Community engagement and social organization: introducing concepts, policy and practical applications

This chapter provides an introductory overview of how the term ‘community’ has been conceptualized in sociological literatures, noting that there remains considerable uncertainty with regard to the way in which communities could or should be defined. The chapter examines the salience of underlying concepts of social organization that can shape and influence the extent to which programmes of engagement are likely to be successful. Drawing on recent empirical work some of the key opportunities and challenges for local government in translating the concepts into practice are considered.

Content marketing and brand engagement on social media: a study of Facebook´s posts in the ecommerce industry in Brazil

Content marketing refers to marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. It is focused not on selling, but on communicating with customers and prospects. In today world´s, a trend has been seen in brands becoming publishers in order to keep up with their competition and more importantly to keep their base of fans and followers. Content Marketing is making companies to engage consumers by publishing engaging and value-filled content. This study aims to investigate if there is a link between brand engagement and Facebook Content Marketing practices in the e-commerce industry in Brazil. Based on the literature review, this study defines brand engagement on Facebook as the numbers of "likes" "comments" and "shares" that a company receives from its fans. These actions reflect the popularity of the brand post and leads to engagement. The author defines a scale where levels of Content Marketing practices are developed in order to analyze brand posts on Facebook of an ecommerce company in Brazil. The findings reveal that the most important criterion for the company is the one regarding the picture of the post, where it examines whether the photo content is appealing to the audience. Moreover, it was perceived that the higher the level of these criterion in a post, the greater the number of likes, comments and shares the post receives. The time when a post is published does not present a significant role in determining customer engagement and the most important factor within a publication is to reach the maximum level in the Content Marketing Scale.

Engagement in adolescent career preparation: Social support, personality, and the development of choice decidedness and congruence

This longitudinal panel study investigated predictors and outcomes of active engagement in career preparation among 349 Swiss adolescents from the beginning to the end of eighth grade. Latent variable structural equation modeling was applied. The results showed that engagement in terms of self- and environmental-exploration and active career planning related positively to interindividual increases in career decidedness and choice congruence. More perceived social support, early goal decidedness, and particular personality traits predicted more engagement. Support and personality impacted outcomes only mediated through engagement. Early decidedness and congruence were significant predictors of their respective later levels. Implications for practice are presented.

"That's what social media is all about - engagement" : Hur märkesinnehavare använder visuell storytelling på Instagram för att skapa märkesgemenskaper

Utvecklingen av sociala medier såsom t.ex. Facebook och Instagram har inneburit nya möjligheter att kommunicera sin livsstil och sina personliga val, som överskrider såväl kulturella som geografiska gränser. Nya gemenskaper skapas. Detta får betydelse för hur konsumenter kommunicerar med varandra samt hur märkesinnehavarna kommunicerar med sina kunder. Syftet med min studie är att undersöka hur en märkesinnehavare inom mode använder sociala medier, i detta fall Instagram, i sin kommunikation med kunderna för att skapa engagemang kring sitt varumärke. Aktuell forskning visar att värde i varumärket skapas genom en ömsesidig kommunikation mellan märkesinnehavaren och konsumenterna. Kommunikationen sker både mellan märkesinnehavare och konsumenter samt mellan konsumenterna i en märkesgemenskap. Storytelling är ett verksamt medel i denna meningsskapande process. En semiotisk analys användes för att analysera bilderna och hur de bidrar till märkets storytelling. Resultatet visar att Instagram ger märkesinnehavare och konsumenter möjlighet att gemensamt skapa värde. De tekniska funktionerna i applikationen gör det lätt för märkesinnehavare att interagera med sina konsumenter och skapa en dynamisk märkesgemenskap. På Sabo Skirts instagramkonto är märkesinnehavaren och följarna tillsammans märkets författare. Följarna använder kläderna och ger dem betydelse i sin egen vardag samtidigt som märkesinnehavaren skapar möjligheter för dem att synas på ett instagramkonto med 1,5 miljoner följare. Detta kan tolkas med hjälp av teorin uses and gratifications som säger att användningen av media alltid är målinriktad. Människor väljer aktivt media efter vilka deras behov är och hur väl användningen tillfredsställer dessa behov.

