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1 – 10 of over 3000Melissa Yoong and Nourhan Mohamed
While past research has explored how opting-out enables mothers to break free from masculinist organizational cultures, less attention has been given to how they resist…
Abstract
Purpose
While past research has explored how opting-out enables mothers to break free from masculinist organizational cultures, less attention has been given to how they resist disciplinary power that constitutes and governs their subjectivities. This paper aims to add to the discussion of opting-out as a site of power and resistance by proposing the concept of “constructive resistance” as a productive vantage point for investigating opted-out mothers' subversive practices of self-making.
Design/methodology/approach
This Malaysian case study brings together the notion of constructive resistance, critical narrative analysis and APPRAISAL theory to examine the reflective stories of eighteen mothers who exited formal employment. These accounts were collected through an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured email interviews.
Findings
The mothers in the sample tend to construct themselves in two main ways, as (1) valuable mothers (capable, tireless, caring mothers who are key figures in their children's lives) and (2) competent professionals. These subjectivities are parasitic on gendered and neoliberal ideals but allow the mothers to undermine neoliberal capitalist work arrangements that were incongruent with their personal values and adversely impacted their well-being, as well as refuse organizational narratives that positioned them as “failed” workers.
Originality/value
Whereas power is primarily seen in previous opting-out scholarship as centralized and constraining, this case study illustrates how the lens of constructive resistance can be beneficial for examining opted-out mothers' struggles against a less direct form of power that governs through the production of truths and subjectivities.
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This study aims to explore the perception of algorithm accuracy among data professionals in higher education.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the perception of algorithm accuracy among data professionals in higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
Social justice theory guided the qualitative descriptive study and emphasized four principles: access, participation, equity and human rights. Data collection included eight online open-ended questionnaires and six semi-structured interviews. Participants included higher education professionals who have worked with predictive algorithm (PA) recommendations programmed with student data.
Findings
Participants are aware of systemic and racial bias in their PA inputs and outputs and acknowledge their responsibility to ethically use PA recommendations with students in historically underrepresented groups (HUGs). For some participants, examining these topics through the lens of social justice was a new experience, which caused them to look at PAs in new ways.
Research limitations/implications
Small sample size is a limitation of the study. Implications for practice include increased stakeholder training, creating an ethical data strategy that protects students, incorporating adverse childhood experiences data with algorithm recommendations, and applying a modified critical race theory framework to algorithm outputs.
Originality/value
The study explored the perception of algorithm accuracy among data professionals in higher education. Examining this topic through a social justice lens contributes to limited research in the field. It also presents implications for addressing racial bias when using PAs with students in HUGs.
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Yonjoo Cho, Jieun You, Yuyeon Choi, Jiyoung Ha, Yoon Hee Kim, Jinsook Kim, Sang Hee Kang, Seunghee Lee, Romee Lee and Terri Kim
The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how highly educated women respond to career chance events in a Korean context where traditional cultural values and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how highly educated women respond to career chance events in a Korean context where traditional cultural values and male-dominated organizational culture coexist.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted 50 semi-structured interviews with highly educated women operationalized as women with doctoral degrees in and out of Korea. The authors used a collaborative research process with a team of ten Korean-born researchers who have built consensus on research themes through discussions on the collection and analysis of a large data set, thus reducing the researcher bias issue inherent in qualitative research.
Findings
In an analysis of the interview data collected, the authors report on three themes: before obtaining a doctoral degree, during and after their doctoral study and responses (coping strategies) to chance events in their careers. Highly educated women’s pursuing a doctoral degree was a way to maintain work–life balance in Korea where women are expected to take a primary caregiver role. After obtaining a doctoral degree, participants struggled with limited job opportunities in the male-dominated higher education. Women’s unplanned and unexpected chance events are intertwined with the male-dominated culture in Korea, and career interruptions as such a chance event, whether voluntary or involuntary, happened largely due to family reasons. In this context, highly educated women responded to chance events largely at individual and family levels and articulated the need for support at organizational and government levels.
