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The unanticipated disruption caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic led to the extensive use of flexible working arrangements. In such a boundaryless work environment, however there are significant concerns, especially around inclusivity and discrimination. Given the increasing concerns surrounding hybrid and remote work settings, the authors investigated whether the extent of working in substantially flexible working arrangements relates to employees’ perceived ostracism and inequality, distinguishing between working from home, in a hybrid mode or from the office. In addition, the authors theorised that in flexible working arrangements, high-quality leader relationships, such as leader–member exchange (LMX) and servant leadership are likely to reduce perceptions of ostracism and inequality. Based on a survey of 161 professionals, who worked to varying degrees in flexible working arrangements, the authors found that employees who worked extensively in a hybrid mode were less likely to report experiences of ostracism and inequality in comparison to employees who worked mainly from home or in an office. Furthermore, a moderation analysis showed that the effects of LMX and servant leadership on perceptions of ostracism and inequality were much stronger for individuals who work in hybrid working arrangements than those who work at the office or from home. This research makes an important contribution to our understanding of how different degrees of flexible working arrangements affect employees by demonstrating the role of high-quality leader relationships in reducing perceptions of ostracism and inequality at different degrees of work flexibility.

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the role of higher education establishments in Middle Eastern countries specifically Saudi Arabia. The contributions of higher education establishments are particularly significant in relation to regional and national innovation system, which have been earmarked as engine for growth of the local economy across the region. Our study has chartered the dynamic nature of higher education in the region and their networking capabilities in order to be recognized as key stakeholders of the emerging economy. The study is informed by theoretical dimensions of “open innovation” and how the framework can accommodate the dynamic nature of higher education establishments in order to provide further impetus to ambitious projects such as Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia. Our study is limited by further empirical evidence but has implication for the region in offering new insights around the evolving conceptualization of entrepreneurial universities and national innovation system.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought unexpected implications for the world of work, accelerating the use of digital technologies and hybrid workspaces, and posing new questions on how to manage working relationships. This chapter explores whether employee empowerment experiences can ensure better work-life connections. Empowerment involves a permanent transfer of power from the line manager to the employee. Although not all line managers are willing to use it as a development tool for fear of seeing their role downsized, research has been conducted to better understand the empowerment experiences of Generation Z employees, identifying positive and negative aspects of the relationship with their line managers. Generation Z employees have certain expectations when it comes to their job that are not always met, and understanding and managing these expectations through empowerment has great value to shape the future of organizations and create a better work-life connection for upcoming generations of workers. The chapter adopts a new conceptual framework for understanding employees’ empowerment experiences, proposes specific structural actions that line managers can take and reflects on the implications of employee empowerment for the HR function in terms of work-life interface.

The transition to college presents significant challenges for many students as they navigate new academic and social experiences. In the USA, 30% of first-year students drop out before their second year. Research indicates that mentoring programs help students achieve social integration and likely have a positive effect on their transition to college. This research study was conducted with education students to better understand the potential impacts of peer mentorship.

Student mentors and mentees were matched by attributes such as their concentration within the education major, gender, sports they played and whether they were first-generation matriculants. Data collection utilized two surveys one before the peer mentoring process and one after the process.

The findings suggest that peer mentoring improved first-generation students' sense of belonging to both their major and the college. Peer mentors also experienced increased belongingness. The transfer rate among participants of 2% was a significant drop from previous years.

The success of the peer mentoring experience was possibly due to the intentional matching process based on certain attributes. Additionally, taking a leadership role increased a sense of belonging in the peer mentors.

While the rest of the world focused on girls' issues around education, girls' victimization in the family, girls' problems with sexual assault and harassment, and girls forced into early marriage, the US seems curiously mired in a series of media-driven moral panics about girlhood. The last few decades have seen worries about girls: girls going bad, mean girls, and girls who are bullies, girls mimicking boys' violence, and girls getting sexually trafficked and engaging in prostitution. Given this, it is important to review several key themes: the current evidence about the actual dimensions of female delinquency and trends in juvenile arrests, particularly girls' arrests for non-traditional offences; the role of race in girls' delinquency will also be explored. This analysis will document the need to explore gendered consequences in the policing of girls' misbehaviour. Specifically, the chapter will explore the implication of girls' increasing presence in a largely male-oriented juvenile justice system and the feminisation of juvenile justice in the United States.

