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1 – 10 of 66The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the perceptions of food business operators (FBOs) in Kirklees Council in relation to the importance of official food inspection…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the perceptions of food business operators (FBOs) in Kirklees Council in relation to the importance of official food inspection of food premises, performed by the local authority.
Design/methodology/approach
A semi-structured questionnaire was developed to survey the opinions of FBOs in Kirklees Council in relation to the significance and consistency of official food control. The business types included were retailers, commercial restaurants, schools, care homes, pub, bars and cafes.
Findings
Based on the total of 236 respondents, the results show that 45.8% of the respondents opined that official food control has considerably improved their food hygiene practices and that official inspection is their only source of information about the latest food safety legislation. Moreover, another 168(71.2%) believed that the instructions given by the inspectors are clear and easily understandable. However, some respondents, especially the small and medium-sized businesses believed that remedying noncompliance caused them financial burden. In addition, significant positive correlations exist between the bigger FBOs and high frequencies of negotiating noncompliance with the inspectors due to the high cost of capital that will be needed to remedy the spotted noncompliance by an officer during control (Kruskal–Wallis r = 0.034, p < 0.003).
Research limitations/implications
As with most studies, it is important to borne in mind that the design of the current study is subject to limitations and these limitations could be addressed in future research. The self-reported data collection employed in this study is limited by the fact that it rarely can be independently verified. In other words, the self-reported data used in this study might be subject to (1) selective memory: respondents might remember or not able to remember all the details of the inspections that occurred at some point in the past, however, inspections are often documented, and businesses usually have a copy of every inspection reports. (2) exaggeration: respondents might over or underrepresent outcomes of inspections and (3) attribution: respondents might attribute positive events and outcomes to their own agency but attribute negative events and outcomes to external forces. Nonetheless, the strength of this study lies in its large sample size and high response rate which makes it easier to assess the representativeness of the sample and to generalise the results.
Originality/value
The behaviour of the FBOs towards food control and the opinion of the FBOs about food safety may have an important effect on the organisation of official food control in Kirklees Council, but there is no scientific data to back it up. Furthermore, the perceptions of FBOs and the role of food control in food safety in Kirklees Council have not been investigated, which makes this research a novelty.
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The author argues that contemporary college culture is predicated on hedonism indicated by a use of predominantly social time in which parties, alcohol, casual sex, and lax…
Abstract
The author argues that contemporary college culture is predicated on hedonism indicated by a use of predominantly social time in which parties, alcohol, casual sex, and lax academics pervade students' experiences. Coincident with this culture, however, is a deleterious pattern among students that has developed dramatically: their compromised mental health. The situation presents an apparent paradox: why are many students suffering when enveloped by fun? This chapter draws a connection between fun and suffering by treating each as conditions that spring from the sociohistorical context that situates institutions of higher education. In so doing, a theory is set forth to explain why despair is rendered applicable and how it is institutionally installed in the minds of modern-day college students.
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Lexis Alexander Tetteh, Redeemer Krah, Timothy Azaa Ayamga, Leticia Apieleg Ayarna-Gagakuma, Kwasi Offei-Kwafo and Vivian Aku Gbade
The study investigates the experiences of undergraduate students in using online learning platforms to study Accounting-related courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
The study investigates the experiences of undergraduate students in using online learning platforms to study Accounting-related courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses qualitative research approach and 89 undergraduate Accounting students from University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) were purposively interviewed using semi-structured interview guide, observation and documentary evidence to achieve triangulation of data and results.
Findings
The study discovers that due to the Covid pandemic, the online Accounting learning system has a relative advantage over the physical classroom learning as the online pedagogy ensures that the students are safe and do not contract the virus. The findings further indicate that the university's engagement framework includes three units: engaging students with content on the university's Learning Management System (LMS), engaging students with their peers via group course WhatsApp platform and Zoom/Google Meet lectures, and engaging students with their instructors via the LMS, Zoom/Google Meet, and Group WhatsApp. Each unit is based on research-based best practices and strategies for online education such as the use of media (videos) to augment written course content and to improve student-to-content engagement, positive cognitive, collaborative, behavioural and emotional engagement of students. The university's strategies also encourage student-to-student involvement, as well as assessment and feedback. Regarding behavioural and emotional engagements, the study discovered that some lecturers' attitudes toward students coupled with insufficient administrative support influenced students to develop negative reactions to the use of online learning platforms for Accounting education.
