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This paper aims to extend the argument of DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, who called to bridge the gap between feedback-seeking and feedback-giving research. The paper pushes their argument further by suggesting that future feedback research should systematically adopt a dyadic and dynamic approach to enhance the understanding of feedback episodes.

This paper reviews previous empirical work in the feedback domain and develops conceptual arguments for linking feedback-seeking and feedback intervention research.

Drawing upon previous work, the authors conclude that the current depiction of feedback processes in the literature might have been overly static and one-sided. Furthermore, it is argued that feedback research might have not kept up to date with recent conceptual and methodological developments in dyadic organizational behavior research.

This paper builds on the argument of DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, in turn contributing to a more complete picture of how feedback processes unfold in organizations. While this paper profiles a few studies that have begun to bridge the disconnect between feedback-seeking and feedback-giving research, one of its limitations is that it does not adopt a systematic approach in reviewing all potential methodologies.

This paper provides a first step toward studying feedback episodes as dyadic and dynamic processes. In doing so it helps solving one of the long-standing puzzles in management research namely why feedback interventions are sometimes detrimental to performance.

El objetivo de este artículo es extender los argumentos de DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, que hacen un llamamiento para conectar la investigación sobre buscar y ofrecer feedback (retroalimentación). Desarrollamos aún más su propuesta sugiriendo que la investigación futura sobre feedback debe adoptar sistemáticamente una aproximación diádica y dinámica para mejorar nuestra comprensión de los episodios de feedback.

El artículo revisa la literatura empírica en el campo del feedback y desarrolla argumentos conceptuales para vincular la investigación en busqueda de feedback e intervenciones de feedback.

Sobre los resultados de trabajos previos los autores concluyen que la imagen actual de los procesos de feedback en la literatura es excesivamente estática y desde un solo punto de vista. Es más, se argumenta que la investigación en feedback puede no haber seguido algunos desarrollos conceptuales y metodológicos recientes en la investigación sobre comportamiento organizativo diádico.

El presente trabajo toma los argumentos de DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson como punto de partida, y con ello contribuye a desarrollar una imagen más completa sobre como los procesos de feedback se despliegan en las organizaciones. Si bien el trabajo comenta algunos trabajos que han comenzado a conectar las hasta la fecha desconectadas literaturas en buscar y ofrecer feedback, su limitación principal reside en que no adopta una revisión sistemática de todas las metodologías potenciales.

El trabajo ofrece un primer paso hace el estudio de los episodios de feedback como procesos diádicos y dinámicos. De este modo contribuye a solventar uno de los retos clásicos en la investigación en gestión: porqué las intervenciones de feedback son en ocasiones negativas para el rendimiento.

Este artigo visa estender o argumento de DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, que preenche a lacuna entre a pesquisa sobre buscar feedback e dar feedback. Nós impulsionamos ainda mais o seu argumento, sugerindo que a futura pesquisa sobre o feedback deve adotar sistematicamente uma abordagem diádica e dinâmica para melhorar nossa compreensão dos episódios de feedback.

Este artigo revisa o trabalho empírico anterior no domínio do feedback e desenvolve argumentos conceituais para vincular pesquisas de busca de feedback e de intervenção de feedback.

Com base em trabalhos anteriores, os autores concluem que a representação atual dos processos de feedback na literatura pode ter sido excessivamente estática e unilateral. Além disso, argumenta-se que a pesquisa de feedback pode não ter se atualizado com desenvolvimentos conceituais e metodológicos recentes na pesquisa do comportamento organizacional diádico.

Este artigo baseia-se no argumento de DeNisi & Smith Sockbeson, contribuindo, por sua vez, para um quadro mais completo de como os processos de feedback se desdobram nas organizações. Enquanto o artigo mapeia alguns estudos que começaram a reduzir a desconexão entre a pequisa sobre buscar e dar feedback, uma de suas limitações é que ela não adota uma abordagem sistemática ao revisar todas as metodologias potenciais.

Este artigo fornece um primeiro passo para o estudo de episódios de feedback como processos diádicos e dinâmicos. Ao fazê-lo, ajuda a resolver um dos quebra-cabeças de longa data na pesquisa em administração, principalmente porque as intervenções de feedback às vezes são prejudiciais ao performance.

The purpose of this paper is to provide information on development of standards in Tanzania which may be of help to training providers in other countries as they seek to improve the quality and standards of their provision.

