Jackie Goode

Gendering the Management of Change in Higher Education: A Case Study

This article reports an investigation into the influence of gender at a pre-1992 UK university. Interviews with Heads of Departments and others defined as occupying ‘middle management’ positions reveal three distinct stances to the new higher education, of ‘collaboration’, ‘resistance’ and ‘transformation’ and the article explores how gender influences these stances. It attempts to move beyond a simple focus on gender differences, towards answering Bacchis (1990) call for ‘a more useful political analysis (which) would draw attention to the way in which the current economic system encourages certain behaviours and discourages others’. It shows that women academics are taking a transformational stance, but that the stances are not gender-specific. Gender is institutionally embedded with other organizational characteristics, such as academic discipline, departmental size, compatibility with external commercial activity, and the ability or otherwise to generate funds. Questions are raised about the contribution of such stances to the future of the new educational order.

Knowledge, technology and nursing: The case of NHS Direct

NHS Direct is a relatively new, nurse-based, 24-hour health advice line run as part of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). The service delivers health advice remotely via the telephone. A central aspect of the service is the attempt to provide a standard level of health advice regardless of time, space or the background of the nurse. At the heart of this attempt is an innovative health software called CLINICAL ASSESSMENT SYSTEM (CAS). Using a number of qualitative methods, this article highlights how the interaction between the nursing staff and this technology is key to the service. The technology is based on management’s attempt to standardize and control the caller-nurse relationship. Thus the software can be seen as part of an abstract rationality, whereas how it is deployed by nurses is based on a practical rationality that places practice and experience first and sees the technology and protocols as tools.

Dietary dilemmas: nutritional concerns of the 1990s

Reports new research into stability and change in contemporary foodways. Uses survey and in‐depth interviews to uncover familiar features which could be described as traditional, as well as more novel patterns. Highlights the ways in which the two are interwoven. The picture is characterized by a number of serious nutritional concerns, including health, weight control, food safety and food ethics. There is also familiarity with official nutritional guidelines, despite a widespread perception of contradictory and confusing nutritional messages. Finds mistrust of farmers, food companies and the government as far as the provision of safe food for the public is concerned. Such negative findings by no means represent the whole picture, however. Shows that, in the midst of such perceived contradiction and mistrust of external agencies, there is a personal confidence in dietary decision making and pleasure in food and eating.

Getting added value from using qualitative research with randomized controlled trials: a qualitative interview study

BackgroundQualitative research is undertaken with randomized controlled trials of health interventions. Our aim was to explore the perceptions of researchers with experience of this endeavour to understand the added value of qualitative research to the trial in practice.MethodsA telephone semi-structured interview study with 18 researchers with experience of undertaking the trial and/or the qualitative research.ResultsInterviewees described the added value of qualitative research for the trial, explaining how it solved problems at the pretrial stage, explained findings, and helped to increase the utility of the evidence generated by the trial. From the interviews, we identified three models of relationship of the qualitative research to the trial. In ‘the peripheral’ model, the trial was an opportunity to undertake qualitative research, with no intention that it would add value to the trial. In ‘the add-on’ model, the qualitative researcher understood the potential value of the qualitative research but it was viewed as a separate and complementary endeavour by the trial lead investigator and wider team. Interviewees described how this could limit the value of the qualitative research to the trial. Finally ‘the integral’ model played out in two ways. In ‘integral-in-theory’ studies, the lead investigator viewed the qualitative research as essential to the trial. However, in practice the qualitative research was under-resourced relative to the trial, potentially limiting its ability to add value to the trial. In ‘integral-in-practice’ studies, interviewees described how the qualitative research was planned from the beginning of the study, senior qualitative expertise was on the team from beginning to end, and staff and time were dedicated to the qualitative research. In these studies interviewees described the qualitative research adding value to the trial although this value was not necessarily visible beyond the original research team due to the challenges of publishing this research.ConclusionsHealth researchers combining qualitative research and trials viewed this practice as strengthening evaluative research. Teams viewing the qualitative research as essential to the trial, and resourcing it in practice, may have a better chance of delivering its added value to the trial.

Risk and the Responsible Health Consumer: The Problematics of Entitlement among Callers to NHS Direct

NHS Direct, the 24-hour telephone helpline, uses modern communications technology to offer easier and faster access to advice about health, illness and the NHS so that people are better able to care for themselves and their families. In-depth interviews with callers to the service show that they bring with them discourses of the ‘deserving’ and ‘ undeserving’ familiar in the provision of other welfare services. The figure of the ‘time-waster’ is the NHS equivalent of the welfare ‘scrounger’, acting as a mechanism to problematize entitlement. NHS Direct dispels such fears and legitimizes demand. At the same time, ever-rising levels of service use constitute a threat to what callers value most about it.

