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This is a real case involving an SME that produces southern hardwood finished lumber. The family business faces a social responsibility dilemma in terms of displaced workers and limited job opportunities in the surrounding labor market if they purchase a new saw that would modernize production, improve profitability, and eliminate 50 percent of their labor costs.The most logical employment for these workers would be a cutter, loader, or hauler of logs, which have been determined to be some of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. This case requires students to examine the decision-making process of a modest family business in a small, cohesive community and the ramifications of these decisions, as well as issues concerning technology and production improvements, displaced workers, social responsibilities, and the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees.

The purpose of this paper is to characterise the position of highly educated African migrants in the Finnish labour market and to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on that position.

The paper is based on the biographical work stories of 17 highly educated African migrant workers in four occupation areas in Finland: healthcare, cleaning, restaurant and transport. The sample was partly purposively and partly theoretically determined. The authors used content driven thematic analysis technique, combined with by the biographical narrative concept of turning points.

Using the case of highly educated African migrants in the Finnish labour market, the authors show how student migration policies reinforce a pattern of division of labour and occupations that allocate migrant workers to typical low skilled low status occupations in the secondary sector regardless of level of education, qualification and work experience. They also show how the unique labour and skill demands of the COVID-19 pandemic incidentally made these typical migrant occupations essential, resulting in increased employment and work security for this group of migrant workers.

This research and the authors’ findings are limited in scope owing to sample size and methodology. To improve applicability of findings, future studies could expand the scope of enquiry using e.g. quantitative surveys and include other stakeholders in the study group.

The paper adds to the knowledge on how migration policies contribute to labour market dualisation and occupational segmentation in Finland, illustrated by the case of highly educated African migrant workers.

In most developing countries, the delivery of construction project is still characterised by inefficiencies resulting from the use of outdated methods and techniques, which retards project performance. Hence, the call for the implementation of innovative technologies such as humanoids in the execution of construction projects as it has been proven to be very effective in other sectors while improving productivity and quality of work. Consequently, this study looks at how humanoids can be used in the construction industry and what benefits they can bring.

The study employed a quantitative approach underpinned in post-positivist philosophical view using questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. The target respondents were construction professionals, and purposive sampling was used, while a response rate of 62.5% was gotten. The methods of data analysis were mean item score, standard deviation and one-sample t-test.

The findings revealed that humanoids can be used in progress tracking, auto-documentation and inspection and surveillance of tasks in construction activities. Also, the most important benefits of using humanoids in construction work were found to be shorter delivery times, fewer injuries and more accurate work.

The outcome of the study gives professionals and relevant stakeholders in construction and other interested parties' information about the areas where humanoids can be used and their benefits in construction.

The novelty of this study is that it is a pioneering study in South Africa on humanoids' usage in the construction industry. Also, it expands the existing borderline of the conservation of construction digitalisation for enhanced project execution.

This study aims to examine the impact of workplace safety (WPS) on employee retention (ER) in the health-care sector in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K), Pakistan. At the same time, a mediation relationship through job satisfaction (JS) and employee loyalty (EL) was also tested.

Structured questionnaires were used to collect the data from 300 doctors, using purposive sampling technique analysed using partial least squares (Smart-PLS 3).

This study’s findings supported all hypotheses, such as WPS has a significant positive relationship with ER. In addition, a mediation relationship between JS and EL was also confirmed. Furthermore, a serial mediation effect of JS and EL between WPS and ER was also confirmed in this study.

This study might not fit organisations from other regions due to regional norms. In the future, this study’s model may be tested on other regions and segments of the health-care sector, such as nurses, management staff and support staff.

The present study is unique because it is based on a newly formulated framework, WPS → JS → EL → ER, under the social exchange theory, which has not been tested before.

In a safe environment, doctors will feel relaxed, stay longer and provide better services; resultantly, patients will get better treatment.

This study tested the sequential mediation effect through JS and EL for the first time in ER, which was missing previously, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. This will add more insights to the safety-retention literature in health-care settings. Furthermore, this study is also the first attempt to explore the relationship between WPS and ER in the health-care sector in AJ&K.

This paper studies the impact of certain characteristics of companies to training programs in the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) context. Partial objective is to rank the main human barriers companies have to overcome so that they can digitalize.

To accomplish the objectives, a closed-ended questionnaire was sent to Slovak and Italian companies and analyzed using statistical nonparametric tests. The partial objective was achieved using the so-called Henry-Garrett’s ranking method.

Results show the significance impact of companies’ characteristics such as foreign participation and company dimension on training practices whereas economic situation (financial health) seems not to influence it.

The study may lack generalizability as only 102 answers were collected. Perhaps, the outcome would be different with another sample from other countries. Moreover, using closed-ended questions, certain features may not have been covered.

Companies should always guarantee training for the resulted benefits. It is fundamental for organizations to find a time gap, resources and professionals who can teach these programs. Even when companies are incurring financial problems they should do so since human capital development can increase their competitiveness. The most critical barriers should be carefully addressed by companies. Training can help to overcome I4.0 barriers related to Human Resources (HR) and contribute to its growth.

This paper gives insights of the impact of certain characteristics of companies to the training programs. Because past research has limited their analysis on the identification of barrier, its novelty lies in the attempt to rank the most significant barriers among those detected by other authors in previous research.

This article examines the experiences of women leaders and their challenges in Brunei Darussalam. Globally, women are underrepresented in leadership positions. Though the Brunei government does not discriminate against any gender in delivering free education, medical facilities and healthcare, women in leadership positions are as well underrepresented. I try to understand the factors that challenge as well as motivate women to become leaders in Brunei. For this research, I conducted qualitative interviews with some respondents selected purposively. The study results show that women leaders in Brunei face challenges in obtaining financial support and accessing resources. Despite the challenges, there are some women who have been assuming and excelling in their leadership roles. The study identified that personal strengths have also been critical in contributing to their successful leadership.