Suchergebnisse

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers of near miss (NM) reporting among healthcare workers in a governmental hospital in Saudi Arabia.Design/methodology/approachThis is a mixed methods study, composed of a survey, followed by a set of semi-structured interviews which were conducted to get a more in depth understanding of some of the aspects covered in the questionnaire.FindingsThe research shows that the main barrier to reporting NMs in the hospital is a fear of professional and departmental consequences. Differences between employee groups are evident in their perceptions, special attention should be given to that when developing a programme to improve reporting.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the sample size may not be representative of the hospital's population, because the response rate from nurses was significantly higher than from professional groups. Second, the questionnaire only captures the perceptions of employees about these barriers and not the actual barriers. Those who did not respond to the questionnaires might hold different views to those who responded, providing bias in the results.Practical implicationsThese findings show that a focus on NMs in particular is lacking in Saudi Arabia, despite the valuable learning opportunities they may hold. Better understanding of these factors is likely to aid hospital leaders in talking the barriers identified, so that the potential of NM reports can be maximised to improve hospital systems.Originality/valueThis research draws attention to the attitudes of healthcare workers to NM reporting, most previous studies were focussed on the barriers of adverse events or error reporting in general, rather than NMs.

Purpose
– In May 2010, a new collaborative initiative was launched between the Portsmouth Business School and Hewlett Packard, wherein trained Black Belts (BB) were enabled to pursue an MSc in strategic quality management. Five years on from its commencement, the purpose of this paper is to explore the development and impact of this initiative.


Design/methodology/approach
– Inductive, exploratory, multi-viewpoint participant-observer case study that triangulates the academic, student and employer reactions to the programme.


Findings
– The paper evaluates how the academic dimension provided by the MSc has impacted on candidates' work as BB.


Practical implications
– Employee engagement and enthusiasm has been increased, as has the depth and breadth of the knowledge base among the participating BB, who are then applying these new skills in their improvement projects to make them more sustainable as well as financially valuable. They have been able to transfer knowledge to team members.


Originality/value
– This approach provides a model for accelerated development of groups of quality professionals within larger organisations. There is evidence that the community spirit that grows within and across cohorts has a multiplying effect that enhances the impact for the sponsoring organisation beyond the simple sum of the performance and skills improvement on a student by student basis.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the areas in common between strategic quality management (SQM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) from the literature. Studying these areas is important to develop any further connection between SQM and CSR because of both the potential for benefit to organisations and society, and in order to minimise resources needed for effective action by capitalising on synergies.


Design/methodology/approach
Literature review covering a broad range of publications that addresses the synergies of quality management and CSR to identify areas of commonality and thus simplify CSR implementation.


Findings
Identification of opportunities for knowledge transfer between SQM and CSR.


Practical implications
Synergies between SQM and CSR may offer attractive opportunities to capitalise on prior actions and learning, to enhance the value added to an organisation and the society in which it operates.


Originality/value
This evaluation is a part of a more in-depth research study investigating the relationship between and integration of SQM and CSR, and its application in specific contexts.

Purpose– Top management commitment is considered a significant factor in improvement programmes, and many papers have been written about the role of top management commitment in implementing a quality management system. However, not considering other management levels' commitment, such as middle management, may lead to issues in achieving organisational development. Public organisations that work through vertical structures may face a lack of middle management commitment, which might have a negative impact on lower and non-management staff commitment to improvement programmes. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of middle management's commitment towards improvement initiatives in public organisations.Design/methodology/approach– Empirical research with a mixed-method design used semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to explore the current practices of continuous improvement (CI) and examine employees' views from different management levels of the implications of current improvements in a Saudi public service organisation.Findings– The analysis indicated that the lower managers and non-management staff agree that, after the implementation of the quality management system, the organisation's middle management showed a lack of commitment to that system. Moreover, this lack of commitment is recognised in the analysis of participants' views of CI practices recorded in the questionnaire and interviews. This lack of commitment has caused poor employee commitment and thus a lack of problem solving in organisational departments. It is also responsible for a lack of employee involvement, the centralisation of decisions, deficiencies in terms of determining and applying training, inequality between employees and a lack of trust between employees and their managers. These issues could be managed and resolved through middle management and their commitment.Practical implications– Increasing middle managers' awareness of the importance of their commitment to improvement initiatives can have an impact on employees' commitment towards improvement initiatives, especially in those public organisations that have vertical/hierarchical structures. The level of commitment towards the implementation of improvement programmes needs further in-depth analyses to identify which factors influence public organisation leaders' commitment to improvement programmes.Originality/value– The results of this study could motivate middle managers in public organisations to review their policies and to facilitate CI initiatives.