New Ways Of Working Research Articles

Defining Digital Public Health and the Role of Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation: Scoping Review.

BackgroundThe recent proliferation and application of digital technologies in public health has spurred interest in digital public health. However, as yet, there appears to be a lack of conceptual clarity and consensus on its definition.ObjectiveIn this scoping review, we seek to assess formal and informal definitions of digital public health in the literature and to understand how these definitions have been conceptualized in relation to digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation.MethodsWe conducted a scoping literature search in Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Google Scholar, and 14 government and intergovernmental agency websites encompassing 6 geographic regions. Among a total of 409 full articles identified, we reviewed 11 publications that either formally defined digital public health or informally described the integration of digital technologies into public health in relation to digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation, and we conducted a thematic analysis of the identified definitions.ResultsTwo explicit definitions of digital public health were identified, each with divergent meanings. The first definition suggested digital public health was a reimagination of public health using new ways of working, blending established public health wisdom with new digital concepts and tools. The second definition highlighted digital public health as an asset to achieve existing public health goals. In relation to public health, digitization was used to refer to the technical process of converting analog records to digital data, digitalization referred to the integration of digital technologies into public health operations, and digital transformation was used to describe a cultural shift that pervasively integrates digital technologies and reorganizes services on the basis of the health needs of the public.ConclusionsThe definition of digital public health remains contested in the literature. Public health researchers and practitioners need to clarify these conceptual definitions to harness opportunities to integrate digital technologies into public health in a way that maximizes their potential to improve public health outcomes.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR2-10.2196/preprints.27686

Undergraduate dental education: an education or training?

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on undergraduate dental education has led to new ways of working, different modes of delivery for elements of programmes and, in some cases, revised timelines for progression. These expedient changes, like the virus, may be with us for some time. However, as we come out of an intense period of critical reflection and change, it may also offer us an opportunity and impetus to revisit unresolved challenges around the focus and role of undergraduate dental education. We reflect upon the necessity for both clinical development and scholarship for our undergraduates, and the subtle differences of purpose between education and training. We consider whether it is time to look afresh at the relationship between the universities and other stakeholders and perhaps also to start with renewed understanding, giving deeper consideration to the value of each. One of the biggest obstacles to resolving these issues is to consider how best we align institutional requirements with the education and training of healthcare practitioners. With the hindsight of the past 12 months, we would argue that such a review is timely and more meaningful as we can reflect on the pandemic-enforced and expedient changes to our programmes and more clearly understand where our future priorities lie.

Remote Working in a Public Bureaucracy: Redeveloping Practices of Managerial Control When Out of Sight.

This article examines managerial control practices in a public bureaucracy at the moment of introducing remote work as part with a new ways of working (NWW) project. The qualitative study builds on 38 interviews with supervisors and subordinates conducted before the advent of COVID-19. By interpreting interviewees’ conversations about current and anticipated future work practices in the changing work setting, we reveal tacit and hidden practices of managerial control that are currently prevalent in many organizations introducing remote working. Three constitutive moments of the organization’s transformation to NWW are analytically distinguished: (i) how implicit becomes explicit, (ii) how collective becomes self, and (iii) how personal becomes impersonal. Our findings emphasize that the transition to NWW must take into account prevailing institutional logics and must reconnect to a fundamental and often neglected question: What does doing work mean within the particular organization? Negotiating this fundamental question might help to overcome supervisors’ uncertainties about managerial control and provide clarity to subordinates about what is expected from them while working remotely. Finally, we discuss how the transition to NWW may serve as both an opportunity and a potential threat to established organizational practices while highlighting the challenge supervisors face when the institutional logics conflict with remote working.

