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1 – 10 of 10Outlines the guiding principles of the West Midlands regional strategy for quality, with its goals and targets. Discusses the aims of assisting the development of clear and common…
Abstract
Outlines the guiding principles of the West Midlands regional strategy for quality, with its goals and targets. Discusses the aims of assisting the development of clear and common understanding of quality in the region. Acknowledges the significant problems surrounding a regional strategy.
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Sourabh Kumar, Sankersan Sarkar and Bhawna Chahar
The growing demands of work and life have shifted the concept of work-life balance to work-life integration (WLI). The success of integration depends upon the flexibility to…
Abstract
Purpose
The growing demands of work and life have shifted the concept of work-life balance to work-life integration (WLI). The success of integration depends upon the flexibility to perform the duties. This paper aims to explore the factors that affect WLI and the role of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) in the process of WLI.
Design/methodology/approach
Systematic literature review was used to explore the concept of WLI and FWAs. A bibliometric analysis was carried out with Bibexcel and VoSviewer.
Findings
This paper explained the organizational and personal factors that create the demand for WLI. The FWAs, perceived flexibility, technology and self-efficacy have important roles in WLI. The result of WLI can be enrichment or strain, depends upon how effectively the work-life domains are integrated.
Originality/value
This paper explores the work-life from both personal and organizational views. The findings of this paper will be useful to design the organizational policies and work arrangements that match the requirements of employees and organizations. This paper helps to develop the future research agenda of investigating the relations of WLI to performance, organizational policies and personal factors.
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The Instagram site, teacherwhispers, was created as part of a qualitative research project that chronicled the stories and lived experience of preservice and graduate teachers…
Abstract
Purpose
The Instagram site, teacherwhispers, was created as part of a qualitative research project that chronicled the stories and lived experience of preservice and graduate teachers. Since 2020, the purpose of the study was to identify themes connected to the participants' experiences of current trends in education. The intent was to situate the research as a critical interruption into the bigger political discourses surrounding education. The study sought to question why pedagogical practices are increasingly being positioned and located for political and economic reasons and to frame the questions of how we emerge as teachers in specific moments in time.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology employed in the project was ethnographic and narrative-based, representing stories of teachers and teaching. Ethnography as embodiment contributes to an evocative portrayal of the participants' experiences. Teacher stories can be used to progress understandings of schools and schooling and play an important role in reflecting upon and learning from experience.
Findings
The selection of posts from teacherwhispers have brought into sharp focus the broad range of difficulties and rewards that are inherent in teaching. The site has been a microcosm of current issues in education. As a problematic and uncomfortable site of public pedagogy, it has been a site for sharing the realities, specificities and challenges of situatedness. The places where teachers work within their respective communities are highly diverse and can be a source of pressure both professionally and personally. Consequently, in the analysis of teacherwhispers, generalisations have been avoided.
Research limitations/implications
As a repository of data for research, a public online site has its challenges; research is meant to be generalisable but in teaching each setting is unique and generalisations can be problematic. Sites of public pedagogy for teachers tend to be kaleidoscopic representations: diverse locations, groups, interests and disciplines. They are a stark reminder to be sceptical of accepting the statement, “research tells us” without questioning the positioning and biases that are inherently at play.
Practical implications
Practical elements of the project have included navigating a public online space for the dissemination of data.
Social implications
Created in the spirit of problematising the methodology of public pedagogy, the online space at the centre of this project eventuated into something of a definition of what can be problematic in defining teachers' spaces of connection. The site was a place where opinions were expressed in confidentiality and that problematised methodology by putting into question what that methodology may be in a public sphere. What came forth as a result of putting methodology at the centre, rather than a definite answer, was unpredictability.
Originality/value
The online space has been an original place to display unanalysed data. The willingness to tell stories through an intermediary was juxtaposed by the public readership's unwillingness to engage with the stories, which would have meant exposing their identity. The online space is one that is increasingly relevant in public sharing and communications relating to communities of practice. This research is a critical interruption to the bigger political discourses in education. It questions why pedagogical practices are increasingly politicised. The project has been significant in mapping the stories of emerging educators at a time of unprecedented pedagogical change.
Anis Jarboui, Maali Kachouri Ben Saad and Rakia Riguen
This study aims to investigate whether board gender diversity and sustainability performance influence tax avoidance.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate whether board gender diversity and sustainability performance influence tax avoidance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a sample consisting of 300 UK firms over the 2005-2017 period. This study is motivated by structural equations and system models that specify both a direct and an indirect link between board gender diversity and tax avoidance.
Findings
The results show that the level of tax avoidance decrease when the level of women on the board increase. Therefore, we find that sustainability performance is generally associated with greater tax avoidance. In combination, the results suggest that board gender diversity and sustainability performance play a significant role in corporate tax avoidance.
