Defining the domain of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in tourism organisations : a preliminary view from stakeholders in Thailand's accommodation sector

This paper aims to define the domain of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for hotel and accommodation organizations in Thailand. It seeks to integrate the diverse components of CSR as defined within the general business/management, tourism and stakeholder literatures. A review of existing literature, codes of practice and standards, identify three broad CSR components – economic issues, social/ethical issues and environmental – although each of the standards varied in terms of the definition and emphasis applied. The components were ‘aggregated’ within each of the broad management and tourism literature, these two sets of groupings were then aggregated into one overarching set of CSR issues. Semi-structured interviews were then undertaken with 38 key informants from hotel and resort businesses in Thailand to identify their views toward the applicability of these over-arching components to hotel and accommodation organisations.

The results of the aggregation of standards suggest that CRS approaches within general business tend to be more socially/ethically orientated whereas within the tourism area approaches tend to be more environmentally orientated. Key respondents’ views were generally consistent with the three broad issues of the integrated CSR domain, although some issues were identified as more salient to hotel and accommodation organisations than others. The paper suggests that there is a need to develop CSR measures and indicators applicable and reflective of the different environmental, legal, cultural and local setting.

Managing the donation service experience : a case study

This article examines the implications for nonprofits of managing donation exchanges using customer relationship management and service blueprinting. It presents a case study of one U.K.-based nonprofit and identifies a range of issues that might make managing donation service exchanges more complex than occurs in the for-profit setting. In particular, the fact that there are multiple simultaneous exchanges means that it may be difficult to separate donation processes from other organizational activities such as membership and campaigning. We explore the utility of service blueprinting in aiding the management of this complexity.

Complexity of communicating social responsibility

It is recognised that organisations, consumers and businesses are increasingly more concerned with how business activities affect society. While research has explored specific types of techniques for communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR), there has not been a more general discussion of the considerations that organisations should make when determining the type of communications that should be used. This paper takes a managerial approach, discussing four broad issues associated with the communication of CSR: 1) intensity of action/positioning; 2) communicating action; 3) types of programs utilised and 4) integration issues. It is proposed that by understanding these issues organisations will be in a better position to ensure that the information is clearly communicated and understood by their various stakeholders. The benefits to be achieved will, however, be dependent on the objectives of the communication and thus it is suggested there is not one single appropriate approach to managing these issues.

Web-based self-service systems for managed IT support: service provider perspectives of stakeholder-based issues

This chapter explores the provision of after-sales information technology (IT) support services using Web-based self-service systems (WSSs) in a business-to-business (B2B) context. A recent study conducted at six large multi-national IT support organisations revealed a number of critical success factors (CSFs) and stakeholder-based issues. To better identify and understand these important enablers and barriers, we explain how WSSs should be considered within a complex network of service providers, business partners and customer firms. The CSFs and stakeholder-based issues are discussed. The chapter highlights that for more successful service provision using WSSs, IT service providers should collaborate more effectively with enterprise customers and business partners and should better integrate their WSSs.

Identifying the health and mental health information needs of people with coronary heart disease, with and without depression

Objective:
To identify the health and mental health information needs of people with coronary heart disease (CHD), with and without comorbid depression.

Design and setting:
A qualitative study conducted in Melbourne in 2006, using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews on the types of health information that patients with CHD considered useful to assist with the management of their illness. Structured clinical interviews were used to assess current and prior depressive episodes in these patients.

Participants:
14 general practice patients (eight with current or prior history of major depression) who had experienced myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, angioplasty or angina (confirmed via testing).

Results:
Four themes relating to information on how patients could manage their cardiovascular health and improve their psychosocial wellbeing emerged: psychosocial; physical activity; medical; and information for family. The most prominent information needs included identification and management of risk-related physical symptoms, and psychosocial information, most notably to enhance patients’ social support. Patients considered this information important for alleviating health anxiety and negative affect.

Conclusion:
This small patient sample endorsed the need for health and mental health information on a range of psychosocial and physical health topics. Participants desired specific types of information to assist with the self-management of their health and to assuage their health concerns.

Protecting information systems from DDoS attack using multicore methodology

Previous work, in the area of defense systems has focused on developing a firewall like structure, in order to protect applications from attacks. The major drawback for implementing security in general, is that it affects the performance of the application they are trying to protect. In fact, most developers avoid implementing security at all. With the coming of new multicore systems, we might at last be able to minimize the performance issues that security places on applications. In our bodyguard framework we propose a new kind of defense that acts alongside, not in front, of applications. This means that performance issues that effect system applications are kept to a minimum, but at the same time still provide high grade security. Our experimental results demonstrate that a ten to fifteen percent speedup in performance is possible, with the potential of greater speedup.

