Do “decent work” dimensions lead to work engagement? Empirical evidence from higher education institutions in India

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaneet Kashyap ◽  
Neelam Nakra ◽  
Ridhi Arora

Purpose The study aims to investigate the impact of “decent work” dimensions on faculty members’ work engagement levels in the higher education institutions in India. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from 293 faculty members working in higher education institutes in India. The proposed study hypotheses were tested by deploying the statistical technique of multiple regression analysis using statistical package for social sciences Version-24. Findings Results demonstrated that of the five dimensions of “decent work,” only “access to health care” and “complementary values” were significant predictors of work engagement. “Adequate compensation,” “free time and rest” and “safe interpersonal working conditions” as dimensions of “decent work” were not found to be significantly related to work engagement. Research limitations/implications Findings encourage education policymakers to implement a “decent work” policy for faculty members with greater emphasis on ensuring workplace-fit and provision of adequate health-care facilities to keep the workforce engaged. Originality/value It is one of the few studies conducted in the South-Asian context that highlight “decent work” as a crucial job resource, useful in enhancing the work engagement of faculty members in higher education institutions.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Aboramadan ◽  
Main Naser Alolayyan ◽  
Mehmet Ali Turkmenoglu ◽  
Berat Cicek ◽  
Caterina Farao

Purpose This paper aims to propose a model of the effect of both authentic leadership and management capability on hospital performance. This model proposes work engagement as an intervening mechanism between the aforesaid links. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 380 medical staff working in Jordanian Public hospitals and were analysed using the structural equation modelling analysis technique. Findings The results suggest that both authentic leadership and management capability have a positive effect on hospital performance. Although positive, the direct effect of management capability on performance was not significant. Furthermore, work engagement demonstrated to play a full mediation effect between management capability and hospital performance and a partial mediation effect between authentic leadership and hospital performance. Practical implications This study may be of use for public medical services providers in general and other services sectors in terms of the role authentic leadership and management resources can play in contributing to positive work-related outcomes at the individual and organisational levels. Originality/value Considering the mainstream literature in health-care management, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to date to integrate the impact of both authentic leadership and management capabilities in the public health-care sector. Further, the research model has not previously been introduced when taking into account the role that work engagement can play between the examined variables.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Maritz ◽  
Quan Nguyen ◽  
Sergey Ivanov

PurposeDespite the significance, university student start-ups and student entrepreneurship ecosystems (SEEs) have been subject to little research. This study aims to apply a qualitative emergent enquiry approach to explore best practice SEEs in Australia, complimented by narratives from leading scholars in higher education institutions with the aim of delineating the integrative components of SEEs.Design/methodology/approachAdopting the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework and aligned to the social cognitive theory, this paper explores the components and dynamics of SEEs, contributing to an understanding of how such components can better support the growth, sustainability and success of student start-ups. The authors extend entrepreneurship research on social construction using narrative research.FindingsThe findings provide guidelines for researchers, entrepreneurship scholars and educators, entrepreneurship students, policymakers and practitioners to enhance the impact and success of university student start-ups by adopting a student ecosystem approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe narratives represent a limited number of universities with an opportunity for further research to empirically measure the impact and outcomes of SEEs. The research is exploratory, inherently conceptual and emergent, providing an opportunity for validation of narrative frameworks in future studies.Practical implicationsThe findings may assist university managers to be more aware of their own subconscious preferences to student entrepreneurship and start-up initiatives, which may be useful in refining their impact and offerings regarding a quest toward the entrepreneurial university.Social implicationsFrom social perspectives, the alignment of the components of SEE has the ability to enhance and shift the entrepreneurial mindset of entrepreneurship students, notwithstanding enhancement of intentionality and self-efficacy.Originality/valueThis is the first study of SEEs in Australia, highlighting the importance of the integration of entrepreneurship education programs, entrepreneurship education ecosystems, the entrepreneurial university and specific start-up initiatives such as university accelerators. Furthermore, students may enhance their entrepreneurial mindset by actively engaging in such ecosystems.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna Vossius ◽  
Estomih Md ◽  
Robert Moshiro ◽  
Paschal M ◽  
Jan Terje Kvaløy ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Access to health care facilities is a key requirement to enhance safety for mothers and newborns during labour and delivery. Haydom Lutheran Hospital (HLH) is a regional hospital in rural Tanzania with a catchment area of about two million inhabitants. Up to June 2013 ambulance transport and delivery at HLH were free of charge, while a user fee for both services was introduced from January 2014. We aimed to explore the impact of introducing user fees on the population of women giving birth at HLH in order to document potentially unwanted consequences in the period after introduction of fees . Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from a prospective observational study. Data was compared between the period before introduction of fees from February 2010 through June 2013 and the period after from January 2014 through January 2017. Logistic regression modelling was used to construct risk-adjusted variable-life adjusted display (VLAD) and cumulative sum (CUSUM) plots to monitor changes. Results: A total of 28,601 births were observed. The monthly number of births was reduced by 17.3% during the post-introduction period. Spontaneous vaginal deliveries were registered less frequently, while labour complication and caesarean sections were more frequent. There was a reduction of newborns with birth weight less than 2500 grams. The observed changes were stable over time. For most variables, a significant change could be detected after a few weeks. Conclusion: After the introduction of ambulance and delivery fees an increase in labour complications and caesarean sections of about 80 per 1000 births and a decrease in non-cephalic presentations and newborns with low birthweight of about 17 per 1000 births each was observed. This might indicate that women delay the decision to seek skilled birth attendance or do not seek help at all, possibly due to financial reasons. Lower rates of births in a safe health care facility like HLH is of great concern, as access to skilled birth attendance is a key requirement in order to further reduce perinatal mortality. Therefore, free delivery care should be a high priority.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Hauser ◽  
Annmarie Ryan

