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1 – 10 of 140David F. Arena Jr., Kristen P. Jones, Alex P. Lindsey, Isaac E. Sabat, Hayden T. DuBois and Shovna C. Tripathy
The authors aim to broaden the understanding of incivility through the lens of bystanders who witness incivility toward women. Integrating attributional ambiguity and emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors aim to broaden the understanding of incivility through the lens of bystanders who witness incivility toward women. Integrating attributional ambiguity and emotional contagion theories with the literature on workplace mistreatment, the authors propose that witnessing incivility toward women may negatively impact bystanders.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected multi-wave data from 324 employees to assess the consequences of witnessing incivility toward women at work for bystanders.
Findings
Utilizing a serial mediation model, the authors found evidence that witnessing incivility toward women indirectly increased turnover intentions six weeks later, first through elevated negative affect and then through increased cognitive burnout.
Originality/value
Taken together, this study's findings suggest that the negative effects of incivility toward women can spread to bystanders and highlight the importance of considering individuals who are not directly involved, but simply bear witness to incivility at work.
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Ahmad A. Alhusban and Salwa N. Almshaqbeh
This study aims to determine the design factors that may affect the design of disabled students. Additionally, this study assesses and compares the reality between the public…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to determine the design factors that may affect the design of disabled students. Additionally, this study assesses and compares the reality between the public Jordanian universities’ built environment and international universities based on the Americans with Disabilities Act checklist – version 2.1 – to provide an accessible built environment for physically disabled people. Furthermore, this study examines the satisfaction degree of physically disabled people with the built environment in selected universities. Besides, this study examines the relationships/interrelationships between the students’ demographic factors, design factors and the degree of the disabled students’ satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used different data collection methods to answer the research questions: literature review, observation and questionnaire. Additionally, this study used different analytical and statistical methods, such as comparative analysis between the local cases and the selected international case study based on the Americans with Disabilities Act checklist, version 2.1, descriptive analysis and Pearson r correlational statistics.
Findings
This research found that the Jordanian public universities did not apply all required design factors to achieve a high degree of the built environment of accessibility and provide all the requirements and needs of physically disabled students like international universities. Additionally, half of the physically disabled students respondents were satisfied with the availability and quality of pathways, ramps, doors and corridors, non-slippery materials, elevators, accessible entrances, entrances doors, methods of openings, adequate spaces for wheelchair students at the configuration of the entrance and the availability of railing. In contrast, they were unsatisfied with the availability of parking and bathrooms for each gender and signage systems. Moreover, this research found no significant differences between gender and educational level and all factors that may impact the students’ satisfaction with campus environmental design. Furthermore, this research found that there was a strong to very strong positive linear association and a significant correlation/intercorrelation between the availability and the design quality of parking, entrances, doors, lobbies and corridors, bathrooms, signage systems and information, ramps, elevators and stairs and the disabled students’ satisfaction degree.
Practical implications
This research tends to help disabled students participate entirely and independently in the built environment and all aspects of society, involve them within the community and facilitate their access to universities’ urban space. This research considers guidelines and checklists for architects and policymakers to apply through all design and retrofitting processes to meet disabled students’ requirements. This research provides a vital understanding of the needs of disabled students in educational spaces to create a barrier-free campus environment.
Originality/value
Inclusive design is a relatively new architectural concept. It provides means to ensure access and equal participation in the built environment, offers the opportunity to improve and design new equivalent solutions in architecture simultaneously and covers the way for a broad clarification of equality. Applying the concepts of inclusive design is a step toward eliminating the barriers imposed on the built environment in public universities and creating an accessible built environment. In addition, this research can guide future research in other institutions.
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Daniel Vankov, David Kozma, Borislav Vankov, Johan Chiers, Martin Galanternik and Lin Wang
Entrepreneurship can help tackle economic problems, such as unemployment. It is often promoted through education programs. There is a limited comprehensive and rigorous…
Abstract
Purpose
Entrepreneurship can help tackle economic problems, such as unemployment. It is often promoted through education programs. There is a limited comprehensive and rigorous understanding of how entrepreneurship education programs and their ubiquitous distance delivery affect young people's entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intention, particularly in non-formal settings. The purpose of this study is to address this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
Underpinned by the Social Cognitive Theory, this paper investigates the effects of one entrepreneurship education program in a study with 145 young people from five countries aged 18 to 25 years, 62 Intervention and 83 Control participants. The program's impact on the participants' entrepreneurial intention and self-efficacy (across six sub-dimensions) was assessed in a one-off two-week quasi-experiment. Ex-ante and ex-post self-reported data were collected about the participants.
