Everyday Management Research Articles

Convex risk measures for the aggregation of multiple information sources and applications in insurance

We propose a novel class of convex risk measures, based on the concept of the Fréchet mean, designed in order to handle uncertainty which arises from multiple information sources regarding the risk factors of interest. The proposed risk measures robustly characterize the exposure of the firm, by filtering out appropriately the partial information available in individual sources into an aggregate model for the risk factors of interest. Importantly, the proposed risks can be expressed in closed analytic forms allowing for interesting qualitative interpretations as well as comparative statics and thus facilitate their use in the everyday risk management process of the insurance firms. The potential use of the proposed risk measures in insurance is illustrated by two concrete applications, capital risk allocation and premia calculation under uncertainty.

The merits and limits of making do: bricolage and breakdowns in a social enterprise

Despite growing literature on social entrepreneurship there is scarce research on how potentially conflicting social and economic objectives manifest on a micro-level and affect everyday management of social enterprises. Applying a strategy as practice perspective we identify sources of, and responses to, temporary and complete breakdowns in Die Bäckerei, a social enterprise that epitomizes bricolage behaviour. We find that diverging interpretations of the organization’s identity eventually result in diverging standards for evaluating performance and lead to breakdowns. We discuss why bricolage is both a source of and a solution to temporary breakdowns and show how practitioners mobilize the hybrid organizational identity as an additional and equally important practice to respond to temporary breakdowns. Furthermore, in the circumstance of complete breakdown the social enterprise has to engage in identity work finding a new situational balance between its social and economic objectives and competing logics. Finally, we show how breakdowns lead to an extension of the social enterprise’s repertoire and discuss how the combination of the social mission and bricolage behaviour enables the organization to eschew path dependency, mobilize alternative resources, and build improvisational strategy.

2018 update of French Society for Rheumatology (SFR) recommendations about the everyday management of patients with spondyloarthritis

ObjectiveTo update French Society for Rheumatology recommendations about the management in clinical practice of patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA). SpA is considered across the range of clinical phenotypes (axial, peripheral, and entheseal) and concomitant manifestations. Psoriatic arthritis is included among the SpA phenotypes. MethodsAccording to the standard procedure advocated by the EULAR for developing recommendations, we first reviewed the literature published since the previous version of the recommendations issued in June 2013. A task force used the results to develop practice guidelines, which were then revised and graded using AGREE II. ResultsFour general principles and 15 recommendations were developed. The first four recommendations deal with treatment goals and general considerations (assessment tools and comorbidities). Recommendations 5 and 6 are on non-pharmacological treatments. Recommendation 7 is about nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are the cornerstone of the treatment, and recommendations 8 to 10 are on analgesics, glucocorticoid therapy, and conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Biologics are the focus of recommendations 11 through 14, which deal with newly introduced drug classes, including their indications (active disease despite conventional therapy and, for nonradiographic axial SpA, objective evidence of inflammation) and monitoring, and with patient management in the event of treatment failure or disease remission. Finally, recommendation 15 is about surgical treatments. ConclusionThis update incorporates recent data into a smaller number of more simply formulated recommendations, with the goal of facilitating their use for guiding the management of patients with SpA.

Amendment with biocontrol strains increases Trichoderma numbers in mature kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) orchard soils for up to six months after application

A Trichoderma mixture was applied to kiwifruit plants in a pot experiment and to mature orchard vines to determine its effect on numbers of root-associated fungi and compare application methods into kiwifruit orchards in New Zealand. Trichoderma and other fungal numbers were recorded using a root plating technique. In the pot experiment, a significantly greater number of Trichoderma was isolated from treated compared to untreated plants 6 and 10 weeks after inoculation. Six months after application, greater numbers of Trichoderma were recovered in the orchards from Trichoderma treated vines and the increase was comparable for all application methods with over 50% of isolated fungi identified as Trichoderma compared to 33% in the water-only control. Different viable methods are available that can easily be integrated into everyday orchard management in order to introduce Trichoderma into mature kiwifruit stands. A six-monthly or more frequent application schedule seems advisable.