Purpose This paper aims to propose a framework to map partnerships as practiced in higher education institutions (HEIs) and trace the current mode of engagement between HEIs and their partners. This paper reflects on the alignment between current practices and what is understood in the literature as “true” partnerships. We are interested in the different modes of engagement that are labeled by the HEIs as partnerships and consider the plasticity of the term. The interest is in how the term is operationalized by HEIs and how variations in approach can be accounted for while still maintaining some stability and common understanding of the term partnership. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on extant literature in the field of cross-sector partnerships, a three-dimensional framework is proposed to map partnerships as practiced in HEIs. Furthermore, this paper draws on insights gained from the partnership stories of 13 leading principles of responsible management education (PRME) signatories to evidence examples of how this framework can help us to categorize the different types of engagement that the HEIs call partnerships. These case stories were gathered in the fall of 2019, based on a brief inquiry form sent to the 39 PRME signatories who were part of the PRME Champions Cycle 2018–2019. Findings This paper sees cases where faculty drive interaction on sustainable development goal-related issues with external stakeholders, but where the impact of these interactions seems to reside within the main business of the HEI (teaching and research). In contrast, much partnering work addresses broader social impacts. Of particular, interest in partnerships that seek to address a specific local issue, first and foremost and doing so in such a way as to apply the unique resources of the HEI working in multi-stakeholder networks. This paper also notes important variation between individual faculty-driven initiatives and initiatives where the school provides a strategic framework to support these efforts. Research limitations/implications By focusing on the academic sector and its stakeholder partnerships, this paper contributes to the literature on cross-sector partnerships. In particular, the specifics of this context and the importance of, for example, academic freedom have been under-researched in this field. Furthermore, the framework presented is novel in that it helps us to grasp the nuances of external university partnerships that can form out of individual, programmatic and other institutional levels. Practical implications From a practice perspective, the framework offers a useable tool for HEI partnership managers to position themselves and their activities and reflect more on how they organize external partnerships. Further, this tool offers a more precise framework for the discussion on partnerships within the PRME to sharpen the partnership instrument and bring more clarity about what is meant by the partnership for the goals. Originality/value The paper offers a novel partnership portfolio framework that contributes both to theory and practice. The framework aids in mapping the locus of benefits/outcomes and the material and affective commitments made by the HEI to bring these collaborations about. In dimensionalizing partnerships in this way, this paper can conceptualize a balanced portfolio in an HEI’s partnerships for the goals.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishnadas Nanath ◽  
Ali Sajjad ◽  
Supriya Kaitheri