The need to provide quality assured tertiary qualifications in Tanzania to win both national and international recognition is explained. Processes of registration of institutions capable of delivering training programmes adequately and accreditation of the same to offer awards at appropriate levels as a means to ensure quality of provision are explored. Standards of good practice in Tanzanian tertiary education are surveyed and the challenges to their achievement are discussed based on the author's direct experience in Tanzania. Relevant and recent literatures on the topic are surveyed and some lessons drawn.

Accreditation standards are useful in instilling best practices in education and training. However, education and training institutions need to understand and practice them over a period of time to bring about expected results. It is concluded that ensuring quality in education is a multifaceted phenomenon that calls for the joint efforts of all key stakeholders.

The paper illustrates that the National Council for Technical Education is one of the first regulatory bodies in Africa to introduce academic quality standards in tertiary technical institutions. Notable improvements have been recorded since its inception. The experience described is the paper is not very common, so other countries taking similar steps may find it useful.

This paper aims to investigate the nature of the public–private dialogue (PPD) initiatives and how PPDs are being used in the tourism and hospitality sector as the tool for reforming the business environment (e.g. set policy priorities, inform policy design, improve legislative proposals and incorporate feedback into regulatory implementation).

The study adapted a descriptive-qualitative method through desk research and in-depth interviews based on the explorative research design. The respondents included tourism and hospitality stakeholders from the public and private sectors in the Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam tourist destinations in Tanzania.

The findings revealed numerous PPD initiatives which various actors in the tourism value chain rely on to address their matters. While some initiatives are not regular forums, few have been institutionalized in the Tourism Act of 2008, while others have been prescribed from the global level (UNWTO). The well-known PPD platforms include the Tourism Facilitation Committee, Technical Advisory Committee to the Minister, Tanzania National Business Council (the Tourism Task Force) and Public–Private Partnership in Tourism under the Ministry. However, most of the existing platforms overlap in terms of subject matter, mandates, participants and timing. The key success stories and factors of the PPD initiatives and the associated challenges have been discussed.

The study provides insight to the conclusion that public policies that are designed through PPD are better conceived and more effectively implemented because they result from mutual understanding between government and the business community. This knowledge is important to the least developed countries (LDCs), like Tanzania, as research has shown that stronger and more constructive dialogue between government and the private sector leads to better business environment, and countries with better business environments grow faster, attract more investment and reduce poverty more than the opposite.

Although several PPD initiatives are taking place in the tourism sector in most developing countries, little about them has been documented in the tourism literature. Hence, this study, which focuses on Tanzania, aims to fill this knowledge gap.

Users' search logs are implicit feedbacks on how searchers interact with online information retrieval (IR) systems. The purpose of this paper is to analyze search query reformulation (SQR) patterns of University of Dar es Salaam remote OPAC users.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of transaction logs were employed to ascertain the characteristics of search queries and the patterns in which remote OPAC users reformulate their search queries. The study covered a period of six months, commencing from January to June 2019.

A total of 30,474 search hits were submitted by remote OPAC users during the period under study. Individuals from academic and research institutions, computing consortia, and telecommunication companies are the main users of the system. Most of the searches originated from North America and Europe, with few searches coming from China and India. Besides improving search results, SQRs are linked with the existence of multiple information demands as manifested by the use of heterogeneous headwords within individual search episodes.

Data collected covered only six months. Similarly, it was however not possible to analyze users' search query formulation within specific contexts such as task-based information searching.

A query recommendation system should be integrated into the OPAC functionalities to improve users' search experiences. Alternatively, there should be a migration to a new system that offers more advanced search features and functionalities.

The study has contributed new insights in SQR studies particularly on how non-institutional affiliated users translate their information needs into search queries during information searching processes.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2020-0389

This study aims to investigate the factors that influence user experience (UX) of eLearning systems implemented in two institutions in Tanzania.

The study adopted questionnaire consisting of Nielsen’s heuristics and didactic metrics as pragmatic metrics and hedonic metrics followed by focus group discussions with students.

The study found that the eLearning system of University of Dar es Salaam had 43 UX problems related to Nielsen’s heuristics and 54 UX problems related to didactic heuristics. The eLearning system of the Open University of Tanzania had 50 UX problems related to Nielsen’s heuristics and 59 UX problems related to didactic heuristics. Moreover, the two systems provided positive UX hedonic quality on identification and evocation dimensions while stimulation was perceived to be neutral.

The study has used learners as evaluators rather than expert evaluators. Learners are not particularly experienced in the learning domain, and therefore, it is difficult for them to identify many didactic violations of the eLearning systems.

