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The research addresses the need of the British Co-operative Group and its members across the UK for a stronger understanding of the development of the business model of co-operation in Britain, the importance of democracy in the governance and direction of the organisation and in adapting the model to future challenges. The project's findings are being used in the education of elected member officials who form the democratic bodies which govern the Co-operative Group, and employees who work for the organisation. Learning has focussed on the heritage of the co-operative movement and the development of the Co-operative Group's business model. It enhances the effectiveness of member democracy by increasing knowledge of the organization's development and democratic traditions.
According to the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), co-ops provide 100 million jobs globally, and there are 6000 in the UK with an annual turnover of £37 bn. Research into what constituted the distinctive features of co-operative management practice within membership based co-operative and mutual businesses helped to establish a changed development agenda for the international co-operative movements. This work supported the International Co-operative Alliance Statement of Co-operative identity and demonstrated that co-operatives should be recognised as different from other forms of small business. Dr Peter Davis's work in the Unit for Membership Based Organisations at Leicester's School of Management led to policy and educational initiatives that have been globally adopted, cited and emulated.
Molly Scott Cato's ongoing research in the field of Sustainability Transitions has had an international influence on reframing global debates on green policy in three interlinked areas. First, she has made a major contribution to conceptualising the 'green economy' in work that can be demonstrated to have global reach through gathering formal evidence or informing policy advice. Secondly, Cato's work on relocalising and reclaiming ownership of provisioning systems — conceptualised as the 'bioregional economy'— emphasises land as the key economic resource. These insights have led to policy changes in the UK and in Wales specifically. Thirdly, Cato's work in the field of co-operative studies has influenced economic development policy in Wales. Through this work Cato is influencing public discourse on a broad scale.
Both the introduction of legislation in England and Wales and the mandatory recording of interviews with criminal suspects has led to an increased examination and understanding of what happens in such interviews. Such studies have led to a prescribed framework, which following its implementation, has led to further study concerning its efficacy in gathering a reliable account. This case study, demonstrates how (through dissemination of the research and through working with practitioners) particular research findings concerning approaches to the investigative interviewing of suspects have influenced the practices of those users of the research both in this country and overseas.
Impact for the CPHR is derived from its collaborative partnership between their world-leading HR researchers and 20 primary sponsor organisations. Through this network the Centre stays abreast of the current issues facing HR directors. This co-production of knowledge generates performance-driven solutions that have benefit to the wider business community. These are distributed through high-impact white papers, journal articles and initiatives with the CIPD (the professional HR institution). Examples of organisational impact include a new strategy at McDonald's `Trust Based HR' and a 20% increase in job satisfaction of employees aged 60+ and the creation of an Executive Vice-President position at Shell.
Research at Oxford has played a central role within the recent restructuring of the nursing workforce to improve healthcare quality in a context of growing service demands and tightening resource constraints. Much of this restructuring has been heavily dependent on the use of the Healthcare Assistant (HCA) role, provoking much controversy. Presented as a flexible, low cost resource, these HCA roles are also unregulated and therefore seen as a potential source of patient risk. Oxford researchers have fed into this debate across a number of projects, strengthening the evidence base on the nature and consequences of the HCA role. Examining the role from the perspective of different stakeholders, these projects have impacted on national, regional and local policy and practice centred on the management and use of HCAs. In so doing, the research has contributed to the development of a more productive and safer nursing workforce.
In the last decade, sport has earned unprecedented recognition in international policy circles as a tool to support international development. Nonetheless, many have challenged this `new social movement' (Kidd, 2008), concerned by its uncritical application of Global North models of sport to Global South contexts. Addressing these concerns, Brunel researchers and collaborators have drawn on the field of international development studies to investigate how principles of local ownership and partnership can be applied to sport. Since 2010, empirical studies and critical conceptual analyses have contributed to this. Specifically through building organisational capacity at local level, supporting partnership between funders and recipient organisations, and developing national as well as international policy guidance to ensure community level experiences and perspectives are represented in sport for development policy and strategies.
Research published by Pugh, Wyld and Tyrrall (2001) was adopted by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) to provide the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of their lobbying campaign for a sliding scale of excise duty for small breweries (also known as "progressive beer duty"; henceforth, PBD). This campaign led to the introduction of PBD in the 2002 Budget. Subsequent evaluation (Wyld, Pugh and Tyrrall, 2010) established that PBD has helped to generate new businesses (well over 100) and new jobs (at least several hundred) that otherwise would not have been brought into existence.
Les Back has produced a body of research that has documented and intervened in the institutional marginalisation of migrants in Europe, the de-humanising impacts of the UK immigration system and the new technologies of border regulation. This work has stimulated and shaped public understanding through journalism and direct engagements with politicians, policy makers, practitioners and third sector organisations. It has contributed to an accumulating public narrative in favour of a humane national and EU migration policy. In particular, his research of conditions at Lunar House, Croydon gathered evidence of the poor quality of facilities and de-humanising practices and led to specific recommendations for improvement. This directly resulted in a large-scale (£800,000) change to facilities for users of the immigration service at Lunar House. Drawing on this underpinning research, Back's later work exposed the damaging consequences of UKBA's use of `go home' texting. Collectively, his research has impacted and continues to shift the terms of political debate amongst a wide range of audiences including the Houses of Parliament and the European Commission, as well as less specialised audiences such as BBC Radio 1 listeners.
University of Reading research produced a tool to measure the key drivers of stakeholder behaviour. This has been applied in a wide range of situations — notably when organisations have set out to improve relationships with stakeholders in complex and potentially high risk situations.
Four examples are given here.