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1 – 10 of 167Imad-Addin Almasri, Nafiza Martini, Sedra Al Kadamani, Ensaf Abdullah Maasarani and Munir Abas
Sexual harassment is a pervasive and damaging issue that affects the physical and mental health and well-being of employees in the workplace. It is a serious public health concern…
Abstract
Purpose
Sexual harassment is a pervasive and damaging issue that affects the physical and mental health and well-being of employees in the workplace. It is a serious public health concern that requires urgent attention and action and very dangerous problem in management. Our studies have shown that women are more likely to be the victims of sexual harassment and are more dissatisfied with the situation, organizations have a moral and legal obligation to take proactive measures to prevent and address sexual harassment, including implementing effective policies, providing employee training and fostering a culture of respect and accountability. By doing so, we can create safer, healthier and more productive work environments for all the employees.
Design/methodology/approach
This study consisted of 344 individuals from the Syrian community who completed a questionnaire, that contained statements about harassment to gauge each gender’s perception and sensitivity toward it. The questionnaire was carefully designed to include 30 questions, including daily situations in the work environment that may occur and how they are classified by males and females. Is it harassment or not, and about the HR department have personal safety and security standards such as the code of conduct and the rules regulating these behaviors or not and our research project was a collaboration between the two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs): Stemosis and Institute of Human Resources Management (IHRM).
Findings
Our research reveals a distinction between the thinking patterns and coping mechanisms of females and males when it comes to dealing with this phenomenon. We presented various scenarios to our respondents, depicting situations that an individual might face in their everyday life and asked them questions related to the definition of harassment, its root causes and strategies for addressing it. Research has shown that women are at a higher risk of experiencing feelings of fear and dissatisfaction when subjected to sexual harassment. This unfortunate reality highlights the need for greater awareness and action to combat such reprehensible behaviors. Save Women!
Research limitations/implications
The study faced several limitations in collecting data due to the sensitive and shameful nature of the topic for both men and women in the Syrian Arab Republic. This caused embarrassment for some participants, leading to their unwillingness to participate in the research. Additionally, the study encountered difficulties in dealing with companies, as they did not accept exposure to such situations and failed to show any codes of conduct under the name of their company, and the participants did not consider certain factors as reasons for harassment. Specifically, 71.2% of participants did not consider inappropriate outfits as a reason for harassment. However, there was a significant difference between the opinions of men and women on this matter (p-value < 0.05). Additionally, political, social and psychological reactions were not considered a reason for harassment by 64.8% of participants.
Practical implications
In our study, there was a situation that one of the respondents (male) was exposed to by the HR manager (female) who was pretending to be a professional, after he confronted her, she threatened him with expulsion from work and despite his annoyance, he ignored her because it was pointless to talk with her and during the study, (44.7%) of the participants had experienced sexual harassment.
Social implications
Victims of sexual harassment experience a similar condition to post-traumatic stress disorder, which can lead to many mental and psychological issues. The overall organizational environment plays a critical role in the well-being of employees. It is widely accepted that victims of violence suffer from a lack of well-being. Employee well-being is based on feelings of happiness and satisfaction that come from a sense of security. According to the Maslow’s theory of needs, security is fundamental to people and a toxic workplace environment can destroy an individual’s sense of security, negatively impacting their well-being In Syria.
Originality/value
In Syria, society is considered closed about sexual issues and considers it a sensitive issue despite its presence and spread in work environments, as the results showed, and this is one of the challenges we face. Therefore, our study is the first in Syria and the largest that sheds light on this phenomenon clearly, strongly, deeply and directly.
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António Oliveira and Orlando Lima Rua
This paper aims to contribute to the explanatory debate of the entrepreneurial intention-action gap that results from the interposition of normative-regulatory, sociocultural and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the explanatory debate of the entrepreneurial intention-action gap that results from the interposition of normative-regulatory, sociocultural and economic-financial barriers facing potential and intending entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded on post-positivist position, the authors propose a quantitative approach, surveying 569 potential and intending entrepreneurs from a longitudinal and stratified sample of 22 years.
Findings
The economic-financial barrier is the most important, followed by the sociocultural except in the period in which access to banking financial support is facilitated, where the order is reversed. The impact of the normative-regulatory barrier is statistically relevant, but irrelevant on the magnitude. The results also allow us to conclude that a lower development of the project accentuates the entrepreneurial intention-action gap and, finally, support the existence of a medium/long-term temporal relation between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial action.
Research limitations/implications
From an empirical standpoint, the sample was limited to potential and pretending entrepreneurs from one national institution and one country. This limits the scope of generalization. Further studies in multiple contexts should be undertaken.
Practical implications
The study points to contradictory results with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor – Portuguese Reports, which, if confirmed, require the reformulation of Portuguese national policies in the promotion and development of entrepreneurial activities.
