Search results

Work-life flexibility policies (e.g., flextime, telework, part-time, right-to-disconnect, and leaves) are increasingly important to employers as productivity and well-being strategies. However, policies have not lived up to their potential. In this chapter, the authors argue for increased research attention to implementation and work-life intersectionality considerations influencing effectiveness. Drawing on a typology that conceptualizes flexibility policies as offering employees control across five dimensions of the work role boundary (temporal, spatial, size, permeability, and continuity), the authors develop a model identifying the multilevel moderators and mechanisms of boundary control shaping relationships between using flexibility and work and home performance. Next, the authors review this model with an intersectional lens. The authors direct scholars’ attention to growing workforce diversity and increased variation in flexibility policy experiences, particularly for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality, which is defined as having multiple intersecting identities (e.g., gender, caregiving, and race), that are stigmatized, and link to having less access to and/or benefits from societal resources to support managing the work-life interface in a social context. Such an intersectional focus would address the important need to shift work-life and flexibility research from variable to person-centered approaches. The authors identify six research considerations on work-life intersectionality in order to illuminate how traditionally assumed work-life relationships need to be revisited to address growing variation in: access, needs, and preferences for work-life flexibility; work and nonwork experiences; and benefits from using flexibility policies. The authors hope that this chapter will spur a conversation on how the work-life interface and flexibility policy processes and outcomes may increasingly differ for individuals with higher work-life intersectionality compared to those with lower work-life intersectionality in the context of organizational and social systems that may perpetuate growing work-life and job inequality.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between telework and teleworkers’ characteristics and the work-nonwork conflict (WNWC) in the Brazilian context, investigating time spent in eight nonwork dimensions and the more affected dimensions.

The study was quantitative and descriptive. A survey was conducted with 299 professionals’ teleworking in Brazil. Data analysis was conducted through descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation and analysis of variance.

Results show diversified interests other than work and family among teleworkers, variation within the affected nonwork dimensions in the WNWC, and that teleworkers’ WNWC is negatively associated with time flexibility and manager support and positively associated with individual preference for segmentation as a boundary management strategy.

The study highlights the need to include more nonwork aspects in telework studies to influence organizational practices. The main limitation is the nonprobabilistic sample.

Knowing more about teleworkers’ WNWC will help organizations improve lives by implementing practices and building a cultural environment that preserves nonwork time.

The study reinforces demands from new family arrangements and an aging society: organizations have to prepare to have teleworkers who want or need to dedicate time to interests besides family or children.

It progresses towards a broad understanding of nonwork besides family to understand teleworkers’ WNWC.

The researchers aim to investigate the role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in facilitating intrinsic motivation and goal-commitment among employees at the workplace, affecting outcome variables, namely, in-role and extra-role job performance.

Data were collected from 640 employees working in the information technology sector of India. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Analysis revealed a significant positive impact of PsyCap on the two behavioral facets of job performance. Intrinsic motivation and goal-commitment were found mediating the influence of PsyCap on the two facets of job performance.

The information technology sector is characterised by continuous change. It requires voluntary prosocial behavior from employees, where the employees are expected to display multifaceted job performance behaviors, where they go beyond their job duties to cater for the dynamics of the IT sector. The present study provides means by which intrinsic motivated and goal-committed behavior are facilitated for both the in-role and extra-role job performance.

The present study is among the few preliminary studies that have provided evidence that intrinsic motivation and goal-commitment are the two variables which aid PsyCap in predicting both the prescribed and voluntary job performance behaviors.

Impactful pedagogies in Higher Education are required to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. This chapter outlines an inclusive, flexible, and work-based learning curriculum design framework to respond to these needs. Two cases from Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) are used to illustrate this framework in a transnational educational context in Sub-Saharan Africa. Case one explores the impact of a Railway Operations Management program in South Africa, where the views of two cohorts of 137 recent graduates were gathered through an online questionnaire. Case two examines the views of Optometry/Orthoptics students who undertook an intensive two-week clinical work experience on the train-based clinic (Phelophepa train) in South Africa; data was gathered through an online questionnaire from 58 participating students since 2014. Both examples highlight transformative personal experiences and impacts of their education beyond just their studies – to a clearer sense of personal and professional pride, to becoming role models for their families and to developing meta-cognitive skills to support lifelong learning. In the Railway Operations Management example, additional benefits were seen to their organization – through improved interpersonal skills, decision-making, and problem-solving and creating knowledge-sharing – whereas in the Optometry/Orthoptics case life-changing impacts to patients were delivered through this work experience.

