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1 – 10 of over 2000Shaoyu Zeng, Yinghui Wu and Yang Yu
The paper formulates a bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming model, aimed at minimizing the total labor hours and the workload unfairness for the multi-skilled worker…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper formulates a bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming model, aimed at minimizing the total labor hours and the workload unfairness for the multi-skilled worker assignment problem in Seru production system (SPS).
Design/methodology/approach
Three approaches, namely epsilon-constraint method, non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm 2 (NSGA-II) and improved strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA2), are designed for solving the problem.
Findings
Numerous experiments are performed to assess the applicability of the proposed model and evaluate the performance of algorithms. The merged Pareto-fronts obtained from both NSGA-II and SPEA2 were proposed as final solutions to provide useful information for decision-makers.
Practical implications
SPS has the flexibility to respond to the changing demand for small amount production of multiple varieties products. Assigning cross-trained workers to obtain flexibility has emerged as a major concern for the implementation of SPS. Most enterprises focus solely on measures of production efficiency, such as minimizing the total throughput time. Solutions based on optimizing efficiency measures alone can be unacceptable by workers who have high proficiency levels when they are achieved at the expense of the workers taking more workload. Therefore, study the tradeoff between production efficiency and fairness in the multi-skilled worker assignment problem is very important for SPS.
Originality/value
The study investigates a new mixed-integer programming model to optimize worker-to-seru assignment, batch-to-seru assignment and task-to-worker assignment in SPS. In order to solve the proposed problem, three problem-specific solution approaches are proposed.
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Carolyn Timms, Paula Brough and Deborah Graham
This research sought to identify groups of school employees who were more similar in their responses to burnout and engagement measures, for the purpose of exploring what was…
Abstract
Purpose
This research sought to identify groups of school employees who were more similar in their responses to burnout and engagement measures, for the purpose of exploring what was similar in their school experiences. The profiles created in the present research enable a clearer appreciation of what is common to groups of school employees who are experiencing empowerment, ambivalence or distress in their work environments.
Design/methodology/approach
The current research used K‐means cluster analysis to identify school employees (n=953) who were most similar in regard to levels of burnout and engagement in order to achieve some sense of what was common at a group level.
Findings
This process identified five distinct respondent profiles using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Subsequent MANOVA analyses identified significant differences between cluster groups on the six areas of work‐life (control, workload, reward, community, fairness and values) and hours of work.
Practical implications
One of the most pressing problems faced by school administrators is that of identifying the most appropriate and strategic interventions to use with teaching staff in order to maintain motivation in the face of work pressures. The current research provides some practical insights into the experiences of school employees that may provide direction for such administrators.
Originality/value
By grouping respondents with similar attitudes towards their work this research has provided for more insight into the experiences to those respondents who do not fall at either end of the burnout‐engagement continuum. As such it provides for more effective intervention strategies with employees who are at‐risk.
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Carol Wong, Edmund J. Walsh, Kayla N. Basacco, Monica C. Mendes Domingues and Darrin R.H. Pye
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of managers’ authentic leadership, person–job match in the six areas of worklife (AWLs) and emotional exhaustion on long-term…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of managers’ authentic leadership, person–job match in the six areas of worklife (AWLs) and emotional exhaustion on long-term care registered nurses’ job satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
A secondary analysis of baseline data from a national survey of 1,410 Canadian registered nurses from various work settings was used in this study, which yielded a subsample of 78 nurses working in direct care roles in long-term care settings. Hayes’ PROCESS macro for mediation analysis in SPSS was used to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
Findings showed that authentic leadership significantly predicted job satisfaction directly and indirectly through AWLs and emotional exhaustion.
Practical implications
Authentic leadership may provide guidance to long-term care managers about promoting nurses’ job satisfaction, which is essential to recruiting and retaining nurses to meet the care needs of an aging population.
Originality/value
As demand for care of the aged is increasing and creating challenges to ensuring a sufficient and sustainable nursing workforce, it is important to understand factors that promote long-term care nurses’ job satisfaction. Findings contribute to knowledge of long-term care nurses by suggesting that managers’ authentic leadership can positively affect nurses’ job satisfaction directly and indirectly through positive perceptions of AWLs and lower emotional exhaustion.
