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Book part
Publication date: 11 December 2023

Lia Blaj-Ward and Stuart Perrin

The closing chapter offers additional reflection on two substantial threads which run throughout the volume. Firstly, quality education (SDG4). Contributors to the volume have…

Abstract

The closing chapter offers additional reflection on two substantial threads which run throughout the volume. Firstly, quality education (SDG4). Contributors to the volume have articulated with varying degrees of explicitness what quality education means in their specific contexts. Complementary perspective is offered in the closing chapter, through the inclusion of personal interpretations from two students in their last but one year of high school in the United Kingdom. The students are reflecting back on a week of work experience in a university and looking forward to their university journey. Amrita Narang has kindly provided a response to these personal reflections, drawing on her experience of learning and working in various national higher education contexts. Aspects the two students highlight resonate with the ethos of entrepreneurial education. An example of entrepreneurial learning in a collaborative Sino-UK higher education venture is therefore included here, showcasing ways in which students can further grow their strengths, with bespoke entrepreneurial mentoring support.

The mentoring thread running throughout the volume is picked up in the final chapter with specific reference to contracting (a staple element of formal mentoring relationships, achieved in complex and subtle ways in informal ones), closure and co-learning. All chapter contributions focus on long-term, ongoing mentoring relationships, in which closure is temporary and is viewed as a stepping stone for subsequent learning opportunities. To facilitate continued learning in readers, the final section in the chapter invites them to pause and reflect, signposting three sources of insight and wisdom for sustainability-oriented lifelong learning and action.

Details

Mentoring Within and Beyond Academia
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-565-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 July 2024

Maggie Boyraz and Rosemarie Gilbert

This study explores the topic of remote work and the changing motivations to working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic-induced exposure to working from home. It examines the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores the topic of remote work and the changing motivations to working from home after the COVID-19 pandemic-induced exposure to working from home. It examines the effects of that forced work from home (WFH) experience on subsequent motivations for continuing part or all of that changed mode of working. In this study, the authors examine the perspective of front-line knowledge workers regarding the motivation to WFH based on their lived experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

Self-determination theory (SDT) provided the theoretical basis for the study (Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2017). The authors employed semi-structured individual and group interviews (with 28 participants) and explored the following questions: How has the competence aspect of motivation to WFH changed due to the shift that occurred during the pandemic? How has the relatedness aspect of motivation to WFH changed due to the shift that occurred during the pandemic? How has the autonomy aspect of motivation to WFH changed due to the shift that transpired during the pandemic?

Findings

The findings show that there was a change from an extrinsic motivation based on external factors to one that is more intrinsic, or internal, in nature for knowledge workers who experienced the switch to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study makes an important contribution by developing a theoretical model based on SDT (Ryan and Deci, 2000, 2017) in the context of WFH. In the first phase (Phase 1), workers experienced many transitional challenges due to the suddenness and intensiveness of the shift. However, over time workers adapted and adjusted (we refer to this as Phase 2 in our model). Ultimately, all three aspects of SDT – competence, relatedness and autonomy – increased motivation to work from home. However, we also found some factors that act as demotivators to knowledge workers for embracing remote work such as those involving career advancement and the expectation of voice. Despite these moderating factors, the overall progression toward the desire to WFH, at least on a hybrid basis, has continued after adjusting to the forced experience of telecommuting during the pandemic.

