External Staff Research Articles

Creating disciples: The transformation of employees into trainers

Business realities demand that organizations place a strategic emphasis on developing knowledge workers and becoming a learning organization. Numerous programs of organizational change and renewal must also be undertaken to keep firms competitive. This requires ongoing training for all employees to succeed in today's global marketplace. While external consultants and professional staff are often called upon to provide this training, many organizations are turning to their own employees as an effective, lower cost alternative. There are several benefits to using this strategy, but significant support must be provided to realize these benefits. Herein, we describe a systematic process to turn novice employee trainers into a powerful force for organizational change. By transforming employees into disciples, organizations can give training the impact it needs.

Internal brand equity defines customer experience

PurposeBrands scintillate on the twin pillars of external brand communication and staff commitment to the envisioned customer experience (CE). However, until very recently the contribution of staff to internal brand building has not received the importance it deserves. With customers becoming more knowledgeable and moving towards a holistic experience rather than buying “products”, the quality of customer interaction (CI) is becoming the deciding factor in brand creation and CE. From this on‐going research based on the emerging services dominant logic popularised by Vargo and Lusch, this paper aims to explore a model to measure the awareness, understanding and commitment of staff to the vision of the service‐oriented brand.Design/methodology/approachAnswers to a Likert questionnaire with six question sets will give researchers an insight into the awareness, understanding and commitment of staff to the brand vision. At a later stage researchers will use the above data to calculate the internal brand proprietor‐like quality rating of the organization based on the percentage of employees at high/low internal brand proprietor levels. Findings will assist in understanding and improving quality of CI and brand image.FindingsSuccessful brand builders identify and spend aggressively on interactions that will have the most impact on revenue growth and profitability and ensure that the touch points that matter are synchronized to successfully convey the brand's promise (Hogan).Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this research are sample constraints and test persons being highly involved in the research. More accurate results could be obtained if future research is carried out on a sector‐wise basis.Originality/valueThe paper explores a model to measure the awareness, understanding and commitment of staff to the vision of the service‐oriented brand.

Forward and backward transitions in pharmacy-based immunization services

Background Community pharmacies can engage in immunization services by contracting with an external workforce (outsourced mechanism) or staff pharmacists (in-house mechanism) to deliver the services. Because an outsourced mechanism generally requires lower organizational commitment, pharmacies often start with an outsourced mechanism. Later, these pharmacies can have 1 of the following transitions: sit on a fence by continuing with an outsourced mechanism, move backward by abandoning any immunization services, or move forward by implementing an in-house mechanism. Objectives Using Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations model and Behavioral Theory of the Firm as guidance, this study identified the associations between perceived characteristics of immunization services and backward/forward transitions. Methods A cross-sectional mail survey was conducted to collect data from key informants of Washington State community pharmacies during May-July 2004 (response rate = 46.9%). A total of 106 pharmacies were included in the analysis. Based on pharmacy's immunization service transitions, these pharmacies were identified as Fence sitters, Backward movers, or Forward movers. Relationships between these transitions, pharmacy characteristics, and perceived characteristics of immunization services were analyzed using bivariate and multinomial logistic regression techniques. Results Backward and Forward movers had less positive assessments of outsourced services when compared with Fence sitters. Backward and Forward movers differed in their perceptions of in-house services; Backward movers generally perceived no differences between these 2 services, whereas Forward movers generally perceived in-house services to be superior to outsourced services. Furthermore, the odds of being a Forward mover increased as perceived technical and social benefits of outsourced services decreased, perceived compatibility of in-house services increased, and perceived complexity of in-house services decreased. Conclusions Perceived characteristics of outsourced and in-house innovations were associated with backward and forward transitions. Findings can be used to guide the development of strategies for facilitating organizational change and preventing the abandonment of immunization services.

Outsourcing in der Lehre – Eine Möglichkeit für die Zukunft?

Die steigende Lehrbelastung an deutschen Hochschulen verlangt in Anbetracht steigender Studentenzahlen nach innovativen Lösungsansätzen. Neben der Differenzierung in Forschungs- und Lehrprofessuren, wie sie vom Wissenschaftsrat empfohlen wird, gibt es eine Reihe weiterer Möglichkeiten, den Anforderungen gerecht zu werden. Das anteilige Outsourcing des Lehrdeputats an externe Dozenten durch einen spezialisierten Dienstleister hat sich hierbei als erfolgreich erwiesen. Durch diese Professionalisierung der Lehre wird ein hoher Grad an Einheit von Forschung und Lehre erreicht und die geschaffenen Forschungsfreiräume könnten darüber hinaus dazu führen, dass forschungsaktive Hochschullehrer nicht an reine Forschungsinstitutionen abwandern und weiterhin mit ihrer Expertise zu einer hohen Qualität der universitären Lehre beitragen.

