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In this chapter, we ask how the sudden spatial redesign of telework during the COVID-19 pandemic has affected organizational identities and the future of telework in Norwegian organizations. The chapter is based on qualitative focus groups and interviews with managers in ten different organizations from the private and public sectors that were carried out in April and October 2021. We distinguish between how discussions about changing management styles, the effect of telework on workplace dynamics and the sense of flux after the pandemic, illustrate how organizational identities have come into play after the pandemic. An important finding is that the managers seem torn between embracing the advantages of telework and proving the organizations' capacity for and willingness to be flexible on the one hand, and retain the physical workplace as a vital container for social dynamics and organizational identity formation on the other. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
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Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the current status of the workplace, its evolution during COVID-19, and the impact of the pandemic on the new (next) normal. This follows previous research about changes in the workplace influenced by the pandemic. Documents, publications, and surveys from numerous sources have been analysed to discover more about the experience of employees and organizations with remote working and the advantages and disadvantages of accessing the workplace during the pandemic and in the new (next) normal. The paper has two objectives, the first of which is to explore some indicators based on available data sources that can help to understand and, in some way, measure the workplace changes in the context of COVID-19. The second is to extend the previous analysis, using the same timeline framework, by studying the workplace during and after COVID-19. Structure: First, the introduction explains the main basis of the research and the principal data sources, outlining what is known, what is new, and the aim of the paper. Then the research methodology is explained, along with the criteria by which the datasets were selected, and the results for the indicators outcomes. Finally, the concluding section highlights the findings obtained, their implications, the limitations of the study, and suggested future lines of research. Findings: The analysis provides insight into to employees' and organizations' experience with remote working and the advantages and disadvantages of accessing the workplace during the pandemic. The indicators identified can allow a better understanding of the environment and, especially, a deeper knowledge of the new normal situation under COVID-19. Discussion: In previous studies, certain strategic categories were identified in the process of reimagining the workplace after COVID-19. Those strategic categories supported the conclusion that there were several common company policies which, translated into practical action, could help in people's engagement with their work. These policies can be summarized as redesigning the physical space of the workplace, work flexibility, family reconciliation, and health security. The study of these policies, based on data analysis, may open up different research paths and allow us to establish models directly related to employee satisfaction. Originality: The paper continues a previous line of research on the situation in the workplace by incorporating certain indicators that allow its measurement and, above all, its evolution over time, especially during the time of the new (next) normal, and by investigating the current status and future evolution of the workplace in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of the data made possible the identification of patterns within the available literature regarding recent events and, especially, their influence on the workplace. This has led to the development of indicators in a range of categories. Practical implications: The revolution initiated by COVID-19 has changed the way companies and employees work, which has involved a constant reinvention of the way they operate and provoked previously unseen actions and profound changes in the workplace. Therefore, the idea of the workplace will never again be what it was expected to be was before COVID-19, and it will be very different from that in the new (next) normal.The strategic categories and their indicators developed here are considered important for people's engagement with their workplaces and organizations. The processes adopted by firms must facilitate the redesign of the workplace in accordance with the new forms of work and not act as a mere copy or transfer of the usual approaches to remote work. Providing answers to the questions involved, and deepening the classifications of the categories we develop, can help us understand how people can be connected with the newest forms of workplaces. Some categories and their associated indicators are relevant in remote work and home office environments created by COVID-19. Given that the research started within a pandemic that has not yet ended, while we now know a lot more, the near-term future is uncertain.
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This article provides a teaching case study detailing the reaction of an alternative food pantry to the Coronavirus. The alternative food pantry provided produce, dairy, meat, and cereals to around 150 families each week before the virus. Due to social distancing and concerns about spreading infection, the food distribution process needed to be quickly modified. This paper examines the enterprise's procurement, transportation, and distribution operations before and during the virus crisis. This juxtaposition highlights the changes that the unfolding pandemic necessitated and the various ways food pantries can organize their distribution. This presents an excellent opportunity to illustrate service process redesign and service blueprinting to students in addition to highlighting the operational issues that the redesign presented. The case can be used in core undergraduate classes on operations and supply chains, specialized undergraduate courses on service management, and graduate-level classes on supply chain and service management. © 2022 NeilsonJournals Publishing.
