Mohamed Ragab

Evaluating policy interventions for delayed discharge: a system dynamics approach

Global population ageing is creating an immense pressure on hospitals to meet the growing demand for elderly healthcare services. Current demand-supply gaps results in prolonged waiting times for patients and substantial costs for hospitals due to delay in discharges. This paper uses System Dynamics (SD) methodology to map the dynamic flow of elderly patients in the Irish healthcare system. The developed system dynamic model helped decision makers to envisage the complexity resulted in the system due to the infringing parameters. Stock and flow intervention policies are proposed and evaluated subject to the projected future demographic changes. The model enables policy makers to identify potential strategic policies that will contribute significantly to overcome the delayed discharge for elderly patients. Future work will focus on using a modified model of the developed national model in order to assist local communities in Ireland in their long-term planning for non-acute service sector for elderly.

The MinK framework: towards measuring individual knowledge

Knowledge is the currency of the current economy and a vital resource for sustaining organisational performance in today’s knowledge-based intensively competitive business environment. To avoid the detrimental consequences of knowledge loss, managers are urged to identify where knowledge stocks exist and how knowledge flows within their organisations by identifying knowledge holders among their employees. Although some studies have attempted to use different methods to measure knowledge at the organisational level, very few have addressed the individual knowledge holder. Moving from a critical literature review of the existing knowledge measurement approaches, this paper proposes a novel framework that enables organisations to measure individual knowledge in the business context using a set of metrics, which are subsequently validated via a series of in-depth interviews with senior managers. A summary of the managers’ views on individual knowledge measurement is presented, and reflections on the industry application of the proposed framework and recommendations for its improvement are also discussed.

Using Modelling and Simulation to Improve Elderly Care in Ireland: A Case Study

Health care services both globally and domestically are encountering critical issues due to the increasing demand for services at the time of economic recession. Hospital performance is subject to many constraints, and planning is made more difficult by the complexity and uncertainty of demand. Population ageing is creating immense pressures on healthcare facilities across the world, leaving them struggling to cope with the growing demand for elderly healthcare services. Current demand-supply gaps result in prolonged waiting times for patients and substantial cost burdens for healthcare systems due to delayed discharges. This paper reports on a project that uses modelling and simulation to address elderly care pathways in the Irish healthcare sector. The faster management of frail patients admitted to acute hospitals and the introduction of new intermediate care beds are alternative interventions that healthcare executives are interested in simulating to examine their impact on the performance of the elderly care system. The simulation model developed, along with the statistical analysis, enabled hospital services managers to assess the critical performance and financial issues of the current system, and highlighted the decision variables that could significantly improve the flow of elderly patients. Keywords—Population Ageing, Elderly Care, Discrete Event Simulation, Discharge Planning.

Review of Factors Influencing Employees’ Willingness to Share Knowledge

Effective management of knowledge is currently recognised as the foundation of any organisation to maximise its abilities and achieve business targets. Organisations strive to leverage knowledge stocks – mostly held in the minds of their individual employees – in order to create value and drive success. For organisations to promote effective knowledge management, they have to develop innovative methods to encourage knowledge sharing practices. Knowledge sharing (KS) is a vital organisational process which empowers individuals to confront challenges of uncertainty and complexity, instils best practices, and enables the transfer of knowledge between different parts of the organisation. Given the fact that knowledge is always a valuable asset, individuals tend to hoard knowledge for different reasons. Therefore, sharing knowledge is predominantly a voluntary process and only subject to the willingness of the individual to engage in the process. Studies have demonstrated that KS cannot be forced or mandated rather than fostered by facilitative efforts in order to motivate employees to share their tacit knowledge. The aim of the study is to evaluate the collective factors supporting the willingness of employees to share knowledge. After which, providing a summarised generic list of the terms illustrated throughout the extant literature. Previous research has shown that influencers such as the ‘perceptions’ of organisational culture, trust, infrastructure, and leadership, are among the most prominent determinants of KS within the corporate environment. There are other extrinsic motivators and social-psychological forces that can contribute to the increase of the behaviour of KS. Technology advances are also considered as an enabler because it can help in both direct and indirect transfer of knowledge. The findings provide researchers with an overall topology of the factors of KS, and equally offer useful insights for managers seeking to enhance willingness to share knowledge within their firms.

Knowledge Measurement: From Intellectual Capital Valuation to Individual Knowledge Assessment

Knowledge measurement is recognised as an essential precursor to effective knowledge management (KM) due to its key role in discovering the value of knowledge assets and unveiling their contribution to value creation. This, in turn, enables the formulation of sound KM strategies which seek to bridge knowledge gaps and design KM processes and systems in light of the firm’s intellectual capital. To overcome the complex challenge of measuring intangibles, existing measurement frameworks adopt a financial, scorecard or performance-based approach to appraise knowledge. Although current models provide a useful holistic view of organisational knowledge, they do not consider individual knowledge workers who lead the creation, sharing and application of knowledge to drive organisational performance. This chapter provides an extensive review of the different types of knowledge measurement models in the KM literature. It then argues for the need for individual knowledge assessment to elucidate the role of knowledge holders in firm knowledge dynamics, thus allowing for better allocation and retention of human capital. The antecedents and factors of individual knowledge are then explored through the findings of a recent managerial study by the authors. The study is conducted as a first step towards a new individual knowledge assessment platform.

