Part-time students in the workforce - enhancing practice in course provision

This paper describes a recent project on HE delivery to part-time students in the workforce. The main aim has been to investigate and propose effective practice in part-time provision in engineering in order to enhance the experience of part-time students at the same time as giving potential benefits to courses, departments and all students. The project has included interviews with employers and a questionnaire survey for current part-time students. The final guidance has been assembled with the aim of supporting the enhancement of existing courses and the development of new part-time provision. The paper presents the approaches taken in the project as a whole, analyses the results of the student survey, and summarises the overall outcomes.

A European competence framework for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology

Project Report: The PHAR-IN ("Competences for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology") looked at whether there is a difference in how industrial employees and academics rank competences for practice in the biotechnological industry. A small expert panel consisting of the authors of this paper produced a biotechnology competence framework by drawing up an initial list of competences then ranking them in importance using a three-stage Delphi process. The framework was next evaluated and validated by a large expert panel of academics (n = 37) and industrial employees (n = 154). Results show that priorities for industrial employees and academics were similar. The competences for biotechnology practice that received the highest scores were mainly in: . "Research and Development", . "Upstream" and "Downstream" Processing', " . "Product development and formulation", " . "Aseptic processing", ."Analytical methodology", . "Product stability", and . "Regulation". The main area of disagreement was in the category "Ethics and drug safety" where academics ranked competences higher than did industrial employees.

The production of a framework of competences for pharmacy practice in the European Union:the PHAR-QA project

Background and objectives: The goal of the PHAR-QA (Qualityassurance in European pharmacy education and training) project isthe production of a European framework of competences for pharmacypractice. This PHAR-QA framework (www.phar-qa.eu) will beEuropean and consultative i.e. it will be used for harmonization—butwill not to replace existing national QA systems.Methods: Using the proposals for competences produced by the previousPHARMINE(Pharmacy education in Europe; www.pharmine.eu) project, together with those of other sources, the authors produced a listof 68 personal and patient care competencies. Using internet surveytools the stakeholders—European pharmacy community (universitydepartment staff and students, community, hospital and industrialpharmacists, as well as pharmacists working in clinical biology andother branches, together with representatives of chambers and associations)—were invited to rank the proposals and add comments.Results and conclusions: Pharmacology and pharmacotherapy togetherwith competences such as ‘‘supply of appropriate medicinestaking into account dose, correct formulation, concentration, administrationroute and timing’’ ranked high. Other topics such as ‘‘currentknowledge of design, synthesis, isolation, characterisation and biologicalevaluation of active substances’’ ranked lower.Implications for practice: In the short term, it is anticipated that thissurvey will stimulate a productive discussion on pharmacy educationand practice by the various stakeholders. In the long term, thisframework could serve as a European model framework of competencesfor pharmacy practice.Acknowledgements: With the support of the Lifelong Learningprogramme of the European Union: 527194-LLP-1-2012-1-BEERASMUS-EMCR. This publication reflects the views only of theauthors; the Commission cannot be held responsible for any usewhich may be made of the information contained therein.

Organizing to reorganize:doing end-to-end management in practice

This paper takes a practice perspective on organizing, re-conceptualizing coordination mechanisms as dynamic activities that are under continuous construction and modification in order to socially accomplish intra-organizational relationships and activities. The paper is based on the case of Servico, an organization undergoing a major reorganization of its value chain in response to a change in government regulation. We examine the specific performances through which the ostensive and abstract character of a coordination mechanism, ‘end-to-end management’, is defined and refined into a set of activities that actors can use to effect the re-organization of relationships between two divisions during the delivery of a critical regulatory goal. We find six cycles of iteration between the ostensive and performative nature of end-to-end, which progressively help to organize three phases in the reorganization of Servico; absence, presence and formalization. The discussion examines the processual evolution of these cycles and phases and their implications for the way that reorganization occurred. We draw these findings together in a process model that makes contributions to the literature on organizing, on ostensive and performative routines, and on organizational restructuring.

Organizing to reorganize:doing end-to-end management in practice

This paper takes a practice perspective on organizing, re-conceptualizing coordination mechanisms as dynamic activities that are under continuous construction and modification in order to socially accomplish intra-organizational relationships and activities. The paper is based on the case of Servico, an organization undergoing a major reorganization of its value chain in response to a change in government regulation. We examine the specific performances through which the ostensive and abstract character of a coordination mechanism, ‘end-to-end management’, is defined and refined into a set of activities that actors can use to effect the re-organization of relationships between two divisions during the delivery of a critical regulatory goal. We find six cycles of iteration between the ostensive and performative nature of end-to-end, which progressively help to organize three phases in the reorganization of Servico; absence, presence and formalization. The discussion examines the processual evolution of these cycles and phases and their implications for the way that reorganization occurred. We draw these findings together in a process model that makes contributions to the literature on organizing, on ostensive and performative routines, and on organizational restructuring.

Toward a theory of coordinating:creating coordinating mechanisms in practice

This paper uses a practice perspective to study coordinating as dynamic activities that are continuously created and modified in order to enact organizational relationships and activities. It is based on the case of Servico, an organization undergoing a major restructuring of its value chain in response to a change in government regulation. In our case, the actors iterate between the abstract concept of a coordinating mechanism referred to as end-to-end management and its performance in practice. They do this via five performative–ostensive cycles: (1) enacting disruption, (2) orienting to absence, (3) creating elements, (4) forming new patterns, and (5) stabilizing new patterns. These cycles and the relationships between them constitute a process model of coordinating. This model highlights the importance of absence in the coordinating process and demonstrates how experiencing absence shapes subsequent coordinating activity.

Electronic information sharing in local government authorities:factors influencing the decision-making process

Local Government Authorities (LGAs) are mainly characterised as information-intensive organisations. To satisfy their information requirements, effective information sharing within and among LGAs is necessary. Nevertheless, the dilemma of Inter-Organisational Information Sharing (IOIS) has been regarded as an inevitable issue for the public sector. Despite a decade of active research and practice, the field lacks a comprehensive framework to examine the factors influencing Electronic Information Sharing (EIS) among LGAs. The research presented in this paper contributes towards resolving this problem by developing a conceptual framework of factors influencing EIS in Government-to-Government (G2G) collaboration. By presenting this model, we attempt to clarify that EIS in LGAs is affected by a combination of environmental, organisational, business process, and technological factors and that it should not be scrutinised merely from a technical perspective. To validate the conceptual rationale, multiple case study based research strategy was selected. From an analysis of the empirical data from two case organisations, this paper exemplifies the importance (i.e. prioritisation) of these factors in influencing EIS by utilising the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. The intent herein is to offer LGA decision-makers with a systematic decision-making process in realising the importance (i.e. from most important to least important) of EIS influential factors. This systematic process will also assist LGA decision-makers in better interpreting EIS and its underlying problems. The research reported herein should be of interest to both academics and practitioners who are involved in IOIS, in general, and collaborative e-Government, in particular. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assisting national governments in governance, risk, and compliance:implementation of project management offices

Currently, there are many instances where public sector organizations and government entities collapse and are unable to provide the required services to the public. Such organizations do not have effective mechanisms of control or any specific department which manages projects occurring in the organization. However, this study suggests the incorporation of the Project Management Office (PMO) in public sector organizations for the purpose of managing project management. There are other relevant roles of the PMO discussed in this study. The study is contextualized with respect to Corporate Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) and the study shows how PMO can benefit or compliment GRC and provide overall better standards of practice for public sector organizations. The study uses a mixed methodology for data collection and the findings contribute to the body of knowledge regarding PMO's and GRC.