New ways of working (NWW): Workplace transformation in the digital age

In the introductory paper of this special issue on new ways of working (NWW) the editors first reflect on the meaning of the ‘new’, finding inspiration in Hannes Meyer's essay “The New World” (1926). The ‘new’ is always relative, of course, closely associated with technological innovation, in our case digitalization, and integrates spatiotemporal, technological and socio-cultural dimensions of life and organizing. This SI seeks to offer a reflection on and contribution to deeper understanding of ongoing flexibilization, virtualization and mediation of work practices. The authors go on to contextualize and discuss the contributions of the papers included in this special issue, focussing on significant technological, spatiotemporal, organizational and individual developments associated with new ways of working. Finally, they reflect on the possible relevance of the recent Covid-19 pandemic for the future of work, arguing that this pandemic accelerated NWW in many ways and – given the many paradoxical NWW dynamics and developments – that there could very well be unexpected and adverse consequences, including a turn away from formal ways of working.

Value Addition for Technology Start-Ups Through Physical Co-Location

Numerous economic theories, knowledge, social, and communication theories have extensively explored the phenomenon of ‘physical co-location’ in various contexts. However, limited scholarly attention has been given to co-location in emerging contexts such as co-working spaces, predominantly used by start-ups. One of the critical questions examined is how co-location adds value to technology start-ups in the early and growth stages of their development. We chose a premium coworking space in Bangalore, India’s start-up capital, as the study’s research setting during January – March 2020. The qualitative research employed semi-structured interviews to explore the phenomenon. Our findings revealed that start-ups actively used co-located resources to explore, experiment, and validate new business ideas in the early stage. As they transitioned into the growth phase, they exploited co-located industry networks to expand into new markets. They also learned vicariously from other co-located resources and used them to solve complex problems and refined their processes and routines. As start-ups begin to grow and expand, co-location infrastructure-related costs are not justifiable, operations are less secure, and the meta culture of the co-located environment is in conflict with the firm’s operating culture. The results of this study have the potential to be significant for technology start-ups that are exploring new ways of working and addressing uncertainties during the early and growth stages of their development.

Development of a Pathway for Multidisciplinary Neurodevelopmental Assessment and Diagnosis in Children and Young People.

There is a variable standard of access to quality neurodevelopmental assessment and diagnosis. People may have negative experiences, encountering lengthy waiting times, and inconsistent practices. Practitioners need guidance on standards and practices for assessment and diagnosis matched to new ways of working. In this paper, we present a new pathway and recommendations for multidisciplinary neurodevelopmental assessment and diagnosis for children and young people (<19 years), developed by the Scottish Government funded National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT). Our research used the Medical Research Council guidance for the development of complex interventions and included several iterative stages. Stage 1: n = 44 stakeholders attended an event on developing new practices for diagnosis and assessment. Stage 2: a literature synthesis was completed by the research team of clinical guidelines and diagnosis and assessment tools. Stage 3: an event with n = 127 stakeholders included discussion and debate of the data from stages 1 and 2. Recommendations and a draft pathway were written. Stage 4: successive drafts of recommendations and the pathway documentation were circulated among an advisory group, including multidisciplinary clinical experts and people with lived experience, until the final pathway was agreed upon. The finalised pathway includes guidance on terminology, assessment, diagnosis, triage, time standards and engagement of people with lived experience. The new pathway has been adopted by the Scottish Government. The pathway and associated documentation are freely available online for use by others.

Caring from behind the face mask in healthcare: Learning from the dramatic arts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made its impact across the globe with great voracity. New routines have displaced older more established ones with ruthless efficiency—no more so than in healthcare. In meeting these challenges, many healthcare workers have had to prepare for and enact many new ways of working. Regardless of their speciality or stage of training, health professions educators (HPEs) have helped train our healthcare workforce in developing new skills with great tempo. Throughout all of these efforts one constant has guided our endeavours—the humane connection with those that provide and those that seek healthcare.However, with COVID-19 we have had to distance ourselves from our patients, and colleagues, and clad ourselves in various items of personal protection equipment (PPE). The protective barrier also acts as a barrier to personal interaction and therefore presents challenges in how we connect with each other on a humane level. Few disciplines have engaged with the complexities of verbal and gestural communication as thoroughly and consistently as the dramatic arts. Actors in Ancient Greece would perform wearing masks and used oratory as well as gestural communication to enrapture the audience.Drawing upon the dramatic arts, we aim to explore the relationship between face and mask and thereby provide reflective insights for HPEs to help guide healthcare workers in their communication from behind the face mask.