The study contributes toward finding the underlying factors for non-use or underuse of the installed eLearning systems in various universities in sub-Saharan Africa.

The concept of sustainable development used in this paper is one of generating and maintaining development as a process through the interactions between social and economic forces. On the side of the social factors influencing development, the focus here is on the human element, which is variously displayed in the process concept. Sometimes, this factor is simply the human resources treated as technologically induced capital, and in which case, the generation of growth is seen as attainment of efficiency derived from the use of human capital. But the more important human factor in sustainable development is the establishment of social justice, moral entitlement and endogeneity of ethics as cause and effect in the process itself. These factors emanate from the premise of human self‐actualization in various ways, and they augment the development process by increasing returns to knowledge as an indigenous experience. Thus, ethics and morality in development constitute the sustaining factors of a development paradigm that becomes truly authentic, not imposed. Among the scenarios of such ethical and moral elements of development is the endogenous role of Islamic values towards describing its socio‐scientific world view.

The purpose of this study is to identify how ethical stances can be used to develop a frame set in the design of a web-based decision support system (DSS) for ethical decision-making and to test both the efficacy of these frames and the potential of such a tool for individuals and groups in both leadership development situations and organisational practice. Unethical behaviour by executives is a frequently cited reason for erosion of trust with other stakeholders.

Utilising action research, by choosing ethics frames such as heuristics, a web-based ethics DSS designed to enable users to explore ethical issues from multiple perspectives was constructed and this was beta-tested with a major UK bank and a global oil company.

In orchestrating constant revisions of the ethics frames in the tool, learning from each research cycle was identified, a new form of action research, a design action research, which emphasises the importance of collaboration in the design of such decision-making tools, was offered and the tool for management development and other applications was successfully beta-tested.

It was demonstrated to management developers how web-based systems might be designed by non-information technology professionals; the framing literature was added by demonstrating the value of engaging in dialogue about ethical issues of concern to managers and their organisations and thus improving decision-making; and additions were made to the literature on ethics and Information systems (IS) and contribution toward action research in the fields of IS and ethics was done.

This study aims to examine the experiences and lessons from formalisation initiatives in four sub-Saharan African countries. Drawing upon the three main theories that explain the existence of business informality – the exclusion model, rational exit model and dual economy model – the study offers an alternative path to business formalisation.

The researchers adopted a descriptive-qualitative method, and through the triangulation of data, identified emerging themes and patterns.

The findings suggest that the informal sector has a small layer that responds to the simplification of regulations and a larger one that requires a different formalisation framework. This shift in paradigm, indirect or group formalisation, where business associations facilitate traceability (registration), self-regulation, access to resources and services for members was observed in all four of the economies studied: Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania.

As with every qualitative study, subjectivity and interpretation inevitably affect the replicability and generalisability of the findings. However, the rich meanings emerging from the qualitative analysis of the text are critically insightful.

Developing countries should explore indirect formalisation. Provision of workspace and construction of business premises for informal operators should be given high priority. The model for building structures for micro enterprises should change in favour of ownership by the operators through their own associations or other private sector investors.

A pioneering study on cross-country analysis based on sub-Saharan African nations to unearth a new paradigm, a shift towards indirect or group formalisation.

While English is the most commonly used language for market research, surveys and customer feedback in India, it does not reach the subcontinent’s entire population. Therefore, many questionnaires are bilingual, offering the respondent a choice between English and an indigenous Indian language. This, however, presupposes that answers to items are not influenced by people’s language proficiencies and response styles in different languages. This paper aims to examine whether market researchers in India should be careful about nonrandom measurement error caused by language response bias.

English and Kannada questionnaires are administered in a test-retest scenario to 160 respondents in the Indian Tier-II city of Mysore. The data evaluation is organized by dispositional (language proficiency in English and Kannada) and situational influences (language of the questionnaire in English or Kannada); a series of tests to elucidate language response bias is conducted.

While the significance of the two-tailed English-Kannada paired-sample tests is borderline, a more detailed look reveals surprising differences for the dispositional as well as situational linguistic influences. Moreover, the response style peculiarities in the Indian multilingual environment are not always consistent with differences in other international bilingual environments.

High-quality data are central to all empirical research, but situational and dispositional language response bias seems to contaminate questionnaires in the Indian multi-lingual environment. This study highlights the effect and provides Indian market researchers with some first strategies for managing the challenge.