The purpose of this study is to extend Bippus and Young’s (2005) study and examine the effectiveness of the “I-you,” “I,” “You,” “We,” “But” and Question-based “Why” statements from Winer’s (2021) verbal coding program of conflict management using Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory (SLT).

Mixed methods were used using 175 university students from Texas and New York. A cross-sectional convenience sampling approach was conducted. Survey data was collected using Qualtrics.

Descriptive results demonstrated that the “We” statement was the most passive, the “I-you” statement was the most assertive and the “But,” “I,” “You” and Question statements were perceived to be aggressive. In addition, assertive “I-You” statements were perceived to be more effective in resolving the conflict and maintaining a relationship, whereas aggressive statements were less likely to resolve the conflict and maintain the relationship. Qualitative themes also support the “I-You” statement as the most assertive, while the “But,” “You” and “I” statements were found to be the most aggressive statements.

Implications and applications are discussed to stimulate future research among researchers and practitioners when addressing conflict. Being aware of the verbal statements that de-escalate conflict may be helpful in solving conflict in interpersonal, family and professional relationships. Future trainings can adopt effective verbal statements to resolve conflict when experiencing anger issues. Future research can continue to investigate verbal communication statements using SLT to help practitioners and managers address conflict in interpersonal relationships.

This study examines verbal statements in relation to communication styles and conflict management.

Service researchers have been tasked with improving the well-being of consumers experiencing vulnerability. The current research aims to demonstrate how these consumers can experience empowerment through transformative service improvements to the traditional microfinance model.

To ground the research in a real-world setting with consumers experiencing vulnerability, the research team worked with a nonprofit microfinance organization offering loans to communities of Indigenous women entrepreneurs. The research team worked in six communities and conducted over 25 borrower interviews and 14 staff and volunteer interviews totaling 1,200 min of recorded content.

The present investigation of a unique approach to microfinance offers a new theoretical model, the service empowerment model (SEM), which illustrates how empowerment emanates from processes and outcomes at three distinct levels: micro, meso and macro. Recognizing that change occurs individually and also at familial and societal levels begins to challenge deeply rooted structural and cultural norms involved in the services ecosystem.

Originating from the microfinance service setting, the SEM can be explored, tested and implemented as a pilot program in a variety of service settings that involve transformative service initiatives (e.g. homelessness, refugees, etc.).

As society pursues solutions to the pressing problems of consumers experiencing vulnerability, the present research offers critical insights into how services should be designed.

The present research defines a new term, service empowerment, and creates a new theoretical model, the SEM, to aid in improving transformative service initiatives.

The purpose of this study was to examine the boundary conditions of Kanter's (1977) tokenism theory as applied to the gender wage gap. The authors aimed to discover if there was a point where the relationship between the percentage of women in a job category and the gender wage gap changed, and, if so, where the threshold was located and what was the nature of the shift in relationship.

The authors used the Andrews’ (1993) threshold effects technique. Using 22 separate years of publicly available Canadian wage data, they examined the relationship between the percentage of females in 40 unique occupational categories and the female-to-male earnings ratio (for a total of 880 observations).

The results showed the existence of a threshold point, and that early gains in percent female within an occupation, up to approximately 14% female in the occupation, associate with strong gains in the female-to-male wage ratio. However, beyond that point, further gains in percent female associate with smaller improvements in the female-to-male wage ratio.

The findings are useful in understanding the dynamics of occupational group gender composition, potential theoretical reasons for the nuances in relationship, as well as opportunities that may facilitate more equitable outcomes.

The results show that, though improvements were made above and below the threshold point, enhancements in the wage gap are actually larger when there are less women in the job category (e.g. tokens).