scholarly journals Challenges and Opportunities for Academic Parents During COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva O. L. Lantsoght ◽  
Yvonne Tse Crepaldi ◽  
Silvia G. Tavares ◽  
Kathleen Leemans ◽  
E. W. Misty Paig-Tran

Parents in academic careers face notable challenges that may go unrecognized by university management and/or policy makers. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on some of these challenges, as academic parents shifted to working from home while simultaneously caring for children. On the other hand, many parents found that the shift to working from home offered new opportunities such as working more flexible hours, development of digital skillsets, and increased involvement in the education of their children. In this article we explore the work-related challenges and opportunities experienced by academic parents as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and offer potential long-term solutions for academic parents and their universities. We use the following methods: (1) a literature review focused on identifying the work-related challenges academic parents faced prior to the pandemic, as well as the impact of the pandemic on scientists and working parents and (2) administer a world-wide survey with the goal of identifying the challenges and opportunities associated with parenting and academic work through the COVID-19 lockdown (304 total responses; 113 complete). Moving forward these findings have enabled conclusions to be drawn in order to shape a new normal. Our aim is to offer university administrators, policy makers, and community service providers with ways to provide additional support for academic parents as well as provide tools for academic parents to learn successful strategies directly from their peers.

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1395-1416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushma Priyadarsini Yalla ◽  
Som Sekhar Bhattacharyya ◽  
Karuna Jain

Purpose Post 1991, given the advent of liberalization and economic reforms, the Indian telecom sector witnessed a remarkable growth in terms of subscriber base and reduced competitive tariff among the service providers. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of regulatory announcements on systemic risk among the Indian telecom firms. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a two-step methodology to measure the impact of regulatory announcements on systemic risk. In the first step, CAPM along with the Kalman filter was used to estimate the daily β (systemic risk). In the second step, event study methodology was used to assess the impact of regulatory announcements on daily β derived from the first step. Findings The results of this study indicate that regulatory announcements did impact systemic risk among telecom firms. The study also found that regulatory announcements either increased or decreased systemic risk, depending upon the type of regulatory announcements. Further, this study estimated the market-perceived regulatory risk premiums for individual telecom firms. Research limitations/implications The regulatory risk premium was either positive or negative, depending upon the different types of regulatory announcements for the telecom sector firms. Thus, this study contributes to the theory of literature by testing the buffering hypothesis in the context of Indian telecom firms. Practical implications The study findings will be useful for investors and policy-makers to estimate the regulatory risk premium as and when there is an anticipated regulatory announcement in the Indian telecom sector. Originality/value This is one of the first research studies in exploring regulatory risk among the Indian telecom firms. The research findings indicate that regulatory risk does exist in the telecom firms of India.


Author(s):  
Lizette Solis-Cortes ◽  
Falu Rami

This chapter focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's disproportionate impact on immigrants' careers and employment opportunities, and the dire need to address inequitable career development opportunities. COVID-19 has also highlighted the anti-immigrant sentiment and structural barriers that impact immigrant career experiences and outcomes. A second interrelated obstacle to immigrant career development paths are recent executive orders signed by Donald Trump in the United States against immigrants and refugees as well as global anti-immigrant and refugee policies such as Brexit and the Citizenship Amendment Act. Immigrant workers require advocacy, protection, and avenues to receive continued support during and post-pandemic. Resources for immigrant employers and employees including international resources, avenues for advocacy, and recommendations to service providers are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suhaiza Zailani ◽  
Mohammad Iranmanesh ◽  
Azmin Azliza Aziz ◽  
Kanagi Kanapathy

