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The purpose of this paper is to report findings from qualitative interviews with physiotherapists to demonstrate why even minor changes to clinical work resulting from the introduction of new interventions, are often difficult to implement. The paper seeks to illustrate how some of the obstacles to implementing change were managed by physiotherapists.

A total of 32 qualitative interviews with participating physiotherapists were conducted, 12 interviews prior to the introduction of the new system, and 20 afterwards. The interviews were coded and analysed thematically.

The findings reveal a number of perceived limitations of current management of low back pain and identify key themes around convergence with the new approach, such as willingness by physiotherapists to adopt the new approach, the perception of benefits to adopting the new approach, as well as some difficulty in adjusting to it. The authors refer to the positive and negative elements as “soft” and “hard” disruption. The adoption of the new approach is explored with reference to the “situated” dimensions of physiotherapy practice and normalisation process theory.

The study raises the need to conduct future observational research to support the interview findings.

The study describes the “situated” components of physiotherapy work, which have received limited research attention. The value of the study lies less in its ability to explain specifically why physiotherapists adopted or rejected the new system, but in describing the conditions and consequences of change that might be translated to other professions, contexts and interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the role of perceived ability to participate in decision making in the workplace, with respect to job satisfaction.

Data from the fourth wave of the European Value Survey, is utilised, and a bivariate probit model is employed to account for unobserved heterogeneity.

Empirical analysis comparing univariate and bivariate probit models reveals that the results from the former are negatively biased; potentially indicating that prior research may have underestimated the impact of participative decision making (PDM) on job satisfaction. Additionally, it appears clear that the magnitude of the marginal effects for both socio-demographic and work characteristics do not differ when comparing workers with above and below average participation. More importantly, the authors find a substantial negative marginal effect of below average participation on job satisfaction (close to three times the magnitude of the next largest marginal effect estimated in the model), indicating how crucial it is for employers to actively pursue programmes that enhance PDM.

This study contributes to the growing literature aimed at understanding drivers of satisfaction in the workplace. Adding to the scant empirical investigation of the influence of PDM on job satisfaction, the authors find strong evidence of a direct and positive impact, which is further amplified after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the acceptance and support of neurodiverse people in society, with a focus on autism, and to use this to propose a framework to enhance inclusivity that can inform pedagogy within the education sectors.

Three case studies from higher education have been presented and mapped onto a multi-dimensional spectrum of characteristics normally associated with autistic people. Further examples have been taken from the general population and these have been used, along with user scenarios to propose a framework for inclusivity.

A framework, the human spectrum, has been proposed which encompasses all of society, regardless of diagnoses and within which people have mobility in terms of their characteristics. It is proposed that this framework should be incorporated into pedagogy in primary, secondary and tertiary education so that teaching and assessment is inclusive and so that people’s understanding of human nature is built from an early age to counter stigma and herd mentality, or othering.

The contribution of this paper could have significant implications for society as the framework provides a structure to enable people to consider others with new perspectives.

The framework proposed provides a new and original way of shaping the way people think within the education sector and elsewhere.