scholarly journals The Influence of Personal and Organizational Factors on Researchers’ Attitudes towards Sustainable Research Productivity in Saudi Universities

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahad Ghabban ◽  
Ali Selamat ◽  
Roliana Ibrahim ◽  
Ondrej Krejcar ◽  
Petra Maresova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
International Collaboration ◽  
Effect Size ◽  
Research Productivity ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
University Policy ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Personal Use

Purpose: This paper studies organisational and personal factors affecting the behaviour of academic staff in Saudi universities. It seeks to investigate the beliefs of academic staff regarding the use of ICT and other factors to enhance the productivity of their scientific research. Also, this study aims to improve the sustainability of publication in Saudi universities. ICT includes using the library system for accessing research repository databases such as Science Direct, Web of Science, Scopus, etc. and other factors. The authors also developed the Importance Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) for these factors in order to provide guidelines for Saudi universities to build university systems to manage and measure the research productivity of academic staff. In summary, this research identifies factors critical to enhancing research productivity in Saudi universities. This will help to improve the sustainability of publication in Saudi universities. By enhancing the sustainability of publication, the reputation of Saudi universities will be improved and the reputation of academic staff in Saudi universities. As well the sustainability of publication will assist the promote of Saudi academic staff. Approach: This paper analysed 200 papers related to the enhancement of research productivity from various research databases such as Science Direct, IEEE and Scopus. We included the usage of ICT in research analysis, university policy, university research funding and the number of publications published by academic staff. The authors used different databases and systematic literature reviews (SLR) to find the most important factors which could improve research productivity in universities. An online questionnaire answered by 375 academic staff from four developing Saudi universities that are Taif University, Taibah University, Jeddah University, Hail University—was used to determine the relationship between information technology factors and research performance together with other factors such as university policy, international collaboration, research funding and job satisfaction. In this study, we used SmartPLS v3 to analyse the results from the questionnaires. Findings: The results show that personal factors such as personal use of ICT and organisational factors such as job satisfaction, university policy, IT funding, international collaboration and the level of ICT use in the university have positive effects on scientific research productivity among academic staff at Saudi universities. Those results are based on the beliefs of academic staff regarding the use of information technology for research purposes and other factors. This paper finds that university policy recorded an importance of 0.523, job satisfaction was 0.224, international collaboration was 0.103, personal use of ICT was 0.102, the level of using ICT in the university was 0.074 and the importance of ICT funding was –0.156. Also, the results from SmartPLS show that university policy has a 0.215 effect size on research performance, job satisfaction has a 0.045 effect size on research performance, international collaboration has a 0.009 effect size on research performance, personal use of ICT has a 0.011 effect size on research performance, a university’s use of ICT has a 0.006 effect size on research performance and ICT funding has a 0.014 effect size on the research performance of academic staff in Saudi universities. These results will help to improve the sustainability of publication in Saudi universities in order to enhance the universities’ rankings and the reputation of academic staff. Sustainability is a target for any organization, both for profit-making entities or non-profit organizations such as universities. This means that Saudi universities should enhance the sustainability of their publication. In order to achieves the goals of higher education institutions. Originality: No study has investigated the factors affecting the performance of academic staff in Arab countries, especially in Saudi universities. Therefore, the originality of this study resides in being the first study to investigate the impact of researchers’ attitudes to enhancing the research productivity performance of researchers in Saudi universities. Also, it is one of the few studies which discusses sustainability in Saudi universities.

scholarly journals Factors contributing towards research productivity in higher education

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Caroline Henry ◽  
Nor Azura Md Ghani ◽  
Umi Marshida Abd Hamid ◽  
Ahmad Naqiyuddin Bakar
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Research Productivity ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Student Perception ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Age Cohort ◽  
Role Of Principal ◽  
Behavioural Factors ◽  
Conducting Research

<span>Research Productivity (RP) is the key element in the establishment of ranking and rating system in the Higher Education (HE) sector. Despite of the many initiatives taken to enliven the research culture among academic staff, there are still constraints and resistance towards conducting research. Therefore, this study attempts to identify the factors affecting RP and develop an appropriate model to determine the RP of an academic staff in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). In this study, 5 research related indicators were used in the determination of RP. Since the population size of UiTM is large, the primary data was collected by using questionnaire survey and stratified random sampling. The variables that were found to be significant in determining RP of an academic staff were age cohort, highest qualification, cluster and track emphasis. Satisfaction towards annual KPI, UiTM current policy and monthly income were also found to influence the RP of an academic staff. In addition, perceiving the role of principal investigator as a chore and burden and supervising and graduating a PhD student perception as burden and pleasure were also found to be affecting RP. Using these variables, Logistic Regression Model was used to determine the RP of an academic staff in UiTM. In conclusion, personal, environmental and behavioural factors were found to have influence on the RP among academic staff of UiTM. Therefore, generally it is possible to maximize the RP of academic staff by identifying the factors influencing RP followed by strategic management and proper monitoring system.</span>

scholarly journals Factors Affecting Iranian TEFL Postgraduate Candidates’ Research Productivity: A Qualitative Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Reihanne Yousefi ◽  
Abdorreza Tahriri ◽  
Maryam Danaye Tous
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Research Productivity ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Institutional Research ◽  
Research Environment ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Motivational Influences ◽  
Conducting Research

