An assessment of the importance of process in the development of communications materials in Uganda

In previous country programmes, communications development work was divided into single-issue vertical projects. Each project developed its own materials and would then send it to an in-house materials development unit. This unit would, in turn, design the graphics and layout, supervise the printing, and organise the field-testing. The system was production oriented. The Country Programme in Uganda is now organised on a broad-based programme arrangement in which different issues are combined. New concepts are being introduced along with new ways of working in the field, and a wide range of people from many different sectors and types of organisations are required for the production of communications materials.Inevitably, this approach has considerable costs, particularly in terms of time and control on the final product. During the time of transition from the single-intervention vertical product approach to a broad multi-sector programme approach, different processes were used to develop communications material. This variation created an opportunity to compare processes within one context, hence this assessment. The overall purpose of the assessment was to determine if the costs incurred by each method were justified in terms of the value added, such as stakeholder acceptance, ownership and use by the field staff.     

Intermediary objects in the workspace design process: means of experience transfer in the offshore sector

The aim of this paper is to discuss the use of intermediary objects in the workspace design process of offshore accommodations module. The integration of ergonomics in the design process can lead to better work conditions, more effectiveness in the work process and less health and safety issues. Moreover, it is more efficient in terms of cost if ergonomics is considered from the initial phases of the project, as the potential costs of the redesign, the possible losses and the down-time in the operation of the platform would be more increased. The goal, then, is to discuss the integration of ergonomics and users involvement in the design process of accommodations modules, focusing on the transfer of information from reference situations by the use of intermediary objects during the process. In this paper we will present two tools developed to be used as intermediary object(s) aiming at transferring the experience from the use to the design in the specific field of offshore accommodations module.     

创新碳抵消机制设计增强上海碳市场跨省区辐射力

上海碳市场交易标的以二氧化碳排放配额为主,经国家或本市核证的基于项目的温室气体减排量为补充。碳排放配额是由政府部门组织向企业分配,核证减排量则由企业自行在市场上购买。企业用核证减排量抵消碳排放的规则由主管部门规定,称为"碳抵消机制"。用核证减排量抵消企业实际碳排放是国际上的通行做法。     

Factors impacting donors’ intention to donate to charitable crowd-funding projects in China: a UTAUT-based model

The new and increasingly popular tool of crowd-funding is widely used by non-profit organizations in China to raise money online for their charitable projects. In order to use this tool effectively, it is essential to understand donors’ motivations for supporting charitable projects. This study investigates the impact of performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), sense of trust, and experience expectation on donors’ intention to donate to charitable crowd-funding projects, using a research model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model. Empirical data were collected through a survey, and structural equation modeling was used to analyze 316 responses from users of the Tencent charitable crowd-funding platform in China. The results indicate that SI, sense of trust, EE, and PE significantly affect donors’ intention to donate to charitable crowd-funding projects. The impact of FC and experience expectation on donors’ intention is also positive; however, it is not very strong. Finally, this paper presents suggestions for how to increase users’ intention to donate money on charitable crowd-funding platforms.     

Affordable housing in Pakistan

This paper demonstrates how the design of standards, pricing and finance must be integrated if affordable housing is to be achieved in a sustainable and replicable way. The paper does this by identifying basic principles in achieving affordability and applying these principles through a simple, computer-based integrated-design model to a ‘model’ housing project in Pakistan. In most instances, where there is not a development grant or forgivable loan, affordability must be combined with cost-recovery if projects are to be sustainable and replicable. Keys to such projects are the use of market prices, incremental construction using sweat equity, efficient and affordable standards, differential pricing, and financing using market interest rates but with affordable down payments and repayment rates. The paper demonstrates that the ‘model’ project in Pakistan, as designed, is not affordable. Through examining several alternative designs using different land-use standards, pricing and financing systems, the paper shows what needs to be done to make such projects affordable. In doing so, it illustrates how affordability, standards, pricing, finance, and cost-recovery can be integrated in the design process. While applied to Pakistan, the relevance to Canada of this integrated-interactive design process is explored.     

Pedagogical Dramas and Transformational Play: Narratively Rich Games for Learning

Although every era is met with the introduction of powerful technologies for entertainment and learning, videogames represent a new contribution binding the two and bearing the potential to create sustained engagement in a curricular drama where the player's knowledgeable actions shape an unfolding fiction within a designed world. Although traditionally, stories involve an author, a performer, and an audience, much of the power of videogames as media for advancing narrative springs from their affordance for the player to occupy more than one role—and sometimes all three—simultaneously. In the narratively rich videogames that we design, players have the opportunity to perform actions, experience consequences, and reflect on the underlying social values that these situations were designed to engage, affording a type of narrative transactivity. Elsewhere we have discussed designing these media as contexts for engaging academic content; here we illuminate the power of videogames to engage children in ideological struggles as they are experienced in game-based adaptations of classic literature. Toward this end, we present our theoretical argument for the power of games as a contemporary story medium, grounding this discussion in the context of two game design projects and their implementations. Implications are discussed in terms of the potential of immersive, interactive media—videogame technology, in short—for achieving wide-ranging educational ends.     

