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This paper aims to critically examine the quality of professional doctorates (PDs) from the perspective of programme supervisors in terms of how quality assurance provisions have to meet their expectations.

The study employed an interpretative approach, using semi-structured interviews and online semi-structured questionnaire to generate data from 25 programme supervisors across universities in the UK. Data analysis and interpretation were carried out using the interactive data analysis approach (Miles and Huberman, 1994), the “bottom–up” approach to data analysis (Creswell, 2012) and the interpretative strategy recommended by Mason (2002). Four themes emerged from the data that encapsulated programme advisors’ perspectives: characteristics of supervisors; opportunities in institutional quality assurance provision; challenges in quality assurance process for PDs; and supervisors’ views on how quality assurance in PD can be enhanced.

Quality assurance provisions have not adequately provided for the unique characteristics of PDs owing to a number of issues including lack of clarity on the philosophy and focus of PDs and conflicting perspectives among PD supervisors relating to what should ideally constitute a quality assurance process for PDs. This paper argues that to develop a relevant and robust quality assurance provision for PDs, it would be essential to ensure that the PD fundamental philosophy and focus are coherently explained. In addition, it is crucial to ensure that quality assurance provisions cover not only the academic rigor of higher level learning but also the value and potential impact of outcomes on practice and the professions. The paper also highlights a list of useful suggestions from supervisors on how to enhance quality assurance.

The research identifies a number of issues confronting quality assurance in PDs and the need for academics and policymakers to work together to deal with these to achieve the full value in PDs. As the research was based on a sample of 25 supervisors in a conference, it would be difficult and unsustainable to generalise. Hence, further research using large sample sizes of supervisors and other stakeholders based on whole programmes would be useful to achieve a sustained understanding of how quality assurance provisions of PDs have to meet expectations of the professions and professional contexts.

To get the practical value and benefits of PDs, all stakeholders (academics, policymakers and professionals) would need to work together to ensure that appropriate quality assurance processes are developed to reflect the unique nature of the programmes.

The paper provides a critical perspective to the current debate on quality assuring PDs from the perspective of PD supervisors who have generally been left out. It highlights issues related to quality assuring PDs, the misalignment between quality assurance provisions and the philosophy and expectations of PDs, and suggests ways through which these can be appropriately addressed to enhance quality assurance in PDs. The main contribution from this research is that it brings to the fore what supervisors, who are a part of the major players in the PD process, think about the current state of quality assurance and what can be done to make it more effective.

Idiosyncratic deals are personalized employment conditions individual workers have negotiated. This study aims to investigate influences on supervisors' authorization of i‐deals and their evaluation of these arrangements.

Structural modeling was used to analyze survey data from n=263 supervisors managing telecommuting employees in the German public administration.

Supervisors differentiated among i‐deals regarding development, flexibility, and workload reduction. Their authorization of developmental i‐deals was influenced by employee initiative. Supervisors viewed these i‐deals to have positive implications for employee motivation and performance. Flexibility i‐deals were influenced by structural conditions such as the type of work the employee performed. Supervisors viewed these i‐deals to enhance work‐life benefits. Supervisors tended to grant workload reduction i‐deals in the context of unfulfilled organizational obligations towards employees.

Relying on single‐source cross‐sectional data, our results provide a managerial perspective on i‐deals. Conclusions regarding implications for employees are tentative. Recommendations for future study designs are discussed.

Managers need to better recognize that i‐deals take different forms, and these forms are associated with different outcomes. I‐deals provide a way to experiment with innovative human resource practices.

This is the first study to examine i‐deals from a supervisor perspective. It is the first to identify differential circumstances and consequences managers associate with authorizing three distinct forms of i‐deals.

Work–family research has established the existence of a crossover effect, wherein a given perception is transferable between two intimate persons. However, little research has been done to delineate this crossover process. Therefore, grounded in the conservation of resources theory, the present study aims to examine why and how a supervisor’s work–family conflict (WFC) is related to his or her subordinates’ WFC. The authors focus on three resource-related mechanisms and explore the consequences of subordinates’ WFC.

Questionnaire surveys were collected from 180 supervisor–subordinate dyads from five hotels. Mplus was used to test the framework.

The results support the notion that supervisor’s negative affect and subordinate’s workload account for the crossover effect of WFC. Moreover, subordinates’ WFC is found to be related to lower job satisfaction and higher turnover intention.

