Purpose This study aims to enhance understanding of the collaboration between chairs of nurse councils (CNCs) and members of executive hospital boards (BM) from a relational leadership perspective. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a qualitative and interpretive methodology. The authors study the daily interactions of BM and CNCs of seven Dutch hospitals through a relational leadership lens. The authors used a combination of observations, interviews and document analysis. The author’s qualitative analysis was used to grasp the process of collaborating between BM and CNCs. Findings Knowing each other, relating with and relating to are distinct but intertwined processes that influence the collaboration between BM and CNC. The absence of conflict is also regarded as a finding in this paper. Combined together, they show the importance of a relational process perspective to understand the complexity of collaboration in hospitals. Originality/value Collaboration between professional groups in hospitals is becoming more important due to increasing interdependence. This is a consequence of the complexity in organizing qualitative care. Nevertheless, research on the process of collaborating between nurse councils (NCs) and executive hospital boards is scarce. Furthermore, the understanding of the workings of boards, in general, is limited. The relational process perspective and the combination of observations, interviewing and document analysis proved valuable in this study and is underrepresented in leadership research. This process perspective is a valuable addition to skills- and competencies-focused leadership literature.
MULTIFILE
Objective: To explore the relationship between personal characteristics of older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) and perceived shared decision making (SDM) resp. decisional conflict. Methods: In a video-observational study (N = 213) data were collected on personal characteristics. The main outcomes were perceived level of SDM and decisional conflict. The mediating variable was participation in the SDM process. A twostep mixed effect multilinear regression and a mediation analysis were performed to analyze the data. Results: The mean age of the patients was 77.3 years and 56.3% were female. Health literacy (β.01, p < .001) was significantly associated with participation in the SDM process. Education (β = −2.43, p = .05) and anxiety (β = −.26, p = .058) had a marginally significant direct effect on the patients’ perceived level of SDM. Education (β = 12.12, p = .002), health literacy (β = −.70, p = .005) and anxiety (β = 1.19, p = .004) had a significant direct effect on decisional conflict. The effect of health literacy on decisional conflict was mediated by participation in SDM. Conclusion: Health literacy, anxiety and education are associated with decisional conflict. Participation in SDM during consultations plays a mediating role in the relationship between health literacy and decisional conflict. Practice Implications: Tailoring SDM communication to health literacy levels is important for high quality SDM.
MULTIFILE
Our current smart society, where problems and frictions are smoothed out with smart, often invisible technology like AI and smart sensors, calls for designers who unravel and open the smart fabric. Societies are not malleable, and moreover, a smooth society without rough edges is neither desirable nor livable. In this paper we argue for designing friction to enhance a more nuanced debate of smart cities in which conflicting values are better expressed. Based on our experiences with the Moral Design Game, an adversarial design activity, we came to understand the value of creating tangible vessels to highlight conflict and dipartite feelings surrounding smart cities.
LINK
AI4debunk is een vierjarige EU-innovatieactie, gefinancierd door Horizon Europe, gewijd aan de bestrijding van desinformatie. Het project brengt 13 partners uit acht landen samen om burgers te empoweren met door AI aangedreven tools. Te midden van toenemende nepnieuws en propaganda streeft AI4Debunk naar het bevorderen van betrouwbaar online gedrag, in navolging van de oproep van de Europese Commissie voor een verstandige toepassing van AI.
Familiebedrijven zijn cruciaal voor innovatie en economische stabiliteit in Europa, met een bijzonder grote rol in Nederland waar ze 70% van de economie vertegenwoordigen. Deze bedrijven dragen bij aan brede welvaart door hun focus op lange termijn continuïteit, stabiliteit en crisisbestendigheid. Hun betrokkenheid bij de lokale gemeenschap en duurzaamheid maakt hen vaak voorlopers op het gebied van circulaire innovaties. Het voortbestaan van familiebedrijven wordt echter bedreigd, vooral bij generatiewisselingen. Conflicten en het ontbreken van geschikte opvolgers binnen de familie kunnen leiden tot overnames door investeerders die vooral op kortetermijnwinst gericht zijn, wat negatieve gevolgen heeft voor werknemers en de lokale gemeenschap. Traditionele eigendomsstructuren zijn vaak niet geschikt om de continuïteit van familiebedrijven te waarborgen. Steward ownership (SO) biedt een alternatief waarbij stemrechten en winstrechten gescheiden zijn en de controle bij stewards ligt. Deze structuur kan familiebedrijven helpen hun unieke cultuur te behouden en de continuïteit te waarborgen, zelfs zonder opvolging binnen de familie. Sinds 2016 is het aantal steward-owned bedrijven in Nederland verdubbeld, mede dankzij de inspanningen van organisaties zoals We Are Stewards (WAS) en Purpose. Familiebedrijven tonen steeds meer interesse in SO als oplossing voor opvolgingsproblemen, waarbij de focus ligt op het behoud van bedrijfscultuur en missie. Het groenaannemers familiebedrijf MJ Smits (MJS) bevindt zich midden in de transitie naar SO en ervaart hierbij diverse uitdagingen, zoals financiële en juridische obstakels. De bestaande toolkits van WAS en Purpose zijn onvoldoende toereikend voor familiebedrijven vanwege hun unieke dynamiek en kenmerken. Dit onderzoek richt zich op het identificeren van de specifieke uitdagingen die familiebedrijven ondervinden bij de transitie naar SO en het bieden van handvaten om deze transitie te faciliteren. Dit resulteert in de volgende onderzoekvraag: Hoe kunnen we een op best practices gebaseerde toolkit ontwerpen om familiebedrijven te helpen uitdagingen te overkomen en hun transitie naar steward ownership te vergemakkelijken?
It is VHL’s mission to train high-quality, committed and innovative professionals who con-tribute to a more sustainable world , and who are able to organize and manage multi-stakeholder processes for sustainable change: graduates with transdisciplinary competences. Secondly, VHL aims to contribute to the SDG-agenda by linking its education and applied research to eight particular SDGs of which Resilient Communities is one. However, to operationalize SDGs in practice, and aligning targets and strategies of different stakeholders is difficult: ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ refer to ‘wicked problems’ for which no definitive problem formulation, nor clear-cut solutions exist. Addressing wicked problems like ‘resilience’ and ‘sustainability’ requires transdisciplinary collaboration to manage and transform divergent values and conflicting interests, and to co-create sustainable innovations. This HBO postdoc views the 17 SDGs as a compass to align targets and strategies of citizens, government, civil society organizations, private sector and knowledge institutes who collaborate in Living Labs of VHL focusing on resilient communities/regions. Through spiraling action-reflection cycles, stakeholders will use the SDG compass to make success mechanisms, obstacles and trade-offs visible, assuming they stay engaged to overcome difficulties to improve interventions and innovations; this is expected to result in adapted sustainability practices and lessons learned on reaching community resilience. The postdoc’s aim is two-fold highlighting the link between research and education: (1) Design a methodology to integrate SDGs effectively in VHL’s applied research: using the SDGs as compass to improve performance and outcomes of transdisciplinary collaborations. (2) Develop a Roadmap for transdisciplinary education at course, curriculum, and institutional level with SDGs as compass. Future graduates require the competence to work together with others outside one own’s discipline, institute, culture or context. Living Labs offer a suitable learning environment to develop this competence
