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1 – 10 of 141Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff, Eric Paul Weissman, Deborah Scharf, Rebecca Schiff, Stephanie Campbell, Jordan Knapp and Alana Jones
This paper aims to discuss the challenges of conducting research with homelessness services frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the challenges of conducting research with homelessness services frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Between 2015 and 2019, the research team surveyed frontline staff in three cities about their psychosocial stressors and needs. In 2020, the authors replicated the previous study and expanded data collection to seven cities across Canada to determine the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the well-being of frontline staff. This report describes how the authors adapted the research methodologies to continue work throughout the pandemic, despite various restrictions.
Findings
The original studies had very high participation rates because of several methodological approaches that minimized barriers, especially in-person data collection. During the pandemic, distancing requirements precluded replication of these same methods. Research strategies that enabled staff participation during working hours, with designated time allotted for participation, was key for ensuring high participation rates, as access to technology, availability of free time and other factors frequently make online survey research a hardship for these staff. Restrictive interpretation and regional variations of COVID-19 guidelines by some research ethics boards were also a challenge to rapid and responsive data collection.
Originality/value
Few studies describe the experiences of frontline workers in the homelessness sector, and quantitative reports of their experiences are particularly scant. Consequently, little is known about specific methodologies that facilitate large-scale data collection in the homelessness services sector. The present research advances the field by providing lessons learned about best practice approaches in pre and post COVID-19 front line worker contexts. A strength of this research is the well-controlled design. The authors collected data within several of the organizations that had previously participated. This fortunate baseline provided opportunity for comparison before and during the pandemic; the authors can highlight factors that might have had influence during the pandemic.
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Rosanna Cole, Noor Al-Ma'aitah and Rima Al Hasan
This paper presents an empirical study of a Syrian refugee workforce in textile export from Jordan. The purpose of this study is to determine the challenges of integrating Syrian…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents an empirical study of a Syrian refugee workforce in textile export from Jordan. The purpose of this study is to determine the challenges of integrating Syrian refugees into the local workforce and to consider the implications of these challenges for the global supply chain aiming to create stable trade.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected via three face-to-face focus group interviews with refugee workers and managers at a clothing factory site in Al-Duleil, Zarqa. Data were analysed using the Gioia methodology.
Findings
Worker attitudes, factory environment, and government support are important factors for refugees' workforce participation. The success of integrating Syrian refugees into the Jordanian workforce was largely a matter of their attitudes, commitment and motivations for taking up manufacturing work. Misconceptions about the roles refugees will undertake were identified, which results in fewer people becoming self-sufficient through employment.
Research limitations/implications
This research contributes to understanding refugees' long-term integration in the host country by investigating refugee workers' and their managers' perspectives. Considering the views of multiple stakeholders enrichs the literature on refugees' integration.
Social implications
Understanding refugees' perspectives facilitates their integration in the host country which leads to improvement in their wellbeing and quality of life. More broadly, Jordan's approach to integrating refugees into the economy is seen as a development opportunity rather than a crisis to be handled.
Originality/value
Rather than focus on the procedures of integrating refugees in the host country, this study provides the voices of refugee migrant workers themselves, thereby offering a more complete picture of those factors shaping refugees' (dis)integration in local communities.
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Ali Abedalqader Al‐Thuneibat, Ream Tawfiq Ibrahim Al Issa and Rana Ahmad Ata Baker
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the length of the audit firm‐client relationship and the size of the audit firm on audit quality in Jordan.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the length of the audit firm‐client relationship and the size of the audit firm on audit quality in Jordan.
Design/methodology/approach
To test their hypotheses, the authors use the quadratic form approach, similar to Chi and Huang, with some modifications. The population of this study encompasses all firms in which stock is publicly traded on the Amman Stock Exchange throughout the years (2002‐2006).
Findings
Statistical analysis of data shows that, audit firm tenure affects the audit quality adversely (negatively). Audit quality deteriorates, when audit firm tenure is extended as a result of the growth in the magnitude of discretionary accruals. Meanwhile, data analysis did not reveal that the audit firm size has any significant impact on the correlation between audit firm tenure and audit quality.
Practical implications
If auditor independence and audit quality are to be enhanced, the audit firm should be rotated in order to open the door for new auditors to investigate the client with greater scrutiny and due care. Moreover, the activities of big audit firms should be monitored in order to distinguish their role from small firms.