The current study highlights the downward effect of supervisors’ WFC, a phenomenon that has been understudied in the extant research. Alternative mediators or moderators in the relationship between supervisors’ WFC and subordinates’ WFC can be explored by future research.

Hotels should help supervisors to effectively manage the work and family dynamic through training and changing the “face time” culture.

Grounded in the conservation of resources theory, the authors propose a framework that incorporates WFC into the crossover model.

Many doctoral students never obtain a doctoral degree, and many do not finish their studies in time. To promote aspects of effectiveness and efficiency in doctoral studies, the purpose of this paper is to explore a project perspective, more specifically how doctoral students experience their studies in terms of key dimensions of projects.

Written reflections concerning a project perspective in doctoral studies, based on 18 students at a Swedish university, have been categorised and analysed by the means of the qualitative research software NVivo.

Main findings are reflections on the project manager role including both the supervisor and the doctoral student, and different views on project control parameters and the concepts goal-seeking and goal-orientation. A more comprehensive picture of project planning is presented, compared with the Individual Study Plan, including different project methods and tools that can be suitable in a doctoral project.

The study is based on a limited number of doctoral students; however, the aim has been to give examples of project perspectives. The findings could be valuable for increased understanding of doctoral studies and of the project management field in general.

The study can induce awareness among doctoral students and supervisors of a project perspective in doctoral studies, promoting aspects of efficiency and effectiveness.

Compared to previous research, this study explicitly tries to understand how doctoral students make sense of their doctoral studies from a project perspective.

This study aims to use a social exchange perspective to investigate the influence of organizational justice on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Survey and interview data were collected from a sample of insurance firm sales representatives in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was deployed to explore the relationship between organizational justice, trust, supervisor–subordinate guanxi and OCB.

The findings offer important theoretical, managerial and social implications for life insurers’ human resource managers.

Organizational justice is a primary influence on OCB, which is connected with the underlying mediating mechanism of trust (trust in supervisor and trust in subordinate) and supervisor–subordinate guanxi (i.e. off-the-job activities).

Subordinates can enhance guanxi with their supervisors to create a more harmonious working environment, creating mutual trust. The results suggest that supervisor–subordinate guanxi is based on long-term social exchange. How to balance fairness and efficiency is an import question for decision-makers.

This study’s examination of the role of trust and supervisor–subordinate guanxi in mediating the relationship between organizational justice and OCB expands the organizational behavior literature into a different industry (life insurance) and cultural context (Taiwan).

The purpose of the study is to investigate how the conditions of trust differ between supervisors and subordinates. By understanding these differences, it may be possible to improve the quality of a leader‐member exchange (LMX).

This is a quantitative study using supervisor and subordinate dyads from Portugal.

Supervisors reported that receptivity, availability, and discreteness were perceived to be more important in building a quality vertical dyad linkage as represented by LMX. Subordinates reported that availability, competence, discreteness, integrity, and openness were more important for building a quality vertical dyad linkage as represented by LMX.

Status differences between supervisors and subordinates appear to influence conditions of trust. Supervisors are more concerned about conditions of trust that deal with supervisory delegation. Subordinates are more concerned about the conditions of trust based on interactional justice.

This research implies that trust is different between supervisors and subordinates. The research is important in building supervisor and subordinate relationships as both need to act in manners that engenders trust from the other side. The difference in conditions of trust may create conflicting expectations about how to effectively build trust.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations adopted remote work policies. Meanwhile, the loss of the collocated work environment made it challenging for the supervisors to have a clear vision of their employees, which may impact the quality of the performance evaluation and developmental decisions. This paper aims to resolve this problem by identifying resources in the remote workplace that can help supervisors restore their capacity for a clear vision of the remote employees.

The authors take the perspectives of the job resource-demand model and illustrate the theoretical framework that recognizes resources and resource holders at various levels of the organization. The authors see this as the key for supervisors to meet the demand of “seeing” their employees in the remote workplace.

Specifically, the employees should offer their information resources via skillful communication because supervisors have lost opportunities for in-person observation. Further, the administration is urged to deliver competence resources through training and development because supervisors may lack the experience of remote work management. Moreover, the organizations should provide social support resources by creating avenues for virtual networking activities, so as to make up the random social opportunities available in the collocated work environment.

