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1 – 10 of over 136000Jesús De Frutos-Belizón, Fernando Martín-Alcázar and Gonzalo Sánchez-Gardey
The knowledge generated by academics in the field of management is often criticized because of its reduced relevance for professionals. In the review of the literature, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The knowledge generated by academics in the field of management is often criticized because of its reduced relevance for professionals. In the review of the literature, the authors distinguish between three streams of thought. The review of the literature and the understanding of the research streams that have been addressed by the academic–practitioner gap in management has allowed to clarify that what truly underlies each of these approaches is a different assumption or paradigm from which the management science focusses.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews the main approaches that have analysed this topic, drawing a number of conclusions.
Findings
The knowledge generated by academics in the field of management is often criticized because of its reduced relevance for professionals. In the review of the literature, the authors distinguish between three main perspectives. The review of the literature and the understanding of the research streams that have been addressed by the academic–practitioner gap in management has allowed us to clarify that what truly underlies each of these approaches is a different assumption or paradigm from which the management science focusses. To represent the findings of the literature review in this sense, the authors will present, first, a model that serves as a framework to interpret the different solutions proposed in the literature to close the gap from a positivist paradigm. Subsequently, they question this view through a reflection that brings us closer to a more pragmatic and interpretive paradigm of management science to bridge the research–practice gap.
Originality/value
In recent studies, researchers agree that there is an important gap between management research and practice, which may bear little resemblance to each other. However, the literature on this topic does not seem to be guided by a rigorously structured discourse and, for the most part, is not based on empirical studies. Moreover, a sizeable body of literature has been developed with the objective of analysing and contributing solutions that reconcile management researchers and professionals. To offer a more systematic view of the literature on this topic, the paper classifies previous approaches into three different perspectives based on the ideas on which they are supported. Finally, the paper concludes with some reflections that could help to reorient the paradigm from which the management research is carried out.
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International students, who have a non-English speaking background (NESB), encounter many difficulties, in comparison to their local fellows of an English-speaking country…
Abstract
Purpose
International students, who have a non-English speaking background (NESB), encounter many difficulties, in comparison to their local fellows of an English-speaking country. Literature demonstrates that leveraging various relational perspectives in a multicultural teaching environment has favourable implications to manage the NESB international students’ academic experience. Based on the observation and introspection approaches and a relevant literature review in relationship management, an ethnographic analysis is conducted to realise how such relational perspectives can be nurtured, in a way that the NESB international students expect and accept in a foreign country.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review in relationship management and an ethnographic analysis based on observation and introspection methods was conducted.
Findings
Findings show that universities could assist the NESB international students by designing, delivering and monitoring innovative teaching and learning approaches and taking care of the associated academic and non-academic issues of the students, while leveraging the social, psychological and academic relational perspective(s).
Originality/value
Leveraging relational perspectives offers global implications. The implications of relational perspectives can be used from any setting. However, the relational appeal should be focused on the presented circumstances of a targeted setting only (e.g. the issues of a particular multicultural classroom).
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Rocío Giselle Fernández Da Lama and María Elena Brenlla
The present research was based on an online questionnaire. A total of 256 undergraduate psychology students aged 18–44 (M = 23.61; SD = 0.57) from the Pontifical Catholic…
Abstract
Purpose
The present research was based on an online questionnaire. A total of 256 undergraduate psychology students aged 18–44 (M = 23.61; SD = 0.57) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina took part in the study (137 women; 53.3%). A sociodemographic and academic survey and the locally adapted versions of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Tuckman Procrastination Scale were used in this study. Participants were contacted by an email advertisement in which the main purpose of the study was explained, and the instruments remained open from September to November of 2021. Descriptive analyses – means, standard deviations and frequencies – were calculated using IBM SPSS v.25, and mediation and moderation analyses were conducted on PROCESS macro.
Design/methodology/approach
Academic achievement has always been a concern in the high undergraduate's community. Numerous studies have addressed psychological aspects of students' academic life; however, a past-positive (PP) time perspective, a warm and sentimental view of past events that took place in someone's life, has not been profoundly contemplated. The fact that students might organize their activities, employ different strategies to fulfill their tasks and motivate themselves to pursue their academic goals based primarily on their past experiences calls the attention on conducting research on this time perspective dimension and its relationship with procrastination and academic motivation. It was hypothesized that the PP time perspective would positively predict academic achievement via the mediation of academic motivation in a way that the potentiate effect of PP time perspective on academic achievement would be increased in highly motivated students, but this effect would be reduced in less motivated students. Also, it was hypothesized that the relationship between motivation and academic achievement would be negatively moderated by procrastination such that academic achievement would increase with academic motivation; however, that increase would be attenuated by procrastination.
