Service Philosophy Research Articles

Peer support services in the behavioral healthcare workforce: State of the field.

This article examines how the history and philosophy of peer support services has shaped current mental health and substance use service delivery systems. The growth of peer-run and recovery community organizations in the changing health care environment are discussed, including issues related to workforce development, funding, relevant policies, and opportunities for expansion. These initiatives are designed to increase access to recovery-promoting services. We conducted an environmental scan and analysis of peer support services within the behavioral health care field in the United States, with particular attention to initiatives of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Published manuscripts, policy statements, and reports were reviewed. There is abundant and growing literature illustrating how peer support services have become an integral component of behavioral health care systems in many states. Peer support services have the potential to increase access to recovery-oriented services for people with mental and substance use disorders served by the public behavioral health care system. Numerous initiatives in various states are being undertaken to build this workforce. Workforce and financing challenges exist, yet opportunities, including among others those made possible by the Affordable Care Act, will continue to strengthen the peer support workforce within behavioral health service delivery systems. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Delphi Project: Transforming Flemish Libraries Into User-Oriented Points of Information

ABSTRACTFlemish libraries have historically been praised by visitors and valued by the general public, but since the turn of the century, they have seen a decline in usage. A group of libraries in Flanders believed the role of libraries should be substantially reevaluated. They embarked on the “Delphi Project” to establish methods for libraries to become centers of their local communities by focusing on the information needs of their customers. The emergence of technology supported a shift from libraries as lending institutions to information centers. In addition to a customer service philosophy and training, online tools have helped staff reach library users. An online tool called the “Bronnenwijizer” combines searching the local library catalogue, provincial and state catalogues, and the Internet. The tool also supports the creation of “baskets” for a patron's information needs that can be shared with other staff. Delphi libraries have also used “Infopleinen,” Web-based guides to topics featuring printed media and online sources. Finally, a new online question registration system was developed that fit the new Delphi service philosophy. Over half the libraries in West-Vlaanderen are entitled to call themselves Delphi Libraries, and the philosophy is being disseminated more broadly through the Delphi Project Web site. Due to governmental changes in provincial authority, the future of the project is challenged because coordination among libraries has been critical for the project's success.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP AS MEDIATORS OF SERVICE INNOVATION AND FIRM COMPETITIVENESS: A STUDY OF AN EMERGING ECONOMY

It has become imperative for researchers to mark out the institutional limits and conditions within which innovation is the most useful strategy and to establish the extent to which its efficacy is conditioned by innovative culture and leadership of the service firm. This paper makes contribution to the service innovation literature by showing the internal boundary conditions under which service innovation can effectively enhance the competitiveness of the service firm. An empirical research design comprised two sets of data collected from service managers; the first for validation and the second for structural analysis of our framework. Five service innovation dimensions were found and that innovation leadership partially mediated the relationship between the service innovations and a service firm’s competitiveness. Innovative culture also mediates the service innovations and competitiveness. In contrast to previous studies which examined the direct effect of innovation on competitiveness, our study found that the mediating role of internal conditions brings about complementarity of strategic assets which produces sustainable competitive advantage to the service firm. The practical implication is that service firms must be equally interested in creating a fundamental service philosophy through their culture and leadership to build competitive advantages.

Early literacy programmes in public libraries: best practice

Health, housing, education, employment opportunities, income levels, involvement with crime and civic participation for individuals in our society can all be affected by an ability to read, with negative outcomes for those who are unable to read. Children who enter formal education behind in early literacy skills often struggle to catch up through the rest of their schooling, and on into their adult lives. An overseas study tour, enabled by the author winning a Kay Poustie Scholarship from the State Library of Western Australia Foundation, investigated how public libraries in four countries work with the early childhood sector to develop confidence in children’s literacy skills before entering formal schooling. Philosophies of library service were explored, along with specific programmes delivered by libraries to the community. The adaptability of ideas was assessed for use within the Australian public library system, and practitioners can use these ideas as starting points for presentation of early literacy skills according to the particular needs of their local children and parents/carers. The emphasis is on practical activities that libraries of all sizes can be encouraged to offer, including libraries of small size and limited staff. With the development of literacy being a social skill that requires effective and positive relationships between adults and small children, libraries can be a space and place where those relationships can be beneficially nurtured.

