Search results

The context of a long-standing research tradition, discrimination has emerged as a critical factor contributing to inequalities within the labor market. While existing studies have primarily focused on overt discrimination during the recruitment and selection process, influenced by biases, attitudes, or stereotypes, there remains a significant knowledge gap regarding discrimination within the workplace and its underlying structural dimensions. This article aims to address this gap by examining the impact of organizational culture, structure and policies on workplace discrimination, with a particular emphasis on women and ethnic minorities.

Utilizing a case study strategy centered around a Belgian branch of a multinational professional service agency, data was gathered through ten semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with employees representing various organizational levels.

The findings reveal that organizational culture, structure and policies may pose inherent risks in perpetuating discrimination throughout individuals' professional trajectories. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that, albeit often unconscious, these elements exhibit biases against women and ethnic minorities.

Given the unintentional nature of structural discrimination, it is crucial to foster increased awareness and understanding of these dynamics.

The originality of this research article lies in its focus on addressing a critical knowledge gap in the existing research tradition on discrimination in the labor market. While previous studies have primarily concentrated on overt discrimination during recruitment and selection, this article delves into the often overlooked area of discrimination within the workplace itself. It explores the intricate interplay of organizational culture, structure and policies in perpetuating discrimination, particularly against women and ethnic minorities. By utilizing a case study approach within a multinational professional service agency in Belgium, the research uncovers hidden biases and unconscious elements contributing to structural discrimination. This emphasis on understanding unintentional discrimination adds a novel dimension to the discourse on workplace inequalities.

Construction sustainability (CS) is a strategic reaction to the sustainability expectations of the construction industry's external stakeholders. The extant literature has viewed the environmental, social and economic dimensions of CS as having independent effects on financial performance. Due to the influence of common stakeholders, however, interactions in these dimensions will be present in their effect on financial performance. Accordingly, this study identifies the mechanisms of the interactions between the three CS dimensions and how they jointly affect financial performance.

Content analysis of GRI reports of 60 large construction organisations, followed by a hierarchical regression analysis was used to identify the interactions between environmental, social and economic CS in their effect on financial performance.

Economic CS was found to indirectly, and not directly, affect financial performance, the effect being mediated by both environmental and social CS. Environmental CS was found to have a strong negative effect on financial performance, whilst social CS was found to have a strongly significant positive effect on financial performance.

The motivation for engaging in CS is that investment in economic CS will have a positive effect on both environmental and social CS outcomes, which, in turn can have a combined effect on financial performance.

This is one of the first studies investigating the effect of interactions between the environmental, social and economic CS dimensions on the financial performance of construction organisations. It is also one of the first studies that applies a sociotechnical framework to this relationship.

Interconnections among banks are an essential feature of the banking system as it helps in an effective payment system and liquidity management. However, it can be a nightmare during a crisis when these interconnections can act as contagion channels. Therefore, it becomes essentially important to identify good links (non-contagious channels) and bad links (contagious channels).

The article estimated systemic risk using quantile regression through the ΔCoVaR approach. The interconnected phenomenon among banks has been analyzed through Granger causality, and the systemic network properties are evaluated. The authors have developed a fixed effect panel regression model to predict interconnectedness. Profitability-adjusted systemic index is framed to identify good (non-contagious) or bad (contagious) channels. The authors further developed a logit model to find the probability of a link being non-contagious. The study sample includes 36 listed Indian banks for the period 2012 to 2018.

The study indicated interconnections increased drastically during the Indian non-performing asset crisis. The study highlighted that contagion channels are higher than non-contagious channels for the studied periods. Interbank bad distance dominates good distance, highlighting the systemic importance of banking network. It is also found that network characteristics can act as an indicator of a crisis.

The study is the first to differentiate the systemic contagious and non-contagious channels in the interbank network. The uniqueness also lies in developing the normalized systemic index, where systemic risk is adjusted to profitability.