Originality/value
The study is novel by providing new insights about entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial intention-action gap.
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Karin Berglund, Helene Ahl, Katarina Pettersson and Malin Tillmar
In this paper, women entrepreneurs are seen as leaders and women leaders as entrepreneurial, making both groups an easy target of postfeminist expectations, governed by calls to…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, women entrepreneurs are seen as leaders and women leaders as entrepreneurial, making both groups an easy target of postfeminist expectations, governed by calls to embody the entrepreneurial self. Acknowledging that the entrepreneurial self has its roots in the universal, rational and autonomous subject, which was shaped in a male form during the Enlightenment, the purpose of this study is to conceptualise feminist resistance as a process through which the autonomous subject can be de-stabilised.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirically, this study draws on an extensive research project on women’s rural entrepreneurship that includes 32 in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs in rural Sweden. This study interpreted expressions of resistance from the women by using an analytical framework the authors developed based on Jonna Bornemark’s philosophical treatise.
Findings
Feminist resistance unfolds as an interactive and iterative learning process where the subject recognises their voice, strengthens their voice and beliefs in a relational process and finally sees themselves as a fully fledged actor who finds ways to overcome obstacles that get in their way. Conceptualising resistance as a learning process stands in sharp contrast to the idea of resistance as enacted by the autonomous self.
Research limitations/implications
This study helps researchers to understand that what they may have seen as a sign of weakness among women, is instead a sign of strength: it is a first step in learning resistance that may help women create a life different from that prescribed by the postfeminist discourse. In this way, researchers can avoid reproducing women as “weak and inadequate”.
Originality/value
Through the re-writing of feminist resistance, the masculine entrepreneurship discourse including the notion of the autonomous self is challenged, and a counternarrative to the postfeminist entrepreneurial woman is developed. Theorising resistance as a learning practice enables a more transforming research agenda, making it possible to see women as resisting postfeminist expectations of endless competition with themselves and others.
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David S. Bedford, Markus Granlund and Kari Lukka
The authors examine how performance measurement systems (PMSs) and academic agency influence the meaning of research quality in practice. The worries are that the notion of…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors examine how performance measurement systems (PMSs) and academic agency influence the meaning of research quality in practice. The worries are that the notion of research quality is becoming too simplistically and narrowly determined by research quality's measurable proxies and that academics, especially manager-academics, do not sufficiently realise this risk. Whilst prior literature has covered the effects of performance measurement in the university sector broadly and how PMSs are mobilised locally, there is only little understanding of whether and how PMSs affect the meaning of research quality in practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is designed as a comparative case study of two university faculties in Finland. The role of conceptual analysis plays a notable role in the study, too.
Findings
The authors find that manager-academics of the two examined faculties have rather similar conceptual understandings of research quality. However, there were differences in the degree of slippage between the “espoused-meaning” of research quality and “meaning-in-practice” of research quality. The authors traced these differences to how the local PMS and manager-academics’ agency relate to one another within the context of increasing global and national performance pressures. The authors developed a tentative framework for the various “styles of agency”. This suggests how the relationship between the local PMS and manager-academics’ exerted agency shapes the “degrees of freedom” of the meaning of research quality in practice.
Originality/value
Given that research quality lies at the heart of academic work, the authors' paper indicates that exploring the three matters – performance measurement, the agency of manager-academics and the meaning of research quality in practice – in combination is crucial for the sustainability of the academe. The authors contribute to the literature by detailing the way in which local PMS and manager-academics' agency have material impacts on what research quality means in practice. The authors conclude by highlighting the pressing need for manager-academics to exercise the agency in efforts to safeguard a broad and pluralistic understanding of research quality in practice.
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Marc van der Putten and Amee Nur-E-Jannat
This paper aims offer a benchmark by providing an account of women's experiences with domestic violence in Bangladesh and develops illustrations on coping with abuse.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims offer a benchmark by providing an account of women's experiences with domestic violence in Bangladesh and develops illustrations on coping with abuse.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study design was adopted, applying an emic perspective in employing a qualitative research approach to explore and describe women's experiences with and perceptions about domestic violence and their ways of coping in Sherpur District, Bangladesh. In total 25 recently married women participants were purposively sampled by snowballing. In-depth interview data facilitated a latent thematic content analysis.
Findings
The findings indicate that women adopt a range of responses to domestic violence. Two key aspects of coping surfaced in the narratives: (1) emotion-driven and (2) problem-driven approaches to abusive situations. Findings point to a range of research issues that require further study such as domestic violence and taboo; somatization; structural gender inequalities; male perpetrators; family dynamics and the intersections of these issues and contexts.
Originality/value
A more proactive way of coping resulted in resilience amidst an abusive environment, whereas passive ways of coping led to a life in distress. It is important however, to understand ways of coping as a continuum rather than a dichotomy.
