Study of management decision making by ward sisters in a hospital and the effects on decision making after the implementation of a decision support sytem

This thesis considers management decision making at the ward level in hospitals especially by ward sisters, and the effectiveness of the intervention of a decision support system. Nursing practice theories were related to organisation and management theories in order to conceptualise a decision making framework for nurse manpower planning and deployment at the ward level. Decision and systems theories were explored to understand the concepts of decision making and the realities of power in an organisation. In essence, the hypothesis was concerned with changes in patterns of decision making that could occur with the intervention of a decision support system and that the degree of change would be governed by a set of `difficulty' factors within wards in a hospital. During the course of the study, a classification of ward management decision making was created, together with the development and validation of measuring instruments to test the research hypothesis. The decision support system used was rigorously evaluated to test whether benefits did accrue from its implementation. Quantitative results from sample wards together with qualitative information collected, were used to test this hypothesis and the outcomes postulated were supported by these findings. The main conclusion from this research is that a more rational approach to management decision making is feasible, using information from a decision support system. However, wards and ward sisters that need the most assistance, where the `difficulty' factors in the organisation are highest, benefit the least from this type of system. Organisational reviews are needed on these identified wards, involving managers and doctors, to reduce the levels of un-coordinated activities and disruption.

Impact of religion on business ethics in Europe and the Muslim world

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I got pregnant, I was so like ... crying inside...: experiences of women of Pakistani ancestry seeking contraception in the UK

South Asian women in Britain are less likely to use contraception than women in other ethnic groups. Previous studies have identified a lack of knowledge combined with low levels of English language and/or literacy as barriers to using contraception, but have not examined in detail women's experiences of accessing services. This qualitative study focused on the experiences of 19 Muslim women of Pakistani ancestry and the views of six health and community workers. The findings detail considerable institutional barriers to accessing contraceptive services, such as a lack of information and the paternalistic attitudes of some health professionals. The study suggests that, although all the women were motivated to access and use contraception, their ability to make informed choices was often limited. It was only when the women encountered advocates, who might be professionals or from their social networks, that they could begin to take control of their fertility. This study is consistent with earlier research and shows that lack of access to contraceptive services can have high personal and social costs for South Asian women.

Is education the panacea for economic deprivation of Muslims? Evidence from wage earners in India, 1987-2005

Few researchers have examined the nature and determinants of earnings differentials among religious groups, and none has been undertaken in the context of conflict-prone multi-religious societies like the one in India. We address this lacuna in the literature by examining the differences in the average log earnings of Hindu and Muslim wage earners in India, during the 1987–2005 period. Our results indicate that education differences between Hindu and Muslim wage earners, especially differences in the proportion of wage earners with tertiary education, are largely responsible for the differences in the average log earnings of the two religious groups across the years. By contrast, differences in the returns to education do not explain the aforementioned difference in average log earnings. In conclusion, we discuss some policy implications.

Religious compliance in Islamic financial institutions

The central goal of this research is to explore the approach of the Islamic banking industry in defining and implementing religious compliance at regulatory, institutional, and individual level within the Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) industry. It also examines the discrepancies, ambiguities and paradoxes that are exhibited in the individual and institutional behaviour in relation to the infusion and enactment of religious exigencies into compliance processes in IBF. Through the combined lenses of institutional work and a sensemaking perspective, this research portrays the practice of infusion of Islamic law in Islamic banks as being ambiguous and drifting down to the institutional and actor levels. In instances of both well-codified and non-codified regulatory frameworks for Shariah compliance, institutional rules ambiguity, rules interpretation and enactment ambiguities were found to be prevalent. The individual IBF professionals performed retrospective and prospective actions to adjust the role and rules boundaries both in the case of a Muslim and a non-Muslim country. The sensitizing concept of religious compliance is the primary theoretical contribution of this research and provides a tool to understand the nature of what constitutes Shariah compliance and the dynamics of its implementation. It helps to explain the empirical consequences of the lack of a clear definition of Shariah compliance in the regulatory frameworks and standards available for the industry. It also addresses the calls to have a clear reference on what constitute Shariah compliance in IBF as proposed in previous studies (Hayat, Butter, & Kock, 2013; Maurer, 2003, 2012; Pitluck, 2012). The methodological and theoretical perspective of this research are unique in the use of multi-level analysis and approaches that blend micro and macro perspectives of the research field, to illuminate and provide a more complete picture of religious compliance infusion and enactment in IBF.

Religious and sexual identities:a multi-faith exploration of young adults

Presenting qualitative and quantitative findings on the lived experiences of around seven hundred young adults from Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and mixed-faith backgrounds, Religious and Sexual Identities provides an illuminating and nuanced analysis of young adults' perceptions and negotiations of their religious, sexual, youth and gender identities. It demonstrates how these young adults creatively construct meanings and social connections as they navigate demanding but exciting spaces in which their multiple identities intersect. Accessible quantitative analyses are combined with rich interview and video diary narratives in this theoretically-informed exploration of religious and sexual identities in contemporary society. © Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip and Sarah-Jane Page 2013. All rights reserved.