An Agent Middleware for Supporting Ecosystems of Heterogeneous Web Services

The integration of a Multi-agent technology with a service oriented architecture provides a convenient way to build smarter applications that satisfy the demand of the current ubiquitous web systems. This paper provides a software tool to develop ubiquitous applications adopting the philosophy of agents and services as data sources. ADELE (Agent Dynamic EvoLutionary at runtime) is a middleware that allows developers to create reactive agents with the capability to evolve through the injection of external behaviors at runtime. An ADELE external behavior is a software component that allows agents to accomplish their goals. To facilitate the programming of these behaviors, agents can obtain the information consuming local and public web services (WSs) previously published on different services ecosystems. This paper shows how a Multi-agent System can consume heterogeneous WSs to satisfy the agent goals using a normative model. We have created three add-ons compatible with SOAP, RESTful, and DOHA (Dynamic Open Home-Automation) WS model. The integration of these add-ons within the ADELE tool is helpful to facilitate the invocation of heterogeneous WSs with a high abstraction level. In addition, we describe as an example, an Internet of Thing (IoT) scenario where the approach presented in this paper is very helpful. Finally, we also evaluate an ADELE application for giving home comfort employing heterogeneous WSs.

An analysis of business models in Public Service Platforms

Public Service Platforms (PSPs) are a new type of technology platform. They are based in the philosophy of New Public Management (NPM) and support public services for citizens in quasi-markets. This article increases our understanding of the business models behind these PSPs in terms of their Value Propositions, structures, networks, and financing. We interviewed representatives from 14 PSP providers in four public sectors in Sweden: education, healthcare, elder care, and public pensions. We identified a “Traditional view” with its focus on public agencies and neutral information and an “Emerging view” that includes dialogues, user evaluations, long-term perspectives on choice, promotion of the ideal of choice, and self-promotion by public agencies. The article contributes to research with its empirical example of the digitalization of NPM and the underlying business logic of PSPs.

The Promise of Participatory Evaluation in Family-Centered Rehabilitation Settings: A Qualitative Study

Background: Family-centered service philosophy (FCS) is an important contextual aspect of many pediatric rehabilitation programs. It recognizes the importance of supporting family relationships and the benefits of active family participation in all aspects of programming. Unfortunately, many professionals often overlook FCS philosophy when designing and implementing evaluations. Given the emphasis that participatory evaluation places on collaboration and the engagement of stakeholders, it appears to be theoretically compatible with FCS philosophy. Purpose: To explore parents’ and staff members’ perceptions of participatory program evaluation, including its congruence with family-centered service (FCS) philosophy, as well as the feasibility and practicality of using participatory program evaluation within pediatric rehabilitation centers.Setting: The study was conducted at two urban pediatric rehabilitation centers in Ontario, Canada.Intervention: Not applicable.Design: Qualitative exploration.Data Collection and Analysis: The study included qualitative interviews, focus groups and a thematic analysis. Findings: Participants described how participatory evaluation, in congruence with FCS philosophy, would increase the relevance of program evaluations for families, help support program interventions, assist in the development of clinician-parent relationships, and facilitate the empowerment of families. They also described how a lack of time, funding, and training, as well as variations in the priorities and interests of families presented challenges for using participatory evaluation within their centers.

The struggle for PSB 2.0: An assessment

Abstract A vigorous debate about the redefinition and expansion of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) in the new media environment has taken centre stage in global policy fora in the last two decades. It is now crucial to develop new conceptualizations of PSB and analyse how the public service philosophy is being adjusted to the new online and multi-platform environment. Born and Prosser identified the principles of citizenship, universality and quality as the normative criteria behind PSB in a broadcasting environment. This construction offers a valid starting point for the development of a new normative framework for PSB online that I have called PSB 2.0. By drawing on documentary and policy analysis of different European case studies (United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Denmark and France) this article aims to establish a new framework of PSB that can be applied to the online world. Thus, the study identifies the principles of citizenship, universality, quality and trust as the pillars of PSB 2.0.

