Search results

Stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild relationships are increasingly common as a result of relatively high rates of divorce and remarriage and increased longevity. When relationships are close, stepgrandparents may be valuable resources for stepgrandchildren, but the relational processes salient to the development of these ties remain largely unknown. The purposes of our research were: (1) to explore the complexity of stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild relationships, and (2) to examine processes that affected stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild relationship development.

We present results from four grounded theory projects, which were based on semistructured interviews with 58 stepgrandchildren who provided data about 165 relationships with stepgrandparents. Collectively, these studies highlighted key processes of stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild relationship development operating within four distinct pathways to stepgrandparenthood – long-term, later life, skip-generation, and inherited pathways.

Stepgrandchildren’s closeness to stepgrandparents was influenced by factors such as timing (the child’s age and when in their life courses intergenerational relationships began), stepgrandparents’ roles in the life of the middle-generation parent and the quality of those relationships, whether or not the stepfamily defined the stepgrandparent as kin (e.g., through the use of claiming language), intergenerational contact frequency, and stepgrandparents’ affinity-building.

Our study furthers understanding of stepgrandparent-stepgrandchild by attending to the importance of context in examining the processes that affect intergenerational steprelationship development. Exploring processes related to intergenerational steprelationships strengthens our understanding of the benefits and challenges associated with steprelationship development. Our study also sheds light on the “new look at kinship” and the processes that inform the social construction of family in a changing familial landscape.

Korean educational migrant (kirogi) families have received widespread popular attention due to their ironic form of family that sacrifices the togetherness of a family. Recent trends suggest that this practice is spreading to the less affluent classes and that many such families are heading to ‘new’ destinations, including Singapore. This study examines the transnational schooling and life experiences of Korean transnational educational families in Singapore. It addresses the questions, why did these families choose Singapore? Why did transnational schooling, which parents almost unanimously said that they had organised for the betterment of their children's future, lead to some families getting stuck in the destination country?

Fieldwork in Singapore and Korea was conducted between April 2006 and September 2007. In-depth interviews with both mothers and fathers who have at least one child attending public, private or international schools in Singapore, at the primary or secondary level, were conducted with 18 families. The analysis was conducted using a grounded theory approach and NVivo 7/8.

Although the Korean state's emphasis on international competitiveness and parental aspirations for their children's future upward social mobility were common motivators, Koreans in Singapore were also attracted by the relatively low cost, English–Chinese bilingualism and other ‘family-friendly’ features in Singapore. However, kirogi children had highly contrasting schooling experiences and they met with mixed success in gaining what they expected. Furthermore, many children in public schools faced demotion and other difficulties in their new school environments. Some less affluent families found themselves facing dilemmas of cross-border schooling. This study shows that transnational schooling does not necessarily operate equally favourably for participants from diverse class backgrounds. It also demonstrates that the societal contexts of reception in both the countries of origin and of destination, including the buffering institutions and reference groups and peer culture, are important factors shaping the schooling and life experiences of educational migrant children and in reconfiguring their trajectories.

Due to volatile changes and crises in the business environment, frontline service employees (FSEs) are faced with increasing work stressors in the new service marketplace. Of these, customer incivility has been found to negatively affect their work outcomes. This study aims to examine the moderating effect of experiencing an imminent environmental crisis (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic) on the relationship between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting, using pre- and postpandemic samples.

The authors administered two-wave surveys to 276 FSEs (prepandemic sample) in July and October 2019 and to 301 FSEs (postpandemic sample) in March and April 2020.

Moderation analyses showed that the relationship between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting varied between FSEs who experienced the pandemic and those who did not; the relationship was stronger for the postpandemic than the prepandemic sample. There was a positive relationship between work engagement and job crafting; it was weaker for the postpandemic sample.

The deleterious effect of customer incivility exacerbated after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the authors did not explore why the pandemic aggravated the negative effect. The mechanism underlying the moderating effect of the pandemic and the effect of more diverse types of incivility should be explored in future research.

It is critical to provide FSEs with instrumental and emotional support to cope with the crisis brought on by the pandemic. Service organizations must monitor customers’ uncivil behaviors to identify their causes and develop interventions to improve service quality. Furthermore, service organizations are advised to enhance the coping capabilities of FSEs by using diverse interventions, such as emotion regulation training, debriefing sessions, short breaks and job crafting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to reveal the moderating effect of the pandemic on the relationships between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting, using pre- and postpandemic samples. This study offers necessary insights to improve FSEs’ engagement at work and enhance their job crafting in the new service marketplace.

The influence of weather on business activities and human behaviour has been explored in several fields (e.g. finance and psychology), but little research about weather and retail sales is found in the retail or fashion literature. The purpose of the study is to analyse the relationship between temperature, one aspect of weather, and retail sales of seasonal garments.

The researchers collected sales data from a retailer of branded women's business wear in the Seoul‐Kyunggi area in South Korea. Along with the sales data for seasonal basic styles, corresponding daily and weekly average temperature data were collected and evaluated. The analysis for the study was drawn using descriptive statistics including graphical evaluations, correlation analysis and paired samples t‐test. Interviews with the retailer's merchandisers were used to supplement interpretation of the statistical data.

Results of this study provide strong evidence that fluctuations in temperature can impact sales of seasonal garments. During sales periods when drastic temperature changes occurred, more seasonal garments were sold. However, the temperature changes from day to day or week to week did not affect the number of garments sold for the whole season. Of the seasonal garments expected to sell within the same season, the selling periods of each product category differed depending on type of fabric and design. For some seasonal garments, the actual sales dates were one week to two weeks in variance from the merchandisers' forecasts.

Limitations in the sample (i.e. product category) and location of stores (i.e. geographic region) prevent the generalization of results to all seasonal garments or retailers. In spite of these limitations, this study can be a pilot study that supports the significant relationship between temperature and sales of seasonal basic products by quantifying the temperature effects on sales of particular products. Therefore, future studies are needed to establish generalized conclusions with a larger sample.

As little academic research is available about weather's effect on sales of garments, the present study contributes to the field of clothing and retail distribution by providing evidence of significant relationships between temperature and sales of seasonal clothing.

In the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI), the option for stakeholders to adopt formwork design as a building construction requirement is uncommon place. This is due to the low level of awareness and practice of formwork design. As a result of this, there have been formwork accidents, cost and time overruns in construction. This paper aims to solicit the view of stakeholders on the awareness of formwork design practices in the GCI.

This paper adopted the interpretivism research philosophy and inductive reasoning. Through a semi-structured interview guide, data was collected. The data (interview) recorded was transcribed using the Amberscript web application. This study used thematic analysis in analyzing the data collected using Nvivo 10 software.

The data collected from the 22 professionals indicated that the respondents were unaware of the concept of formwork design and its practice, neither could they speak to the existence of any specific regulation nor code of practice. However, the respondents established that there was a need to design formwork and stated some benefits of it.

From the literature, little research has been done on formwork design and its context in the GCI is yet to be explored. This research attempts to fill this gap. The findings indicate that to practice formwork design, there must be education and training of human resources for formwork design, there must be a code of practice to guide the design process and legal backing through policies and regulations to mandate the design.