scholarly journals Client requirement representations and transformations in construction project design

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-241
Author(s):  
William Henry Collinge
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Construction Project ◽  
Design Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Design Resources ◽  
Hospital Construction ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Socially Motivated

Purpose This paper aims to examine how client requirements undergo representational and transformational shifts and changes in the design process and explore the consequence of such changes. Design/methodology/approach A series of design resources relating to hospital departmental configurations are examined and analysed using a social semiotic framework. The findings are supplemented by practitioner opinion. Findings Construction project requirements are represented and transformed through semiotic resource use; such representations deliver specific meanings, make new meanings and affect project relationships. Requirement representations may be understood as socially motivated meaning-making resources. Research limitations/implications The paper focuses on one set of project requirements: hospital departmental configurations from a National Health Service hospital construction project in the UK. Practical implications The use of semiotic resources in briefing work fundamentally affects the briefing and design discourse between client and design teams; their significance should be noted and acknowledged as important. Social implications The findings of the paper indicate that briefing and design work may be understood as a social semiotic practice. Originality/value This original paper builds upon scholarly work in the area of construction project communications. Its fine-grained analysis of briefing communications around representations of specific requirements is novel and valuable.

Experiences of practice-based learning in phenomenographic perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Airi Rovio-Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Learning Object ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Design Work ◽  
Training Centre ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The paper aims to examine, within the context of professional practice and learning, how designers collaboratively working in international teams experience practice-based learning and how such occasions contribute to professional development. Design/methodology/approach The paper introduces the cooperation project between Tibro Training Centre and Furniture Technology Centre Trust and its workshop context organized as practice-based learning. Participants’ learning context consisted of a mixture of professional practices allowing different logics and different cultures make up an innovative working site. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data suggests that three phenomenographic hierarchical categories constitute the learning process: getting a recognized professional identity; perceiving new elements and expanding knowledge and seeing new aspects of design work and new steps of development in profession. Findings Cooperative practice-based learning is understood as social practice in a community of practice, and as continuous changes of the learning object due to that new aspects are discerned by the learners. These categories illustrate how participants’ meaning making and understanding of the learning object were expressed in cooperation as doings and sayings, as translation and as situated activities in a community of practice. Accordingly, it contributed to participants’ professional development in spite of their different professional educations and professional experiences. Practical implications More studies of practice-based learning environments in work places are needed that could help societies and companies to advance integrative efforts of new employees and new immigrants into an increasingly diverse globalized labour market. Originality/value The results suggest that understanding as well as content structure and meaning making of the learning object are intertwined constituent aspects of practice-based learning.

Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership behaviours of construction project managers

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily M. Potter ◽  
Temitope Egbelakin ◽  
Robyn Phipps ◽  
Behrooz Balaei
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Leadership Style ◽  
Construction Project ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Transformational Leadership Style ◽  
The Uk

Purpose Existing research has highlighted the need for influential leaders to respond to the evolving social, economic and environmental constraints on the construction industry. Studies on leadership in other sectors have shown that influential leaders tend to demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence. Little or no research examining relationships between leadership style and emotional intelligence has been conducted specific to construction project managers. This study aims to identify the prevalent leadership style adopted by construction project managers and investigate potential correlations between leadership style and emotional intelligence. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire including a mix of open and closed questions was adopted to address the research objectives. The group studied comprised project managers currently working in the construction industry in New Zealand and the UK. Findings The research found that transformational leadership style is prevalent among project managers examined in this study. Significant positive relationships were found between project managers’ emotional intelligence and their likelihood of adopting a transformational leadership style. Originality/value The research results provide the construction industry with a benchmark against which individuals with high emotional intelligence, and so most suited to the challenges of the project management role, can be identified and trained. Recommendations including suitable methods for identifying, recruiting and training project managers, as well as secondment and mentoring options, were suggested for improving leadership capabilities in the construction industry.

scholarly journals Organisational ambidexterity in UK high-tech SMEs

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 1025-1050 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaminda Senaratne ◽  
Catherine L. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Resource Constraints ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Conventional View ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Longitudinal Qualitative Research ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of organisational ambidexterity, and identify drivers of and barriers to ambidexterity in the high-tech small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, using fine-grained qualitative evidence. This is much needed to generate insights on how organisational ambidexterity actually takes place in SMEs.Design/methodology/approachThis study is exploratory in nature, based on qualitative in-depth interview data collected from 20 UK high-tech SMEs in five industries.FindingsThe results reveal that SMEs leverage resources through intra-firm and inter-firm collaborations to pursue ambidexterity sequentially or simultaneously, using a range of drivers and overcoming a range of barriers.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were gathered from a single informant from each firm. Therefore, more in-depth, longitudinal, qualitative research using multiple sources of data may be required to develop deeper insights into ambidexterity.Practical implicationsManagers of high-tech SMEs need to focus on specific barriers to ambidexterity and devise effective mechanisms to promote the drivers of ambidexterity. The mechanisms to achieve ambidexterity as identified in this study will benefit high-tech SMEs in particular, and firms in general.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the understanding of organisational ambidexterity in high-tech SMEs by exploring the mechanisms through which SMEs implement organisational ambidexterity despite their resource constraints. This counteracts the conventional view that it is difficult for SMEs to pursue ambidexterity.

