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Social media is becoming more prevalent in the higher education classroom. As part of an ongoing study, the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications at Texas A&M University surveyed leadership students about their perceptions of their level of comfort and frequency of use of social media tools and the advantages and disadvantages that these students perceived when social media was used in the leadership classroom. A total of 79 students were surveyed in two upper level leadership courses. Facebook was the social media tool students were most comfortable with and used most frequently. Advantages included social media helping increase quality and efficiency of communication between students and the instructor, social media as a technological norm, access to class information, ease of collaboration, and stronger social connections between classmates. Disadvantages revolved around issues of use of and access to social media.

In colleges of agriculture leadership education is one area of study where enrollment and demand are outstripping the capacity of institutions to deliver the coursework. However, few faculty members are prepared to teach leadership contextually based in agriculture. Responding to this challenge, the Leadership Education Institute (LEI) for faculty in colleges of agriculture was created. The primary goal of the project was to prepare agricultural faculty to teach leadership as a secondary discipline. This multi-year project, funded by a USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant, was a collaboration of faculty from Oklahoma State University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the University of Georgia. The project resulted in directly impacting food and agricultural sciences education at 10 institutions across the nation by improving teaching competency of leadership education faculty in colleges of agriculture.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organisations to transform face-to-face teams into virtual ones through the adoption of remote working modes. This event has represented the starting point of a process that is changing how management control (MC) systems are designed and implemented to guide employees towards organisational objectives. The previous literature on virtual teams (VTs) has devoted scant attention to MC issues. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring how MC – and particularly cultural control – has changed to cope with the shift from face-to-face to VTs and by analysing the interrelationship between the different control mechanisms and the resulting tensions.

The research adopts the methodological framework based on abduction to provide a theoretical explanation and conceptualisation of MC in virtual settings. To tackle the research objective, this work undertakes a cross-sectional field study based on semi-structured interviews with managers of different service companies.

The results of the research highlight the key challenges that managers are called to deal with to design and change MC systems when implementing remote working. In particular, managers must cope with the reduced possibility to leverage cultural controls. To do this, this study’s analysis found that managers act by introducing and/or removing formal and informal controls and by orchestrating the interplays and tensions between these mechanisms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, to date limited attention has been paid to MC in VTs. Moreover, few researchers have investigated the process of MC change from face-to-face to VTs. This work aims to contribute to this nascent stream of literature by providing interesting implications for both research and practice.

This paper focuses on image-to-text manuscript processing through Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), a Machine Learning (ML) approach enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI). With HTR now achieving high levels of accuracy, we consider its potential impact on our near-future information environment and knowledge of the past.

In undertaking a more constructivist analysis, we identified gaps in the current literature through a Grounded Theory Method (GTM). This guided an iterative process of concept mapping through writing sprints in workshop settings. We identified, explored and confirmed themes through group discussion and a further interrogation of relevant literature, until reaching saturation.

Catalogued as part of our GTM, 120 published texts underpin this paper. We found that HTR facilitates accurate transcription and dataset cleaning, while facilitating access to a variety of historical material. HTR contributes to a virtuous cycle of dataset production and can inform the development of online cataloguing. However, current limitations include dependency on digitisation pipelines, potential archival history omission and entrenchment of bias. We also cite near-future HTR considerations. These include encouraging open access, integrating advanced AI processes and metadata extraction; legal and moral issues surrounding copyright and data ethics; crediting individuals’ transcription contributions and HTR’s environmental costs.

Our research produces a set of best practice recommendations for researchers, data providers and memory institutions, surrounding HTR use. This forms an initial, though not comprehensive, blueprint for directing future HTR research. In pursuing this, the narrative that HTR’s speed and efficiency will simply transform scholarship in archives is deconstructed.

This paper aims to explore the direction and extent of changes in the approach of organisations to employee development that have occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research is of a qualitative nature. The thematic exploration uses the analysis of findings from 19 in-depth interviews with experienced HR managers and is preceded by desk research.

The findings advance our understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected developmental processes in organisations. The results indicate, apart from the change in the form and methodology of employee trainings due to the pandemic, that employees also desire new subjects to aid their development. One also noticed decreased employee engagement and increased fatigue with the use of multiple, online development initiatives.

For learning and development (L&D) practitioners, there are implications in relation to tailoring developmental offerings to fit the needs of employees to help them to progress more in the course of their work. In this new reality, an agile approach to employee development can work much better. The activities of the L&D departments should also take into greater account the changing and unpredictable reality as well as the evolving nature of information and communication technologies (ICT). The COVID-19 pandemic may contribute to the analysis and modernisation of existing offerings for development in organisations and foster a culture of lifelong learning.

This research makes an important contribution to the literature by examining the impact of situational context on modifications in development activities undertaken in organisations. The results indicate the need to change the existing role of L&D teams in organisations, taking into account the maximum use of e-learning potential, while understanding its limitations. It can be assumed that while the pandemic develops, designing hybrid learning will become even more important and L&D professionals will focus on combining the flexibility of self-training and available online resources with highly engaging real-world experiences.

