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This study aims to examine the effects of ethical leadership on job satisfaction, affective commitment and burnout of health care employees, considering frustration tolerance and emotional stability as moderating variables.

A questionnaire was used to survey health care professionals working in private and public Austrian health-care organizations (hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and sanatoriums). The questionnaire consisted of items from well-established scales. The collected data (n = 458) was analyzed using correlation and regression analyzes.

Findings indicated that ethical leadership is significantly positively related to job satisfaction (r = 0.485, p < 0.01) and affective commitment (r = 0.461, p < 0.01) and is significantly negatively related to burnout (r = −0.347, p < 0.01). The results also suggest that frustration tolerance (ß = 0.101, p < 0.1) and emotional stability (ß = 0.093, p < 0.1) moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and burnout. Furthermore, a moderation effect of emotional stability in the ethical leadership and affective commitment relation was indicated. No moderation effect was found for frustration tolerance or emotional stability for the relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction.

Ethical leadership emphasizes the socio-emotional dimension in a leader-employee relationship, which can easily be neglected in times of staff cuts and work overload. Leadership training should include the development of skills in how to visibly act as a moral person, as well as how to set clear ethical standards and communicate them to employees.

This study adds value to the limited evidence on the beneficial role of ethical leadership in health care settings. In addition, frustration tolerance and emotional stability have not before been investigated as moderators.

This study aims to analyze how sustainability, through an efficient knowledge management (KM) system, can serve as a driving force with respect to corporate culture and reputation. The research questions that guided this study are mainly the following: Are KM and sustainability related? Can culture strengthen the link between KM and sustainability? Can the link between KM and sustainability be affected by reputation?

The methodological approach adopted corresponds to qualitative research of analysis on the reference literature in the international field, also supported by empirical analysis.

In this study, the authors show that there is no explicit correlation between sustainability and KM. This relationship, in fact, is not underlined in nonfinancial reporting because it is absent or because it is not considered relevant. Too often sustainability is reduced to a mere relational and reputational tool, ignoring the fact it must be considered a consequence and not the main goal to improve companies’ culture.

The sample studied by the authors refers to the top 40 companies listed on the Italian market, not allowing to generalize the findings across the international context.

The practical implications that could result from making explicit the relationship between sustainability and KM are multiple: the substantial benefits of the reputational aspect, an increase in the economic value related to sustainability; to ensure the going concern of the company and implement its ability to produce and share value in the long term.

The social benefits of a stronger relationship between sustainability and KM are related to the possibility to improve the wealth of all the stakeholders.

This paper analyzes the links between sustainability and KM to understand the influence of these factors on corporate culture and reputation.

Stakeholders and their organizations are increasingly involved in governance of higher education, not only within institutions or at system level, but also in various supra-national and intergovernmental processes. For these, as well as pragmatic reasons (ease of access and relatively simple methods for analysis), this chapter advocates for a more systematic approach to studying stakeholder organizations, their participation in and impact on governance of higher education. Specifically, the chapter: (1) provides a three-fold nested conceptualization of policy positions of stakeholder organizations, comprising issues, preferences concerning these issues, and the normative basis utilized to legitimize said preferences; (2) presents advantages and disadvantages of different methodological approaches to analyzing policy positions of stakeholder organizations, including qualitative and quantitative content analysis, employing either human coding or computer-assisted coding of policy documents; and (3) highlights different insights one can gain from analyzing policy positions of stakeholder organizations. It combines (thus far limited) insights from higher education studies with the more generic literature on interest groups, and uses examples from European level stakeholder organizations to illustrate its points.

In this chapter the authors explore some drivers of entrepreneurial intentions using the theory of planned behaviour on a sample of Italian students. Our objective is twofold. First, the study investigates if both perceiving that becoming an entrepreneur is risky and having non-financial career motivations affect university students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Second, it investigates if students’ perception that university education has an effect on their entrepreneurial skills and attitudes and their perception that the university favours and supports entrepreneurship moderate the relationship between cognitive antecedents of intentions (i.e. attitudes, norms and control) and entrepreneurial intentions. This chapter presents an analysis of a sample of more than 1,500 students from the University of Padova (Italy). According to the national ranking, this University – which is one of Italy’s oldest and largest universities – has been classified as the one with the best Faculty of Economics and Statistics in terms of teaching for more than 10 years among 45 Italian public universities. Data from the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS) carried out in 2013 was used. Our analysis highlights not only on the importance of individual characteristics, but also on the role of the learning experience students have during their university studies. This means that it is important to consider how much students perceive that their university education has an effect on entrepreneurial skills and attitudes.

