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Job characteristics can potentially influence employees’ attitudes and behaviors. However, their impact on employees’ innovative behaviors, particularly in public sector organizations, has received little scholarly attention. Based on relational job design theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this study aims to examine the effect of job contact on public sector employees’ innovative work behavior through the mediator of happiness at work. It also assesses whether prosocial motivation strengthens the influence of job contact on innovative work behavior (via happiness at work).

The model was examined on a sample of 180 employee-supervisor dyads (90 supervisors and 180 employees) recruited from various government departments in the United Arab Emirates.

The findings support the proposed moderated mediation model in which job contact positively and significantly impacts innovative work behavior. The association between job contact and innovative behavior via happiness at work is found to be stronger for employees who are highly prosocially motivated.

The findings offer prescriptive insights into public sector employee happiness and prosocial motivation by illustrating when and how job contact influences innovative work behavior. The authors also present relevant managerial recommendations for promoting public sector employees’ innovative behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationships between the job itself (i.e. job characteristics), employee well-being and job performance in light of the new administrative reform called the Government Transformation Program in Malaysia that stresses on measurable performance outputs.

A total of 208 public sector employees from various public agencies and departments in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia were surveyed. Some of the agencies that took part in the study include state departments, the fishery department, agriculture-related agencies and the rural development agency.

The authors observed that feedback positively influenced employee well-being, which served as a significant mediator in the relationship between feedback and job performance. The results indicated that 26.4 percent of the variance that explained employee well-being was accounted for by the different characteristics of a job. The authors also demonstrated that employee well-being accounted for 41.8 percent of job performance.

The authors recommended that public sector managers consider the element of feedback and enhance employee well-being to improve job performance.

This study offers an insight into the effect of perceived changes in the job itself on employee well-being and subsequent job performance in light of government reforms.

Social media is a popular communication tool for college students in many countries including Malaysia. Even though the literature indicates that the use of social media in a higher learning environment is likely to enhance academic performance of college students, the mechanism that explains such association is yet to be explored. Based on the claims that the integration of social media use is purposeful to enhance student engagement, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of student engagement as a potential mediator between social media use and academic performance of college students in Malaysia.

A total number of 227 business students in one of the public universities in Malaysia were randomly chosen to participate in this study. Questionnaire was used as the main data collection technique, which was personally administered during class sessions. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling-partial least square (SEM-PLS).

The result showed the multidimensionality of student engagement. It also indicated that cognitive engagement mediated the relationship between social media and academic performance, but not behavioral, emotional, or agentic engagement. The result suggests that social media has the potential to be used in a learning environment as it promotes cognitive engagement of students in class and subsequently their academic performance and success.

One of the limitations of the present study is that the generalizability of the finding to a much larger population of students may be limited as the sampled students were recruited from business students in one of the public universities in Malaysia only. Students of different academic programs in different universities may have a different pattern of using the social media.

This study will help higher learning institutions and educators think of ways to integrate the use of social media in learning activities to help students achieve better academic performance. As shown by the findings, such use can encourage students to be cognitively engagedt in class in which the students can be more active learners.

The present study adds to the literature in social media use by addressing the issue of how it helps enhance academic performance of college students in a single model. Past studies tended to examine the role of social media and student engagement and the effect of student engagement on academic performance separately. Furthermore, this study took into consideration various types of social media used by college students who tend to have multiple accounts.

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (1) to examine the direct effect of the dimensions of opportunity (i.e. ethical climate and institutional policy) and dimensions of job pressure (i.e. workload and work pressure) on workplace deviance (i.e. organisational and interpersonal deviance) and (2) to assess the mediation of neutralisation in the relationship between the dimensions of opportunity, job pressure and workplace deviance.

The present study drew from the fraud triangle theory (FTT; Cressey, 1950) and the theory of neutralisation (Sykes and Matza, 1957) to achieve the research objectives. Survey data from 356 full-time faculty members in Nigerian public universities were collected. Partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the data.

The results indicated that opportunity and job pressure significantly affected workplace deviance. As expected, neutralisation was found to mediate the negative relationship between ethical climate and interpersonal deviance and the positive relationship between workload, work pressure and interpersonal deviance. Contrary to expectation, neutralisation did not mediate the relationship between opportunity, pressure and organisational deviance.

The sample was drawn from academics in public universities and the cross-sectional nature of this study means that the findings have limited generalisations.