Findings
One-way analyses of covariance were performed to assess separately for changes in the Intervention participants' answers, relative to the Control group. The results of this study suggest the program significantly affected all measures.
Originality/value
These findings contribute to the discussions on the education programs’ effectiveness in promoting entrepreneurship. As a result, they may contribute to entrepreneurship education overcoming geographical and socio-economic hurdles (cost, time and entry barriers) to advance the development of industry, economy and community worldwide.
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Derrick Boakye, David Sarpong, Dirk Meissner and George Ofosu
Cyber-attacks that generate technical disruptions in organisational operations and damage the reputation of organisations have become all too common in the contemporary…
Abstract
Purpose
Cyber-attacks that generate technical disruptions in organisational operations and damage the reputation of organisations have become all too common in the contemporary organisation. This paper explores the reputation repair strategies undertaken by organisations in the event of becoming victims of cyber-attacks.
Design/methodology/approach
For developing the authors’ contribution in the context of the Internet service providers' industry, the authors draw on a qualitative case study of TalkTalk, a British telecommunications company providing business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) Internet services, which was a victim of a “significant and sustained” cyber-attack in October 2015. Data for the enquiry is sourced from publicly available archival documents such as newspaper articles, press releases, podcasts and parliamentary hearings on the TalkTalk cyber-attack.
Findings
The findings suggest a dynamic interplay of technical and rhetorical responses in dealing with cyber-attacks. This plays out in the form of marshalling communication and mortification techniques, bolstering image and riding on leader reputation, which serially combine to strategically orchestrate reputational repair and stigma erasure in the event of a cyber-attack.
Originality/value
Analysing a prototypical case of an organisation in dire straits following a cyber-attack, the paper provides a systematic characterisation of the setting-in-motion of strategic responses to manage, revamp and ameliorate damaged reputation during cyber-attacks, which tend to negatively shape the evaluative perceptions of the organisation's salient audience.
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Jorge Armando López-Lemus, María Teresa De la Garza Carranza, Monica Lucia Reyes-Berlanga and Jose Guadalupe Lopez-Lemus
This study aims to identify the influence exerted by the performance of human resources (HR) through effectiveness and efficiency in the success of business projects in Mexico.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify the influence exerted by the performance of human resources (HR) through effectiveness and efficiency in the success of business projects in Mexico.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodological design was quantitative, explanatory, observational and transversal, where a sample of 502 was used. A structural equation model (SEM) was developed using the statistical software AMOS v25 to test the hypothesis. SPSS v25 was used for data analysis. Regarding the goodness and fit indices of the SEM, χ2 = 388.83/df = 143; χ2/df = 2.71; p < 0.001; GFI = 0.92; AGFI = 0.91; CFI = 0.96; TLI = 0.95; NFI = 0.94; IFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.05; RMR = 0.04; SRMR = 0.03, which turned out to be acceptable.
Findings
Through the results obtained through the SEM, it is shown that there is a positive and significant relationship between the performance of HR through their effectiveness (r = 0.65, p < 0.01) and efficiency (r = 0.64, p < 0.01) with respect to the success of the business projects. Likewise, the effectiveness of HR has a positive and significant influence on the efficiency (ß2 = 0.46; p < 0.001) and the success of business projects (ß3 = 0.89; p < 0.001) in Mexico. In the same way, efficiency positively and significantly influences the success of enterprises (ß4 = 0.35; p < 0.001) in Mexico.
Research limitations/implications
In this research, only the performance of the HR was assessed through efficiency and effectiveness as one of the variables that intervene in the development of the business project, and that is one of the main factors of analysis to achieve the success of the enterprise. In this sense, the results are limited to the extent that the findings can be generalized to business projects that are developed in different entities such as universities, incubators and other instances that promote the development of business projects and thereby guarantee success. In this sense, it is considered to carry out more research regarding these variables and others that can study the phenomenon and generate new scientific research.
Practical implications
HR performance is considered as one of the main factors that allow the success of business projects. However, some practical limitations are determined by the vision, strategies, as well as the orientation that entities such as universities, and incubators, among other organizations, determine to develop the business project and thus guarantee its success. Other practical implications lie in the leadership that the entrepreneur exercises in his/her work team and collaborators to generate synergy between them considering culture and identity, as well as the commitment to the business project.
