Search results

With the growing need for employees to be innovative, public-sector organizations are investing in employee training. This study aims to examine the effects of a combined Lean Six Sigma and innovation training, using action learning, on public-sector employees’ creative role identity and innovative work behavior.

The authors studied a public service agency in Singapore in which a five-day Lean Innovation Training was implemented, using a combination of Lean Six Sigma and Creative Problem-Solving tools, with a simulation on day one and subsequent team-based project coaching, spread over six months. The authors administered pre- and postintervention surveys among all the employees, and initiated group interviews and observations before, during and after the intervention.

Creative role identity and innovative work behavior had significantly improved six months after the intervention, enabled through senior management’s transformational leadership. The training induced managers to role-model innovative work behaviors while cocreating, with their employees, a renewal of their agency’s core processes. The three completed improvement projects contributed to an innovative work culture and reduced service turnaround time.

Starting with a role-playing simulation on the first day, during which leaders and followers swapped roles, the action-learning type training taught all the organizational members to use various Lean Six Sigma and Creative Problem-Solving tools. This nimble Lean Innovation Training, and subsequent team-based project coaching, exemplifies how advancing the staff’s creative role identity can have a positive impact.

School effectiveness has attracted some currency in educational research globally since the 1960s though such studies mostly point to the efforts of principal leadership as the basis for promoting effective schools. However, in the case of Ghana, there is a lack of research conducted in the area, and due to that, this study sought to explore internal public perspectives of what constitutes school effectiveness in the Colleges of Education in the Upper East Region of Ghana.

This study employed the convergent parallel mixed-method design otherwise called concurrent mixed-method design. The population for the study comprised second and third-year students, tutors and leadership of the colleges. In total, 308 respondents constituted the sample size. The breakdown is 257 students in all, 41 tutors and 10 leaders of the colleges. Two instruments, namely, an in-depth interview guide and a questionnaire were used to elicit responses to address the object of this study.

The study revealed that the characteristics of effective schools include the high academic performance of students and a good show of disciplined behavior by both students and staff in the colleges among others.

To the best of our knowledge, during the search for studies conducted on school effectiveness, there is no scientific study done in Ghana highlighting the attributes of effective educational institutions. Most of the studies conducted in the area of educational studies only focused on principal leadership, educational access, participation and equity at the level of pre-tertiary institutions.

This author reflects on her academic career spanning three decades as a Black woman in higher education. Ironically, the elders' sayings she heard and detested as a child resonated throughout her career. While in eighth grade, her grandmother admonished her for being deceptive and trying “to pull one over” on her and said that this author would need “to get up ‘fore day in the mornin’” to accomplish that feat. “Fore day in the mornin” must have been the time before her grandmother was fully alert, astute, and had the most clarity. For Black women to succeed in the academy, we must remain alert and recognize when faculty, administrators, and students attempt to pull one over with microaggressions and other forms of resistance. Microaggressions and resistance were perpetrated across race and gender lines, and occasionally by those who look like her. Having been reared in urban and low-income communities, the author acknowledged the investments she received throughout her schooling and career from both members of the academy and from Black communities. Consequently, her mission to improve outcomes in schools and communities, much like those in which she grew up, has not changed in 33 years. Understanding race and culture in self-definition and identity are discussed, followed by embracing opportunities and return on investments. There are increased calls for reciprocal and culturally responsive mentor–protégé relationships and successful strategies for tenure and promotion. The author makes meaning of both successful and challenging critical incidents in the academy.

First-generation college students in the United States are a unique demographic that is often characterized by the institutions that serve them with a risk-laden and deficit-based model. However, our analysis of the transcripts of open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 22 “first-gen” respondents suggests they are actively deft, agentic, self-determining parties to processes of identity construction that are both externally imposed and potentially stigmatizing, as well as exemplars of survivance and determination. We deploy a grounded theory approach to an open-coding process, modeled after the extended case method, while viewing our data through a novel synthesis of the dual theoretical lenses of structural and radical/structural symbolic interactionism and intersectional/standpoint feminist traditions, in order to reveal the complex, unfolding, active strategies students used to make sense of their obstacles, successes, co-created identities, and distinctive institutional encounters. We find that contrary to the dictates of prevailing paradigms, identity-building among first-gens is an incremental and bidirectional process through which students actively perceive and engage existing power structures to persist and even thrive amid incredibly trying, challenging, distressing, and even traumatic circumstances. Our findings suggest that successful institutional interventional strategies designed to serve this functionally unique student population (and particularly those tailored to the COVID-moment) would do well to listen deeply to their voices, consider the secondary consequences of “protectionary” policies as potentially more harmful than helpful, and fundamentally, to reexamine the presumption that such students present just institutional risk and vulnerability, but also present a valuable addition to university environments, due to the unique perspective and broader scale of vision their experiences afford them.