Examining the transition to agile practices with information technology projects: Agile teams and their experience of accountability

Proponents of the agile approach to project management describe this new way of working as more efficient, more productive, liberating, and one in which the team has greater control. We examine the experience of implementing agile practices within project management through nine agile teams in the financial services sector. Using grounded theory analysis of data from semi-structured interviews, several thematic categories emerge including accountability, team-based perceptions of their place in the organization, human factors in agile teams, and technical factors with the implementation of agile practice. As a result of these findings, we propose a framework describing how IT project teams experience accountability arrangements when transitioning into agile practices. The accountability experience is a result of the fit between the teams’ perception of how they are viewed as agile teams in their organizations, their experience of technical practices of agile implementation, and their experience of interaction and exchanges in their teams. We conclude with a call towards recognizing the dissonance between different expectations of accountability and a call for further empirical research into this phenomenon.

Maturity on the Horizon: Is the United Arab Emirates Ready for a Teacher Educator Framework?

Purpose: Research on teacher educators is fragmented but different trends are emerging from a variety of contexts that recognize it as a distinct profession. This research aims to highlight the features of a potential UAE teacher educator framework that has emerged from my research on authentic professional learning, and where professional learning might be focused in the future to build on teacher educators’ professional knowledge in the UAE. This paper explores the potential characteristics of a UAE Teacher Educator Framework through the methodological lens of narrative inquiry. Approach/Methodology/Design: Teacher educators have formal associations in the USA, Belgium, The Netherlands, Israel, and Australia and these associations have professionalized the industry and created standards and frameworks to support professional learning. No such associations or standards exist in the United Arab Emirates. Drawing on the work of Keltchermans (2018), Kreijns (2019) and the existing frameworks from other contexts, this paper illustrates the potential blueprint for the UAE education sector. Findings: The findings suggest that inter-cultural learning and sensory awareness of the contextual factors that underpin the sector may allow teacher educators to feel empowered to support teachers and their peers in a complex cultural and economic environment. Practical Implications: The practical implications propose a new way of working and thinking within the UAE context, and the framework can be applied and adapted to both the public and private sectors. Originality/value: Teacher educators have formal associations in the USA, Belgium, The Netherlands, Israel, and Australia and these associations have professionalized the industry and created standards and frameworks to support professional learning. No such associations or standards exist in the United Arab Emirates so this work offers significant value in an under-researched space.

Mindfulness-Based Approaches for COVID-19 Mental Health in Working from Home

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spread rapidly since it was first identified in December 2019. A nation-level lockdown has been implemented in many countries, affecting workers of all sectors and forcing many to work from home. In this commentary, we discuss mental health difficulties that working from home might cause on non-key workers, based on research in New Ways of Working (NWW) and telecommuting. Moreover, we propose the use of mindfulness-based approaches to protect workforce from the potential negative impacts of working from home.

IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE DURING THE COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic, an ongoing and fast-spreading virus outbreak caused the most recently discovered coronavirus, has changed the way the world community works, especially Indonesia. This new way of work is called remote online work or working from home. This diseases has changed people's culture by switching to digital culture using information technology. Information technology has several advantages because it can make people complete their work quickly, exibly and qualitatively. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method that aims to provide effective information about the impact of information technology on the performance of government employees during the Covid-19 pandemic. Research information was obtained through library research, observations and interviews with employees of the Environmental Service of Padang City, West Sumatra. The results of the study show that there is good impact of information technology on employee performance. Information Technology can improve employee performance because it enables the employees to work faster. This condition provides space for work collaboration, and works can be carried out far more effectively. During the Covid-19 pandemic where information technology is a vital necessity at work, all works can be done online or work from home so that employee performance can still be mantained. Since Information technology has no space and time limits, work during the COVID-19 pandemic can be accomplished anytime and anywhere.

