Business strategy and the environment in a traditional manufacturing sector

This research is concerned with the relationship between business strategy and the environment within traditional sectors. It has sought to learn more about the strategic environmental attitudes of SMEs compared with large companies operating under the same market conditions. The sector studied is the ceramics industry (including tableware & ornamental-ware, sanitary ware & tiles, bricks, industrial & advanced ceramics and refractories) in the UK and France. Unlike the automotive, oil, chemical, steel or metal processing sectors, this industry is one of the few industrial sectors which has rarely been considered. The information on this sector was gathered by interviewing people responsible for environmental issues. The actual programme of valid interviews represents approximately a quarter of the UK and French ceramics industry which is large enough to enable a quantitative analysis and significant and non-biased conclusions. As a whole, all companies surveyed agreed that the ceramics activity impacts on the environment, and that they are increasingly affected both by environmental legislation, and by various non-legislative pressures. Approaches to the environmental agenda differ significantly among large and small companies. Smaller companies feel particularly pressed both by the financial costs and management time required to meet complex and changing legislation. The results of this survey also suggest that the ceramics industry sees environmental issues in terms of increased costs rather than new business opportunities. This is due principally to fears of import substitution from countries with lower environmental standards. Finally, replies indicate that generally there is a low level of awareness of the current legislative framework, suggesting a need to shift from a regulatory approach to a more self-regulated approach which encourages companies to be more proactive

Lean viewed as a philosophy

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to act as a meticulous conceptual paper probing the contemporary view towards lean and illustrate that, despite its discernible benefits, the implementation record suffers as the prevailing opinion fails to encapsulate that an aspiring lean enterprise shall only succeed if it views lean as a philosophy rather than another strategy. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on a thorough literature search concerning the success and failure of lean implementations and acts as a precursor for one of the authors utilising a combination of methodologies; namely, interviewing, survey questionnaire and participant observation in attempting to prove his PhD hypothesis. Findings - Evidently, a cocktail of factors are needed for lean success; not only is it necessary to implement most of the technical tools but an organisation's culture needs transforming too. Furthermore, the alterations need to be implemented throughout an organisation's value chain. Lean has a major strategic significance, though its implementation procedure, HRM implications, general approach to the supplier base coupled with the overall universal conviction of viewing lean as a set of tactics rather than embracing it as a philosophy advocates that this contributes to the relatively low number of successful lean initiatives. Originality/value - The paper would prove invaluable to lean practitioners through its summation of the intricacies towards lean enterprise success and academic researchers by focusing their attention towards the necessary cultural implications. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Relationship characteristics within the supply chain of small and medium-sized construction enterprises in Thailand

The Small and Medium-sized construction Enterprises (construction SMEs) in Thailand face challenges like high fragmented structure and low productivity. Many industries improved their business performance using the supply chain integration. This research was conducted by interviewing 14 small and medium Thai building contractors to understand the features and relationship characteristics of the supply chain of construction SMEs. The study reveals that the linkages between the small and medium general contractors and other supply chain members are based on personal trust rather than contract laws, there is no systematic procedure to manage the relationship with clients during the project execution, and social connections help to maintain long-term relationship with clients. Based on the working behaviour and commitment to long-term relationship, six forms of relationship with supply side members are proposed. Finally, improvement measures for the supply chain integration of the construction SMEs in Thailand are presented.

"It's no skin off my nose":Why people take part in qualitative research

In this article, the authors analyze participants' accounts of why they took part in a repeat-interview study exploring newly diagnosed patients' perceptions of diabetes service provision in Lothian, Scotland. The study involved three semistructured in-depth interviews with each patient (N = 40), which spanned a year. The authors provide a thematic discursive analysis of responses to the question, Can I ask you what made you decide to part in the study and why you've stayed involved over the past year? The main themes are (a) recruitment within health contexts ("the nurse said it would help"), (b) altruism ("if it can help somebody"), (c) qualitative research being seen as inherently innocuous ("nothing to lose"), and (d) therapeutic aspects of interviewing ("getting it off my chest"). The analysis contributes both to the qualitative literature about generic research participation and to a germinal literature exploring qualitative health research participation. © 2006 Sage Publications.