scholarly journals Surprise: challenging design perceptions in immersive virtual reality environments? The case of designing a hospital project using a CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment)

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Maftei ◽  
Chris Harty
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Design Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Environment Type ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Bid Preparation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) impacts on the surprise aspects of designing.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical case is a new hospital in the UK wherein a CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) type of an IVR environment was used performing six design review sessions during the bid preparation stage. Drawing from a former video-based study, the authors conducted follow-up discussions with the participants to access their perspectives on design surprises emerging from their engagement with the IVR. The study developed a reflective methodology, interviewing participants about their experiences of doing design in the immersive environment. Retrospective discussions were conducted in a data review format, through playing back video clips of the IVR design sessions and asking the participants to reflect on their IVR design experience and on design surprises emerging from their engagement with the IVR.FindingsThe findings indicate that IVRs, such as the CAVE, are not only enhancing existing understandings of design but also challenging the participants' understanding of the design as they experience the immersive version of it, provoking ruptures in current procedures and driving unanticipated changes to the design.Originality/valueThis qualitative study of surprise in design work using IVRs (for a real-life design project) brings new insights into emerging practices of designing using immersive technology, such as the CAVE.

Forced migration and psychosocial health: meaning-making through autobiographical narratives in the UK

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Psoinos
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Psychosocial Health ◽  
Autobiographical Narratives ◽  
Narrative Interviews ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Autobiographical Narrative

This paper explores how refugees in the UK perceive the relation between their experience of migration and their psychosocial health. Autobiographical narrative interviews were carried out with fifteen refugees residing in the UK. The findings reveal a contrast between the negative stereotypes concerning refugees’ psychosocial health and the participants’ own perceptions. Two of the three emerging narratives suggest a more balanced view of refugees’ psychosocial health, since- in contrast to the stereotypes- most participants did not perceive this through the lens of ‘vulnerability’. The third narrative revealed that a hostile social context can negatively shape refugees’ perceptions of their psychosocial health. This runs counter to the stereotype of refugees as being exclusively responsible for their ‘passiveness’ and therefore for the problems they face. 

Decolonising a landscape architecture studio: Spatial modelling of student narratives

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
Christine Price
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Model ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Spatial Modelling ◽  
First Year ◽  
Spatial Form ◽  
Public Park ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Global North

This paper problematises the dominance of global north perspectives in landscape architectural education, in South Africa where there are urgent calls to decolonise education and make visible indigenous and vernacular meaning-making practices. In grappling with these concerns, this research finds resonance with a multimodal social semiotic approach that acknowledges the interest, agency and resourcefulness of students as meaning-makers in both accessing and challenging dominant educational discourses. This research involves a case study of a design project in a first-year landscape architectural studio. The project requires students to choose a narrative and to represent it as a spatial model: a scaled, 3D maquette of a spatial experience that could be installed in a public park. This practitioner reflection closely analyses the spatial model of one student, Malibongwe, focusing on his interest in meaning-making; the innovative meaning-making practices and diverse resources he draws on; and his expression of spatial signifiers of the Black experiences portrayed in his narrative. This reflection shows how Malibongwe’s narrative is not only reproduced in the spatial model, it is remade: the transformation of resources into three-dimensional spatial form results in new understandings and the production of new meanings.

Medical treatment and best interests: judicial interpretation of values, wishes and beliefs under the Mental Capacity Act 2005

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-173
Author(s):  
Owen P. O'Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Mental Capacity Act 2005 ◽  
Mental Capacity Act ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The prominence of the best interests principle in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 represented an important transition to a more resolutely patient-centred model regarding decision-making for incapable adults (“P”). This paper aims to examine the courts’ consideration of P’s values, wishes and beliefs in the context of medical treatment, reflect on whether this has resulted in a wide interpretation of the best interests standard and consider how this impacts clinical decision makers. Design/methodology/approach A particular focus will be on case law from the Court of Protection of England and Wales and the Supreme Court of the UK. Cases have been selected for discussion on the basis of the significance of their judgements for the field, the range of issues they illustrate and the extent of commentary and attention they have received in the literature. They are presented as a narrative review and are non-exhaustive. Findings With respect to values, wishes and beliefs, the best interests standard’s interpretation in the courts has been widely varied. Opposing tensions and thematic conflicts have emerged from this case law and were analysed from the perspective of the clinical decision maker. Originality/value This review illustrates the complexity and gravity of decisions of the clinical decision makers and the courts have considered in the context of best interests determinations for incapacitated adults undergoing medical treatment. Subsequent to the first such case before the Supreme Court of the UK, emerging case law trends relating to capacity legislation are considered.

