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This chapter will explore, from a practice and a personal perspective, multidisciplinary strategies that promote successful transition from middle school to college among male refugees in urban settings. These best practices are based on the combined experiences of the authors as they have formally and informally worked together to help these young people navigate becoming young adults in the United States. This opening section will highlight the value of collaborative, formal, and informal networks, comprised of community-based organizations, K-12 institutions, and healthcare providers, which support refugee transition into adulthood and higher education in the urban setting. Last, this chapter will focus on the role of sport, social media, and mentors as a framework of support for refugee students as they navigate their way through higher education access, financing, and retention in the United States.

This chapter focuses on the concept integration and its wider meaning in the context of refugees and internally displaced people across the globe. The purpose of this volume is to highlight the various interventions used to integrate refugees and the efforts implemented by the non-governmental organizations and local governments toward achieving an optimal level of integration with host communities. Using case studies and other empirical research, this volume presents a broad and in-depth overview of the various methods implemented to integrate the refugees into the society. This chapter provides an overview to this volume and establishes a framework for a better understanding of the nature of integration. It also reveals the complexity of the perception-practice dynamic and the multifaceted factors, which influence the various levels of integration.

This study aims to present a new integrative model that maps innovation diffusion factors, technology acceptance and use factors, device attitude, adoption intention and purchase intention for a pork DNA detection device (PD3).

A scenario-based survey was conducted with 256 potential consumers of the portable PD3. Partial least square structural equation modelling was used to test the research hypotheses.

It was found that innovation characteristic factors determine the attitude towards the device, perceived expectancy of performance and effort required to use the device. Performance and effort expectancy further influence the positive attitude towards the device which determines the behavioural intention to adopt and purchase the device.

This study proposes a new model that integrates the diffusion innovation theory and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to understand the mechanism that facilitates the adoption and purchase intention of PD3s. This study contributes to the existing literature by offering solutions that can reduce the concerns of Muslim travellers. This study enhances the understanding of the future commercial potential of this newly developed technology. The results show that the potential demand for a portable PD3 is very optimistic among consumers observing a halal diet.

The paper aims to present and discuss research findings on the relationship between culture and learning styles, as defined by Honey and Mumford, and the potential implications for both hospitality management education as well as for the training and career development of international hospitality managers.

Primary research was undertaken at an institute of hospitality management in Switzerland to investigate whether a relationship between culture and learning style preference would be found. The research, carried out with a paired sample of hospitality management students (n=55) at a one‐and‐a‐half‐year interval, was quantitative in nature.

The data support a link between culture and preferred learning style at the outset of the students' higher education programme, which seems to become less marked over time showing a certain convergence amongst all the students in their preferred learning styles.

At this stage in the research the results are only available for one paired sample. From 2007 onwards, however, it is planned that bi‐annual sets of paired sample results will be available for several years to come.

As management and career development take on increasing importance, on the job educators need to look not only to industry for guidance but also to educational institutions for advice on how to optimise their courses and the attainment of learning outcomes by their employees.

These findings have relevance for both hospitality educators as well as industry looking at how to best develop international managers at both junior as well as senior levels.

This paper seeks to present research findings on the relationship between culture and learning styles, as defined by Honey and Mumford in a Higher Education setting.

The research was conducted with first semester students studying in an International Institute of Higher Education. A questionnaire administered to students (n=113) of Indonesian, Chinese and French origin was analysed in order to compare their learning style preferences. This was followed by a detailed item‐by‐item analysis of their responses to the same questionnaire.

In the first instance, the data support a relationship between learning styles preferences and cultural background at the outset of a programme of Higher Education. Subsequent analysis provides insight into the nature of these differences.

The generalizability of the research findings is limited owing to the nature of the sample.

Educators in both Higher Education and business settings can draw on these research findings. It is suggested that allowing incoming students to explore learning style differences will enhance their understanding of how they go about learning as well as possibly influence their learning outcomes. Parallels have been drawn with incoming international employees.

These findings have relevance for educators, both in Higher Education and in industry, concerned with how to best develop international graduates and managers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the external environment on the strategic thinking dimensions in Malaysia and Palestine on the banking sector.

This paper focuses on dynamism and complexity in political and economic external environments. This study uses qualitative methodology through a comparative case study method. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from in-depth semistructured interviews with 33 bank executives from Malaysia and 17 from Palestine.

The findings revealed that the banking sector in both Malaysia and Palestine shared five common strategic thinking dimensions, including vision, creativity, conceptual thinking, futurism and opportunity. However, a sixth dimension, intent-focused, was unique to Palestinian bank executives. This study indicates that Palestine’s financial strategic thinking environment is more dynamic and complex than Malaysia’s. Additionally, the study highlights the significant influence of both microenvironments (such as types of banks) and the macroenvironment (such as political and economic situations). These findings hold important implications for decision-makers in the banking sector of both countries.

As with many studies, this study has some limitations. First, the analysis examines only the turbulent and stable environment in the two countries by using a qualitative approach which enables the analysis of thoughts and actions and exposes the beliefs, perceptions, mental maps and structures of belief in their perceptions (Cavana et al., 2001). As such, the results are limited to a particular time, date and geographical location; thus, opinions and perceptions might be altered due to changes in the external political and economic environment. The second limitation of this work is that the case study might not be appropriate for generalization (Stake, 1978). Finally, the limited number of female participants in Palestine shows a high level of inequality compared to Malaysian participants.

This study explores the implication of uncertain environments at the national level on executives’ cognition and actions, links the micro- and macro-environment of the banking industry to a theoretical perspective and develops a conceptual circular model to show the effect of macro environments on bank performance. The findings offer practical contributions to the current literature, providing insights for executives to navigate a dynamic and complex banking industry.

This study fills the literature gap by exploring how strategic thinking dimensions triggered by macro- and micro-environments impact banking sector performance in Malaysia and Palestine.

Organizational researchers studying well-being – as well as organizations themselves – often place much of the burden on employees to manage and preserve their own well-being. Missing from this discussion is how – from a human resources management (HRM) perspective – organizations and managers can directly and positively shape the well-being of their employees. The authors use this review to paint a picture of what organizations could be like if they valued people holistically and embraced the full experience of employees’ lives to promote well-being at work. In so doing, the authors tackle five challenges that managers may have to help their employees navigate, but to date have received more limited empirical and theoretical attention from an HRM perspective: (1) recovery at work; (2) women’s health; (3) concealable stigmas; (4) caregiving; and (5) coping with socio-environmental jolts. In each section, the authors highlight how past research has treated managerial or organizational support on these topics, and pave the way for where research needs to advance from an HRM perspective. The authors conclude with ideas for tackling these issues methodologically and analytically, highlighting ways to recruit and support more vulnerable samples that are encapsulated within these topics, as well as analytic approaches to study employee experiences more holistically. In sum, this review represents a call for organizations to now – more than ever – build thriving organizations.

This qualitative research set out to understand what teachers’ assessments were of the context of teaching as it relates to the curriculum, and what they consider appropriate for an optimal teaching and learning experience in a university English language teaching (ELT) context.

Qualitative data were deemed required to understand the effects and understanding teachers had of the ELT curriculum as it played out in their teaching context. Focus group interviews and observations were the main method for data generation.

The context has a bearing on the ongoing development of teachers’ intercultural sensitivity (IS) frames and how they address IS over time in their context of teaching as it pertains to curriculum.

This is an original research paper which gives insight to knowledge about the relationship between ELT, curriculum and culture.