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This paper aims to discover the effectiveness of Farsi-English query using ontology.

The present study is quasi-experimental. The sample consisted of 60 students and graduate and doctoral staff from Shiraz University and the Regional Center for Science and Technology. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to assess the level of English language proficiency of users, background knowledge and their level of satisfaction with search results before and after using ontology. Each user also evaluated the relevance of the top ten results on the Google search engine results page before and after using ontology.

The findings showed that the level of complexity of the task, the use of ontology, the interactive effect of the level of complexity of the task with the domain knowledge of the users, and the interactive effect of the level of complexity of the task with ontology, influence the effectiveness of retrieval results from the users' point of view. The results of the present study also showed that the level of complexity of the task, the use of ontology, and the interactive effect of the level of complexity of the task and the use of ontology, affect the level of user satisfaction.

The results of this research are significant in both theoretical and practical aspects. Theoretically, given the lack of research in which the interactive effect of the use of ontology has examined the level of complexity of tasks and domain knowledge of users, the present study can be considered as an attempt to improve information retrieval systems. From a practical point of view, the results of this research will help researchers and designers of information retrieval systems to understand that the use of ontologies can be used to retrieve information and improve the query and assess the needs of users and their satisfaction in this field, and ultimately, making the information retrieval process more effective.

This paper aims to solve the major assessment problem in matching the satisfaction of psychological gratification and mission accomplishment pertaining to volunteers with the disaster rescue and recovery tasks.

An extended belief rule-based (EBRB) method is applied with the method's input and output parameters classified based on expert knowledge and data from literature. These parameters include volunteer self-satisfaction, experience, peer-recognition, and cooperation. First, the model parameters are set; then, the parameters are optimized through data envelopment analysis (DEA) and differential evolution (DE) algorithm. Finally, a numerical mountain rescue example and comparative analysis between with-DEA and without-DEA are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. The proposed model is suitable for a two-way matching evaluation between rescue tasks and volunteers.

Disasters are unexpected events in which emergency rescue is crucial to human survival. When a disaster occurs, volunteers provide crucial assistance to official rescue teams. This paper finds that decision-makers have a better understanding of two-sided match objects through bilateral feedback over time. With the changing of the matching preference information between rescue tasks and volunteers, the satisfaction of volunteer's psychological gratification and mission accomplishment are also constantly changing. Therefore, considering matching preference information and satisfaction at two-sided match objects simultaneously is necessary to get reasonable target values of matching results for rescue tasks and volunteers.

Based on the authors' novel EBRB method, a matching assessment model is constructed, with two-sided matching of volunteers to rescue tasks. This method will provide matching suggestions in the field of emergency dispatch and contribute to the assessment of emergency plans around the world.

This study aims to test and analyze the effect of continuous commitment, task complexity, competence and personal value on employee performance millennial intervening job satisfaction.

This research method is quantitative with a sequential explanatory design, then data collection through a questionnaire, with a sample of 205 respondents—data analysis using Structural Equation Model (SEM) with the software Linear Structural Relationship (LISREL).

The results of research on the performance of millennial employees with intervening work satisfaction showed that continuous commitment (2.49), task complexity (2.74) and professional competence (2.0) had a significant effect. This means that the performance of millennial employees will increase if they get job satisfaction. With satisfaction, the commitment and competence of millennial employees are high. While the research results for the performance of millennial employees have a direct influence, only professional competence (2.27) and task complexity (4.06) are significant. This means that as high as professional competence is characterized by intellectual, emotional mood and attitude, owned by millennial employees, the resulting performance is increased even with complex tasks.

The findings of this study have significance for enhancing organizational performance so that businesses can maximize the performance of millennial employees by paying attention to job satisfaction, professional competence and personal values.

This research's contribution to millennial workers is to help them improve and develop their performance, allowing them to compete more effectively. The findings of this study have significance for enhancing organizational performance so that businesses can maximize the performance of millennial employees by paying attention to job satisfaction, professional competence and personal values.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between job characteristics (JC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) moderated by job satisfaction (JS) among educators in the higher education institutions in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman, taking into consideration that most educators at the higher education institutions in this area are expatriates.

A sample of 157 faculty members and instructors was used. Five job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback) and five OCB behaviors (altruism, civic virtue, courtesy, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship) were studied. The overall job satisfaction was measured with seven general items adopted from Al-Damour and Awamleh (2002). Data were collected voluntarily using social media network announcements and pencil and paper. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used in testing this moderation relationship.

