The research applies the contextual context, content, and process (CCP) framework to explore the contextual and processual factors that are associated with implementing interorganisational collaborative arrangements in the public sector. Collaborative arrangements in the public sector are found to be complex, difficult to implement, and liable to failure when not fully explored and recognised. Background theory reveals the absence of a multilevel lens that can embrace the multifaceted nature of interorganisational collaborations, the multiple contextual levels, the process stages and micro-actions, and the interplay between the process and the context. By identifying the need to explore contextual and processual factors, the background theory informs the focal theory which proposes an extended CCP framework as a useful multilevel lens to elucidate the research problem. The framework is developed and validated through multidisciplinary literature synthesisation, the pilot stage, and the main fieldwork which applies qualitative methods based on multiple case studies from the public sector in Oman as data sources’ techniques. The originality of this study stemming from developing and validating a novel multilevel contextual framework. The emerged multifaceted CCP framework, used to explore contextual and processual factors when implementing collaborative arrangements in the public sector, is found to be an applicable, feasible, and useful analysis tool. It can help public policy-makers, public management, academics, change agents, and collaborating organisations in identifying the inhibitive, supportive prerequisites, and in general influencing contextual factors. It helps also in elucidating and minimising uncertainty about the nature and micro-actions of the processual stages.

Introduction/Background: Suicide in older people is a historically neglected research area. Local audits had suggested that Cornwall had a higher than average suicide rate, and people aged 75 years and over appeared to be at particularly high risk. Heterogeneity between studies and variations in presenting suicide statistics can make comparison of rates difficult. Aims: The study aimed to explore in depth the epidemiology of suicide in elderly people in Cornwall, to develop an understanding of the risk factors (including sources of stress), suicide methods, locations, and warnings, and consequently to identify potential preventive strategies. Methods: A mixed methods approach was taken, combining quantitative epidemiological study of suicide using Office for National Statistics (ONS) Public Health Mortality Files with qualitative retrospective case study analysis using coroner’s records and local audit database. All completed suicides (and some systematically selected open verdicts) in people aged 75 years and over occurring in Cornwall between 2006 and 2010 were included. A questionnaire survey of rural community dwelling people aged 75 years and over (n = 49) in a part of Cornwall was also carried out to identify the main sources of stress associated with ageing in the local area. Results: Some discrepancies in the number of open verdicts reported by the coroner and ONS were noted. Although suicide in the over 75 age group was responsible for only 0.3 % of all-cause mortality in males and 0.1 % in females, the overall suicide rate in this age group in Cornwall was significantly higher than the average for the UK, with a Standardised Mortality Ratio of 172 (95 % CI 123 to 236). Males aged between 75 and 84 years had the highest suicide rate in Cornwall (mean of 25.8 deaths per 100,000 population, 95 % CI 1.1 to 50.5). Jumping from a height and suffocation were the most frequently used methods, accounting for 8 and 7 of the 34 deaths respectively. 28 of the 34 suicides took place at home. Depressive illness, physical illness and bereavement were the most commonly identified risk factors. Concerns revealed in survey responses were closely related to suicide risk factors, including fear of losing independence, bereavement, physical illness, isolation, and fear of becoming a burden. Warnings included previous self-harm or attempted suicide, suicide ideation or plans, behavioural changes and researching euthanasia. Discussion: As persons aged 75 and over are at significantly higher risk of suicide in Cornwall than other regions, there is a need to reduce the number of suicides in this group. Possible preventive measures include reducing access to means (in particular for jumping incidents), earlier detection of depression in the physically ill, bereavement counselling, more social groups and support groups in rural areas, helping people to retain their independence, and a change in societal attitudes towards elderly people. There may also be a need to improve the accuracy of suicide statistics. Conclusion: Health services, councils, voluntary groups and the community as a whole should work together to prevent suicide in older people. Future controlled studies should assess the effectiveness of interventions and focus more on differences between subgroups of elderly people.

