Designing better performance measurement systems in universities using the business model canvas

This paper starts by critically reviewing the way in which universities design their measures of performance. We argue that the “one size fits all” performance measurement approach adopted by so many universities is not appropriate when departments have very different operating models. The paper proposes using “business model design” to enable university departments and centres to design and develop their own “sustainability model”, which in turn may help them develop more appropriate performance measurement systems. Using the lens of business model design may help universities to recognise their diversity and allow them to use performance measures more strategicall

Contemporary performance measurement systems: A review of their consequences and a framework for research

The main purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the literature on the consequences of contemporary performance measurement (CPM) systems and the theories that explain these consequences. The framework is based on an in-depth review of 76 empirical studies published in high-quality academic journals in the areas of accounting, operations, and strategy. The framework classifies the consequences of CPM into three categories: people's behaviour, organizational capabilities, and performance consequences. This paper discusses our current knowledge on the impact of CPM, highlighting inconsistencies and gaps as well as providing direction for future research

Affective Adaptation of Social Norms in Workplace Design

Open-plan offices are common in today's organisations. These types of workplaces require people to share a common space, where violation of (implicitly or explicitly stated) social norms can cause instances of incivility. If nothing is done to avoid these situations, bad feeling can lead to diminished productivity and cooperation, and, in the long-term, to more serious problems, such as conflict and aggression. A critical review of literature shows the effects of workplace incivility and the need for an internal reparation mechanism. Inspired by convergence of pervasive, adaptive and affective computing, we have designed and developed a self-regulatory platform for successful collective action, based on participatory adaptation and fair information practises, which we called MACS. MACS addresses the problem of incivility and aims at improving the Quality of Experience in shared workplaces. This thesis presents all studies that led to the development of MACS. Through the analysis of an online questionnaire we gathered information about incivility in shared workplaces, how people deal with those situations, and awareness about uncivil self-behaviours. We concluded the main issue while sharing a workplace is noise, and most people will try to change their own behaviour, rather than confronting the person being uncivil. MACS's avatar-based interface was developed with the purpose of heightening self-awareness and cueing the appropriate social norms, while providing a good User Experience (UX). Avatars created to people's image, rather than photos, were used, to keep MACS's tone light and relatively unintrusive, while still creating self-awareness. MACS's final version went through UX testing, where 6 people were filmed while performing tasks in MACS. The intended work-flow and user interfaces to support the smooth passage of the work-flow have been validated by the UX user testing. There is some preliminary evidence suggesting apology will elicit empathic responses in MACS. Finally, this thesis proposes guidelines for workplace design, which are founded on participatory creation and change of social norms, and ways to make sure they are enforced. In this sense, MACS can also be seen as a prototypical example of a socio-technical system being used as platform for successful collective action.Open Acces

Temporal patterns in acoustic presence and foraging activity of oceanic dolphins at seamounts in the Azores

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Cascao, I., Lammers, M. O., Prieto, R., Santos, R. S., & Silva, M. A. Temporal patterns in acoustic presence and foraging activity of oceanic dolphins at seamounts in the Azores. Scientific Reports, 10(1), (2020): 3610, doi:10.1038/s41598-020-60441-4.Several seamounts have been identified as hotspots of marine life in the Azores, acting as feeding stations for top predators, including cetaceans. Passive acoustic monitoring is an efficient tool to study temporal variations in the occurrence and behaviour of vocalizing cetacean species. We deployed bottom-moored Ecological Acoustic Recorders (EARs) to investigate the temporal patterns in acoustic presence and foraging activity of oceanic dolphins at two seamounts (Condor and Gigante) in the Azores. Data were collected in March–May 2008 and April 2010–February 2011. Dolphins were present year round and nearly every day at both seamounts. Foraging signals (buzzes and bray calls) were recorded in >87% of the days dolphin were present. There was a strong diel pattern in dolphin acoustic occurrence and behaviour, with higher detections of foraging and echolocation vocalizations during the night and of social signals during daylight hours. Acoustic data demonstrate that small dolphins consistently use Condor and Gigante seamounts to forage at night. These results suggest that these seamounts likely are important feeding areas for dolphins. This study contributes to a better understanding of the feeding ecology of oceanic dolphins and provides new insights into the role of seamount habitats for top predators.This research was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Azores 2020 Operational Programme and the Fundo Regional da Ciência e Tecnologia (FRCT), through research projects TRACE (PTDC/MAR/74071/2006), MAPCET (M2.1.2/F/012/2011), FCT-Exploratory (IF/00943/2013/CP1199/CT0001), WATCH IT (Acores-01-0145-FEDER-000057) and MISTIC SEAS II (GA11.0661/2017/750679/SUB/ENV.C2), co-funded by FEDER, COMPETE, QREN, POPH, European Social Fund (ESF), the Portuguese Ministry for Science and Education, and EU-DG/ENV. The Azores 2020 Operational Programme is funded by the community structural funds ERDF and ESF. Funds were also provided by FCT to MARE, through the strategic project UID/MAR/04292/2013. MAS was supported through a FCT Investigator contract funded by POPH, QREN, ESF and the Portuguese Ministry for Science and Education (IF/00943/2013). IC was supported by a FCT doctoral grant (SFRH/BD/41192/2007) and RP by a FCT postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/108007/2015). We thank the field and crew teams for assisting with the many deployments and recoveries of the EARs. Special thanks to Norberto Serpa for helping with mooring design, Ken Sexton and Michael Richlen for their roles in manufacturing the EARs, Sergio Gomes for building the battery packs, and Lisa Munger for adapting Triton for EAR data analysis