This study aims to explore how businesswomen running micro and small enterprises (MSEs) use social media (SM) to engage customers. The study also investigates how SM (vs traditional media) and customer engagement improve business performance.

This qualitative study is based on interviews with businesswomen.

Businesswomen use SM actively but not effectively. SM are used primarily for advertising and promotion. External factors, such as family and friends, are more influential in the decision of women to use SM in business. Women mostly use defensive rather than offensive strategies. Effective use of SM in conjunction with conventional marketing tools can improve customer engagement and increase business performance.

The research findings are valuable for marketing managers, women entrepreneurs and micro and small businesses in making decisions to effectively use SM.

This study investigates customer engagement from the owner/manager’s perspective in contrast to the general customer-centric approach. The study contributes analysing an important and scarcely explored area, which is the use of SM by women-run MSEs in less developed countries to engage consumers.

Este estudio explora cómo las mujeres de negocios que dirigen micro y pequeñas empresas (MSE) utilizan las redes sociales para atraer a los clientes. El estudio también investiga cómo las redes sociales (frente a los medios tradicionales) y la involucración de los clientes mejoran el rendimiento empresarial.

Este estudio cualitativo se basa en entrevistas con mujeres empresarias.

Las mujeres empresarias utilizan las redes sociales de forma activa, pero no eficaz. Las redes sociales se utilizan principalmente para la publicidad y la promoción. Los factores externos, como la familia y los amigos, influyen más en la decisión de las mujeres de utilizar las redes sociales en los negocios. Las empresarias utilizan sobre todo estrategias defensivas en lugar de ofensivas. El uso eficaz de las redes sociales junto con las herramientas de marketing convencionales puede mejorar el compromiso de los clientes y aumentar el rendimiento de la empresa.

Los resultados de la investigación son valiosos para las directivas de marketing, las mujeres empresarias y las micro y pequeñas empresas a la hora de tomar decisiones y para utilizar eficazmente las redes sociales.

Este estudio investiga el compromiso del cliente desde la perspectiva del propietario/gerente en contraste con el enfoque general centrado en el cliente. El estudio contribuye a analizar un área importante y escasamente explorada, que es el uso de las redes sociales por parte de las microempresas dirigidas por mujeres en los países menos desarrollados para involucrar a los consumidores.

本研究探讨了经营微型和小型企业（MSEs）的女商人如何使用社交媒体来吸引客户。该研究还调查了社交媒体（相对于传统媒体）和客户参与如何提高企业绩效。

这项定性研究是基于对女商人的采访。

女商人积极使用社交媒体, 但并非有效。社交媒体主要用于广告和推广。外部因素, 如家庭和朋友, 对妇女在商业中使用社交媒体的决定更有影响力。女性大多使用防御性而非进攻性策略。将社交媒体与传统的营销工具有效地结合起来使用, 可以提高客户的参与度, 增加企业的业绩。

研究结果对营销经理、女企业家和小微企业做出有效使用社交媒体的决定很有价值。

本研究从业主/经理的角度调查了客户参与度, 与一般的以客户为中心的方法不同。该研究有助于分析一个重要的、很少被探索的领域, 即欠发达国家的妇女经营的微型企业使用社交媒体来吸引消费者。

This paper is one of the first studies to examine specificities, including limits of mindfulness at work in an African organisational context, whilst dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It specifically addresses the role of organisational and managerial support systems in restoring employee wellbeing, social connectedness and attachment to their organisations, in order to overcome the exclusion caused by the ongoing pandemic.

The study uses a qualitative research methodology that includes interviews as the main data source. The sample comprises of 20 entrepreneurs (organisational leaders) from Ghana and Nigeria.

The authors found that COVID-19-induced worries restricted the practice of mindfulness, and this was prevalent at the peak of the pandemic, particularly due to very tough economic conditions caused by reduction in salaries, and intensified by pre-existing general economic and social insecurities, and institutional voids in Africa. This aspect further resulted in lack of engagement and lack of commitment, which affected overall team performance and restricted employees’ mindfulness at work. Hence, quietness by employees even though can be linked to mindfulness was linked to larger psychological stress that they were facing. The authors also found leaders/manager’s emotional intelligence, social skills and organisational support systems to be helpful in such circumstances. However, their effectiveness varied among the cases.

This paper is one of the first studies to establish a link between the COVID-19 pandemic and mindfulness limitations. Moreover, it is a pioneering study specifically highlighting the damaging impact of COVID-19-induced concerns on leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) relationships, particularly in the African context. It further brings in a unique discussion on the mitigating mechanisms of such COVID-19-induced concerns in organisations and highlights the roles of manager’s/leader’s emotional intelligence, social skills and supportive intervention patterns. Finally, the authors offer an in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of organisational interventions and supportive relational systems in restoring social connectedness following a social exclusion caused by COVID-19-induced worries.