Geotemporal vectors of coastal geomorphological change interacting with National Park Service management policy at Great Kills Park, Gateway National Recreation Area, USA

The trend and episodes of erosion at Great Kills Park, part of the National Park Service, are products of the origin of the park's location and the impact of a negative sediment budget. Management response to the impacts of erosion is somewhat limited by National Park Service philosophy, but some options remain because the negative sediment budget is a product of barriers to sediment transport updrift of the Park. The erosional situation is exacerbated by an exposure of an antecedent backmarsh feature within the Park that is affecting the inshore pattern of incident waves. Recent monitoring data indicate planform conformity to an updrift log-spiral erosional bluff that extends downdrift to a site with beach and dune features. Despite a general net negative sediment budget in the profile, the dune feature is increasing in volume as it shifts inland, fitting models of foredune development. Seasonal monitoring of the topography records that storms cause a stepwise inland displacement of an updrift portion of the Park and a more linear displacement in the downdrift portion. Among the options consistent with management policy responding to the negative sediment budget issue is an opportunity to work within the scale of the small sediment transport cell and backpass sediment toward the updrift margin of the cell.

Consumer Health Reference Revisited: Transforming Reference Services in the Affordable Care Act Landscape

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) landscape offers a prime opportunity to explore the transformation of consumer health reference services. This article focuses on a number of key areas in which consumer health reference work is revisited in the context of the ACA. In particular, library staff training opportunities, service philosophies, and strategies for conducting consumer health reference interviews must evolve and expand. Overall, revisiting consumer health reference is timely and needed to ensure that libraries remain responsive to community health information needs.

An exploration of the library and information science professional skills and personal competencies: An Israeli perspective

The skills and competencies required of library and information science (LIS) professionals working in libraries and information centers have been greatly affected by rapidly evolving information and communication technologies. To understand the effects that change has brought to the LIS profession, a typology of skills and competencies required of LIS professionals in Israel was developed. This typology resulted from the analysis of three different sets of data: job advertisements, course descriptions from LIS departments, and data collected from a survey administered to directors of libraries and information centers in Israel. The content analysis resulted in a typology of 49 skills that were divided into four different clusters: provision of information services, organization of information, technological skills, and personal competencies. Job listings were found to emphasize skills related to the provision of information services as well as personal competencies, while results from the survey revealed that skills related to the organizat ion of information were perceived as essential by library directors. Data collected from course descriptions suggested that LIS departments prepared students to work in advanced technological environments but they did not develop their personal competencies. Traditional LIS skills that support design and provision of information services and making information accessible are still relevant today, while being flexible enough to adapt to changing information environments based on user-centered philosophies of service.

The formation, elements of success, and challenges in managing a critical care program: Part I.

Leaders of critical care programs have significant responsibility to develop and maintain a system of intensive care. At inception, those clinician resources necessary to provide and be available for the expected range of patient illness and injury and throughput are determined. Simultaneously, non-ICU clinical responsibilities and other expectations, such as education of trainees and participation in hospital operations, must be understood. To meet these responsibilities, physicians must be recruited, mentored, and retained. The physician leader may have similar responsibilities for nonphysician practitioners. In concert with other critical care leaders, the service adopts a model of care and assembles an ICU team of physicians, nurses, nonphysician providers, respiratory therapists, and others to provide clinical services. Besides clinician resources, leaders must assure that services such as radiology, pharmacy, the laboratory, and information services are positioned to support the complexities of ICU care. Metrics are developed to report success in meeting process and outcomes goals. Leaders evolve the system of care by reassessing and modifying practice patterns to continually improve safety, efficacy, and efficiency. Major emphasis is placed on the importance of continuity, consistency, and communication by expecting practitioners to adopt similar practices and patterns. Services anticipate and adapt to evolving expectations and resource availability. Effective services will result when skilled practitioners support one another and ascribe to a service philosophy of care.