Surviving performance improvement “solutions”: Aligning performance improvement interventions

How can organizations avoid the negative, sometimes chaotic, effects of multiple, poorly coordinated performance improvement interventions? How can we avoid punishing our external clients or staff with the side effects of solutions that might benefit our bottom line or internal efficiency at the expense of the value received or perceived by clients and investors and our shared world, a world we all live in and depend on? Facing a multibillion-dollar consulting industry pushing new “solutions” every year that might end up causing new and unexpected problems, serious performance consultants and managers know that blaming the law of unintended consequences will not prevent clients from leaving, staff turnover, general organizational turmoil, and even national and international consequences associated with change. Because change is also vital, this article introduces a systemic, multilevel framework to align performance improvement interventions; avoid systemic disruption; and measure and eliminate overcosts, rework, and negative side effects of change.

Web-based lecture technologies: blurring the boundaries between face-to-face and distance learning

Web-based lecture technologies (WBLT) have gained popularity amongst universities in Australia as a tool for delivering lecture recordings to students in close to real time. This paper reports on a selection of results from a larger research project investigating the impact of WBLT on teaching and learning. Results show that while staff see the advantages for external students, they question the extent to which these advantages apply to internal students. In contrast both cohorts of students were positive about the benefits of the technologies for their learning and they adopted similar strategies for their use. With the help of other technologies, some external students and staff even found WBLT useful for fostering communication between internal and external students. As such, while the traditional boundary between internal and external students seems to remain for some staff, students seem to find the boundary much less clear.Keywords: web-based lecture technologies; staff perception; student perception; distance education; external students; internal students; LectopiaDOI: 10.1080/09687760802315895

Web-based lecture technologies: blurring the boundaries between face-to-face and distance learning

Web-based lecture technologies (WBLT) have gained popularity amongst universities in Australia as a tool for delivering lecture recordings to students in close to real time. This paper reports on a selection of results from a larger research project investigating the impact of WBLT on teaching and learning. Results show that while staff see the advantages for external students, they question the extent to which these advantages apply to internal students. In contrast both cohorts of students were positive about the benefits of the technologies for their learning and they adopted similar strategies for their use. With the help of other technologies, some external students and staff even found WBLT useful for fostering communication between internal and external students. As such, while the traditional boundary between internal and external students seems to remain for some staff, students seem to find the boundary much less clear.Keywords: web-based lecture technologies; staff perception; student perception; distance education; external students; internal students; LectopiaDOI: 10.1080/09687760802315895

An Implementation Story: Moving the GAIN from Pilot Project to Statewide Use

Similarto implementing an evidence-based practice (EPB), implementing an evidence-based assessment (EBA) is a long. complex process that can take several years to complete. Between 2002 and 2007, the state of Missouri first piloted the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs-Initial (GAIN-I; Dennis et al. 2006) assessment at one state-contracted adolescent substance abuse treatment program and then implemented the GAIN statewide. This case study documents the implementation process through Fixsen and colleagues' (2005) six stages of implementation, from exploration and adoption through sustainability, and outlines challenges and solutions encountered at the external, organizational, and individual staff level. Strengths of this project included recognition that implementation is an ongoing multistep process, strong support by state-level staff, contracting with an external purveyor for ongoing technical assistance at the agency level as well as training of front-line clinicians, and an implementation team comprised of stakeholders at multiple levels.

Distracting communications in the operating theatre

Research suggests that there are problems of communication effectiveness in surgery. Here we describe the content, initiators and recipients of communications that intrude or interfere with individual surgical cases. We also consider the level at which the surgical team and its team members are distracted by these case-irrelevant communications (CICs). Two psychologist observers sampled 48 general surgery procedures and they recorded the initiator and the recipient of CIC events, their content and the level of observable distraction that they caused. Irrelevant comments and queries (i.e. 'small-talk') accounted for half of the observed CICs. From the remaining CICs that we observed, most were related to the organization and administration of the case-list, to operating theatre provisions and to teaching junior staff. Surgeons initiated a third of the observed CICs, while receiving two thirds of them. External staff visiting the operating theatre initiated the most distracting communications. The CICs addressed to surgeons introduced significantly less distraction to the operating theatre than those addressed to anaesthetists and nurses. Some of the observed CICs contributed to the administration of the operating theatre case-list. Nonetheless, this communication can interfere with highly sensitive work. More effectively co-ordinated communication could reduce this interference. More research should assess the communication effectiveness and the impact of CICs on task performance in the operating theatre.