Originality/value
The findings are relevant and of great value because they support entrepreneurship models, giving an alternative focus in the study to achieve success, specifically in the state of Guanajuato, which represents one of the main states that have with a greater number of ventures focused on the automotive, food, leather and footwear cluster, among other SMEs that promote business projects and is one of the main states of the Mexican Republic that contributes to the economic development of the region as well as the nation. Likewise, the study is relevant because there is currently not enough research focused on the variables analyzed on the success of business projects in the Mexican context.
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Rhoda Ansah Quaigrain, De-Graft Owusu-Manu, David John Edwards, Mavis Hammond, Mabel Hammond and Igor Martek
Occupational safety issues among employees remains a contemporary and omnipresent concern. In developing countries, safety-related problems are amplified, resulting in higher…
Abstract
Purpose
Occupational safety issues among employees remains a contemporary and omnipresent concern. In developing countries, safety-related problems are amplified, resulting in higher incidences of serious accidents and occupational diseases. This study aims to evaluate employees’ knowledge and attitudes toward occupational health and safety, and how these influence overall occupational health and safety compliance. Ghana’s oil and gas industry provides the contextual backdrop for this research, given it is characterized by high rates of injury.
Design/methodology/approach
A positivist and deductive research strategy was used to quantitatively analyze both primary and secondary data sources. A structured survey was administered to industry employees, and multiple linear regression was used to establish the effects of employee’s knowledge and attitude toward occupational health hazards on overall health and safety compliance.
Findings
The findings indicate that most employees had both a high level of knowledge and positive attitude toward mitigating occupational health hazards. Moreover, the study reveals that most employees complied with occupational health safety practices. However, the study also reveals that the effect of employees’ knowledge and attitude toward occupational health hazards does not translate into deployment of comprehensive safety practices. Interestingly, female employees were found to be more knowledgeable and compliant with occupational health and safety practices than their male counterparts.
Practical implications
Premised upon the findings, the study recommends: implementation of relevant education and training programs encompassing the proper usage of machinery and equipment, tailored hazard safety training appropriate to specific employee job requirements, effective dissemination of risk information and governance initiatives that enforce strict adherence to correct safety procedures.
Originality/value
The study uniquely examines the influence of employee’s knowledge of health and safety to overall compliance within the oil and gas industry. Cumulatively, the study’s findings and recommendations contribute to improving the occupational health and safety outcomes within the industry.
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Majid Rahi, Ali Ebrahimnejad and Homayun Motameni
Taking into consideration the current human need for agricultural produce such as rice that requires water for growth, the optimal consumption of this valuable liquid is…
Abstract
Purpose
Taking into consideration the current human need for agricultural produce such as rice that requires water for growth, the optimal consumption of this valuable liquid is important. Unfortunately, the traditional use of water by humans for agricultural purposes contradicts the concept of optimal consumption. Therefore, designing and implementing a mechanized irrigation system is of the highest importance. This system includes hardware equipment such as liquid altimeter sensors, valves and pumps which have a failure phenomenon as an integral part, causing faults in the system. Naturally, these faults occur at probable time intervals, and the probability function with exponential distribution is used to simulate this interval. Thus, before the implementation of such high-cost systems, its evaluation is essential during the design phase.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed approach included two main steps: offline and online. The offline phase included the simulation of the studied system (i.e. the irrigation system of paddy fields) and the acquisition of a data set for training machine learning algorithms such as decision trees to detect, locate (classification) and evaluate faults. In the online phase, C5.0 decision trees trained in the offline phase were used on a stream of data generated by the system.
Findings
The proposed approach is a comprehensive online component-oriented method, which is a combination of supervised machine learning methods to investigate system faults. Each of these methods is considered a component determined by the dimensions and complexity of the case study (to discover, classify and evaluate fault tolerance). These components are placed together in the form of a process framework so that the appropriate method for each component is obtained based on comparison with other machine learning methods. As a result, depending on the conditions under study, the most efficient method is selected in the components. Before the system implementation phase, its reliability is checked by evaluating the predicted faults (in the system design phase). Therefore, this approach avoids the construction of a high-risk system. Compared to existing methods, the proposed approach is more comprehensive and has greater flexibility.
Research limitations/implications
By expanding the dimensions of the problem, the model verification space grows exponentially using automata.