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The purpose of the chapter is to illustrate instructional models that were implemented by Samford University McWhorter School of Pharmacy to comply with COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. While the second half of Spring 2020 was completely online (statewide shutdown), the university remained open in a hybrid manner for the 2020-21 academic year. There are three sections in the chapter: didactic, interprofessional, and advanced pharmacy practice experiences. The didactic section discusses course delivery methods and active learning, office hours, remote testing, student feedback, and contingency planning. The interprofessional section illustrates some of the school's synchronous and asynchronous interprofessional learning activities before and during the COVID-pandemic, as well as interprofessional education assessment methods. The last section of the chapter discusses how advanced pharmacy practice experience "direct patient care" was redefined, examples of the experiences, and contingency plans that were put into place to ensure on-time graduation for the classes of 2020 and 2021 pharmacy students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of the innovative ritual-based redesign of a routine in the challenging context of the dining-out sector, characterized by low employee commitment and high turnover.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a mixed methods experimental design. This study focuses on a field experiment in a real restaurant centered on the restaurant's welcome entrée routine. The routine is first observed as it happens, after which it is redesigned as a ritual.FindingsThe ritual-based redesign of the routine enhances employee sharing of the purpose of the routine and reduces the variability of the execution time of the routine, which increases group cohesion among the restaurant staff. Besides the positive impact on the routine's participants, the ritual-based redesign has a beneficial effect on the performance of the routine by increasing the enjoyment of the end-consumers at the restaurant.Research limitations/implicationsThe ritual-based redesign of routines is a powerful managerial tool that bonds workers into a solidary community characterized by strong and shared values. This allows guidance of the behavior of new and existing employees in a more efficient and less time-consuming way.Originality/valueRituals have been traditionally analyzed from the customer perspective as marketing tools. This research investigates the employees' perspective, leveraging ritual-based redesign as a managerial tool for increasing cohesion among workers.
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Introduction. The rapid development of digital technologies, online format of the educational process due to the spread of Covid-19 have actualized online learning in universities. The combination of work and postgraduate studies by young scientists, limited time frames, low motivation make it necessary to find the optimal ways to organize the educational process in a foreign language. The considered online course provides young scientists with the opportunity to improve the level of foreign language communicative competence in academic and research fields. Purpose of the article: to improve the effectiveness of the online foreign language course for young scientists. Research methods. The experiment involved 445 first- and second-year graduate students of South Ural State University. To determine the effectiveness of the online course in the program of foreign language study in graduate school and increase the level of foreign language communicative competence the following methods were used: method of pedagogical experiment, method of observation, econometric method of mathematical statistics Difference in Differences (DID). The method of questionnaires was used to identify the educational needs of graduate students. The B.D. Jones's MUSIC® Model of Motivation was chosen as the methodological basis for the redesign of the online course. The relevance and completeness of the strategies of the B.D. Jones's MUSIC® Model of Motivation according to graduate students' opinions were tested using a parametric Student's t-test with dependent sampling. Results. As a result of the experiment aimed at improving the effectiveness of the online foreign language course for graduate students, positive dynamics in the level of foreign language communication competence of graduate students in the experimental group compared with students in the control group was verified by the Change criterion, which reflects the difference in the results of the PhD Foreign Language Exam of graduate students, recorded by DID: "excellent" – (Change > 12%), "good" – (Change < 9.5%), "satisfactory" – (Change < 2.5%). Discussion and conclusion. It was proved that the identified factors to improve the effectiveness of the online course for young scientists (redesign of the online course, taking into account the educational needs of graduate students) determined the positive dynamics of the level of foreign language communication competence of graduate students. © 2023 LLC Ecological Help. All rights reserved.