This research aims to inform the relevance of Organisational Learning (OL) to policing management practice by investigating its impact and prevalence in UK policing. In the prescriptive literature, OL is propounded as an important aspect of effective organisations that needs to be leveraged. The field of OL is found to be diverse, lacking empirical work, and in need of suitable research techniques. To focus the research, a specific example of OL is proposed in performance management (PM) practice. The PM literature shows the theoretical foundations for practice are underdeveloped. This research addresses this by combining these two fields. As a result, practical data is made available to support an examination of OL and a theoretical basis for PM is developed. In the absence of a suitable model to structure data collection, a new OL model of PM is derived from the literature. A Critical Realist position is adopted which aims to identify the nature of the phenomena underlying OL. Three case studies with UK Police Forces, which involved fifty-two interviewees, were undertaken during 2008. A pilot case study was undertaken in Scotland, with the follow-up case studies in England and Northern Ireland. The data from interviews is analysed in NVivo using a range of coding techniques. Using the results from these case studies, the provisional OL Model of PM is tested and developed further. PM practice is found to involve the creation of knowledge and the creation of action and the relationship to organisational purpose is highlighted. Six elements of the OL process are defined as Attention, Analysis, Advising, Adjusting, Affecting and Achieving. Dimensions influencing PM practice in the cases are identified. The outcomes of the research indicate relevance to policing management practice, as well as to the wider fields of PM practice and OL theory.

This study sets out to interpret pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions about learning in visual arts in the context of the third year visual art class of one of the three specialist arts schools in Greece. The rationale for the research was to understand how pupils and teachers in this type of specialist arts school perceived the learning process, which could have some transfer value to other contexts of learning in the visual art subject. The research may contribute to the body of knowledge and the practice of art education in Greece, and possibly inform future curriculum development in the subject. In Greece, since 1985, the development of art education and pupils’ aesthetic understanding has been one of the five fundamental aims for secondary and primary education. To improve art education at the primary and secondary level, the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs has undertaken several initiatives. One such initiative has been the development of specialist arts schools. These alternative specialist schools exist in several European countries. In 2003 the Greek Ministry of Education announced the establishment of the first arts school of the country. The year the research was conducted 2008-2009, three arts schools were operated in Greece. The research endeavoured to understand issues related to the learning process in one of the new specialist arts schools, as perceived by third year pupils (aged fourteen and fifteen years old) and their visual art teachers. The research used the interpretive research paradigm, as it is the most suitable method to explore the socio-cultural reality in which the pupils and teachers are situated. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observations, and focus groups. The analysis of findings revealed a learning experience very closely related with the philosophy and the content of the Greece’s national curriculum of visual art. However, according to the findings of this study further attention needs to be given to the issue of developing imaginative thinking, within the framework of the art curriculum. The study proposes an alternative version of the art curriculum, with a view to facilitating imaginative thinking, in the art curriculum of specialist arts schools in Greece as well as the teaching of art in normal secondary schools. It is hoped that the results of the study will offer ground for discussions and oppositions in the area of art education in Greece, in which area not much research has been undertaken. The study’s proposal for the revisions to the existing art curriculum for the specialist arts schools, as they are resulted from evidences embedded in pupils and teachers views, stress on the significance and the originality of the findings and for this reason it is hoped to concern the writing aspect of Greece’s future curriculum writers. This will add to the development of art education in Greece and further will foster relationships between the members of the particular school where the research was carried out.

The aim of this research programme was to explore ehealth technology in pharmacy practice in Scotland and, by doing so, contribute original knowledge to this area. Strategists worldwide believe technology has the potential to promote quality, safety and efficiency in healthcare. This has been reflected in national ehealth policies designed to support collaborative working between medical and non-medical healthcare practitioners and, more recently, the whole health and social care team. A meta-narrative systematic review was conducted to explore and contextualise research related to healthcare professionals’ views of the adoption of ehealth technologies to support shared care. Findings indicate the importance of organisational development and training for core and optional ehealth services with pharmacists particularly under-represented in ehealth research. Socio-technical systems theory and the computer supported cooperative working framework were adopted to explore healthcare practitioners’ perceptions of ehealth in relation to integrated care. Findings from the review indicate ehealth research continues to focus on doctors and nurses. No ehealth application was perceived to be an unqualified success with the socio-technical gap still evident. Multiple case studies were conducted to develop explanatory theory around the digital literacy experiences, education and training related needs of pharmacy staff in the NHS Grampian area. Digital literacy levels were self-reported as basic with mixed views on the need for formal education and training. Findings indicate organisational and social factors may act as restraining forces against implementation of technology in pharmacy and associated digital literacy training. A final theory testing, systematic review was conducted into digital literacy training experiences of pharmacy staff applying Kirkpatrick’s four level model. It found a lack of evidence of specific, measurable digital literacy levels but indications that suggest digital literacy should be included in pharmacy education at all levels and career stages. This research provides novel insight into ehealth and digital literacy in pharmacy practice. Combined ehealth, education and pharmacy research has been demonstrated to be an under-researched area therefore these findings contribute original knowledge.