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Jim Dator and Ian Yeoman
Futurist Jim Dator provides a personal insight of how he “sees” the past, present, and futures of Hawaiian tourism. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Abstract
Purpose
Futurist Jim Dator provides a personal insight of how he “sees” the past, present, and futures of Hawaiian tourism. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Ian Yeoman interviews one of the world's most prominent and respected futurists, Professor Jim Dator, from the Futures Research Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Political Science Department.
Findings
Like a climatologist, futurists discuss long‐term futures which are very uncertain, controversial, and often frightening stories. The past tells how the present occurred. Understanding that story is essential before considering the future. The growth of tourism is a fabulous story dependent on many developments whose future is uncertain. The tourism industry may want a “more of the same” trajectory of continued economic growth but a number changes are on the horizon which Dator calls “The Unholy Trinity,” namely the end of cheap and abundant energy; a profoundly unstable environment and a dysfunctional global economic system. Dator concludes that no government now governs satisfactorily, and so the future of tourism is extremely precarious and uncertain.
Originality/value
The interview provides both insight into how tourism has evolved and foresight of what could occur in the futures. Central to the interview is Dator's identification of the Unholy Trinity, Plus One, that suggests that the future will not neither be like the present nor like the future the tourism industry has hoped for in terms of continued economic growth. The originality and value of Dator's frank views are thought provoking, going beyond present wisdom and comfort.
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This paper aims to shed light on how children's literature in Africa deserves to be studied because African writers “decolonize” the minds of African children and children and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to shed light on how children's literature in Africa deserves to be studied because African writers “decolonize” the minds of African children and children and adults around the world.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper defines children's literature from an African perspective and the “decolonization of the mind.” This is done to examine how two African writers provide narratives for children inspired by their cultures. They deal with themes, characters and symbols that interest children and adults.
Findings
Achebe and Youssef crossed many borders: the world of children and adults, animals and humans, vice and virtue, supernatural and real. Their stories take the reader on journeys that involve enriching, engaging and inspiring adventures.
Research limitations/implications
Youssef and Achebe are prolific writers. Providing a survey of what is available in Arabic and Nigerian literature for children, is beyond the scope of this paper.
Practical implications
This paper sends a message to those in charge of the curriculum in schools in Egypt, the Arab countries, Africa and the world at large: decolonize the syllabi in schools because the world is not black and white. Literature for children that encourages critical thinking is available by African writers in Egypt, Nigeria and elsewhere.
Social implications
The works discussed show that African writers are creative, and their works inspire the African child with pride in his/her identity, culture and heritage.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, no one has compared Egyptian and Nigerian literature for children before. Youssef and Achebe provide evidence that “Good literature gives the child a place in the world … and the world a place in the child.” – Astrid Lindgren.
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Daniel Trabucchi and Tommaso Buganza
Two or multi-sided platforms - defined as those companies that aim to connect two or more groups of customers leveraging the opportunities provided by indirect network…
Abstract
Purpose
Two or multi-sided platforms - defined as those companies that aim to connect two or more groups of customers leveraging the opportunities provided by indirect network externalities – got massive attention from both scholars and practitioners over the last decade. Entrepreneurship scholars mainly focused on the platform's ability to enable entrepreneurial ventures for the complementors' side, exploring the network-centric view. This study aims to expand it by exploring the broader influence that sides can have on the platform provider's entrepreneurial decisions over time, during the evolution of the two-sided platform.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a longitudinal single case study developed over five years. The research presents the born and evolution of Friendz, an Italian two-sided platform.
Findings
The research presents a four-phases evolution process that shows how the entrepreneurs may first leverage an existing platform to develop a new venture and then develop his/her own two-sided platform. In this latter phase, the findings show how the sides may actually influence the platform provider's entrepreneurial decisions, both in terms of value proposition design, but also regarding the creation of new ventures.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to the two-sided platform literature highlighting new evolutionary paths that expand current literature and highlight the doubling platform approach. Moreover, it contributes to the entrepreneurship literature offering a novel perspective on the entrepreneurial dynamics in two-sided platforms by re-balancing the power between the platform provider and the sides within the double network-centric view.
Practical implications
From a practitioners' perspective, this study offers an evolutionary path and specific tactics related to the evolution of an entrepreneurial venture based on a two-sided platforms that may inspire entrepreneurs working on two-sided platforms on how to use existing platforms and on the management of sides and the value propositions used to target them.
Originality/value
This study takes a novel perspective at the intersection between platforms and entrepreneurship literature streams, exploring the power that sides have over the platform provider in shaping the platform's entrepreneurial evolution. In doing so, it proposes a double network view on two-sided platforms and highlights three network-related tensions that can guide the evolution of the two-sided platforms.
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