Measuring intra-operative interference from distraction and interruption observedin the operating theatre

An observational tool was developed to record distraction and interruption in the operating theatre during surgery. Observed events were assigned to pre-defined categories and rated in relation to the level of team involvement – the sum of which was treated as a measure of intra-operative interference. Many events (0.29 ± 0.02 per min) were observed and rated in 50 general operations sampled from a single operating theatre. The rating of individual events (r s = 0.65) and of cases (r s = 0.89) correlated between independent observers. Interference levels (1.04 ± 0.07/min) also correlated with door opening frequency (0.68 ± 0.03/min) (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). Some sources of interference were intrinsic to the work of the surgical team, including equipment, procedure and environment, while others were extraneous, including bleepers, phone calls and external staff. The findings highlight the need to further develop measures of interference, to assess its variation, intensity and its effect on surgical team performance.

Prevention of Fall-Related Injuries in Long-term Care

Fall-related injuries, a major public health problem in long-term care, may be reduced by interventions that improve safety practices. Previous studies have shown that safety practice interventions can reduce falls; however, in long-term care these have relied heavily on external funding and staff. The aim of this study was to test whether a training program in safety practices for staff could reduce fall-related injuries in long-term care facilities. A cluster randomization clinical trial with 112 qualifying facilities and 10,558 study residents 65 years or older and not bedridden. The intervention was an intensive 2-day safety training program with 12-month follow-up. The training program targeted living space and personal safety; wheelchairs, canes, and walkers; psychotropic medication use; and transferring and ambulation. The main outcome measure was serious fall-related injuries during the follow-up period. There was no difference in injury occurrence between the intervention and control facilities (adjusted rate ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.83-1.16). For residents with a prior fall in facilities with the best program compliance, there was a nonsignificant trend toward fewer injuries in the intervention group (adjusted rate ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.57-1.10). More intensive interventions are required to prevent fall-related injuries in long-term care facilities.

Maintaining long‐term therapeutic programmes: a qualitative case study

SummaryMaintaining therapeutic programmes for people with learning disabilities over long periods of time presents a major challenge to care systems as the limited and slow pace of client behavioural change is often insufficient to sustain staff behaviour. In this study, a 17‐year‐old young man with profound learning difficulties was successfully supported on a toilet training programme for more than 2 years. In spite of early setbacks and only limited behavioural change the staff team persisted with the programme. Four factors were identified as supporting staff behaviour with the programme: (1) parental involvement, (2) the therapeutic culture and values of the care system, (3) support from external agencies and (4) positive staff feelings towards the client.

Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton

Children, Youth and Environments 15(2), 2005 Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton Bob Yates Yates, Thorn & Associates Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Citation: Yates, Bob. (2005). “Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton.” Children, Youth and Environments 15(2): 371-377. . Comment on This Article Abstract Few Canadian cities have taken their commitments to children and young people more seriously than the City of Edmonton. The City has recognized that the local government agency in Edmonton must take the lead in promoting the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The firm of Yates, Thorn & Associates, a Victoria, British Columbia-based social planning consultancy, was hired by the City of Edmonton to help develop specific aspects of its Children’s Services Framework. This report describes the development of a Child Impact Assessment Tool. Keywords: Child-friendly cities, child impact assessment tool, Canada© 2005 Children, Youth and Environments Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton 372 Background The demands on local governments in Canada and elsewhere to provide effective services for children and youth are increasing along many dimensions: • The expectations of parents and others regarding the range and quality of services are expanding. • More children are living in poverty now than at any time in the past. Their need for services is even greater than that of those children who have the ability to pay. • Federal and provincial governments are downloading services onto local governments, and providing funding for new services such as childcare. At the same time, they frequently adopt legal (such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)) or promotional (such as Alberta’s Promise) frameworks which local governments are required to follow. • Multiple agencies are increasingly involved as partners in the delivery of services. This is positive, but also demanding of time and resources. • The value of all services is constantly being evaluated and in some cases questioned by a tax-conscious public. • Communities are focusing more on outputs than inputs. The question is no longer “how many hockey practices did you attend?” but rather “did you win the game?” or at the very least “how well did you play?” When all this is put together with the inherent vulnerability and lack of political power of children and youth, it requires local governments to include frameworks and processes in their policy making that consistently and continually prompt the question, “What will be the impact on children and youth?” The City of Edmonton recognized that this question must be addressed as part of the implementation of its Children's Services Framework. Consequently, the City of Edmonton Community Services Department requested Yates, Thorn & Associates1 to develop a Child Impact Assessment Tool: a “lens” through which the impact of programs, policies and initiatives on children and youth could be examined. Early discussion made it clear that the Child Impact Assessment process must be: • Practical - it must be simple to use, providing a set of functional tools for city administrators and elected officials. • Visible - it must act to reinforce the need for a broad range of services for children and youth. • Visionary - it must be far-sighted in its vision of services for children, with the goal of putting Edmonton at the leading edge of child-friendly cities. Building a Child Impact Assessment Tool for the City of Edmonton 373 To meet these objectives, it must be designed to: • Educate various groups about children’s services. These groups include internal department and city staff, councilors, external agency staff and volunteers, as well as the general public. • Advocate for a child-friendly Edmonton. This implies a more proactive approach focused not just on “means” but also on “ends.” • Integrate child-focused efforts into the business planning processes of the City. The Child Impact Assessment will only be effective in the long term if it is a part of the machinery of government. • Focus on the key issues of importance to the children and youth of Edmonton, which had been identified through consultation with children and adults during the development of the Children’s Services Framework. Moving Edmonton towards Being a “Child...

