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Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This body of research explores the barriers that exist to the introduction of best practice models for dietetics services in rural areas of Australia. Best practice in this thesis refers to workforce staffing and organisational best practice, rather than clinical best practice. For the purpose of this thesis a best practice dietetic service has been defined as a timely, accessible, up-to-date nutrition and dietetic service that is effective in meeting the identified needs of the community based on a quality health service definition (Halton 2005). There is no known previous research that has investigated the elements of a best practice dietetics staffing model and the factors that support or inhibit the development of a best practice dietetic service model in rural areas. A review of the literature was conducted to determine the potential features of a best practice dietetic service for rural areas and the factors that are known to affect the development of a best practice service. A theoretical model of best practice dietetic services for rural areas was tested using a series of case studies. An exploratory sequential mixed methods approach has been used in six case study sites to investigate the barriers to best practice using rural sites in northern New South Wales (NSW), Australia as the setting. The mixed method multiple case study investigated the dietetics workforce characteristics and development in the study sites. Best practice dietetic service delivery was tested with cancer patients using the implementation and evaluation of best practice dietetic clinical guidelines in a rural setting. Key findings from this research include: retention issues related to a lack of management support, limited career pathways and professional isolation. Key drivers for the creation of dietetics positions included the actions of champions and the support of management. The main barriers to the creation of positions included a general lack of funds and competing priorities. The outcomes of this research are important for future workforce planning for dietitians in rural areas.

Background Loss to follow-up from randomised trials (RCTs) can affect the reliability of results. Objectives To quantify the effect of strategies to improve retention in RCTs, explore their use, and develop best practice guidance. Methods Systematic review: including retention RCTs nested in RCTs. Qualitative study: in-depth interviews with RCT personnel. Consensus development: workshops with RCT personnel. Results Systematic review: 38 RCTs evaluated RCT retention strategies. Most aimed to improve questionnaire response. Questionnaire response was improved by: adding monetary incentives (RR 1.18;1.09-1.28), higher value monetary incentives (RR 1.12;1.04-1.22) and offering monetary incentives (RR 1.25;1.14-1.38). There is some evidence that recorded delivery (RR 2.08;1.11-3.87), a specialised postal strategy (RR 1.43;1.22-1.67) and an open RCT design (RR 1.37;1.16-1.63) also improve questionnaire response. There is no clear evidence that, when compared to usual follow-up procedures, questionnaire response / retention is improved by: sending questionnaires early, more disease-relevant questionnaires, shorter, or long and clear questionnaires, offering charity donations, giving or offering gifts, "enhanced" letters, priority post, additional reminders, questionnaire order, reminders to sites, behavioural or case management strategies. There was no clear effect for monetary incentives when compared to offering entry into a prize draw, or telephone surveys when compared to a monetary incentive with a questionnaire. Qualitative study: Communication and incentive strategies are routinely used to improve retention / response. There was uncertainty about their effectiveness. Non-monetary incentives, although used, were not thought to be effective. Efforts are made to improve questionnaire layout. Other strategies are seldom used. Factors thought to impact upon retention were identified. Consensus development: Best practice guidance was agreed for monetary incentives and postage. Conclusion Giving and offering small monetary incentives can be used to improve questionnaire response in RCTs. Second class postage can also be used. Application of the results would depend on RCT context and follow-up procedures.

This thesis attempts to explore and analyses environmental training (ET) in Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom. It discusses the relationships of ET with environmental education, human resource development, learning, training and strategic planning. The main goal of the research was to assess which were the most commonly used ET protocols or 'best practices' that can be used and adapted in a variety of organisations. The research was based on a detailed literature survey and drew on the results from a postal questionnaire survey of 94 different organisations of varying size, age and having a variety of quality accreditations. The respondents were mostly from the 36-45 age group, males, first degree holders, specialised in business administration, middle managers and had spent 1-5 years in their organisation. A total of 28 variables were analysed using Chi-Square and Spearman Correlation and are discussed in the text. The 'best practices' of ET in organisations surveyed were identified as: those possessing environmental policies and training policies; conducting training needs assessments using a combination of methods such as discrepancy, democratic, diagnostic and analytic; including ET in their human resource development plan; delivering ET by external consultants and involving trainees in their environmental management system. In addition, these organisations delivered at least 1-5 ET courses per year, used in house courses and lectures, conducted ET evaluations and are committed to ET in the near future. From the 'best practices' identified by the research and face to face interviews with the staff of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Peninsular Malaysia, a SWOT analysis, Objective Oriented Project Planning and a Logical Framework (LOGFRAME) were used to formulate a strategic human resource development plan for the Department.

Introducing a new type of IT-structure means a change that employees within an organization must adapt to. Today, many companies have implemented information technology in the form of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems and find themselves in th so-called Second Wave stage where an after work is ongoing with continual improvement that involves changes that employees need to understand and act upon. To learn how to work with these recurrent misadventures is of importance because it is seen as a critical factor in order to take advantage of the ERP system and its benefits. To study this a study was conducted through personal interviews at Apoteksgruppen AB which a few years ago introduced a new ERP system. There the authors saw that employees learned in different ways depending on the position, and that the more responsibility this person had the greater freedom this person had to resolve their problems and therefore learned more effectively. The internal support team also proved to play a more important role in addition to this learning.