A scientometric analysis of Knowledge Management Research and Practice literature: 2003–2015

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the current research trends in Knowledge Management (KM) through a scientometric analysis of all literature published in KMRP between 2003 and 2015 (506 articles). The review framework explores three sets of review questions addressing Research Productivity, Research Themes and Methods, and Citation Analysis. The study elucidates wide global interest in KM and an increasing trend towards multi-author collaboration. Although more than 55 different industries have featured in the journal, certain knowledge-intensive sectors remain underrepresented. Country productivity shows few nations taking the lead with an interesting correlation between research activity and economic prosperity. Moreover, a growing tendency towards empirical methods is observed in contrast to a decrease in literature review papers, coupled with a recent rise in articles that integrate KM and Information Technology (IT). In terms of citation and influences, few published articles have stood out in the journal’s history. This is the first comprehensive scientometric research of KMRP describes the state-of-the-art value and provides an outlook of the future.

An Investigation in the Methodological Approaches used in Doctoral Business Research in Ireland

The sizeable increase in doctoral business research in Ireland over past decades is characterised by a diversity of research paradigms and the methods applied. To achieve research objectives, doctoral researchers should identify the methodological framework of inquiry that they will use to address and answer their research question. This involves taking a stance on divergent philosophical assertions such as ontology and epistemology, which reflect how they view the world. Researchers often proceed to select what is believed to be the bestsuited research approach – either qualitative, quantitative, or a mixture between them – with their corresponding subset of data collection and analysis techniques. This paper aims to examine extant doctoral research in business over a ten-year period within the Irish academic community to ascertain prominent methodological practices, recent trends, and the philosophical underpinnings surrounding the choices made. A comprehensive typology into the research methodologies applied by doctoral students in Ireland provides insights into the inherent and necessary philosophical assumptions underpinning the choice of methodology. The study is limited to a sample of 120 PhD dissertations published in Irish business school repositories. These were reviewed, analysed, and categorised within the proposed framework that gives an inclusive birds-eye view of doctoral business and management research in Ireland. Results indicate that the methodology of using mixed methods appears as the foremost choice for Irish business researchers. This study also offers academics with insights into current trends in business research approaches and introduces novice researchers embarking on their research journeys to methodological concepts and tools.

Hybrid modeling for vineyard harvesting operations

Hiring workers under seasonal recruiting contracts causes significant variation of workers skills in the vineyards. This leads to inconsistent workers performance, reduction in harvesting efficiency, and increasing in grape losses rates. The objective of this research is to investigate how the variation in workers experience could impact vineyard harvesting productivity and operational cost. The complexity of the problem means that it is difficult to analyze the system parameters and their relationships using individual analytical model. Hence, a hybrid model integrating discrete event simulation (DES) and agent based modeling (ABM) is developed and applied on a vineyard to achieve research objective. DES models harvesting operation and simulates process performance, while ABM addresses the seasonal workers heterogeneous characteristics, particularly experience variations and disparity of working days in the vineyard. The model is used to evaluate two seasonal recruiting policies against vineyard productivity, grape losses quantities, and total operational cost.

Elements of Individual Knowledge : a Practitioner's Perspective

The current smart economy has defined new rules for economic leadership where Intellectual Capital (IC) has become the foundation of wealth creation. The ability of organisations to compete in today’s complex business climate relies on effective management of intangibles and the development of strategies to leverage and exploit knowledge assets. Yet, knowledge is intrinsically linked to individuals and their exclusive capabilities to execute knowledge processes, such as creation and sharing in addition to their competence in utilising available IC to drive organisational performance. Knowledge-holding employees are key knowledge assets which lead the organisation’s efforts to create value, overcome challenges, and confront uncertainty. However, despite the fundamental role of individuals in firm knowledge dynamics, the IC and Knowledge Management (KM) literature often addresses organisational knowledge holistically, seldom focusing on its individual-based origins. The purpose of this study is thus to investigate the concept of individual knowledge and explore its underlying constructs based on the views of both practitioners and researchers. Moving from a literature review, the industry perspective is introduced through the findings gleaned from semi-structured interviews of a number of senior managers from various industries. Interviews explored managers’ conceptualisations of the individual knowledge notion and their perceptions of the unique attributes of knowledge holders. Qualitative interview responses are interpreted through thematic analysis of the data to identify themes and gain practicable insights. Managers highlighted a number of elements of knowledge that contribute to IC and KM and practice. The identified dimensions of individual knowledge are summarised in the proposed IK4 Model, which offers a simple yet comprehensive framework to operationalise the individual knowledge concept in organisational contexts.

Qualitative Analysis Methods Review

......................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4 Types of QAM ................................................................................................................................. 5 1. Thematic Analysis ................................................................................................................... 5 2. Content Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 5 3. Structural Analysis................................................................................................................... 6 4. Interactional Analysis .............................................................................................................. 6 5. Performative Analysis ............................................................................................................. 6 6. Discourse Analysis ................................................................................................................... 6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 8 References...................................................................................................................................... 9