In recent years, the subsidiarity principle has been underlined in Sport-for-All policies in countries such as Germany, Austria and Belgium. According to this organising principle, issues need to be handled by the lowest possible political and administrative level, and as close to the citizens as possible. The 2007 decree concerning Sport-for-All policies at the local level in Flanders (Belgium) clearly referred to this. It emphasised the decentralisation of the Sport for All policy, and highlighted the regulatory and coordinating role of local sports authorities. As a consequence, they may face conflicting roles of being coordinator, regulator and provider of mass sport at the local level. In this paper, a mixed-method approach is used to give a closer insight in the role perceptions of local sports authorities in Flanders, and their position towards private sport providers. The results show that local sports authorities consider the coordination and regulation of mass sport in their municipality as their primary task. Yet, it appears that private sport providers also perceive competition from local sports authorities. Moreover, a considerable number of the local sports authorities believe they can combine the roles of provider and coordinator. As there appears to be considerable goal ambiguity, it is necessary for local sports authorities to formulate clear goals. Referring to the principle of subsidiarity, it is argued that sports authorities should only intervene when (non-)profit sport providers are not able to achieve the desirable outcomes with regard to sport and the welfare agenda.
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De Hogeschool van Amsterdam, het Zijlstra Center (VU) en Hofmeier doen samen onderzoek naar de invulling van de onafhankelijke controlfunctie bij Woningcorporaties. Wij delen opvallende bevindingen en waarnemingen met u in enkele publicaties. Dit is de eerste, over de ruimte die gegeven wordt bij het inrichten van de onafhankelijke controlfunctie en het effect dat dat heeft. Voor de een geeft een ruime jas de mogelijkheid om er knus in weg te duiken, voor de ander zakt een ruime jas ongemakkelijk van de schouders. Wat kan ruimte in vereisten doen met de inrichting van de onafhankelijke control functie? Welke kansen en risico’s geeft dat corporaties in het algemeen en u als interne toezichthouder in het bijzonder? Rol ambiguïteit, rolconflicten en jobcrafting kunnen signalen zijn voor het niet goed ingericht zijn van de organisatie en daarmee mogelijk van missstanden. Het kan de RvC (en het bestuur) handvatten bieden voor toezicht via soft controls.
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Generalists in palliative care and professionals with specialized expertise, including palliative care nurses, achieve high-quality palliative care. To strengthen their role, it is essential to understand the tasks palliative care nurses perform and their position within the organizations. We aim to accomplish this understanding and explore facilitators and barriers to taking on the role as specialized nurses from both the nurses’ and managers’ perspectives. A sequential mixed-method design combined an online survey, followed up by five focus groups. Analysis involved descriptive statistics and thematic coding. A total of 234 palliative care nurses across various care settings answered the survey. They primarily provided physical care (88%), with less focus on psychological (72%), social (68%), and spiritual (68%) domains, and were consulted for fewer than half of their activities. Having no job descriptions often occurred (from 78% in home care and nursing homes to 44% in hospitals). Hospital nurses were more involved in advisory teams (56%) than those in other settings (26% −28%). Nurses showed leadership by promoting generalists’ expertise, connecting partners, serving as role models, and advocating for palliative care. Focus groups with twelve nurses and nine managers identified facilitators and barriers that palliative care nurses and their managers encounter in embedding their roles and positions. These covered: (1) distinction between generalist and specialist palliative care, (2) collaboration, (3) job descriptions, (4) leadership, (5) visibility, (6) funding and reimbursement. Palliative care nurses fulfill an essential role but experience ambiguity about their role and position. They and their managers emphasized the importance of leadership and advocating for palliative care in their organizations. Visibility, funding, reimbursement, and collaboration are facilitators and barriers to their role and position. There are notable areas for improvement, including joining a palliative care advisory team, having a job description, and finding ways to demonstrate cost-effectiveness
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Western societies are quickly becoming less coherent (Giddens, 1991). As a result it is increasingly unclear how individuals should act in a range of situations or how they may understand themselves. To a certain extent this development towards more diverse perspectives and a broader range of ways to act is a positive one, as cultures can only develop as they are confronted with different perspectives. A uniform culture would simply reach a standstill. That said, current society now demands of its citizens that they become increasingly self-reliant and by extension develop a capacity to be self-governing. On the labour market self-reliance and self-determination have been considered par for the course even longer. It is no surprise then that terms like self-direction, self-governing teams, employability and resilience are considered part of the standard repertoire of politicians and employers (Van der Heijden & De Vos, 2017). Within the social sciences, an ability to be self-governing and self-reliant are terms that are associated with the concept “agency”. However, the latter is a fairly vague, multidimensional concept (Arthur, 2014) that refers to the ‘scope of action’ an individual has in a fluid society (Bauman, 2000). In this article we would like to explore the concept of ‘agency’ further whereby we focus on the role of imagination in enacting it. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038416218777832 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reinekke-lengelle-phd-767a4322/
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Abstract Business Process Management (BPM) is an important discipline for organizations to manage their business processes. Research shows that higher BPM-maturity leads to better process performance. However, contextual factors such as culture seem to influence this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of national culture on the relationship between BPM-maturity and process performance. A multiple linear regression analysis is performed based on data from six different countries within Europe. Although the results show a significant relationship between BPM-maturity and process performance, no significant moderation effect of national culture has been found. The cultural dimension long term orientation shows a weak negative correlation with both BPM-maturity and process performance. Through a post-hoc moderation analysis on each dimension of BPM-maturity, we further find that long term orientation negatively moderates the relationship between process improvement and process performance. Three other moderation effects are also discovered. The results of this study contribute to insights into the role of culture in the field of BPM.