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This paper deals with the mitigation process of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scholars propose and discuss several mitigation strategies to face the COVID-19 disruptions, mainly focusing on technology and supply chain redesign related aspects. Less attention has been paid to the organizational aspects of the mitigation process. We address this gap through an in-depth analysis of the reactive organizational practices implemented by an Italian company during the COVID-19 pandemic. We further compare these practices with those proposed in the disruption management literature to identify common traits and differences. The results show that the overall management of a pandemic's mitigation process does not significantly differ from that of conventional disruptions, since both contexts require the same basic organizational practices. However, some peculiarities on how these practices should be implemented in a pandemic setting do emerge, such as the implementation of a cyclic rather than linear problem-solving process, the adoption of a learning-by-doing approach, the need of a risk-taker mindset and the importance of creativity and improvisation. Besides complementing the literature, these findings allow to provide indications to managers on how to organize and coordinate the activities during the mitigation process, as well as on what capabilities and competencies should be leveraged to face the pandemic's disruptions.
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The politics of scale is the main issue within and around debates on whether geographical indications are the best strategy to support local economies. Two PDO cheeses are made in Val Taleggio. While Taleggio PDO has outscaled the valley and its interests, Strachìtunt PDO was reinvented to be at scale for the valley's producers. I explain the two-step transition in the producers' communicative strategy, from a language of heritage cheese and its "prestige” to a multispecies language that stresses the importance of a "working landscape” as a value in itself, focusing in particular on the producers' post-COVID-19 manifesto as "keepers of molds.” Guardianship emerges from it as a new form of authenticity that does not run in the strictures of terroir-discourse. The article thus spells out which role authenticity plays in the politics of scale and how it contributes to the small-scale producers' dilemma of how to craft a future for themselves and their communities. I contextualize this vis-a-vis secondary sources that also stress the conceptual and political creativity of cheese-makers' strategies to revitalize regional (dairy) economies. Food producers are experimenting with new ways of mobilizing heritage to claim guardianship of their trade, craft, and territory. A transnational producer discourse emerges through a redesign of food heritage, front-staging the ecological meaning of craft.
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Despite instructors' best efforts in designing and delivering any given course, changes are likely required from time to time. This experience report presents the changes made in a second-year programming course for non-computing engineering majors over a decade's worth of effort, and the reasons behind those changes. The changes were often reactive - in response to student feedback. However, many other changes were inspired by the desire to trial new interventions in the hope of strengthening the students' positive experience. In addition to personnel and course content changes, the gradual evolvement included how labs, assignments, and activities were structured and executed. Teaching delivery evolved, along with a number of small-scale interventions that eventually became integral elements of the course. When COVID-19 demanded a sudden shift to online learning, the course was prepared to adapt quickly and successfully. The contributions here come in the form of lessons learned over the past decade: what worked, and what did not. We present the large range of changes - -and their rationales - that are particularly relevant and applicable to programming courses targeting engineering students where the luxury of pedagogically-friendlier programming languages is not possible. © 2023 ACM.
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Purpose: Hybrid and virtual work settings offer greater flexibility and autonomy, yet they also have the paradoxical effect of weakening the connection of employees to each other and their identification with the organization. The purpose of this article is to discuss how to manage this paradox effectively. Design/methodology/approach: Leveraging structural adaptation theory, the authors discuss hybrid and virtual work as one of five dimensions of team interdependence that collectively determine the tightness of coupling between team members. Findings: The authors propose that the introduction of virtual and hybrid work can lead to a lower sense of belonging and identification with the organization that would need to be counteracted by respective increases in team interdependence in one or several of the remaining dimensions of team interdependence. Originality/value: The authors apply research on team interdependence to develop a series of practical interventions that can address the Great Resignation. These interventions seek to enhance employees' experiences of belongingness after the shift to virtual and hybrid work. In doing so, the authors provide a toolkit that organizations can leverage to improve their employees' experiences in a post-COVID-19 workplace. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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The pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has continuously wreaked havoc on human health. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system based on chest computed tomography (CT) has been a hotspot option for COVID-19 diagnosis. However, due to the high cost of data annotation in the medical field, it happens that the number of unannotated data is much larger than the annotated data. Meanwhile, having a highly accurate CAD system always requires a large amount of labeled data training. To solve this problem while meeting the needs, this paper presents an automated and accurate COVID-19 diagnosis system using few labeled CT images. The overall framework of this system is based on the self-supervised contrastive learning (SSCL). Based on the framework, our enhancement of our system can be summarized as follows. 1) We integrated a two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform with contrastive learning to fully use all the features from the images. 2) We use the recently proposed COVID-Net as the encoder, with a redesign to target the specificity of the task and learning efficiency. 3) A new pretraining strategy based on contrastive learning is applied for broader generalization ability. 4) An additional auxiliary task is exerted to promote performance during classification. The final experimental result of our system attained 93.55%, 91.59%, 96.92% and 94.18% for accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score respectively. By comparing results with the existing schemes, we demonstrate the performance enhancement and superiority of our proposed system.