Experiences of diagnostic radiographers through the Covid-19 pandemic

IntroductionDiagnostic Radiography plays a major role in the diagnosis and management of patients with Covid-19. This has seen an increase in the demand for imaging services, putting pressure on the workforce. Diagnostic radiographers, as with many other healthcare professions, have been on the frontline, dealing with an unprecedented situation. This research aimed to explore the experience of diagnostic radiographers working clinically during the Covid-19 pandemic. MethodsInfluenced by interpretative phenomenology, this study explored the experiences of diagnostic radiographers using virtual focus group interviews as a method of data collection. ResultsData were analysed independently by four researchers and five themes emerged from the data. Adapting to new ways of working, feelings and emotions, support mechanisms, self-protection and resilience, and professional recognition. ConclusionThe adaptability of radiographers came across strongly in this study. Anxieties attributed to the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), fear of contracting the virus and spreading it to family members were evident. The resilience of radiographers working throughout this pandemic came across strongly throughout this study. A significant factor for coping has been peer support from colleagues within the workplace. The study highlighted the lack of understanding of the role of the radiographer and how the profession is perceived by other health care professionals. Implications for practiceThis study highlights the importance of interprofessional working and that further work is required in the promotion of the profession.

Data Science for Official Statistics: Views of the United Nations Statistics Division

In the digital age, data are generated continuously by many different devices and are being used by many different actors. National statistical offices (NSOs) should benefit from these opportunities to improve data for decision-making. What could be the expanding role for official statistics in this context and how does this relate to emerging disciplines like data science? This article explores some new ideas. In the avalanche of new data, society may need a data steward, and the NSO could take on that role, while paying close attention to the protection of privacy. Data science will become increasingly important for extracting meaningful information from large amounts of data. NSOs will need to hire data scientists and data engineers and will need to train their staff in these fast-developing fields. NSOs will also need to clearly communicate new and experimental data and foster a good understanding of statistics. Collaboration of official statistics with the private sector, academia, and civil society will be the new way of working and the fundamental principles of official statistics may have to apply to all those actors. This article envisions that we are gradually working toward such a new data culture.

EP.FRI.32 Emotional Resilience and Bariatric Surgical Teams: a Priorityin the Pandemic

The infection control measures implemented as a result of COVID-19 led to a postponement of bariatric surgical procedures across many countries worldwide. Many bariatric surgical teams were in essence left without a profession, with many redeployed to other areas of clinical care and were not able to provide the levels of patient support given before COVID-19. As the pandemic continues, some restrictions have been lifted, with staff adjusting to new ways of working, incorporating challenging working conditions and dealing with continuing levels of stress. This article explores the concept of emotional labour, defined as ‘inducing or suppressing feelings in order to perform one’s work’, and its application to multidisciplinary teams working within bariatric surgery, to offer insight into the mental health issues that may be affecting healthcare professionals working in this discipline.

A brave new world: the gastrointestinal lab during and after a pandemic.

The COVID-19 global pandemic resulted in a radical change in the provision and delivery of endoscopy services worldwide. As we emerge from this pandemic, various strategies were advocated to resume endoscopy whilst prioritizing the safety and wellbeing of patients and staff. This review summarizes the main changes including infection control and prevention measures in endoscopy and explores the overarching impact of the pandemic on the gastrointestinal lab. Various solutions are outlined to enable the well tolerated resumption of endoscopy services including retention of certain infection control measures, use of personal protective equipment, testing and vaccination. Strategies to deal with the mounting backlog of cases are also discussed. The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on healthcare systems worldwide and affected the provision and delivery of gastrointestinal diagnostic services, such as endoscopy necessitating a new way of working and an emphasis on infection control and better use of technology that are likely to be here to stay in the post pandemic era.