Transgressing community:the case of Muslims in a twenty-first-century British city

This paper draws on ethnographic research carried out in Birmingham, UK – a city significant for its sizeable Muslim population and its iconic role in the history of minority ethnic settlement in Britain – to consider how associations of place and ethnicity work in different ways to inform ideas about ‘Muslim community’ in twenty-first-century Britain. The paper charts happenings around a local event in an area of majority Asian settlement and how representations of the area as a place of Muslim community were used to implicate it in the ‘war on terror’. The paper goes on to show how this sensibility is disrupted by Muslims themselves through alternative engagements with space and ethnicity. The paper argues that these offer a ground for making Muslim community in ways that actively engage with histories and patterns of ethnic settlement in the city rather than being determined by them.

Ist Religion schlecht für Frauen? Empirische Erkenntnisse zum Zusammenhang zwischen öffentlichen Religionen und den Menschenrechten der Frau

Religion is a dynamic concept. It can be a means of supporting masculinist power structures as well as a means for challenging established gender hierarchies. This article therefore suggests the proposition that it is not religion as such constituting a problem for the human rights of women but the privileging of patriarchal interpretations of religion and the marginalization of progressive interpretations in many contexts, respectively. From an empirical perspective, thus, the question of the concrete conditions contributing to the ability of conservative religious actors to enforce their patriarchal views in politics and society arises. This article consults existing empirical studies on predominantly Christian democracies and Muslim societies to find answers to this question. It discusses the impact that the institutional relations between the state and religion, the significance of religion in the political party system as well as the confessional composition and the strength of religiosity in a society have on the human rights of women. The article, moreover, deals with the effect of democracy and certain rights on the promotion of women's rights in religious contexts. It demonstrates the requirement of and provides suggestions for further empirical research in this area.

Transgressing community:the case of Muslims in a twenty-first-century British city

This paper draws on ethnographic research carried out in Birmingham, UK - a city significant for its sizeable Muslim population and its iconic role in the history of minority ethnic settlement in Britain - to consider how associations of place and ethnicity work in different ways to inform ideas about 'Muslim community' in twenty-first-century Britain. The paper charts happenings around a local event in an area of majority Asian settlement and how representations of the area as a place of Muslim community were used to implicate it in the 'war on terror'. The paper goes on to show how this sensibility is disrupted by Muslims themselves through alternative engagements with space and ethnicity. The paper argues that these offer a ground for making Muslim community in ways that actively engage with histories and patterns of ethnic settlement in the city rather than being determined by them.

Dynamics of vector rogue waves in a fiber laser with a ring cavity

A pulse–pulse interaction that leads to rogue wave (RW) generation in lasers was previously attributed either to soliton–soliton or soliton–dispersive-wave interaction. The beating between polarization modes in the absence of a saturable absorber causes similar effects. Accounting for these polarization modes in a laser resonator is the purpose of the distributed vector model of laser resonators. Furthermore, high pump power, high amplitude, and short pulse duration are not necessary conditions to observe pulse attraction, repulsion, and collisions and the resonance exchange of energy between among them. The regimes of interest can be tuned just by changing the birefringence in the cavity with the pump power slightly higher than the laser threshold. This allows the observation of a wide range of RW patterns in the same experiment, as well as to classify them. The dynamics of the interaction between pulses leads us to the conclusion that all of these effects occur due to nonlinearity induced by the inverse population in the active fiber as well as an intrinsic nonlinearity in the passive part of the cavity. Most of the mechanisms of pulse–pulse interaction were found to be mutually exclusive. This means that all the observed RW patterns, namely, the “lonely,” “twins,” “three sisters,” and “cross,” are probably different cases of the same process.

Failing to meet expectations:the meaning of intimate partner violence for Pakistanis

Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major social and public health problem affecting people across cultures, religions and societies. Much research has been undertaken to offer understanding and explanations of this phenomenon, its determinants, and its consequences in developed countries around the world. However, there is still a paucity of research on IPV in many areas of the developing world such as Pakistan. Although various studies have been conducted to demonstrate the prevalence of IPV in the country, none of the studies have tried to explore the meaning of IPV from the perspective of Pakistani people. Aim: This study aimed to explore understandings of Pakistani men and women of IPV. It aimed to develop a theory to explain the meaning of IPV and the process through which it occurs, from the perspective of Pakistani people. Methods: The study utilised a qualitative approach with constructivist grounded theory methods and analysis techniques. Data was collected from Karachi, Pakistan and Sheffield, UK. Forty one people (20 from Pakistan and 21 from UK) participated in the study. Findings: The participants identified IPV as a serious concern. Although verbal abuse is often included in definitions of IPV, the participants did not consider shouting, raising the voice or scolding as a type of violence. Hitting, beating, pushing, throwing objects, and pulling hair were identified as acts of physical violence, and non-consensual sex was identified as a form of sexual abuse. Participants identified failure to meet role expectations of a husband or wife as a key contributor to the development of conflict between partners which could lead to IPV. Examples of various expectations from a wife include completing household chores, looking after husband, looking after children, looking after in laws, respecting and adjusting to in-law's customs and traditions. Important expectation from a husband include provision of finances, acting as a bridge, maintaining a balance between his wife and other family members particularly his mother and sisters, and taking the responsibility for his wife and children. Failure to meet these expectations could contribute to conflict and subsequent violence. This appeared to be shaped by cultural issues such as common use of arranged marriages, the rarity of divorce and the centrality of the extended family to the intimate partnership. Implications: Any interventions aimed at reducing IPV in Pakistani people must consider the meaning and causes of IPV from the perspective of that group.