Policy assessment and policy development for physical activity promotion: results of an exploratory intervention study in 15 European Nations

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Purpose of the study was to test a theoretical model to assess and develop policies for the promotion of physical activity among older people as part of an international intervention study.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>248 semi-standardized interviews with policy-makers were conducted in 15 European nations. The questionnaire assessed policy-makers' perceptions of organizational goals, resources, obligations, as well as organizational, political and public opportunities in the area of physical activity promotion among older people. In order to develop policies, workshops with policy-makers were conducted. Workshop outputs and outcomes were assessed for four nations nine months after the workshops.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Policy assessment: Results of the policy assessment were diverse across nations and policy sectors. For example, organizational goals regarding actions for physical activity promotion were perceived as being most favorably by the sports sector. Organizational obligations for the development of such policies were perceived as being most favorably by the health sector.</p> <p>Policy development: The workshops resulted in different outputs: a national intersectoral action plan (United Kingdom), a national alliance (Sweden), an integrated policy (the Netherlands), and a continuing dialogue (Germany).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Theory-driven policy assessment and policy-maker workshops might be an important means of scientific engagement in policy development for health promotion.</p

Phenomenon-based research in management and organisation science: When is it rigorous and does it matter?

Recently, the editors of Long Range Planning called for more phenomenon-based research. Such research focuses on identifying and reporting on new or recent phenomena of interest and relevance to management and organisation science. In this article, we explore the nature of phenomenon-based research and develop a research strategy that provides guidelines for researchers seeking to make this type of scientific inquiry rigorous and relevant. Phenomenon-based research establishes and describes the empirical facts and constructs that enable scientific inquiry to proceed. An account of the study of open source software development illustrates the research strategy. Rigorous phenomenon-based research tackles problems that are relevant to management practice and fall outside the scope of available theories. Phenomenon-based research also bridges epistemological and disciplinary divides because it unites diverse scholars around their shared interest in the phenomenon and their joint engagement in the research activities: identification, exploration, design, theorising and synthesis

Méthodes de recherche en management

4e éditionMéthodes de recherche en management a pour objectif de répondre aux questions que se pose tout chercheur en gestion et en management, que ce soit avant, pendant ou après sa recherche. L'articulation de l'ensemble des chapitres est à la fois indépendante (chaque chapitre correspond à un thème donné), et interdépendante (les orientations des chapitres sont contingentes des a priori épistémologiques et des choix méthodologiques qui sont faits). La première partie, concevoir, couvre les grandes questions en amont du travail de recherche sur la nature de la réalité à appréhender, sur ce que l'on propose d'étudier (la problématique), sur la finalité de la recherche (test ou construction), sur la nature de l'approche à adopter (qualitative et quantitative), enfin sur la démarche que l'on va retenir. La deuxième partie, mettre en œuvre, nous fait entrer dans le cœur de la recherche. Il s'agit ici de choisir la méthodologie : choix du terrain, sélection des instruments, recueil de données, validation des observations, etc. La troisième partie, analyser, aborde les aspects plus techniques : analyses causales, longitudinales, méthodes de classification, analyse de comparaison, des réseaux sociaux, des discours et représentations. Enfin, la quatrième partie, diffuser, nous entraîne sur la voie de la transmission du savoir. Fruit d'un travail collectif ayant réuni professeurs, maîtres de conférence, chercheurs en grandes écoles et universités, cet ouvrage s'adresse à tous ceux qui souhaitent amorcer, approfondir ou diffuser une recherche en management

Human dynamics: A new approach to human behavior

This paper presents a new approach to analyze human behavior and more precisely human performance. It calls upon a system dynamics methodology to develop a general framework for looking at human beings. As an illustration of the approach, one subsystem is described. The global human system is also briefly presented. The contribution of such an approach is illustrated with an example dealing with the study of a worker performance subject to different types of control.

Strategy, management design and firm performance

One of the requirements for a strategy to be successful is the use of the proper management system to implement it. The purpose of this paper is to report on an empirical investigation dealing with this issue. Specifically the research attempts to answer the following general questions: Do successful firms use a different type of match between their strategy and their management system than unsuccessful ones (description)? If so, for a given strategy, what are the best ‘organizational arrangements’ (management system) which are likely to lead to a firm's success? Do firms using the prescribed fit or match between strategy and management system get better overall results (prediction)? Management system or design is here defined as the processes of organizing, planning and controlling, staffing and directing in a company

La diversification, mode ou nécessité?

peer reviewedCet article propose une méthodologie d'analyse des décisions de diversification. Cette méthodologie intègre logiquement plusieurs méthodes et modèles proposés au cours de ces dernières années

Strategic choice, chance, and the persistence of determinism : an empirical investigation

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