Postcesarean pelvic floor dysfunction contributes to undisclosed psychosocial morbidity

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence and severity of postcesarean pelvic dysfunction. STUDY DESIGN: Using biopsychosocial interviewing at home, 184 postcesarean primiparas were compared to 100 vaginally delivered women regarding symptoms of stress incontinence, anal incontinence and dyspareunia. Delivery details were confirmed from medical records. RESULTS: Comparison of postcesarean vs. vaginally delivered women revealed stress incontinence in 33% vs. 54% and dyspareunia in 27% vs. 46%, both differences reaching statistical significance, unlike anal incontinence, which was manifest in 51% vs. 44%. When compared to emergency cesarean the relative risk of stress incontinence following an elective cesarean was 0.99 (0.71, 1.39), of dyspareunia 1.02 and of anal incontinence 1.05, indicating no statistically significant difference. Thirty (22%) stress incontinent and 4 (3%) fecally incontinent mothers used pads continuously, suggesting severe physical morbidity. Severe dysphoria (depression) was expressed by 41 (35%) stress incontinent mothers, 38 (30%) with dyspareunia and 34 (26%) with anal incontinence; the association of severe dysphoria with dyspareunia was statistically significant (OR = 2.504 [1.362, 4.602]). Few women came forward to seek help. CONCLUSION: Pelvic dysfunction was similar after elective or emergency cesarean. Compared to vaginal delivery, postcesarean stress incontinence and dyspareunia were less frequent but biopsychosocial morbidity could be severe.

Safety and health in mines: the rise of bureaucracy in the coal mining industry and its results as evidenced by the public enquiry into an accident at Houghton Main Colliery

This thesis is concerned with certain aspects of the Public Inquiry into the accident at Houghton Main Colliery in June 1975. It examines whether prior to the accident there existed at the Colliery a situation in which too much reliance was being placed upon state regulation and too Iittle upon personal responsibility. I study the phenomenon of state regulation. This is done (a) by analysis of selected writings on state regulation/intervention/interference/bureaucracy (the words are used synonymously) over the last two hundred years, specifically those of Marx on the 1866 Committee on Mines, and (b) by studying Chadwick and Tremenheere, leading and contrasting "bureaucrats" of the mid-nineteenth century. The bureaucratisation of the mining industry over the period 1835-1954 is described, and it is demonstrated that the industry obtained and now possesses those characteristics outlined by Max Weber in his model of bureaucracy. I analyse criticisms of the model and find them to be relevant, in that they facilitate understanding both of the circumstances of the accident and of the Inquiry . Further understanding of the circumstances and causes of the accident was gained by attendance at the lnquiry and by interviewing many of those involved in the Inquiry. I analyse many aspects of the Inquiry - its objectives. structure, procedure and conflicting interests - and find that, although the Inquiry had many of the symbols of bureaucracy, it suffered not from " too much" outside interference. but rather from the coal mining industry's shared belief in its ability to solve its own problems. I found nothing to suggest that, prior to the accident, colliery personnel relied. or were encouraged to rely, "too much" upon state regulation.

The experience of living with age related macular degeneration:A longitudinal study into the impact of age related macular degeneration on quality of life

In this thesis I contribute to the understanding of the experience of living with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and its impact on quality of life through the use of a pragmatically guided mixed methods approach. AMD is a condition resulting in the loss of central vision in old age which can have a huge impact on the lives of patients. This thesis includes: literature reviewing; qualitative meta-synthesis; surveys and descriptive statistics; observation; and analysis of in-depth interviewing, in order to build a picture of what it is like for older people to live with AMD. I present the findings from six separate studies each designed to answer specific research questions. I begin with a mixed methods study to determine how well the most commonly used measure of quality of life for AMD patients’ represents patient experiences. I then go on to investigate the experiences of patients with AMD through a meta-synthesis of qualitative research and finally present four of my own empirical studies three of which investigate the experiences of patients with different types of AMD: early dry AMD, treatable wet AMD and advanced wet AMD and the final study investigates what it is like for a couple living together with AMD. Throughout the qualitative studies I use Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to develop an understanding of the experiences and life contexts of patients with AMD. Through rigorous analysis, I identify a range of themes which highlight the shared and divergent experiences of individuals with AMD and the need to acknowledge patients’ past, present and potential future life contexts and experiences when providing services to older people with AMD. I relate the findings of the six studies to the wider psychological literature on chronic illness and make recommendations for services for patients with AMD to be provided holistically within a lifeworld-led health care model.