This study offers insights into the management of Nigerian public universities on the need to curb workplace deviance amongst faculty members. This study recommends that the management improve the work environment by enhancing the ethical climate and institutional policies and reviewing the existing workload that may constitute pressure to the faculty members.

The present study provides empirical support for the fraud triangle theory and theory of neutralisation to explain workplace deviance.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of workplace happiness and work engagement on employee service innovative behavior from the perspective of positive psychology. The study also examines if work engagement mediates the relationship between workplace happiness and employee service innovative behavior. Finally, it investigates how co-worker socializing and the service climate of the organization moderate the relationship between work engagement and employee service innovative behavior.

The study used survey data from 321 frontline employees working in the service sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Six major hypotheses were established and examined using the SPSS Statistics V22.0 Process. The measurement model was analyzed using Amos 22.

Workplace happiness and work engagement are found to be important factors affecting employee service innovative behavior. Workplace happiness influences employee service innovative behavior directly and indirectly through work engagement. Both service climate and co-worker socializing play a significant moderating role in the relationship between work engagement and employee service innovative behavior among frontline employees. Interestingly, service climate erodes this relationship while co-worker socializing enhances it.

This study provides guidelines for managers and practitioners in the service industry to promote frontline employee service innovative behavior. Specifically, the findings provide guidance for decision-makers on how to use workplace happiness to trigger the innovative service behaviors of frontline employees, taking into consideration the conditional role of service climate and co-worker socializing.

The literature on factors affecting the service innovative behavior of frontline employees in the service sector from the perspective of positive psychology is limited, especially in the context of the UAE. The data, framework and outcomes of this research address this gap and contribute to the current body of knowledge. Specifically, the study contributes to the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions in the field of positive psychology by validating the applicability of the theory in a wider organizational context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate monetary reward allocation decision-making in an Arab-Islamic business environment.

In this mixed-method (quantitative/qualitative) study, data were obtained from a sample of 342 practicing managers of different genders and educational levels working in different industries at different organizational levels in Oman.

The more individualistic personal orientation, the more likely the decision makers are to allocate the biggest reward to the best performer and to believe that the equity principle is best for distributing rewards. In the context of a society transitioning from collectivistic to individualistic cultural values, the level of education is associated with preference for the equity principle in reward allocations.

The reported findings advance the theoretical understanding of how an emic perspective can explain reward allocation decision-making in Arab-Islamic environment.

Practical implications of this study lie in the guidance that global managers can draw regarding which allocation principle to use in which cultural context: the principle of equity – not equality, need or seniority – is embraced by organizations in the Arabian Gulf.

The study examines reward allocation decision-making behavior in the under-researched context of the Arabian Gulf and adds to the body of knowledge based on data obtained from practicing managers rather than college students.

The purpose of this paper is first, to identify the critical managerial competencies of primary care managers; and second, to determine the relationship between personality and motivation, and managerial competency.

A survey was conducted involving distribution of questionnaires to 358 rural primary care managers in Southern Thailand.

The survey found six critical managerial competencies: visionary leadership; assessment, planning, and evaluation; promotion of health and prevention of disease; information management; partnership and collaboration; and communication. Both personality and motivation are found to significantly influence primary care managers' managerial competency. In particular, conscientiousness (i.e. perseveres until the task is finished, does a thorough job, full of energy, does things efficiently, and a lot of enthusiasm) is related to all managerial competencies. It is clear that extrinsic and intrinsic factors (i.e. quality of supervision and leadership, organizational policy and administration, interpersonal relationship, working conditions, work itself, amount of responsibility, and job recognition) are influential in primary care manager motivation that can significantly improve morale.

The short version of the personality instrument may limit the generalization of some of the findings. Future research is needed to assess the relationship between managerial competency and performance. Further research could be done in other countries to see if this conclusion is in fact correct. It would also be useful to research if the findings apply to other health and social areas.

Personality and motivation are able to co‐predict managerial competency whereby motivation tends to have a stronger influence than personality. These findings will be useful to policy makers and to those responsible for the human development in the preparation of management training and development programs. Moreover, top management should not overlook the motivational system as a way to encourage managers to be competent in their job.

The paper contributes to our understanding of managerial competency within the context of rural primary care sectors. The success of any organized health program depends upon effective management, but health systems worldwide face a lack of competent management at all levels. Management development for health systems, particularly at the first line of supervision, must be given much higher priority for investment.