The Use of Scenarios in Developing Strategy: An Analysis of Conversation and Video Data

Surveys of managers report that strategy tools such as scenarios are widely used in practice. However, such surveys of practice typically focus on reporting which tools are used, rather than exploring how they are actually used. This paper examines the use of scenarios as a tool to support strategy development. We highlight a number of roles (technical, analytical and social) that scenarios play in strategy exercises, and offer insights into the use of scenarios in practice, illustrating that they are used throughout the strategy development process rather than simply at the start. Our approach to data analysis, based on analyses of both audio and visual material from a strategy workshop, sheds light on enhanced approaches to coding both conversation and video data within strategy research

Serialisation and the use of Twitter:Keeping the conversation alive in public policy scenario projects

Scenario planning projects have been used in a variety of organisational settings to explore future uncertainty. The scenario process is often a participative one involving heterogeneous stakeholder groups from multiple organisations, particularly when exploring issues of wider public concern. Facilitated workshops are a common setting for scenario projects, typically requiring people to be physically present in order to participate and engage with others for the duration of the project. During workshops, participants progress through the stages of the process, generating content relevant to each stage and ultimately the scenarios themselves. However, the periods between workshops and other episodes of activity (e.g. interviewing stakeholders) are rarely mentioned in such accounts. Thus we know very little about what activities take place between such activities, when they occur and who is involved. This is a particular issue for larger scale scenario projects that run over a period of weeks or months and involve multiple workshops; in such cases organisers and facilitators have to consider how to maintain the interest and levels of engagement of participants throughout the duration of the project. A variety of social media exist which allow people to interact with each other virtually, both in real time and asynchronously. We reflect on the use of social media within a project to develop scenarios for the future of the food system around Birmingham, UK, in the year 2050. We explore how a particular social media, namely Twitter, can be used effectively as part of a scenario planning project, for example to engage participants and encourage contributions to the project. We suggest that Twitter can support the serialisation of strategic conversations between the face-to-face workshops. The paper considers the implications of these reflections for both the scenario process and scenario projects more generally

Age, Health, and the Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions: A Contingent Valuation Survey of Ontario Residents

Much of the justification for environmental rulemaking rests on estimates of the benefits to society of reduced mortality rates. This research aims to fill gaps in the literature that estimates the value of a statistical life (VSL) by designing and implementing a contingent valuation study for persons 40 to 75 years of age, and eliciting WTP for reductions in current and future risks of death. Targeting this age range also allows us to examine the impact of age on WTP and, by asking respondents to complete a detailed health questionnaire, to examine the impact of health status on WTP. This survey was self-administered by computer to 930 persons in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1999. The survey uses audio and visual aids to communicate baseline risks of death and risk changes and are tested for comprehension of probabilities before being asked WTP questions. We credit these efforts at risk communication with the fact that mean WTP of respondents faced with larger risk reductions exceeds mean WTP of respondents faced with smaller risk reductions; that is, our respondents pass the external scope test. Our mean WTP estimates for a contemporaneous risk reduction imply a VSL ranging approximately from $1.2 to$3.8 million (1999 C$), depending on the size of the risk change valued, which is at or below estimates commonly used in environmental cost-benefit analyses by the Canadian and the U.S. governments. Interestingly, we find that age has no effect on WTP until roughly age 70 and above (the VSL is about$0.6 million for this age group) and that physical health status, with the possible exception of having cancer, has no effect. We also find that being mentally healthy raises WTP substantially. In addition, compared with estimates of WTP for contemporaneous risk reductions, mean WTP estimates for risk reductions of the same magnitude but beginning at age 70 are more than 50% smaller.

Irritating CAT tool features that matter to translators

CAT tools have become a fixture of professional translation over the last two decades yet are still treated with suspicion or disinterest by many freelancers. Acknowledged to contribute to consistency and speed, they can constrain and otherwise negatively affect the translation process in various ways. Surveys of professional translators and observations at the workplace suggest that there is a degree of frustration associated with the use of CAT tools and room for improvement in their usability. A recent large-scale survey of professional translators included specific items for CAT tool users about whether any features of their tools were irritating or missing. Many reported that there were and also availed themselves of the opportunity to provide detailed comments about them. More than half of the CAT tool users said that they found some features irritating, and a quantitative and qualitative analysis of their comments revealed that the most common issues concerned the complexity of the user interface and segmentation. There were some differences in the responses between freelance, institutional and commercial translators but almost none across age groups. The comments about missing features also tended to be about making the tools easier to use. The focus in the survey reported here was on identifying negative aspects of tools with a view to mitigating them and tailoring the tools more to translators’ needs. However, there is also room for research exploring the positive aspects of tools in the interests of optimising their usability and reducing cognitive friction

Irritating CAT Tool Features that Matter to Translators

CAT tools have become a fixture of professional translation over the last two decades yet are still treated with suspicion or disinterest by many freelancers. Acknowledged to contribute to consistency and speed, they can constrain and otherwise negatively affect the translation process in various ways. Surveys of professional translators and observations at the workplace suggest that there is a degree of frustration associated with the use of CAT tools and room for improvement in their usability. A recent large-scale survey of professional translators included specific items for CAT tool users about whether any features of their tools were irritating or missing. Many reported that there were and also availed themselves of the opportunity to provide detailed comments about them. More than half of the CAT tool users said that they found some features irritating, and a quantitative and qualitative analysis of their comments revealed that the most common issues concerned the complexity of the user interface and segmentation. There were some differences in the responses between freelance, institutional and commercial translators but almost none across age groups. The comments about missing features also tended to be about making the tools easier to use. The focus in the survey reported here was on identifying negative aspects of tools with a view to mitigating them and tailoring the tools more to translators’ needs. However, there is also room for research exploring the positive aspects of tools in the interests of optimising their usability and reducing cognitive frictio

Improving scenario methodology:theory and practice introduction to the special issue

In this Introduction, we review the logic that underpinned our earlier call for papers and compare and contrast the papers selected with those selected for a similarly-themed special issue of this journal that was published in 2013. We demonstrate changing research emphases and concerns and then go on to review the contents of the eighteen selected papers that comprise the current special issue

Blurred Lines: Guiding Library Stakeholders toward a Shared Vision of the Library

Presented at the 2015 Access Services Conference, Georgia Tech Global Learning Center and the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, November 11-13, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia.Maureen O’Brien Dermott has worked at the Waidner-Spahr Library of Dickinson College for over 17 years. She provides leadership for Circulation and Reserves, Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery, Collection Maintenance and Space Organization, and Library Events and Exhibits Programming. As part of the library’s management team, she contributes to library strategic planning and goal setting, making it a practice to find connections and develop creative solutions or enhancements to improve the user’s experience.Theresa Arndt is the Associate Director for Library Resources and Administration at Dickinson College. Her responsibilities include coordinating all aspects of collections management and e-resources services. She has worked at multiple libraries over her 22 year career, managing various library services including reference, information literacy, and outreach, including over 10 years specializing in health sciences librarianship.Libraries are relying less on local ownership and increasingly on new models of instant access through unmediated ILL, pay-per-view services, demand-driven acquisitions, and shared collections, blurring lines between access and collection services. While many users are satisfied with receiving the information they want quickly, others are concerned about the perceived erosion of the local collection. We saw an opportunity to refine the library’s philosophy of balancing access and ownership, and communicate it to our faculty and administrators. Access services and collection management professionals worked together to articulate a vision for sustainable administration and budgeting for collection and information delivery services. We then developed a communication strategy to foster buy-in from the college community