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The purpose of this study is to understand the development of social capital in an Arab business environment, and provide an in-depth description of the nature and role of three key Arabic business relationship characteristics (ehsan, et-moone and wasta), their impact on each other and key influencing factors.

A qualitative research design was used, in which face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with innovation teams (22 team members) at six industrial small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, then analyzed (thematic coding) through NVivo.

The findings suggest that wasta, ehsan and et-moone align closely with the three social capital dimensions (structural, cognitive and relational); thus, developing these three relationship characteristics most likely results in developing social capital. The findings also expand the description of the three business relationship characteristics. Moreover, ehsan, et-moone and wasta appear to influence each other, and are affected by other factors such as an individual’s age and position, and the duration of the relationship. Ehsan has a positive influence on the development of et-moone, while the existence of et-moone appears to be necessary for the establishment of wasta-capital. A high level of ehsan might influence the relationship between et-moone and wasta-use and limit the negative usage of wasta.

International managers can improve the level of ehsan in their organizational and business relationships through assigning incentives and playing the role of moral champion to encourage ehsan behavior. Managers aiming to increase et-moone may choose team members with a high level of ehsan, emphasizing the development of personal relationships, and providing opportunities for socialization both inside and outside the workplace. A high level of ehsan and et-moone will assist managers to develop and use wasta.

This study makes a threefold contribution to the literature. First, it provides an expanded description of the three Arabic business relationship characteristics and how they align closely with the dimensions of social capital. Wasta aligns with the structural dimension and ehsan aligns with the cognitive dimension, while et-moone aligns closely with the relational dimension. Second, it suggests and shows how the three relationship characteristics might interact with each other. Ehsan appears to influence et-moone, and also the relationship between et-moone and wasta. Et-moone appears to have a positive influence on wasta use. Third, the findings also indicate that there might be other factors (e.g. age and position) that influence the interactions between the three business relationship characteristics.

This research is designed to answer questions: do Islamic teachings offer relevant perspectives on human resource (HR) issues? Are the treatments of HR issues in Islam compatible with evolving organizational concepts? Do current HR practices in countries with Muslim majority (CMM) resemble Islamic prescriptions? It aims to address these and other questions in line with early Islamic instructions.

This paper surveys Islamic texts and treaties. It then compares Islamic instruction to what prevails in Christianity and Judaism.

Islamic prescriptions view the interests of employees and employers as complementary. Workers are treated as the creators of value in the marketplace and by necessity the primary force for economic growth and prosperity. It is argued that the application of the philosophy of ehsan in the workplace offers a useful framework for positively safeguarding societal concerns.

This paper offers practitioners and researchers various avenues on how to address the issues of HR in Islamic societies. In contrasting Islamic and Western HR foundations, the paper identifies certain minefields.

This paper offers a unique insight on the nature of HR instruction and policies. In this paper, it is argued that Islamic prescriptions on HR, if internalized, may guard against violating human dignity and ensure a fine balance between organizational and societal interests.

In this paper, the authors explore the specific nature of material-based legitimation and examine how it differs from other forms of legitimation. Prior studies of institutional legitimacy have predominantly focused on the discursive and iconic aspects of legitimation, with much less focus placed on the role of materiality. To advance our argument, the authors introduce the notion of enactive legitimation. The authors suggest that legitimation is derived from and supported by the ongoing engagement and interaction with materials and material-based practices. To elaborate our argument, the authors study a case of the use of material signification to legitimize a new financial product within Islamic banking. The authors show that the legitimacy of the product is grounded in materials and the materiality of a number of ritualized practices. Materials and practices, however, also impose their own specific constraints on the process, and do so in ways that are more evident than when legitimation is based on signs and symbols (both language and images). The paper contributes to practice-based institutionalism by leveraging one of the central tenets of practice theory to extend the understanding of legitimation. It also illustrates what practice-based sensitivity may look like in action.

In management studies, assumptions surround the fixed, categorical and binary nature of male, ethnic and other privileges. Compared to white, middle-class men, “others” are typically assumed not to experience privilege. The authors counter this assumption by applying intersectionality to examine privilege's juxtaposition with disadvantage. The paper offers an elaborated conceptualisation of organisational privilege and insight into the agency employed by individuals traditionally perceived as non-privileged. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using diaries and interviews, the paper analyses 20 micro-episodes from four senior minority ethnic women and men's accounts of intersecting ethnic, gender and senior identities. The paper identifies how privilege plays out at the juxtaposition of (male gender and hierarchical) advantage with (female gender and ethnic) disadvantage.

The fluidity of privilege is revealed through contextual, contested and conferred dimensions. Additionally, privilege is experienced in everyday micro-level encounters and the paper illustrates how “sometimes privileged” individuals manage their identities at intersections.

This in-depth analysis draws on a small sample of unique British minority ethnic individuals to illustrate dimensions of privilege.

