Fiona Robson

Supervisor Relationships, Teamwork, Role Ambiguity and Discretionary Power: Nurses in Australia and the United Kingdom

This paper reports comparative research comparing the relationship between supervisor-subordinate relationships, teamwork, role ambiguity and discretionary power for nurses working in public and private sector hospitals in Australia and the UK. The findings indicate that the four factors accounted for approximately a quarter of the variance for nurses in the UK and almost a fifth of the variance for nurses working in public sector hospitals. Moreover, the findings identify a significant difference across all variables for nurses working in public sector hospitals compared with private sector with nurses in the private sector having higher satisfaction levels and perceiving lower levels of role ambiguity. There were fewer differences for nurses working in Australian hospitals compared with UK hospitals with nurses in Australia perceiving a better supervisor-subordinate relationship and nurses in the UK perceiving greater satisfaction with teamwork.

Learner-generated podcasts: a useful approach to assessment?

This paper focuses on students as podcast providers rather than receivers and answers the question, ‘Are learner-generated podcasts a useful approach to assessment?’ Through the use of a single institution case study, this paper presents an evaluation of 53 (taught) postgraduate business students’ reflective learning assignments in which they chose to reflect upon their experience of podcasting. The evaluation of these reflective assignments focussed on five key themes that emerged; prior attitudes about the use of podcasting, benefits of podcasting, transferable skills, pedagogy and future use of podcasts.

Managing absenteeism in local government

Managing sickness absence effectively can produce significant cost savings as well as other, less tangible, benefits. This article shows why it is vital that local authorities provide tailor-made training on absence management for first line managers (FLMs) to develop ‘soft skills’, as well as acknowledging their specific organizational context. Development in this area should be an ongoing process which is reinforced with appropriate support from human resources (HR) professionals, and should be monitored as part of an overall absence management strategy.

Exploring the motivation and willingness of self-initiated expatriates, in the civil engineering industry, when considering employment opportunities in Qatar

ABSTRACT This paper provides empirical and contextual insight into the complexity of Self-Initiated Expatriates’ (SIEs) experiences in a unique setting. Factors that influence SIEs in the civil engineering industry, when considering overseas employment in Qatar, are identified and considered. Drawing comparison to organizational expatriates (OEs), this paper uses semi-structured interviews conducted with professionals from the civil engineering and construction industries. The research surfaced that different factors interconnect to affect individuals’ decisions about overseas employment. Three factors, specifically; location appeal, host country as an employment setting and effect of expatriation on the family, appear to be more influential to participants when the proposed destination is Qatar.

Antecedents and outcomes relating to public and private nurses’ use of intuition in England

This paper examines public and private sector nurses’ use of intuition in England using structural equation modeling. Leader–member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS) correlated positively with nurses’ perception of discretionary power and use of intuition. Nurses’ perception of discretionary power and use of intuition were positively correlated with their engagement. Further, differences were identified between private sector and public sector nurses in relation to the impact of workplace relationships (POS and LMX) and intuition onto perceived discretionary power and employee engagement. The results are important for all hospital managers seeking to foster employees’ use of intuition, perception of discretionary power, and engagement.

Evaluating training and development in UK universities: staff perceptions

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse individual experiences of learning evaluation in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and identify areas for improvement as part of an HEFCE LGM funded project. Design/methodology/approach – Eight focus groups were included in two universities with staff in similar roles. After transcription, the data were analysed using template analysis to identify and compare key themes from across both universities. Findings – The context of UK higher education is clearly important due to the diverse job roles and on-going sectoral changes. Three key themes emerged; first was a lack of clarity from the learners on learning evaluation. The second key theme centres on the format, method and timing of capturing evaluation data and the perception that a “one size fits all” approach is not appropriate. The third finding suggests that line managers do not currently fulfil their critical roles in the process. Research limitations/implications – Small number of research participants and...

Participatory learning in residential weekends: benefit or barrier to learning for the international student?

The context for this research is a residential learning weekend which is embedded into all postgraduate programmes at Newcastle Business School via a management development module entitled ‘Developing Self’. The objective of this study was to identify and explore how participatory learning in multicultural groups enables international students to increase their self-awareness and to develop team-building and leadership skills. Using an interpretivist methodology comprising semi-structured interviews with 14 self-selected international students, the data are analysed using the funnel structure of progressive focusing and is presented alongside a number of illuminating quotes. Our findings show that students perceive participatory learning to provide significant benefits to their studies as well as their future career as managers.