As the implementation and acceptance of utility analyses are afflicted by several problems, this paper sets out to describe how to circumvent these problems by implementing a new framework for utility analysis.

The HC BRidge™ model, developed by Boudreau and Ramstad, was implemented to determine the utility of assessment centers within a call center company.

The results demonstrate the utility of the assessment centers and the usefulness of the HC BRidge™ model.

Future research should clarify under which conditions human resource specialists can communicate effectively and reach an optimal decision within the HC BRidge™ model of utility analysis.

It is highlighted how human resource experts can assist in using utility analyses (as a component of HR strategy) for decision‐making processes concerning limited organizational resources.

To demonstrate the usefulness and value of the HC BRidge™ model for both researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the results of inspections carried out by the State Veterinary Administration (SVA) of Czech Republic (CR) for the occurrence of chemical contaminants in animal products before and after CR entered the European Union (EU).

Data was collected from e-databases of the SVA from 1999–2016 and sorted into categories (game animals and fish; livestock; food and raw material of animal origin) and time periods (one before entry and two after entry of CR to the EU). Analyses of the samples were categorized as “positive samples” (any presence of contaminants) and “samples above the MRL” (presence of contaminants exceeding the maximum residue levels).

Results showed a significant decrease in the number of positive findings of contaminants during the monitored years 1999–2016, especially after CR entered the EU. Most encouragingly, the number of samples that exceeded the MRL was less than 1 percent from all the tested samples of animal origin and, after entry to the EU, in one category (food and raw materials of animal origin) it was even less than 0.1 percent. Findings of banned substances indicate continued environmental contamination in CR; however, this remains a problem in most of Europe due to their extensive use in the past and slow degradation.

This paper provides an overview of the occurrence of chemical contaminants and their levels in food of animal origin in view of the changing legislative requirements before and after CR entered the EU.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how sustainability can become a source of competitive advantage for mature manufacturing sectors where technologies are standardized, and innovation is mainly generated across the value chain and not by individual companies.

From the methodological point of view, this research estimates the sustainability status of ceramic production in the Sassuolo district (Italy), using the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) model, and changing the observation point for the analysis, from the enterprise (micro level) to the entire sector (meso level).

This paper provides an analysis of the environmental, economic and social impacts of the four main types of ceramic tiles manufactured in Italy, both in aggregate terms for the entire sector and per square meter of product.

The methodological approach used in this research is easy to replicate both for companies when designing their sustainability strategies and for public decision makers when assessing the sustainability performance of a sector or supply chain.

For the first time, a socio-economic impact assessment is proposed for the ceramic sector, conducted in parallel with the environmental impact assessment through stakeholder mapping and prioritization.

This paper conceptualizes the theme of relations and interdependencies between ceramic producers organized in industrial districts and the territories in which they operate in order to determine empirically the sustainability performance of Italian ceramic sector, using the LCSA model with a territorial extension that presupposes an innovative contribution to current literature and practice.

This paper presents a sociological analysis of the advertising industry's leadership styles and role models in England using masculinities in behaviour (“blokishness”) as a concept. The paper particularly focusses on the experiences of the so-called tomboy women who were socialised with boys and embraced masculine behavioural styles and compares their views and styles with women who experienced a more common, feminine socialisation and spent time in girls' peer groups during early socialisation. The paper explores why some women are seen as role models and others are not.

Qualitative interviews were conducted with 37 women working in a variety of roles within the advertising industry in England, and from a variety of backgrounds, and views on leadership and role models were analysed with a particular focus on “tomboy” women and their behavioural and leadership styles, which is linked with role models and compared against views of the so-called feminine women. Triple coding and a thematic analysis were used to analyse data and make sense of concepts derived from participants' answers.

