52 research outputs found
Crisis management as a critical perspective
Purpose:
This paper draws on the authors experience of teaching a crisis management module within a range of MBA programmes in the UK, EU and USA. A key characteristic of the module was its development as a means of critiquing conventional approaches to management education. The paper details that experience.
Design/methodology/approach:
It reviews the literature on management education that has been critical of prescriptive and ‘toolkit-based’ approaches to MBA education.
Findings:
An approach to a crisis management course is shown to provide a means of challenging dominant theoretical and practical approaches to management.
Practical implications:
The paper identifies challenges and personal and academic benefits for educators and students when engaging with critical perspectives and critical pedagogies.
Originality/value:
Through introducing the notion of crisis management, the paper discusses the importance of challenging theory and practice and creating within students, an appetite to challenge the dominant paradigms of conventional teaching and business practice
Light me up: power and expertise in risk communication and policy-making in the e-cigarette health debates
This paper presents a detailed account of policy-making in a contemporary risk communication arena, where strong power dynamics are at play that have hitherto lacked theoretical analysis and empirical validation. Specifically, it expands on the understanding of how public health policy decisions are made when there is a weak evidential base and where multiple interpretations, power dynamics and values are brought to bear on issues of risk and uncertainty. The aim of the paper is to understand the role that power and expertise play in shaping public health risk communication within policy-related debates. By drawing on insight from a range of literatures, the paper argues that there several interacting factors that shape how a particular narrative gains prominence within a wider set of perspectives and how the arguments and findings associated with that perspective become amplified within the context of policy choices. These findings are conceptualised into a new model – a policy evaluation risk communication (PERC) framework – and are then tested using the Electronic cigarette debate as a case study
Inherent complexities of a multi-stakeholder approach to building community resilience
Enhancing community resilience has increasingly involved national and regional governments adopting a multi-stakeholder approach because of the potential interagency benefits. This has led to questions about how best to involve stakeholder groups in translating community resilience policies into practice. This exploratory study contributes to this discussion by addressing two key areas that are fundamental in the concerted effort to build community resilience to natural hazards: (1) stakeholder understanding of community resilience as a concept; and (2) the difficulties associated with the processes of risk assessment and preparedness that stakeholders face locally in building community resilience. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 25 practitioners and experts within Scotland’s resilience community, and were analyzed through an inductive approach to thematic analysis. These data show how the interpretation of community resilience differs across stakeholder groups. Analysis of the data reveals challenges around the nature of the risk assessment and its role in shaping risk perception and communication. Significant complications occur in communicating about low probability-high consequence events, perceived territoriality, competing risk prioritizations, and the challenges of managing hazards within a context of limited resources. The implications of these issues for policy and practice are also discussed
Building community resilience to natural hazards: Lessons from Katrina
No abstract available
Student transitions to blended learning: an institutional case study
This paper examines the experiences of students transitioning to blended learning in the University of Glasgow as part of the
QAA Enhancement Themes work on Student Transitions. We draw here on exploratory, qualitative research to examine the
benefits, challenges and skills developed by students during transitions to blended learning as a means of advancing understanding,
and informing future curriculum design. Data from home undergraduate and international postgraduate students were collected
over two years through focus groups, individual interviews and end-of-course quality assurance surveys. We found that while
home/undergraduate and international/postgraduate students have similar transition experiences, international taught
postgraduates encounter additional challenges in terms of acclimatising to UK higher education (HE), especially within shorter
programmes of study and where pedagogical and language differences exist. The findings are integrated in a conceptual
framework highlighting the importance of access, acculturation (attitudes) and attributes (skills) to enable learner autonomy to
engage effectively in blended learning. The findings have implications for institutional infrastructure, curriculum design and learner
development. Further research is required to collect a larger data set as a means of developing the study’s conceptual
framework, in order to better understand and support diverse student transitions to blended learning
Institutional and Student Transitions Into Enhanced Blended Learning
This presentation provides an overview of the ‘Transitions into blended learning’ project, which has focused on three areas: developing an institutional transition framework, researching student experiences, and identifying interventions to support effective transitions. The framework identified external drivers for blended learning, a set of considerations for institutions, and a set of processes to facilitate change involving three stakeholder groups at the heart of the model.
