Jocelyn Handy

User acceptance of inter-organizational electronic medical records

This paper reports the findings of the first stage of an ongoing, longitudinal study into primary care practitioners’ views of an electronic medical records (EMR) system for maternity patients. All doctors and midwives holding maternity care contracts with a large urban hospital in New Zealand were sent a questionnaire soliciting their views on a planned EMR system linking the hospital and the primary care sectors. The questionnaire was based on Davis’ technology acceptance model (TAM) [1]. The results show that while Davis’ two key factors of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness were important to medical professionals, other features of the proposed system and the wider organizational environment also influenced the respondents’ willingness to utilize the proposed system.

An addictive environment: New Zealand film production workers’ subjective experiences of project-based labour

This article uses the theoretical framework provided by social models of addiction to interpret freelance film production workers’ subjective experiences of project-based labour. The article suggests that the structural conditions of project-based labour within the film industry create a subjective experience in which the financial, creative, social and emotional rewards of employment are interspersed with the anxieties of repeated unemployment. The stark contrast between highly gratifying periods in work and highly aversive periods in between work produces an addictive psycho-social dynamic that repeatedly draws freelance production workers back into the industry. This process can only be fully understood by considering the relationship between employment conditions and subjective experiences as an integrated whole. The development of freelance film production workers’ addictive relationships with the film industry is illustrated using qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 11 male and 10 female New Zealand freelance film production workers.

Gendered ageism: Older women's experiences of employment agency practices

This study investigates the relationship between mature female job-seekers and private employment agencies in the Auckland region. Twelve women who were made redundant after age 40 were interviewed about their experiences of using agencies to find clerical work. Five agency staff were also interviewed to discover their views on placing such women in work. Although the two groups occupy contrasting positions within the employment relationship, several complementary themes emerged from the two sets of interviews. Both groups described gendered ageism as a key issue for older women seeking office work and identified a range of strategies employers use to avoid employing them in permanent positions. In contrast to most previous research, which emphasizes perceived skills deficits, both groups saw problems of appearance and ‘team fit’ as more formidable barriers to re-employment. The findings are discussed in relation to the expanding role of employment agencies and policy approaches to combating gendered ageism in employment.

Using Written Accounts in Qualitative Research

This article discusses the methodological implications of using written accounts as the primary source of data in qualitative research. Data from a pilot study into family relationships in two families with an anorexic child is presented to illustrate the ways in which this strategy can facilitate the interpretation of different family members’ perspectives. Written accounts are shown to be a time-efficient means of gathering good-quality, descriptively rich data. Differences between oral and written modes of communication mean that participants’ written accounts are more highly focused and reflective than transcripts from oral interviews, facilitating data analysis and interpretation. Relationships between researchers and researched are more circumscribed than in face-to-face interviewing, which may limit opportunities to explore emergent issues or make informal observations during the interview process. However, the more circumscribed contact between researchers and respondents may also make it easier to manage the complex social dynamics that can emerge when researching families. Whilst written accounts cannot be used as a direct substitute for oral interviews their strengths appear to be undervalued in qualitative research in psychology. _____________________

Teaching Information Systems Management Skills: Using Integrated Projects and Case Studies

University courses in Computer Science (CS) and Information Systems (IS) are often criticized by industry for concentrating on conceptual learning while failing to provide their students with experience and grounding in managerial skills. This paper describes and discusses an innovative course In this paper the term “course” will be used to refer to a single integrated unit of study. In New Zealand such units are often referred to as “papers”. These courses can be combined together, according to various rules, to form a “course of study” which will lead to a qualification. At Massey University, a degree is comprised of 24 such courses.structure which has been developed in order to ground the teaching of IS management theory in its local context by interlinking practical projects and case studies in local organizations. The student projects are used to generate a large “cross-sectional” case study which describes several IS management problems that are occurring simultaneously in the same organization. Students are required to integrate their analysis of the problems and to recommend an appropriate series of responses which will tackle all the situations. The paper describes the rationale and organization of the course, the results of an evaluation of its effectiveness, and discusses some of the problems that were encountered during its implementation.

Job Satisfaction in Rehabilitation Case Managers: The Role of Organisational Commitment and Climate, Occupational Self Efficacy, and Perceived Competencies

We examined relations between organisational perceptions (organisational commitment, organisational climate), personal evaluations (occupational self efficacy, skills/competencies) and subsequent job satisfaction (extrinsic and intrinsic) among a group of 101 New Zealand rehabilitation case managers. Analyses indicated that organisational commitment, organisational climate and perceived skills/competencies made a significant contribution to the prediction of extrinsic job satisfaction while organisational climate alone was a significant predictor of intrinsic job satisfaction. Despite a number of limitations, the findings have implications for the understanding of die occupational dynamics of rehabilitation service provision and illustrate the importance of a continued research focus on the antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction in rehabilitation professionals.

The systems psychodynamics of gendered hiring: Personal anxieties and defensive organizational practices within the New Zealand film industry

This article uses systems psychodynamic concepts to explore the creation and reproduction of gendered inequality within the New Zealand film industry. The article focuses on the ways in which senior film production workers’ anxieties about hiring, or working with, women influence the process of assembling project teams. It suggests that the process of choosing team members creates considerable anxiety for both senior film production workers with responsibility for hiring and lower-status team members who need to rely on them to create high-functioning teams. The industry ideal of the autonomous creative worker is implicitly gendered, conforming more closely to traditional concepts of the unencumbered male worker than traditional ideals of femininity and motherhood. The antithesis between these representations creates anxiety, raising unconscious fears that women as a category are less trustworthy workers. Consequently, discriminatory hiring practices that diminish these anxieties become collectively accepted as rational responses to organizational problems and embedded within the social system as collectively endorsed defences against anxiety. Given that project-based employment is temporary, this pattern of discrimination against women is regularly repeated and contributes to entrenched gender inequality within the film industry. Qualitative data from interviews with 12 male and 13 female film production workers is presented to illustrate this analysis.

Bound to care: Custodial grandmothers’ experiences of double bind family relationships

This article applies Bateson’s concept of the double bind to the interpretation of emergent problems in custodial grandmothers’ relationships with their other adult offspring and non-custodial grandchildren. The article suggests that women raising grandchildren are placed in a double bind situation in which the two core family values of caring for family members in need and treating all family members equally are in conflict. This conflict of interests is at the heart of many problems within the intergenerational family context and is experienced as both inescapable and distressing by both grandmothers and their adult children. Brief vignettes from two participants in a small-scale qualitative study of New Zealand custodial grandmothers’ lives are presented to illustrate this dynamic.

Integrating case studies and projects in IS management education

University courses in Information Systems (I.!

Cross-Cultural Issues Affecting Electronic Transfer of Personal Health Information

) are often criticised by industry for concentrating on conceptual learning while failing to provide their students with experience and grounding in managerial skills. This paper describes and discusses an innovative course structure which has been developed in order to ground the teaching of I.S. management theory in its local context by interlinking practical projects and case studies in a local organisation. The student projects are used to generate a large ‘cross-sectional’ case study which describes several 13. management problems that are occurring simultaneously in tie same organisation. Students are required to integrate their analysis of the problems and to recommend an appropriate series of responses which will tackle all the situations. The paper describes the rationale and organisation of the course, the results of an evaluation of its effectiveness and discusses some of the problems that were encountered during its implementation.