Research limitations/implications
The study findings confirm the literature that women’s careers are limited by traditional family roles in non-Western countries where strong patriarchal culture is prevalent. Particularly, women’s career interruptions surfaced as a critical chance event that either disrupts or delays their careers largely because of family issues. Future research is called for to identify both individual and contextual factors that influence women’s decisions on voluntary and involuntary career interruptions as their responses to chance events.
Practical implications
Based on highly educated women’s coping strategies largely at individual and family levels, we suggest national human resource development policies put in place not to lose out on the opportunity to develop highly educated women with doctoral degrees as a quality workforce for a nation’s sustainable economic growth. Additionally, organizations need to be aligned with the government policies and programs for the provision of developmental programs for women in the workplace, beginning with highly educated women’s career planning, while creating organizational culture to promote gender equality as a long-term goal.
Originality/value
The participants’ voluntary career breaks helped them care for their children, be involved in their children’s education, reflect on work–life balance after having long hours of work for many years and move forward with personal satisfaction. Voluntary career breaks can be understood as highly educated women’s unique way of responding to chance events.
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Chih-Hui Shieh, I-Ling Ling and Yi-Fen Liu
As a smart service, location-based advertising (LBA) integrates advanced technologies to deliver personalized messages based on a user’s real-time geographic location and needs…
Abstract
Purpose
As a smart service, location-based advertising (LBA) integrates advanced technologies to deliver personalized messages based on a user’s real-time geographic location and needs. However, research has shown that privacy concerns threaten the diffusion of LBA. This research investigates how privacy-related factors (i.e. LBA type, privacy self-efficacy (PSE) and consumer generation) impact consumers’ value-in-use and their intention to use LBA.
Design/methodology/approach
This study developed and examined an LBA value-in-use framework that integrates the role of LBA type, consumers’ PSE and consumer generation into the technology acceptance model (TAM). Data were collected through two experiments in the field with a total of 374 consumers. The proposed relationships were tested using PROCESS modeling.
Findings
The results reveal that pull (vs push) LBA causes higher value-in-use in terms of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, leading to greater usage intention. Further, the differences in the mediated relationship between pull- and push-LBA are larger among consumers of low PSE (vs high PSE) and Generation Z (vs other generations). The findings suggest that the consumer value-in-use brought about by LBA diminishes when using push-LBA for low PSE and Generation Z consumers.
Originality/value
This research is the first to integrate the privacy-related interactions of LBA type and consumer characteristics into TAM to develop a TAM-based LBA value-in-use framework. This study contributes to the literature on service value-in-use, smart services and LBA by clarifying the boundary conditions that determine the effectiveness of LBA in enhancing consumers’ value-in-use.
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Seema Das, Sumi Jha and Sumita Datta
This study aims to explore the career transition process of women professionals when they return to the workplace after a break and re-integrate with their career aspirations.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the career transition process of women professionals when they return to the workplace after a break and re-integrate with their career aspirations.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews for data collection. All 20 women participants have returned to their careers after a break.
Findings
The data analysis reveals women’s career transition and re-integration process into the workplace after a career break. Supervisory support, work–life balance practices, role models, coworker support and career success emerged as factors enabling successful transition. The employing organisations’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring strategy emerged as an important mechanism for re-entry.
Originality/value
Although previous research has studied women professionals returning after a break, the “transition process” that enables re-entry is missing.
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Liam Foster, Sam Wai Kam Yu and Ruby Chui Man Chau
This article aims to link discussions of the role of earnings-related pension measures with time in Hong Kong (HK) and the United Kingdom (UK). It presents a new conceptual…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to link discussions of the role of earnings-related pension measures with time in Hong Kong (HK) and the United Kingdom (UK). It presents a new conceptual “time-based framework” to explore two related types of government response to the way people accumulate pension incomes through participation in paid work. The first is to consider governments' perceptions of appropriate time in work and retirement. The second is to consider how governments use pension measures to influence the connection between the amount of time people spend in paid work and retirement.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper. The time-based framework is developed using literature concerning discretionary time and the social construction of time. To explore the empirical significance of this framework, the authors discuss how it can be applied to the analysis of earnings-related pension measures in HK and the UK.