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Michael P Leiter and Christina Maslach
This chapter evaluates a model of the organizational context of burnout with direct reference to a new measure, the Areas of Worklife Scale (AWS). The model proposes a structured…
Abstract
This chapter evaluates a model of the organizational context of burnout with direct reference to a new measure, the Areas of Worklife Scale (AWS). The model proposes a structured framework for considering six areas of worklife – workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values – that have resonated through the literature on burnout over the previous two decades. The chapter presents extensive data on the AWS, testing a model of the six areas’ interrelationships as well as their overall relationship to the three aspects of burnout. The results of these analyses are discussed in reference to the psychometric qualities of the measure and the implications of a structured approach to work environments for future development of research on burnout. Implications for developing workplace interventions are also considered.
Mouxuan Sun, Fangwei Zhu and Xiuxia Sun
The present study investigated how different factors interact and work in concert to influence construction professionals’ burnout (hereafter CPs’ burnout) in China.
Abstract
Purpose
The present study investigated how different factors interact and work in concert to influence construction professionals’ burnout (hereafter CPs’ burnout) in China.
Design/methodology/approach
A sequential mixed-method approach was chosen for this research. Twenty-two interviews were conducted and analysed, and we identified ten influencing factors associated with CPs’ burnout. Subsequently, a sample of 232 questionnaires was analysed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to ascertain the eight configurations of CPs’ high and low burnout.
Findings
The key findings include the following: first, perceived workload, role ambiguity, role conflict, emotional demand, work-home interference, relationships with supervisors, autonomy, fairness of rewards, support from project team and self-efficacy are the ten factors influencing CPs’ burnout; second, experienced and less experienced construction professionals take different paths towards high or low burnout; and third, among construction professionals, perceived workload and burnout are not necessarily correlated. We found that autonomy plays a crucial role in this process.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to adopt a configurational approach for understanding influencing factors of CPs’ burnout. The strength of the present study is its sequential mixed-method approach, which forms a loop between the qualitative and quantitative studies.
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Christina Ling-hsing Chang and Sheng Wu
The speedy development of information technology (IT) is indeed a significant issue to support the enterprises to spread their products and services to their customers. Although…
Abstract
Purpose
The speedy development of information technology (IT) is indeed a significant issue to support the enterprises to spread their products and services to their customers. Although the adoption of IT in the enterprises can help employees' work, it will increase their work exhaustion and job burnout too.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey data of this study was collected from Chinese IT personnel (ITP): 543 and Chinese information systems (IS)/IT users: 525, totaling 1,068 respondents.
Findings
The result shows that the influences of the organizational factors and guanxi on the work exhaustion are different between Chinese ITP and IS/IT users in the research model. Also the implications of the study are discussed and made some contribution to the research and management practice.
Originality/value
By comparison between the Chinese ITP and IS/IT users, this study shows that guanxi can be antecedent factor to some organizational factors, and the organizational factors guanxi have had a different effect on the work exhaustion of Chinese ITP and IS/IT users. Given that the critical successes to the organizations, management should focus on what direction to reduce Chinese ITP and IS/IT users work exhaustion.
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Morgan P. Miles, C. David Shepherd, Jacob M. Rose and Mark Dibben
While collegiality is often discussed and touted as a critical aspect of academia, there is little research that empirically examines collegiality in university business schools…
Abstract
Purpose
While collegiality is often discussed and touted as a critical aspect of academia, there is little research that empirically examines collegiality in university business schools. One cause of the paucity of research is the lack of a reliable scale to measure collegiality (Sabharwal, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale that measures collegiality at the departmental level for university faculty, and then uses it to understand the implications of collegiality within an academic department within a business school.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study uses a scale development process consisting of: defining the domain of the construct; item generation; and psychometric assessment of the scale’s reliability and validity. Items were adapted for a university business school context from Shah (2011) and Seigel and Miner-Rubino (2009). The scale was administrated using a convenience non-random sample design drawn from active marketing and entrepreneurship academics who subscribe to the American Marketing Association’s ELMAR and the Academy of Management’s ENTRE list-serves.
Findings
The faculty collegiality scale (FCS) was found to exhibit sound psychometric properties in this study. The study found that assessments of department-level collegiality are associated with budgets, performance evaluation processes, and workload allocations. In addition, factors from the FCS mediate the relationships between institutional variables and work satisfaction, which indicate that collegiality is an important determinant of work satisfaction in a contemporary university environment.