Therapeutic drug monitoring of vedolizumab in inflammatory bowel disease: current data and future directions.

The introduction of vedolizumab, a lymphocyte adhesion inhibitor, has expanded the relatively limited therapeutic armamentarium available for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Despite its effectiveness, both primary nonresponse and secondary loss of response to vedolizumab do occur, as is observed with the use of anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapy. Further, in a proportion, onset of efficacy may be relatively slow. A large body of data support an exposure–response relationship with anti-TNF drug levels, which has led to therapeutic drug monitoring becoming incorporated into everyday clinical management. The influence of patient and disease factors on the pharmacokinetics of anti-TNF levels, including immunogenicity, has also been examined. The role of therapeutic drug monitoring with vedolizumab is less clear. This review summarizes the available evidence on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of vedolizumab in inflammatory bowel disease and how drug levels, immunogenicity and other factors influence clinical outcomes. Vedolizumab clearance is increased with very high body weight and hypoalbuminaemia, but is not influenced by the addition of an immunomodulator. Immunogenicity is uncommon. α4β7 receptor saturation occurs at low serum vedolizumab drug levels, and measuring it alone is insufficient to predict clinical outcomes. Using quartile analysis of vedolizumab drug levels, there appears to be a modest exposure–response relationship during induction. Drug levels at week 6 of approximately >20 μg/ml have been shown to be associated with improved clinical outcomes, including subsequent mucosal healing rates during maintenance and avoiding the need to dose escalate due to lack of response. There are currently insufficient data to support the routine use of therapeutic drug monitoring during maintenance therapy. Further studies to elucidate the role of therapeutic drug monitoring of vedolizumab are needed.

Personal comfort models: Predicting individuals' thermal preference using occupant heating and cooling behavior and machine learning

A personal comfort model is a new approach to thermal comfort modeling that predicts individuals' thermal comfort responses, instead of the average response of a large population. However, securing consistent occupant feedback for model development is challenging as the current methods of data collection rely on individuals' survey participation. We explored the use of a new type of feedback, occupants' heating and cooling behavior with a personal comfort system (PCS) for the development of personal comfort models to predict individuals' thermal preference. The model development draws from field data including PCS control behavior, environmental conditions and mechanical system settings collected from 38 occupants in an office building, and employs six machine learning algorithms. The results showed that (1) personal comfort models based on all field data produced the median accuracy of 0.73 among all subjects and improved predictive accuracy compared to conventional models (PMV, adaptive) which produced a median accuracy of 0.51; (2) the PMV and adaptive models produced individual comfort predictions only slightly better than random guessing under the relatively mild indoor environment observed in the field study; and (3) the models based on PCS control behavior produced the best prediction accuracy when individually assessing all categories of field data acquired in the study. We conclude that personal comfort models based on occupants' heating and cooling behavior can effectively predict individuals' thermal preference and can therefore be used in everyday comfort management to improve occupant satisfaction and energy use in buildings.

Threats to patient safety in primary care reported by older people with multimorbidity: baseline findings from a longitudinal qualitative study and implications for intervention