Findings
The evidence generated from the discussion of the earnings-related pension measures in HK and the UK shows that pension policies can serve both as a financial and time instrument. At the same time as influencing the connection between the amount of time people spend in paid work and the pensions they can accumulate, pension policies can be used to convey the government's views on important time issues, namely the appropriate length of time in work and retirement, and the relative value of the time spent in paid work and providing informal care.
Originality/value
A new framework is developed to explore the connection between the studies of earnings-related pension measures and time, which is an understudied area.
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Temidayo O. Akenroye, Adegboyega Oyedijo, Vishnu C. Rajan, George A. Zsidisin, Marcia Mkansi and Jamal El Baz
This study aims to develop a hierarchical model that uncovers the relationships between challenges confronting Africa's organ transplant supply chain systems.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop a hierarchical model that uncovers the relationships between challenges confronting Africa's organ transplant supply chain systems.
Design/methodology/approach
Eleven challenges (variables) were identified after a comprehensive review of the existing literature. The contextual interactions among these variables were analysed from the perspectives of health-care stakeholders in two sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries (Nigeria and Uganda), using Delphi-interpretive structural modelling-cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) techniques.
Findings
The findings reveal that weak regulatory frameworks, insufficient information systems and a lack of necessary skills make it challenging for critical actors to perform the tasks effectively. The interaction effects of these challenges weaken organ supply chains and make it less efficient, giving rise to negative externalities such as black markets for donated organs and organ tourism/trafficking.
Research limitations/implications
This paper establishes a solid foundation for a critical topic that could significantly impact human health and life once the government or non-profit ecosystem matures. The MICMAC analysis in this paper provides a methodological approach for future studies wishing to further develop the organ supply chain structural models.
Practical implications
The study provides valuable insights for experts and policymakers on where to prioritise efforts in designing interventions to strengthen organ transplantation supply chains in developing countries.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to empirically examine the challenges of organ transplant supply chains from an SSA perspective, including theoretically grounded explanations from data collected in two developing countries.
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Sohail Kamran and Outi Uusitalo
The present study aimed to provide an understanding of the roles of community-based financial service organizations (i.e. rotating savings and credit associations [ROSCAs] as…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aimed to provide an understanding of the roles of community-based financial service organizations (i.e. rotating savings and credit associations [ROSCAs] as institutional pillars in facilitating low-income, unbanked consumers’ access to informal financial services).
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 low-income, unbanked consumers participating in ROSCAs in Pakistan, where only 21% of adults have a bank account and almost four out of five individuals live on a low income. The obtained data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique.
Findings
ROSCAs’ regulatory, sociocultural and cognitive aspects facilitate low-income, unbanked consumers’ utilization of informal financial services owing to their approachability by, suitability for, and fairness to such consumers. Thus, they promote such consumers’ financial inclusion.
Practical implications
Low-income consumers are mostly unable to access formal financial services due to the existing supply- and demand-side impediments. Understanding ROSCAs’ institutional functioning can help formal financial service providers create more transformative financial services based on the positive institutional aspects of ROSCAs to enhance poor consumers’ financial inclusion and well-being.
Social implications
The inclusion of low-income, unbanked consumers in formal banking services will help them better control their finances.
Originality/value
Many low-income, unbanked consumers in developing countries utilize informal financial services to meet their basic financial needs, but service researchers have rarely investigated how informal financial institutions function. The present study showed that ROSCAs, as informal institutions, meet low-income, unbanked consumers’ personal, social and financial needs in a befitting manner, which encourages such consumers to use the financial services offered by ROSCAs.
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