Grounding international modes of governance into National Forest Programmes

In this article we outline three different modes of natural resource governance that can be traced in international policy making and planning over the last 40 years. We show that a shift from the hierarchical to the heterarchical mode of governance can be found in natural resource governance. Agenda 21 introduced new planning ideas to the international decision-making process, with all countries and levels of government asked to assume responsibility for natural resource policy. Deliberation and participation of major groups is now emphasised, and forests are viewed at the international level as an inter-state matter of a transboundary nature. The deliberations and outputs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF), the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) and the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) are an empirical validation of this. We further argue that different planning approaches were inspired by the hierarchical and heterarchical modes of governance. The Tropical Forestry Action Plan, aimed at reducing deforestation in tropical forest countries, was primarily a technocratic planning tool, implemented by external staff and focused mainly on the forestry sector. National Forest Programmes (NFP), on the contrary, are oriented at implementing international commitments to enhance sustainable forest management following deliberative and participatory approaches at the national level. NFPs can also be seen as a framework for national decision-making activities, hence this shift in the mode of governance is also reflected at the national level. We further outline what the international community expects NFPs to deliver, as referred to in the Proposals for Action issued by the IPF and IFF. Analysis indicates that those IPF/IFF Proposals for Action making reference to NFPs are in those categories calling for improved international co-operation and technology transfer, as well as the provision of financial assistance and the promotion of public participation. We propose a conceptual framework for assessing the implementation of the IPF/IFF Proposals for Action at the national level. This assessment can be used to identify and communicate relevant topics, priorities, implementation responsibilities and implementation gaps. It can also be used as an ex post-evaluation tool to analyse the implementation of international agreements.

Promoting Evaluation through Collaboration

Collaborative evaluation engages key program stakeholders actively in the evaluation process. Distance between external evaluators and program staff is often minimal, based on the assumption that a collaborative stance will strengthen evaluation results and increase utilization of evaluation findings. Convincing empirical evidence to support these assumptions is scarce. This study uses evaluation findings from a county-wide, comprehensive, early childhood education initiative to support the contention that a collaborative approach can substantively improve evaluation findings.