BackgroundIn primary care, older patients with multimorbidity (two or more long-term conditions) are especially likely to experience patient safety incidents. Risks to safety in this setting arise as a result of patient, staff and system factors; particularly where these interact or fail to do so.Recent research and policy highlight the important contribution patients can make to improving safety. Older patients with multimorbidity may have the most to gain from increasing their involvement but before interventions can be developed to support them to improve their patient safety, more needs to be known about how this is threatened and how patients respond to perceived threats.We sought to identify and describe threats to patient safety in primary care among older people with multimorbidity, to provide a better understanding of how these are experienced and to inform the development of interventions to reduce risks to patient safety.MethodsTwenty-six older people, aged 65 or over, with multimorbidity were recruited to a longitudinal qualitative study. At baseline, data on their health and healthcare were collected through semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed thematically, using a framework developed from a previous synthesis of qualitative studies of patient safety in primary care.ResultsThreats to patient safety were organised into six themes, across three domains of health and care. These encompassed all aspects of the patient journey, from access to everyday management. Across the journey, many issues arose due to poor communication, and uncoordinated care created extra burdens for patients and healthcare staff. Patients’ sense of safety and trust in their care providers were especially threatened when they felt their needs were ignored, or when they perceived responses from staff as inappropriate or insensitive.ConclusionsFor older patients with multimorbidity, patient safety is intrinsically linked to the challenges people face when managing health conditions, navigating the healthcare system, and negotiating care. We consider the implications of this for the development of interventions to reduce threats to patient safety. Potential patient-centred mechanisms include providing patients with more realistic expectations for primary care, and supporting them to communicate their needs and concerns more effectively.

Frailty syndrome: an emerging clinical problem in the everyday management of clinical arrhythmias. The results of the European Heart Rhythm Association survey.

The age of patients presenting with complex arrhythmias is increasing. Frailty is a multifaceted syndrome characterized by an increased vulnerability to stressors and a decreased ability to maintain homeostasis. The prevalence of frailty is associated with age. The aims of this European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) EP Wire survey were to evaluate the proportion of patients with frailty and its influence on the clinical management of arrhythmias. A total of 41 centres-members of the EHRA Electrophysiology Research Network-in 14 European countries completed the web-based questionnaire in June 2017. Patients over 70 years represented 53% of the total treated population, with the proportion of frail elderly individuals reaching approximately 10%; 91.7% of the responding centres reported treating frail subjects in the previous year. The respondents usually recognized frailty based on the presence of problems of mobility, nutrition, and cognition and inappropriate loss of body weight and muscle mass. Renal failure, dementia, disability, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, falls, and cancer were reported to characterize the elderly frail individuals. Atrial fibrillation was considered the prevalent arrhythmia associated with frailty by 72% of the responding centres, and for stroke prevention, non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants were preferred. None of the respondents considered withholding the prevention of thrombo-embolic events in subjects with a history of falls. All participants have agreed that cardiac resynchronization therapy exerts positive effects including improvement in cardiac, physical, and cognitive performance and quality of life. The majority of respondents preferred an Arrhythmia Team to manage this special population of elderly patients, and many would like having a simple tool to quickly assess the presence of frailty to guide their decisions, particularly on the use of complex cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIEDs). In conclusion, the complex clinical condition in frail patients presenting with arrhythmias warrants an integrated multidisciplinary approach both for the management of rhythm disturbances and for the decision on using CIEDs.

Review of preventive conservation in museum buildings

Abstract The paper presents a critical review of preventive conservation in museum buildings. It summarizes theories and approaches spanning from fifty years (1965–2016) in Europe, Canada, and US. From a wide range of bibliography (110 publications composed by books, guidelines, researches, and other documents), the study wants to identify recurring topics in different historical periods, geographical countries, and cultural approaches. Main fields of action of preventive conservation regard: damage preservation and environmental management; architecture and exhibit design; environmental and energy simulations; monitoring, recording and controlling of the environmental agents; management and training. Particularly, the consciousness of the importance of the environmental impact on museum buildings, introduced a broad debate on the definition of the standards for minimizing and assessing heritage risks, considering single factors (light, temperature, relative humidity, and indoor air pollution) and their cumulative effects. The attention on energy efficiency started from the last decade, focusing mainly on energy audit, modelling, and retrofit of historic buildings. Generally, these works are not specific for museums but, anyway, criteria, methodologies, monitoring procedures, simulation models, and technical solutions are suitable also for museum buildings. The design has central role both for passive and active indoor control. Besides, everyday management, regular maintenance, and training are considered key actions for promoting safeguard, users’ comfort and energy efficiency. The research aims to serve as a reference for technicians and conservators to amplify and to ordinate their knowledge in the field of preventive conservation in museum buildings.