“I didn’t mean to steal someone else’s words!”:a forensic linguistic approach to detecting intentional plagiarism

The concept of plagiarism is not uncommonly associated with the concept of intellectual property, both for historical and legal reasons: the approach to the ownership of ‘moral’, nonmaterial goods has evolved to the right to individual property, and consequently a need was raised to establish a legal framework to cope with the infringement of those rights. The solution to plagiarism therefore falls most often under two categories: ethical and legal. On the ethical side, education and intercultural studies have addressed plagiarism critically, not only as a means to improve academic ethics policies (PlagiarismAdvice.org, 2008), but mainly to demonstrate that if anything the concept of plagiarism is far from being universal (Howard & Robillard, 2008). Even if differently, Howard (1995) and Scollon (1994, 1995) argued, and Angèlil-Carter (2000) and Pecorari (2008) later emphasised that the concept of plagiarism cannot be studied on the grounds that one definition is clearly understandable by everyone. Scollon (1994, 1995), for example, claimed that authorship attribution is particularly a problem in non-native writing in English, and so did Pecorari (2008) in her comprehensive analysis of academic plagiarism. If among higher education students plagiarism is often a problem of literacy, with prior, conflicting social discourses that may interfere with academic discourse, as Angèlil-Carter (2000) demonstrates, we then have to aver that a distinction should be made between intentional and inadvertent plagiarism: plagiarism should be prosecuted when intentional, but if it is part of the learning process and results from the plagiarist’s unfamiliarity with the text or topic it should be considered ‘positive plagiarism’ (Howard, 1995: 796) and hence not an offense. Determining the intention behind the instances of plagiarism therefore determines the nature of the disciplinary action adopted. Unfortunately, in order to demonstrate the intention to deceive and charge students with accusations of plagiarism, teachers necessarily have to position themselves as ‘plagiarism police’, although it has been argued otherwise (Robillard, 2008). Practice demonstrates that in their daily activities teachers will find themselves being required a command of investigative skills and tools that they most often lack. We thus claim that the ‘intention to deceive’ cannot inevitably be dissociated from plagiarism as a legal issue, even if Garner (2009) asserts that generally plagiarism is immoral but not illegal, and Goldstein (2003) makes the same severance. However, these claims, and the claim that only cases of copyright infringement tend to go to court, have recently been challenged, mainly by forensic linguists, who have been actively involved in cases of plagiarism. Turell (2008), for instance, demonstrated that plagiarism is often connoted with an illegal appropriation of ideas. Previously, she (Turell, 2004) had demonstrated by comparison of four translations of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to Spanish that the use of linguistic evidence is able to demonstrate instances of plagiarism. This challenge is also reinforced by practice in international organisations, such as the IEEE, to whom plagiarism potentially has ‘severe ethical and legal consequences’ (IEEE, 2006: 57). What plagiarism definitions used by publishers and organisations have in common – and which the academia usually lacks – is their focus on the legal nature. We speculate that this is due to the relation they intentionally establish with copyright laws, whereas in education the focus tends to shift from the legal to the ethical aspects. However, the number of plagiarism cases taken to court is very small, and jurisprudence is still being developed on the topic. In countries within the Civil Law tradition, Turell (2008) claims, (forensic) linguists are seldom called upon as expert witnesses in cases of plagiarism, either because plagiarists are rarely taken to court or because there is little tradition of accepting linguistic evidence. In spite of the investigative and evidential potential of forensic linguistics to demonstrate the plagiarist’s intention or otherwise, this potential is restricted by the ability to identify a text as being suspect of plagiarism. In an era with such a massive textual production, ‘policing’ plagiarism thus becomes an extraordinarily difficult task without the assistance of plagiarism detection systems. Although plagiarism detection has attracted the attention of computer engineers and software developers for years, a lot of research is still needed. Given the investigative nature of academic plagiarism, plagiarism detection has of necessity to consider not only concepts of education and computational linguistics, but also forensic linguistics. Especially, if intended to counter claims of being a ‘simplistic response’ (Robillard & Howard, 2008). In this paper, we use a corpus of essays written by university students who were accused of plagiarism, to demonstrate that a forensic linguistic analysis of improper paraphrasing in suspect texts has the potential to identify and provide evidence of intention. A linguistic analysis of the corpus texts shows that the plagiarist acts on the paradigmatic axis to replace relevant lexical items with a related word from the same semantic field, i.e. a synonym, a subordinate, a superordinate, etc. In other words, relevant lexical items were replaced with related, but not identical, ones. Additionally, the analysis demonstrates that the word order is often changed intentionally to disguise the borrowing. On the other hand, the linguistic analysis of linking and explanatory verbs (i.e. referencing verbs) and prepositions shows that these have the potential to discriminate instances of ‘patchwriting’ and instances of plagiarism. This research demonstrates that the referencing verbs are borrowed from the original in an attempt to construct the new text cohesively when the plagiarism is inadvertent, and that the plagiarist has made an effort to prevent the reader from identifying the text as plagiarism, when it is intentional. In some of these cases, the referencing elements prove being able to identify direct quotations and thus ‘betray’ and denounce plagiarism. Finally, we demonstrate that a forensic linguistic analysis of these verbs is critical to allow detection software to identify them as proper paraphrasing and not – mistakenly and simplistically – as plagiarism.