Getting on track for digital work: Digital transformation in an administrative court before and during COVID-19

This article analyses organizational change and new ways of working in one of our most institutionalized and professionalized contexts—the courts. Here, digital technologies and the implementation of digital work practices carry great promise as they enable more accessible and qualitative services to be produced more efficiently and effectively. While prior studies have shown that institutionalized and professionalized actors are reluctant to respond to change, attempts to change work practices through digital technologies remain understudied. In particular, we do not know how COVID-19 has influenced the motivation and implementation of digitalized work. This article draws on a large Swedish administrative court and its attempts to digitalize its work starting in 2018. We find that several barriers first inhibited a successful transformation of work practices. These barriers were connected to the institution of the court and the institutionalized profession of judges, which worked together in preventing organizational change. However, COVID-19 radically accelerated the digital implementation of work practices and gave rise to two separate re-assessment processes. The first established new motivations for digitalized work, and the second allowed for a new perception of value in digital work. These processes effectively broke down perceived barriers and substantially facilitated a more successful digital transformation of working practices.

1.K. Workshop: New working environments, occupational risks and socioeconomic inequalities during covid-19 pandemic

Abstract Working from home has been mandated in many parts of the world as a temporary public health measure. Transition to such alternative working forms and environments have required new working arrangements and alternative working plans for job functions and tasks that were not fully anticipated by company policies, national laws and regulations. Risks arising in the new remote workspaces need to be identified to safeguard workers' health and mental well-being, especially among the most vulnerable workers. Workers' ability to carry out the tasks, their living arrangements, family responsibilities, and health conditions or disabilities need to be considered. Confidentiality, security, and an anti-harassment policy are also critical in remote working. Workplace policies and clear guidelines have been deemed necessary to address these challenges. Many countries around the world have begun legislating aspects of remote working to grant legal certainties and specify rights and responsibilities for both employers and workers. The workshop will attempt to map the work patterns that emerged during the covid-19 pandemic and to highlight the opportunities, challenges and risks arising from the new working environments. Health, economic and social impacts of new employment arrangements will be discussed with emphasis on systemic and structural factors increasing inequalities. Social protection gaps will be highlighted in line with human rights and international labour standards. The workshop will further discuss how to take advantage of the extensive potential of innovative tools and forms of work with regard to employee health and safety. Public policies, legislative initiatives and innovative ways of responding to the challenges will be presented. The workshop will conclude with policy recommendations taking into account the future of work that will be shaped due to COVID-19. Overall, the workshop will promote a discussion on emerging working environments, occupational risks and access of workers to social protection and social rights. It will further discuss the factors that increase workers' vulnerability, practice standards and organisational principles and policies as well as innovative ways to mitigate risks at individual, company and system level. Key messages Map new trends, risks and opportunities in the transition from traditional working environments to working from home and identify systemic and structural barriers to safe employment. Review public policies, legislative initiatives and innovative ways of responding to the challenges of new ways of working.

The Human Capital of the Freelancers and Their Satisfaction with the Quality of Life

Digital technologies are underpinning a wide range of products, services, processes, and business model innovations that are significantly transforming industries, organizations, and society. They are increasingly permeating every aspect of our daily lives. In this paper, we looked at the challenges of digitalization, leading to a new way of working in the market and new business models, such as the gig economy. Individuals are becoming more mobile and self-directed in their careers, as opposed to traditional careers. We investigated the demographic characteristics of the new, growing group of self-employed, so-called freelancers, at the national level in Slovenia and investigated the relationships between human capital and their subjective (job and career satisfaction, life satisfaction) and objective success (income satisfaction). The survey was conducted among 200 freelancers (respondents). The empirical results show that most Slovenian freelancers working from home work in professional, scientific, and technical occupations; are between 35 and 44 years old; have completed the second level of tertiary education; work more than 40 hours per week; and have 16 years or more of work experience. To explore the quality of life of freelancers, empirical analysis showed that human capital factors are important for the success of a new career as a freelancer. The results show that freelancers’ human capital factors (education and experience, skills, and training) positively influence subjective and objective success. Using structural equation modeling, we also confirmed that human capital has a greater impact on freelancers’ subjective success (life satisfaction, career satisfaction) than on objective success (income satisfaction), suggesting that job and life satisfaction should be considered an important resource that freelancers rely on to determine their quality of life.