Originality/value
Unlike the existing methods that only examine one or two aspects of fault analysis such as fault detection, classification and fault-tolerance evaluation, this paper proposes a comprehensive process-oriented approach that investigates all three aspects of fault analysis concurrently.
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This study aims to consider the role of emotions, especially those related to empathy, in promoting a more humane education that enables students to reach out across kinship…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to consider the role of emotions, especially those related to empathy, in promoting a more humane education that enables students to reach out across kinship chasms to promote the development of communities predicated on a shared value on mutual respect. This attention to empathy includes a review of the rational basis for much schooling, introduces skepticism about the façade of rational thinking, reviews the emotionally flat character of classrooms, attends to the emotional dimensions of literacy education, argues on behalf of taking emotions into account in developmental theories and links empathic connections with social justice efforts. The study’s main thrust is that empathy is a key emotional quality that does not come naturally or easily to many, yet is important to cultivate if social justice is a goal of education.
Design/methodology/approach
The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design.
Findings
The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design.
Research limitations/implications
The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design.
Originality/value
The paper challenges the rational emphasis of schooling and argues for more attention to the ways in which emotions shape thinking.
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Mohammad AlMarzouq, Varun Grover, Jason Thatcher and Rich Klein
To remain sustainable, open source software (OSS) projects must attract new members—or newcomers—who make contributions. In this paper, the authors develop a set of hypotheses…
Abstract
Purpose
To remain sustainable, open source software (OSS) projects must attract new members—or newcomers—who make contributions. In this paper, the authors develop a set of hypotheses based on the knowledge barriers framework that examines how OSS communities can encourage contributions from newcomers.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing longitudinal data from the source code repositories of 232 OSS projects over a two-year period, the authors employ a Poisson-based mixed model to test how community characteristics, such as the main drivers of knowledge-based costs, relate to newcomers' contributions.
Findings
The results indicate that community characteristics, such as programming language choice, documentation effort and code structure instability, are the main drivers of knowledge-based contribution costs. The findings also suggest that managing these costs can result in more inclusive OSS communities, as evidenced by the number of contributing newcomers; the authors highlight the importance of maintaining documentation efforts for OSS communities.
Originality/value
This paper assumes that motivational factors are a necessary but insufficient condition for newcomer participation in OSS projects and that the cost to participation should be considered. Using the knowledge barriers framework, this paper identifies the main knowledge-based costs that hinder newcomer participation. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study that does not limit data collection to a single hosting platform (e.g., SourceForge), which improves the generalizability of the findings.
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Daniela Andrea Romagnoli, David L. Pumphrey, Bassem E. Maamari and Elissa Katergi
This exploratory research aims to identify the effect of perceived stress level and self-efficacy on management quality and what practices and theories need to be enhanced to…
Abstract
Purpose
This exploratory research aims to identify the effect of perceived stress level and self-efficacy on management quality and what practices and theories need to be enhanced to improve management quality under volatility business environments.
Design/methodology/approach
The study surveyed 291 working women, using the Perceived Stress Scale and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Latent class analysis (LCA) for classifications of respondents, using categorical observed variables and MANCOVA, are applied to determine the relationship between stress and self-efficacy on the assigned classes.
Findings
The study suggests that in a highly volatile business environment, where stress is high, affecting management quality, managers as individuals fall into one of four classes that describe their techniques of coping with the stress, namely Uncommitted Experimenters, Try Anything, Intrinsically Motivated and Externally Motivated. Techniques of stress management classification are significantly related to the combined perceived stress and self-efficacy measures, with Externally Motivated respondents as the classification with a significant mean difference.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of the study at hand refers to the sample size versus the number of potential factors of stress. This limitation highlights the need for further data gathering and research in this area, as stress is a critical factor of performance and often ignored in traditional management theories. Another limitation of this study is the lack of in-depth analysis of the use of meditation; its benefits and how to best use this practice in traditional work settings.
Practical implications
The outcome of the study could have significant implications for quality of management in business, private and social sectors by providing meditation as a tool for employees and stakeholders to handle stress in conflict zones.
Social implications
Using stress management techniques might prove to be a low-cost tool for better quality management of human assets.
Originality/value
The authors study focuses on women in volatile economic turmoil, natural devastations, conflict areas and politically insecure environments. This socioeconomic segment was rarely scrutinized despite its direct effect on a large number of economies hosting a sizeable portion of the world’s population. Interesting potential results highlight the relationship between the respondents in the Intrinsically Motivated class and stress reduction for the benefit of management quality.
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