Originality/value
The FCS developed in the present study offers business school academics and administrators a glimpse into the dimensions of what the marketing and entrepreneurship academics perceive makes a good colleague – one that provides professional and social support and is trustworthy; does not engage in politics, positioning, or rent-seeking to advantage their own situation; and that contributes to the well-being of the students, the department, the discipline and the university. In addition, the present study found that the FCS was related to budgets, performance evaluation processes, and faculty workloads.
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Jonathan K.M. Lian and Florence Y.Y. Ling
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the job satisfaction level of quantity surveyors (QSs); identify the personal characteristics that influence their job satisfaction;…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the job satisfaction level of quantity surveyors (QSs); identify the personal characteristics that influence their job satisfaction; and provide recommendations to employers on how to enhance job satisfaction of QSs with different personal characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire to QSs in Singapore.
Findings
QSs feel that they have significantly high passion for the job, are significantly satisfied with task variety and are treated fairly. However, they are significantly dissatisfied with their workload, hours worked, and lack of work-life balance. QSs in upper management have significantly higher job passion. Those in mid-management are more dissatisfied with their income. QSs who are married/attached, older, and more experienced are significantly more dissatisfied with their workload and hours worked than singles, younger, and less experienced QSs.
Research limitations/implications
Some dimensions of job satisfaction were not measured. Non-personal characteristics such as type of projects handled and type of clients were not investigated.
Practical implications
Employers should investigate what goes into QSs’ workload, and weed out those that are of low value and unproductive in order to reduce their workload and hours worked, and thereby increase their job satisfaction.
Social implications
The study contributes to human resource management by identifying the type of QSs who are more likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs.
Originality/value
This study shows that personal differences of QSs affect different dimensions of their job satisfaction. To maximize job satisfaction, employers could choose QSs who have specific characteristics, make changes to the work environment or redesign their jobs.
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Rabiatu Bonku, Faisal Alkaabneh and Lauren Berrings Davis
Inspired by a food bank distribution operation, this paper aims to study synchronized vehicle routing for equitable and effective food allocation. The primary goal is to improve…
Abstract
Purpose
Inspired by a food bank distribution operation, this paper aims to study synchronized vehicle routing for equitable and effective food allocation. The primary goal is to improve operational efficiency while ensuring equitable and effective food distribution among the partner agencies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study introduces a multiobjective Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model aimed at addressing the complex challenge of effectively distributing food, particularly for food banks serving vulnerable populations in low-income urban and rural areas. The optimization approach described in this paper places a significant emphasis on social and economic considerations by fairly allocating food to food bank partner agencies while minimizing routing distance and waste. To assess the performance of the approach, this paper evaluates three distinct models, focusing on key performance measures such as effectiveness, equity and efficiency. The paper conducts a comprehensive numerical analysis using randomly generated data to gain insights into the trade-offs that arise and provide valuable managerial insights for food bank managers.
Findings
The results of the analysis highlight the models that perform better in terms of equity and effectiveness. Additionally, the results show that restocking the vehicles through the concept of synchronization improves the overall quantity of food allocation to partner agencies, thereby increasing accessibility.
Research limitations/implications
This paper contributes significantly to the literature on optimization approaches in the field of humanitarian logistics.
Practical implications
This study provides food bank managers with three different models, each with a multifaceted nature of trade-offs, to better address the complex challenges of food insecurity.
Social implications
This paper contributes significantly to social responsibility by enhancing the operational efficiency of food banks, ultimately improving their ability to serve communities in need.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to propose and analyze this new variant of vehicle routing problems in nonprofit settings.
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Clive Roland Boddy and Ross Taplin
The purpose of this paper is to investigate job satisfaction and workplace psychopathy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate job satisfaction and workplace psychopathy.
Design/methodology/approach
Job satisfaction has previously been seen as a function of various constructs. The authors take one step back from the literature to re-examine the relationship not just between job satisfaction, workplace conflict, organizational constraints, withdrawal from the workplace and perceived levels of corporate social responsibility, but also between all of these constructs and the presence of corporate psychopaths.
Findings
The authors find that there is a direct link between corporate psychopaths and job satisfaction. There are also indirect links through variables such as conflict, since corporate psychopaths influence conflict and other variables.
Originality/value
Importantly, the research establishes that psychopathy is the dominant predictor of job satisfaction.
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