The decision-making journey of a family carer : information and social needs in a cultural context

While the important role of family as carer has been increasingly recognised in healthcare service provision, particularly for patients with acute or chronic illnesses, the carer's information and social needs have not been well understood and adequately supported. In order to provide continuous and home-based care for the patient, and to make informed decisions about the care, a family carer needs sufficient access to medical information in general, the patient's health information specifically, and supportive care services. Two key challenges are the carer's lack of medical knowledge and the many carers with non-English speaking and different cultural backgrounds. The informational and social needs of family carers are not yet well understood. This paper analyses the web-log of a husband-carer who provided support for his wife, who at the time of care was a lung cancer patient. It examines the decision-making journey of the carer and identifies the key issues faced in terms of informational and social practices surrounding care provision.

Building information modelling project decision support framework

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an information technology [IT] enabled approach to managing design data in the AEC/FM (Architecture, Engineering and Construction/ Facilities Management) industry. BIM enables improved interdisciplinary collaboration across distributed teams, intelligent documentation and information retrieval, greater consistency in building data, better conflict detection and enhanced facilities management. Despite the apparent benefits the adoption of BIM in practice has been slow. Workshops with industry focus groups were conducted to identify the industry needs, concerns and expectations from participants who had implemented BIM or were BIM “ready”. Factors inhibiting BIM adoption include lack of training, low business incentives, perception of lack of rewards, technological concerns, industry fragmentation related to uneven ICT adoption practices, contractual matters and resistance to changing current work practice. Successful BIM usage depends on collective adoption of BIM across the different disciplines and support by the client. The relationship of current work practices to future BIM scenarios was identified as an important strategy as the participants believed that BIM cannot be efficiently used with traditional practices and methods. The key to successful implementation is to explore the extent to which current work practices must change. Currently there is a perception that all work practices and processes must adopt and change for effective usage of BIM. It is acknowledged that new roles and responsibilities are emerging and that different parties will lead BIM on different projects. A contingency based approach to the problem of implementation was taken which relies upon integration of BIM project champion, procurement strategy, team capability analysis, commercial software availability/applicability and phase decision making and event analysis. Organizations need to understand: (a) their own work processes and requirements; (b) the range of BIM applications available in the market and their capabilities (c) the potential benefits of different BIM applications and their roles in different phases of the project lifecycle, and (d) collective supply chain adoption capabilities. A framework is proposed to support organizations selection of BIM usage strategies that meet their project requirements. Case studies are being conducted to develop the framework. The results of the preliminary design management case study is presented for contractor led BIM specific to the design and construct procurement strategy.

Whose risk? 'Managing' risk in school leadership

This article discusses the rise in prominence of 'risk' in schools and the processes and procedures it has triggered in its wake. The discussion commences with formal definitions of 'risk' and how risk is mandated and 'managed' in schools. Alternative views are canvassed and hegemonic emphases in risk policy and practice are critiqued. Taking a socio-cultural approach, the article explores risk from the perspective of school leaders, raising topics elided in risk discourses. The article takes the view that current conceptions of 'risk' have created greater complexity and further risks for the school leaders who 'manage' it. The article investigates school leaders 'and risk' - how risks emerge in the course of everyday school leadership work; school leaders 'at risk' - interrogating the personal and professional risk borne by school leaders through risk policies; and leaders 'as risk' - broaching the rarely raised topic of 'bad' leadership in schools, with its deleterious effects on individuals and whole school communities. These aspects of risk are not found in current literature on risk in educational leadership. The article then goes further to raise the 'undiscussable' topic of risky central leadership practices which render school leaders at even more risk. The article concludes with discussion of risks that school leaders cannot afford not to take in dealing with risk, particularly with regard to collective action to address mandated policy procedures which are detrimental to the foundational issues of teaching, learning, professional agency and community perceptions.

Addressing online information needs in palliative care : an action research-inspired approach

Whereas user participation has been embraced worldwide as a means to provide better patient outcomes, the implementation of formative, action research approaches in online health information has remained under-explored. The purpose of this study is to present an action research-based methodology that allows the scoping of health information and design needs in complex, multi-user online environments. The project's four main stages were informed by an iterative, formative approach involving continuous expert and user evaluation. The study suggests that an action research-inspired formative approach can be successfully employed to generate user-participation. Moreover, sustained user-participation effectively addresses most quality issues regarding content, language, and accessibility raised in the recent literature. The paper concludes that an action research approach geared to develop online health resources deserves more attention.