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Cartography and maps support the continuous rising of the awareness of the power of spatial data, which further lays a foundation for the popularity of various location based services and applications in society. Cartography and Geographic Information System education has been a core activity in the cartographic academic community for knowledge creation and transfer in higher education institutions. Maps in primary and high schools play a unique role across disciplines to build the spatial thinking capacities of young generations. Over years educators train students via lectures and lab works into which digital technologies are gradually incorporated. The COVID-19 pandemic has been fast forwarding our pace to employ digital technologies in online teaching and learning. Teachers are passively or proactively adapted to conduct their teaching online and redesign their lectures and assessments of students' performance. On another side, students are getting used to online learning even more quickly with various digital devices in an interactive and collective way. It creates opportunities for cartographic GIS educators to build a body of knowledge for cartography which can be used to build open source educational resources systematically. Further flexible curriculum can be designed and implemented for professional and continuous education and training at various levels. Future education of cartography and GIS can improve map literacy and make a sustainable education.
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The catering industry is responsible for producing and distributing meals in schools, hospitals, and companies' cafeterias. Dietary pattern changes and smart working caused by the Covid pandemic highly affect the food catering industry. The demand contraction put in crisis the typical distributed productive structure of such a sector. A 30% revenue reduction from 2019 to 2020 called for the widespread network of production plants to cut corners. Production centralization leads to economies of scale but increases the logistics costs of distribution. We present a real case study of production network downsizing in the catering industry, focusing on optimizing logistics and fixed capacity costs. Meals distribution has tight time constraints due to the consumers-imposed time windows and the microbiological safety rules-imposed time windows. The proposed methodology integrates the vehicle routing problem developed by the company into a network costs optimizations problem. This optimization model exploits the pre-optimized routes defined by the company, chooses which plants to open, and performs the customer-route pairing for each picked production site. Different allocation scenarios of the same demand distribution are defined and analyzed in the case study, allowing a quantitative comparison between different redesign strategies. Results show how the mileage varies among the centralized scenarios, with a cost differential from +61% to + 29% compared to the distributed scenario. The comparison of pre and post covid demand scenarios shows how the model cushions the logistics costs: the optimal choices of the routes allows a 22% traveling reduction in the 38% post-pandemic demand reduction of the same service area. The model supports the decision-making process in the network redesign of the food catering industry by analyzing how alternative location-allocation scenarios deal with different demand patterns. © 2022, AIDI - Italian Association of Industrial Operations Professors. All rights reserved.
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The catering industry is responsible for producing and distributing meals in schools, hospitals, and companies' cafeterias. Dietary pattern changes and smart working caused by the Covid pandemic highly affect the food catering industry. The demand contraction put in crisis the typical distributed productive structure of such a sector. A 30% revenue reduction from 2019 to 2020 called for the widespread network of production plants to cut corners. Production centralization leads to economies of scale but increases the logistics costs of distribution. We present a real case study of production network downsizing in the catering industry, focusing on optimizing logistics and fixed capacity costs. Meals distribution has tight time constraints due to the consumers-imposed time windows and the microbiological safety rules-imposed time windows. The proposed methodology integrates the vehicle routing problem developed by the company into a network costs optimizations problem. This optimization model exploits the pre-optimized routes defined by the company, chooses which plants to open, and performs the customer-route pairing for each picked production site. Different allocation scenarios of the same demand distribution are defined and analyzed in the case study, allowing a quantitative comparison between different redesign strategies. Results show how the mileage varies among the centralized scenarios, with a cost differential from +61% to + 29% compared to the distributed scenario. The comparison of pre and post covid demand scenarios shows how the model cushions the logistics costs: the optimal choices of the routes allows a 22% traveling reduction in the 38% post-pandemic demand reduction of the same service area. The model supports the decision-making process in the network redesign of the food catering industry by analyzing how alternative location-allocation scenarios deal with different demand patterns. © 2022, AIDI - Italian Association of Industrial Operations Professors. All rights reserved.
