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Health professionals are in an ethical dilemma. The patients should be assumed as competent. Involuntary treatment is a violation of human rights. Therefore incompetent patients should be protected. However, one cannot determine a patient's incompetency without testing him/her, which is a violation of the assumption of competency. Thus, we propose two different types of uses for competency tests. One is to measure the appropriateness of information disclosed,but with a poor test result the information should be repeated. Another is to measure the competency of the patients when making major decisions. A poor test result will be followed by the designation of a proxy so that incompetent patients can be protected.

This chapter introduces the concept of “competency labor” and illustrates its important role in organizational life for both researchers and practitioners. In the contemporary workplace environment individuals face increasing expectations of competence. However, demonstrating competence is no simple task – rather, to demonstrate competence requires a concerted effort in terms of individuals’ affect, cognition, and behavior. Accordingly, new models are needed that can explain these emergent processes. The present work integrates the literatures related to emotional labor and impression management, and builds a theory-based framework for investigating the processes (affective, cognitive, and behavioral) of making desired impressions of competency at work and how these processes impact critical individual and organizational outcomes. Our conceptual model proposes how growing demands in the workplace for individuals to display competence affect how they think, feel, as well as act. In sum, our work advocates that a new research stream is needed to better understand the “competency labor” phenomenon and its theoretical as well as practical implications.

Considers the impact on a firm’s performance if weaknesses are not addressed. Uses SWOT analysis to show how a firm often concentrate on developing its strengths and opportunities, avoiding the weaknesses. Reports the findings of a survey covering 156 US Chief Executives suggesting that if firms minimised their weaknesses it makes it harder for others to differentiate themselves to gain competitive advantage. Concludes that whilst it is difficult to compare performance, any avoidance of tackling a weakness provides a vulnerable attack point for competitors, and therefore a narrow view concentrating on strength could therefore influence overall performance.

Ergonomics usually reciprocate the study about people fitness toward working environment. In addition, financial distress refers a condition of organizations incompetency in generating sufficient revenues or incomes, which thereby refrain them to pay their financial obligations. This study aims to evaluate two independent organizational fields named as ergonomics in first phase and financial distress in manufacturing organization behavior in the second phase. The study presented a resiliency framework for operations and strategic management in the third phase based on various facts received from the distress organizations.

A questionnaire survey based on plant-visit is presented. The study embedded two segments to explicate its novelty. In the first segment, the plant-visit case study is presented and in the second segment, an exploratory data related to financial distress is presented. The study tried to communicate observations related to multiple decision-making fields in single umbrella, where multiple concepts like ergonomics and financial distress of organizations as well as employees are presented. DEMATEL-ANP integrated approach is used to represent the critical financial distress dimensions of employees and their ranking.

The study provided insights toward connecting two independent fields named as ergonomics and financial distress in single umbrella. The study can benefit practitioners in designing policies and procedures in their planning model to effectively achieve organizational goals. The study presented 14 financial distress drivers of employees and advocated the aggregation of ergonomics and financial distress toward developing a holistic framework for attaining organization goals for sustainability.

The study presented a comprehensive understanding about multiple organization decision-making fields toward developing a holistic approach from different aspects for attaining organizational sustainability. The study can be fruitful in stimulating cross-pollination of ideas between researchers and provides a good understandability of ergonomics and financial distress in single roof.

Higher education institutions are the places from where the societies base the information, deliver and apply it. Moreover, it is the place where the people who are required to bring innovations with required abilities, skills and attitudes are trained. Forming a network between the small and middle sized companies (SMSC) and higher education institutions in Turkey might present some opportunities which are not easily available for economy, society and higher education. However, to implement such a social structure the government and some of the institutions need to have some changes in their attitudes. This study has aimed to develop some solutions for the problems and incompetency of higher education and the SMSC in Turkey. The project named “Acquiring Enterprising Skills Project” can be started in one region at first, and then it can be applied throughout the country by having coordination between the institutions. That kind of coordination might be a solution for the students in higher education to have some experience related to the sector in their major, and it might be a solution for the SMSC for the problems related to creativity, research and development planning, management, manufacturing, marketing, efficiency, effectiveness, and experts.

Although several studies have been conducted on the causes of cost overrun, they have mainly assumed that the causes of cost overrun are independent of each other, and few of them scrutinized the complex interrelationships between the causes. To fill the gap, this study aims to investigate the mutual interactions between the causes of cost overrun using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and proposing strategies to tackle the causes considering their interactions.

Critical causes of cost overrun were identified through a comprehensive literature review. In total, 22 key causes are then refined based on the opinions of relevant experts involved in the Iranian building and construction sector. Using the nominal group technique, the causes' interactions were examined and represented via the ISM diagram. The causes were also classified using “matrix cross-reference multiplication applied to a classification (MICMAC)” technique.

The results showed that price fluctuation, claims, execution delay, delay in payment and change order positioned at the highest level of the obtained model can directly result in cost overrun, and corruption and poor contract management located at the base of the model are two major root causes of cost overruns. It was also concluded that more attention should be paid to the precontract phase of the project to address and prevent corruption and managerial issues deeply rooted in this stage.

