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1 – 10 of 50Stakeholders are entitled to be properly informed about their interests in an enterprise, not only in terms of the cost of assets such as land and labour, but also in terms of the…
Abstract
Stakeholders are entitled to be properly informed about their interests in an enterprise, not only in terms of the cost of assets such as land and labour, but also in terms of the value of these assets. The value of land could be influenced by environmental pollution, damages and rehabilitation activities, which should be accounted for in financial and non‐financial terms. In contrast to the tendency to calculate and include only the cost of labour, the value of labour should also be determined to include aspects such as knowledge, skills, organising proficiency and customer relations.
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Joanne Louise Tingey-Holyoak, John Dean Pisaniello and Peter Buss
Agriculture is under pressure to produce more food under increasingly variable climate conditions. Consequently, producers need management innovations that lead to improved…
Abstract
Purpose
Agriculture is under pressure to produce more food under increasingly variable climate conditions. Consequently, producers need management innovations that lead to improved physical and financial productivity. Currently, farm accounting technologies lack the sophistication to allow producers to analyse productivity of water. Furthermore water-related agricultural technology (“agtech”) systems do not readily link to accounting innovations. This study aims to establish a conceptual and practical framework for linking temporal, biophysical and management decision-making to accounting by develop a soil moisture and climate monitoring tool.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts an exploratory mixed-methods approach to understand supply of and demand for water accounting and water-related agtech; and bundling these innovations with farm accounting to generate a stable tool with the ability to improve agricultural practices over time. Three phases of data collection are the focus here: first, a desk-based review of water accounting and water technology – including benchmarking of key design characteristics of these methods and key actor interviews to verify and identify trends, allowing for conceptual model development; second, a producer survey to test demand for the “bundled” conceptual model; third and finally, a participant-based case study in potato-farming that links the data from direct monitoring and remote sensing to farm accounts.
Findings
Design characteristics of water accounting and agtech innovations are bundled into an overall irrigation decision-making conceptual model based on in-depth review of available innovations and verification by key actors. Producer surveys suggest enough demand to pursue practical bundling of these innovations undertaken by developing an integrated accounting, soil moisture and climate monitoring tool on-farm. Productivity trends over two seasons of case study data demonstrate the pivotal role of accounting in leading to better technical irrigation decisions and improving water productivity.
Originality/value
The model can assist practitioners to gauge strengths and weaknesses of contemporary water accounting fads and fashions and potential for innovation bundling for improved water productivity. The practical tool demonstrates how on-farm irrigation decision-making can be supported by linking farm accounting systems and smart technology
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Rupali Singh, Ginni Chawla, Sonal Agarwal and Avani Desai
The purpose of the paper is to explore the antecedents of employability from the employer’s perspective to provide sustainable employment and to develop a measurement scale.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to explore the antecedents of employability from the employer’s perspective to provide sustainable employment and to develop a measurement scale.
Design/methodology/approach
In the study, the survey-based approach has been adopted. The authors developed an instrument following extensive literature review and further pre-tested the instrument with experts drawn from the academics. The data collection was monitored following Dillman’s (2007) total design test method. Finally, 114 usable responses were collected. The data were further tested for normal assumptions. Orthogonal and parsimonious constructs were derived following exploratory factor analysis, and the construct validity was checked using confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings
The following antecedents of employability were obtained: innovative skills and innovative abilities along with the knowledge, innovative abilities, personality factors, career-building traits, emotional intelligence and efficacy beliefs.
Research limitations/implications
The authors observed that the present study like other survey-based research has its own limitations. Currently, cross-sectional data were used, which inherit some serious limitations like endogeneity and common method bias. However, utmost care was taken to minimize the effects of endogeneity and common method bias using some suggested measures in the existing literature.
Social implications
The findings and conclusions are expected to aid students, academicians and practitioners in developing an understanding of employability. Moreover, these antecedents can be developed in graduates along with their higher education as per the requirements of the industry.
Originality/value
This paper is an attempt to develop a scale for measurement of employability in the education sector.
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This study examines the relationship between emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and organizational commitment, focusing on the mediating role of self-efficacy in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and organizational commitment, focusing on the mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used an online survey to collect data for this purpose. The sample consisted of 145 employees of different organizations in Kosovo. To test the hypothetical model, a mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS Model Type 4.
Findings
The results show that emotional intelligence is positively related to self-efficacy and that self-efficacy is positively related to organizational commitment. Furthermore, the results of the mediation analysis confirm that the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment is mediated by self-efficacy.