Adapting to change in academic libraries

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discover the main reasons for change, why change is necessary and how library professionals can adapt to change. Academic institutions are rapidly changing around the world where libraries are facing similar challenges and adapting change is a demand for growth and improvement. Library administrators need a clear vision and strategic plan to meet the upcoming challenges, they must have self-confidence, ability to work with diversity. Library professionals need to show flexibility and a willingness to develop new skills, they also need to adopt new ways of working and dealing with the academic community.Design/methodology/approachThe literature review is built on resources from offline and online full-text databases such as ProQuest, EBSCO, Emerald, Library Literature and Information Science databases. This paper is based on a systematic literature review method which includes 50 research articles and 5 print books. A total of 109 articles were collected at the beginning stage but after their analysis in detail, they were reduced to 50 articles as the rest of the articles did not exactly focus on adapting to change in academic libraries. Basic keyword and advanced searching options have been used to retrieve the relevant literature on the topic from peer-reviewed and scholarly resources.FindingsChanges are the result of organizational restructuring, user expectations and accessibility to a growing range of digital content, so library professionals are under pressure to adopt change in academic libraries and introduce new services and technology. Library professionals need to change traditional ways of working and boost their knowledge and skills, collaborative attitude, redesign and policies and procedures and create a willingness to adapt to the change. Challenges can be managed if an individual has a keen interest and eagerness to keep up to date with the current knowledge and emerging trends in academic libraries.Research limitations/implicationsAppropriate literature on the topic was reviewed systematically, not all publications were included. Literature on this topic is relatively limited so more research and publications are needed to deal with current and future scenarios of academic libraries.Practical implicationsThis paper offers a useful overview of the ways and approaches used to adopting change by library professionals and the approaches that can be used in the current and future settings of academic libraries. Suggestions and recommendations can be used in the field of LIS, as well as library professionals may apply in the academic and research libraries to effectively change.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on the concept of adapting to change in academic libraries, rather than responding to change. This piece of opinion contributes to library science in the area of how to manage and implement change, suggests ways and frameworks which can be used to adopting change by library professionals.

The Utility of Remote Inspections During the COVID-19 Health Emergency and in the Postpandemic Setting

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected the management and operation of regulatory agencies and the pharmaceutical industry around the world. It has prompted regulatory authorities to consider new ways of working and introduced, among others, remote inspections to validate the integrity of the regulatory data submitted by companies, to evaluate the quality of production and manufacturing sites, and to ensure the conformity with Good Regulatory Practices with the overall goal of guaranteeing patient safety during the crisis.MethodThis article summarizes and discusses remote inspection guidelines and other related information made available by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (Japan), the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (United Kingdom), and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We also analyze the effect of the pandemic on inspections conducted by the inspectorates of the EMA and the FDA.FindingsThe regulatory authorities that we studied all recognized the importance of implementing regulatory policies on remote inspections in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The remote inspection guidelines from the 5 selected regulatory authorities aimed at mitigating the impact of the pandemic but, while providing valuable advice to the pharmaceutical companies and being similar in intent, were not always aligned in terms of approach and solutions.ImplicationsOn-site inspections are likely to continue to be the norm and the preferred standard for the foreseeable future. However, health authorities will need to further adopt a risk-based inspection approach and stimulate the increased uptake of inspection reliance as proposed by the Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention and Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme not to overwhelm the pharmaceutical companies with repeat and redundant inspections. Remote inspections have proven to be a new inspection tool, but health authorities should align on their approach to remote inspections in terms of methods applied and documentation requested.