The views of corporate managers on the current state of, and future prospects for, social reporting in Bangladesh: an engagement based study

Purpose – This paper seeks to respond to recent calls for more engagement-based studies of corporate social reporting (CSR) practice by examining the views of corporate managers on the current state of, and future prospects for, social reporting in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a series of interviews with senior managers from 23 Bangladeshi companies representing the multinational, domestic private and public sectors. Findings – Key findings are that the main motivation behind current reporting practice lies in a desire on the part of corporate management to manage powerful stakeholder groups, whilst perceived pressure from external forces, notably parent companies' instructions and demands from international buyers, is driving the process forward. In the latter context it appears that adoption of international social accounting standards and codes is likely to become more prevalent in the future. Reservations are expressed as to whether such a passive compliance strategy is likely to achieve much in the way of real changes in corporate behaviour, particularly when Western developed standards and codes are imposed without consideration of local cultural, economic and social factors. Indeed, such imposition could be regarded as little more than an example of the erection of non-tariff trade barriers rather than representing any meaningful move towards empowering indigenous stakeholder groups. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature on CSR in developing countries where there is a distinct lack of engagement-based published studies.

Undermining patient and public engagement and limiting its impact:the consequences of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 on collective patient and public involvement

Patient and public involvement has been at the heart of UK health policy for more than two decades. This commitment to putting patients at the heart of the British National Health Service (NHS) has become a central principle helping to ensure equity, patient safety and effectiveness in the health system. The recent Health and Social Care Act 2012 is the most significant reform of the NHS since its foundation in 1948. More radically, this legislation undermines the principle of patient and public involvement, public accountability and returns the power for prioritisation of health services to an unaccountable medical elite. This legislation marks a sea-change in the approach to patient and public involvement in the UK and signals a shift in the commitment of the UK government to patient-centred care. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The discretionary role of the line manager in inspiring work engagement and innovative behaviour:a study of social exchange and job resources in the public sector

This thesis is about the discretionary role of the line manager in inspiring the work engagement of staff and their resulting innovative behaviour examined through the lens of Social Exchange Theory (Blau, 1964) and the Job Demands-Resources theory (Bakker, Demerouti, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001). The study is focused on a large British Public Sector organisation undergoing a major organisational shift in the way in which they operate as part of the public sector. It is often claimed that people do not leave organisations; they leave line managers (Kozlowski & Doherty, 1989). Regardless of the knowledge in the literature concerning the importance of the line manager in organisations (Purcell, 2003), the engagement literature in particular is lacking in the consideration of such a fundamental figure in organisational life. Further, the understanding of the black box of managerial discretion and its relationship to employee and organisation related outcomes would benefit from greater exploration (Purcell, 2003; Gerhart, 2005; Scott, et al, 2009). The purpose of this research is to address these gaps with relation to the innovative behaviour of employees in the public sector – an area that is not typically associated with the public sector (Bhatta, 2003; McGuire, Stoner & Mylona, 2008; Hughes, Moore & Kataria, 2011). The study is a CASE Award PhD thesis, requiring academic and practical elements to the research. The study is of one case organisation, focusing on one service characterised by a high level of adoption of Strategic Human Resource Management activities and operating in a rather unique manner for the public sector, having private sector competition for work. The study involved a mixed methods approach to data collection. Preliminary focus groups with 45 participants were conducted, followed by an ethnographic period of five months embedded into the service conducting interviews and observations. This culminated in a quantitative survey delivered within the wider directorate to approximately 500 staff members. The study used aspects of the Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) approach to analyse the data and developed results that highlight the importance of the line manager in an area characterised by SHRM and organisational change for engaging employees and encouraging innovative behaviour. This survey was completed on behalf of the organisation and the findings of this are presented in appendix 1, in order to keep the focus of the PhD on theory development. Implications for theory and practice are discussed alongside the core finding. Line managers’ discretion surrounding the provision of job resources (in particular trust, autonomy and implementation and interpretation of combined bundles of SHRM policies and procedures) influenced the exchange process by which employees responded with work engagement and innovative behaviour. Limitations to the research are the limitations commonly attributed to cross-sectional data collection methods and those surrounding generalisability of the qualitative findings outside of the contextual factors characterising the service area. Suggestions for future research involve addressing these limitations and further exploration of the discretionary role with regards to extending our understanding of line manager discretion.