Originality/value

The contribution of this study is to disaggregate the short-term effects of the sudden transition, to the longer-term effects after adaption and adjustment occurred, and to connect that to a new perspective on work by employees. It does this by extending SDT to the context of motivation regarding work from home. The COVID-19 pandemic provided experience of and opportunities for telework to more employees and changed many of their expectations and motivations. By looking at front-line knowledge workers’ expectations and motivations related to home-based work, we can better understand the increased demand by workers for hybrid work schedules.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 46 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

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Article
Publication date: 3 July 2024

Grace Ese-osa Idahosa, Dina Zoe Belluigi and Nandita Banerjee Dhawan

In the past decade, against increasing global inequality, higher education has grappled with increased demands for social justice, transformation and decolonisation. While a lot…

Abstract

Purpose

In the past decade, against increasing global inequality, higher education has grappled with increased demands for social justice, transformation and decolonisation. While a lot of research in South Africa has focused on the (im)possibilities of fostering racial, gendered, socio-economic and cultural change, the connection of such change to questions of sustainability has been less explored. The purpose of this paper is to specifically explore the agency of academics to foster transformative initiatives for sustainability within the context of institutions historically serving under-represented populations.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a qualitative methodology, this paper highlights the importance of considering sustainability in processes of transformation. This paper is specifically interested in how academic faculty and those in assigned leadership positions view their agency in relation to promoting transformation for sustainability at the institutional level. Drawing on data generated from semi-structured interviews with 13 participants at an historically Black university in South Africa, this paper details academics' and leaders’ experiences and perceptions of their agency.

Findings

This study reveals the adverse interactional dynamics within higher education institutions, which negatively impact academics’ participation as key agents in change processes. Positional and identity challenges faced reveal the persistence of colonial and apartheid legacies of racism, sexism, Afrophobia and xenophobia – which casts a shadow on possible trajectories of transformation and sustainability. This has serious implications for the common good, given South Africa's regional import for knowledge production and decolonisation within universities; its key role in the African 2063 Agenda; and the wider global Sustainable Development agenda.

Originality/value

This study highlights insufficient engagement with the sustainability of transformation efforts within the context of South Africa. This study also emphasises the relation between transformation imperatives and racial, socio-economic, gender and epistemic justice imperatives of sustainable development.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

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Article
Publication date: 8 August 2023

Elizabeth Agyeiwaah, Prosper Bangwayo-Skeete and Emmanuel Kwame Opoku

Building on the social exchange theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of perceived workgroup inclusion on migrant subjective well-being, organization identification…

Abstract

Purpose

Building on the social exchange theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of perceived workgroup inclusion on migrant subjective well-being, organization identification and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Design/methodology/approach

Structural equation modeling was applied to 440 surveyed migrant workers in Macau’s tourism and hospitality industry.

Findings

Perceived workgroup inclusion has a positive influence on migrant workers’ subjective well-being and organizational identification, which both in turn positively affect their OCBs.

Originality/value

Based on the social exchange theory, this study formulates a model that explains how migrant workers' inclusion impacts their well-being, identification and organizational behaviors. It provides theoretical and practical insights into how migrant workers’ inclusion could serve as a talent management strategy that promotes OCBs.

设计/方法/方法

采用结构方程模型对440名澳门旅游和服务业流动劳工进行了分析。

目的

基于社会交换理论, 本研究旨在探讨感知工作小组融入对流动劳工主观幸福感、组织认同、组织公民行为的影响。

调查结果

感知工作组融入对流动劳工的主观幸福感和组织认同有正向影响, 而反过来这两者都积极影响它们的组织公民行为。

创意/价值

本研究基于社会交换理论, 建构了流动劳工融入对其幸福感、认同和组织行为的影响模型。它为流动劳工融入如何成为促进组织公民行为的人才管理战略提供了理论和实践见解。

Diseño/metodología/enfoque

Se aplicó un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales a 440 trabajadores inmigrantes encuestados en la industria del turismo y la hostelería de Macao.

Objetivo

Partiendo de la teoría del intercambio social, este estudio pretende investigar el impacto de la inclusión percibida en el grupo de trabajo sobre el bienestar subjetivo de los inmigrantes, la identificación con la organización y el comportamiento de ciudadanía organizativa (OCB).

Conclusiones

La inclusión percibida en el grupo de trabajo influye positivamente en el bienestar subjetivo de los trabajadores inmigrantes y en su identificación con la organización, lo que a su vez afecta positivamente a su OCB.

