Abstract: The research concentrates on the role of tourism in generating female employment and on impact of gender discrimination in tourism sector. Unfortunately, in many countries there are still some barriers to the inclusion of women at all hierarchical levels of tourism labor market. Research analysis focuses on EU countries where tourism is a main employer of women. The analysis shows that women represent over third persons employed in the non-financial business economy and almost two thirds in core tourism activities. Women's gross hourly earnings in accommodation and food services were below those of men in the European Union and only countries who recorded increase of gender pay gap from the beginning of crisis are Bulgaria and Croatia. Women in tourism industry are still overrepresented in lower status jobs with fewer opportunities for career progression and are often treated unequally.
Abstract: Housing Associations (HAs) contribute circa 20% of the UK’s housing supply. HAs are however under increasing pressure as a result of funding cuts and rent reductions. Due to the increased pressure, a number of processes are currently being reviewed by HAs, especially how they manage and learn from defects. Learning from defects is considered a useful approach to achieving defect reduction within the UK housebuilding industry. This paper contributes to our understanding of how HAs learn from defects by undertaking an initial round table discussion with key HA stakeholders as part of an ongoing collaborative research project with the National House Building Council (NHBC) to better understand how house builders and HAs learn from defects to reduce their prevalence. The initial discussion shows that defect information runs through a number of groups, both internal and external of a HA during both the defects management process and organizational learning (OL) process. Furthermore, HAs are reliant on capturing and recording defect data as the foundation for the OL process. During the OL process defect data analysis is the primary enabler to recognizing a need for a change to organizational routines. When a need for change has been recognized, new options are typically pursued to design out defects via updates to a HAs Employer’s Requirements. Proposed solutions are selected by a review board and committed to organizational routine. After implementing a change, both structured and unstructured feedback is sought to establish the change’s success. The findings from the HA discussion demonstrates that OL can achieve defect reduction within the house building sector in the UK. The paper concludes by outlining a potential ‘learning from defects model’ for the housebuilding industry as well as describing future work.
Abstract: 21st century has transformed the labor market
landscape in a way of posing new and different demands on
university graduates as well as university lecturers, which means that
the knowledge and academic skills students acquire in the course of
their studies should be applicable and transferable from the higher
education context to their future professional careers. Given the
context of the Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) classroom, the
teachers’ objective is not only to teach the language itself, but also to
prepare students to use that language as a medium to develop generic
skills and competences. These include media and information
literacy, critical and creative thinking, problem-solving and analytical
skills, effective written and oral communication, as well as
collaborative work and social skills, all of which are necessary to
make university graduates more competitive in everyday professional
environments. On the other hand, due to limitations of time and large
numbers of students in classes, the frequently topic-centered syllabus
of LSP courses places considerable focus on acquiring the subject
matter and specialist vocabulary instead of sufficient development of
skills and competences required by students’ prospective employers.
This paper intends to explore some of those issues as viewed both by
LSP lecturers and by business professionals in their respective
surveys. The surveys were conducted among more than 50 LSP
lecturers at higher education institutions in Croatia, more than 40 HR
professionals and more than 60 university graduates with degrees in
economics and/or business working in management positions in
mainly large and medium-sized companies in Croatia. Various elements of LSP course content have been taken into
consideration in this research, including reading and listening
comprehension of specialist texts, acquisition of specialist vocabulary
and grammatical structures, as well as presentation and negotiation
skills. The ability to hold meetings, conduct business correspondence,
write reports, academic texts, case studies and take part in debates
were also taken into consideration, as well as informal business
communication, business etiquette and core courses delivered in a
foreign language. The results of the surveys conducted among LSP
lecturers will be analyzed with reference to what extent those
elements are included in their courses and how consistently and
thoroughly they are evaluated according to their course requirements.
Their opinions will be compared to the results of the surveys
conducted among professionals from a range of industries in Croatia
so as to examine how useful and important they perceive the same
elements of the LSP course content in their working environments.
Such comparative analysis will thus show to what extent the syllabi
of LSP courses meet the demands of the employment market when it
comes to the students’ language skills and competences, as well as
transferable skills. Finally, the findings will also be compared to the
observations based on practical teaching experience and the relevant
sources that have been used in this research. In conclusion, the ideas and observations in this paper are merely
open-ended questions that do not have conclusive answers, but might
prompt LSP lecturers to re-evaluate the content and objectives of
their course syllabi.