Research limitations/implications
For future research, the authors recommend using the sub-dimensions of the above variables to test this model, and multiple models could be formulated. At the same time, the survey can be applied to managers to examine their emotional intelligence and to determine whether emotional intelligence influences their organizational commitment through self-efficacy. Consistent with the findings of this study, managers and executives in organizations should consider the emotional intelligence of their employees and that the employees with higher emotional intelligence have higher self-efficacy and can perform better.
Originality/value
This study extends the current literature in organizational behavior and provides a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and organizational commitment. This study was also conducted in a developing country context, which can always lead to different results than studies conducted in developed countries.
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The study aimed to explore the effect of second year business students engaging in counterfactual reasoning on their unrealistic optimism regarding attainment on an employability…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aimed to explore the effect of second year business students engaging in counterfactual reasoning on their unrealistic optimism regarding attainment on an employability module.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an experimental design, the study compared the module performance of those who generated reasons why they would and would not achieve a series of specific grades. A control group who did not generate any reasons also took part.
Findings
Students who generated reasons why they would not achieve a good grade were less likely to be unrealistically optimistic and more likely to attain a good grade on their assessment.
Research limitations/implications
This is a small sample of students from one form of programme, so replication with a greater sample drawn from other programmes would increase reliability.
Practical implications
The results suggest an easily applied and practical way of engaging students in employability modules to support their development of a range of capitals.
Social implications
The findings are considered in relation to the theory of possible selves, the value for students, particularly widening participation of students, of improved engagement with employability modules and the possibility of applying this technique in wider educational settings.
Originality/value
This paper extends Hoch’s (1985) original study by considering the use of counterfactual reasoning for assessment performance and offering a an easy-to-apply tool for module leaders to support student attainment in employability development modules.
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Pluralities of personality schemas reside across different Maruyama universes suggesting incommensurability and isolation. Schemas may migrate across Maruyama universes given…
Abstract
Purpose
Pluralities of personality schemas reside across different Maruyama universes suggesting incommensurability and isolation. Schemas may migrate across Maruyama universes given appropriate means. As illustration, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) schema for personality temperament is migrated into a sociocognitive schema through the intermediary of knowledge cybernetics (KC). MBTI is a type approach that operates with polar opposites; however, conceptually there is no reason for it not to be associated with a trait space. Supposing that MBTI has traits at some horizon of meaning, then since traits are responsible for the creation of enduring states, sociocognitive explanations should be able to explain the stable states consistent with a variation of the McCrae and Costa proposition. As a result this paper aims to formulate for the first time a link between the MBTI type schema, a trait space, and a capacity for sociocultural descriptions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the meta‐framework of KC, part of the relevantial universe identified by Maruyama, to formulate a representation of MBTI. This also appears to be the first serious use of the Maruyama universe concept, and the first time that MBTI has been explored from a relevantial perspective. A consequence is the possible development of a more sophisticated trait theory that is capable of providing more complex information about personality.
Findings
The findings indicate that a more complex form of type theory is possible than has been provided by MBTI.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is limited to the investigation of MBTI. However, it offers a generic approach that can be applied to other solitary theories like MBTI. It also postulates a trait basis for the MBTI type approach.
Practical implications
The paper leads to the possibility of improved explanatory power for a type theory than is currently possible.
Originality/value
The paper adopts for the first time a relevantial meta‐framework approach to explore a development of MBTI. It has value to those researchers who may wish to explore the potential of more complex forms of type personality theory than are currently available.
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Weili Teng, Chenwei Ma, Saeed Pahlevansharif and Jason James Turner
The purpose of this paper is, first, to examine student perspectives of their university experience in terms of the soft employability skills they develop; second, how prepared…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is, first, to examine student perspectives of their university experience in terms of the soft employability skills they develop; second, how prepared those students feel for the future employment market and finally investigate whether there are differences in perceptions between Chinese and Malaysian students given their different educational experience.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, 361 predominantly Chinese undergraduate students at two universities, one in China and the other in Malaysia completed the 15-item Goldsmiths soft skills inventory using an online survey.
Findings
The results, analysed using factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, indicated that the university curriculum develops student soft skills, particularly in the Malaysian university and supports the relationship between soft skill and student preparedness for employment. The results also indicate that compared with the respondents from the Chinese university, the Malaysian university respondents were more likely to be positive to statements concerning their respective university’s ability to develop their soft skills.