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The world is facing a new pandemic that affected all aspects of life and interrupted normal daily activities, which urges rethinking the ability of the urban realm to adapt to change especially when it comes to basic human needs. Urban markets play a vital part in securing daily access to food;thus, it is crucial to keep them operating safely during pandemic. The paper starts by discussing socioeconomic implications of pandemic in the urban realm in general and in markets in particular. Guidelines for designing markets are briefly reviewed, followed by guidance provided by responsible organizations for operating markets safely during pandemic. The paper demonstrates some of the solutions and ideas applied and suggested worldwide to avoid the consequences of markets’ shutting down, then it introduces the case study: Tablita market as one of the enclosed urban markets in Cairo, Egypt, the market’s situation during pandemic is studied through observation, structured and unstructured interviews with vendors. The results from market observation and interviews show some of the socioeconomic implications of COVID on the market as well as the behavioral challenges that require innovative solutions to force the adherence to protection measures. Accordingly, the paper suggests applicable short-term and long-term solutions for Tablita market redesign in the light of these implications, challenges and protection measures that can also be applied in similar cases in Cairo to help markets operate safely and avoid severe consequences of lockdown. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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BACKGROUND: During the quiescent periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we implemented a weekend-scheduled pediatric surgery program to reduce COVID-19-related backlogs. Over 100 staff members from anesthesiologists to nurses, surgeons, and administrative and supporting personnel signed up to work extra weekends as part of a novel weekend elective pediatric surgery program to reduce COVID-19-related backlog: Operating Room Ramp-Up After COVID-19 Lockdown Ends-Extra Lists (ORRACLE-Xtra). OBJECTIVE: In this study, we sought to evaluate staff perceptions and their level of satisfaction and experiences with working extra scheduled weekend elective surgical cases at the end of the 3-month pilot phase of ORRACLE-Xtra and identify key factors for participation. METHODS: Following the pilot of ORRACLE-Xtra, all perioperative staff who worked at least 1 weekend list were invited to complete an online survey that was developed and tested prior to distribution. The survey collected information on the impact of working weekends on well-being, overall satisfaction, and likelihood of and preferences for working future weekend lists. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association of well-being with satisfaction and willingness to work future weekend lists. RESULTS: A total of 82 out of 118 eligible staff responded to the survey for a response rate of 69%. Staff worked a median of 2 weekend lists (IQR 1-9). Of 82 staff members, 65 (79%) were satisfied or very satisfied with working the extra weekend elective lists, with surgeons and surgical trainees reporting the highest levels of satisfaction. Most respondents (72/82, 88%) would continue working weekend lists. A sense of accomplishment was associated with satisfaction with working on the weekend (odds ratio [OR] 19.97, 95% CI 1.79-222.63; P=.02) and willingness to participate in future weekend lists (OR 17.74, 95% CI 1.50-200.70; P=.02). Many (56/82, 68%) were willing to work weekend lists that included longer, more complex cases, which was associated with a sense of community (OR 0.12, 95% CI 0.02-0.63; P=.01). CONCLUSIONS: Staff participating in the first 3 months of the ORRACLE-Xtra program reported satisfaction with working weekends and a willingness to continue with the program, including doing longer, more complex cases. Institutions planning on implementing COVID-19 surgical backlog work may benefit from gathering key information from their staff.
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Due to the new remote working conditions driven by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, we extend our previous work on sentiment-enabled business process modeling by including crowdsourcing capabilities with a web interface: SentiProMoWeb. These capabilities enable us to perform sentiment-driven business process re-design method with remote stakeholders from different locations. SentiProMoWeb implements an enterprise social information system to capture the feedback from stakeholders in a crowdsourced manner. We demonstrate the crowdsourcing capabilities of our approach with an illustrative scenario by using our SentiProMoWeb software. © 2022, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.
