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A key question in the provision of public health concerns how that provision is governed. The purpose of this paper is to examine the governance structure of a public health board and its perceived impact on the efficacy of clinical operations.

Structural issues examined the level of centralisation and public participation, and whether governance should occur through elected boards or appointed managers. These issues were examined through multiple lenses. First was the intention of the structure, examining the issues identified by parliament when the new structure was created. Second, the activities of the board were examined through an analysis of board meetings. Finally, hospital clinicians were surveyed through semi-structured interviews with both quantitative and qualitative questioning.

A contradiction was revealed between intention, perception and actual activities. This raises concerns over whether the public are significantly informed to elect the best-skilled appointees to governance positions.

This research holds implications for selecting governance structures of public health providers.

Few studies have looked at the role of a publicly elected healthcare governance structure from the perspective of the clinicians. Hence, this study contributes to the literature on healthcare structure and its impact on clinical operations, by including a clinician’s perspective. However, this paper goes beyond the survey and also considers the intention of the structure as proposed by parliament, and board activities or what the board actually does. This enables a comparison of intention with outcomes and perception of those outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between neo‐colonialist discourse and Quebec's proposed Bill 94 aimed at restricting the public activities of niqab and veil‐wearing Muslim women.

Drawing upon postcolonial feminist frames, this study critically analyzes the discourses of Muslim women and Western elites that serve to construct the niqab and veil‐wearing Muslim women. Using critical discourse analysis of digital and print media articles from 1994 to 2010, the authors trace the discursive character of the Muslim woman related to Bill 94 which proposes the banning of religious face coverings when seeking public services in the Province of Quebec, Canada.

This paper develops a postcolonial understanding of the discursive conditions that constitute the social environment in which Muslim women are required to operate in Quebec and the advent of Bill 94. The authors contend that the discourses in the construction of Muslim women have mutated over time towards Western cultural hegemony and paternalism, and, in the process, Muslim women have been constructed as oppressed, in need of saving, and at the same time not to be trusted.

The account of events in this paper offer an alternative lens in privileging some of the embedded beliefs and values behind dominant cultural accounts of Quebec in relation to Muslim women and Bill 94. Future scholars may wish to extend this study through examining discourses of secular, veil and niqab‐wearing Muslim women; newcomers, those living in Canada for a longer period and those born in Canada; as well as those from different countries of origin. Another area of research that is ripe for exploration is workplace experiences of Muslim women in Canada. Additionally, examination of overt and subtle discrimination faced by Muslim women would provide important insights into employment equity and human rights.

This paper presents a close look at public discourses around the niqab and Muslim women in Canada, demonstrating the persistence of colonial dynamics and mindsets influencing how issues regarding minority groups are evaluated today.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees constitute one of the largest, but least studied, minority groups in the workforce. This article examines what we know, and what we need to know, about the career and workplace experiences of this understudied population. The construct of sexual identity is defined, followed by a review of the research on sexual orientation in the workplace. Then an analysis of the differences between LGB employees and other stigmatized groups is presented. Three unique challenges facing LGB employees are identified, and conceptual models are developed that explain underlying processes. Finally, career theories are critically analyzed, and an identity-based longitudinal theory of LGB careers is presented.

MANY and sundry are the worries which fall to the lot of the librarian, and the matter of book‐repair is not the least among them. The very limited book‐fund at the disposal of most public library authorities makes it imperative on the part of the librarian to keep the books in his charge in circulation as long as possible, and to do this at a comparatively small cost, in spite of poor paper, poor binding, careless repairing, and unqualified assistants. This presents a problem which to some extent can be solved by the establishment of a small bindery or repairing department, under the control of an assistant who understands the technique of bookbinding.

This paper aims to explore the structure of the accounting field in a post-Soviet context – Latvia. This study also aims to generate insights into the extent to which professionalization processes are shaped by national particularities and to demonstrate how self-styled professional fields change over time.

Drawing from the relational sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and drawing on 83 interviews, the paper highlights the forms of capital (cultural and social primarily) that help define what constitutes appropriate conduct for successful career progression in the accounting field.

The values ascribed to forms of capital that structure the Latvian accounting field fluctuate across time and space. This suggests that the structure of professional fields – as understood by the structuring properties of different forms of capital – is variable and fluid. Additionally, fields themselves can become more or less desirable over time to those who possess certain forms of capital.

Although the results may be specific to one national accounting field, the idiosyncrasies constitute the contribution of the paper, showing that the form and structure of accounting fields vary in accordance with national particularities. Overall, the paper highlights the importance of fit between habitus and field and of adjustment to the surrounding rules of the game in professional contexts.

The findings are important for understanding the form that an accounting field can take in an emerging economy that has fully embraced neoliberalism while maintaining strong residues of the Soviet system. The findings are also relevant for understanding the dynamics of change more broadly in self-styled professional fields.