It is often challenging to discuss privilege. However, the focus on atypical wielders of power challenges binary assumptions of privilege. This can provide a common platform for dominant and non-dominant group members to share how societal and organisational privileges differentially impact groups. This inclusive approach could reduce dominant group members’ psychological and emotional resistance to social justice.

Through bridging privilege and intersectionality perspectives, the paper offers a complex and nuanced perspective that contrasts against prevalent conceptions of privilege as invisible and uncontested.

Malaysia is considered to be a relatively young country as compared to other older countries such as Japan, China and Australia in terms of the ageing population. However, until 2035, Malaysia will be in the ageing group countries as 15% of the entire population will be above 60 years of age. This situation is quite alarming as more and more ageing care centres will be required to fulfill the ongoing demands of the ageing population. The elderly care centres in Malaysia are categorised as public (sponsored by the government), private, and charity based that comes under religious centres. Currently, there are about 365 registered elderly care centres working in the main states of Malaysia, including Sabah and Sarawak, two states of the East Malaysia. Due to the importance of ageing population issues, the present study is conducted to explore the demographics facet of Malaysian’s elderly care centres. The main reason behind that lies on the fact that many of these centres are still labelled as being not well equipped and lacking behind in trained staff, equipment and also suffering from severe financial constraints but some still capable of working on a sustainability basis.

Qualitative Research Strategy has been adopted, and 28 centres throughout Malaysia are included in this study. About 18 Operators from different centres and 15 caregivers were interviewed to get the holistic view of ageing care and facilities in their respective centres.

The results highlight that the majority of centres are not receiving any financial help from the government, and few centres are doing small business such as supplying consumable medical and non-medical items and providing renting and rehabilitation centres facilities to sustain. The caregivers are facing issues such as excess workload, less salary, peer conflicts and non-cooperative centre leadership.

The present study may help to provide useful information to the policymakers, which enables them to formulate the strategies for ageing care centres in Malaysia. As this study provides insight of components that have an impact on the overall wellbeing of elderly care centres, hence, it could help the care services providers to act as a rising star for Malaysian’s social life comfort.

Respect for human rights is one of the most important criteria for the delivery of medical care in hospitals. Ethical predictability is useful to identify human rights concerns in health-care organizations. The hospital environment and the flow of its processes make the topic of predictability much more sensitive and, at the same time, more difficult than other organizations. The purpose of this paper is to determine and compare the ethical predictive factors in selected hospitals in Mazandaran province.

This cross-sectional survey using multilevel sampling (four hospitals, 938 patients, 186 staff) was conducted in the first half of 2017. The measurement instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of seven areas of service recipients’ rights, patient safety, patient satisfaction, human resources, governance, organizational and financial commitments. The analysis of the collected data was performed through SPSS V. 22 and one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s tests.

Ethical predictability was higher in social security hospitals compared to private and public hospitals, and patient safety and patient rights showed higher magnitudes compared to other dimensions. Financial domain, patient satisfaction, governance and organizational commitment formed the middle priorities in ethical predictability, and human resources had the least average in ethical predictability in the selected hospitals in the province.

Identifying the factors which influence ethical predictability, in addition to promoting service recipients’ rights and patient satisfaction, is of great help to the managers and health service authorities, so that they can have a better understanding of these factors and, consequently, make appropriate micro and macro-decisions to provide better services.

Inscrutable machine learning (ML) models are part of increasingly many information systems. Understanding how these models behave, and what their output is based on, is a challenge for developers let alone non-technical end users.

The authors investigate how AI systems and their decisions ought to be explained for end users through a systematic literature review.

The authors’ synthesis of the literature suggests that AI system communication for end users has five high-level goals: (1) understandability, (2) trustworthiness, (3) transparency, (4) controllability and (5) fairness. The authors identified several design recommendations, such as offering personalized and on-demand explanations and focusing on the explainability of key functionalities instead of aiming to explain the whole system. There exists multiple trade-offs in AI system explanations, and there is no single best solution that fits all cases.

Based on the synthesis, the authors provide a design framework for explaining AI systems to end users. The study contributes to the work on AI governance by suggesting guidelines on how to make AI systems more understandable, fair, trustworthy, controllable and transparent.

This literature review brings together the literature on AI system communication and explainable AI (XAI) for end users. Building on previous academic literature on the topic, it provides synthesized insights, design recommendations and future research agenda.

Bitcoin’s introduction as the first cryptoasset in 2009 ushered in a new era, representing a seismic shift in the financial markets. Since then, this evolving asset class has generated much interest, excitement, and growth. This chapter begins by providing a brief background of cryptoassets. It then discusses their main types (cryptocurrencies, security tokens, and utility tokens), users (individual investors, major financial institutions, endowments, and hedge funds), and benefits and drawbacks. Next, it sets forth the book’s purpose, distinguishing features, intended audience, and structure. The chapter provides a synopsis of each of the remaining 21 chapters. Although no single book can encompass all changes and iterations of these technologies as they emerge in the marketplace, this book brings together a broad collection of industry expertise and academic analysis to create a book helpful to researchers, academics, and practitioners.