Abstract: A psychological contract is an agreement between the
employer and an employee that covers the parties’ informal and
frequently non-verbalized obligations and expectations towards each
other. The contract is a cognitive pattern-governing employee’s
behaviour in the organization. A gap between employee’s
expectations and the organizational reality may lead to difficult-to-solve
conflicts or cause the employee to modify their behaviour
towards organizational values and goals, if they are willing and ready
to verbalize their expectations. The article discusses psychological contracts in the financial
institutions in Poland. Its theoretical part outlines the types of
psychological contracts in organizations (relational, transactional, and
balanced) and shows the process of their verbalization. The purpose
of the article is to present how the type of the psychological contract
relates to employee’s readiness to verbalize it. The article ends with
conclusions arising from the study.
Abstract: Internship is a supervised and structured learning
experience related to one’s field of study or career goal. Internship
allows students to obtain work experience and the opportunity to
apply skills learned during university. Internship is a valuable
learning experience for students; however, literature on employer
assessment is scarce on Malaysian student’s internship experience.
This study focuses on employer’s perspective on student’s
performances during their three months of internship. The results are
based on the descriptive analysis of 45 sets of question gathered from
the on-site supervisors of the interns. The survey of 45 on-site
supervisor’s feedback was collected through postal mail. It was found
that, interns have not met their on-site supervisor’s expectations in
many areas. The significance of this study is employer’s assessment
on the internship shall be used as feedback to improve on ways how
to prepare students for their internship and employments in future.
Abstract: This investigation is focused on using of Mon dance
in Pathum Thani Province’s tradition and has the following
objectives: 1) to study the background of Mon dance in Pathum
Thani Province; 2) to study Mon dance in Pathum Thani Province;
and 3) to study of using Mon dance in Pathum Thani province’s
tradition. This qualitative research was conducted in Pathum Thani
province (in the central of Thailand). Data was collected from
documentary study and field data by means of observation, interview,
and group discussion. Workshops were also held with a total of 100
attendees, comprised of 20 key informants, 40 casual informants and
40 general informants. Data was validated using the triangulation
technique and the findings are presented using the descriptive
analysis. The results of the study show that the historical background
of Mon dance in Pathum Thani Province initiated during the war
evacuation from Martaban (south of Burma) to settle down in Sam
Khok, Pathum Thani Province in Ayutthaya period to Rattanakosin.
The study found that Mon dance typically consists of 12-13 dancing
process. The melodies have 12-13 songs. Piphat Mon (Mon
traditional music ensemble) is used in the performance. Performers
are dressed in Mon traditional costumes. The performers are 6-12
women and depending on the employer’s demands. Length of the
performance varies from the duration of music orchestration. Rituals
and customs performed are paying homage to teachers before the
performance. The offerings are composed of flowers, incense sticks,
candles, money gifts which are well arranged on a tray with pedestal,
and also liquors, tobaccos and pure water for asking propitiousness.
For the use of Mon dance in Pathum Thani Province’s tradition, it is
found that the dance is commonly performed in the funeral
ceremonial tradition at present because the physical postures of the
performance are considered graceful and exquisite. In addition, as for
its value, it has long been believed since the ancient times that Mon
dance was a sacred thing considered as the dignity and glorification
especially for funeral ceremonies of priest or royal hierarchy classes.