Originality/value
The paper provides evidence from a developing country about audit quality. It is expected to support and sustain improvement of audit quality, and therefore, financial reporting quality. The evidence provided by this paper adds to the literature internationally and this is important because auditing is a socially constructed phenomenon.
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Mohammad Rababa, Nahla Al-Ali and Ayat Shaman
This study aims to examine the recent literature on health-promoting behavior, health needs and associated factors among older adults.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the recent literature on health-promoting behavior, health needs and associated factors among older adults.
Design/methodology/approach
An massive search of five databases involving documents in the past decade was commenced.
Findings
This review showed a significant relationship between older adults’ demographic characteristics (marital status, income, chronic disease, education level and smoking status) and health-promoting behaviors. This review showed that older adults with a high level of education, high income, chronic diseases and smoker and married older adults are associated with better health-promoting behaviors.
Originality/value
The result of the current review supports the Pender Health Promotion Model that individual personal characteristics can affect the level of engagement in health-promoting behaviors. Assessing the health-promoting behaviors of older adults can help in identifying their health needs.
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Rana Ahmad Baker and Ali Al‐Thuneibat
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between audit firm tenure and the perceived audit quality measured by the client‐specific equity risk premium. The study…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between audit firm tenure and the perceived audit quality measured by the client‐specific equity risk premium. The study population consists of all the manufacturing and service firms traded in Amman Bourse during the period 2002‐2005.
Design/methodology/approach
The Boone et al. model – with some modifications – was used for testing the hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that the relation between audit firm tenure and equity risk premium is positive, the equity risk premium increases with tenure as a result of reduced audit quality. These results were consistent with some previous studies, which showed that long relationships between an audit firm and a client are associated with lower perceived audit quality and, as a result, higher equity risk premium.
Practical implications
The audit firm should be rotated in order to enhance auditor independence and audit quality, and increase investors' confidence in reported earnings. Additionally, investors are encouraged to give higher attention to the tenure of the audit firm when evaluating the quality of the financial reports of the companies they are planning to invest in.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to provide evidence from a developing country about an important issue – audit quality – which is expected to support and sustain improvement of audit quality, and therefore, financial reporting quality.
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Raed Ababneh and Walaa Abu Ahmadah
This study aims to explore the perception of physicians and nurses toward the prevalence of workplace bullying behaviors (verbal, physical, social, and cyber) in Jordanian public…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the perception of physicians and nurses toward the prevalence of workplace bullying behaviors (verbal, physical, social, and cyber) in Jordanian public hospitals.
Design/methodology/approach
The study population consisted of 1,056 physicians and nurses working on the day and night shifts in four leading public hospitals in Jordan. A convenient nonprobability sample of 460 physicians and nurses was chosen randomly to answer the self-administrated questionnaire developed by the authors. Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted using SPSS 26.0. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.
Findings
Participants reported that the prevalence of workplace bullying behaviors was 23% (M = 1.15). The practice of the bullying types was in descending order as follows: verbal (25%), social (24.8%), physical (21.4%), and cyber (21%). Abusers spread rumors about the victims (31%), verbally harass them for provocation (29%), physically damage their things without any reason (26%), and make fun of their posts on social media (21%). Cyberbullying was significantly and strongly associated with social bullying (0.88). Ph.D. and master's holders reported higher practice of workplace bullying behaviors than respondents who hold a diploma or a bachelor's degree. In addition, respondents who work the day shift reported higher verbal bullying than the night shift respondents.
Practical implications
There is a need to develop effective policies and procedures that tackle the practice of workplace bullying by educating employees about the nature of workplace bullying, its effects on individual and organizational outcomes, and how to prevent its adverse consequences.
Originality/value
This is one of the first comprehensive studies in the Arab context that explores workplace bullying against physicians and nurses.
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Corporations and businesses have been a major influence on society since before the industrial revolution, but academic focus on corporate responsibilities is a recent phenomenon…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporations and businesses have been a major influence on society since before the industrial revolution, but academic focus on corporate responsibilities is a recent phenomenon which focuses predominantly on globalised multi-national corporations of the late twentieth century. The purpose of this paper is to consider the evolution of the corporate responsibility and community involvement tracing the development of corporate behaviours in the UK from medieval guilds to the modern form of corporation seen at the end of the last century.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis considers the institutional forces which have shaped responsible business behaviours in a context of changing power and influence.