Etica della cura e malattie croniche di adulti e bambini: due casi studio nelle Marche

The article presents the main results of an ethical and bioethical research that was conducted by the team of Applied Ethics of the Department of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of Urbino from 2012 to 2015. This research was devoted to the study of caring relationships between adults and children suffering from incurable diseases of neurological and genetic character, their family caregivers and healthcare professionals (nurses and doctors) who work in the Primary Care. The research was carried out at home and investigated the methods of everyday disease management and treatment and care decisions more difficult in the face of the acute situations.

Machine learning of network metrics in ATLAS Distributed Data Management

The increasing volume of physics data poses a critical challenge to the ATLAS experiment. In anticipation of high luminosity physics, automation of everyday data management tasks has become necessary. Previously many of these tasks required human decision-making and operation. Recent advances in hardware and software have made it possible to entrust more complicated duties to automated systems using models trained by machine learning algorithms. In this contribution we show results from one of our ongoing automation efforts that focuses on network metrics. First, we describe our machine learning framework built atop the ATLAS Analytics Platform. This framework can automatically extract and aggregate data, train models with various machine learning algorithms, and eventually score the resulting models and parameters. Second, we use these models to forecast metrics relevant for networkaware job scheduling and data brokering. We show the characteristics of the data and evaluate the forecasting accuracy of our models.

Process-Based Information Systems Development: Taking Advantage of a Component-Based Infrastructure

Abstract Background: Owing to the highly competitive business environment in which contemporary organizations have to operate, a quick and effective way of developing and maintaining information systems is of utmost importance to their success. Obviously, the computerized information systems that support the everyday operations and management of organizations play a critical role in their competitiveness. For that reason, nowadays, more than ever, information systems have to be quickly developed, rapidly reconfigured, and easily maintained. Objectives: We aim to define a technological infrastructure, accompanied by a set of methodological development requirements, which might help to fulfil those needs. Methods/Approach: In this work, we followed a Design Science Research (DSR) approach. Results: We propose a specific IT infrastructure, inspired by the concept of a business process and using the functionalities provided by collaborative and workflow technologies, which allows the development of distributed IT solutions, Process-Based Information Systems (PBIS), in a component-based fashion. In the context of PBIS, we also propose a set of development requirements. Conclusions: We claim that Process-Based Information Systems allow organizations to evolve quickly and smoothly in face of changing business requirements, facilitating the integration of existing and future IT artefacts, while simplifying the overall development and maintenance effort of information systems.

DOING CRITICAL MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING RESEARCH IN EMERGING ECONOMIES

The paper introduces methodological and theoretical premises of critical management accounting research and provides some guidance for researchers. We see critical management accounting research in terms of three overlapping and interrelated ‘analytical acts’ that researchers often perform: contextualising, historicising and theorising. To contextualise, researchers need to establish connections between local, everyday management accounting occurrences and changes taking place in the wider socio-political and cultural spheres. Historicising relates micro-histories to macro-histories. Thus, critical researchers need to locate management accounting technologies in historically-specific social and political contexts, and understand their emergence and reproduction as outcomes of the evolution of political-economic systems. Given the empirical findings are often site-specific and idiosyncratic in critical research, theorisation is important. Although they may be quite interesting in their peculiarity, especially to the local readership in those countries, these findings need to be made interesting for wider consumption. Theorising, in this sense, is a critical act signifying local occurrences by raising and placing them in a higher-order schema of meaning.

Some uses of subject-side assessments

We focus on assessments in conversation, paying particular attention to a distinction between object-side (O-side) and subject-side (S-side) assessments. O-side assessments are predicated of an object (that it is good, awful, nice, bad, etc.), whereas S-side assessments formulate a disposition of the speaker toward that object (that they like it, love it, hate it, cannot stand it, etc.). Despite looking somewhat interchangeable, logically, these different ways of making assessments serve different interactional functions. In particular, S-side assessments allow for contrasting assessments of the same object by different persons. They are therefore useful in the management and avoidance of conflict and misalignment in the performance of actions such as compliment receipts, avoiding giving offense and disagreeing. We link the analysis to conversation analytic work on assessments and to discursive psychology’s focus on the everyday management of relations between mental states and an external world.