PurposeUniversity selection in higher education is a complex task for aspirants from a decision-making perspective. This study first aims to understand the essential parameters that affect potential students' choice of higher education institutions. It then aims to explore how these parameters or priorities have changed given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning about the differences in priorities for university selection pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic might help higher education institutions focus on relevant parameters in the post-pandemic era.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a mixed-method approach, with primary and secondary data (university parameters from the website and LinkedIn Insights). We developed a university selector system by scraping LinkedIn education data of various universities and their alumni records. The final decision-making tool was hosted on the web to collect potential students' responses (primary data). Response data were analyzed via a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) model. Portal-based data collection was conducted twice to understand the differences in university selection priorities pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic. A one-way MANOVA was performed to find the differences in priorities related to the university decision-making process pre- and post-COVID-19.FindingsThis study considered eight parameters of the university selection process. MANOVA demonstrated a significant change in decision-making priorities of potential students between the pre- and post-COVID-19 phases. Four out of eight parameters showed significant differences in ranking and priority. Respondents made significant changes in their selection criteria on four parameters: cost (went high), ranking (went low), presence of e-learning mode (went high) and student life (went low).Originality/valueThe current COVID-19 pandemic poses many uncertainties for educational institutions in terms of mode of delivery, student experience, campus life and others. The study sheds light on the differences in priorities resulting from the pandemic. It attempts to show how social priorities change over time and influence the choices students make.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-247
Author(s):  
Matthew Sydney Long

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the debate about the closure of institutional mental health-care facilities, from an experiential perspective of a former mental health inpatient, ongoing service user and campaigner for retention of such facilities. It argues that auto-ethnographic accounts of mental illness by those with multiple social identities can have a greater role in terms of future training of mental health-care professionals. Design/methodology/approach The paper offers an experiential account of the impact of mental health facility bed closures as a patient admitted to institutional mental health facilities; as a mental health campaigner, fighting for the provision of both places of safety and “safe space” within his own local community; and as an ongoing service user. The research is in the interpretivist tradition of social science in taking an auto-ethnographical methodological stance. Findings This paper is underpinned by two key theoretical notions. Firstly, Stuart Hall’s concept of the Familiar Stranger (2017) is used to explore the tensions of self-identity as the author SHIFTS uncomfortably between his three-fold statuses. Secondly, the notion of “ontological insecurity” offered by Giddens (1991) is used with the paper exploring the paradox that admission to a mental health facility so-called “place of safety” is in fact itself a disorientating experience for both patient and carer(s). Research limitations/implications No positivistic claims to reliability, representativeness or generalisability can be made. It is the authenticity of the account which the reader feels should be afforded primacy in terms of its original contribution to knowledge. Practical implications This paper should have practical use for those tasked with developing educational and training curriculums for professionals across the mental health-care sector. Social implications This paper implicitly assesses the political wisdom of the policy of mental health bed closures within the wider context of the deinstitutionalisation movement. Originality/value This paper is underpinned by original experiential accounts from the author as patient, campaigner for places of safety and onging service-user of mental health care provision.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Aboramadan ◽  
Belal Albashiti ◽  
Hatem Alharazin ◽  
Khalid Abed Dahleez

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of human resource management (HRM) practices on organizational commitment in Palestinian universities, and to examine the mediating effect of work engagement as a black-box mechanism that defines HRM practices–organizational commitment relationship. Design/methodology/approach The source of the data is from 237 employees (academics and administrative staff) from Palestinian universities. The authors used structural equation modeling to verify the hypotheses. Findings The results reveal that HRM practices have a significant impact on employee organizational commitment in higher education. In addition, work engagement showed a significant mediating effect between performance appraisal and organizational commitment on the one hand, and between rewards and compensation and organizational commitment on the other hand. Practical implications The study suggests university managers to capitalize on HRM practices as vehicle to trigger positive work-related attitudes. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature by examining the impact of HRM practices on organizational commitment through the mediation role of work engagement in higher education of a non-western context. The study is one of the few studies that is conducted in the middle east.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-257
Author(s):  
Ehsan Mousavi ◽  
Vivek Sharma ◽  
Dhaval Gajjar ◽  
Shervin Shoai Naini