Originalidad/valor

Basándose en la teoría del intercambio social, este estudio formula un modelo que explica cómo la inclusión de los trabajadores inmigrantes influye en su bienestar, su identificación y sus comportamientos organizativos. Aporta ideas teóricas y prácticas sobre cómo la inclusión de los trabajadores inmigrantes podría servir como estrategia de gestión del talento que promueva los OCB.

Article
Publication date: 21 June 2023

Ranjit Kaur and Jagwinder Singh

Littering has been identified as a significant social issue in India that has negative impact on the environment as well as public health. Social marketing is a powerful tool for…

Abstract

Purpose

Littering has been identified as a significant social issue in India that has negative impact on the environment as well as public health. Social marketing is a powerful tool for changing and sustaining pro-environmental behaviors, but so far no research has been found on the application of social marketing on changing littering behavior in India. This paper aims to integrate the two widely used social marketing models, health belief model (HBM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB), with an extra factor, environmental factors, in a holistic model to understand and predict anti-littering behavior in India.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 750 individuals were interviewed at 34 locations across the states of New Delhi and Punjab (India) in a field survey. For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model techniques in AMOS 21.0 have been used.

Findings

The results of the study suggest that the perceived benefits and perceived barriers have a significant direct effect on the attitude toward anti-littering behavior. No direct impact of perceived threat has been found on attitude toward anti-littering behavior. The results also confirm the role of attitude, subjective norms and self-efficacy in influencing the anti-littering intention with attitude and subjective norms having a greater impact on intention as compared to self-efficacy. Furthermore, the results also highlight that the environmental factors and intention carry more weights than perceived behavioral control in influencing anti-littering behavior. Recognizing the importance of sequential mediators in the present study, the results of the serial mediation analysis revealed that attitude and intention sequentially mediate the path linking perceived benefits, perceived barriers and anti-littering behavior.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study in terms of theory building appears to be the first to integrate social marketing models HBM and TPB to explain and understand not only anti-littering behavior but also for setting a platform of behavior change in a larger context.

Details

Journal of Social Marketing, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-6763

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 July 2023

David S. Bedford, Markus Granlund and Kari Lukka

The authors examine how performance measurement systems (PMSs) and academic agency influence the meaning of research quality in practice. The worries are that the notion of…

1040

Abstract

Purpose

The authors examine how performance measurement systems (PMSs) and academic agency influence the meaning of research quality in practice. The worries are that the notion of research quality is becoming too simplistically and narrowly determined by research quality's measurable proxies and that academics, especially manager-academics, do not sufficiently realise this risk. Whilst prior literature has covered the effects of performance measurement in the university sector broadly and how PMSs are mobilised locally, there is only little understanding of whether and how PMSs affect the meaning of research quality in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is designed as a comparative case study of two university faculties in Finland. The role of conceptual analysis plays a notable role in the study, too.

Findings

The authors find that manager-academics of the two examined faculties have rather similar conceptual understandings of research quality. However, there were differences in the degree of slippage between the “espoused-meaning” of research quality and “meaning-in-practice” of research quality. The authors traced these differences to how the local PMS and manager-academics’ agency relate to one another within the context of increasing global and national performance pressures. The authors developed a tentative framework for the various “styles of agency”. This suggests how the relationship between the local PMS and manager-academics’ exerted agency shapes the “degrees of freedom” of the meaning of research quality in practice.

Originality/value

Given that research quality lies at the heart of academic work, the authors' paper indicates that exploring the three matters – performance measurement, the agency of manager-academics and the meaning of research quality in practice – in combination is crucial for the sustainability of the academe. The authors contribute to the literature by detailing the way in which local PMS and manager-academics' agency have material impacts on what research quality means in practice. The authors conclude by highlighting the pressing need for manager-academics to exercise the agency in efforts to safeguard a broad and pluralistic understanding of research quality in practice.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 36 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

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