Everyday communication management and perceptions of use

For media users enjoying a context of near constant connection across a changing set of platforms, the management of that communication environment is a central concern in the management of everyday life. The multiplication and divergence of possible uses across these platforms emerge alongside the increasing cross-media integration of informational, interactive and entertainment practices with interpersonal communication. The individual’s perception of that environment of increasingly differentiated communication possibilities becomes a site for managing and partially negotiating the limits, form and organization of one’s social world. Expanding upon Gershon’s (2010) notion of media ideologies, this article focuses on the increasing divergence of the perceived and preferred uses of media technologies. The analytical terms ‘social tool’ and ‘social device’ are deployed to tease apart the central ordering experience of perceived ‘mutual engagement’ within media practices. The perceived presence or lack thereof within such engagement serves to recursively delimit and order the media user’s social landscape, pointing to further reflexive management of one’s own media ideology through a highly idiosyncratic ‘relational ordering’ of perceived and preferred platform uses, amidst social and technological change.

Public policies creating tensions in Montado management models: Insights from farmers’ representations

The Montado is the silvo-pastoral land use system dominant in Southern Portugal, and similar to the Dehesa in Southern Spain. These systems combine an open tree cover of cork and holm oaks with grazing in the under-cover. Despite the acknowledged value of these systems due to their adaptation to the scarcity biophysical conditions of Southern Iberia, the uniqueness of cork production, the biodiversity values and the support of multiple public goods and services, in Portugal the area of the Montado is declining every year. It has been shown before how this decline is related to increased grazing pressure and use of inadequate soil mobilization techniques. Supported on social sciences theoretical insights, this paper focus on the farmers decision process, and the representations that support their decisions. The analysis is grounded on a large scale survey followed by in-depth interviews to Montado farmers. The results show that there is an underlying conflict between farmers representation of the Montado and the practices they are applying in their everyday management. Dominant representations of the Montado by farmers rely strongly on the tree cover and the forestry component of the system. While their management is strongly focused on the livestock and grazing resources. Farmers are abandoning a resilient thinking of their farm system considering the factors internal to the system, to adapt an external, driver oriented representation of their farm system. CAP coupled payments are seen as the main cause of this change. If the policy construction remains in its present state, the resilience of the Montado as a complex socio-ecological system is threatened in the very short term.

Review of the treatment of psoriatic arthritis with biological agents: choice of drug for initial therapy and switch therapy for non-responders.

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a heterogeneous chronic inflammatory disease with a broad clinical spectrum and variable course. It can involve musculoskeletal structures as well as skin, nails, eyes, and gut. The management of PsA has changed tremendously in the last decade, thanks to an earlier diagnosis, an advancement in pharmacological therapies, and a wider application of a multidisciplinary approach. The commercialization of tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (adalimumab, certolizumab pegol, etanercept, golimumab, and infliximab) as well as interleukin (IL)-12/23 (ustekinumab) and IL-17 (secukinumab) inhibitors is representative of a revolution in the treatment of PsA. No evidence-based strategies are currently available for guiding the rheumatologist to prescribe biological drugs. Several international and national recommendation sets are currently available with the aim to help rheumatologists in everyday clinical practice management of PsA patients treated with biological therapy. Since no specific biological agent has been demonstrated to be more effective than others, the drug choice should be made according to the available safety data, the presence of extra-articular manifestations, the patient’s preferences (e.g., administration route), and the drug price. However, future studies directly comparing different biological drugs and assessing the efficacy of treatment strategies specific for PsA are urgently needed.

