Career development tips for today's nursing academic: bibliometrics, altmetrics and social media

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aims: A discussion of bibliometrics, altmetrics and social media for the contemporary nursing scholar and academic researcher. Background: Today's nursing academic faces myriad challenges in balancing their daily life and, in recent years, academic survival has been increasingly challenged by the various research assessment exercises that evaluate the performance of knowledge institutions. As such, it is essential that today's nursing academic keep up to date with the core competencies needed for survival in a modern research career, particularly the intersecting triad of bibliometrics, altmetrics and social media. Design: Discussion paper. Data sources: Published literature and relevant websites. Implications for nursing: The rise of social media and altmetrics has important implications for contemporary nursing scholars who publish their research. Some fundamental questions when choosing a journal might be ‘does it have a Twitter and/or Facebook site, or a blog (or all three)’; and ‘does it have any other presence on social media, such as LinkedIn, Wikipedia, YouTube, ResearchGate and so on?’ Another consequence of embracing social media is that individual academics should also develop their own strategies for promoting and disseminating their work as widely as possible. Conclusion: The rising importance of social media and altmetrics can no longer be ignored, and today's nursing academic now has another facet to consider in their scholarly activities. Despite the changing nature of research dissemination, however, it is still important to recognize the undoubted value of established knowledge dissemination routes (that being the peer-reviewed publication)

Do Competency Frameworks Influence Business Performance? An Empirical Study of the Nigerian Banking Sector

The competency-based management system has grown to become one of the most influential HRM tools of the 21st century. However, there remains limited empirical data addressing the relationship between the adoption of a competency framework and organizational performance. The study reported upon in this paper is based within the Nigerian banking sector. A qualitative methodological approach was adopted, employing interviews with employees of the top ten high street banks in Nigeria. The result of the field data was subsequently analyzed using NVivo in order to achieve the aim of the research. The findings revealed that competency-based management frameworks are being used and that indeed they are a key management tool within the selected Nigerian banks. Importantly, the findings clearly suggest the adopted competency frameworks are having a positive impact on the banks’ performance

Managing Supply Chain Networks: A Framework for Achieving Superior Performance through Leadership Capabilities Development in Supply Chain Node

Leadership capability is acknowledged as a major challenge for organizations and a pre-requisite for sustaining high levels of organizational performance and supply chain competitiveness. Recent research highlights how globalisation has led to the extension of domestic supply chains, particularly SME ones, to include both suppliers and customers globally. This paper examines the role capabilities development in managers and leaders as nexus of their supply chain networks have to play in achieving better performance through case studies. Once banished to the backburners of business management thinking, leveraging core leadership competencies is now critical to company‟s superior performance in supply chain networks

Building a Quality Culture That Works

Analysing the key attributes in developing and growing a quality culture across multiple operational locations across the UK

Trials and Tribulations in the Pursuit of a Food Safety Culture. A Case Study of the Enlighten Model.

Globally there are over 600 million reported cases of food contamination and over 400,000 deaths per year. It is evident that the war against food safety contamination is still far from being won, despite in country legislation and the advancements in food safety management systems. The key challenge many organisations face is employee compliance to food safety systems and the problems this raises from farm to fork supply chains. This keynote speech explores the four key themes of the Enlighten Food Safety Culture Model (EFSCM) namely, Control, Co-operation, Communication and Competence and how the model is deployed to recalibrate management and employee behaviour in the pursuit of compliance and in nurturing a proactive safety culture. In support of the model, key case studies will be cited from Inner Mongolia to Panama

Brexit and the Implications of Food Safety Cultural Compliance in the Food Manufacturing Sector

In theory food safety is a critical measurement, not just for economic and legal reasons but also for the moral integrity of the organisation. However, in reality, the number of accidents or incidents particularly in the food manufacturing sector is a serious cause for concern. The problem is further compounded with the onset of Brexit. Given the UK government’s floundering negotiation talks and the pending conservative leadership challenge, it has resulted in a climate of uncertainty, a devaluation of currency and economic instability. Food manufacturers along with other commercial businesses are reluctant to further invest until the economic future is more transparent. In consequence, food manufacturers are seeking efficiency savings, whilst aiming not to compromise food safety compliance. Whilst there are areas of best practice, sadly there are an increasing number of examples in which failure to comply to food safety is resulting in lost of business, serious injury and in certain cases fatalities. This paper addresses Food Safety Cultural Compliance within UK Food Manufacturers and identifies core issues that hinder the establishment of a proactive food safety culture. The research study adopts a mixed methods approach in which five UK food manufacturers were consulted via 15 semi-structured interviews with management and three focused groups. The data collected clearly indicates a commitment to food safety compliance. However, the majority of organisations struggled to maintain consistent levels of food safety compliance despite implementing costly training and development initiatives. Their strategic and operational drive to both enhance and maintain a positive food safety culture was also undermined with the uncertainty of economic pressures and the quagmire of Brexit. The paper concludes with a series of commercially viable recommendations within the context of the Brexit divorce and provides a clear contribution to the community of practice

Understanding the Dimensions Human Capital – Organizational Implications and Application

In recent decades, there has been an increasing number of studies which converge on the point, that investments in HC contribute positively to a company’s bottom-line. This has given rise to HC Management as a key strategic focus of organizations seeking to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. Arguably, HC Metrics is now considered just as important as financial returns; with the value of the human capital increasing the more the organizations builds up its stock and flow of knowledge. There are a host of theorists which identify the concept and context of HC with varying degrees of relatedness and overlap regarding its key components. Undeniably, there is some amount of discensus around the relationship between Human Capital and Intellectual Capital, as well as contending issues about whether Social Capital is a part of, competing with or complementing HC. Therefore, this study seeks to distil the essence from the debate to determine what are the most critical dimensional elements of HC, that drive and improve organisational value

Complex Physical Activities, Outdoor Play, and School Readiness among Preschoolers

High quality educational settings play a crucial role in preparing a child to enter kindergarten, but little work has explored how outdoor play and complex physical activity outside school and childcare settings promote school readiness among preschoolers. To address this gap, the present study explored connections among school readiness with outdoor play and participation in complex physical activity. Parents (N = 107) reported the extent and frequency of time their child spent in outdoor play during a typical week, and what complex activities (e.g., soccer, biking, basketball) the child played over the last year. School readiness was assessed with parent reports on the Preschool Behavior and Emotional Rating Scale. Results showed participating in complex activities significantly moderated the relationship between time in outdoor play with school readiness, with time in outdoor play positively related to school readiness for children who participated in two or less complex activities. For children who participated in three complex activities, time in outdoor play was not related to school readiness. Findings offer support that encouraging both outdoor play and participation in complex physical activities could promote school readiness, particularly when opportunities for outdoor playtime are limited