However, Mon dance has continued to be used in the traditions
associated with Mon people activities in Pathum Thani Province for
instance customary welcome for honor guest and Songkran festival.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the factor
structure and psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and convergent
validity) of the Employee Trust Scale, a newly created instrument by
the researchers. The Employee Trust Scale initially contained 82
items to measure employees’ trust toward their supervisors. A sample
of 818 (343 females, 449 males) employees were selected randomly
from public and private organization sectors in Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia. Their ages ranged from 19 to 67 years old with a
mean of 34.55 years old. Their average tenure with their current
employer was 11.2 years (s.d. = 7.5 years). The respondents were
asked to complete the Employee Trust Scale, as well as a managerial
trust questionnaire from Mishra. The exploratory factor analysis on
employees’ trust toward their supervisor’s extracted three factors,
labeled ‘trustworthiness’ (32 items), ‘position status’ (11 items) and
‘relationship’ (6 items) which accounted for 62.49% of the total
variance. Trustworthiness factors were re-categorized into three sub
factors: competency (11 items), benevolence (8 items) and integrity
(13 items). All factors and sub factors of the scales demonstrated
clear reliability with internal consistency of Cronbach’s Alpha above
.85. The convergent validity of the Scale was supported by an
expected pattern of correlations (positive and significant correlation)
between the score of all factors and sub factors of the scale and the
score on the managerial trust questionnaire, which measured the same
construct. The convergent validity of Employee Trust Scale was
further supported by the significant and positive inter-correlation
between the factors and sub factors of the scale. The results suggest
that the Employee Trust Scale is a reliable and valid measure.
However, further studies need to be carried out in other groups of
sample as to further validate the Scale.
Abstract: In today’s rapidly changing and increasingly complex
environment, organizations have relied on their members’ positive
attitude toward their employers. In particular, employees’
organizational commitment (primarily, the affective component) has
been recognized as an essential component of organizational
functioning and success. Hence, identifying the determinants of
affective commitment is one of the most important research issues.
This study tested the influence of leader-member exchange (LMX)
and exchange ideology on employee’s affective commitment. In
addition, the interactive effect of LMX and exchange ideology was
examined. Data from 198 members of the Korean military supports
each of the hypotheses. Lastly, implications for research and directions
for future research are discussed.
Abstract: Employer branding is considered as a useful tool for
addressing the global-local problem facing complex organisations
that have operations scattered across the globe and face challenges of
dealing with the local environment alongside. Despite being an
established field of study within the Western developed world, there
is little empirical evidence concerning the relevance of employer
branding to global companies that operate in the under-developed
economies. This paper fills this gap by gaining rich insight into the
implementation of employer branding programs in a foreign
multinational operating in Pakistan dealing with the global-local
problem. The study is qualitative in nature and employs semistructured
and focus group interviews with senior/middle managers
and local frontline employees to deeply examine the phenomenon in
case organisation. Findings suggest that authenticity is required in
employer brands to enable them to respond to the local needs thereby
leading to the resolution of the global-local problem. However, the
role of signaling theory is key to the development of authentic
employer brands as it stresses on the need to establish an efficient and
effective signaling environment where in signals travel in both
directions (from signal designers to receivers and backwards) and
facilitate firms with the global-local problem. The paper also
identifies future avenues of research for the employer branding field.
Abstract: Employers occupational safety and health training
obligations are regulated in 89/391/EEC Framework Directive and
also in 6331 numbered Occupational Health and Safety Law in
Turkey.
The main objective of this research is to determine and evaluate
the employers’ occupational health and safety training obligations in
Framework Directive in comparison with the 6331 numbered
Occupational Health and Safety Law and to examine training
principles in Turkey. For this purpose, employers’ occupational
health and safety training obligations examined in Framework
Directive and Occupational Health and Safety Law. This study
carried out through comparative scanning model and literature model.
The research data were collected through European Agency and
ministry legislations.
As a result, employers’ occupational health and safety training
obligations in the 6331 numbered Occupational Health and Safety
Law are compatible with the 89/391/EEC numbered Framework
Directive and training principles are determined by in different ways
like the trained workers, training issues, training period, training time
and trainers. In this study, employers’ training obligations are
evaluated in detail.
Abstract: Living today in turbulent business environment forces
companies to distinguish from each other, securing sustainable
competitive growth and competitive advantage. The best possible
solution is to invest (effort and financial resources) within
companies’ different practices of human resource management
(HRM), more specifically in employees’ knowledge, skills and
abilities. Applying this approach companies will create enviable level
of human capital securing its economic growth. Employees become
human capital for their employers at the moment when they
contribute with their own knowledge and abilities in creating material
and non-material value of the company. The main aim of this
research is to explore the relations between human capital
investments and business excellence of Croatian companies.
Furthermore, the differences in the level of human capital
investments with regard to several companies’ characteristics (e.g.
size of the company, ownership and type of the industry) are
investigated.
