The world needs more jobs to meet United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 and to keep up with expected population growth. Policymakers stimulate start-ups due to their expected job-generating effect. Despite the increased number of solo self-employed, percentages on graduation from small to larger enterprises are low. This study focuses on entrepreneurs who create jobs, and have passed ‘the one-employee threshold’. What are the considerations of the solo self-employed when making the decision to hire their first employee? 27 Interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs in developed and developing countries. The analysis shows that solo self-employed have considerations about time, skills, trust and opportunities when hiring their first employee. The study finds evidence of effectual behaviour. Trust is important: trust in others (the first employee) and trust in yourself (becoming an employer). To stimulate job creation, policymakers should stimulate effectual behavior that enhances the self-efficacy of the solo self-employed. This is a draft chapter/article. The final version is available in Unlocking Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship edited by Iréne Bernhard, PhD, Urban Gråsjö, PhD, School of Business, Economics and IT, University West and Charlie Karlsson, Professor Emeritus, Jönköping University and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, published in 2021, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800371248
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In a rapidly developing labor market, in which some parts of jobs disappear and new parts appear due to technological developments, companies are struggling with defining future-proof job qualifications and describing job profiles that fit the organization’s needs. This is even more applicable to smaller companies with new types of work because they often grow rapidly and cannot hire graduates from existing study programs. In this research project, we undertook in-depth, qualitative research into the five roles of a new profession: social media architect. It has become clear which 21st century skills and motivations are important per role and, above all, how they differ in subcategory and are interpreted by a full-service team in their working methods, in a labor market context, and in the talents of the professional themselves. In a workshop, these “skills” were supplemented through a design-based approach and visualized per team role in flexibly applicable recruitment cards. This research project serves as an example of how to co-create innovative job profiles for the changing labor market. Ellen Sjoer, Petra Biemans. “A design-based (pre)recruitment approach for new professions: defining futureproof job profiles.” Információs Társadalom XX, no. 2 (2020): 84–100. https://dx.doi.org/10.22503/inftars.XX.2020.2.6
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A social media architect is an appealing new profession that entails crossovers between communication and IT & Design. There are no study programmes for this job. Important questions are how to interest secondary school pupils for such a new job, and how to prepare them for these jobs or jobs that do not even exist today? This research aims to set an example by presenting a realistic job profile of a social media architect by linking the ‘21st century skills’ to the context in which he/she operates.
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Many of today’s challenges that confront society are complex and dynamic and require new perspectives, new ways of looking at problems and issues, in order to be able to come to solutions that could not be found before. This process is called reframing and we suggest that one of the key stages in this process is thematic research, the search for themes that underlie these complex challenges. These themes generally turn out to be human themes, related to socio-emotional aspects of life. In this paper we report our experiences and lessons learned from a series of cases in which we experimented with various approaches to do this thematic research.
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Paper presented at Conference Connecting to Work: Consequences of Long-Term Unemployment and Prospect for Job Creation, UCLA: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, April 1-2 2011.In this paper, we will argue, based on a survey we conducted with employers, that the willingness of Dutch employers to cooperate with social services is highly dependent on company size. Therefore, in our opinion, social services should take company size into account when they are trying to find employers who are willing to cooperate with them. Whereas all employers underline the importance of financial considerations when it comes to their intention to cooperate with social services, employers at small companies (less than 11 employees) are especially sensitive to a more idealistic approach (“making a difference”) compared to employers at middle-sized (11-100 employees) and large companies (over 100 employees).
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The purpose of this paper is to gain deeper insight into the practical judgements we are making together in ongoing organizational life when realizing a complex innovative technical project for a customer and so enrich the understanding of how customer orientation emerges in an organization. The outcome contributes to the knowledge of implementing customer orientation in an organization as according to literature (Saarijärvi, Neilimo, Närvänen, 2014 and Van Raaij and Stoelhorst, 2008) the actual implementation process of customer orientation is not that well understood. Saarijärvi, Neilimo and Närvänen (2014) noticed a shift from measuring the antecedents of customer orientation and impact on company performance, towards a better understanding how customer orientation is becoming in organizations. A different way of putting the customer at the center of attention can be found in taking our day-to-day commercial experience seriously, according to the complex responsive process approach, a theory developed by Stacey, Griffin and Shaw (2000). The complex responsive processes approach differs from a systems thinking approach, because it focuses on human behavior and interaction. This means that the only agents in a process are people and they are not thought of as constituting a system (Groot, 2007). Based on a narrative inquiry, the objective is to convey an understanding of how customer orientation is emerging in daily organizational life. Patterns of interaction between people are investigated, who work in different departments of an organization and who have to fulfill customer requirements. This implies that attention is focused towards an understanding in action, which is quite distinct from the kind of cognitive and intellectual understanding that dominates organisational thought. The reflection process resulting from this analysis is located in a broader discourse of management theory.