Findings
Drawing on Weber's notion of the ideal-type, this paper demonstrates that many “modern” corporate social responsibility (CSR) concepts such as codes of conduct, stakeholder consultation, and corporate donations have considerable heritage.
Originality/value
This paper develops an important precedent by examining the evolution of CSR and other aspects of corporate engagement. It develops a long-term instrumental context for corporate donations, whilst revealing that practices such as employee volunteering are considerably more recent, and less institutionally developed.
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Glenn Growe, Marinus DeBruine, John Y. Lee and José F. Tudón Maldonado
This paper examines the profitability and performance measurement of U.S. regional banks during the period 1994–2011, using the GMM estimator technique. Our study extends prior…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the profitability and performance measurement of U.S. regional banks during the period 1994–2011, using the GMM estimator technique. Our study extends prior research by including several factors not previously considered using U.S. data.
Approach
We use bank-specific, industry-specific, and macroeconomic determinants of profitability contemporaneous with our performance indicators. We follow the accounting fundamental analysis path in explaining the bank performance.
Findings
Among the performance measures, the efficiency ratio and provisions for credit losses are negatively and equity scaled by assets is positively related to profitability. However, these relationships either reverse (efficiency ratio and provisions for credit losses) or become insignificant (equity scaled by assets) when the target becomes change in profitability. The level of nonperforming assets is negatively related to profitability across all measures of profitability used. Macroeconomic variables are largely unrelated to profitability during the year they are measured. However, they have a significant relationship with earnings change measures, suggesting they have a lagged effect on profitability. The slope of the yield curve is especially strong in this regard.
Originality
We use our determinants to model changes in bank profitability one year ahead, in addition to including several factors not previously considered, using the predictive focus of the fundamental analysis research.
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Mohammed Almomani, Abdelhakim Abdelhadi, Hamid Seifoddini and Yue Xiaohang
The purpose of this paper is to develop a preventive maintenance (PM) model that encounters the problems of traditional methods of conducting PM within high component/machine…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a preventive maintenance (PM) model that encounters the problems of traditional methods of conducting PM within high component/machine variety environments.
Design/methodology/approach
A new platform to conduct planning of the PM actions by using clustering based on the Group Technology concept to create PM virtual cells of equipment/machines is introduced. A real case study at Arab Potash Company was used to illustrate the model. The component/machine variety that requires PM at the considered company is in thousands of items.
Findings
PM for high component/machine environments are not enough addressed in the literature. The concept of clustering and similarity coefficient was used and found very useful to model this situation.
Practical implications
The proposed procedure will assist maintenance managers/engineers in too many ways. It will help to optimize the inventory of the spare parts, and to create standard process plan for executing the preventive maintenance operation.
Originality/value
This paper presents a new procedure to implement preventive maintenance in high component/machine environments using clustering technique concept. Models that address this concept are rare and very limited in the literature.
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Every employee embodies manifestations of every demographic that attach to him or her different minority and majority statuses at the same time. As these statuses are often…
Abstract
Every employee embodies manifestations of every demographic that attach to him or her different minority and majority statuses at the same time. As these statuses are often related to organizational hierarchies, employees frequently hold positions of dominance and subordination at the same time. Thus, a given individual’s coping strategies (or coping behavior) in terms of minority stress due to organizational processes of hierarchization, marginalization, and discrimination, are very often a simultaneous coping in terms of more than one demographic. Research on minority stress mostly focuses on single demographics representing only single facets of workforce diversity. By integrating the demographics of age, disability status, nationality, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and religion into one framework, the intersectional model proposed in this chapter broadens the perspective on minorities and related minority stress in the workplace. It is shown that coping with minority stress because of one demographic must always be interpreted in relation to the other demographics. The manifestation of one demographic can limit or broaden one’s coping resources for coping with minority stress because of another dimension. Thus, the manifestation of one demographic can determine the coping opportunities and coping behavior one applies to situations because of the minority status of another demographic. This coping behavior can include disclosure decisions about invisible demographics. Therefore, organizational interventions aiming to create a supportive workplace environment and equal opportunities for every employee (e.g., diversity management approaches) should include more demographics instead of focusing only on few.
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