Changing the nation's diet: a study of responses to current nutritional messages:

This paper reports on a survey of 420 adults and in-depth interviews with 75 of these respondents in Leicestershire in 1994. The study examined how respondents made dietary choices in the context of their social, cultural and economic circumstances, and considered the place of nutritional guidlines and healthy eating messages. The survey findings showed that 64 per cent of respondents reported having made dietary changes due to interviews revealed a more complex response to dietary information which had implications for health promotion policy and practice.

The role of gender dynamics in decisions on credit and debt in low income families

This paper discusses the role of gender dynamics in the experiences of credit and debt in low income families in the UK, drawing on a qualitative longitudinal study funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It builds on earlier work on: the household economy; the gendered distribution of income specifically within low income families in receipt of benefits; and the extent of credit and debt in the UK currently. Following critiques of traditional sociological and social psychological analyses of the household economy, it takes a more discursive approach, which enables identification of gender dynamics as one of the mechanisms through which decision-making in relation to this area of practice is accomplished.

The social construction of gendered equal opportunities in UK universities: a case study of women technicians

This article reports on research into the organizational culture of a UK university, and examines the ways in which the use of equal oppor tunities (EO) concepts and the construction of womens identities are both shifting and contradictory. A case study of women technical staff and their male managers reveals how such ambiguities act as control devices to keep women in their (subordinate) place, while preserving an image of good EO practice. The authors do not share a view of EO poli cies as having failed as a transformational strategy, but call rather for those interested in pro-equity change to be highly-tuned to the shifting ground on which the social construction of EO takes place, as different groups struggle for power. Women themselves might be well advised to direct the communicative and collaborative skills they are seen here to use to support each other in subordinate and isolated positions, towards collective action designed to make their own definitions of their situ ations prevail.

Social Factors Associated with Self-reported Dietary Change

Abstract This study investigated the reasons for dietary change and whether these self-reported changes result in health-promoting dietary patterns. A cross-sectional survey was conducted of 421 individuals between the ages of 18 and 74, selected randomly from a U.K. Family Health Services Register. Respondents were interviewed using a researcher-administered, structured questionnaire. A subsample of 75 respondents was subsequently interviewed in depth. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U tests, and chi-square analyses were conducted on the quantitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed by sorting verbatim material into themes. The two most common reasons for dietary change were to lose weight and because of an increased awareness of healthy diets. Reasons for dietary change that produced health-promoting diets included weight reduction, increased awareness of healthy diets, introducing new food/dishes, to deal with a medical problem, responding to food scares, following medical advice, to suit others in the household, and responding to official nutritional guidelines. Women were more likely to change their diet for weight reduction, health concerns, to experiment with new foods, and for animal welfare concerns.Younger people changed their diet following changes in personal relationships and for animal welfare considerations. Older respondents changed their diet in response to medical advice. Responding to nutritional recommendations was more common among those of higher social class. The implication of this study is that greater attention needs to be paid to the diet of those in lower social class groups and of men in general.

The McDonaldisation of police–academic partnerships: organisational and cultural barriers encountered in moving from research on police to research with police

ABSTRACT Partnerships between police and academics have proliferated in recent years, reflecting the increased recognition of the benefits to be had on both sides from collaborating on research, knowledge transfer and other activities. The literature on police–academic partnerships refer to inherent obstacles in bringing the ‘two worlds’ of research and practice together, and reflects an increased recognition on both sides of the benefits to be had from the co-production of research – reflecting a shift from conducting research on police, to conducting research with police. This takes place in the wider context of moves towards evidence-based policing, and the professionalisation of policing in the UK. In this paper we reflect on our experiences of building a police–academic partnership, focusing on: (1) the internal organisational and cultural drivers and barriers; (2) the opportunities offered via ‘in-house’ research by analysts and police officers and (3) evaluation. We highlight the increasing risk presented to both sides by the ‘McDonaldisation’ [Heslop, R., 2011. The British police service: professionalization or ‘McDonaldization’? International journal of police science & management, 13 (4), 312–321, Ritzer, G., 2004. The Mcdonaldization of society. London: Sage] of police–academic partnerships, and the need to thus play close attention to how the identification and prioritisation of research, its conduct, and aspects of evaluation, are managed and supported in practice, with open and transparent dialogue between police and academic partners. The paper draws on qualitative interviews conducted with police officers and police staff, and our observations and reflections while conducting a strategically driven university-police collaborative project with police forces in England.