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The authors develop a conceptual model to examine how three basic psychological needs (i.e. needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness) affect employee social media use (i.e. work- and social-related use). The authors propose that the need for autonomy positively moderates the relationship between need for competence and work-related use, whereas it negatively moderates that between need for relatedness and social-related use.

To test the proposed model, 332 internal and 271 external social media users in the workplace were recruited.

The results indicate that needs for competence and autonomy and needs for relatedness and autonomy positively affect the work- and social-related use, respectively, of internal and external social media. Need for autonomy positively moderates the relationship between need for competence and work-related use of internal social media, and it negatively moderates that between need for relatedness and the social-related use of internal social media. Need for autonomy has no moderating effect on the relationship between need for competence and work-related use, whereas it negatively moderates the relationship between need for relatedness and the social-related use of external social media.

First, the authors’ findings offer significant empirical support for the different social media uses, namely work and social related. Second, this study highlights the importance of psychological needs of employees in determining the form of social media use. Third, this study empirically demonstrates the differences in psychological needs and social media use between two different social media contexts.

The aim of this study is to contribute to the quality improvement and long‐term strategic development of education for sustainable development (ESD) in engineering education curricula.

The content in 70 courses in environment and SD were characterized and quantified using course document text analysis. Additionally, two questionnaires were sent to students and alumni at Chalmers, and interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with representatives from 16 Swedish companies and five organizations.

It was found that industry demands a broader range of competences in SD amongst engineers in general than what is currently provided. In total, 35 per cent of alumni claim they encounter sustainability issues from sometimes to daily in their work. However, only half of them believe they possess enough competences to make decisions from a sustainability perspective. Quantity, coverage and the level of integration in the educational programme all appear to be important for the students' perceived competences on SD and for the importance that they put on achieving SD.

Earlier research has reported on how to further develop the idea and design of ESD and on competence needs in general. Few attempts have been made to assess industry's needs of competences in SD. This paper sheds light on how engineering universities educate for SD and benchmarks this to industry's needs in an exploratory case study, using Chalmers as an example.

Job demands can contribute to nurses’ turnover intention and this can have an impact on health services among the general population. It appears important to identify the work environment factors associated with turnover intention, as well as the psychological resources liable to act on this relationship. Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), the purpose of this study (n=1179) is to investigate the relationship between two job demands (role ambiguity and role conflict) and turnover intention, as well as the moderating role of basic need satisfaction (autonomy, competence and relatedness) within these relationships.

This cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses (Québec, Canada). Nurses completed an online questionnaire. To test the proposed moderating effect of satisfaction of the three psychological needs (i.e. autonomy, competence and relatedness) in the relationship between job demands (i.e. role ambiguity and role conflict) and turnover intention, path analysis was conducted using Mplus v.8 (Muthén and Muthen, 2017). Two models, one for each demand, were tested.

As expected, role ambiguity and role conflict are positively related to turnover intention. Results reveal a significant interaction between role ambiguity and satisfaction of the need for autonomy in the prediction of turnover intention. The satisfaction of the need for competence and the satisfaction of the need for relatedness did not moderate the relationship between role ambiguity and turnover intention. Satisfaction of the need for autonomy moderated the relationship between role conflict and turnover intention. Moreover, results revealed a significant interaction between role conflict and satisfaction of the need for competence in the prediction of turnover intention. Satisfaction of the need for relatedness did not moderate the relationship between role conflict and turnover intention.

The results align with the theoretical propositions of several leading theories in occupational health which state that workers’ psychological functioning derives not only from the job characteristics of their work environment, but also from the psychological resources at their disposal. The study contributes to SDT. First, to date, this is the first study to investigate basic psychological need satisfaction as a moderator in the relationship between contextual factors and workers’ functioning. Second, the findings revealed the importance of assessing psychological needs separately, as each contributes in a specific way to workers’ work-related attitudes and adaptation to their professional environment.