Abstract: This paper is drawn from a wider study of the
management of gender, age and disability diversity in the banking
sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which aims to develop
a framework for diversity management (DM) in this sector. The
paper focuses on the management of disability diversity. The purpose
of the paper is to assist in understanding disability DM in the banking
sector in KSA and to make suggestions for its enhancement. Hence, it
contributes to filling a research gap, as there is a dearth of literature
on disability DM, in KSA in general, and in the banking sector
specifically.
Discrimination against people with disabilities is a social issue that
has not been entirely overcome in any society. However, in KSA,
Islam informs almost every aspect of daily life including work, and
Islam is against discrimination. Hence, in KSA, there are regulations
to accommodate people with disabilities; however, employers are still
free not to hire job applicants with disabilities specifically because of
their condition. Indeed, disabled people are almost entirely absent
from the labour market.
There are 12 Saudi-owned or part-Saudi-owned banks in KSA and
two managers from each of these were interviewed, making a total of
24. The interviews aimed to investigate empirically the understanding
of managers in the banking sector in KSA of diversity management,
including disability DM, in the banking sector. The interview data
were analysed using thematic analysis. Two interviewees stated that
banks used the employment of people with disabilities to enhance
their corporate image, while five expressed the opinion that disabled
employees could contribute to the bank provided they did not have to
deal with customers face-to-face. Nine of the interviewees perceived
that disabled employees could be of value to the bank for their own
sake, not only in ‘behind the scenes’ roles. Another two interviewees
mentioned that employing disabled people could be part of the bank’s
community service programme and one thought it would be part of
the bank’s Saudisation efforts. The remaining five interviewees did
not know how disabled people could contribute to the bank.
The findings show that disability DM in the banking sector in
KSA is a relatively new concept, and is not yet well understood. In
the light of the findings, in order to achieve the purpose of the paper,
the following suggestions were made for the enhancement of
disability DM in the banking sector in KSA. A change in attitudes
towards disabled people is necessary. Such a change in the workplace
can only be achieved if a top-down approach is taken to the
integration of disabled people. Hence, it is suggested that
management and employees follow a course in disability awareness.
Further, a diversity officer in the HR department could enhance the
integration of disabled people into the banking workforce. It is also
suggested that greater government support is required through closely
monitored and enforced anti-discrimination legislation. Moreover,
flexible working arrangements such as part-time work would
facilitate the employment of disabled people and benefit other groups
of employees.
Abstract: Off-site construction methods have played an
important role in the construction sector in the past few decades. It is
increasingly becoming a major alternative technique and strategic
direction compared to traditional in-situ method. It produces a
significant amount of value for the construction industry and the
economy more generally. To date, an impressive number of studies
have been lunched on the perceived perception of off-site
construction. However, it seems that a quantifying benefit on the
offsite construction area is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines
the recent research literature on the benefits of off- site construction
and provides future direction. In the beginning, this paper provides a
brief history and current value of the off-site construction followed
by a detailed discussion on the benefit of off-site construction. These
benefits include but not limited to time saving, quality improvement,
relieving skills shortages, cost reduction and productivity
improvement. Toward this end, off-site construction should learn
from other productive industry similar to services or manufacturing
industry by applying operational management tools and techniques
with extensive focus on employee empowerment will shed the light
on future uptake of Off-site construction. This study is of value in
providing scholars have a clear picture of perceived benefit of off-site
construction research and give an opportunities for future uptake of
off-site method.
Abstract: Occupational Self Efficacy (OSE) reflects the
conviction of a person’s ability to fulfill his job related behavior at a
perfectly acceptable level to the employer. Transformational
leadership improves followers’ commitment by influencing their
needs, values, and self-esteem. Employees also develop a dyadic
relationship with their immediate superiors. Study was conducted
amongst one hundred and twenty two (122) bank managers in Sri
Lanka. They were selected based on multi-stage (seniority in the
hierarchy, gender, department-wise etc.) stratified random sampling.
Major objectives of this study were to analyze the impact of
Transformational leadership style, and OSE along with Sociodemographic
factors, and Career, Job and Organizational experience,
to the Career satisfaction of managers. SPSS software was used for
parametric and non-parametric statistical analyses. Career satisfaction
had positive impacts with their Transformational leadership style, and
their relationships with the immediate superior. Impact of sociodemographic
factors, and career exposure to career satisfaction was
assessed.
