Search results
1 – 10 of 401Achutha Jois and Somnath Chakrabarti
The education services sector faces ever-changing global market dynamics with creative disruptions. Building knowledge brands can push the higher education sector beyond its…
Abstract
Purpose
The education services sector faces ever-changing global market dynamics with creative disruptions. Building knowledge brands can push the higher education sector beyond its geographical boundaries into the global arena. This study aims to identify key constructs, their theoretical background and dimensions that aid in building a global knowledge brand. The authors' research focuses on adapting and validating scales for global knowledge and education services brands from well-established academic literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have adopted a mixed methodology approach and a systematic literature review. Authors interviewed 18 subject matter experts as part of content and face validity to arrive at select constructs, dimensions and items. Quantitative methods with random sampling were adopted as the primary methodology. Initially, the survey was administered to 390 students to test preliminary results. The survey was also administered to 5,112 students at a later part of this study. Valid responses stood at 3,244 with a 63% response rate. Further, the authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the reliability and validity of scales. This study analyzed composite reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity to finalize items for scales. The authors also validated the hypotheses based on the discriminant validity assessment scores.
Findings
Authors' key research findings are that academic stimulus, campus infrastructure and student intent play a significant role in campus culture and events design and experience at campus. Authors were able to bring out 16 key constructs and 55 critical dimensions vital to global education services brand building. This study also adapted and validated 99 items that meet construct validity and composite reliability criteria. This study also highlights that constructs such as student intent, academic stimulus, campus infrastructure scalability, selection mechanism, pedagogical content knowledge, brand identity, events experience and campus culture play a vital role in global brand recognition.
Research limitations/implications
The authors' work is fairly generalizable to education services and the higher education sector. However, this study must be extrapolated and empirically validated in other industry sectors. The research implications of this study are that it aided the authors in building theoretical background for student brand loyalty theory, student expectation theory and study loyalty theory. This study adds to the body of knowledge by contributing to theoretical concepts on students, knowledge culture, events, infrastructure and branding. Researchers can adopt the scales proposed in this study to build research models in higher education branding. This study acts as a catalyst for building theories in education services areas. Researchers can delve deep into proposed research aspects of campus infrastructure, knowledge infrastructure, campus knowledge culture, events design and events experience.
Practical implications
This study aids educators and brand managers to develop global education services and optimize their effort and budget. Administrators in the education services sector must focus on practical aspects of student perception, campus infrastructure, culture and events experience. Practically administrators can reorient their efforts based on this study to achieve global brand recognition.
Social implications
This study highlights that students are not customers but are co-creators of value in the education sector. This study provides scales and dimensions needed to build co-creation frameworks and models.
Originality/value
Most research in higher education branding has not covered wider aspects of global brand building. Existing theories proposed in higher education and education services articles cover only narrower aspects of campus infrastructure, culture, events design and branding. This study presents a comprehensive list of critical factors that play a vital role in global knowledge brand building. This study highlights the constructs and scales integral to building a global education services brand.
Details
Keywords
Employment exchanges have been playing a significant role in the worldwide labor market for more than a hundred years now. In India, since 1946, millions of aspiring Indian youths…
Abstract
Purpose
Employment exchanges have been playing a significant role in the worldwide labor market for more than a hundred years now. In India, since 1946, millions of aspiring Indian youths have registered themselves with the government-run employment exchanges to find a job. About four million job seekers got registered at 1,000 employment exchanges in India, it is important to analyze the placement statistics of these exchanges. In recent years, new methods of job search have evolved. This study examines whether employment exchanges are effective in the changed scenario?
Design/methodology/approach
Using state-level employment exchange data for the period 2010–2011 to 2019–2020, this study analyzes the determinants of job placement at employment exchanges in India. A critical analysis of the functioning of employment exchanges along with recommendations to improve the job search ecosystem in India is also presented in the study.
Findings
This study found that increased share of service sector in the state economy negatively impacts placement at employment exchanges.
Research limitations/implications
The absence of focus on the service sector requires policy intervention if Indian employment exchanges are to remain relavant.