Findings
Academic achievement was positively associated with PP time perspective (r = 0.39; p < 0.01) and academic motivation (0.36; p < 0.01) and negatively associated with procrastination (r = −0.15; p < 0.05). Results showed that academic motivation mediated the relationship between PP time perspective and academic achievement (ß = 1.37; R2 = 0.21; p < 0.001). Additionally, procrastination moderated the relationship between academic motivation and academic achievement but only at the low (ß = 0.76; p < 0.001) and medium (ß = 0.44; p < 0.001) levels of procrastination, while at high levels of procrastination, that relationship was not statistically significant (ß = 0.11; p > 0.05).
Originality/value
This is the first study that examined the mediated role of academic motivation in the relationship between PP time perspective and academic achievement and that included the moderating role of procrastination.
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The purpose of this study is to diagnose and understand Portuguese academics’ perspectives on the components of intercultural competence and on the importance of its development…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to diagnose and understand Portuguese academics’ perspectives on the components of intercultural competence and on the importance of its development by higher education students.
Design/methodology/approach
Academics’ perspectives were identified during two discussion and reflection sessions included in the overall training program Intercultural Competence in Higher Education: building proposals with academics that took place at a Portuguese public university. Data were collected through audio recordings of the two sessions and observation notes and were subject to content analysis, drawing on Deardorff’s process model of intercultural competence (2006).
Findings
Academics recognize the multidimensionality of intercultural competence, acknowledging that it comprises attitudes (acceptance and respect; curiosity and openness), knowledge (others’ cultural contexts; self-knowledge and cultural self-awareness) and skills (observation and listening) that altogether will lead to individuals’ desired internal and external outcomes. The development of intercultural competence by higher education students, regarded in close relation to higher education internationalization, is considered crucial for changing prejudiced attitudes, preparing students to live in a global world and empowering them professionally.
Originality/value
The study sheds light on an issue that has been insufficiently addressed by research: academics’ perspectives on intercultural competence development, namely, in the Portuguese higher education context.
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Mark McCrohon and Berenice Nyland
The purpose of this paper is to investigate on the factors, which influence the academic perspectives and integrity of the Chinese international students (CISs) perspectives of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate on the factors, which influence the academic perspectives and integrity of the Chinese international students (CISs) perspectives of academic integrity. The paper reports on the views and experiences of academicians interviewed as part of the study.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a trans-disciplinary conceptual framework based on grounded and positioning theory to interpret qualitative data derived from in-depth interviews and research literature. In line with this constructivist approach, a version of Auditable Systematised Qualitative Analysis was a tool used to conceptualise the participant’s ideas about academic integrity.
Findings
Analysis of the gathered data from interviews with lecturers suggests that representing a line of discourse expressed by the institution was in many, but not all cases, difficult for these lecturers.
Practical implications
This research has the potential to contribute to administrator, educator and policy makers in their understanding of CIS perspectives, international student experiences in host institutions and local academic experiences, perceptions and attitudes.
Originality/value
This is a primary research paper designed to explore academic perspectives of academic integrity in working with international students. The complexities and changing nature of understanding of the international student context gives the research value.
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Dana-Kristin Mah and Dirk Ifenthaler
The purpose of this paper is to examine the expectations, perceptions and role understanding of academic staff using a model of academic competencies (i.e. time management…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the expectations, perceptions and role understanding of academic staff using a model of academic competencies (i.e. time management, learning skills, technology proficiency, self-monitoring and research skills).
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten members of academic staff at a German university. Participants’ responses to the open-ended questions were coded inductively, while responses concerning the proposed model of academic competencies were coded deductively using a priori categories.
Findings
Participating academic staff expected first-year students to be most competent in time management and in learning skills; they perceived students’ technology proficiency to be rather high but their research skills as low. Interviews indicated a mismatch between academic staff expectations and perceptions.
Practical implications
These findings may enable universities to provide support services for first-year students to help them to adjust to the demands of higher education. They may also serve as a platform to discuss how academic staff can support students to develop the required academic competencies, as well as a broader conversation about higher education pedagogy and competency assessment.
