Cheryl S. M^cWatters will present a paper at the annual conference of the Association pour l’Histoire du Management et des Organisations (AHMO) in Lille, France March 18 – 20, 2015.

Father Edgar Thivierge Chair in Business History at the University of Ottawa, Dr. M^cWatters is a Full Professor at the Telfer School of Management (cross appointment with the Department of History, Faculty of Arts. Her research focuses on the embeddedness of accounting within a multi-faceted institutional and social context. From the abstract of the paper, the product of a collaboration with Dr. Thomas Foth of the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences: “In this study, we highlight how medical and nursing knowledge along with knowledge from accounting merged not only to scientifically manage the psychiatric hospital but also to govern the population at large.”

The paper, Constructing Patient Identity: The Technology of the Medical Record in Making the Psychiatric Hospital in Canada Calculable, will be presented at the AHMO conference (XXe Journées d’Histoire du management et des organisations). It will also be presented at the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine and the Canadian Association for History of Nursing meeting to be held at the 84^th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Ottawa in June.

More about this researcher:

Professor M^cWatters is Editor of the Accounting History Review and Associate Editor of the associate editor of the Journal of Operations Management and Accounting Perspectives. She has contributed to a large number of peer-reviewed journals and collected volumes, most recently, Merchants and Profit in the Age of Commerce, 1680-1830 and Credit and Debt in the series Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History. She is also co-author of the textbook Management Accounting: Analysis and Interpretation. More information is available here.

Father Edgar Thivierge Chair in Business History at the University of Ottawa, Professor Cheryl S. M^cWatters is a Full Professor at the Telfer School of Management (cross appointment with the Department of History, Faculty of Arts. Dr. M^cWatters has a new course in the history of commerce, offered jointly with the Department of History as well as two new book projects in the fields of management accounting and commerce history. She also recently completed a Visiting Professorship in Australia. Highlights of the Thivierge Chair:

New Course:  ADM4396/HIS4141

Global Context of Business: Merchants, Traders, Capitalists and Profit Seekers is being offered jointly with the Department of History, bringing together fourth-year History majors with Telfer students. The course provides the opportunity to develop critical perspectives on the commercial and financial decisions of the past. Dr. M^cWatters says students of business history gain a recognition that the “problems and the decision processes seen in earlier eras of commerce — why did people invest, why did they not invest, how did they evaluate risk — were not so different from those evident today.”

Visiting Professorship, University of South Australia

Dr. M^cWatters was a Visiting Scholar at the University of South Australia, Adelaide in November 2014.  She presented a research workshop and met with faculty and doctoral students.  Dr. M^cWatters and her host, Dr. Basil Tucker, School of Commerce, UniSA Business School began a new collaboration entitled ‘What is said, and what is done: Revisiting the relationship between belief systems and informal control’.

Management Accounting in a Dynamic Environment  

This book with Prof. J.L. Zimmerman, Simon Business School, University of Rochester is a major revision of our earlier textbook to be published by Routledge later in 2015. From the Routledge website:

This book provides students and managers with an understanding and appreciation of the strengths and limitations of an organization’s accounting system, and enables them to be intelligent and critical users of the system…It prepares readers to use accounting system intelligently to achieve organizational success.

6^th Annual AAHANZBS Conference, University of Sydney, ‘Perspectives in History’

This conference was hosted by the Association of Academic Historians in Australian and New Zealand Business Schools, The University of Sydney, 3^rd-4^th November 2014.

Along with presenting a research paper, ‘Enemy mine: merchant networks, neutrality and wartime,’ Dr. M^cWatters was part of a plenary session titled: ‘Why History Matters?  - An Editors Perspective’: John Shields (Labour History, University of Sydney), Cheryl M^cWatters (Accounting History Review, University of Ottawa)

Mercantilism, Account Keeping and the Periphery-Core Relationship

Based on extensive archival research, this essay collection examines the impact that merchant trading companies had on indigenous populations and peripheral countries. It will be of potential interest to historians, economists and sociologists who share an interest in the study of exchange networks and the theme of periphery-core relations. The book is forthcoming in 2016 from Pickering & Chatto Publishers, London, UK.

Published by Stanford University Press, Telfer faculty members Barbara Orser and Catherine Elliott have teamed up to write a book about the power of women’s enterprise, Feminine Capital. Unlocking the Power of Women Entrepreneurs.

Today, there are more than 200,000,000 women business owners around the world. Across North America, females retain ownership in half of all small businesses. Many of these women are tapping into feminine capital, what the authors describe as unique skills and sensibilities, experiences and identity to create successful enterprises.