Practical implications
The government administration should rethink that ignoring service sector employment potential is unaffordable for an emerging economy and employment exchanges should be aligned accordingly.
Social implications
About 30 million people are unemployed in India. If employment exchanges are transformed, it can have far-reaching socio-economic advantages.
Originality/value
This study is the first sub-country level study on the institution of employment exchanges. This study comprehensively maps the landscape of career services in India. Empirically establishing the impact of sectoral structure of economy on efficacy of employment exchanges, and makes the case for policy intervention that is needed to keep the employment exchanges relevant in India.
Details
Keywords
Farhan Mirza and Naveed Iqbal Chaudhry
Civil service workers are valuable resources for any nation and play a crucial role in driving their country’s economic development. Per the supervisor, this research examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
Civil service workers are valuable resources for any nation and play a crucial role in driving their country’s economic development. Per the supervisor, this research examines the impact of mindfulness, proactive personality, and career competencies on employee job performance. The study also analyzes the effects of career adaptability and identity on this aspect.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the model of this study, questionnaires were administered to a sample of 500 civil service employees whose career-based knowledge and skills were measured in various cities in the province of Punjab, Pakistan.
Findings
Mindfulness and career competencies significantly impact supervisor-rated task performance, whereas a proactive personality does not substantially relate to supervisor-rated task performance. Research indicated that the two hypotheses about mediation were accepted. However, career adaptability does not play a significant role in the link between mindfulness and how well a supervisor rates task performance. Regarding moderation, career identity did not significantly moderate the relation between proactive personality and supervisor-rated task performance. However, the other two moderate hypotheses have been proven to be significant.
Research limitations/implications
The findings offer compelling support for career construction theory (CCT) in this study area by analyzing the connections related to career adaptability and identity within the framework. In the future, researchers can build on this model by adding theories like conservation of resources (COR), looking into possible moderators that might change specific pathways in this network of relationships and using longitudinal designs to find stronger causal relationships.
Originality/value
Considering the evolving workplace due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study offers fresh perspectives on the post-COVID situation, understanding and integrating various variables. For future studies, more variables can be explored in this model with the expansion of sample size and change of context.
Details
Keywords
Kelly C. Margot, Melissa Pierczynski and Kelly Lormand
The paper aims to address the increasing issue of teacher shortages and the lack of diversity in America’s educators. Highly diverse communities need ways to support community…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to address the increasing issue of teacher shortages and the lack of diversity in America’s educators. Highly diverse communities need ways to support community members interested in careers as teachers. This article explores one promising approach to reach and inspire high school students considering the teaching profession. Camp ExCEL (Exploring Careers in Education and Leadership) provided a pathway allowing rising high school seniors an opportunity to explore the teaching profession. This pathway utilized the Grow Your Own framework, recruiting students from a diverse community and providing them resources and information that would further efforts to become an educator within their community.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study examined outcomes from an education summer camp, using qualitative thematic analysis to reflexively interpret participants’ (n = 29) feelings and beliefs about effective teaching, culturally responsive teaching (CRT), project-based learning (PBL) and their camp experience. Data were collected using Google documents and surveys. The four connected themes that emerged were obstacles and barriers to teaching, qualities of an effective teacher, the impact of culturally responsive teaching and project-based learning on classrooms, and the importance of mentorships within education.
Findings
The paper provides insight about how an education camp can support high school students as they explore a career in education. Results suggest that focus on high-quality pedagogy can support student understanding of the career. Students also suggested their perception of effective teaching that includes acknowledging the needs of the whole student, modeling high-quality teaching practices and displaying positive professional dispositions.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to conduct and examine education camps further.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the development of other education camps, especially in areas with highly diverse populations.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills an identified need to increase the number of persons pursuing a career in education. The focus on a highly diverse community is also an area of need in education. This article details the description of an education camp and the curriculum used, along with findings from data collected during the first year.
