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The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of an online peer-mentoring initiative for language students at the Open University, UK. The communities of practice (CoP) model (Wenger, 2010) was used as a theoretical framework within which to explore the nature and extent of mentor and mentee participation; and the impact of the scheme on student confidence and motivation.

Within a qualitative paradigm, multi-data sources were employed to collect and analyse data. Participation was measured from analysis of online interaction, while participant views were captured through interviews, forum posts and surveys.

Findings revealed that mentors were perceived by students who used the scheme to be instrumental in building confidence and motivation. In addition, varying participation patterns indicated that students used the online learning communities to meet their differing needs during their studies. These needs involved passively reading posts as well as actively posting.

Any direct statistical correlation between student confidence and motivation and online peer mentoring was beyond the scope of this study and could be the focus of future research. Additionally, research might also explore the impact of student mentors on student participation in wider CoPs.

Practical recommendations from the study include the importance of mentor training to develop effective communication strategies and to differentiate the role from that of tutor moderators, whose remit is to respond to academic content-related queries in module-wide forums.

There is little research into the nature and impact of online peer mentoring on student motivation and confidence. This study aimed to bridge this gap.

This research aims to explore generation (Gen) Z's personal branding on social media when job seeking.

Gen Z students, in their final year of university, were interviewed about personal branding, as well as recruiters and career advisors to gain insights into the recruitment process and expectations of online personal brands. Before interviewing, Gen Z students' LinkedIn profiles were examined, and then fed into the interview process.

Using impression management theory, the findings show that Gen Z perceive online personal brands as a crucial tool to gain more advantage in job markets. A gap was found between desired and perceived selves in Gen Z's online personal brands. Strategies such as effective self-reflection, authentic communication, self-promotion processes, awareness of risks and constantly controlling digital footprints were suggested to build stronger and more coherent personal brands. Gen Z are in favour of a more dynamic, interactive, work-in-process of authentic personal brands.

This research demonstrates the importance of authentically building online personal branding strategies and tactics to bridge the divide between Gen Z's desired and perceived images in personal branding on social media when job seeking.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the levels of job satisfaction among doctors who work in Greek public hospitals, to determine the factors that may influence their satisfaction, to examine the contribution that staff support makes to job satisfaction and to investigate the potential impact that an economic recession might have on job satisfaction.

The sampling process used was stratified sampling and it was applied to all health regions in Greece. An official request to carry out the study was sent to 45 hospitals for the approval of their management. Through random sampling, 5% of the doctors' population was selected from each participating hospital, with the resulting sample consisting of 458 doctors from all the health regions of Greece. An anonymous questionnaire was administered to the sample of medical doctors to gather data on their perception of the work they do in public hospitals.

Empirical results showed that (1) the most important factor in doctors' job satisfaction appears to be the nature of their job and the high levels of autonomy that they have, and (2) doctors' level of commitment is maintained by enhancing their positive emotions and sense of professional well-being.

A deeper understanding of important concepts of an organization's behavior such as job satisfaction, staff support and their connection with internal organizational structures will facilitate policy makers and those who make decisions on the strategic management of medical staff in public hospitals.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of timing and framing of hotel’s upselling message on consumer attitudes toward the message. The mediating role of reactance between the timing of upselling message and consumer attitudes is also explored.

A 2 (timing: immediately after the booking vs one week prior to arrival) by 2 (framing: concrete vs abstract) experimental design was used. A total of 250 Chinese consumers were recruited and were randomly exposed to a hotel online upselling scenario. The consumer attitudes and reactance were measured.

When the framing of upselling message involves specific room attributes, consumers show more favorable attitudes when receiving the promotion one week prior to arrival (vs immediately after the booking). However, when the framing of upselling message involves price, consumer attitudes do not differ across the time of receiving the promotion. Reactance mediates the effect of message timing on consumer attitudes when the message framing involves specific room attributes.

This research suggests that hotel managers should offer concrete message framing that includes specific room attributes at the time proximal to consumers’ arrival to increase acceptance of online room upselling. In addition, it is important for hotel managers to take consumers’ reactance into consideration when developing an online upselling strategy.

Research on online hotel room upselling is scant. This study adds to the upselling literature by examining the joint influence of timing and framing of upselling promotions on consumer attitudes toward such messages. Furthermore, this study extends our understanding of the role of reactance in the online upselling process.