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The purpose of this paper was to provide a framework of methods and skills for employer-oriented personal branding among business school students to create an effective digital curriculum vitae for employment and to test the students' awareness of personal branding techniques.

This was a mixed methods study which followed an exploratory model, where the findings of the qualitative first stage helped develop the hypotheses for the second (quantitative) stage of the study. The rich detailed data collected from the qualitative phase were used to develop the instrument for stage 2. Responses based on Likert scale were used in stage 2 to test the hypotheses.

The study tested hypotheses relating to personal branding, demonstrating that most of the skills and methods studied are held in high esteem by business school students. The study clearly establishes that these students possess a high degree of awareness about the need for employer-oriented personal branding and use various methods and skills to build their brand, validating our hypotheses.

This study focused only on two top-tier Indian business school students. A larger and more inclusive study in other emerging market nations may validate its findings. Students from non-business disciplines could be studied to find out differences in approaches to employer-oriented self-branding.

Students may be able to brand themselves better through the use of the methods and skills tested in this study. Within the business schools, faculty mentors can use this methodology to support students in further consolidation of their brand with the help of social media profiles such as LinkedIn, Facebook and others. The skills learnt in the business school will stand the student in good stead, and the company will benefit from their personal branding efforts translating into commercial benefits for the firm.

This paper provides a structured approach towards employer-oriented personal branding of students, missing in earlier studies.

There have been increasing calls to explore the psychological contract from the lens of power. By addressing this gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the assumption of mutuality in relation to power dynamics in the employment relationship.

A total of 43 in-depth interviews are conducted with 6 managerial and 37 non-managerial respondents in three major call center organizations in Pakistan. Template analysis is used to analyze the data.

By undermining the assumption of implicit mutuality, the analysis reveals indeterminacy, an issue that has been frequently underplayed in the psychological contract research. The results further suggest that – in reality – employability, flexibility and employee training do not promote mutuality to the extent that is theoretically assumed because of the employers’ manipulation of these issues in their own favor.

The focus on call centers limits the generality of findings with further qualitative research needed in other industries to explore how power asymmetries impact upon mutuality in different working environments.

The research implications suggest the significance of timely and explicit communication in order to curtail indeterminacy in the employment relationship. This will not only reduce the development of breach perceptions among employees but will also reinforce their psychological contracts with the organization.

This research contributes by highlighting the significance of mutual dependence rather than mutuality in the psychological contract. The mutual dependence approach efficiently acknowledges the implications of power asymmetries which remain largely under-researched in the psychological contract theory.

Institutional skill training—training in institutions organised for that purpose rather than on‐the‐job—was the first of the manpower programmes of the 1960s to be mandated by Congress and applied on a nationwide basis. Its overall goal has been to improve the skills, employability and income of the unemployed and under‐employed through the provision of vocational and related instruction in a formal classroom or laboratory setting. A corollary purpose of the programme has been to meet the needs of employers for workers in demand and/or “skills shortage” occupations. It differs from traditional vocational education in that its objective is to train workers for immediate employment in occupations which are currently in demand. Traditional vocational education, on the other hand, has a much broader objective: to prepare the student for a lifetime of work in a dynamic labour market. Institutional skill training, as it evolved in the sixties, is short‐term and intensive; traditional vocational education is longer in length and adapted to the less immediate needs of secondary and post‐secondary level students.

The aim of this study is to provide a useful conceptualization of flexible working times and to examine the relationships between flexible working times and employees' well‐being and peer ratings of performance. It is supposed that an employee's “time‐autonomy” would be positively related to performance and well‐being. On the contrary, an unfavorable effect of “time restriction” on well‐being is expected.

A questionnaire‐study was conducted among 167 German employees from 17 different organizations. Information about in‐role and extra‐role performance was also obtained via peer evaluations.

The data support a two‐factor structure of flexibility. The time restriction factor adds to the degree of exhaustion and the work‐nonwork conflict, while time autonomy diminishes these outcome variables. However, the flexibility dimensions are unrelated to performance.

