Coventry University

About: Coventry University is a education organization based out in Coventry, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Population. The organization has 4964 authors who have published 12700 publications receiving 255898 citations. The organization is also known as: Lanchester Polytechnic & Coventry Polytechnic.

Breastfeeding works: the role of employers in supporting women who wish to breastfeed and work in four organizations in England

Abstract: An important factor influencing duration of breastfeeding is mother’s employment status. The main aim of this study was to determine the experience and views of employees (n = 46) in four large public sector organizations concerning breastfeeding support at work. Participants were recruited if they were employed by one of four public service employers and if they were planning to go on maternity leave in the next 6 months, on maternity leave or within 6 months of return from maternity leave. They completed a questionnaire anonymously. Almost 80% of women wanted to continue breastfeeding after returning to work. However, 90% of all respondents were not aware of any employer policy nor offered any information concerning support to enable breastfeeding after returning to work, despite two organizations having a range of maternity- and breastfeeding-related policies in development and some facilities in place. Almost 90% of respondents stated the employers should do more to support breastfeeding. This should include providing pregnant staff with information about breastfeeding support that they should expect and could therefore plan to use, including access to facilities to express and to store breast milk, to enable them to work flexible hours and to take rest breaks during working hours. Recommendations are made for employers.

Corporate citizenship in football: delivering strategic benefits through stakeholder engagement

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain that corporate citizenship refers to the specific activities that an organisation engages in to meet social obligations, and which has become an issue of growing importance within the business community. A key area in academic literature concentrates on justifying corporate citizenship initiatives to the corporate sector by illustrating a range of strategic benefits that a firm can achieve. This study is located within this body of work and aims to illustrate the strategic benefits that a football club can gain from the implementation of corporate citizenship activities through the community trust model of governance.Design/methodology/approach – The study draws from qualitative primary and secondary data gathered from Charlton Athletic and Brentford football clubs.Findings – Analysis of the data resulted in the identification of six strategic benefits that a football club can realise through the creation of a community trust model of governance. These are...

A comparative analysis of Lean practices and performance in the UK manufacturing and service sector firms

Abstract: For the last two decades, Lean has been primarily used to improve manufacturing processes. However, Lean is now increasingly applied to a wide range of service operations as well. This realisation of Lean among service firms is an important progress, as there are potentially more benefits to be accomplished in this sector rather than in traditional manufacturing, where decades of good work have already paid off. To look beyond the manufacturing sector, this paper empirically analyses the difference in Lean practices as well as their relationship to firm performance between manufacturing and service sectors in the UK. Though this study supports the proposition concerning the applicability of Lean practices in the service sector, these practices need to be further adapted to suit service operations. Specifically, the empirical results affirm that service firms are interested in the soft practices of Lean such as people and customer involvement while they are found underperforming in manufacturing-related pr...