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In response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to already oversubscribed specialist paediatric dental services, a pilot of an enhanced primary care paediatric dental pathway, known as the Child Friendly Dental Practice (CFDP) scheme, was commissioned by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. Supported by a transformational commissioning approach, the ambition of the CFDP pilot was to manage or stabilise the oral health of high-need paediatric patients who had been referred to specialist dental services within Community or Hospital Dental Service settings, through timely access to primary care clinicians who were confident and experienced in treating children. The theory of change of the CFDP pilot proposed that rapid access to enhanced primary dental care would reduce the need for onward referral to specialist paediatric dental services, whilst also stabilising the oral health of children who require more complex management in specialist services. A formative evaluation of the phase one pilot implementation of the CFDP Scheme has demonstrated the potential of the CFDP Scheme to improve access to dental services for paediatric patients referred from their General Dental Practitioner. Comparison of waiting times between the CFDP pathway and the standard paediatric dental referral pathway have revealed substantially reduced waiting times to access care along the CFDP pathway, while less than 30% of those who attended CFDPs required onward referral to specialist paediatric dental services. Encouragingly, similar attendance and treatment completion rates were noted among patients from all levels of socio-economic deprivation, reducing concerns regarding the potential for service-based interventions to increase oral health inequalities. Following successful completion of the phase one pilot implementation and evaluation, the CFDP Scheme has now been rolled out across all localities in Greater Manchester as part of a second phase pilot implementation. Public Health Competencies; Equitable healthcare provision, Partnership working, Evidence-based public health, Systems thinking, Transformational commissioning, Healthcare evaluation.
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COVID-19 , Oral Health , Child , Humans , Dentists , Pandemics , Professional Role , Dental CareABSTRACT
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic presented many higher education institutions with a sudden challenge to shift from either face-to-face and/or blended instruction to remote teaching in order to save the academic year. This article examines preservice teachers’ experiences of a redesigned blended-learning year course on work-integrated learning (WIL). The article uses the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework within a blended-learning environment to examine the responses of 414 preservice teachers in their first year of study to a survey completed at the end of the course. Descriptive statistics were used together with course content analysis to generate the findings, which suggested that the majority (above 80%) of the preservice teachers remained active during the shift to remote teaching, and about 93.3% responded positively to the course redesign by actively accessing the course on the online platform at least once a week. The survey results also showed that only 10.4% of the preservice teachers did not experience one or another form of challenge in learning through remote teaching during this time. The results build a case for how other practitioners and instructional designers could redesign courses with the consideration of context and learning challenges. The article concludes with the argument for the design of blended courses for future needs to focus more closely on each aspect of the mode of delivery so as to ensure effective design that can withstand emergency situations, such as those we have seen during COVID-19.
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The COVID-19 has significantly led to changes in the mobility needs and in user travel behavior, due to the measures adopted to reduce the spread of the virus. While on the one hand this has resulted in a reduction in the number of trips, on the other this has entailed an increase in the use of the private car, considered as the safest form of transportation in urban contexts. Thus, administrations and policy makers have to promote actions and strategies to encourage soft mobility (i.e. walking and cycling), viewed as solutions to reduce transport emissions and ensure social distancing. This often implies the need for a redesign of urban spaces as pedestrians experience uncomfortable or unsafe situations about the surrounding environment. Within this framework, the paper proposes a methodological framework to evaluate the interactions between pedestrians and vehicular traffic using a microsimulation approach. The analyzed case study concerns a road intersection within the S. Benedetto neighbourhood in Cagliari (Italy). A scenario assessment has been performed through the computation of several performance indicators related both to private transport (i.e. level of service and emissions) and pedestrian users (i.e. density;speed and crossing time). The comparative analysis of results demonstrates that this research approach could represent a flexible and effective tool in guiding administrations through the decision-making process during the planning and development of projects for redevelopment of urban spaces and the promotion of soft mobility. Further research will focus on an extended study area, by modelling the behaviour of different categories of pedestrians and introducing in-field data. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.