Supply chain finance is an emergent research area dealing with the financial performance of a firm throughout its supply chain. It has been drawing significant attention among industrial practitioners and researchers. However, there is need to identify improvements in supply chain finance (SCF) practices to ensure sustainable growth. In recent years, circular economy practices are being adopted worldwide with a motivation to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, integration of circular economy practices in the financial aspects of supply chain is still in infant age.

Adoption of circular SCF in firms enhances both restorative and regenerative capacities of the firm. In this regard, this study aims to review articles on circular practices in SCF. The study identified 329 articles related to circular practices and sustainable practices in SCF from the Scopus database. The shortlisted articles were reviewed and discussed.

The findings of the study help to recognize the most influential and productive research in circular SCF in terms of journals and trends. Further research is recommended to explore this area in depth to recognize potential integrating factors that help in smooth acceptance of circular finance in supply chains.

Bibliometric and network analyses were performed to identify research trends and networks in the field of circular SCF. In addition, emerging research themes in the field of circular SCF were identified and discussed, and research propositions are proposed to delineate future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of basin water depth towards the cumulative distillate yield of the traditional and developed single basin double slope solar still (DSSS).

Modified single basin DSSS integrated with solar operated vacuum fan and external water cooled condenser was fabricated using aluminium material. During sunny season, experimental investigations have been performed in both conventional and modified DSSS at a basin water depth of 3, 6, 9 and 12 cm. Production rate and cumulative distillate yield obtained in traditional and developed DSSS at different water depths were compared and best water depth to attain the maximum productivity and cumulative distillate yield was found out.

Results indicated that both traditional and modified double SS produced maximum yield at the minimum water depth of 3 cm. Cumulative distillate yield of the developed SS was 16.39%, 18.86%, 15.22% and 17.07% higher than traditional at water depths of 3, 6, 9 and 12 cm, respectively. Cumulative distillate yield of the developed SS at 3 cm water depth was 73.17% higher than that of the traditional SS at 12 cm depth.

Performance evaluation of DSSS at various water depths by integrating the combined solar operated Vacuum fan and external Condenser.

The South African construction industry appears to be lagging behind other industries in the country in terms of implementation and adoption of innovative technologies. Moreover, sufficient empirical data on the adoption of innovative technologies, especially, in developing countries are not readily available. The aim of this study is therefore to assess the adoption and implementation of innovative technologies in the South African construction industry with a view to improving the industry's performance.

A survey was undertaken using a questionnaire, administered to construction professionals primarily in project management, quantity surveying and architectural firms.

The key findings show that there are some innovative technologies such as building information modelling, 3-dimensional mapping, drones, 3-dimensional printing and virtual reality that have been deployed. However, limited adoption of innovative technologies within the industry and low levels of knowledge of its benefits among the respondents were reported. This low implementation of innovative technologies was due to critical barriers such as high cost, limited knowledge, time requirement, fear of change, lack of interest, nature of construction processes and lack of team dynamics. Key drivers of innovation were found to include globalization and competition.

The current level of implementation of innovative technologies indicated that they are not yet optimized in the South African construction industry and suggests implications for change, adaptation and growth. The study recommends that firms should consider investing in research and development in order to exploit the potential of innovation for organizations and the industry at large.

The drivers and barriers indicated will help to prioritize the direction of adoption and growth which could help to improve the industry.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of nanocontainer solutions in removing deteriorated and aged polymers commonly used in coating and consolidating archaeological glass.

This study focused on characterizing glass surfaces coated with two commonly used polymeric materials in archaeological glass preservation. Furthermore, the study evaluates the elimination of these coatings from the surfaces by using innovative aqueous systems composed of micellar solutions (MS) and oil-in-water (O/W) Texapon-P microemulsions (TEX). Glass samples coated with selected polymers were subjected to thermal and photochemical aging to simulate natural degradation conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of nanocontainer aqueous systems compared to acetone (Ac), a conventional solvent commonly used for removal procedures. The characterization procedures involved transmission electron microscopy, USB digital microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, color alteration and gravimetric measurement.