Launched to coincide with International Women’s Day, the book offers new insights into the ways that gender can influence entrepreneurial decision-making. Leveraging feminine capital is enabling women to create distinctive brands, build new markets, and drive profits—all while leveling the playing field in business. In doing so, women are changing the social and economic landscape, one venture at a time. “We’ve written this book for every woman who is sitting on the fence about enterprise creation, thinking that she does not fit the profile of a successful entrepreneur,” says author Catherine Elliott. The book dispels popular myths about entrepreneurship while offering practical tips, diagnostics and tools to start and grow a business. The book also explains how changes to public policies can better support venture creation.

About the authors

Barbara Orser is Vice Dean (Career Development) of the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management. She is Founding Chair of the Canadian Taskforce for Women's Business Growth and has been named one of the Women Executive Network's 100 Most Power Women in Canada.

Catherine Elliott is Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management, where she teaches Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management.

To read excerpts and learn more about the book, visit: http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=22349

Available through online retailers. 

On February 10, 2015, members of the Telfer Health Transformation Exchange (THT_EX) took part in a panel discussion at the Telfer School of Management. “Transforming Healthcare: Realities and Opportunities, A Clinical Perspective” featured Dr. James W.T. Chan, Dr. Michael Fung-Kee-Fung, and Dr. Mark Walker, all from the Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine. Approximately 30 students from the Master of Science in Health Systems and Master of Health Administration graduate programs and other interested participants were in attendance.

Dr. Mark Walker, of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Newborn Care at TOH, began the discussion by referring to the large variation in caesarian section rates that existed across Ontario a few years ago. He launched a province-wide initiative of collecting data on newborns and mothers, which prepared the ground for the Better Outcomes Registry & Network, or BORN. Dr. Walker presented a dashboard and metrics that showed how voluntary improvement was achieved across the province, not only in c-section rates but in a wide variety of maternal and newborn quality metrics made available through big data. He emphasized the need to “manage change proactively” and underscored the importance of workplace culture in bringing about this transformation.

Dr. Michael Fung-Kee-Fung, of the Surgical Oncology Program at TOH, discussed the work he initiated at the regional level (Champlain LHIN) related to lung cancer transformation. The data had shown that the waiting period between an abnormal x-ray and the decision to treat the result as potentially cancerous was often lengthy. The time interval severely impacted the ability to manage lung cancer effectively. Dr. Fung-Kee-Fung explained that managing cancer is a complicated process involving many specialties and clinical silos, as patients move from suspicion to diagnosis, treatment and palliation. Recognition of these challenges by clinicians and administrators led to the launch of the cancer transformation program. The new program incorporated the elements of process redesign, collaborative methodologies and enabling technology. This clinician-led change employed the Ottawa-community-of-practice model that helped to revamp processes, streamline activities and reduce the wait time by 45% to date, with a further 10% reduction anticipated. This result is welcome news for patients with this aggressive form of cancer and a good example of the medical community (clinical and administrative) working together to effect transformation of health practices.

The third panelist, Dr. James W.T. Chan of the Division of General Internal Medicine at TOH, focused on local innovations. He spoke to the need of clinicians to document their practices and activities for the Ministry in order to be accountable, safe and professional. Physicians currently use “hospital blue cards” to capture patient identification as part of paper charting for orders, consults and documentation for verification. While the system is well-established, improvements in terms of convenience, accuracy and increased security are being explored, Dr. Chan explained. His department approached a 3^rd-party mobile app developer to create an iPad application capable of achieving the same as the blue card system while also providing enhancements. In the end, organizational hurdles proved more difficult than expected, and a pilot study that was to involve 6 physicians was prematurely halted. Dr. Chan shared a number of lessons learned, including the need for communication and greater coordination between frontline innovations and organizational priorities. He also made the case that while physicians and other health providers seeks ways to innovate and stay ahead of the curve in healthcare delivery, these efforts need support from the top as well as a change in mindset in order to be successful.

The common theme from the panel was the importance of harnessing the incredible innovative potential among frontline healthcare professionals in order for healthcare transformation to be achieved. The crucial elements in this process include organizational change management, effective use of data and communication strategies.

There was excellent audience engagement and participation, with many insightful questions and comments relating to healthcare transformation and the shifts in workplace culture that can support it.

A very special thank you to James, Mark, and Michael for preparing and delivering the panel. This was a very successful event for the THT_EX and we look forward to many more in the near future!