Perceptions of autonomy and competence act as key psychological resources for nurses. Managerial support for autonomy (e.g. providing nurses with meaningful information regarding their work) and competence (e.g. providing nurses with frequent positive feedback regarding their work efforts) constitutes a series of key management practices that can foster perceptions of autonomy and competence. The findings show that two role stressors predict nurses’ turnover intention. As such, health care establishments are encouraged to focus on interventions that reduce uncertainties and conflicting situations from nurses (provide clear job descriptions and effective communication).

By promoting a sense of effectiveness and feelings of self-endorsement at work, health care establishments can reduce nurses’ turnover intention and help prevent staffing shortages among this important work group.

Although past research shows that workers’ motivational profile can modulate the relationship between characteristics within the work environment and workers’ functioning, studying the quality of work motivation is not sufficient to completely understand the factors that can influence workers’ reactions to job demands. Need satisfaction is crucial to the development and maintenance of high quality motivation. Evaluating need satisfaction as a moderator in the stressor–strain relationship could offer a better understanding of the psychological experiences that can promote workers’ adaptation to their work environment. To date, no study has investigated the buffering role of psychological needs in the stressor–strain relationship.

The goal of this chapter is to explore the requirements modern companies expect of HR professionals’ competences.

Departing from the widely acknowledged HR competence studies of Ulrich and associates, we extended them with the continuous learning competence profile and HR professionals’ individual job performance. The empirical study is built on open interviews with HR leaders of ten large Dutch companies.

The study offers a new set of HRM competences. This set includes six HRM profiles: Business Focus, Learning Focus, Strategic Focus, HR Technology, HR Delivery, and Personal Credibility. Several contingency factors are thought to play a role in supporting these HRM competences: company culture, strategy, size, sector, scope, and position of HR professionals.

Based on these contributions, we recommended conducting a quantitative study to gain understanding of the relevance of the individual HRM job performance and to find associations between the HRM competences and the individual HRM job performance.

The focus of this chapter is a combination of HRM competences and the individual job performance of HR professionals.

Defines and validates competences for entry‐level professionals of academic libraries in Malaysia keeping in view the needs of the next five years. Top and middle managers of all the university libraries and two other academic libraries participated in the study. A scale of perceived importance of each competence was used for validation of competences organized in the six areas of foundation, cataloguing, circulation, information services, collection development, and serial control. A distinct emphasis is noted for contextual, managerial, technological and service competences. The validated competences can be used for the evaluation and revision of the curricula of formal education programmes.

This paper aims to investigate whether and how enterprise social media (ESM) affordances affect employee agility.

Adopting self-determination theory (SDT), this study examines a model in which the four ESM affordances (i.e. visibility, association, editability and persistence) impact employee agility through the three basic psychological needs satisfaction (i.e. perceived autonomy, perceived relatedness and perceived competence) of employees. Mplus 7.4 was used to analyze survey data gathered from 304 employees who used ESM in the workplace.

The authors’ findings show that all four ESM affordances contribute to perceived relatedness and perceived competence; visibility and association affordances also have positive impacts on perceived autonomy; and all three psychological needs satisfaction positively impact employee agility.

First, this study adapted SDT to explore how ESM influences employee agility. Second, this study enriches the relevant research on the antecedents of employee agility and also provides new evidence and theoretical support for employee agility. Third, this study effectively expands the antecedents and outcomes of employee basic psychological needs satisfaction in the domain of ESM and agility.

This study examines in detail how a new occupational group in a field creates and defines its professional competences. The background of the study refers to a new way of organizing social and health care services that requires new type of expertise. The authors examine the professionals of this new sector – service agents and the competences – they need in a multi-professional networking organization. The goal of this organizational pilot project is to gather both experience and practical knowledge of how the “gatekeeper” model can work between the customer and the service provider. The purpose of this paper is to learn the service agents’ perspective on their own work, namely, how they create their work, what their visions of the future are, and what can be learned from the new organizing model.

Qualitative data collection and small-scale exploratory study of a new profession: eight service agents and their two supervisors were interviewed to raise awareness of what professional competences these new job contents require, how service agents can influence the content of their work, and what competence needs will emerge in the future.