The findings indicate that the effectiveness of novel techniques using aqueous nanocontainer systems is quite promising when considering a “green approach” to preserving cultural heritage. Microscopic examination demonstrated the efficacy of MS in effectively removing acrylic and vinyl polymers from the glass surface. Furthermore, TEX proved effective in removing polyvinyl acetate (PVA) over Paraloid B72 (B-72). In addition, the measurement of color alteration values revealed a decrease after using MS compared to the standard sample before applying the polymers, with values of ΔE = 1.48 and 1.82 for B-72 polymer and PVA, respectively.

This research provides nanocontainer solutions for removing aged polymers from the glass surface. This makes the current study a promising step for treating archaeological glass.

This study aims to analyze the connection between institutional isomorphic pressures and both women serving on boards and women’s influence on boards within large American firms.

This study examines a longitudinal panel data set of all Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 organizations across a seven-year period from 2009 to 2015.

The analyses affirm that institutional isomorphic pressures impact the prevalence and influence of women on boards. Evidence suggests that coercive and normative pressures strongly impact the number of women serving as corporate directors, whereas the power of women directors is linked only to mimetic pressures.

The research suggests that to increase the number of women serving as directors, the industry must first increase the overall number of women serving in senior management roles. Once women directors gain a critical mass of three women on the board, the association with the total number of women directors, the number of boards upon which they concurrently serve, the power of women directors being selected to board leadership and the influence of women directors increase.

This paper extends existing board diversity work by examining institutional pressures at the international, national and firm levels. By examining the relationship between coercive, normative and mimetic pressures on both the prevalence of women on boards and the influence of women on boards, the authors illuminate certain mechanisms that shape the likelihood of board appointment and placement in more powerful positions.

Emphasis is placed on knowledge-sharing practices and their influence on the power structure influenced by the technological background of the organization. This paper aims to focus on technological skills institutionalized to build organizational technological capital favoring the knowledge-sharing practices. It aims to extend the sociology literature by providing a conceptual background to explain the restructuring initiatives through the stabilizing role of technological capital.

Two comparative case studies have been conducted: the first study took place in a public company and the second study was carried out in a private company of telecommunication involving a documentary study, an observation and semi-structured interviews.

The findings in this paper show that the knowledge-sharing practices in the organizational field are stabilized by the technological capital. The technological capital promotes a knowledge management system and plays an important role in restructuring the established power within knowledge intensive organizations.

Chief executive officers are encouraged to promote sharing practices through developing an innovation culture and valuing technological skills. Relevance should be granted to the technological capital, which aligns the restructuring of a learning organization and promotes the knowledge management systems and stabilizes the organizational structure. Organizations should capitalize a set of technological skills as part of their organizational relevant capital.

Based on the practice theory of Bourdieu, this paper lights on the triad relation between knowledge sharing/organizational structure/technological capital through comparing between public/private management modes. A theoretical framework is proposed to overlap the ambiguity of the relation between knowledge and power.

This study investigates the relationship between child gender and a CEO’s top management hiring decisions.

Hypotheses were tested using secondary data on 121 S&P 500 male CEOs, their children, and their top management teams.

Results indicate that child gender is associated with a male CEO’s TMT hiring decisions. Specifically, we find that male CEOs with only daughters were significantly more likely to hire women to their TMTs than male CEOs with only sons and those with both sons and daughters.

This study provides evidence for the roles of familiarity, learning, and empathy in reducing gender biases in selection decisions. Top management hiring decisions have wide implications for organizational settings in general and for the breaking of the glass ceiling in particular.

Reducing gender bias in top manager hiring decisions directly relates to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality as women are consistently under-represented at the top of organizations across the world.

By focusing on the hiring of top managers, this study includes hiring decisions that directly impact firm operations. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between child gender and executive hiring decisions with a US S&P 500 sample.