Complementarity of capabilities across cultures

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 567-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Anning-Dorson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Complementarity Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Customer Involvement ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how service firms across two different cultural contexts use their customer involvement capabilities to create competitive advantage. The study further assesses the possible complementarity effect of innovation and involvement capabilities in enhancing firm competitiveness. Lastly, the study draws on the complementarity of capabilities and social institutions to examine whether different cultural contexts explain the use of involvement capability among service firms. Design/methodology/approach The study sampled service firms from an emerging economy (India) and high-income economy (The UK), which have different cultural contexts (collectivism/individualist) to assess the hypothesized relationship. Data collection processes were adapted to the contexts to optimize reliability and relevance. Multi-group structural equation modeling was used in analyzing the data. Findings The study finds that cultural contexts explain the positive relationship between customer involvement capability and firm competitiveness such that in collectivist cultures, involvement capability is more positively related to competitiveness but negative in individualistic contexts. However, in both contexts, service firms can through capability bundling increase firm competitiveness. The study found that the complementarity effects of innovation and involvement capabilities were found to be positive in both contexts. Originality/value This study departs from previous studies by arguing that customer involvement is a complementary capability that helps exploit the potential of innovation capability of service firms. This study further demonstrates that cultural context defines the effectiveness of involvement capability in achieving firm competitiveness.

When is positive action not positive action? Exploring the conceptual meaning and implications of the tie-break criterion in the UK Equality Act 2010

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Johns ◽  
Sara MacBride-Stewart ◽  
Martin Powell ◽  
Alison Green
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
Equality Of Opportunity ◽  
Equal Opportunities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Action ◽  
Legal Innovation ◽  
Positive Discrimination ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Conceptual Meaning ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the claim that the tie-break criterion introduced under the Equality Act 2010 is not really positive action as is claimed by its government sponsors. It evaluates this claim by locating the tie-break into equal opportunities theory, taking into account merit considerations, and reviews its potential implications. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual discussion of the tie-break. Findings – The paper concludes that the tie-break is not positive action, nor is it positive discrimination. It employs the framework established by Forbes (1991) and attempts to locate it in theoretical discussions of the need to refine merit to take identity characteristics into account. While it could serve to make a more sophisticated approach to merit possible it fails to achieve its implicit potential in this regard. Research limitations/implications – The paper is conceptual and will benefit from empirical support in the future. Practical implications – Practically, the tie-break promises to add some greater clarity to the muddled understanding of equal opportunities and diversity that underpins much policy and legislation. As a result it will arguably prove hard to implement and will carry other associated problems. Social implications – Socially, the tie-break, mis-represented as it currently is, promises to create greater uncertainty around the nature and purposes of equality of opportunity. Consequently, it could exacerbate tensions and hostilities and promote significant resistance to “equality” measures. Originality/value – This paper is an original conceptual piece that will shine a light on an important legal innovation. The tie-break is not what it is described to be and carries both potential and threat for advocates of equality of opportunity. In pursuing socially significant outcomes of this type, conceptual accuracy and transparency are vital, and this paper contributes to this endeavour.

scholarly journals Social media and sentiment in bioenergy consultation

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Uren ◽  
Daniel Wright ◽  
James Scott ◽  
Yulan He ◽  
Hassan Saif
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Opinion Mining ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Uk

Purpose – This paper aims to address the following challenge: the push to widen participation in public consultation suggests social media as an additional mechanism through which to engage the public. Bioenergy companies need to build their capacity to communicate in these new media and to monitor the attitudes of the public and opposition organizations towards energy development projects. Design/methodology/approach – This short paper outlines the planning issues bioenergy developments face and the main methods of communication used in the public consultation process in the UK. The potential role of social media in communication with stakeholders is identified. The capacity of sentiment analysis to mine opinions from social media is summarised and illustrated using a sample of tweets containing the term “bioenergy”. Findings – Social media have the potential to improve information flows between stakeholders and developers. Sentiment analysis is a viable methodology, which bioenergy companies should be using to measure public opinion in the consultation process. Preliminary analysis shows promising results. Research limitations/implications – Analysis is preliminary and based on a small dataset. It is intended only to illustrate the potential of sentiment analysis and not to draw general conclusions about the bioenergy sector. Social implications – Social media have the potential to open access to the consultation process and help bioenergy companies to make use of waste for energy developments. Originality/value – Opinion mining, though established in marketing and political analysis, is not yet systematically applied as a planning consultation tool. This is a missed opportunity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document