There is a national shortage of teachers of color; only 21% of teachers are from an underrepresented group (16% Black and/or Latinx), while 79% are White (National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2019). While there are not a lot of teachers of color in today's classrooms, there is an even lower number of Black male teachers (approximately 2%) (NCES, 2022). These percentages do not mirror the K-12 student population, with 52% identifying as a student of color (NCES, 2019). Research informs us that having teachers of color, such as a Black male yields academic success, decreases suspension rates, increases college matriculation, and provides representation of positive role models for the K-12 students of color as well as White students (AACTE, 2019; Carter-Andrews et al., 2019). Teacher Preparation Programs must implement culturally responsive strategies to recruit and retain Black males into teaching. This chapter will share effective practices for recruiting, retaining, and advising Black male preservice teachers.

Although data rich building information models have been widely adopted in the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry in the United Kingdom (UK), use of 2D drawings on site for construction is still the norm. The ability of 2-dimensional (2D) drawings to convey complex 3-dimensional information is limited and requires interpretation from operatives, and 2D drawings can be quickly superseded by model updates. Although constructing directly from a model has been adopted in the aerospace and automotive industries, its use in construction is in its infancy. This research therefore aims to investigate the potential for, and barriers to, model-based construction in the UK.

This research uses a qualitative approach, thematically analysing 13 semi-structured interviews with UK-based construction professionals who have experience of paperless or model-based construction.

Although model -based construction has been implemented to a limited extent on some civil engineering projects; research and investment in software, network capacity, legal and contractual issues, and cultural and human factors will need to be considered before model-based construction can be implemented more widely.

The research contributes to an understudied, emergent area of construction practice and outlines hurdles that need to be understood and overcome before more widespread adoption of model-based construction can take place.

Loneliness’ impact on health and wellbeing has emerged as a public health issue in several countries. Young people are increasingly understood as a ‘risk group’ and intervention target for loneliness-reduction. This research paper aims to present a discourse analysis of policies and political speech about young people and loneliness.

Using discourse analysis inspired by Carol Bacchi’s “What is the Problem Represented to Be” (WPR) approach, this cross-cultural analysis studies loneliness policy in the United Kingdom (UK) and Norway. In doing so, the authors ask: What is the problem of loneliness among young people represented to be in UK and Norwegian welfare policy?

The findings indicate paradoxical problematizations of the role technology plays among lonely young people, who, in this context, are divided in two categories: able normative and disabled youth. We reveal fundamental differences in beliefs about the impact of technology on these groups, and corresponding differences in the proposed solutions. The problem of young peoples’ loneliness is represented as uncertainty about potential harms of digital connectedness and reduced face-to-face interactions. In contrast, the problem of loneliness among disabled youth is represented as impeded access to social realms, with technology serving a benign role as equalizer.

Little research has examined this new policy field. The article contributes to filling this gap and encourages policymakers to consider how political discourses on loneliness may lead them to overlook digital interventions young people could find beneficial.

The role of chief executive officer (CEO) personal characteristics in shaping corporate policies has attracted increasing academic attention in the past two decades. In this review, the authors synthesize extant research on CEO attributes by reviewing 232 articles published in 29 journals from the accounting, finance and management literature. This review provides an overview of existing findings, highlights current trends and interdisciplinary differences in research approaches and identifies potential avenues for future research.

To review the literature on CEO attributes, the authors manually collected peer-reviewed articles in accounting, finance and management journals from 2000 to 2021. The authors conducted in-depth analysis of each paper and manually recorded the theories, data sources, country of study, study period, measures of CEO attributes and dependent variables. This procedure helped the authors group the selected articles into themes and sub-themes. The authors compared the findings in various disciplines and provided direction for future research.

The authors highlight the role of CEO personal attributes in influencing corporate decision-making and firm outcomes. The authors categorize studies of CEO traits into three main research themes: (1) demographic attributes and experience (including age, gender, culture, experience, education); (2) CEO interactions with others (social and political networks) and (3) underlying attributes (including personality, values and ideology). The evidence shows that CEO characteristics significantly affect a wide range of specific corporate policies that serve as mechanisms through which individual CEOs determine firm success and performance.

CEO selection is one of the most crucial decisions made by corporations. The study findings provide valuable insights to corporate executives, boards, investors and practitioners into how CEOs’ personal characteristics can impact future firm decisions and outcomes that can, in turn, inform the high-stake process of CEO recruitment and selection. The study findings have significant practical implications for corporations, such as contributing to executive training programs, to assist executives and directors attain a greater level of self-awareness.

Building on the theoretical foundation of upper echelons theory, the authors offer an integrated theoretical framework to consolidate existing empirical research on the impacts of CEO personal attributes on firm outcomes across accounting and finance (A&F) and management literature. The study findings provide a roadmap for scholars to bridge the interdisciplinary divide between A&F and management research. The authors advocate a more holistic and multifaceted approach to examining CEOs, each of whom embodies a myriad of personal characteristics that comprise their unique identity. The study findings encourage future researchers to expand the investigation of the boundary conditions that magnify or moderate the impacts of CEO idiosyncrasies.