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The present study used the job-demands and resources (JD-R) framework to understand how the training is transferred to an extreme working context through the analysis of job and personal resources (social support from the leader and colleagues and adaptability). Specifically, the authors tested the mediating role of motivation to transfer in the relationship (1) between the perceived support from the supervisor and colleagues and performance after training and (2) between adaptability and performance in an extreme context of the pandemic crisis – the first peak of COVID-19 in Portugal. Further, an inspection of the factors that predicted knowledge transfer and adaptability under an extreme context was carried out.

To do so, necessary training about the new safety rules regarding the pandemic crisis of COVID-19 was implemented in a healthcare institution as a strategy to help healthcare workers deal with the increasing uncertainty and complexity that was threatening their work. It consisted of three sessions (each with one hour of training) regarding procedures, rules and safety norms. The training occurred in May 2020. Overall, 291 healthcare workers participated in the study and answered one online questionnaire one week after training completion.

The results showed that the motivation to transfer had a significant indirect effect on the relationship between colleagues' and supervisors' support and performance and between adaptability and performance. Additionally, complementary analyses showed that the mediations depended on the levels of self-efficacy in such a way that the indirect relationships were stronger when self-efficacy was higher. Thus, adaptability and support, both from colleagues and the supervisor, are determining factors for knowledge transfer and resultant performance in extreme contexts, such as the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Lastly, the results showed that the most significant predictors of transference were self-efficacy and the motivation to transfer the learned knowledge. On the other hand, self-efficacy, peer support and the opportunity to use the knowledge were the most significant predictors of adaptability.

These findings provide support for the role of employee motivation to transfer as a mechanism connecting both perceived support and adaptability to performance outcomes under extreme working contexts.

This study, conducted in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic context – an extreme and uncertain working context – shows the relevance of both job and individual factors to predict employees' adaptability to such contexts.

This study aims to identify the major job stressors that can affect employees’ mental health in the Lebanese commercial banks during the economic turmoil. This study also aims to identify the effects of the mental problems on the employees in addition to the role of human resources in promoting and preventing mental well-being at the workplace.

The authors interviewed 28 bank employees and the semi-structured interviews last for around 50 min, starting by asking the employees a general question about the concept of mental health disorder. The authors used a purposive sampling in which the population sample is selected based on purpose and the characteristics of a specific category of individuals. Moreover, a thematic analysis is used to analyze the data.

The findings of this study indicate that most of the employees were suffering from many work-related stressors that have negatively affected their mental well-being. The stress and pressures have significantly increased during the economic crisis. However, most of the interviewees were not or rarely supported by their human resources department and their administration to help them get adapted for such a crisis or for the changes at the workplace.

Mental health disorders are present in the daily normal life and in the workplace as well. The banking industry is not an exceptional one.

Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, is one of the fastest growing capital cities in sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, the city is experiencing an alarming rate of burglary and violent crimes, while the city planning management frameworks lacks adequate and effective crime mapping, monitoring and management techniques necessary for achieving liveable and safe environment for habitation despite its grandiose spatial planning and aesthetically appealing architectural design as a modern city. Based on police crime records (2007–2018) and geospatial analysis, this paper aims to provide adequate understanding on the interplay of land use configuration and burglary crime formation in residential neighbourhoods of Abuja, Nigeria.

The methods used for the purpose of data collection includes; field survey, Block Environmental Inventory, while inferential statistics and Geographic Information System tools was used for data analysis. The analysis established that Lagos, Nsukka and Enugu Streets are hotspots; while Chief Palace street, Ladoke Akintola and Oka-Akoko streets were found to be cold spots.

This study, however, established the applicability of crime pattern, opportunity theory and routine activity theory in understanding the rising burglary crime events in the study areas and the link between physical characteristics of street block typology and burglary crime pattern. The results of the analysis has in a way affirmed the positions of the theories, while disagreed with them in cases where the results indicated contrary outcome.

This paper concluded with inference drawn from the results that supported mixed-use development but with built-in crime prevention through environmental design strategies as effective burglary crime prevention mechanisms that contribute to crime rate reduction.

A popular convention in the political-economy literature is that causality runs from democracy to economic growth. That thinking has continued to evoke significant debates among scholars. This study aims to propose a new research experiment by investigating whether macroeconomic variables cause democratisation.

The study uses a panel data set of 48 carefully selected economies in Sub-Saharan Africa spanning 1991 to 2020 and uses the PVAR system generalised method of moment (GMM) approach.

With the application of three macroeconomic indicators: economic growth, full employment and balance of payment equilibrium, the study suggests that economic growth has a negative implication on the democratisation process and that the incentives that increase national income provide in the global South enable autocratic rulers to impede democratic growth. The Granger causality test demonstrates a unidirectional effect from economic growth to democracy. The eigenvalue stability condition, impulse response function and forecast-error variance decomposition all confirmed the validity of the findings with the PVAR system GMM. Finally, the study proposed policy and theoretical implications for the political stakeholders.

Robust development of economic institutions (particularly the anti-corruption and rule of law) in the global South is required to tame the potential for the state actors to turn public resources into personal use to further their parochial political interest in the form of perpetuating themselves in office which negates the ideals of democracy and social norms. Strong institutions could prevent the misuse of national income and enhance a good quality of life for the citizenry, making them grow confidence in the democratisation process.

The research paper makes an insightful contributions from the methodological perspective and the sampling perspective. The author uses a new research method, the PVAR system GMM becoming the first attempt of such a method to be applied in determining the causal effects of macroeconomic variables on democracy in the literature. Another relevant contribution of the study relates to the sample technique of selecting economies from the Sub-Saharan Africa with notable weak or slow democratisation process.

This study compares the motives of holding cash between developed (Australian) and developing (Malaysian) financial markets.

For the period 2006–2020, the t-test, fixed-effect and generalised method of moment (GMM) model have been applied to a sample of 1878 (1,165 Australian and 713 Malaysian) firms.

The empirical results reveal that firms in developed financial markets hold higher cash compared to the developing financial markets. The findings confirm that motives to hold cash differ between developed and developing financial markets. The GMM findings further show that cash holdings (CH) in Australia are higher due to higher ratios of cash flow, research and development (R&D) and return on assets (ROA), and lower due to larger dividend payments. In the Malaysian market, however, cash flows and R&D are ineffectual, ROA falls and dividend payments rise CH.

The study helps managers, practitioners and investors understand that firms' distinct economic, institutional, accounting and financial environments are important. To attain the desired outcomes, they must thus comprehend and consider these considerations while developing suitable liquidity strategies.

To the authors' best knowledge, this is the initial research demonstrating how varied cash motives and their ramifications are in developed and developing financial markets. Therefore, this study identifies the importance that CH motives varied among financial markets and that findings from a particular market cannot be generalised to other markets because of the market and financial structural variations.