Better Communication System To Benefit Us All

Better Communication System To Benefit Us All

Changing the way we address severe malnutrition during famine

This year, yet again, saw widespread food insecurity and famine across the horn of Africa. Again, humanitarian agencies set up operations to implement various relief programmes. Nutritional interventions included general ration distribution to the whole of an affected population; blanket supplementary feeding to all members of an identified risk group; and targeted dry supplementary feeding centres for moderately malnourished and therapeutic feeding centres for the severely malnourished. As is usual in emergencies, many of the therapeutic feeding centres were hard to set up and did not achieve an adequate coverage of all the severely malnourished. This combination of delays and low coverage meant that many therapeutic feeding centres achieved little overall impact on mortality. I believe that the present focus on therapeutic feeding centres as the sole mode of treating severely malnourished people during famine is inappropriate and often counter-productive. A new concept of community-based therapeutic care is necessary to complement therapeutic feeding centres' interventions if famine relief programmes are to address the plight of the severely malnourished in an efficient and effective manner. During an emergency, the community-based therapeutic care approach could quickly provide good coverage and appropriate treatment for large numbers of severely malnourished people. The principles behind community-based therapeutic care are, however, developmental, empowering communities to cope more effectively with crisis and with transition back to normality. This is very different to the therapeutic feeding centres' approach that disempowers communities, requires very large amounts of external staff and resources, and undermines the infrastructure. Although emergency community-based therapeutic care programmes could be large-scale and implemented quickly, they could also evolve into developmental Hearth model nutritional programmes without changing their conceptual basis. Conversely, Hearth programmes, although largely sustainable, could in times of crisis quickly scale-up into rapid effective emergency interventions. Creating such a continuum between emergency and developmental approaches has long been a holy grail of humanitarianism.

Improving Customer Service In Public Sector Organizations

The purpose of this paper is to formulate a customer orientation framework, which may assist in providing service organizations with strategies for a competitive advantage. The proposed markét-led approach towards excellent service for Shanghai Telecom customers includes upgrading staff awareness of external competition, changing culture, leadership, information channels, and staff training. It involves customers and employees in the design of service strategies. It is suggested that the remuneration should be linked to customer satisfaction. A new marketing division would consider competitive advantage issues. The findings and recommendations on the bridging gaps between customer expectations and the provision of service are of interest in over eighty countries that are currently restructuring their state-owned enterprises.

MILCHPRÜFRING BAYERN e.V. – RAW MILK QUALITY CONTROL IN BAVARIA

In Bavaria 79.000 dairy farmers with 1.600.000 cows produce some 7 million tons of raw milk per year. The "Milchprüfring Bayern e.V." performs quality control of raw milk according to German and Bavarian law. This paper provides information about its organisation, obligations and duties. The "Milchprüfring" is a privately initiated organisation of the Bavarian dairy farmers and dairy industry with members out of each group. Budgets are 50% publicly financed, 25% come from the Bavarian dairy fonds and from fees for sample processing, respectively. The "Milchprüfring" runs 4 central labs, equipped with most modern automates for milk analysis. About 200 persons of laboratory and technical staff are performing 10 million investigations for fat, protein, lactose, bacteria, somatic cells, freezing-point and inhibitors. Additionaly 10 million samples per year are investigated for fat, protein, lactose, somatic cells and urea due to performance testing of cows. Automation of all the investigation process from sampling to handling and mailing of results and tight collaboration with scientific instituts make sure, that quality of analysis is constantly high. External technical staff supports states’ veterinary services by visiting farms and controlling conditions according to the hygiene guideline 92/46 EEC, which was set to german law with the "Milchverordnung" of May, 3rd 1995.

Robert Hill, 2 April 1899 - 15 March 1991

Robert Hill will always be remembered for his fundamental contributions to the study of photosynthesis, but his originality in the scientific sphere was the reflection of an unusual personality, which will not be so easily remembered without a written record. He was almost invariably known affectionately as Robin, by family, friends and colleagues alike, although his closest friends tended to address him simply as Hill, in the pre-war manner. The scientific outlook was a deep seated part of Robin’s nature, but he was also an artist and craftsman. The different aspects of his life merged into one another with no sharp distinctions. He was trained primarily as a chemist, but in the inter-war years he was one of the pioneers who applied chemical skills and insight in attempts to understand living things, and thus established biochemistry on a sound basis as an independent discipline. His great love was for plants. At the old farm in Barton where he made his home, he grew all the plants needed for his experimental work in the laboratory. For Robin Hill this meant growing any plant with some particular biochemical interest. Among them were the traditional dye plants, such as madder and woad, and he became a well known expert in the chemistry of the natural dyes. Plants and landscapes were the usual subjects of his watercolour sketches. Some of these could be seen hanging in the house, but he was too modest to explain to visitors that he had not only painted the pictures but had also made the pigments himself. He spent the whole of his working life in Cambridge. He had a highly individual lecturing style which could occasionally verge on the histrionic, but his shyness came to dominate. He would stand with his attache case open on the bench in front of him, spectacles cocked on his forehead, and from time to time would duck down, for protection from the audience, as it were. These antics were amusing but distracting, and may partly explain why he never achieved a university appointment. He existed on a series of fellowships until he was eventually rescued by the Agricultural Research Council, and taken on to their external staff in 1943.