Abstract: The paper discusses possible approaches of embedding the development of employability skills in the program curriculum. This paper contains analysis of the problem areas raised by employers regarding new graduates’ readiness to join workforce, the ways of possible improvements, and the actions required from different stakeholders. The case discussed in the paper is related to Computer and Information Science (CIS) Program offered at Higher Colleges of Technology (UAE).
Abstract: Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) mainly focuses on recognition of internal and external activities. It is concerned particularly with transferring internal activities into external ones in as many numbers as possible, by also minimizing the internal ones. The validity of the method and procedures are verified by an application a Styrofoam manufacturing process where setup times are critical for time reduction. Significant time savings have been achieved with minimum investment. Further, the issues related with employer safety and ergonomics principles during die exchange are noted.
Abstract: The study examined the influence of pay differentials on employee retention in the State Colleges of Education in the South-South Region of Nigeria. 275 subjects drawn from members of the wage negotiating teams in the Colleges were administered questionnaires constructed for study. Analysis of Variance revealed that the observed pay differentials significantly influenced retainership, f(5,269 = 6.223, P< 0.05). However, the Multiple Classification Analysis and Post-Hoc test indicated that employees in two of the Colleges with slightly lower and higher pay levels may probably remain with their employers while employees in other Colleges with the least and highest pay levels suggested quitting. Based on these observations, the influence of pay on employee retention seems inconclusive. Generally, employees in the colleges studied are dissatisfied with current pay levels. Management should confront these challenges by improving pay packages to encourage employees to remain and be dedicated to duty.
Abstract: This paper aims to describe how student satisfaction is
measured for work-based learners as these are non-traditional
learners, conducting academic learning in the workplace, typically
their curricula have a high degree of negotiation, and whose
motivations are directly related to their employers- needs, as well as
their own career ambitions. We argue that while increasing WBL
participation, and use of SSD are both accepted as being of strategic
importance to the HE agenda, the use of WBL SSD is rarely
examined, and lessons can be learned from the comparison of SSD
from a range of WBL programmes, and increased visibility of this
type of data will provide insight into ways to improve and develop
this type of delivery. The key themes that emerged from the analysis
of the interview data were: learners profiles and needs, employers
drivers, academic staff drivers, organizational approach, tools for
collecting data and visibility of findings. The paper concludes with
observations on best practice in the collection, analysis and use of
WBL SSD, thus offering recommendations for both academic
managers and practitioners.
Abstract: At present time, competition, unpredictable fluctuations have made communication engineering education in the global sphere really difficult. Confront with new situation in the engineering education sector. Communication engineering education has to be reformed and ready to use more advanced technologies. We realized that one of the general problems of student`s education is that after graduating from their universities, they are not prepared to face the real life challenges and full skilled to work in industry. They are prepared only to think like engineers and professionals but they also need to possess some others non-technical skills. In today-s environment, technical competence alone is not sufficient for career success. Employers want employees (graduate engineers) who have good oral and written communication (soft) skills. It does require for team work, business awareness, organization, management skills, responsibility, initiative, problem solving and IT competency. This proposed curriculum brings interactive, creative, interesting, effective learning methods, which includes online education, virtual labs, practical work, problem-based learning (PBL), and lectures given by industry experts. Giving short assignments, presentations, reports, research papers and projects students can significantly improve their non-technical skills. Also, we noticed the importance of using ICT technologies in engineering education which used by students and teachers, and included that into proposed teaching and learning methods. We added collaborative learning between students through team work which builds theirs skills besides course materials. The prospective on this research that we intent to update communication engineering curriculum in order to get fully constructed engineer students to ready for real industry work.
Abstract: Professions are concerned about the public image they
have, and this public image is represented by stereotypes. Research is
needed to understand how accountants are perceived by different
actors in the society in different contexts, which would allow
universities, professional bodies and employers to adjust their
strategies to attract the right people to the profession and their
organizations. We aim to develop in this paper a framework to be
used in empirical testing in different environments to determine and
analyze the accountant-s stereotype. This framework will be useful in
analyzing the nuances associated to the accountant-s image and in
understanding the factors that may lead to uniformity in the
profession and of those leading to diversity from one context
(country, type of countries, region) to another.