The multidimensional conceptualization of flexibility allows for the detection of advantages and drawbacks regarding the effectiveness of flexible working time models.

The purposes of this study are to explore paid educational leave (PEL), self-directed learning (SDL) and the relationship between them; and to identify the implications for legislation on the learning leave scheme in South Korea.

The research method of the study is a literature review. Articles were identified through a keyword search from major academic databases. The literature search covers the time period of 1960-2012.

This paper shows that enacting PEL is a social policy that benefits to both employers and workers because it reduces training costs, eliminates educational barriers for employees and enhances opportunities to develop skills and competencies.

This study contributes to research by exploring the crucial role of PEL based on the Person-Process-Context model for SDL. It also examines the relationship between SDL and PEL in the workplace learning.

This study provides a rationale to legislate PEL as a right of workers. Through an appropriate revision of the Lifelong Education Act, the right of workers to receive the PEL benefit should be legally adopted to promote workers’ SDL in South Korea.

This paper provides theoretical and practical evidence for institutionalizing PEL in South Korea. It suggests the passage of PEL legislation because it is beneficial to all stakeholders.

This article is based on a paper presented at an international conference in Norway. Having read in ICT about the work of the Small Firms Management Centre at the Sheffield Polytechnic, Gary Hansen wrote to us to tell us about similar work underway in the US.

Examines the extent to which the purposes of quality assurance stated by the Joint Planning Group (JPG) in its Final Report are likely to be fulfilled, and points to a number of weaknesses in the JPG’s proposals. Argues that a more forward‐looking approach is needed, and suggests that, if the JPG proposals are implemented, the new arrangements will last a relatively short time before being subjected to further review.

Defines and validates competences for entry‐level professionals of academic libraries in Malaysia keeping in view the needs of the next five years. Top and middle managers of all the university libraries and two other academic libraries participated in the study. A scale of perceived importance of each competence was used for validation of competences organized in the six areas of foundation, cataloguing, circulation, information services, collection development, and serial control. A distinct emphasis is noted for contextual, managerial, technological and service competences. The validated competences can be used for the evaluation and revision of the curricula of formal education programmes.

Outlines the nature and content of unit portfolios developed at Sheffield Hallam University, in response to national quality assurance initiatives and the enhanced status accorded to credit‐bearing units of study which constitute the basic building blocks of courses and programmes. Draws on the experience of introducing unit portfolios. Argues that the time and effort involved in compiling and maintaining them need to be justified, with respect to quality assurance, planning, unit management, staff development and the diffusion of innovation. Considers their advantages including ease of access; greater transparency in delivery methods and the responsibilities of unit leaders; and incorporation of best practice. Examines the tensions to which their introduction and potential roles give rise and the arguments of those who are opposed to developments of this kind, such as the opportunity cost of compiling them and the perceived erosion of academic freedom.

Purpose — This chapter is aimed at testing the strength of three different drivers to engage in dishonest behavior at work — financial gain, response to injustice, and escape from boredom — and shedding light to the power of individual and organizational values to hold down the effect of these drivers.Design/methodology/approach — We analyze the data of 167 service employees from a large retail organization, who responded to questionnaires which manipulated drivers and organizational values.Findings — As a result we find that the financial and injustice drivers are effectively triggering several dishonest behaviors, whereas — contrary to the expectations — boredom at work does not threaten employers with employee engagement in dishonest behavior. We do find weak moderating effect of individual values in reacting to the drivers for some forms of dishonest behaviors, but the role of organizational values was marginal.Originality/value — In this chapter dishonest behavior is divided into nine specific dishonest acts involving management and customers as the stakeholders whose interests are at stake. We attempt to associate these behaviors with particular drivers. We also look at the moderators in this process: individual and organizational values. To date, espoused values of the organization is an underexplored organizational instrument compared to other situational variables, for instance, the existence of codes of ethics.