Developing research performance has become an important theme in Iranian higher educational institutions as other national and international academic institutions across the world. However, the research performance of Iranian Teaching English as a Foreign Language postgraduate candidates has been argued to be limited. In order to increase their research productivity and develop their capacity in this regard, the first critical step is to understand the influences which are associated with their academic research performance. This qualitative study focuses on a group of TEFL postgraduate candidates from five major Iranian universities with the purpose of investigating the motivational influences in conducting research, their perception of research value, and their understanding of research environment which is required for research productivity. Interviews were conducted with 20 candidates from the sample universities. It was revealed that the research related activities and efforts of the participants were driven by both external and internal needs and motivations. A multi-dimensional value was accorded to research; however, the academic research environment and requirements were the subject of various concerns. The results of this study offer several future implications for departmental and institutional research administrators to further support TEFL postgraduate candidates’ research development.

scholarly journals The research performance of Iranian medical academics: a National Analyses

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Homayoun Sadeghi-Bazargani ◽  
Fahimeh Bakhtiary ◽  
Mina Golestani ◽  
Yasin Sadeghi-Bazargani ◽  
Nazila Jalilzadeh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
International Collaboration ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
Scientific Performance ◽  
H Index ◽  
Group Type ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Number Of Citations

Abstract Background Scientometric studies are one of the most important and useful tools to assess the research performance and knowledge impact of researchers. The aim of this study was to map out the scientific performance of the Iranian medical academics with respect to a detailed range of scientometric indicators. Methods Using scientometric approach, individual and scientific performance data of medical academic staff were extracted from the Iranian Scientometric Information Database (ISID). Total number of publications, total number of citations, citation per paper, h-index, international collaboration, self-citation, SJR decile, i10-Index, Quartile distribution were the studied scientometric variables. Out of the registered 19,023 academic staff, 746 were included in the study through simple random sampling method using random sample extraction function in STATA. Data were analyzed using STATA 14 statistical software package. Results Most of the included academicians were men (60%). A total of 13,682 articles were published by them until 2018, being cited 114,928 times with a mean of 5.77 citation per paper. H-index median was three and about 90% of the staff had an H-index below 10. Number of published papers, cite per paper and H-index metrics were significantly different with respect to gender, academic position/degree, and general field of study (p < 0.05). About 2.5% of published articles were contributed through international collaboration. The scientometric performance of academic staff was highly diverse with respect to the employing institution and its national classification group (type 1, 2, 3). Conclusions Nevertheless to the great scientific production of medical academics, individual and institutional characteristics were identified as effective variables in academics research performance and should be considered in their assessment. Academicians affiliated with type 2 and 3 universities (based on national ranking of medical universities) had weaker research performance compared to those affiliated with type 1 universities. However, low rate of international research collaborations was a common challenge in medical universities.

scholarly journals Factors Impacting Research Productivity of Academic Staff at the Iraqi Higher Education system

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-126
Author(s):  
Alaa S Jameel ◽  
Abd Rahman Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Research Productivity ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Future Research ◽  
University Ranking ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Funding Opportunities ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Research productivity is a vital element in enhancing the university ranking and, it is an important metric to measure the performance of academic staff. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors impacting research productivity of academic staff at Cihan University Erbil, Iraq. A survey was carried out among 87 academic staff randomly selected at the university to determine the impact of Fund, Collaboration, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Job Satisfaction on Research Productivity. The data was analyzed by using Smart PLS 3.2.9. The results indicated that Fund, Collaboration, ICT and Job Satisfaction had positive and significant impact on Research Productivity, although Fund has the highest impact on Research Productivity. The implication of this study is the management of universities should pay greater attention on research funding opportunities, rewarding collaboration among researchers, enabling ICT and improving job satisfaction to boost research productivity of the academic staff. For future research, it is recommended to measure the mediating roles of the variables and consider sampling academic staff from other universities to increase generalizability.

Impact of Job Stress and Social Support on Job Satisfaction among Academic Staff

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumari Kumkum ◽  
R. N. Singh ◽  
Yogershi Rajpoot
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Job Stress ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Four Dimensions

There may be so many negative consequences of stress for human beings and dissatisfaction among employees happens to be one of the major problems. It indicates negative feelings that individuals have regarding their jobs or its facets. On the other hand, social support is assumed to be mitigating the relationship between negative aspects of the work environment and job satisfaction. Job stress is said to be associated with job dissatisfaction as well as experience of strain. In view of the above, this study examined the role of job stress and social support in job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 30 school teachers from different school of Varanasi (U.P.). The job stress, job satisfaction and social support scales were administered on the participants. The responses of the participants were converted into scores for statistical analyses. The scores of participants on the scales were correlated. The findings revealed that job stress led to increased job satisfaction. It is against the proposed hypothesis and it appears as if the social support received by the participants is a factor behind it. Two of the four dimensions of social support were found to exert positive impact on job satisfaction but the other two dimensions were not found to be correlated with it. The findings are thoroughly discussed and interpreted.

scholarly journals For the Sustainable Development of Universities: Exploring the External Factors Impacting Returned Early Career Academic’s Research Performance in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1333
Author(s):  
Xiantong Zhao ◽  
Hongbiao Yin ◽  
Chenyang Fang ◽  
Xu Liu
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Early Career ◽  
External Factors ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
Good Research

Early career academics are the key agents for the sustainable development of higher education institutions. In China, those who were educated overseas and have returned to Chinese universities to seek academic positions are becoming a fast-growing group. Good research performance is critical to survive in the increasingly competitive environment in academia. Improving research performance requires an understanding of the factors that facilitate or inhibit research performance. In the light of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study, using a mixed-method design (20 interviewees and 136 respondents), elaborates on a number of external factors affecting returned early career academics’ research performance. Understanding these factors is helpful for the building of a favorable environment that can improve the research performance of the returned early career academics, and hence the sustainable development of universities.

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