The key findings indicate that service agents lack the courage to modify their own mission. When a new profession is created, they are uncertain about how to create self-content on their own terms. They assume they need a certain degree and to know something more than they already know. They do not dare define their own new professional territory, but rather wait for that definition to come from their organization or society. However, the results also show that some service agents have a hidden willingness to be creative even when there is a lack of courage. There is a need to take more initiative and for agents to think freely outside the box in this new situation.

The number of interviewees is small and the context specific. However, the study gives an indication of the factors that need to be taken into account when the dissemination of the model starts.

The paper describes the results of the pilot project of a new profession and a customer-oriented model in the social and health care sector.

The current gap between the required and available artificial intelligence (AI) professionals poses significant challenges for organisations and academia. Organisations are challenged to identify and secure the appropriate AI competencies. Simultaneously, academia is challenged to design, offer and quickly scale academic programmes in line with industry needs and train new generations of AI professionals. Therefore, identifying and structuring AI competencies is necessary to effectively overcome the AI competence shortage.

A probabilistic topic model was applied to explore the AI competence categories empirically. The authors analysed 1159 AI-related online job ads published on LinkedIn.

The authors identified five predominant competence categories: (1) Data Science, (2) AI Software Development, (3) AI Product Development and Management, (4) AI Client Servicing, and (5) AI Research. These five competence categories were summarised under the developed AI competence framework.

The AI competence framework contributes to clarifying and structuring the diverse AI landscape. These findings have the potential to aid various stakeholders involved in the process of training, recruiting and selecting AI professionals. They may guide organisations in constructing a complementary portfolio of AI competencies by helping users match the right competence requirements with an organisation's needs and business objectives. Similarly, they can support academia in designing academic programmes aligned with industry needs. Furthermore, while focusing on AI, this study contributes to the research stream of information technology (IT) competencies.

The purpose of this article is to employ Self-Determination Theory to explain the mediated impact of work design – empowerment and serial and investiture socialization – on employee work affect. The theory proposes fulfilment of three psychological needs – autonomy, competence, and relatedness – will mediate individuals' ability to achieve contextually relevant well-being. An empirical study tests this claim and exposes the structure of the mediating effects.

Survey responses were collected from a sample of 239 front-line service employees using snowball data collection. SEM was used to test hypotheses.

Findings suggest that empowerment and serial and investiture socialization are significantly differentially related to need fulfilment. Additionally, all forms of need fulfilment do not directly influence employee affect. Instead, there are both direct and interactive effects that work simultaneously to influence employees' positive work affect.

This study exposes specific work design levers managers can manipulate to benefit employees. This research highlights the different effects of specific work design variables on employee work affect.

This paper extends understanding of Self-Determination Theory by exposing the direct and interactive effects of need fulfilment on work affect for service workers. Also, it delivers a deeper exploration of the impact of work design on employees by modelling multiple work design variables as well as process variables simultaneously to provide a more detailed picture of how work design influences employee work affect.

This paper aims to explain the development of an online training curriculum to enable students to acquire the transversal competences needed to work on smart cities projects. In this curriculum, a modern approach to the teaching-learning process was applied, suitable for the interdisciplinary and multinational learning challenges that smart cities impose, but within the framework of a university-industry European partnership.

To develop the curriculum, the competences needed for smart cities, common to all disciplines and fields, had to be researched. In addition, real smart cities projects also had to be selected for work following a project-based learning methodology. For both, this study applied the Delphi method, selecting the most relevant ones based on the data obtained by performing a multi-criteria decision analysis.

The procedure followed for the identification of transversal competences in a field, the design of an innovative online training program and the results of the first edition of the program are discussed.

The processes that were developed, both to detect the most relevant transversal competences and to design the online training program, could be extrapolated to other areas. Moreover, it is very likely that the competences detected in this work could also be extrapolated, for the most part, to interdisciplinary teams.

To date, there is no European initiative addressing the challenges of smart cities that requires a major adjustment in higher education, in the relationship between universities and all the mechanisms of lifelong learning with the industry related to smart cities. This work is a pioneer in this regard.