Performance management and well-being: a close look at the changing nature of the UK higher education workplace

The relationship between HRM and well-being has received a significant amount of research attention; however, results are still contested. Our study addresses this phenomenon in the Higher Education sector. We specifically investigate the association between performance management and the perceived well-being of academic staff. Our research finds that the application of a directive performance management approach, underpinned by agency theory ideas as evidenced by a high reliance on performance measures and targets, is negatively related to academics’ well-being (i.e. the more it is used, the worse people feel). In contrast, an enabling performance management approach, based on the learnings of stewardship theory, emphasising staff involvement, communication and development, is positively related to academics’ well-being. We also find the positive relationship between enabling practices and well-being is mediated by how academics experience their work (i.e. their perceptions of job demands, job control and management support). These results indicate that current trends to intensify the use of directive performance management can have consequences on the energy and health of academics, which may influence their motivation and willingness to stay in the profession. This research suggests that an enabling approach to managing performance in this context, may have more positive effects

Performance management and well-being: a close look at the changing nature of the UK higher education workplace

The relationship between HRM and well-being has received a significant amount of research attention; however, results are still contested. Our study addresses this phenomenon in the Higher Education sector. We specifically investigate the association between performance management and the perceived well-being of academic staff. Our research finds that the application of a directive performance management approach, underpinned by agency theory ideas as evidenced by a high reliance on performance measures and targets, is negatively related to academics’ well-being (i.e. the more it is used, the worse people feel). In contrast, an enabling performance management approach, based on the learnings of stewardship theory, emphasising staff involvement, communication and development, is positively related to academics’ well-being. We also find the positive relationship between enabling practices and well-being is mediated by how academics experience their work (i.e. their perceptions of job demands, job control and management support). These results indicate that current trends to intensify the use of directive performance management can have consequences on the energy and health of academics, which may influence their motivation and willingness to stay in the profession. This research suggests that an enabling approach to managing performance in this context, may have more positive effects

Nanomedicines to tackle myocardial infarction: where are we now and where are we going?

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are responsible for the highest mortality rates globally. About one-third of the CVD-related casualties derive from ischemic heart diseases, which cause an irreversible injury to the myocardium. As a result of the very limited capacity of the heart tissue to recover from the ischemic insult, this usually leads to remodeling and scarring of the cardiac tissue, eventually progressing to irreversible heart failure. Currently, there is no major discovery of an effective cure to restore the function of an injured heart. Therefore, there is an unmet need to find a permanent solution for patients suffering from ischemic heart disease (IHD) and heart failure. In this regard, nanoparticles made of biomaterials called the attention of the scientific community as potential platform to deliver different therapeutics to the injured heart. Particulate nanomedicines, currently at the pre-clinical stage, are arising as a promising tool to provide minimally invasive treatment, an important aspect to take into account for clinical translation and patient compliance, and specifically deliver therapeutics to the injured myocardium. Here, we discuss about the current knowledge on the nanomedicines investigated for myocardial infarction, and how we see they can help and support medical doctors in shaping the future of IHD treatments.Peer reviewe

With how many films can we talk about children? Childhood representational plurality in cinema

Este artigo apresenta um recorte descritivo dos dados de uma pesquisa de doutorado realizada entre 2017 e 2021, cuja ênfase envolveu problematizar a experiência formativa, pedagógica e estética com filmes no contexto acadêmico, mais particularmente no curso de pedagogia. Ao salientar a pluralidade representacional das crianças por meio dos filmes, a partir de uma revisão filmográfica, ou do estado da arte fílmica, e com base nos relatos dos professores participantes do estudo, o objetivo deste texto é refletir sobre a quantidade significativa de curtas, médias e longas-metragens que representam as crianças em suas distintas narrativas. Em relação aos métodos utilizados, privilegiamos no trabalho uma conjunção metodológica interdisciplinar e multirreferencial, com base na Grounded Theory e na bricolagem científica, respaldada pela fenomenologia-hermenêutica. Evidenciamos um total de duzentas e quatro (204) obras cinematográficas entre as publicações analisadas – os dados referem-se a teses, dissertações e artigos científicos –, resultante de buscas no banco de teses e dissertações de bibliotecas digitais e em plataformas de periódicos. Entre os filmes descritos pelos docentes, contabilizamos trinta (30) produções. Consideramos, diante dessa quantidade de obras, que os filmes fazem parte do processo formativo dos estudantes e permitem outras leituras sobre as crianças e infâncias no contexto contemporâneo, o que revela sua relevância como fonte e referência no processo formativo.This article presents part of the descriptive data about a doctoral study held between 2017 and 2021. The study problematized the formative, pedagogical, and aesthetic experience with films in an undergraduate Pedagogy degree. By highlighting children’s representational plurality through films, from a filmography review or film state of the art, this text aims to reflect on the significant amount of short, middle, and feature films that portray children in their different narratives. Regarding the methods used, we privileged the work in an interdisciplinary and multi-referential methodological conjunction based on Grounded Theory and scientific bricolage, backed by hermeneutic phenomenology. We point out 204 cinematographic works - from data on theses, dissertations, and scientific articles – from searches in theses and dissertations databases in digital libraries and journal platforms. The professors interviewed accounted for thirty productions. Faced with this number of works, we believe that films are part of students’ formative process and allow other interpretations of children and childhoods nowadays, revealing their relevance as a source and reference in the formative process