-being are used to examine how and why the Local Democracy Makers make sense of their world in the way that they do. The research suggests that, despite prevailing narratives, local governance arrangements depend on a system of hierarchy, employed elites and local politics. The challenges of re-configuring local democracy and attempts at "hollowing out" the state have secured an influential role for the non-elected official. How officials interpret, advise, mediate and manage the exercise of local governance and local democracy presents a challenge to assumptions that public services are governed beyond or without local government. New narratives and reflections on the role of the local government Officer and the marginalisation of the elected Councillor are presented in the research. In particular, how the senior elite occupy managerial, strategic and political roles as Local Democracy Makers, offers an insight into the agency of strategic actors in localities. Consequently, the success of changes in public policy is materially influenced by how the practitioner responds to such dilemmas. The thesis concludes by suggesting that integral to the design and success of public policy implementation is the role of the Officer, and especially those practitioners that advise governing arrangements and democratic practice

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations inspired by epitaxial graphene growth

Graphene, a flat monolayer of carbon atoms packed tightly into a two dimensional hexagonal lattice, has unusual electronic properties which have many promising nanoelectronic applications. Recent Low Energy Electron Microscopy (LEEM) experiments show that the step edge velocity of epitaxially grown 2D graphene islands on Ru(0001) varies with the fifth power of the supersaturation of carbon adatoms. This suggests that graphene islands grow by the addition of clusters of five atoms rather than by the usual mechanism of single adatom attachment. We have carried out Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations in order to further investigate the general scenario of epitaxial growth by the attachment of mobile clusters of atoms. We did not seek to directly replicate the Gr/Ru(0001) system but instead considered a model involving mobile tetramers of atoms on a square lattice. Our results show that the energy barrier for tetramer break up and the number of tetramers that must collide in order to nucleate an immobile island are the important parameters for determining whether, as in the Gr/Ru(0001) system, the adatom density at the onset of island nucleation is an increasing function of temperature. A relatively large energy barrier for adatom attachment to islands is required in order for our model to produce an equilibrium adatom density that is a large fraction of the nucleation density. A large energy barrier for tetramer attachment to islands is also needed for the island density to dramatically decrease with increasing temperature. We show that islands grow with a velocity that varies with the fourth power of the supersaturation of adatoms when tetramer attachment is the dominant process for island growth