Originality/value
Little research has investigated the perspectives of academic staff concerning the academic competencies they expect of first-year students. Understanding their perspectives is crucial for improving the quality of institutions; their input into the design of effective support services is essential, as is a constructive dialogue to identify strategies to enhance student retention.
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This chapter provides a critical analysis of the literature on individuals in cultural transitions in higher education, namely, international students in culturally unfamiliar…
Abstract
This chapter provides a critical analysis of the literature on individuals in cultural transitions in higher education, namely, international students in culturally unfamiliar contexts; teachers of international students and culturally more diverse classrooms; and local students in increasingly culturally diverse classes. All these individuals are actors exposed to new and shifting cultural experiences expected to impact their motivation and engagement. Two broad perspectives emerging from the literature were used to organize the chapter: a perspective of adaptation representing research grounded in unilateral, bilateral or reciprocal conceptualizations, and a perspective of transformation, capturing experiential learning research leading to personal and academic development. The analysis highlights how motivation is a critical, yet under-examined construct. This leads to numerous suggestions for future research including: addressing the neglected role of agency in research on international students' sociocultural adaptation and the lack of research on successful processes of adaptation; examining the confounding issue of socialization into new cultural-educational environments and level of proficiency in the medium of instruction, which impacts on engagement; and scrutinizing the posited link between deep-level motivated engagement in cultural transitions and the emergence of transformative experiences. A case is made for research on individuals' engagement and motivation in cultural transitions to be conceptually and methodologically stronger and broader, moving from studies of single groups of individuals in need of adaptation, to investigations of the co-regulated, reciprocal adaptations of actors and agents operating in complex sociocultural contexts where power dynamics related to knowledge and language affect participation and engagement with cultural 'others'.
John W. Raine and Annie Rubienska
The purpose of this paper is to focus on issues of assessment in leadership and management programmes for mid career public managers. Drawing on experiences of such programmes…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on issues of assessment in leadership and management programmes for mid career public managers. Drawing on experiences of such programmes from across Europe, the paper examines the potential conflict between traditional perspectives on academic study, with the typically‐associated focus on testing what has been learned, and the expectations and needs for competence and relevance for the work‐place.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper aruges that two key distinctions are crucial – on the one hand, between formative and summative assessment (i.e. between assessment and feedback during a programme to help participants learn, as opposed to assessment at the end of a programme to judge and determine if they have met the grade), and on the other, between participant‐centred and institution‐centred approaches (i.e. between commitment to collaborating with individual participants to ensure that their personal learning and development objectives are met, and a more traditional perspective reflecting a culture of “the institution knows best” and of concern to protect academic standards).
Findings
From the evidence gathered the conclusion is reached that, despite the claims made about the developmental objectives of such programmes, mostly, the assessment processes tend to accord with traditional academic perspectives, and give only limited weight to learning and skills for the workplace.
Originality/value
The paper argues for more emphasis on formative assessment and participant‐centredness and also for greater clarity about purposes in such management programmes. It advocates more imaginative and innovative learning and development approaches to mirror better the diverse realities and requirements of a public service organisational context.
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Shaomin Li and Matthew Farrell
A main challenge in studying China is that different views clash. A more serious challenge is that studies that are critical of or dissent from the Chinese government policies are…
Abstract
Purpose
A main challenge in studying China is that different views clash. A more serious challenge is that studies that are critical of or dissent from the Chinese government policies are labeled “anti-China” by the Chinese authorities, affecting the free academic exchange of ideas on China. This article discusses this issue and proposes a long-term solution.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a perspective study and uses the qualitative approach to develop the authors’ arguments.
Findings
The authors argue that the contention in China-related studies is derived primarily from the different perspectives that scholars use. This study identifies two main perspectives: the China-centric view and the rest of the world’s view. The combination of the clash of perspectives and the interference of the Chinese state hinders the development of our knowledge regarding China. Using Rawls’ theory of justice and the veil of ignorance, the authors propose to build common ground for the China study community based on academic freedom, equality and the rule of law. This study further shows that building the common ground is feasible.
Practical implications
The authors’ proposed common ground will help create a free environment for meaningful exchange between different perspectives and reduce the risks in China studies.
Originality/value
The authors’ angle to examine the contentiousness and riskiness of China studies is new. It is the first time that different perspectives on China studies are delineated and compared, the costs of the contentiousness and riskiness are assessed, and the long-term consequences of different paths are examined.
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