Marketing cultural attractions : understanding non-attendance and visitation barriers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to draw together the previous academic and industry research on non-attendance of cultural attractions, followed by qualitative in-depth interviews to identify commonalities or gaps in the previous research on barriers, constraints and inhibitors, as well as to propose linkages between these.

Design/methodology/approach – A multi-method approach is used – where barriers, constraints and inhibitors are identified by means of thematic content analysis of the literature. A set of probing questions is developed based on these themes and is then examined in in-depth interviews with individuals that had not visited cultural attractions in the past two years, in an attempt to triangulate data, as well as to identify connections between barriers.

Findings – From the literature, eight interconnected barriers to visitation are identified: physical access; personal access; cost; time and timing; product; personal interest and peer group; socialisation and understanding; and information. The in-depth interviews generally support these, although it is also identified that there are complex interrelationships between the issues.

Originality/value – This paper addresses the neglected question of why people do not attend cultural attractions by triangulating thematic findings from the content analysis of diverse literature with in-depth interview responses from one non-visitor segment. This results in an interconnected model of barriers that can be used to assist managers to develop strategies addressing low visitation rates within targeted segments.

Interactions and networks in Australian tourism

There are many participants in the tourism network who have vested interests in tourism development. These organizations include hotels, associations of hotels and hotel owners, inbound travel agents, travel wholesalers, tourism industry associations, airlines, cruise lines, tourism promotional agencies, regional and local tourism authorities, SME tourism businesses, conference and convention centres and many more. Individuals in the tourism industry intermittently change employment. They often remain in the industry and can move between types of organizations. Their contacts, associations and personal networks remain useful and indeed are utilized. The Interactive Approach postulated by the IMP Group proposes that both suppliers and manufacturers are often involved in close, long-lasting adaptive relationships. Firms within relationships must work together, share objectives, share information and also communicate clearly and precisely using a common language. Here relationship partners should have a similar point of view on the meaning of marketing strategy and related concepts including market segmentation, differentiation and competitive positioning.

This paper seeks to assess the nature, perspectives and characteristics of interactions in the tourism network in Australia. There are two stages of this research. The first stage obtained the perspectives of network participants on the challenges facing tourism, key growth segments, brand and promotional strategies and customer insights and satisfaction levels. Participants were also asked to provide advice to the national marketing organization on a range of developmental topics. The second stage of this research assesses the interaction patterns among network participants Network picture, network position, resource constellations, interaction, resources and activities, interdependence, adaptation, actor bonds, strategy and change are also assessed. The relationships are political and consultative in nature. There is much interdependence and possible conflict between the network participants. The national tourism body has particular skills in tourism planning and tourism research. They also have significant resources and the ability to influence inbound tourism patterns. This paper seeks to assess and understand the interactions within this network.

Exploring the issues in sustainable development journal reporting

There is concern about the environmental claims organisations make in corporate social reports and advertising. Similar concerns may also occur with reporting of environmental initiatives in journals. This paper explores what information is being conveyed in academic and industry journals. In particular, we examine the types of projects that are discussed and the level of detail provided in the reporting of sustainable development initiatives to identify what is being communicated and whether there is substance to the reporting. The results show that there are issues with the lack of detail reported and its anecdotal nature.

The education and information needs of young adults with type 2 diabetes : a qualitative study

Aims and objectives. To identify the preferred content and delivery mode of education information for people aged 25 to 45 with type 2 diabetes to enable them to effectively self-manage their diabetes.

Background. People with type 2 diabetes are required to manage their own health and initiate behavioural changes. Self-management education and resources have typically been targeted at people aged 50 years and older. Little is known about the concerns and needs of younger people in managing type 2 diabetes, which are likely to be different from those of older people.

Design. A qualitative design was considered the most appropriate to elicit participants' views and perceptions of their type 2 diabetes information needs.

Methods. Data were obtained from one focus group (n = 9) and telephone interviews (n = 4) with people aged 25 to 45 with type 2 diabetes conducted in 2008.

Results. Implicit in participants' responses was their need to be active partners in managing their diabetes. Participants wanted information that is easy to understand, brief, consistent, age-specific and about a number of topics that are not adequately covered at present. They wanted a centralised source of information and a range of delivery mode options. Participants expressed some ambivalence about the Internet as a source of information. Participants also wanted age-specific group sessions, support from peers, psychological support, increased understanding of type 2 diabetes in the community, and a focus on preventing diabetes.

Conclusions. Young people with type 2 diabetes have specific diabetes needs and preferred information delivery modes. Participants felt current diabetes education programs do not cater specifically to their age group. Education and information resources need to be developed for the target group, addressing their content and format preferences.

Relevance to clinical practice. Health professionals need to utilise appropriate delivery modes and include information relevant to younger people when providing education information to young adults with type 2 diabetes.