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The EU Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD) requires the member states (MS) to pursue Blue Growth while ensuring good environmental status (GES) of sea areas. An ecosystem-based approach (EBA) should be used for the integration of the aims. However, the MSPD does not specify how the MS should arrange their MSP governance, which has led to a variety of governance arrangements and solutions in addressing the aims. We analysed the implementation of the MSPD in Finland, to identify conditions that may enable or constrain the integration of Blue Growth and GES in the framework of EBA. MSP in Finland is an expert-driven regionalized approach with a legally non-binding status. The results suggest that this MSP framework supports the implementation of EBA in MSP. Yet, unpredictability induced by the non-binding status of MSP, ambiguity of the aims of MSP and of the concept of EBA, and the need to pursue economic viability in the coastal municipalities may threaten the consistency of MSP in both spatial and temporal terms. Developing MSP towards a future-oriented adaptive and collaborative approach striving for social learning could improve the legitimacy of MSP and its capacity to combine Blue Growth and GES. The analysis indicates, that in the delivery of successful MSP adhering to the principles of EBA should permeate all levels of governance. The study turns attention to the legal status of MSP as a binding or non-binding planning instrument and the role the legal status plays in facilitating or constraining predictability and adaptability required in MSP.
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During the past two decades the implementation and adoption of information technology has rapidly increased. As a consequence the way businesses operate has changed dramatically. For example, the amount of data has grown exponentially. Companies are looking for ways to use this data to add value to their business. This has implications for the manner in which (financial) governance needs to be organized. The main purpose of this study is to obtain insight in the changing role of controllers in order to add value to the business by means of data analytics. To answer the research question a literature study was performed to establish a theoretical foundation concerning data analytics and its potential use. Second, nineteen interviews were conducted with controllers, data scientists and academics in the financial domain. Thirdly, a focus group with experts was organized in which additional data were gathered. Based on the literature study and the participants responses it is clear that the challenge of the data explosion consist of converting data into information, knowledge and meaningful insights to support decision-making processes. Performing data analyses enables the controller to support rational decision making to complement the intuitive decision making by (senior) management. In this way, the controller has the opportunity to be in the lead of the information provision within an organization. However, controllers need to have more advanced data science and statistic competences to be able to provide management with effective analysis. Specifically, we found that an important skill regarding statistics is the visualization and communication of statistical analysis. This is needed for controllers in order to grow in their role as business partner..
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Background: Patient participation in goal setting is important to deliver client-centered care. In daily practice, however, patient involvement in goal setting is not optimal. Patient-specific instruments, such as the Patient Specific Complaints (PSC) instrument, can support the goal-setting process because patients can identify and rate their own problems. The aim of this study is to explore patients’ experiences with the feasibility of the PSC, in the physiotherapy goal setting. Method: We performed a qualitative study. Data were collected by observations of physiotherapy sessions (n=23) and through interviews with patients (n=23) with chronic conditions in physiotherapy practices. Data were analyzed using directed content analysis. Results: The PSC was used at different moments and in different ways. Two feasibility themes were analyzed. First was the perceived ambiguity with the process of administration: patients perceived a broad range of experiences, such as emotional and supportive, as well as feeling a type of uncomfortableness. The second was the perceived usefulness: patients found the PSC useful for themselves – to increase awareness and motivation and to inform the physiotherapist – as well as being useful for the physiotherapist – to determine appropriate treatment for their personal needs. Some patients did not perceive any usefulness and were not aware of any relation with their treatment. Patients with a more positive attitude toward questionnaires, patients with an active role, and health-literate patients appreciated the PSC and felt facilitated by it. Patients who lacked these attributes did not fully understand the PSC’s process or purpose and let the physiotherapist take the lead. Conclusion: The PSC is a feasible tool to support patient participation in the physiotherapy goal setting. However, in the daily use of the PSC, patients are not always fully involved and informed. Patients reported varied experiences related to their personal attributes and modes of administration. This means that the PSC cannot be used in the same way in every patient. It is perfectly suited to use in a dialogue manner, which makes it very suitable to improve goal setting within client-centered care.
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Recent studies on urban policy responses to increasing tourism have moved beyond the physical impact of tourism to also include the way tourism is framed by social movements. This paper contributes to this line of research with a focus on frame resonance: the extent to which frames strike a responsive chord with the public in general and policymakers in particular. We introduce a specific form of frame amplification through cultural resonance; the appeal to pre-existing societal beliefs. Using an analysis of policy documents, print, online and social media, we demonstrate that frames around tourist shops in Amsterdam appealed to pre-existing beliefs that portray the inner city as: a delicate mix of functions, an infrastructure for criminal activities, and a business card reflecting the city’s quality of place. These beliefs amplified frame resonance to such an extent that they convinced an initially reluctant local government to ban tourist shops from the inner city, a policy that undermines the accessibility and inclusivity of urban spaces that the local government aims to promote (SDG 11). This suggests that the contingencies in the local context that enable or foreclose the cultural resonance of frames are essential in understanding policy responses to touristification.
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This article proposes that identity formation and reformation are important dynamics that influence and are influenced by the course of a sustainability transition. We study identity (re-)formation in the transition of the dairy sector in a rural area in the Netherlands: the Green Heart. Soil subsidence, high emissions, and economic pressures require substantial changes in practices in the dairy sector and most importantly, the landscape that it is intertwined with. We use narrative analysis to study identity (re-)formation in two new stakeholder collectives that aim to address sustainability in the area. We identify discrepancies between the narratives in these collectives and the transition challenge. These discrepancies can be explained by the role that the landscape of the Green Heart plays in the identity (re-)formation within these collectives. The attachment to the current landscape forms a lock-in for the sustainability transition in this area.
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