The question of question types in police interviews:a review of the literature from a psychological and linguistic perspective

The past two decades has seen a plethora of papers and academic research conducted on investigative interviews with victims, witnesses and suspected offenders, with a particular focus on questioning techniques and typologies. However, despite this research, there still remain significant discrepancies amongst academic researchers and practitioners over how best to describe types of questions. This article considers the available literature relating to interviews with children and adults from both a psychological and linguistic perspective. In particular, we examine how different types of questions are described, and explore the discrepancies between competing definitions. © 2010, equinox publishing.

An exploration of predatory behaviour in cyberspace:towards a typology of cyberstalkers

Over the last few years governments, law enforcement agencies, and the media have noted increases of online harassment. Although there has been a great deal of research into 'offline stalking', at this moment in time there has been no formal research that attempts to classify cyberstalkers. This study aimed to identify a classification of cyberstalkers by interviewing victims. Twenty-four participants were interviewed and their responses logged on a 76-item Cyberstalking Incident Checklist. A typology of cyberstalkers was developed.

What do people think about when they answer theory of planned behaviour questionnaires? A 'think aloud' study

Two studies aiming to identify the nature and extent of problems that people have when completing theory of planned behaviour (TPB) questionnaires, using a cognitive interviewing approach are reported. Both studies required participants to 'think aloud' as they completed TPB questionnaires about: (a) increasing physical activity (six general public participants); and (b) binge drinking (13 students). Most people had no identifiable problems with the majority of questions. However, there were problems common to both studies, relating to information retrieval and to participants answering different questions from those intended by researchers. Questions about normative influence were particularly problematic. The standard procedure for developing TPB questionnaires may systematically produce problematic questions. Suggestions are made for improving this procedure. Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications.

An introduction to forensic linguistics:language in evidence

From the accusation of plagiarism in The Da Vinci Code, to the infamous hoaxer in the Yorkshire Ripper case, the use of linguistic evidence in court and the number of linguists called to act as expert witnesses in court trials has increased rapidly in the past fifteen years. An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence provides a timely and accessible introduction to this rapidly expanding subject. Using knowledge and experience gained in legal settings – Malcolm Coulthard in his work as an expert witness and Alison Johnson in her work as a West Midlands police officer – the two authors combine an array of perspectives into a distinctly unified textbook, focusing throughout on evidence from real and often high profile cases including serial killer Harold Shipman, the Bridgewater Four and the Birmingham Six. Divided into two sections, 'The Language of the Legal Process' and 'Language as Evidence', the book covers the key topics of the field. The first section looks at legal language, the structures of legal genres and the collection and testing of evidence from the initial police interview through to examination and cross-examination in the courtroom. The second section focuses on the role of the forensic linguist, the forensic phonetician and the document examiner, as well as examining in detail the linguistic investigation of authorship and plagiarism. With research tasks, suggested reading and website references provided at the end of each chapter, An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence is the essential textbook for courses in forensic linguistics and language of the law.

