Time investment for exercise in workplace: a narrative review of the case examples and literature

Citation Eppich, Rand (2019). Management Models of Sustainable Conservation for the Socio-economic Development of Local Communities : a case study of the fortifications of Famagusta, Cyprus and other fortified cities in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thesis (Doctoral), E.T.S. Arquitectura (UPM). https://doi.org/10.20868/UPM.thesis.57902.

Work Floor Experiences of Supply Chain Partnering in the Dutch Housing Sector

Empty follicle syndrome: the reality of a controversial syndrome, a systematic review

PurposeIn this paper the authors aim to investigate the importance of factors for the adoption of free/libre open source software (FLOSS) in the public sector. They seek to evaluate how different factors impact during the initiation and implementation phases of the adoption process.Design/methodology/approachThe authors base the methodological approach on two exploratory case studies with a contrasting result logic. They build a multi‐level framework grounded both on literature review, and feedback from stakeholders. They then apply the framework to two case studies to better frame the findings. They consider phases of adoption (initiation, implementation) and the levels of adoption (technological, organizational, environmental, individual).FindingsIn the case studies, the authors found the importance of a strong and decision‐centric management board to give the impulse for the initiation phase of the process. As perceived by the stakeholders, a strong governmental support is of paramount importance to increase the adoption at the public level, although in the case studies examined the initiation stage started from the impulse of a championing management. Both case studies passed the initiation phase successfully. Continuous employees' training, organizational objectives consensus, and business process reengineering have been found important for the implementation phase. In the case study in which these factors were not in place, the implementation phase of adoption failed. Environmental factors – although relevant for the initiation of the adoption process – are less significant during the actual implementation of the adoption process, as the contrasting result logic from the case studies shows.Research limitations/implicationsThe study refers to two public organizations in a specific environmental setting. No causality among factors has been inferred. Quantitative objective data have been used to determine the success of adoption, for qualitative data multiple sources have been used when possible to limit threats to validity.Practical implicationsThe framework can be used by stakeholders in public organizations to better frame their adoption strategies and to compare results across institutions. Lessons learnt from the case studies can be useful to drive future adoptions of FLOSS.Originality/valueThe framework combines phases of adoption and levels making it possible to frame the analysis of the case studies. It has been operationalized with a set of metrics, and with a protocol for the case studies to increase replicability value.

This study was inspired by two of the leading papers in the case study method: Eisenhardt (1991) and Dyer and Wilkins (1991). The work of those authors could be considered a benchmark for research based on a case study. Additionally, this research comes as a complement to re-categorize case study research design. After reviewing those papers, the authors identified certain misunderstandings relative to when a case study should be addressed as single or multiple case studies. This study reviewed both recent and ancient research papers that used the case study research design in their investigations based on this misunderstanding. Thus, the previously identified misinterpretation of case study categorization is the gap this study filled. For this study, the case study research design was to be re-categorized to understand which case study design suits which research study. Accordingly, based on the identified gap, the study used secondary data to re-categorize the case study research design through a literature review method. As a result, the study identified three case study categories: single setting case study with single sub-case, single setting case study with multiple sub-cases, and multiple case studies. Consequently, the result re-categorizes single case study design into single sub-case and multiple sub-cases. This study makes recommendations through the proposed approach that filled the gap identified in the case study design categorization. In terms of adding to knowledge, this study’s proposed approach will augment the optimal use of case study research design by management, economics, and other disciplines’ researchers in the future.

Making the case: solutions for tough times

Integrated project delivery methods for energy renovation of social housing

Integrated project delivery methods for energy renovation of social housing

Background: There is ample evidence that returning to suitable work is good for an injured worker's health and wellbeing. Evidence from the 2013 National Return to Work Survey shows a positive relationship between employers’ treatment of injured workers and return to work outcomes.Objectives: The case studies project aims to provide: •employers with examples of practical solutions, practices or systems to improve return to work outcomes, and•policy makers with a summary of key themes and best practice approaches to inform the development of policy and programs.Methods: Organisations for the case studies will be shortlisted from recent Australian national return to work award winners and finalists. Key players within the organisations, including managers, supervisors, rehabilitation co-ordinators and recovered injured workers, will be interviewed to obtain information and attitudes on the early intervention and return to work approaches. An analysis of the case studies and a literature review on current best practice for early intervention and return to work will be conducted from which key themes and practices will be identified.Findings: The project will produce two reports: case studies of six organisations’ practices, and an analytical report on key findings and best practice for early intervention and return to work. The case studies will provide employers and workers published examples of practical approaches to improving return to work outcomes. The case studies also explore the roles and views of management, supervisors and injured workers. The analytical report will examine the case studies and report on key themes and best practice, providing policy makers and employers with an analysis of findings. The 2013 National Return to Work survey provides supporting evidence of the positive relationship between return to work outcomes and a range of variables related to the role of the employer and the workplace.Conclusion: It is anticipated the case studies project will provide examples of practical approaches to improving early intervention and return to work outcomes, which other organisations may consider implementing.