Practical implications
This paper has the potential to inform and improve implementation of online Accounting education in developing countries where the digital divide is staggering and digital inclusion and infrastructure for online education are at a precarious stage that cannot be remedied overnight.
Social implications
The new context of Accounting education enables an increase in student enrolment because it does not require students to travel to or stay in a hostel for an extended period of time in order to earn an Accounting degree.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the Accounting education literature on emerging economies by providing new evidence of perception differences between higher education institutions and students. Education providers in emerging economies frequently adopt Western modes of online education without making structural adjustments. By empirically exploring students' opinions, this study challenges these managerial perceptions, and the findings will assist regulators and policymakers in making appropriate changes.
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Steve Winer, Leslie Ramos Salazar, Amy M. Anderson and Mike Busch
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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).
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
This study examines verbal statements in relation to communication styles and conflict management.
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Julianna Paola Ramirez Lozano, Leslie Bridshaw Araya and Renato Peñaflor Guerra
The study analyzed how the service-learning (SL) methodology can become a university social responsibility (USR) strategy that generates shared value for the university and its…
Abstract
Purpose
The study analyzed how the service-learning (SL) methodology can become a university social responsibility (USR) strategy that generates shared value for the university and its stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative and exploratory–descriptive research had a nonexperimental field and cross-sectional design that used field techniques such as focus groups and in-depth interviews with the participants of the USR program “MIPyME vs COVID-19” in two Latin American countries.
Findings
This study revealed the perceptions of students who participated in the USR program on how a virtual service-learning (vSL) strategy related to the use of technology generates a positive impact on the development of shared learning between students and micro-entrepreneurs from a global and Latin American perspective, as well as for the internationalization of their study plans.
Research limitations/implications
The field study was conducted in only two Latin American countries; however, the USR program has been implemented in eight universities from eight Latin American countries with very similar social, political and health contexts.
Originality/value
It is one of the first studies on SL used in a strategic and articulated way in universities with a USR approach. It analyzed traditional evaluations of this methodology, incorporating others such as virtuality (produced by the effects of the COVID-19), which led the authors to generate methodological innovations based on new ways of connecting, linking and generating shared learning and value for all.
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Alfred Austin Farrell, James Ashton, Witness Mapanga, Maureen Joffe, Nombulelo Chitha, Mags Beksinska, Wezile Chitha, Ashraf Coovadia, Clare L. Cutland, Robin L. Drennan, Kathleen Kahn, Lizette L. Koekemoer, Lisa K. Micklesfield, Jacqui Miot, Julian Naidoo, Maria Papathanasopoulos, Warrick Sive, Jenni Smit, Stephen M. Tollman, Martin G. Veller, Lisa J. Ware, Jeffrey Wing and Shane A. Norris
This study aims to ascertain the personal characteristics of a group of successful academic entrepreneurs in a South African university enterprise and the prevalent barriers and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to ascertain the personal characteristics of a group of successful academic entrepreneurs in a South African university enterprise and the prevalent barriers and enablers to their entrepreneurial endeavour.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a Delphi process to identify and rank the characteristics, enablers, barriers and behaviours of entrepreneurial academics, with a Nominal Group Technique applied to establish challenges they encounter managing their enterprise and to propose solutions.
Findings
Perseverance, resilience and innovation are critical personal characteristics, while collaborative networks, efficient research infrastructure and established research competence are essential for success. The university’s support for entrepreneurship is a significant enabler, with unnecessary bureaucracy and poor access to project and general enterprise funding an impediment. Successful academic entrepreneurs have strong leadership, and effective management and communication skills.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation is the small study participant group drawn from a single university enterprise, which complicates generalisability. The study supported the use of Krueger’s (2009) entrepreneurial intentions model for low- and middle-income country (LMIC) academic entrepreneur investigation but proposed the inclusion of mitigators to entrepreneurial activation to recognise contextual deficiencies and challenges.