Healthcare education is continually evolving to reflect therapeutic advances in patient management. Society demands assurances regarding the ongoing competence of HCPs including pharmacists. The use of OSCEs to evaluate competence of medical staff as well as nurses is well documented in the literature however evidence of its use with undergraduate pharmacy students is still sparse.

The term 'hard to reach' first appeared in the Health Visiting Review (Lowe 2007). This review claimed that the health visiting service was able and experienced in reaching the 'hard to reach'. Yet there was a dearth of health visiting literature on what this concept meant and how it was interpreted in practice. A wide literature review was undertaken which examined government child health policies on reducing health inequalities and how the targeting of services to meet the needs of 'vulnerable', 'disadvantaged' or 'hard to reach' families had developed. The literature review identified how the concept of risk in relation to child health promotion had been defined and redefined since the 1970s. The latest shift involved the identification of 'new social risks' and the promotion of early intervention to prevent social exclusion and health inequalities. At the time of the study's inception, health visiting was a service both in decline and under threat. In contrast, the development of new early intervention programmes such as Sure Start (National Evaluation of Sure Start 2005), On Track (Doherty et al. 2003) and intensive home visiting (Barlow et al. 2005) also led to the critical examination of the concept of 'hard to reach'. In response to the lack of information on the concept of 'hard to reach' in health visiting, I set out to examine critically how Health Visitors (HVs) working in a disadvantaged area conceptualised and operationalised the concept of 'hard to reach'. This qualitative ethnographic case study (Yin 2003), by using research methods of focus groups, participant observation of a Well-Baby Clinic and interviews, gathered perceptions and experiences of HVs and service users. Thematic analysis was guided by Gee's (2005) method of critical discourse analysis and revealed how the term was contested by HV practitioners. It was considered a broad term that in practice could be applied widely and negatively as a label for non-engaging service users; yet themes emerged which also demonstrated how HVs related to and constructed the concept in their day-to-day practices of client engagement. The findings were categorised and a typology was developed in relation to the reach of health visiting within a predominantly deficit model of health. The typology consists of four types, all of which relate to the 'reach' of the health visiting service at the interpersonal level. The first type, the 'easy to reach' client, highlights the diversity of clients: not all clients living within a disadvantaged area were 'hard to reach'. This category also identifies how some clients living within this disadvantaged area developed relationships with HVs. Including the type 'easy to reach' within the typology acknowledges the diversity of clients living within an area of disadvantage, and also the facilitators in HV/Client relationships. The second type identified was the 'emotionally hard to reach' client, and identifies characteristics of clients who had a tentative relationship with the health visiting service. Working with 'emotionally hard to reach' clients involved negotiation and the building of trust at each encounter. The third type, 'physically hard to reach', developed following the identification of a range of barriers that reduced access to vulnerable clients. The fourth type, 'hard to reach services', arose from the findings - and this type relates to barriers created by the organisation of the health visiting service in a disadvantaged area. The typology highlights the importance of both clients' and HVs' engagement in the development of working relationships. It recognises the organisational structures and discourses that act as barriers and facilitators to client engagement. It recommends that health visiting should take the opportunity offered in the Health Visitor Implementation Plan (DH 2011) to develop a health visiting service underpinned with a strengths-based model of public health.

The aim of this one-year master thesis was to examine the principles of arrangement used by the Swedish Royal Office archive from about 1540-1878, and how the principles of arrangement have corresponded with the information needs of that rules the Swedish Royal Office archive. The following theoretical premises were important: Berndt Fredriksson's empirical archival science, JBLD Strömberg's concepts of archive systems and Randolph C. Head's concepts of mirroring. Two questions have been examined. What connections is there between the major reorganizations of the Swedish Royal Office archive, the process for governance of Sweden / the Royal Office, access to / control over archival documents, information needs, the political situation, and changes in how the archive was arranged and inventoried. What sources of inspiration have those responsible for the reorganizations had regarding the reorganizations? My source material consisted primarily of archival inventories. In this inquiry I have used a case study in which document and literature studies were conducted. During this study I have discovered that several principles of arrangement was in use simultaneously during the examined time period. This suggests either that older ideas regarding inventory labor were present at the same time and influenced the inventory labor or that the "archivist" during this time period had great freedom to choose between different principles of arrangement. Arrangement by geographic location were used during the entire time period. The archival inventories arranged by this principle has evolved from larger descriptions over geographic places to titles in Latin over countries. It also seems likely that the countries of this archival inventories represented Sweden's foreign relations. Mirroring has been detected between the reasons for the reorganizations, major political conflicts internally and externally, changes in the governance process, the user groups of the archive, the information needs and archival inventories. Mirroring has also occurred between the principles of arrangement and information access and needs. There are several available sources of inspiration to the reorganizations and hence the principles of arrangement.