With unprecedented and growing interest in data science education, there are limited educator materials that provide meaningful opportunities for learners to practice statistical thinking, as defined by Wild and Pfannkuch, with messy data addressing real-world challenges. As a solution, Nolan and Speed advocated for bringing applications to the forefront in undergraduate statistics curriculum with the use of in-depth case studies to encourage and develop statistical thinking in the classroom. Limitations to this approach include the significant time investment required to develop a case study—namely, to select a motivating question and to create an illustrative data analysis—and the domain expertise needed. As a result, case studies based on realistic challenges, not toy examples, are scarce. To address this, we developed the Open Case Studies (opencasestudies.org) project, which offers a new statistical and data science education case study model. This educational resource provides self-contained, multimodal, peer-reviewed, and open-source guides (or case studies) from real-world examples for active experiences of complete data analyses. We developed an educator’s guide describing how to most effectively use the case studies, how to modify and adapt components of the case studies in the classroom, and how to contribute new case studies (opencasestudies.org/OCS_Guide).

Based on generational differences and social relations, researchers have hypothesized that the transmission of cultural knowledge occurs through at least three different, not mutually exclusive, paths: (1) parents (vertical), (2) age peers (horizontal), and (3) elders (oblique). Here we contribute to this body of research by presenting three case studies showing evidence of a multistage model of cultural learning in which vertical transmission in childhood loses preeminence toward horizontal and oblique models as subjects’ age. The first case study documents and analyzes Baka children's daily activities (southeast Cameroon) in an attempt to understand (1) how time investments might affect the acquisition of knowledge and (2) the importance of scaffolding on knowledge acquisition. Building on this idea, the second case study explores the transmission of knowledge through the life cycle, documenting the accumulation of knowledge required for collecting wild honey among children and adults from a Jenu Kuruba tribal community in South India. The last case study uses data from the Tsimane’ (Bolivian Amazon) to analyze the correspondence between levels of adult knowledge and the knowledge of (a) the same-sex parent, (b) age peers, and (c) parental cohort. Results from this study suggest that – at adulthood – cultural knowledge is most likely a mix of information gathered from a variety of sources. Overall, the three case studies give evidence to support the multistage learning model for cultural transmission but also emphasize the importance of social learning during childhood, a period during which individuals acquire the baseline knowledge that allow the latter development of complex skills through scaffolding and the integration of information from multiple models.

Case study is a long-established research tradition which predates the recent surge in mixed-methods research. Although a myriad of nuanced definitions of case study exist, seminal case study authors agree that the use of multiple data sources typify this research approach. The expansive case study literature demonstrates a lack of clarity and guidance in designing and reporting this approach to research. Informed by two reviews of the current health care literature, we posit that methodological description in case studies principally focuses on description of case study typology, which impedes the construction of methodologically clear and rigorous case studies. We draw from the case study and mixed-methods literature to develop the DESCARTE model as an innovative approach to the design, conduct, and reporting of case studies in health care. We examine how case study fits within the overall enterprise of qualitatively driven mixed-methods research, and the potential strengths of the model are considered.

Educational research is one of the many fields of knowledge that frequently use case studies as a research method, particularly when applying an interpretive approach. Based on literature reviews and a systematic analysis of current scientific literature, this paper examines the prevalence and characteristics of the case study as a methodology for research on MOOCs. Ninety-two documents were selected from the search results returned by two of the most prestigious scientific databases: Web of Science (WOS) and SCOPUS. Findings showed that (a) even when searching solely for case studies, quantitative research paradigms were more prevalent than interpretive approaches; (b) geographical distribution of these studies was partially biased; (c) case studies were less prevalent in these databases than other empirical investigations on MOOCs; (d) the data collection and data analysis methods most frequently used in the case studies were more aligned with a quantitative approach; and (e) there is still very little instructor-focused research using this methodology. In the light of these findings and their discussion, future directions for research using case study methodology are proposed, given the potential of this method to illustrate certain issues for which other approaches have proved inadequate or insufficient.

Performance measurement of workplace change: in two different cultural contexts

Performance measurement of workplace change: in two different cultural contexts