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to investigate the challenges and opportunities for logistics companies in Malaysia to adopt halal logistics. Logistics plays a key role in protecting the halal integrity of halal food through proper transportation, storage and handling along the supply chain until it reaches its final destination. Design/methodology/approach This research builds on existing research published in the Journal of Islamic Marketing on halal logistics. In addition to an extensive literature review, five focus group discussions were conducted to discover the challenges and opportunities with regards to halal logistics services in Malaysia. Findings The results show that the future market demands and the competitive opportunities related to halal services are the main motivators of first movers in halal logistics. The early adopters of halal logistics face several challenges such as ambiguous halal guidelines, lack of international halal certification, lack of collaboration among governing agencies (i.e. logistics service providers (LSPs), Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) and Halal Industry Development Corporation), a lack of cost-effective standards, an overly competitive transportation sector, lack of demand, lack of halal logistics compulsion, financial challenges and a general misunderstanding of halal practices. Practical implications The findings of the present study may help government policy makers recognise the issues that should be addressed in motivating logistics companies to adopt halal practices. Originality/value Although halal logistics plays a key role in protecting the halal integrity of halal products, there are few halal LSPs. This study contributes to the advancement of knowledge on the challenges and opportunities of adopting halal logistics.


2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 743-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa D. Brush

This study compared independently developed tools to measure work-related control, abuse, and sabotage. Interviewers administered the Work/School Abuse Scale (W/SAS; Riger, Ahrens, & Blickenstaff, 2000) to 40 welfare recipients, and a Work-Related Control, Abuse, and Sabotage Checklist (WORCASC) to a total of 162 welfare recipients, including the same 40 who answered the W/SAS. I report and compare results on W/SAS and WORCASC with 40 non-sheltered (i.e., not residing in a shelter) respondents and discuss instrument strengths and weaknesses. Measurement analyses provided preliminary empirical answers to questions about the relationship between battering and work. Findings confirmed the reliability of the two instruments, the extent to which they measure something distinct from physical abuse, and their association with relevant outcomes such as being written up, reprimanded, or losing pay at work. Measurement questions are salient in the context of debates over welfare reforms and efforts to reconcile the ways researchers, advocates, service providers, and policy makers understand and address the costs of taking a beating.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110581
Author(s):  
Sherrill W. Hayes ◽  
Jennifer L. Priestley ◽  
Brian A. Moore ◽  
Herman E. Ray

The purpose of the study was to understand the impact of involuntary remote working during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived stress and work-related burnout for workers with and without previous experience of remote work. The authors developed a questionnaire, open from March 23rd to May 19th, 2020, incorporating the Perceived Stress Scale, Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, demographic, and work-related questions. This sample consisted of 256 professionals who self-identified as working at home during the pandemic. Pandemic restrictions increased perceived stress for all participants, but age and gender had significant effects on stress and burnout. Burnout was most significant for respondents already working remotely before COVID-19. The most significant challenges reported were—communication, collaboration, and time management with colleagues via technology. Working from home may contribute to higher levels of perceived stress and work-related burnout, which questions moves by some employers to make working from home a permanent arrangement.


Author(s):  
Kabongwe (KB) Gwebu ◽  
Jonathan Compton ◽  
Kyle Holtman ◽  
Aurelia Kollasch ◽  
Jennifer R Leptien ◽  
...  

University and college leaders are tasked with enhancing student outcomes with fewer resources. Student retention is one such key outcome of interest for many policy makers as well as for university administrators. Over the years, administrators have turned to High Impact Practices (HIPs) such as Learning Communities (LCs) to aid in retention. This quantitative study explores the impact LCs have on student retention at a large R1 university in the Midwest. Additionally, the financial return on investment in LCs at this institution is measured via tuition dollars generated from students who are retained as a result of their participation in a LC at the institution. Two key findings of this study are that LCs are positively associated with increased odds of student retention, and that investing in LCs makes good financial sense. Our research contributes to the scholarship on retention attributable to LCs and provides researchers and practitioners with a “template” to evaluate the efficacy of specific retention initiatives in relation to their financial return on investments.