This study examined the characteristics, motivations and satisfaction of volunteers for the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon Weekend across a 10-year period. The purpose was to enhance our understanding of sport event volunteers, especially in the long term. This information and insight may be useful in light of ongoing challenges with volunteer recruitment and retention, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors developed and implemented an online survey, based primarily on the Special Event Volunteer Motivation Scale (SEVMS) and the Volunteer Motivations Scale for International Sporting Events (VMS-ISE). The sample included a total of 2,038 respondents – 1,086 in 2012 and 952 in 2022. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests; qualitative data provided additional insight.

About two-thirds of 2022 survey respondents were “repeat volunteers.” Volunteer characteristics, motivations and satisfaction remained relatively consistent across the 10-year period. These volunteers were motivated by a set of multiple, interrelated factors which the authors call “community-based altruism” – that is, the desire to help others driven by a sense of community involvement and pride. In both years, more than 90% were satisfied with their volunteer experience. Satisfaction was higher for individuals with certain characteristics such as being a repeat volunteer and volunteering with a group.

This may be the first scholarly article to assess volunteer characteristics, motivations and satisfaction for a major sport event in the same location across multiple years. While it focused on a three-day running event in a midwestern city in the United States, the approach and findings may be applicable to sport event volunteers in other contexts.

This study examined how likeminded Facebook comments with incivility and without supporting evidence influence readers' evaluations of the commenter and online political participation intention. This study also investigated whether the indirect effect of exposure to uncivil comments and comments without evidence on online political participation through evaluations of the commenters is contingent on the strength of partisanship.

The study used a 2 (uncivil comments vs civil comments) × 2 (comments without supporting evidence vs comments with supporting evidence) factorial design with a scenario about reading similar viewpoints about the gun control issue in Facebook comments.

The results showed that compared to exposure to civil agreeing comments, exposure to uncivil likeminded comments resulted in higher levels of negative evaluations of the commenters, which in turn decreased willingness to participate in political activities online. Exposure to comments without evidence led to more negative evaluations of the commenters, but it did not significantly influence online political participation. In addition, the strength of partisanship did not significantly moderate the indirect effect of exposure to uncivil comments and comments without evidence on online political participation through evaluations of the commenters.

Although previous studies have demonstrated the significant effects of incivility and reasoned argument, little is known about whether and how people evaluate ingroup members' comments that are uncivil and lacking reasoned arguments. Most of these studies have examined incivility in political contexts, but few have extended the context to the effect of likeminded comments, especially when the comments are uncivil and lack supporting evidence. The current study aims to fill this gap in the literature.

This paper aims to explore how nurses stay engaged in their work with the impact of structural empowerment and civility. It delves deeper into how kind, empathetic and respectful behaviours (civility) among colleagues influence the link between structural empowerment and nurses’ engagement.

Data was collected from 580 nurses working in a Public Hospital in the metropolitan area of Lisbon. Self-report questionnaires measuring civility, structural empowerment and engagement were administered. Hayes’ PROCESS macro for mediation analysis in SPSS was used to test the hypothesised model.

Results demonstrated that civility and structural empowerment were positively associated (r = 0.491, p < 0.01) also showing a positive influence on nurses’ engagement (r = 0.492, p < 0.01; r = 0.485, p < 0.01, respectively). Civility was found to partially mediate the association between structural empowerment and engagement (ß = 0.315, 95% CI [0.222, 0.417], 5,000 bootstrap resamples).

Findings from this study may be used for health-care employees and organisations, implying that when nurses perceive themselves as structurally empowered at work within a respectful environment, they experience an enhanced sense of community and involvement in their organization.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt in exploring the relationship of combined workplace civility, structural empowerment and engagement in a sample of Portuguese nurses. Future research could substantially increase our understanding of how civility contributes to a positive workplace.

Este artículo explora cómo las enfermeras se mantienen comprometidas (work engagement) en su trabajo con el impacto del empoderamiento estructural y la civilidad. Profundiza en cómo los comportamientos amables, empáticos y respetuosos (civilidad) entre colegas influyen en el vínculo entre el empoderamiento estructural y el work engagement de las enfermeras/os.