"I'm a better manager":A biographic narrative study of the impact of personal trauma on the professional lives of managers in the UK

This doctoral study aims to understand how experiences of critical illness or bereavement affect the way managers view and approach their work and their relationships at work. This is an interpretative phenomenological study examining the subjective meanings of personal experience and is underpinned by biographic narratives from four participants and interviews with their nominated workplace witnesses (i.e. colleagues who worked alongside the individual at the time of their trauma). As a consequence of the findings that have emerged across this study, three contributions to theory are presented. All four participants described their traumas as a professional growth experience for themselves as managers, which resulted in self-reported and observed behaviour change at work. Consequently, the first area of theoretical contribution is a suggested extension to the post-traumatic growth (PTG) framework (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006) with the addition of a new behavioural dimension called ‘managerial growth’, when applied to the context of ‘ordinary’ organizations. The second area of theoretical contribution arose through the reflexive process that was created during data collection where participants and their witnesses remembered episodes of compassion interaction at work. The second area of contribution thus seeks to extend the existing model of compassion at work (Dutton, Worline, Frost and Lilius, 2006), by conceptualising compassion as a dyadic process between a compassion ‘giver’ and a compassion ‘receiver’ in which the compassion receiver ‘trusts or ‘mistrusts’; ‘discloses’ or ‘withholds’; ‘connects’ or ‘disconnects’ with the compassion giver. The third area of contribution is a new conceptualisation of reflexivity, ‘three-dimensional reflexivity’ (3DR) (Armstrong, Butler and Shaw, 2013). 3DR brings together three of the elements that have been missing from critically reflexive management research; by working with multiple variants of reflexivity in the same study; surfacing different reflexive voices to guard against the researcher’s (potentially) solipsistic own; and remaining sensitive to the concept of reflexive time. In doing so, 3DR not only provides a deeper understanding of individual lived experience; it is also a vehicle in which self-insight is gained. Furthermore, by engaging in its practice, those involved in this study have developed both personally and professionally as a result.

Producing facial composite sketches in remote cognitive interviews:a preliminary investigation

Justice systems around the world are increasingly turning to videoconferencing as a means to reduce delays and reduce costs in legal processes. This preliminary research examined whether interviewing a witness remotely - without physical co-presence of the witness and interviewer - could facilitate the production of quality facial composite sketches of suspects. In Study 1, 42 adults briefly viewed a photograph of a face. The next day they participated in Cognitive Interviews with a forensic artist, conducted either face-to-face or remotely via videoconference. In Study 2, 20 adults participated in videoconferenced interviews, and we manipulated the method by which they viewed the developing sketch. In both studies, independent groups of volunteers rated the likeness of the composites to the original photographs. The data suggest that remote interviews elicited effective composites; however, in Study 1 these composites were considered poorer matches to the photographs than were those produced in face-to-face interviews. The differences were small, but significant. Participants perceived several disadvantages to remote interviewing, but also several advantages including less pressure and better concentration. The results of Study 2 suggested that different sketch presentation methods offered different benefits. We propose that remote interviewing could be a useful tool for investigators in certain circumstances. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

Lexico-grammatical portraits of vulnerable women in war:the 1641 depositions

The 1641 Depositions are testimonies collected from (mainly Protestant) witnesses documenting their experiences of the Irish uprising that began in October 1641. As news spread across Europe of the events unfolding in Ireland, reports of violence against women became central to the ideological construction of the barbarism of the Catholic rebels. Against a backdrop of women's subordination and firmly defined gender roles, this article investigates the representation of women in the Depositions, creating what we have termed "lexico-grammatical portraits" of particular categories of woman. In line with other research dealing with discursive constructions in seventeenth-century texts, a corpus-assisted discourse analytical approach is taken. Adopting the assumptions of Critical Discourse Analysis, the discussion is extended to what the findings reveal about representations of the roles of women, both in the reported events and in relation to the dehumanisation of the enemy in atrocity propaganda more generally. © John Benjamins Publishing Company.