The purpose of this case study is to examine how talent management is applied in a university environment and how development in leadership skills for the participants of a project affects their willingness to stay at the university. This study also highlights the purpose of using a strategy like talent management to keep key people in the organization to stay and also that theories about talent management needs to be complete with theories about loyalty and commitment. This is done through examining the project Real-- Research and Leadership that the University of Umeå provided for 21 researchers and the first round of the project took part between 2015 and 2016. The purpose of this project is to work as a supporting instance for the researcher’s research career in an long term goal to get the young prominent researchers to stay and keep working at the University. To do so, ReaL, as the project is commonly called, offered the researchers a course with the possibility to develop their leadership abilities that would help them in their future research career. But also to introduce them to interdisciplinary contacts in an attempt to broaden their research network and to give them an increased general knowledge sharing. The data gathering for this study was partly done through surveys that were handed out to the participants at the last day of the course and by interviews with selected participants from the course. The quantitative results of the study show that the participants showed a positive feeling against the impact on the participant’s willingness to stay at the University of Umeå and that the support for their research careers and an enhance in their ability in communication and conflict management was highly contributed towards their willingness to stay at the university. ReaL as a support tool for the participants was also a highly contributed factor for their willingness to stay. The Qualitative results on the other hand shows a more complex situation. Even thou that the project had a positive impact, other external factors paid more contribution to the researcher’s willingness to stay then what the quantitative results shows. These factors were the layout of the city of Umeå, their family situation and their partner’s works situation.

This thesis focuses on immigrants in Sweden. What experiences from the meeting with Swedish society do immigrants have and what meaning does the immigrant background have when they have been patients within the Swedish health and medical service? Former research about patients with an immigrant background can be divided into two perspectives. One which illuminates ethnically demarcated immigrant groups and specific needs. The other perspective has an individually adopted approach independently of the patients’ ethnical background. Here it is mainly the communication problems that are stressed, since these make it hard to understand the individual’s needs. The two empirical studies of the thesis start from an individualised perspective, a life world perspective. Research data have been collected through open interviews. The overall purpose was to develop a deepened understanding of what it means to live as an immigrant in Sweden and receive care. The aim of the pre-study was to examine immigrants’ experiences of participation in municipal home care. In the main study the overall purpose was used and two research questions were asked: What do persons with an immigrant background have to tell us about their situation in Swedish society? How does the situation as an immigrant in Sweden influence the experience of being a patient in Swedish health and medical care? The pre-study shows that participation means making demands and meeting caregivers who view the patient as an actor with the right to make his or her own decisions. One important postulate seems to be access to a good interpreter. To refrain from participation seems to be about adopting a passive attitude as a patient. It seems as if it is the caregivers who are the active ones and the ones setting the standards for the contents of the care. To experience not being invited to participation mainly seems to originate from the fact that the interviewees could neither understand nor make themselves understood. One consequence is that patients are just looked upon as carriers of a symptom. The main study shows that the interviewees’ existential existence as patients involves the whole life situation. Different forms of unsurmountable difficulties might reinforce each other. The ambition to establish oneself in a new home country might therefore be passivised. For patients with immigrant background earlier experiences from exposed situations seem to influence how the patients feel about their treatment. The additional knowledge is that problems seem to reinforce each other. Patients with an immigrant background must be treated as individuals. Every individual’s story has to be made visible. The thesis shows that caregivers ought to endeavour to understand the individual. To encourage dialogue, despite language problems, is of importance for the patient to be able to express his or her needs. The use of an interpreter may have a positive influence on these patients’ possibilities to exert an influence. This means that caregivers who consult an interpreter should build up their competence to communicate through an interpreter.