In this study directors of public listed companies around Australia gave their perceptions of best practice in corporate governance. A qualitative methodology within the constructivist paradigm was used along with a questionnaire thus making it a linked study. Mechanisms to assist in demonstrating rigour in the research process were developed and implemented as part of the research. The findings presented a description of best practice in corporate governance and a definition of corporate governance. Emerging from the findings was a model of best practice that was consistent with complex adaptive systems theory. Stakeholder theory was seen to provide the mechanism for developing activities that support the best practice model.

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In this thesis, I examine the factors that influence the introduction of sustainable practice into university food services. There is a growing body of evidence documenting the ecological impact of the conventional agro-food system. Therefore, understanding how institutional practice either enables or hinders sustainable or ‘alternative’ food practice is critical because institutional food services could serve as a potential site for challenging conventional food geographies. Drawing upon a case study approach, my thesis explores the food service environment at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. Two smaller, less detailed food service cases studies (the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto) are used to compare the factors and indicators that determine how sustainability is incorporated into food services. Given the geographical variability within University institutions, I argue that university food services are a contested political space and an important site for challenging conventional food systems. They are also places to test alternative, more sustainable models. I outline some key variables that are currently preventing Queen’s University from moving toward a more sustainable food service model. Furthermore, I discuss the implications of this research for the alternative food geography literature. / Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2007-11-08 12:33:25.771

Despite September 11th 2001, many international airports are operating close to capacity, a problem that is likely to become more acute given the projected long-term growth in air traffic. This growth is likely to have major implications on runway, terminal and surface access capacity, infrastructure which is already experiencing constraints. The area of surface access is as much, if not more an issue in terms of employees accessing the airport as it is for passengers. Typically, one third of access traffic can be attributed to employees. Employees represent a particular problem for airports in terms of surface access due to the frequent, peak hour nature of trips made and their higher usage rates of the car compared to passengers. A range of initiatives exist to encourage the use of modes other than the private car by employees but overall these measures tend to be ‘soft' in nature and one generally has to look to the non-airport sector to see examples of more innovative ‘harder' initiatives such as financial incentive and disincentive car parking measures direct to employees. This thesis utilises a series of carefully selected interviews and focus groups at Heathrow Airport and three best practice non-airport organisations, underpinned by a process grounded in the concept and methodology of best practice benchmarking, to suggest areas where BAA, and potentially airport authorities around the world, could learn from other organisations in the area of employee surface access and specifically car parking . It is concluded that there are four key areas airports should focus on to explore the issues surrounding the implementation of a car parking charge or car parking cash out direct to employees, namely: the use of a package approach; a requirement for top management support; gaining acceptance from employees, and; the issues surrounding the process of implementation. The thesis contributes to knowledge in a number of areas, predominantly the use of benchmarking in the area of car parking and the airport sector, an industry which has thus far not adopted the technique to any great extent.

Titel: Best Practice inom Benchmarking; Hur små och medelstora företag använder förebilder och jämförelser Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Robert Eriksson & Evelina Skoglund Handledare: Tomas Källqvist & Stig Sörling Datum: 2015 – januari.   Syfte: Enligt tidigare forskning existerar det en problematik för SME att använda konceptet benchmarking, de befintliga modeller och tillvägagångssätt är främst anpassade för större organisationer. Syftet med studien är därmed av skapa en förståelse kring hur SME arbetar med förebilder och jämförelser i enlighet med best practice. Metod: Studien antar ett hermeneutiskt och socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv och använder en deduktiv ansats. Den teoretiska referensramen har byggts upp genom att sammanställa den tidigare forskningen under teman. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in ifrån fem SME genom en kvalitativ metod med en fallstudiedesign där semistrukturerade intervjuer och öppna intervjufrågor har använts. Den teoretiska referensramen har sedan ställts mot det empiriska materialet för att belysa skillnader och likheter. Resultat & slutsats: Studien tyder på att SME ständigt arbetar med jämförelser och ser till förebilder. Deras arbetssätt skiljer sig dock från tidigare forskning, då de arbetar mer ostrukturerat och använder en ständig öppenhet för att få nya idéer. Det framkommer också att ledningens roll har en stor betydelse. Resultatet visar att dessa SME använder best practice, men även att se ser till worst practice. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Utifrån denna studie ser vi det intressant att vidare se både kvantitativa och kvalitativa studier som fokuserar på begreppet worst practice, vi skulle även se det intressant att belysa ledningens roll inom konceptet för att få en djupare förståelse för dess vikt.   Uppsatsens bidrag: Det bidrag som studien genererar visar på att SME arbetar med jämförelser på ett mer ostrukturerat sätt än de presenterade modellerna. Den visar även att de ser till worst practice och inte bara best practice då de använder konceptet. Nyckelord: Best practice, SME, benchmarking, strukturlöst, worst practice öppenhet.