The findings of this study provide a clear understanding of how different causes of cost overrun are related to each other and can ultimately assist project managers of different parties in choosing strategies to mitigate cost overrun in building construction projects.

The study explores the perspectives of college students on the pedagogical shift as well as frequent transitions between online and offline learning modes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kerala, the most literate state in India.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,366 college students in Kerala during December 2021. A pre-tested questionnaire was sent using Google Forms to students of arts and science colleges. The authors analyzed quantitative data using descriptive statistics and qualitative data using thematic content analysis.

The reported advantages of online learning were increased technical skill, flexibility in study time, effectiveness in bridging the gap of the missed academic period and provision of attending more educational webinars. Students expressed concerns of increased workload, difficulty in concentration due to family circumstances, academic incompetency, uncleared doubts and addiction to mobile phones and social media during the online classes. The main advantages reported for switching to an offline learning mode were enhanced social interaction, effective learning, better concentration and reduced stress. The reported challenges of offline classes were fear of getting the disease, concern of maintaining social distancing and difficulty in wearing masks during the classes. The shift in offline to online learning and vice versa was perceived as a difficult process for the students as it took a considerable time for them to adjust to the switching process of learning.

Students' concerns regarding transition between different learning modes provide important information to educators to better understand and support the needs of students during the pandemic situations.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the meanings and effects of social undermining as described by the faculty members of public and private universities of Pakistan.

The study utilizes the qualitative approach using in-depth interviews of the faculty members to explore different meanings assigned to social undermining and the impact of these experiences on them.

The faculty members describe social undermining in terms of defamation and limiting of space for them at workplace. The impact of social undermining is directly felt on the emotional and overall well-being. It also affects the work performance of the faculty leading to behaviors like withdrawal and abstaining from voluntary activities.

The research is conducted in only two universities in the capital city. The experiences and views of faculty members in other universities particularly in small cities might be different.

The study may be of help in terms of finding out the impacts of social undermining on faculty members in order to avoid such situations, hence, improving the motivation level of faculty. This will help managers to understand the phenomenon and find out appropriate strategies for a more harmonious and trustable work environment between people.

The study contributes to the literature by utilizing the qualitative approach that is not used much in this subject area. It is also one of the very first attempts of exploring the phenomenon in Pakistan, as per the best of authors’ knowledge.

In a recent interview in the Harvard Business Review. Peter Drucker argues that the best criteria for evaluating employees in Post‐Capitalism is competency. Self‐knowledge, empathy, and the ability to absorb information are the major qualities of a competent person. Competent people are scarce commodities. Firms wanting to achieve a competitive place in the marketplace, must attract competent employees and nurture tendencies toward self‐knowledge. In a post‐capitalist era, this is no longer a luxury; rather, it is the only way to ensure survival.

Strengthening the nation’s technological workforce, competing and expanding its relevance in the global economy, and maintaining personal as well as homeland security will be highly dependent on the quantity, quality, and diversity of the next generations of scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians. Production of a diverse generation of human resources with relevant, competitive skills is critical. However, so too is the need to raise an enlightened citizenry with cross-cultural experience and cultural awareness competency, with a broad worldview and global perspectives. These requirements are critical to understanding the challenges and opportunities of scholarly activity in a pluralistic global environment and positioning ourselves to capitalize upon them. Scholars with cross-cultural experience and competency are empowered to adapt and work collaboratively, nationally and globally, with scholars of different races, geopolitical, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds. Development of effective strategies to transform science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments for inclusion and to broaden the participation in STEM across cultures, socioeconomic standing, race, and gender in higher education has been a dominant topic of pedagogical interest of national priority in the last several decades. However, success in these endeavors is achievable only through systemic change and a cultural shift to address the underlying root causes of socioeconomic disparity, gender, and racial disparities and a paucity of cultural awareness among all educational stakeholders. STEM departments can only be truly transformed for inclusion through the development of sensitive, creative, and student-engaging curricula and targeted recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in STEM. Formation of well-coordinated alliances spanning educational sectors, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and community engagement and outreach are also critical to promoting inclusive and broad participation in STEM education.

The first section of the chapter gives an introduction to various challenges, obstacles, and hindrances that prevent a successful transformation of K–12 science education as well as STEM departments in higher education for inclusion. The second section discusses historical perspectives of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (UAFS) – the institutional profile, missions, and visions of UAFS as a regional university. Policies and strategies for addressing the socioeconomic disparity, faculty gender, and racial disparities and cultural competency awareness at UAFS are also highlighted in this section. Other approaches including targeted efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented minority students, provision of financial assistance for students from low-income families, and a creative “Math-up” curriculum innovation to promote inclusive and broad participation in STEM at UAFS are highlighted in the latter section of the chapter. Formation of alliances between UAFS, local K–12 school districts, and governmental and non-governmental agencies to promote broad participation in STEM at UAFS are discussed. The last section of the chapter provides recommendations for adaptation and sustainability of strategies and efforts aimed at transforming national STEM departments for inclusion.