Author(s):  
Khaled Salmen Aljaaidi

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the online social media networks (OSMNs) on productivity at workplace among 88 administrative staff at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaiziz University for the academic year 2020-2021. This study finds that using online social media networks by PSAU’s employees at the workplace enhances their productivity. The majority of the employees (59%) perceive that using the OSMNs at workplace have a positive impact on their productivity. In addition, the majority of the employees (33%) regu-larly use WhatsApp as a useful online social media network at the workplace. The results also indicate that the majority of the employees (66%) use the OSMNs at workplace more than once a day. Further, the majority of the PSAU’s employees (39%) use the OSMNs at work-place less than half an hour per a day. Furthermore, 39% of the PSAU’s employees use the OSMNs at workplace to keep in touch with their families and friends, and 34% of the employees use the OSMNs to search for work-related information. The results of this study should be useful to policy makers in Saudi Arabia at the country, ministry of education, PSAU, and elsewhere in gaining a deeper understanding on how using the OSMNs at work-place can enhances the employees’ productivity.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 602-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Crowley

Children’s participation has attracted a great deal of attention from academics, policy-makers and practitioners over the past 25 years. This article presents findings from research into the impacts on policy-making from such participation by children in Wales, within the United Kingdom, and Tamil Nadu, in India. The paper considers how the dominant objectives for children’s participation in the uk context can be seen to be helping to ensure that new structures set up to facilitate children’s participation such as youth forums and school councils, have been much more about providing opportunities for children to practice “good” citizenship than about children’s voices being heard and acted upon. This approach is compared with a more “bottom-up” initiative designed to enable children to participate in public decision-making in rural villages in south India. In Tamil Nadu’s Neighbourhood Children’s Parliaments, children aged 6–17 have successfully brought about what they consider to be significant improvements in their living environment. The reasons for these differences are explored and consideration given to some of the factors that work as enablers and inhibitors in children’s voices not only being heard by policy makers and service providers but also being taken into account and given due weight. The paper continues with a discussion on these findings, exploring the extent to which children’s participation may be seen as a means of empowerment or social control and makes some tentative comparisons between experiences in India and Wales before concluding with some thoughts on policy and practice implications. The term children is used throughout the paper to refer to people under the age of 18 years.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Vipin Wadhen ◽  
Tina Cartwright

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of COVID-19 and its associated measures has resulted in a sizeable working population transitioning to working from home (WFH), bringing additional challenges, and increasing work-related stress. Research has indicated that yoga has promising potential in reducing stress in the workplace. However, there are very few studies exploring the impact of online streamed yoga on stress management for people-WFH. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility and outcome of an online streamed yoga intervention on stress and wellbeing of people-WFH during COVID-19. METHODS: A six-week pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) yoga intervention was designed with yoga (n = 26) and a wait-list control group (n = 26). A mixed two-way ANOVA was used to assess changes in standardised outcome measures at baseline and post-intervention. Likert and open-ended questions assessed enjoyment, acceptability and perceived benefits of the program, which were analysed thematically. RESULTS: Compared with the control, the yoga group reported significant improvements in perceived stress, mental wellbeing, depression and coping self-efficacy, but not stress and anxiety. Participants experienced physical and mental health benefits and reported high acceptability and enjoyment of the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: An online yoga intervention can help people WFH manage stress and enhance wellbeing and coping abilities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 383-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca K Jones ◽  
David Westlake

This essay describes the impact of the pandemic on our experiences as Independent Visitors (IVs) forchildren who are looked-after. Independent Visitors are volunteers who visit, advise and befriend children with the aim of helping them develop a positive, long-term relationship beyond the care system. Based on our personal experiences of being matched with and visiting two young people, we consider how supporting the children remotely during the pandemic has helped us reflect on our relationships with them and our role as IVs. We discuss the role that foster carers play in supporting the IV relationship, the significance of developing routines and rituals with young people, and the challenges and opportunities offered by the transition from visits to virtual contact. We conclude with an outline of the response of service providers to the pandemic, and suggest that increased support for Independent Visiting might improve provision and allow more children to benefit from a relationship with an Independent Visitor.


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