Lean philosophy and its applications in the service industry: a review of the current knowledge

This article presents an in-depth bibliographic study about the creation, principles, evolution, and practices of the lean philosophy oriented to the services sector. More than 70 papers about “lean thinking” – specially with focus on services – have been carefully reviewed. It presents the principles of lean service in an organized way, companies applying lean service, and best practices and tools in the implementation of lean service. It shows that lean service does not have a single or specific model of tools, practices or standards. In fact, it is a mix of tools and practices that must be applied according the situation found to be improved. Despite the lack of a standards and methodology for use in services, its best practices, inherited from manufacturing, when applied to services can generate large economic and financial results, as well as improvement of workers’ behavior. But, like any change process, this study shows that the application of lean in services also suffers resistance. There might be limitations when evaluating lean practices and principles to services, specially those that have not yet been well defined and reported. Other limitations are due to the scarce articles in the literature. However, this research showed that the use of the lean philosophy in services proved to be effective and quite worthwhile. Several cases analyzed presented significant gains and confirmed an increasing and promising future for service companies “thinking lean”.

Carry out Service Philosophy and Promote Undergraduate Teaching Informatization and Network Construction

To strengthen and increase teaching and serving work efficiency is the mainline and the comprehensive and deep integration of teaching philosophy into information and network technology is the method. To drive and increase teaching level and talent cultivation quality as the core and root duty, we launch the construction of the undergraduate teaching administration and service platform, and the construction of the network courses management and service platform. At the aspect of the teaching administration and service platform construction, we need to hackle our teaching work comprehensively first, and then integrate sorts of teaching administration and service work flow into the construction of the platform. At the aspect of network course management and service platform construction, courses are the core contents, which should be built according to the MOOC mode, and operate on the platform according to SPOC mode. Through platform construction, undergraduate teaching work is promoted in connotation development and leap frog development.

What Counts? A Mixed-Methods Study to Inform Evaluation of Shelters for Abused Women

Shelters for abused women have expanded from "safe havens" to providing a range of residential and outreach services, and face increasing pressure to demonstrate "value for money" by providing evaluation metrics that may or may not reflect what they actually do. We conducted interviews and surveys with 68 shelter directors in Ontario, Canada, and found that differences in service philosophy and how abuse is defined influence decisions about who receives services and the shelter's role in the broader community; these in turn affect how the work of shelters is positioned. Implications for shelter service evaluation are discussed.

Meeting the Need before Learning to Read: A Holistic Approach to Educational Achievement

Traveling to Peru with a group of students from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota opened my eyes to the numerous possibilities in my career as a librarian to make a difference in the lives of students who confront seemingly insurmountable obstacles to success. Our January Interim service learning course Education, Healthcare, and Poverty in Peru asked us to reflect on our individual purpose, expectations, and philosophy of service. Our small group of about 20 students came to the program from different fields with varying interests motivating our desire to participate in the course. The majority were nursing or education majors seeking to contribute their expertise through medical field work and English instruction, while others were either bilingual Spanish speakers or showed interest in pursuing a degree in medicine. I was drawn to the program because of the service aspect and the opportunity to use my Spanish language skills to engage with the people I would meet, live, and work with in Peru and to interpret for my team.

John Albert Majors Jr., 1920–2013, and William Harcourt Majors, 1925–2013.

John Albert Majors Jr., 1920–2013, and William Harcourt Majors, 1925–2013.

Working on the Edge: Stresses and Rewards of Work in a Front-line Mental Health Service.

This study sought to investigate frontline mental health professionals' perceptions of work stress and the rewards and demands associated with their work. Locally known as 'linkworkers', and from a variety of professional backgrounds, these staff worked mainly in general practice settings. Individual interviews were conducted with nine linkworkers, and the interview transcripts were analysed thematically. The main themes identified were the following: demands, coping, individual resilience, ownership and creativity, boundaries, secure base and service philosophy and ethos. Themes, categories and sub categories were presented and discussed with seven of the linkworkers in two focus groups. Focus group transcripts were analysed, and additional themes of recognizing limitations, disillusionment and the dilemma of setting boundaries were identified. These themes overlapped with those previously identified but were associated with service changes over time. The themes of ownership and creativity and service philosophy and ethos are significant, not only in relation to their impact on individual linkworkers but also in terms of their relevance for establishing and maintaining morale, engagement and a reflective culture within a service. The relevance of this work to accessible and newly developing mental health services is considered. Supporting and listening to staff and allowing time for informal contact are valued by staff and enable the provision of empathic, compassionate services. Without space for reflection, staff groups may be vulnerable to the development and effects of unhelpful organizational defences, which reduce the effectiveness, quality and efficiency of caring services and increase perceived workplace stress. Services which foster staff engagement, ownership and creativity and employ "bottom up" approaches to service development are valued by staff and appear to increase staff morale and capacity to cope adaptively to change.