Results showed that job satisfaction plays a significant moderating effect in enhancing the relationship between four out of the five job characteristics (feedback, skill variety, task identity and autonomy) and only two out of five OCB behaviors, namely, altruism and courtesy. Also, culture showed no significant impact on results.

Using a self-reporting tool, the respondents could give biased responses that might influence results. In addition, the use a complex relationship to establish a causality relationship among many variables measured with many items did make it difficult and sometimes errored out using SEM analysis.

This study delivers important suggestions to the management of these institutions as well as higher education administration about how to enhance their educators’ OCBs as a source of competitive advantage taking into consideration that expatriates work within certain legal and social contexts.

With very limited related research covering this region, this study provides an insight into how educators’ OCBs can be enhanced within unique employment structures and policies designed for expatriate educators in the GCC countries.

We suggest that, in some specific settings, individuals may distinguish and be sensitive not only to the distributive, procedural, social, and informational dimensions of justice, but also subdivide the distributive justice dimension into two facets‐reward and task distributive justice. Results of three studies with Portuguese public university teachers reveal that a five‐factor model of justice (distribution of tasks, distribution of rewards, procedural, interpersonal, informational) is adequate, although factor analyses are not categorical in distinguishing interpersonal and informational justice. Results also show that individuals who work with high autonomy and outside close supervisory control in performing their jobs may be very sensitive to the way they feel treated by their superiors, even accepting as normal that the superiors make decisions with no participation, a finding that may be due to the feminine, affiliative, and high power distance cultural context.

The purpose of this article is to understand the role of individual and relational self‐concepts on various team processes and outcomes in a team context.

Participants (n=470) worked in dyads on a computer‐based truck dispatching task, deciding as a team which task activities to perform and in what order. The authors assessed differential relationships between individual and relational self‐concepts and various team processes (e.g. trust) and outcomes (satisfaction).

Subjective task complexity was influenced primarily by individual self‐concept, specifically their core self‐evaluations. Trust in others was influenced primarily by individuals' relational self‐concepts, specifically their teamwork predisposition. Intrinsic motivation and satisfaction were influenced by both individual and relational self‐concepts.

Future research should examine these effects in teams larger than dyads, with other types of tasks, over longer time periods, and with non‐college student samples.

Depending on the task type, a practitioner might cue different self‐concepts to increase individuals' focus on team performance, individual performance, or both. For example, if the team task is highly interdependent and reciprocal in nature, then the team can be trained together or provided information to cue relational self‐concept.

This paper focuses on the construct of individual and relational self‐concepts and their effects on individual functioning in a team context. The results support and extend prior research by demonstrating that outcomes in a team context can be identified and examined in relation to individual conceptions of the self, relational conceptions of the self, or by both.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a piece of research concerning the practice of Cypriot school principals’ instructional role and its effect on teachers’ job satisfaction, and also to investigate whether higher levels of teachers’ job satisfaction can be predicted when school principals deal with and accomplish their instructional tasks.

Quantitative methods were used (two questionnaires) together with qualitative methods (observation, interviews, informal conversations, and collection of artifacts).

The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that higher levels of teachers’ job satisfaction are not predicted when principals deal with and accomplish their instructional tasks. This result is rather unexpected, considering the trends of modern bibliography regarding the value and effects on teachers of principal’s instructional and transformational leadership. The triangulation of the results helped the authors to re-examine the research question and creates a deeper understanding of the practice of principals’ instructional role and the sources of teachers’ job satisfaction.

The results are analyzed and discussed in order to reach conclusions about the evaluation, selection, and training of school principals. Through the description of the instructional practice of school principals, useful information concerning teachers’ job satisfaction are also provided. Finally, the conclusions of this research may prove useful for educational policy makers, since they can guide them on the successful implementation of changes. Changes are needed in the evaluation and promotion system of Cyprus and in the content of principals’ training programs. School principals must be taught different leadership styles (e.g. transformational and transactional leadership) and learn to modify their leadership behavior according to the situation and the professional maturity of their teachers. In this way, they will be able to increase the level of teachers’ satisfaction as to become more effective in their teaching.