SAFETY FIRST, BANKRUPTCY, AND THE PRICING AND INVESTMENT DECISIONS OF THE FIRM

The paper analyzes the impact of imposing a constraint on the probability of bankruptcy for the pricing and investment choices of firms. Two models are presented in which a firm faces stochastic demand; in one costs are known with certainty, and in the other costs of production are probabilistic. In both cases the constraint induces a reduction in optimal price if demand is elastic. For less elastic demand, price increases may be indicated. With constant costs, the constraint lowers optimal investment. The results are applicable to the analysis of rating agencies' behavior, or to the design of bond covenants, especially for public utilities.     

Nonprofit association CEOs how their context shapes what,how, and why they learn

This qualitative study explored the learning experiences of twelve national nonprofit membership association CEOs using a phenomenological research design. While the professional context of an organization's chief executive is considered unique from other executive positions, the impact of this context on what and how CEOs learned was unclear. The findings describe association CEO learning as being affected in significant ways by the politically charged context in which the nonprofit association CEO operates with his or her board of directors. Power imbalances with staff and the board make learning through traditional organizational dialogue a less useful learning process for the CEOs. Furthermore, the feelings of isolation and vulnerability that are generated from the nonprofit association CEO context often cause CEOs to use private reflection and dialogue with their spouse as primary learning mechanisms. The study concludes that the association CEO context uniquely and profoundly shapes what, how, and why CEOs learn. Perhaps lacking the financial security of lucrative severance payments, which are often specified in employment contracts of for‐profit CEOs, the nonprofit association CEO will often temper his or her actions to avoid personal vulnerability with a politically charged board of directors.     

The Profile of Board Membership in Israeli Voluntary Organizations

This study of 161 nonprofit organizations in Israel was aimed at exploring the composition of boards, the methods employed to recruit new board members, and the selection criteria of board members. The results suggest that boards tend to be closed, elitist circles. Most organizations use mainly informal means to recruit new board members. The most important selection criteria were those related to interpersonal relationships, willingness to contribute time, and expressing an interest in working for the organization.     

Called to order: A board president in trouble

This is a fictionalized case based on real events. It is intended as a teaching tool to stimulate discussion about procedural issues in nonprofit governance; board roles and responsibilities; communications; and relationships between boards, chairs, and executives, particularly in the context of smaller organizations. It is meant to support sessions on nonprofit boards and governance in introductory courses on nonprofit management or for use in workshops with new or less experienced executives and board members. Set in an organization engaged in cultural exchange, the case can be used in introductions to nonprofit management, arts administration, or international nongovernmental management.     

Self-assessment by nonprofit boards

Can nonprofit boards conduct accurate and trustworthy evaluations of their own performance? Factors that limit trustee self-assessments include problems with available instruments as well as with trustees' critical abilities. Drawing upon previous research that identified six dimensions of board competencies, the author developed and field-tested a new instrument for use in board self-assessments. Information on the reliability and validity of this approach is presented, and implications are drawn for board efforts to monitor and appraise their performance.     

Names in the News

Linda Rosenberg, longtime president and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health, who announced she would be leaving almost a year ago (see ADAW, April 30, 2018), will be replaced by Chuck Ingoglia, who has been in charge of public policy at the Washington, D.C.–based group since 2005, on June 1. “On behalf of the National Council Board of Directors, I am pleased to announce that after a comprehensive national selection process, the board is delighted to appoint Chuck Ingoglia to the role of president and CEO,” said Jeff Richardson, chair of the board of directors. Richardson said Ingoglia's more than 20 years experience in behavioral health policy made him “the clear choice to lead the National Council into the future.” Prior to joining the National Council, Ingoglia provided policy and program design guidance to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; he also directed state government relations and service system improvement projects for the National Mental Health Association (now Mental Health America), served as a policy analyst for the National Association of Social Workers and designed educational programs for mental health and addictions professionals at the Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare. “We are very grateful to Linda for 15 years of outstanding leadership and fortunate that Chuck has accepted the position. Chuck is a proven leader and the best choice from a deep pool of interested and highly qualified candidates from across the country,” said Richardson. “His vision and strategy are exactly what the National Council needs as we enter our next chapter.”     

The importance of user centered design methods applied to the design of a new workstation: a case study

This paper presents a case study of the application of user centered design methodologies in the product development for a line of ergonomic office furniture. The study aimed to analyze the experience of using a workstation from the perspective of two groups of users, installers and end users. The observation of users in their natural context of use not only allowed the development team to identify key needs and strategies of the users, transforming them into design solutions, but mainly it warned them of the importance and impact of user involvement in the product development cycle.     

Crisis Rhetoric,Stigma Play: The Contested Status of Humanities Majors on an Elite University Campus

This article extends symbolic interactionist thought on authenticity and stigma allure into the context of higher education in the United States where the status of the humanities is contested. Our abductive analysis of twenty‐nine, semistructured interviews with undergraduates at an elite university reveals that selecting a humanities major has social costs. Yet the students who opt into these majors renegotiate ideologies, practices, and resources in ways that generate meaningful educational experiences. Navigating these problematic situations in which status is threatened enables the social production and personal aesthetic experience of authenticity. These findings add a new evidentiary basis to theory on stigma allure and, in doing so, demonstrate that when rhetorics of crisis collide with the late modern quest for authenticity voluntary stigma can become a powerful, if also unwieldy, resource.     