The findings suggest that tomboy women demonstrate masculine leadership and behavioural styles and are less likely to see themselves as role models along with facing disapproval from female employees they manage. On the other hand, feminine women demonstrate feminine leadership styles and are more likely to see themselves and become accepted as role models. Thus, the paper suggests that the perception and experience of role models depend on behavioural and leadership styles, which is different for the so-called tomboy and feminine women. Data suggest this is due to participation in early peer groups during childhood. The paper offers conceptualisation figures to inform future research.

The findings suggest it is not always formal structure that impedes the progress of women, but often informal ones linked to behavioural styles. Therefore, whilst many positive policies have been introduced to improve equality in organisations and society in general, this paper sheds light on how these policies could get undermined by informal issues such as behavioural and leadership styles. Human resource (HR) professionals should further internal policies to prevent situations in which only those “who are like us” can go ahead in their careers by diversifying the workforce and employment and promotions panels.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first paper analysing role models, and leadership styles linked to the position of women in the advertising industry, focussing on blokishness in behaviour and comparing styles of the so-called tomboy and feminine women.

Business model (BM) canvases have been used in educational institutions and business incubators for over a decade to assist students and start-up entrepreneurs in developing their business projects. Given the urgency of tackling sustainability challenges, several tools have emerged to stimulate sustainable business modeling (SBM). However, these tools are often too complex for nonexperts in business modeling or sustainability, and thus insufficiently user-friendly for educational contexts. This study aims to address this pedagogical gap by describing the design process of the responsible business model canvas (RBMC).

The authors relied on a design science research methodology involving the active participation of end users, entrepreneurship educators, business coaches and external partners. The authors proposed four criteria and ten subcriteria to analyze existing SBM canvases based on their user-friendliness and to design the initial prototype of the RBMC. The RBMC was subsequently tested in various settings, including classroom assignments and business incubation programs, with over 1,000 university students. The tool was refined and assessed throughout the development process, incorporating feedback from focus groups with start-up entrepreneurs.

Through the development process, the authors created a user-friendly tool to help novice student and start-up entrepreneurs integrate sustainability into their BMs: the RBMC. The canvas consists of 14 building blocks grouped into four areas: consistency (mission, vision, values), desirability (value propositions, customer segments, users and beneficiaries, customer relationships and channels), feasibility (key activities, key resources, key partners and stakeholders and governance) and viability (cost structure, revenues streams, negative impacts and positive impacts).

The research methods and user-friendliness criteria in this study can be applied in other contexts to design tools to support sustainable entrepreneurship education. While the RBMC is currently being used in several educational institutions throughout the world, its impacts in different pedagogical and cultural settings require further validation.

The RBMC is a user-friendly tool to introduce students and start-up entrepreneurs to SBM. It helps raise users’ awareness about sustainability concerns, challenging them to consider issues they might have otherwise overlooked. Some participants even shifted their outlook and were motivated to develop a long-term vision integrating compensatory, mitigative or corrective actions into their BMs.

The RBMC is the outcome of a balanced approach that combines both pragmatic (i.e. user-friendliness) and normative (i.e. sustainability) perspectives. It provides users with a systematic approach for integrating and applying sustainability issues in their business projects.

This study aims to use an environomics method to assess the environmental impacts of selected gas turbine power plants in Nigeria.

In this study, exergoenvironomic analysis has been carried out to investigate the environmental impact of selected gas turbine power plants in Nigeria from an exergetic point of view.

The exergy analysis reveals that the combustion chamber is the most exergy destructive component compared to other cycle components. The exergy destruction of this component can be reduced by increasing gas turbine inlet temperature (GTIT). The results of the study show that thermodynamic inefficiency is responsible for the environmental impact associated with gas turbine components. The study further shows that CO₂ emissions and cost of environmental impact decrease with increasing GTIT.

The exergo-environomic parameters computed in this study are CO₂ emission in kg per MWh of electricity generated, depletion number, sustainability index, cost flow rate of environmental impacts (Ċ_env) in $/h and total cost rates of products (Ċ_Tot) in $/hr. For the period considered, the CO₂ emissions for the selected plants vary from 100.18 to 408.78 kgCO₂/MWhm, while cost flow rate of environmental impacts varies from $40.18 /h to $276.97 /h and the total cost rates of products vary from $2935.69/h to $12,232.84/h. The depletion number and sustainability index vary from 0.69 to 0.84 and 1.20 to 1.44, respectively.