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The central focus of this article is on the moral dilemmas that social servants face when applying the law. These moral dilemmas result from the professional’s discretionary space. Exploratory qualitative research shows that, in order to solve these dilemmas, professionals in some public organisations try to find tailormade solutions. However, this sometimes leads to a more or less denying of the discretionary space at hand, or to the creation of more rules in an effort to close the discretionary space. The question is, are these approaches effective? The answer may very well turn out to be negative. This article shows that applying a rule always leaves the professional some discretionary space. It is precisely in this free space that moral issues come up. Social servants will attain a stronger stance regarding moral issues by focussing on the development of their own moral sensitivity, both individually and as an organisation, as well as by their increasing awareness of the moral standards held by themselves, their organisation, and society at large. A social servant’s job is not inserting coins in a jukebox. He must create the music himself by interpreting the rules in a given situation. Just as it takes a person to turn a musical score into music, so it takes a person to interpret the law in order to create justice. De morele dilemma’s van publieke professionals die voortkomen uit het toepassen van de wet, vormen het voornaamste onderwerp van dit artikel. Deze morele dilemma’s ontstaan vanuit de discretionaire ruimte van professionals. Verkennend kwalitatief onderzoek laat zien dat in sommige publieke organisaties professionals deze dilemma’s proberen op te lossen door maatwerk te leveren. In de praktijk leidt dit soms echter tot het min of meer negeren van de discretionaire ruimte, of het dichttimmeren van de discretionaire ruimte door middel van meer regels en richtlijnen. Het is de vraag of een van deze strategieën effectief is. Het antwoord hierop is waarschijnlijk ontkennend. Dit artikel laat zien dat het toepassen van een regel altijd discretionaire ruimte laat voor de professional. Juist in deze vrije ruimte spelen morele kwesties. Publieke professionals kunnen moreel gesterkt worden door de ontwikkeling van morele gevoeligheid, individueel en als organisatie, en door een groeiend bewustzijn van de morele standaarden die de samenleving en zijzelf in hun organisatie handhaven. De publieke professional kan niet als bij een jukebox door een druk op de knop de machine zijn werk laten doen. De regels en de situatie interpreterend zal hij zelf muziek moeten maken. Zoals er mensen nodig zijn om van notenschrift muziek te maken, zo kunnen alleen mensen van wet- en regelgeving in een unieke situatie recht en rechtvaardigheid maken.
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Why is it that we know and still act as if we do not know? SMEs are considered engines of job creation and therefore growth and generation of income but is it really true that the solo self-employed and micro entrepreneurs will become small or medium entrepreneurs, e.g. graduate? We knew in the 80’s that this assumption needed to be looked at critically. Research revealed that graduation hardly existed. Practitioners in MSME support and development programmes entertain few illusions about their programmes actually leading to graduation, while NGO and Government policy officers, from behind their desks, often presume that graduation occurs frequently. Actual graduation rates and the extent to which they can be attributed to interventions remain an unresolved and important issue. After more than three decades it is justified to the question whether it is still true that graduation hardly exists? If that is the case one needs to take a critical look into prevailing policies and programs in support of the SME sector.
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Background: Interprofessional collaboration in practice (IPCP) between professionals from the medical and social domain within primary care is desirable; however, it is also challenging due to fragmented healthcare. Little is known about the development of IPCP in primary care to fit the implementation context. is article describes the methodological development and the final content of an IPCP program. Methods and findings:e development process started with the identification of IPCP competencies in a literature review and a qualitative needs analysis with semi-structured interviews among eight elders and four healthcare professionals. e results were discussed during a first consultation with an expert team, which consisted of ten healthcare professionals. Consensus was reached on the themes role identity, communication, and shared vision development to form the basis of the program. A second consultation with the experts discussed the first version of the program. en, consensus was reached on the final version of the program, which included a blended learning approach consisting of two face-to-face meetings, online learning, and on-the-job learning with a sixteen-hour time investment over a six-week period. Conclusions: e IPCP program was developed based on educational strategies and evidence, and with the support and knowledge of practice experts to fit the implementation context.
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The rising global demand for district nursing care necessitates effective strategies to support evidence-based decision-making. Despite the extensive development of nursing guidelines, adherence by district nursing teams remains suboptimal, revealing a gap between guideline development and daily practice. The Learning And Reflection for Nurses (LEARN) programme aims to bridge this gap by enhancing guideline use and fostering a learning attitude among district nursing teams. This protocol outlines the programme’s development, components and evaluation approach.
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