At a time when instructional/transformational leadership is presented to be a panacea for many educational issues, including raising teachers’ job satisfaction, this research with its mixed methodology highlights the complexity and the various interpretations of these concepts and also provides explanations on why many principals do not act as instructional leaders.

The purpose of this study is to explore alternative models of substitutes for leadership. These alternative models are a leadership-only model, substitutes for the leadership-only model and substitutes for the leadership-mediated-effects model.

Four occupational groups were targeted, namely, PhD faculty of institutions of higher education, medical doctors who work in district headquarters’ hospitals, licensed pharmacists and certified engineers. Also, a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data, and 523 usable responses were received.

Partial least square path modeling was used for data analysis, and the results of structural models revealed that: the dimensions of transformational leadership significantly affected the followers’ outcomes; a few substitutes for leadership also significantly affected the followers’ outcomes; and, in some cases, substitutes for leadership significantly mediated the relationship between dimensions of transformational leadership and followers’ outcomes.

Findings of the study provide useful implications to improve the managerial practices of organizational leaders, work design strategies in organizations and overall organizational policies for effective functioning. Other developing countries with similar socio-economic status may use these findings to improve organizational functioning.

This study makes important contributions to the leadership literature. It tests three alternative models in the domain of substitutes for the leadership theory and tests the separate effects of dimensions of transformational leadership and substitutes for leadership on followers’ work outcomes. Further, it specifies the mediating effects of substitutes for leadership on the dimensions of transformational leadership and followers’ work outcomes. Most important, this study for the first time tests transformational leadership and substitutes for leadership concepts in Pakistani work settings and advances the theoretical and empirical literature in this local context.

Based on a survey of British and Danish Library Managers the paper explores the concept of job satisfaction and its relation to stress, job content and job conditions. The paper evokes the theories of Hofstede as a tentative explanation of national differences. The paper sets out to analyse job satisfaction in relation to a range of demographic variables. On the basis of a multitude of questions and statements the author forms several composite variables. They concern factors such as stress, freedom in the job, perception of management style and the actual job content. Hofstede's theories about cultural differences are at least partly confirmed through the analysis. They cannot explain all the differences, but at least some of the major ones. It is also evident that nationality plays a significant role in relation to factors such as stress and freedom in decision making. The paper also hints that an intervening variable could be the way nations adopt different methods to reorganise the public sector. A last point made in the paper is the partial rejection of a generic theory about job satisfaction. The factors tend to be the same, but the weighting of the single factor and its significance are influenced by background factors such as nationality, size of the employing institution and the mix of tasks in the job.

Previous studies on job characteristics have been performed mainly in Western contexts. More empirical evidence is needed to understand the important job characteristics of positive job outcomes in a non‐Western context. Therefore, this research has two objectives: to assess the impact of five job characteristics on work attitudes and behaviors in the UAE, and to test the mediating impact of distributive justice on the job characteristics‐work outcomes relationship.

The study reports responses of 350 employees from five large organizations operating in Dubai. Data were collected on a structured questionnaire containing standards scales of job characteristics, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, distributive justice, and some demographic variables. After testing scales reliability and validity, the proposed linear relationships were tested using a series of separate hierarchical regression analyses. Proposed mediation hypotheses were tested using Baron and Kenny's recommendations.

Consistent with studies conducted in a Western context, the study showed that skill variety and feedback have functional impacts on job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Contrary to Western studies, the study reported that task identity and task significance have functional effects on work attitudes and behaviors. Autonomy also showed unexpected positive relationship with turnover intentions. Additionally, distributive justice mediates some of the relationships between job characteristics and work outcomes.

The limitations of common method bias and cross‐sectional data are discussed in the light of implications for future research. Nevertheless, the results provide new insights on the influence of job characteristics on work outcomes in a non‐Western context of the UAE. Also, the study reported evidence for the mediating impact of distributive justice on the job characteristics‐work outcomes relationship.

The study has implications for enhancing work behaviors and attitudes. In general, enhancing certain job characteristics can result in higher‐level employee outcomes. Also, managers should improve some of the contextual factor (i.e. distributive justice) in order to enhance the impact of job characteristics on work outcomes.

The study is considered to be one of the first to examine the job characteristics‐work outcomes relationship in a non‐western context of the UAE. Also, it is among the first studies to test the role of distributive justice as a mediator for the job characteristics‐work outcome relationship.