Can accreditation help a leopard change its spots? Social accountability and stakeholder engagement in business schools

Purpose: Neo-institutional theory suggests that organisations change occurs when institutional contradictions, caused by exogenous and endogenous dynamics, increase over time to the point where change can no longer be resisted. Human praxis will result, but only when sufficiently powerful interests are motivated to act. This paper aims to examine the role that the accreditation of business schools can play in increasing institutional contradictions and hence fostering organisational change towards stakeholder engagement and engagement with social responsibility and sustainability issues. Numerous accreditations are promulgated within the higher education and business school contexts and a number of these relate to, or have aspects that relate to, ethics, social responsibility and sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: The paper first analyses the take up of accreditations across UK business schools and then uses a case study to illustrate and explore stakeholder engagement and changes related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability linked to accreditation processes. Findings: Accreditations are found to be an increasingly common interest for UK business schools. Further, a number of these accreditations have evolved to incorporate issues related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability that may cause institutional contradictions and may, therefore, have the potential to foster organisational change. Accreditation alone, however, is not sufficient and the authors find that sufficiently powerful interests need to be motivated to act and enable human praxis to affect change. Research limitations/implications: This paper draws on previous research that considers the role of accreditation in fostering change that has also been carried out in healthcare organisations, public and professional bodies. Its findings stem from an individual case study and as such further research is required to explore whether these findings can be extended and apply more generally in business schools and universities in different contexts. Practical implications: This paper concludes by recommending that the newly established UK & Ireland Chapter of PRME encourages and supports signatory schools to further embed ethics, social responsibility and sustainability into all aspects of university life in the UK. This also provides an opportunity to engage with the accrediting bodies in order to further support the inclusion of stakeholder engagement and issues related to this agenda in their processes. Originality/value: This paper contributes by introducing accreditation as an institutional pressure that may lead indirectly to organisational change and supports this with new evidence from an illustrative case study. Further, it draws on the role of institutional contradictions and human praxis that engender organisational change. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Tweeting the lecture : how social media can increase student engagement in higher education

Sports sponsorship as a channel for brand engagement on social media

The purpose of this Mater’s Thesis was to examine how sports sponsorship can be used as a channel for brand engagement on social media. All these three concepts have been researched previously, however, up until now they have been studied separately. Therefore, the aim was also to investigate the interrelations between these three concepts, as there is a lack of academic base on the matter. The theory of the research was based on existing academic researches of social media, brand engagement and sports sponsorship. The empirical part of the research was conducted by utilizing quantitative research method. An online questionnaire was published on Facebook pages of two Liiga ice hockey teams. In the end the total sample consisted of 322 viable respondents. The collected data was analyzed by using statistical analysis software, SPSS. The findings of the empirical research reveal that information, enjoyment, personal identity, social interaction and compensation motivate consumers to engage with brands on social media. However, the behavior of consumers is more passive than active brand engagement. Personal identity and compensation serve as motivational reasons for brand engagement on both active and passive level, while the rest are only passive brand engagement. Besides motivation there are other variables that affect consumers. Support for the team reflects to brand engagement, which is passive brand engagement. The visibility of the brand during the event is linked to both active and passive brand engagement. Prior information of sports team and event and frequency of attendance can be linked only to active brand engagement. On the other hand, congruence between the team and brand reflects only to passive brand engagement.