Female board directors' resilience against gender discrimination

Despite regulatory efforts to promote gender diversity on boards, women are still severely underrepresented in board leadership in the UK, beyond FTSE 100 companies. Evidence suggests that women, when poorly represented in the workplace, are more likely to suffer discrimination. In this study, we report the first-hand experiences of gender discrimination suffered by female directors and present the process of how they build resilience through developing coping strategies. Such resilience-building processes seem to vary with the length of board experience of female directors. At the outset of their board journey, they adopt avoidant coping strategies of denial and disengagement. However, with experience in boards, they gain the confidence to pursue the active coping strategy of seeking and extending support. This qualitative study is based on 42 elite interviews of board directors and is guided by the resilience theory, in the context of top FTSE boards. The article also discusses the contribution of the study to theory, praxis, and policy.     

Integrating gender needs into drinking-water projects in Nepal

It is argued that projects and programs designed to meet the practical needs of men, women, and children in communities should also focus on meeting the strategic gender needs of women. This paper shows what project planners can do to ensure women?s participation in the design and maintenance of development projects without increasing their workloads, and with the goal of raising their status in the family and society, as well as challenging men's prejudice. It utilizes the framework of strategic and practical gender needs in the context of the drinking-water sector, to argue that understanding how these needs are linked is important to the sustainability of drinking-water projects. Overall, this paper pointed out the great need to involve women in the management of water projects in order for it to be effective in reducing the burdens of the people. Moreover, all development initiatives, including improvements in water supply, should have explicit focus on improving women status and increasing their confidence. Meeting such gender needs requires real commitment from concerned individuals on all levels as well as budgetary provision to enhance the capacity of the involved sector, and heighten their awareness. Fulfillment of their strategic gender needs, will in turn, contribute to the sustainability of water projects.     

The propensity of governing boards to plan

This article examines the relationship between board characteristics and formal organizational planning in forty-four nonprofit organizations. The study found that ongoing and beginning planners were more likely than those with no planning experience—or those that had abandoned planning after an initial experience with the process—to have well-understood missions, boards that concentrated on higher-level policy issues, and boards that had clear structures for decision making. The data suggest that a coalition consisting of top management and board members needs to exist if a move toward the formalization of organizational structures and processes is to be sustained.     

Intonation,identity and contact‐induced change among Polish‐speaking migrants in the U.K.

This article examines intonational variation in a language contact situation. The study contributes to sociolinguistic research on the social meaning of intonational variation (Podesva 2006 ; Levon 2014 ). Intonation is studied in a multilingual context of global mobility: within a group of Polish‐speaking migrants in Britain who, thanks to cheap transportation and new channels of communication, could make use of linguistic resources unlimited by territorial boundaries from the beginning of their transnational experience. The study shows that speakers with seemingly similar linguistic and cultural profiles make use of intonation patterns in different ways in the context of the narrative of the self: speakers oriented towards the global economy and the English‐speaking world incorporate a mainly English intonational pattern, the fall‐rise, with increased frequency to do interactional work that it does in English, while other groups maintain Standard Polish norms. As shown, intonational variation participates in the creation of fluid identities that blur linguistic and sociocultural boundaries.     

Designing User‐Centered Humanitarian Technologies with Displaced People in Iraq: Lessons from Refunite's Mobile Family Tracing Platform

As almost all adults in Iraq own a mobile phone, there is great scope to reach and engage with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Iraq through mobile technologies. This article argues for the importance of a user‐centered design approach when using mobile technologies in humanitarian response. A user‐centered approach considers context and places IDPs’ lived experiences as active technology users at the forefront of project design and implementation. The argument is supported by a case study of Refunite, a family tracing platform that uses mobile technologies to help people find their missing loved ones. This article seeks to address the gap in the literature on user‐centered humanitarian mobile technology projects, particularly in relation to the Middle East. Given the current lack of guidelines on mobile technologies in humanitarian response, the article concludes by recommending that humanitarian practitioners draw on an existing framework, the Principles for Digital Development (2016).     

Infrastructure Investment and Incentives with Supranational Funding

Public infrastructure investment is usually co-financed by supranational organizations. The selection of projects is supposed to be decided using the information provided by conventional cost-benefit analysis. Nevertheless, we show that the type of institutional design regarding the financing mechanism affects the incentives of national governments to reduce costs and increase revenues, affecting project selection, the infrastructure capacity, the choice of technology, and the type of contract used for the construction and operation of projects. With a total cost-plus financing mechanism there is no incentive in being efficient and the price charged for the use of the new infrastructure is zero, the market quantity excessive, and the level of supranational financing disproportionate. In contrast, with a sunk cost-plus financing mechanism social optimal pricing is always implemented, though there is no incentive in being efficient. Finally, with a fixed-price financing mechanism the maximal efficiency may be achieved, and the socially optimal pricing is always implemented.