This study aims to understand how online weight loss services could help customers achieve a durable change. The particular focus is on exploring the roles of value co-creation and well-being outcomes in reinforcing the transformative value potential, which is argued to be realized as customers’ intentions to continue a healthier lifestyle after the service period has ended.

Data was collected from the participants of an online weight loss service (n = 498), and a conceptual research model was tested using structural equation modelling.

The results imply that compliance with the guidelines and social support are two value co-creation activities that can influence the well-being outcomes of transformative services (i.e. perceived behavioral control and satisfaction with one’s achievements). These well-being outcomes help attain the transformative value potential of online weight loss services. However, the actual weight loss affected the transformative value potential only through customers’ satisfaction with their achievements as a subjective well-being outcome.

This study provides insight into the transformative value potential of services in the weight loss context. This study contributes to the transformative service research by focusing on the role of online services in reinforcing a durable change through the co-creation of value and improvements in customers’ well-being.

The purpose of this paper is to deepen the understanding on patient participatory behaviours in co-creation of value drawing from the perspective of self-determination theory (SDT) focussing on motivation in particular.

A model is proposed to suggest the influence of the various motivation types on a patient’s participatory behaviours drawing from SDT. Following survey design approach, data collected from 345 outpatients from a quasi-government health facility in Accra, Ghana are examined through structural equation modelling using SmartPLS (v. 3.2.3).

The findings reveal that patient participatory behaviours are influenced by both controlled and autonomous regulations leading to value attainment. External regulation (a more controlled form of extrinsic motivation) and patient participation in clinical encounters have no significant relationship with a patient’s commitment to compliance with medical instructions. The results reveal patient compliance is largely driven by autonomous regulation as proposed by SDT. However, active patient participation in clinical encounters and commitment to compliance with medical instructions positively and significantly influences perceived value outcomes.

This research provides empirical evidence in support of understanding patient participatory behaviours in healthcare service delivery by testing theoretically grounded hypotheses developed from SDT perspective. The study focussed on outpatients from one quasi-government health facility, which could limit the generalisation of the findings reported.

This study illustrates the need for service providers to understand participant’s needs and motivation during the service encounter. This is essential as the various types of motivation influence the nature of the participation throughout the process, which could help improve on the value outcomes from the service.

This study makes a significant contribution to service literature through the application of SDT to explain patient participatory behaviours in healthcare service delivery, production and value outcomes. From a theoretical perspective, the developed model integrates multiple research disciplines (e.g. SDT, participatory behaviours, and value co-creation) and extends research on patient integration, participation, and compliance.

This research reports on work related to integrating new immigrants into their local communities. The purpose of this paper is to explore community sport and the newcomer experience in communities through an acculturation framework.

The role of community sport organizations in the acculturation process is explored empirically via a three-stage research study of a small Canadian city that includes interviews with local newcomers, interviews with managers of local community sport organizations, and a website content analysis of community sport organizations in the region.

Results outline a number of important constraints, practices and realities facing newcomers and community sport organizations in improving participation rates and integration. In addition, the use of the acculturation frame provides insight on the perceived value of community sport yet low participation rates among newcomers.

There is a need for community sport providers to adopt an acculturation perspective to newcomers rather than the current assimilationist perspective. This change will lead to improvements in sport offerings and newcomer supports.

There is an increasing desire to have migrants locate in smaller urban centers rather than the large metropolises of their new home country. However, smaller communities may be perceived by newcomers as less desirable places to live and the communities can face significant integration challenges. Further, there is a dearth of research on newcomers and smaller communities particularly in the area of community sport. This study explores the role of sport as a means to overcome these challenges by assessing the capacity of a smaller city and the needs of immigrants and their families using a lens of acculturation.

The murders of Black people at the hands of police in 2020 have led to global protests that have called on public officials to defund or abolish the police. What has been drowned out in these conversations, however, is the traumatizing aftereffects of anti-Black police violence as a public health crisis. In this paper, I argue that the racial terrorism of anti-Black police violence is a deeply felt wound in Black communities that extends beyond the individuals who directly experience it and that this type of collective trauma must be understood as an urgent public health crisis.

Using published studies and online commentaries on anti-Black police violence and its mental health impacts in Canada and the United States, this paper examines the mental health impacts of anti-Black police violence at both the individual and community levels.

A public health response to the traumatizing aftereffects of anti-Black police violence and other forms of state violence must highlight important policy imperatives, such as policies of action focused on improving the public health system. It must also encompass a recognition that the public health crisis of anti-Black police violence is not solvable solely by public health agencies alone. Rather, strategic opportunities to address this crisis arise at every level of governmental interaction, including law enforcement, health care, employment, business, education and the media.

While the impact of anti-Black police violence on the mental health of Black individuals has been emerging in the literature over the last several years, what has been less focused on and what I address in this paper is how the threat of that violence lingers in Black communities long after the protestors have packed up their megaphones, resulting in collective trauma in Black communities.