Improving supervisors’ vision is a new challenge coming with the installation of the remote workplace. Further research is called for to empirically test this theoretical framework and identify more ways to increase the resources and reduce the demands for supervisors; thus, helping them ease into the new ways of supervision in the virtual workplace.

This research informs the organizations to adjust their strategy for management development to adapt to the remote workplace.

The authors noted that increasing concerns of the low visibility of remote workers was partially due to the impaired vision of supervisors, who lost the context of in-person observation. Supervisors’ vision of their employees was taken for granted in the traditional work environment and there was not much research done on this topic. This prompted us to develop a theoretical framework based on the job resource demand model.

Many universities international activities have increased enormously in volume, scope, and complexity in recent years (Altbach & Knight, 2007; Altbach, 2015) with education providers seeking more innovative ways to provide education across boundaries. Joint doctoral degrees are one example of such an initiative, focusing on international collaboration between institutions. Joint doctorates can provide richer and more rewarding learning experiences for PhD students, supervisors and collaborating institutions. However, all the parties involved also need to be aware of the potential challenges and considerations that underpin effective outcomes, as well as the key differences between joint degree doctorates and doctorates with more traditional approaches. It has been pointed out that the literature on joint degree programmes is ‘thin’ providing limited information for institutional leaders (and other parties involved in their setting up and conduct) who may be contemplating joint degree initiatives (Michael & Balraj, 2003). This chapter draws on a unique case study of a joint doctoral programme that operates across continents and academic cultures to illustrate the challenges and considerations that should be borne in mind prior to entering into joint doctoral arrangements. Various ways in which the associated challenges may be overcome are also suggested in order to support effective outcomes for all the parties involved.

Organizational socialization refers to the process by which newcomers learn to perform in their role and adjust to work after organizational entry. Unfortunately, there is little knowledge regarding organizational socialization from the supervisors’ perspectives, although the importance of supervisors in newcomer socialization is one of the most robust findings in the field. The purpose of this paper is to examine how supervisors’ perceived organizational support (supervisor POS) and the quality of their working relationships with newcomers (supervisor leader-member exchange (LMX)) relate to the delegation of authority to newcomers and how delegation in turn relates to newcomers’ work adjustment.

A sample of new employees completed questionnaires that included delegation and socialization outcome measures. Supervisors evaluated their POS and the quality of their working relationships with newcomers (LMX).

The results showed that supervisor POS moderated the relationship between supervisor LMX and delegation. Specifically, supervisors with high POS showed delegation to newcomers irrespective of their LMX. Conversely, when supervisors’ POS was low, a high LMX was related to delegation. The results further showed that delegation was positively related to newcomers’ role clarity, organizational knowledge, and job satisfaction. Finally, the results showed indirect effects of supervisor LMX on newcomers’ role clarity and job satisfaction through delegation contingent on supervisor POS.

This study showed that a supervisor’s social exchange relations both with the organization and with a new employee are important in the delegation of authority and responsibility to a newcomer and that this delegation in turn relates to newcomers’ work adjustment.

In management research, little is known about how ethno-racial minority leaders interact with similar employees in supervisor–subordinate relationships. This study aims to examine and provide a deeper understanding of individuals’ negative reactions to similar others, thus highlighting the double-edged nature of demographic similarity which has historically predicted positive affective reactions.

Using a survey design, the authors collected data from supervisor-subordinate dyads from multiple companies from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in Texas, USA. They used ordinary least squares regression and conditional process analysis to test the hypotheses, including a two-stage moderation and moderated mediation.

Incorporating social context, i.e. minority status, as a moderator, the results show that ethno-racial minority leaders supervising ethno-racially similar subordinates were more vulnerable to relationship conflict than non-minority dyads. This, in turn, is linked to a reduction in the leaders’ feelings of trust toward their ethno-racially similar subordinate.

This study draws on social identity theory and status characteristics theory to explain the contradictory processes and outcomes associated with dyadic ethno-racial similarity and suggests the conditions under which dyad racial similarity is connected with unfavorable outcomes. This framework helps to broaden the boundary conditions of relational demography to provide a more nuanced explanation of when and why minority leaders in demographically similar hierarchical dyads experience more relationship conflict, which ultimately diminishes trust.