Camouflaged Collectives: Managing Stigma and Identity at Gun Events

Gun violence persists in the United States, claiming lives and escalating healthcare costs. This article seeks to contribute to social justice work on the “gun problem” by studying gun collectives. To understand gun culture and to identify gun violence reduction strategies, we study places where gun owners organize – legal (and sometimes illegal) settings that facilitate dialogue about gun issues. Based on participant observation and collaborative event ethnography at gun shows and a private shooting party, this analysis presents findings about the practices gun collective members use to manage stigma. We conclude that when participants in gun events attempt to subvert core stigma through everyday stigma management practices, they effectively facilitate the unfettered exchange of potentially dangerous goods, promote the invisibility of oppressive structures, and normalize violence.

How symmetrical employee communication leads to employee engagement and positive employee communication behaviors

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how a company’s symmetrical internal communication efforts could influence its employees’ perception of relationship outcomes with the company and the subsequent employee communication behaviors about the company to others and their turnover intention. Additionally, the mediation effects of employee-organization relationship (EOR) quality between symmetrical internal communication and employee engagement were tested.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected the data from a survey of randomly selected 438 individuals who work as sales representatives of the case organization. Respondents were randomly selected through stratified sampling. For the overall statistical procedure, this study adopted the two-step structural equation modeling: on the basis of the final measurement model analysis from confirmatory factor analysis, the proposed structural model was tested using latent variables.FindingsThe findings of this research clearly demonstrate: employee/internal communication management is linked with employee engagement; employee engagement enhances supportive employee communication behaviors and reduces turnover intention. Also, the mediation results show strong mediation of EORs on the effects of symmetrical internal communication on employee engagement.Research limitations/implicationsEmployees’ communication behaviors such as megaphoning and scouting have special strategic values to organizations. With information seeking, selecting, forwarding, and sharing behaviors of employees, organizations may obtain more valuable information than through formal procedures and channels. Professional literature has long been supporting the importance of fostering positive employee communication behaviors (ECBs), suggesting that WOM and information from the employees deemed as most trustworthy by the external publics. ECBs about their organizations may be viewed as a testament of the quality of EOR. This study results show that employee engagement plays a key role in creating positive ECBs.Practical implicationsPragmatically, as noted in the findings, symmetrical communication is an important factor that leads to positive ECB. To facilitate employees’ favorable communication regarding an organization, therefore, the organization needs to practice a two-way, employee-centered symmetrical communication system in its everyday communication management. Communication managers are advised to nurture internal communication practices that listen to the employees and invite their participation in addition to providing complete and fair information to employees. Second, by showing the significant positive influence of EOR on employee engagement and ECB, the finding of the study suggests that strategic relationship management with internal publics affect overall management effectiveness. Hence, organizational managers need to adopt various relationship cultivation strategies in their communication with employees, which have been previously proposed by several studies.Originality/valueThe findings of the study demonstrated that the effects of employee relationship management and symmetrical internal communication indeed exist beyond ECBs to the actual managerial outcomes. The findings also suggest a three-stage model of employee communication management: employee/internal communication management antecedents; employee engagement; and supportive outcomes of effective employee communication programs, such as supportive/extra ECBs.

A Culture of Uncertainty: Interaction and Organizational Memory in Software Engineering Teams under a Productivity Scheme

Drawing on an ethnography of software engineering teams that introduced a new and empowerment-centered productivity scheme, this study delineates how, despite management’s affirmation of its commitment, software engineers produced and reproduced a ‘culture of uncertainty’ characterized by constant doubt about how long the scheme would last. Engineers shared previous experiences of failed productivity schemes and collectively used this organizational memory to understand their new situation. Workers drew on this organizational memory in everyday interaction to sustain a culture in which everyday management decisions served as indicators of management’s potential abandonment of the scheme; as a result, workers remained uncommitted to the scheme. Workers interactionally employed organizational memory as a resource that they used to interpret and respond to changes. Analysis of this process shows the links between organizational memory, culture creation, and culture’s influence on productivity scheme changes.