Returning mothers often face challenges securing full-time work after returning from childbirth leave. While many women want to return to work, they frequently find only part-time work is available. However, part-time work can negatively impact women's careers by limiting access to training and career progression. It is therefore recommended that organizations provide more support to help returning mothers fully return to and advance in their careers.

1. Returning mothers often face a barrier in career development as it is hard for them to
get a full-time role after returning to work. Women with professional knowledge are
likely to return to work after childbirth (Chanfreau et al., 2011). However, Kanji (2011)
pointed out that women who return to work after childbirth often struggle to secure a
full-time role. ONS (2012) shows 37% of mothers compared with 6% of fathers with
dependent children were working part-time, which shows there is a large number of
woman wanting to work after childbirth (NCT 2015). Although it is common for
returning mothers to work part-time, Hodges and Budig (2010) report that employers
consider part-time roles lead to a lack of commitment. Therefore, having a part-time
role can be perceived negatively for women. Davidson and Burke (2011) state that
working part-time limits access to training, organisational networks, and career
progression. Consequently, the feeling of being undervalued and unable to maximise
one’s potential are often the result (Cahusac and Kanji, 2014). Grant et al. (2006)
believe that working part-time has a negative impact on individuals’ confidence and
professional development. As a result, it is recommended that more career
development and support should be given to returning mothers to improve the work
ethics and commitment in organisations.

2. Example 1
Turning first to the alleged economic benefits of tourism, we can see that in the case
of the Cook Islands, there is a variety of sources of income from tourist receipts. In
an unsurprisingly positive report from the Tourism Council of the South Pacific
(2013), after beach activities and natural scenery (62%), visitors to the Cook Islands
are looking for entertainment and folklore and culture experiences (27%). Tourists
contribute to the local economy by spending money on travel to and around the
country, as well as on accommodation, food, entertainment and souvenirs. Results
from this same survey, for example, revealed that in the survey period (October 2012
to February 2013) 90% of tourists surveyed stayed in hotels or similar
accommodation, 78% of which are owned by multi-national organisations. Also,
close to 70% of total tourist expenditure was on accommodation, restaurants and
bars, with a further 16% on transport, tours and entertainment (Tourism Council of
the South Pacific, 2013). These figures are presented to suggest, as Brown et al.
(2016) have similarly proposed, that tourists are helping to create jobs and
investment in the local economy by directly by paying for services. However, the
study by Mabuso (2017) persuasively highlights the low-wage nature of this
employment and the lack of investment in local infrastructure, which has had the
effect of stifling growth locally despite the high profits external tourism companies
have gained from their placement on the Cook Islands. It could therefore be
suggested that control of the Cook Islands tourism industry by local people, with
advice from those outside working in a partnership mode as has been seen in
Barbados (Mabuso, 2017), could mean that tourism brings many more benefits than
it currently is.

3. Example 2
There are various causal factors of stress, which itself can have a negative impact
on a person’s health and well-being. According to McMillan (2014), one in five
people experience some form of stress at work, with half a million reporting that
workplace stress had resulted in illness. Okeyo (2017) however, in a more in-depth
study of the causes of stress, points out that stress which appears to originate in the
workplace may also be a result of, or affected by, external factors as wide ranging as
financial situation, bereavements, emotional disturbances and personality disorders.
This suggests that methods to relieve stress are important for both individuals’ health
and the economy, but also that such methods must take into account the variety of
factors which lead to stress and the necessity for provision of a range of
management methods.
Example 3
The potential issues caused by the entanglement of cables and tubing at hospital
bedsides are numerous and can often seriously compromise patient care and
recovery. For example, in an intensive care unit a mess of cables that becomes
caught and pulled can disconnect or snap a critical fluid line leading to the rapid
deterioration of a patient’s condition (Mahmood, 2014). This could then be made
more dangerous by anyone trying to reconnect the line by pulling back at the cabling,
potentially damaging a number of other life supporting systems. Patients have also
been known to become strangled by tubing this is more common in paediatric care
where child patients become restless and induce further tangling by moving about
(Olusunga et al., 2018). In circumstances when a patient is bed-bound for an
extended amount of time, movement and exercise can enhance recovery and reduce

4. loss of muscle strength (Burtin et al., 2009). However, the way that most wired
monitoring systems are set up limit the area in which a patient can move by
effectively tethering them to the machine. This has a wider impact on the NHS by
contributing to bed shortages because patients take longer to recover to the point at
which they can be discharged. A product is therefore required that can replace the
current system of bedside cables and tubing to improve patient safety and recovery,
which would be beneficial to the individual patient and alleviate some of the
pressures on the health system.