Se recogieron datos de 580 enfermeras que trabajaban en un hospital público del área metropolitana de Lisboa. Se administraron cuestionarios de autoinforme que medían la civilidad, el empoderamiento estructural y el work engagement. Se utilizó la macro PROCESS de Hayes para el análisis de mediación en SPSS con el fin de probar el modelo hipotetizado.

Los resultados demostraron que la civilidad y el empoderamiento estructural estaban positivamente asociados (r = 0.491, p < 0.01) mostrando también una influencia positiva en el work engagement de las enfermeras (r = 0.492, p < 0.01; r = 0.485, p < 0.01, respectivamente). Se observó que la civilidad mediaba parcialmente la asociación entre el empoderamiento estructural y el work engagement (β = 0.315, 95% CI [0.222, 0.417], 5,000 resamples bootstrap).

Los resultados de este estudio pueden ser utilizados por los empleados y las organizaciones sanitarias, ya que implican que cuando las enfermeras se perciben a sí mismas como estructuralmente empoderadas en el trabajo dentro de un entorno respetuoso, experimentan un mayor sentido de comunidad e implicación en su organización.

Hasta donde sabemos, este es el primer intento de explorar la relación entre la civilidad en el lugar de trabajo, el empoderamiento estructural y el work engagement en una muestra de enfermeras portuguesas. Futuras investigaciones podrían aumentar sustancialmente nuestra comprensión de cómo el civismo contribuye a un lugar de trabajo positivo.

Este documento explora a forma como os enfermeiras/os se mantêm empenhados e envolvidos (work engagement) no seu trabalho, tendo em conta o impacto do empoderamento estrutural e da civilidade. Aprofunda a forma como os comportamentos de gentileza, empatia e respeito (civilidade) entre colegas influenciam a relação entre o empoderamento estrutural e o work engagement dos enfermeiros.

Foram recolhidos dados de 580 enfermeiros de um Hospital Público da área metropolitana de Lisboa. Foram aplicados questionários de auto-relato para avaliar a civilidade, o empoderamento estrutural e o work engagement. A macro PROCESS de Hayes para análise de mediação no SPSS foi utilizada para testar o modelo hipotético.

Os resultados demonstraram que a civilidade e o empoderamento estrutural estavam positivamente associados (r = 0.491, p < 0.01), mostrando também uma influência positiva no work engagement dos enfermeiros (r = 0.492, p < 0.01; r = 0.485, p < 0.01, respetivamente). Verificou-se que a civilidade medeia, parcialmente, a associação entre a empoderamento estrutural e o work engagement (β = 0.315, 95% CI [0.222, 0.417], 5,000 resamples bootstrap).

Os resultados deste estudo podem ser uteis para os trabalhadores e organizações de cuidados de saúde, implicando que, quando os enfermeiros se consideram estruturalmente capacitados no trabalho num ambiente de respeito, experimentam um maior sentido de comunidade e envolvimento na sua organização.

Até à data, esta é a primeira tentativa de explorar a relação entre civilidade no local de trabalho, empoderamento estrutural e work engagement numa amostra de enfermeiros portugueses. Futuras investigações poderão aumentar substancialmente a nossa compreensão de como a civilidade contribui para um ambiente laboral positivo.

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore leader identity development experiences of emerging adults at a large Midwest university and how retrospective family storytelling (Koenig Kellas, 2018) plays a role in the sense-making of the leader identity process. Through a unique, three-phase qualitative and narrative inquiry approach, this research further explores LID sense-making through retrospective family storytelling.

Qualitative phenomenology and narrative inquiry approach. Data collection consisted of three different data sets: (a) two semi-structured interviews, (b) leader artifacts and (c) journals.

The stories told by the emerging adults described how key messages influenced their identity within the context of leader identity development and their college experiences. Furthermore, a key finding in the narratives exhibited the stories emerging adults recalled in the sense-making of their leader identity centered on persevering, overcoming hardships and interpersonal connections and relationships. Findings from this research contribute to LID literature for leadership educators, researchers and practitioners in leader development.

The research presented in this article advances LID by using a narrative approach to explore the role of family narratives in identity development. Further, it approaches qualitative work with rigorous data collection and analysis processing using a cross-case analysis to develop leader identity archetypes. This study directly impacts those who work with emerging adult college students and supports the development of college student leaders.