Identifying Opportunities To Inform And Inspire: Tribal Casino Employee Perceptions Of Tribal Self Sufficiency And Philanthropy

While the business case for employee engagement and satisfaction is well documented in the service profit chain and the cost savings of employee retention are easily quantified, the means to achieving these related goals in the casino industry is not well known. The pathway to employee engagement and satisfaction is even less well known in the tribal government gaming industry. This paper finds that employees in casinos that are owned by tribal governments in the United States find particular pride in sharing the tribal government’s self-sufficiency, community engagement, and philanthropic activities with casino guests, who often wonder “where the money goes.” The paper supports our case with data collected from tribal casino employees in four Southern California casinos that demonstrate that employees are a good source to share crafted messages with casino guests. We put these philanthropic and charitable contributions in the larger context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies that commercial casino companies have implemented through their trade association, the American Gaming Association, in order to manage perceptions of the gambling industry in the United States

Modelling and simulating unplanned and urgent healthcare: the contribution of scenarios of future healthcare systems.

The current financial challenges being faced by the UK economy have meant that the NHS will have to make £20 billion of savings between 2010 and 2014 requiring it to be innovative about how it delivers healthcare. This paper presents the methodology of a research project that is simulating the whole healthcare system with the aim of reducing waste within urgent unscheduled care streams whilst understanding the impact of such changes on the whole system. The research is aimed at care commissioners who could use such simulation in their decision-making practice, and the paper presents the findings from early stakeholder discussions about the scope and focus of the research and the relevance of stakeholder consultation and scenarios in the development of a valid decision-support tool that is fit for purpose

A multi-faceted approach to optimising a complex unplanned healthcare system

Unscheduled and urgent health care represents the largest area of activity and cost for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). Like typical complex systems unplanned care has the features of interdependence and having structures at different scales which requires modelling at different levels. The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of a multifaceted approach to study and optimise this complex system. We aim to integrate four different methodologies to gain better understanding of the nature of the system and to develop ways to enhance its performance. These methodologies are: (a) Lean/ Flow theory to look at the process and patients and other flows; (b) Simulation/ System Dynamics to undertake analytical analysis and multi-level modelling; (c) stakeholder consultation and use of system thinking to analyse the system and identify options, barriers and good practice; and (d) visual analytic modelling to facilitate effective decision making in this complex environment. Of particular concern are the boundary issues i.e. how changes in unplanned care will impact on the adjacent facilities and ultimately on the whole Healthcare system

Exploring practitioner conceptualisations of professionalism and the impact of professionalism on the work of Australian ecotour guides

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Business.The purpose of this study is to investigate the work of ecotour guides, and the impact professionalisation has on raising ecotour guides’ levels of professionalism. A review of literature and research across the topics of tour guiding, ecotourism and ecotour guiding revealed that professionalisation theory has not been engaged in the ongoing debate concerning the professionalisation of ecotourism. Despite frequent use of the term ‘professional’ in ecotourism discourse, investigation showed that its use is arbitrary, poorly defined, and lacking a sound theoretical and empirical basis. Interpretivist epistemology guided a case study of Ecotourism Australia’s EcoGuide Certification Program which involved in-depth interviews with certified and non-certified ecotour guides as well as key ecotourism industry stakeholders, ecotour observations, and questionnaire surveys of tourists. From the collected data a number of interpretations were drawn. Firstly, ecotour guides’ conceptualise a professional in their field in terms of their passion for nature and people. Secondly, certified EcoGuides did not report any tangible benefits of certification. Thirdly there are significant disparities between the perceptions of ecotour guides and key industry stakeholders in relation to professionalisation. In meeting the interpretivist imperative to provide useful, practical results, the study concludes by discussing the practical implications of the research findings. In the final analysis it is suggested that professionalism may yet be achieved if a collaborative professionalisation can be developed between ecotour guides and the ecotourism industry