Selling Services IS Different from Selling Soup – A Thought Leader Interview with Professor Leonard Berry

In this our fourth special issue based on service management papers presented at QUIS we changed the format of having an interview with a prominent service executive to interviewing a service thought leader. This change allows us to introduce leading contributors to service management from the academic world to readers of JAME. Thus we use this interview feature to introduce readers to Len Berry, not only a leading contributor to the theory and research on services marketing and management, but also an individual who helped develop the field of services marketing. Len has not only created some important tools for measuring service quality but has also expanded his early work in marketing to include the study of how management practices and systems influence service excellence. He has published three major books assessing the characteristics of service exemplars and written numerous articles in both marketing and management journals reporting the findings of his extensive field studies of these organizations. We are delighted to share his thoughts with you in this special issue and hope you are as intrigued with his ideas as we are.Authors: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. You have had a remarkable career and certainly can be considered one of the key pioneers responsible for developing the relatively new discipline of services marketing and management. Let us begin with an obvious question. What sparked your initial curiosity into the largely unexplored academic area that we now call 'services marketing?'LB: When I was a brand new assistant professor, 2 or 3 years after earning my PhD in marketing at Arizona State University in 1968, the phone rang one day and it was the American Bankers Association in Washington D.C. calling. Why they called me, I'll never know. They wanted to know if I would be interested in collaborating on a textbook on bank marketing. They had identified another marketing professor at the University of Kentucky, Jim Donnelly, who was interested and they wondered if I would also be interested in collaborating with Jim on this. field of banking did not have a marketing textbook at that time. American Bankers Association has an educational arm called The American Institute of Banking (AIB) which puts on various banking related courses in schools. And they needed a textbook for a new marketing course that they were going to offer through the AIB. So I said yes even though I didn't know Jim! We met, talked about it, and wrote our book. And the book was successful. That launched a mini career for Jim and me in that period of time in the 1970s. We spent considerable time traversing the country and giving seminars to state banking associations and other groups about bank marketing based on the research and marketing ideas from our book. I spent most of the 70s studying financial services marketing and interacting with bankers and then teaching bank marketing to big groups of bankers, which was totally unexpected when I had finished my doctorate and started my career. I was going along happily not really thinking what else I was going to do. I was not a strategic career planner at the time - I was a rookie professor. I was getting paid. I was getting published. It occurred to me in that period that what I was teaching in bank marketing, what was in our book, was quite different from what I learned as a PhD student in marketing. What I really learned in my classwork was manufactured goods marketing - services marketing is different. That time with the bankers and doing bank marketing, which extended into the early 80s, is what sparked my interest in services marketing.Authors: In your own career, was there a watershed moment/research project/consulting job/influential person that changed the direction of your thinking on service management?LB: One watershed moment was reading a book in 1975 by Stanley Marcus called Minding the Store (Neiman Marcus Stores). It was a beautifully crafted, compelling book about the service philosophy that separated Neiman Marcus from other retailers of its era. …

Future Business Innovation in Minority Language Media

This article investigates innovation in the media business models that some European minority-language news organizations are implementing in these times of economic crisis. It entails a shift in the underlying business and service philosophy which interpellates the community and pleads for a change in their mutual relationship. The research is based on the case studies of two private media companies from the Catalan and Basque language media systems that were experiencing economic and financial difficulties. Conducting inspirational advertising campaigns, the news organizations issued a call for readers and non-readers to make a funding commitment to the project, a pledge to provide new revenues and liaisons, while retaining and enhancing the standard income streams. In brief, it is about going back to the basics of active community projects and involvement.