Details
Keywords
Fara Azmat, Ahmed Shahriar Ferdous, Faisal Wali, Mohammad Badrul Muttakin and Mohammed Ziaul Haque
This study examines whether engagement with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-focused specialized training programs enable senior public officials (focal actor) to collectively…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines whether engagement with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-focused specialized training programs enable senior public officials (focal actor) to collectively deliver on public services that have a transformational societal impact over time. Further, the study explores the factors that impede and facilitate the delivery of such services. The authors do so by using service mechanics theorization and drawing on the lens of actor and collective engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
This study undertakes a longitudinal exploratory qualitative study design. SDG-focused training programs were delivered, as interventions, for two cohorts of senior public officials from Bangladesh in an Australian University in 2017 and 2019. In-depth interviews were conducted upon the training's completion and then after 8- and 12-month intervals to assess the short- and long-term impact respectively.
Findings
An empirical framework is proposed from the study findings. It shows that engagement – cognitive, emotional and behavioral – with SDG-focused specialized training programs enables focal actors (i.e. senior public officials) to engage other actors (other public officials, community members) in networks, facilitated the delivery of SDG-aligned public services. Such engagement results in a transformative impact that spans micro (individual), meso (organizational) and macro (societal) levels over time. Factors that impede and facilitate SDG-aligned delivery of public services are also identified.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretically, the authors contribute to the literature that relates to actor and collective engagement, SDG-focused capacity-building training programs and service mechanics. Practically, this study informs organizations about the ways that they can effectively engage their senior employees with capacity-building training programs that focus on sustainability.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few that connects the interface between public service delivery for enacting societal changes and SDG-focused capacity-building training programs through service mechanics theorization and using the lens of actor and collective engagement.
Details
Keywords
Angela S. Kelling, Robert A. Bartsch, Christine A.P. Walther, Amy Lucas and Lory. Z. Santiago-Vázquez
This study was conducted to fill gaps in the literature based on institution type, career level, and gender identity.
Abstract
Purpose
This study was conducted to fill gaps in the literature based on institution type, career level, and gender identity.
Design/methodology/approach
Faculty often struggle with achieving work-life balance. This struggle is exacerbated for faculty parents. Most academic parent research has been conducted on early-career women and at research-intensive universities. Although these groups are important, it is also important to understand experiences of academic parents at different career levels and types of institutions. The authors conducted a qualitative thematic analysis from focus groups with faculty from a mid-sized master's level university about work-life balance expectations and experiences in their roles as academics and parents. These four groups included early-career mothers (n = 5), early-career fathers (n = 4), mid-career mothers (n = 4), and mid-career fathers (n = 7).
Findings
Faculty expressed having a high workload based on an intersection of high work expectations, unclear work expectations, and lack of equity. Consequences of the high workload included lower work-life balance, dissatisfaction at not doing more, the loss of flexibility as an advantage, and lower organizational commitment.
Originality/value
Although results are limited in generalizability, it is useful to examine one institution, with all participants sharing the same culture and policies, in-depth. The authors discuss recommendations for educational administrators for assisting academic parents and suggest institutions work to examine informal expectations and formal policies at their institutions. Working together, faculty and staff can help enhance alignment of expectations and perceptions of work-life balance, hopefully leading to happier, more satisfied employees.
Details
Keywords
Anissa Lokey-Vega, Brendan E. Callahan, Ashley Archer Doehling and Michelle Head
This design case serves to identify barriers to implementing a micro-credential initiative and describes how the institution in the case addresses them to provide strategies and…
Abstract
Purpose
This design case serves to identify barriers to implementing a micro-credential initiative and describes how the institution in the case addresses them to provide strategies and lessons learned to practitioners at other institutions of higher education who may be designing a micro-credential initiative.
Design/methodology/approach
This design case traces a systems approach to designing a centralized and sustainable university micro-credential initiative. Sources include historical documents from the original working group, email-documented community feedback, current initiative communications, participant report, and frequency counts of micro-credentials awarded. This data is used to recount the design process and key decisions that led to revisions, or iterations, of the initiative's design.
Findings
The institution has seen rapid growth in the awarding of micro-credentials. Lessons learned included the need for thoughtful inclusion of stakeholders, selective terminology, a well-communicated attitude of iteration, repurposing of established tools and processes, and on-going support of academic faculty.