The work included learner experience research with students newly engaged in blended learning. This work identified support needs around access (to technology and learning materials), attitudes (towards learning online) and attributes (skills) needed to engage autonomously in blended learning.
The institution-wide Enhancement themes team identified a set of interventions or ‘anchor points’ to prevent the institution ‘drifting back’ into purely traditional approaches to learning and teaching. These included the recognition and promotion of good practice through case studies, development of an institutional e-learning framework, and an event to encourage staff and students to share good practice in blended learning. This three-year project was largely led by a PhD student (JA), working with the principal investigator (VHD) and the institutional representative (KG)
Purchasing in markets and networks: the relationship between general practitioners and National Health Service Trusts
The GP purchasing role is considered in the light of two market policy objectives which are explored within the broader context of the nature of the purchase-provider relationship in terms of both its content and process. The two policy objectives, outlined in the Government's White Paper "Working for Patients" (Department of Health 1989), are that GPs would stimulate: (1) improved efficiencies in secondary care services; and (2) a transfer of resources from secondary to primary care.
The study adopts a qualitative approach, gaining insight into purchasing relationships by way of interviews and non-participant observation, and by interpreting the data both inductively and deductively. Economic and social theories, in particular transactions cost theory and network theory, are used as a framework for the fieldwork and to inform the analysis and discussion.
This thesis argues that GPs have fulfilled the two original market policy objectives of stimulating secondary care efficiencies and resource transfer from secondary to primary care. The means by which they have achieved this, however, is not via neoclassical contracts negotiated in a competitive market context, as market proponents envisaged, but through economically efficient, relational contracts within ideologically/culturally and socially embedded networks, for which the market policy has been a catalyst. These networks have developed at an inter-GP practice and at a purchase provider level, and are characterised by knowledge creation, innovation, learning, service (re)design, partnering and the pursuit of economic and social goals, in particular the enhancement of professional autonomy.
The study affirms the need for a socio-economic perspective in organisational studies, and suggests directions for theory development and future research which can follow from this study and which will further understanding and analysis of network relations and of the NHS context in particular
Supporting students in the transition to postgraduate taught study in STEM subjects
While there has been a wide range of studies examining the transition of undergraduate and postgraduate research students,
there are few which concentrate on the experiences of postgraduate taught (PGT) students. This is unfortunate, because PGT
students have pressing needs for support: since taught masters courses last for usually one academic year, postgraduate students
are asked to adapt and succeed at a far faster rate than undergraduates, who take four years in Scotland to complete an honours
degree. PGT students are a minority group amongst the university population, with e.g. more than three times as many
undergraduates enrolled at the University of Glasgow than postgraduates. Furthermore, international students represent a high
proportion of PGT students. To better understand the needs of PGT students and therefore improve the quality of their
education, we need to understand their experiences and challenges as they transition through their course. This paper presents
a study focused on PGT students in STEM subjects at the University of Glasgow. Feedback from students in the College of
Science and Engineering was gathered using a multi-methodological approach. Surveys, one-to-one interviews and a workshop
were utilised to investigate students’ perceptions of support received from staff and services. This data was linked to student
academic confidence, social confidence, and overall satisfaction with their experience at the university. Data were gathered at
three points in the year to evaluate whether perceptions change as students progress through their course. This data from
surveys and interviews was used to direct a workshop, which discussed potential solutions to issues raised. Better online
resources were identified as key to feeling prepared before the commencement of a PGT course, and better communication
with lecturers and peers was important to the success and satisfaction of students, particularly after beginning PGT study
The vulnerability of public spaces: challenges for UK hospitals under the 'new' terrorist threat
This article considers the challenges for hospitals in the United Kingdom that arise from the threats of mass-casualty terrorism. Whilst much has been written about the role of health care as a rescuer in terrorist attacks and other mass-casualty crises, little has been written about health care as a victim within a mass-emergency setting. Yet, health care is a key component of any nation's contingency planning and an erosion of its capabilities would have a significant impact on the generation of a wider crisis following a mass-casualty event. This article seeks to highlight the nature of the challenges facing elements of UK health care, with a focus on hospitals both as essential contingency responders under the United Kingdom's civil contingencies legislation and as potential victims of terrorism. It seeks to explore the potential gaps that exist between the task demands facing hospitals and the vulnerabilities that exist within them
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