Practical implications
The findings may be of interest to the academic researchers, investors and regulators. For academic researchers, it is interested in discovering board gender diversity, sustainability performance and tax avoidance. For investors, the results show that the existence of female directors on the board reduces the tax avoidance. For regulators, the results advise the worldwide policy makers to give the importance of female roles to improve the engagement firms in sustainability reporting.
Originality/value
This study extends the existing literature by examining the mediating effect of sustainability performance on the relationship between board gender and tax avoidance in the UK context.
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Marziana Madah Marzuki and Muhammad Syukur Muhammad Al-Amin
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of audit fees, auditors' quality and board ownership on tax aggressiveness in Thailand.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of audit fees, auditors' quality and board ownership on tax aggressiveness in Thailand.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample of this study is based on 215 firm-year observations of SET-100 listed companies in Thailand during the 2010–2018 periods. This study employs a panel least square regression with period fixed effects. The study retrieved the corporate governance variables from the downloaded annual reports, whilst the remaining data were collected from the EMIS database.
Findings
This study provides evidence that audit fees reduce tax aggressiveness and board ownership enhance tax aggressiveness among the firms. Nonaudit services provided by auditors impair auditors' independence and lead to higher tax aggressiveness. The result supports the agency theory, which explains that managers and blockholders may enjoy private benefits of control at the expense of other shareholders in the absence of market control. Thus, firms need good governance practices such as incentives paid for the effort of auditors and nonaudit services monitoring to curb such exploitation.
Research limitations/implications
The results provide implications to the firms and regulators that incentives to the monitoring parties such as auditors can reduce tax aggressiveness among the firms. Nevertheless, higher ownership given to boards as incentives may lead to concentrated ownership and thus lead to the type 2 agency problem, which is between majority and minority shareholders. The result also provides caution to the regulators to monitor the nonaudit services provided by the auditors as it might impair their independence and compromise the tax paid to IRB.
Originality/value
This study is pioneer research discussing tax avoidance in Thailand. The Thai Government has been noticing that tax avoidance is being performed in the country, but academic discussion on this topic had never been elaborated.
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Mayur Pratap Singh, Dinesh Kumar Shukla, Rajneesh Kumar and Kanwer Singh Arora
The key purpose of conducting this review is to identify the issues that affect the structural integrity of pipeline structures. Heat affected zone (HAZ) has been identified as…
Abstract
Purpose
The key purpose of conducting this review is to identify the issues that affect the structural integrity of pipeline structures. Heat affected zone (HAZ) has been identified as the weak zone in pipeline welds which is prone to have immature failures
Design/methodology/approach
In the present work, literature review is conducted on key issues related to the structural integrity of pipeline steel welds. Mechanical and microstructural transformations that take place during welding have been systematically reviewed in the present review paper.
Findings
Key findings of the present review underline the role of brittle microstructure phases, and hard secondary particles present in the matrix are responsible for intergranular and intragranular cracks.
Research limitations/implications
The research limitations of the present review are new material characterization techniques that are not available in developing countries.
Practical implications
The practical limitations are new test methodologies and associated cost.
Social implications
The fracture of pipelines significantly affects the surrounding ecology. The continuous spillage of oil pollutes the land and water of the surroundings.
Originality/value
The present review contains recent and past studies conducted on welded pipeline steel structures. The systematic analysis of studies conducted so far highlights various bottlenecks of the welding methods.
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Brandon A. Knettel, Anna Oliver-Steinberg, M.J. Lee, Hillary Rubesin, Naomi N. Duke, Emily Esmaili and Eve Puffer
The refugee journey is fraught with challenges before, during and after resettlement. There is a critical need for mental health support upon arrival, and refugees face language…
Abstract
Purpose
The refugee journey is fraught with challenges before, during and after resettlement. There is a critical need for mental health support upon arrival, and refugees face language, cultural and logistical barriers. Arts-based therapies are a promising approach to mitigating such barriers. The purpose of this study was to elicit professional stakeholder perspectives on mental health challenges among refugees, the value of arts-based programs and future directions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted three 90-min focus groups with 19 professional stakeholders in North Carolina, USA. This included mental health professionals, professors and community services/resettlement workers. Participants were identified from professional networks and snowball sampling. Each group was held by videoconference, audio recorded and transcribed. Data were analyzed through a team-based approach using applied thematic qualitative analysis.
Findings
Interviewees described a need for targeted, culturally compatible mental health services for refugee families, including trauma-informed, family-focused services with language interpretation. Arts-based therapies were viewed as highly acceptable and culturally responsive approaches for understanding distress and building resilience and less stigmatizing than traditional mental health services. Services in schools and community settings would further reduce stigma and minimize logistical barriers. Participants identified needing strong, culturally sensitive assessment tools to measure treatment progress as a key future direction.