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the control cubes for dust control in health-care facilities. Research shows that more than 80% of pathogenic agents in hospitals are spread into the air, where they either remain airborne or deposit on the surface. At the same time, renovation and repair activities, including regular maintenance, are a necessity in active health-care facilities and a multitude of studies have documented their impact on indoor air quality. The dust that is generated by construction activities may potentially carry pathogenic agents, varying from coarse particles (≤10 µm, PM10) to fine particles (≤2.5 µm, PM2.5), including airborne bacteria, and fungal spores linked to high patient mortality in immune-compromised patients. Design/methodology/approach This study measures the impact and effectiveness of one such preventative measure, namely, the control cube (CC), on air quality during renovation and repair. CC is a temporary structure, typically made from stainless steel, around the local repair zone to minimize the spread of dust and potential microorganisms. The current paper presents a comparative analysis to identify the effectiveness of a CC equipped with the high-efficiency particulate filtration (HEPA) filter in a hospital setting by simulating construction renovation and repair work. Findings A baseline was established to measure the effectiveness of CCs and the impact of negative pressure on the indoor air quality in a hospital during simulated renovation work. Results showed that CCs are very effective in minimizing the spread of dust due to construction activities in the hospital. However, it is imperative to ensure that the air inside the CC is cleaned via filtration. Originality/value CCs are very effective, and this paper investigates the best approach for facility managers to implement this strategy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-250
Author(s):  
Samar Aad Makhoul

Purpose This paper aims to study the relationship between higher education accreditation and teaching and learning enhancements in academic institutions. Higher education institutions are now looking at satisfying the standard by standard list assigned by internationally recognized accreditation agencies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether outside quality confirmation can truly influence the inward life of higher education institutions. Will accreditation implementation have an impact on teaching and learning enhancement and drive institution change? Design/methodology/approach This study was based on an explanatory qualitative design whereby individual faculty members who are tenured or in tenure-track positions in business schools in Lebanese universities were interviewed. The latter universities from which interviewees were questioned are either the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredited or currently pursuing accreditation. The sample included 30 faculty members from four different higher education Lebanese institutions. Findings Following thorough review of previous literature, and building on the outcomes of the interviews conducted for the purpose of this research, the author deduced that AACSB serves as the optimal guiding mechanism that incorporates effective evaluation criteria for learning quality and universities. There also exist a lack of commonality and shared standards among accrediting agencies. The researchers also highlight the need to introduce further quantification into the accrediting measures adopted including faculty retention and student attrition rates. Research limitations/implications Ranking agencies were not considered in this study. Those can be used to assess the effectiveness of higher education institutions and will provide fair quality assurance of learning. It is encouraged to incorporate the ranking agencies variable within the scope of future studies for further analysis. Practical implications The paper includes the need to introduce further quantification into the accrediting measures adopted including faculty retention and student attrition rates. Originality/value The focus of this study will be of particular interest to Business school seeking or maintaining accreditation. It will also be of interest to the Lebanese government if they want to look at having a regional accreditation. Future research could possibly explore the need to have a regional accreditation especially with the emerging numbers of higher education institutions in Lebanon.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna Vossius ◽  
Hege Ersdal ◽  
Jan Terje Kvaløy ◽  
Paschal M ◽  
Estomih Md ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Access to health care facilities is a key requirement to enhance safety for mothers and newborns during labour and delivery. Haydom Lutheran Hospital (HLH) is a regional hospital in rural Tanzania with a catchment area of about two million inhabitants. Up to June 2013 ambulance transport and delivery at HLH were free of charge, while a user fee for both services was introduced from January 2014. We aimed to explore the impact of introducing user fees on the population of women giving birth at HLH in order to document potentially unwanted consequences in the period after introduction of fees . Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from a prospective observational study. Data was compared between the period before introduction of fees from February 2010 through June 2013 and the period after from January 2014 through January 2017. Logistic regression modelling was used to construct risk-adjusted variable-life adjusted display (VLAD) and cumulative sum (CUSUM) plots to monitor changes. Results: A total of 28,601 births were observed. The monthly number of births was reduced by 17.3% during the post-introduction period. Spontaneous vaginal deliveries were registered less frequently, while labour complication and caesarean sections were more frequent. There was a reduction of newborns with birth weight less than 2500 grams and an increase in newborns weighing more than 4000 grams. The observed changes were stable over time. For most variables, a significant change could be detected after a few weeks. Conclusion: After the introduction of ambulance and delivery fees an increase in labour complications and caesarean sections of about 80 per 1000 births and a decrease in non-cephalic presentations and newborns with low birthweight of about 17 per 1000 births each was observed. This might indicate that women delay the decision to seek skilled birth attendance or do not seek help at all, possibly due to financial reasons. Lower rates of births in a safe health care facility like HLH is of great concern, as access to skilled birth attendance is a key requirement in order to further reduce perinatal mortality. Therefore, free delivery care should be a high priority.


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