Practical implications
Skills-deficient LMIC universities should extensively and directly support their entrepreneurial academics to overcome their contextual deficiencies and challenging environment.
Originality/value
This study contributes to addressing the paucity of academic entrepreneur research in LMIC contexts by identifying LMIC-specific factors that inhibit the entrepreneur’s movement from entrepreneurial intention to entrepreneurial action.
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Ellen Ernst Kossek, Brenda A. Lautsch, Matthew B. Perrigino, Jeffrey H. Greenhaus and Tarani J. Merriweather
Work-life flexibility policies (e.g., flextime, telework, part-time, right-to-disconnect, and leaves) are increasingly important to employers as productivity and well-being…
Abstract
Work-life flexibility policies (e.g., flextime, telework, part-time, right-to-disconnect, and leaves) are increasingly important to employers as productivity and well-being strategies. However, policies have not lived up to their potential. In this chapter, the authors argue for increased research attention to implementation and work-life intersectionality considerations influencing effectiveness. Drawing on a typology that conceptualizes flexibility policies as offering employees control across five dimensions of the work role boundary (temporal, spatial, size, permeability, and continuity), the authors develop a model identifying the multilevel moderators and mechanisms of boundary control shaping relationships between using flexibility and work and home performance. Next, the authors review this model with an intersectional lens. The authors direct scholars’ attention to growing workforce diversity and increased variation in flexibility policy experiences, particularly for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality, which is defined as having multiple intersecting identities (e.g., gender, caregiving, and race), that are stigmatized, and link to having less access to and/or benefits from societal resources to support managing the work-life interface in a social context. Such an intersectional focus would address the important need to shift work-life and flexibility research from variable to person-centered approaches. The authors identify six research considerations on work-life intersectionality in order to illuminate how traditionally assumed work-life relationships need to be revisited to address growing variation in: access, needs, and preferences for work-life flexibility; work and nonwork experiences; and benefits from using flexibility policies. The authors hope that this chapter will spur a conversation on how the work-life interface and flexibility policy processes and outcomes may increasingly differ for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality compared to those with lower work-life intersectionality in the context of organizational and social systems that may perpetuate growing work-life and job inequality.
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Heidi M. Baumann and Tanya M. Marcum
As a result of COVID-19 and associated stay-at-home orders, the number of employees working remotely reached unprecedented levels during early periods of the pandemic. Since that…
Abstract
Purpose
As a result of COVID-19 and associated stay-at-home orders, the number of employees working remotely reached unprecedented levels during early periods of the pandemic. Since that time, some employees have returned to the office; yet, there is a lasting impact on employees’ desires for remote work. In response, decision-makers in organizations should be equipped with knowledge regarding what makes remote work beneficial for both employees and the organization and also fair and compliant with the law. This paper aims to take a dual perspective spanning human capital and legal aspects of remote work to offer six practical recommendations to organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews the human resources (HR) scholarly literature on remote work, using principles from evidence-based management to select valid and reliable findings in which to base practical recommendations for organizations. Associated legal risks are identified through a review of the legal literature on remote work and integrated into the recommendations.
Findings
Building on a multilevel model of HR practices, the authors offer the following six practical recommendations to organizations: offer hybrid work and both location and schedule flexibility; ensure fair and compliant work schedules; acknowledge manager perceptions; ensure fair approval and evaluation of remote workers; acknowledge individual workers; and align remote work practices with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Originality/value
The multilevel model of remote work practices discussed in this paper offers an organizing framework for identifying advantages and disadvantages of remote work that future research may build upon. The six recommendations help bridge the research–practice gap by providing organizations with knowledge on how to maximize the benefits of remote work while mitigating potential legal risks.
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