Research limitations/implications
Like any design case, this study is not generalizable.
Originality/value
This paper provides a unique empirical account of the design, development, and implementation of a micro-credential initiative that functioned in tandem with, rather than in conflict with, shared governance and academic traditions at a higher education institution.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to explore the perspectives of Generation Z college students regarding the job selection process, as well as the impact of digital technology on their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the perspectives of Generation Z college students regarding the job selection process, as well as the impact of digital technology on their career choices and job search endeavors.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the grounded theory methodology, the study used in-depth interviews with 15 participants to investigate the research inquiries.
Findings
The study identified six emerging themes related to the career aspirations of Generation Z students. The authors generated a job selection process model of Generation Z based on participants’ accounts of their recent job search experience. The model portrays the decision-making process performed by Generation Z job seekers while determining their career path.
Research limitations/implications
To enhance comprehension of the job selection process among Generation Z individuals, future studies should incorporate a broader range of participants encompassing diverse cultural, social and economic backgrounds. Scholars have the potential to examine the relationships between Generation Z job seekers’ job selection, job performance and job satisfaction through a quantitative approach.
Practical implications
The six themes pertaining to optimal jobs for Generation Z can assist HR professionals in enhancing their understanding of the emerging pool of young and talented individuals. The utilization of the four-stage job selection process model may serve as a valuable tool for college career service professionals in the enhancement of tailored training programs.
Originality/value
This empirical study examines Generation Z job seekers’ attitudes toward their future profession, their perceptions of ideal occupations and the influence of technology on their search, preparation and selection processes for future careers.
Details
Keywords
Michael LaMagna and Andrea Rodgers
Recognizing the magnitude of disruption the pandemic caused for academic libraries, this study considers past collection development approaches considering a new post-pandemic…
Abstract
Purpose
Recognizing the magnitude of disruption the pandemic caused for academic libraries, this study considers past collection development approaches considering a new post-pandemic landscape. It questions tried-and-true best practices held at our institution for decades with the purpose of seeking clarity and a way forward. Through this collection development self-study, our goal is to identify a new collecting model that meets our students “just-in-time” information needs while also maintaining fiscal responsibility. Our hope is that other institutions of similar size and purpose can apply these new models in their collections.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilizes collection analysis data obtained through the Bowker Book Analysis System (BBAS) to compare our existing collection against Resources for College Libraries (RCL) in addition to EZProxy Analytics and existing circulation data. The qualitative data helped inform conversations among the librarians with collection development responsibilities and sparked conversations and decisions on how to best move forward to rightsize a print collection.
Findings
Informed by data from the Bowker Book Analysis System, this article discusses a new approach to collection development which includes a focus on leasing books, rethinking when to permanently add a print title to our physical collection, and the expanded use of demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) to offer students the largest possible access to research.
Originality/value
While the library and information science literature include discussions of collection analysis, the originality of this proposed article is the focus on a collection analysis post-pandemic in a community college environment with new approaches to building a collection with limited financial resources.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to report on bibliometric research on the activities and services offered by distance libraries that serve distance learning institutions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on bibliometric research on the activities and services offered by distance libraries that serve distance learning institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis of scholarly communication has always been a valuable tool for researchers and policymakers in order to understand trends, gaps and patterns in a specific field. In this paper, a bibliometric analysis has been applied based on a well-known bibliometric tool called “VOSviewer.” The articles that constitute the dataset of current research were drawn from two journals: the Journal of Library Administration and the Journal of Library and Information Services in Distance Learning.
Findings
The bibliometric analysis applied in distance libraries showed that the researchers in this domain are mainly introverts and need to prioritize engaging in the scientific research process over merely publishing good practices. Although there are a lot of libraries serving distance learning institutions (formal and non-formal), there is a notable lack of activity in the scientific publication field.
Originality/value
Distance libraries have played a significant role in supporting distance learning, and since distance education has become more important in the educational ecosystem, the analysis of its scholarly production would provide administrators, researchers and policymakers with insights for the next era of conventional libraries.
Details