Everyday experience of front-line professionals and in/formal carers: long term care of older people in England, the Netherlands and Taiwan

To address the risks to families of the availability of care for their older family members, this paper explores the impact of different care systems on the way that relevant care actors contribute to the long-term care of older people. It is based on an empirical study of the care needs assessment and care provision in England, the Netherlands and Taiwan. The participants in the study include 143 care actors at national, regional and local levels across the countries. It found that the objective of providing care needs is similar in each of the countries studied. However, the everyday life of professionals and in/formal carers differs based on the care culture and care policy in each country. Overall, care professionals and formal carers experience satisfaction in their caring role when sufficient time is available for them to work with individuals. Face-to-face contact with older people is important to care professionals if adequate needs assessment could be performed. Helping informal carers extend their ability to carry out their role may improve their well-being as carers and reduce the demand for formal care service

Advancing Organizational Alignment Decisions

In this article, a theory-driven approach for managing the alignment process between business and IT by making high-quality IT investment decisions is developed. The aim is to increase the understanding of the dimensions of the alignment problem and to offer some support in solving it. The conceptualization of the alignment issue is searched from the structural alignment theory, arising from and applied in psychology. After the theoretical considerations, the article adopts a multidimensional and constructive approach to the alignment problem and looks for answers to the question: How should organizations align business and IT, or at least, how to support the business and IT alignment decisions? As a result, a theoretically sound framework originating from the alignment problem is proposed for the evaluation of IT investments, a methodology based on that framework, and a concrete investment support system to help decision makers. The applicability of the approach is evaluated in the context of an actual case in the finance sector.Peer reviewe