Originality/value
The study offers novel insights into the value of arts-based approaches and considerations for program development. The next phase of the project will obtain the perspectives of refugee parents and children to understand client preferences for arts-based therapies.
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Sahar Sarkhosh-Khorasani, Hassan Mozaffari-Khosravi, Azadeh Nadjarzadeh, Masoud Mirzaei and Mahdieh Hosseinzadeh
Established data revealed a relationship between obesity and increasing the risk of mortality and morbidity of chronic diseases. There are conflicting data regarding the…
Abstract
Purpose
Established data revealed a relationship between obesity and increasing the risk of mortality and morbidity of chronic diseases. There are conflicting data regarding the association between adherence of dietary approach to stop hypertension (DASH) and obesity. Therefore, this study aims to investigate this relationship among a large sample of Iranian adults.
Design/methodology/approach
This cross-sectional study was performed by 10,693 individuals; 6750 individuals related to Yazd Health Study living in the urban area and 3943 individuals related to Shahedieh cohort study living in the suburb area. Dietary intake was evaluated by using a validated food frequency questionnaire. In all participants, anthropometric indices including body mass index were measured. The DASH score was considered using gender-specific quintiles of DASH items. To evaluate the relationship of DASH diet and obesity, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used.
Findings
By adjusting confounders, participants in highest quintiles of DASH diet were compared to the lowest have lower odds of obesity in suburb area (odds ratio [OR]: 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.63, 0.96), in urban (OR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.52, 0.99) and in whole population of both studies (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.90). Besides, more compliance of women to this diet in urban (OR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.48, 0.85) and population of both studies (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.62, 0.96) were associated with reduced odds of central obesity.
Research limitations/implications
Considering this study limitations, the following can be mentioned: in this cross-sectional study, the causal relationship between DASH diet and obesity could not be assessed. Consequently, further prospective studies are required in this area. Second, although a valid food frequency questionnaire was used, but there was a measurement error and an error in the classification of people participating in the study. Moreover, we cannot reject the possibility of residual confounding bias because unknown or unmeasured confounders may exist that affected our results. Finally, our participants with odds of obesity might have been advised to reduce their fat intake, which led them to alter their dietary habits. However, such possibility cannot be resolved in a cross-sectional study.
Originality/value
DASH dietary pattern could decrease odds of obesity in both urban and suburb area and central obesity in urban area only. Further prospective studies are needed for causal conclusion.
Samina Quratulain, Aqsa Ejaz and Abdul Karim Khan
The purpose of this research is to examine frontline employees' self-monitoring personality as an antecedent of their emotional exhaustion and how supervisor-rated performance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to examine frontline employees' self-monitoring personality as an antecedent of their emotional exhaustion and how supervisor-rated performance mediates this relationship. In addition, the authors explored the moderating role of perceived competitive climate on the indirect relationship between self-monitoring and emotional exhaustion.
Design/methodology/approach
Two hundred and thirty-seven frontline employees and their immediate supervisors working in hospitality organizations responded to the survey using time lagged research design. Measurement model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis to assess the distinctiveness of study constructs, and proposed moderated mediation model was tested using Process macro.
Findings
Results show that high self-monitoring leads to high supervisor-rated performance, and this relationship is stronger in highly competitive work climate. The supervisor-rated performance was negatively related to emotional exhaustion.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine the interaction effects of self-monitoring and perceived competitive climate on frontline employees' performance and emotional exhaustion, particularly in the frontline jobs. Supervisor-rated performance has not been previously theorized or researched as an underlying mechanism of the effect of self-monitoring on emotional exhaustion.
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The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of transactional and transformational leadership styles on employee job satisfaction, employee affective commitment and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of transactional and transformational leadership styles on employee job satisfaction, employee affective commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) within Moroccan organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from a sample of 219 employees working in seven different industries in Morocco and analysed using Structural Equations Modelling (SEM).
Findings
SEM analyses reveal that employee job satisfaction, affective commitment and OCB are only impacted by the personal recognition dimension of the transformational leadership style. The study indicates that charisma and intellectual stimulation (transformational leadership) as well as contingent reward and management-by-exception (transactional leadership) did not yield significant results.
Research limitations/implications
The use of a cross-sectional research design limits establishing cause-and-effect relationships.
Practical implications
The results of the current study may be of use and interest for organisations in designing effective leadership training programs, as it takes into account how managers and/or practitioners tap into their subordinates’ effective behaviour.
Originality/value
With insights derived from a non-Western perspective, the major theoretical contribution of the present study lies in exploring the effects of transactional and transformational leadership styles on employee job satisfaction, employee affective commitment and OCB in Morocco.
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