Research limitations/implications
Such findings have implications for education providers and business in that it is important for universities to embed soft skills into the curriculum in order to develop graduate work readiness.
Originality/value
What this research contributes is not only consolidation of existing research in the contemporary context of a disruptive jobs market, it takes research forward through analysing student perceptions from two universities, one in Malaysia and the other in China, of the skills they develop at university and the importance of soft skills to them and their perceptions of future employment and employability. Such research will provide insight, in particular, into the role of education providers, the phenomena of underemployment among graduates in China, and be of practical significance to employers and their perception that graduates lack the necessary soft skills for the workplace (Anonymous, 2017a; Stapleton, 2017; British Council, 2015; Chan, 2015).
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Rupali Singh, Pooja Sharma, Cyril Foropon and H.M. Belal
The authors have attempted to understand how big data and predictive analytics (BDPA) can help retain employees in the organization.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors have attempted to understand how big data and predictive analytics (BDPA) can help retain employees in the organization.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is grounded in the positivism philosophy. The authors have used a resource-based view (RBV) to develop their research hypotheses. The authors tested their research hypotheses using primary data gathered using a single-informant questionnaire. The authors obtained 254 usable responses. The authors performed the assumptions test, performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the validity of the proposed theoretical model, and further tested their research hypotheses using hierarchical regression analysis.
Findings
The statistical result suggests that the various human resource management strategies play a significant role in improving retention under the mediating effect of the BDPA.
Research limitations/implications
The authors have grounded their study in the positivism philosophy. Moreover, the authors tested their hypotheses using single-informant cross-sectional data. Hence, the authors cannot ignore the effects of the common method bias on their research findings. Moreover, the research findings are based on a particular setting. Thus, the authors caution the readers that their findings must be examined in the light of their study limitations.
Practical implications
The study provided empirical findings based on survey data. Hence, the authors provide numerous guidelines to the practitioners that how the organization can invest in creating BDPA that helps analyze complex data to extract meaningful and relevant information. This information related to employee turnaround may guide top management to reduce the dissatisfaction level among the employees working in high-stress environments resulting from a high degree of uncertainty.
Social implications
The study helps understand the complex factors that affect the morale of the employee. In the high-paced environment, the employees are often exposed to various negative forces that affect their morale which further affect their productivity. Due to lack of awareness and adequate information, most of the employees and their issues are not dealt with effectively and efficiently by their line managers. Thus, the BDPA can help tackle the most complex problem of society in a significant way.
Originality/value
This study offers some useful contributions to the literature which attempts to unfold the complex nexus between human resource management, information management and strategy. The study contributes to the BDPA literature and how it helps in the retention of employees is one of the areas which still remains elusive to the academic community. Moreover, the managers are still skeptical about the application of BDPA in understanding human-related issues due to a lack of understanding of how and to what extent the employee-related information can be stored and processed. This study’s findings further open the new avenues of research that need to be tackled.
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The fairy tale is a genre popularly associated with characters that inhabit opposite extremes in the axis of good and evil, such as the brave prince, the beautiful princess and…
Abstract
The fairy tale is a genre popularly associated with characters that inhabit opposite extremes in the axis of good and evil, such as the brave prince, the beautiful princess and the wicked witch. From the tension between the two extremes emerges the familiar narrative: as Dallas Baker has remarked, the death of the monstrous villain often precedes ‘heterosexual fulfilment’ (2010, p. 8), and thus the classical script is laid out.
This chapter will investigate how lesbian and bisexual retellings deconstruct that script and collapse the insurmountable distance between good and evil, hero and villain, queering fairy tale paradigms and upending genre expectations. Sam Miller declared in 2011 that ‘there are no more queer monsters’ (p. 222) in horror films, making the fact that they still lurk in fairy tale retellings all the more remarkable, although they often do so disguised as, or otherwise fused with, well-known childhood heroines. In this way, Lauren Beukes’s The Hidden Kingdom (2013) aligns a bisexual Rapunzel with Sadako, the vengeful spirit from Japanese horror film Ringu (1998); The Sleeper and the Spindle (Gaiman, 2014) features a Snow White who must save the Sleeping Beauty, here an evil witch guarded by zombie-like sleepers; and ABC's Once Upon a Time (2011–2018) features a bisexual Little Red Riding Hood who transforms into a dangerous werewolf. This chapter thus explores the significance of resilient, queer monstrosity in contemporary fairy tales, these authors' interpretation of the conservative archetype of the queer villain, and the potential of these retellings to enact subversive fantasies of empowerment for queer readers.
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