Writing for the audience or for public relations? How lifestyle editors perceive expectations about their professional role and manage potential for conflict

Lifestyle journalists work in a boundary area between journalistic and commercial interests. They report journalistically on lifestyle topics such as travel, food, or fashion, while also incorporating promotional content and public relations concerns, either because reporting on lifestyle topics would otherwise not be possible or because their publications depend economically on commercial partners. These differing demands could lead to role conflicts for the editors of lifestyle magazines. This study investigates how lifestyle editors perceive expectations regarding their professional role and whether diverging expectations lead to role conflicts. To answer these questions, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with lifestyle editors from Germany. The results show that lifestyle editors aim primarily to entertain, spread positivity, and inspire their readers, while attempting to report independently and objectively. However, commercial expectations compromise these norms, leading to perceptions of role conflict.

Understanding role conflict and role ambiguity of school principals in Nepal

In the context of developed countries, a lot of research has been done to uncover and identify the problems school leaders face in their work but little is known about the school leadership of underdeveloped countries. In a quest to discover contextual problems in terms of role conflict and role ambiguity of school leaders, this qualitative study tries to capture the experiences of principals in Nepal through in-depth interviews of six community school principals. The findings reveal that the major sources of role conflict and ambiguity for principals from Nepal are problematic power-sharing, low job autonomy, dual role conflict, limited professional development training, and lack of leadership knowledge. The study has several policy-level implications such as importance of hiring principals with proven leadership skills and increasing the leadership skills of current principals to ensure that they can tackle these challenges.

Management beyond a critical threshold of employees: evidence-based HR solutions for SMEs

PurposeThis research identifies human resource (HR) management challenges and associated solutions of a medium-sized organization that reached a critical threshold of employees and required formalized HR systems. HR solutions focused on using labour efficiently, linking pay to performance and motivating or rewarding desired employee behaviour are identified.Design/methodology/approachThis case study involved HR data analysis and 50 semi-structured interviews (SSIs) over 4 successive phases: HR audit, problem identification and job description validation, solutions analysis and feedback on outcomes. Additionally, HR files and schedules were reviewed to determine labour usage, organizational structure and compensation.FindingsHR problems and solutions associated with job analysis (e.g. role identity, role conflict), HR planning (e.g. scheduling, motivation), employee performance management (e.g. validity, employee empowerment) and compensation (e.g. inequity, turnover intentions) issues are clearly identified.Research limitations/implicationsTraditionally, HR theory or concepts are presented in a limited or isolated manner. However, this research provides an integrative assessment of numerous interrelated, complex, core HR concepts including role conflict, equity, employee empowerment, motivation, consensus building, accountability, change champions, communication and coaching.Practical implicationsThis multi-phased, multi-stakeholder approach to small and medium enterprise (SME) management informs organizational leaders about HR problems and solutions they may encounter as they grow and require formalized HR systems. The proposed solutions can help safeguard organizational survival.Originality/valueThis research bridges HR theory with HR practices focusing specifically on SMEs. In addition, SMEs can benefit from the HR process information presented to conduct similar evidence-based HR problem and solution assessments.

The Alignment Between Community Policing and the Work of School Resource Officers

Despite a growing literature showing the ineffectiveness of school resource officers (SROs) for reducing school crime, their use is widespread. Some of this ineffectiveness may arise from SROs’ experiences of role conflict due to their multi-faceted roles and conflicting expectations associated with following two authority structures. Community policing (CP) may offer a unifying perspective that can address some of these barriers. The current study uses data from 119 qualitative interviews with SROs from three U.S. states to examine the extent to which SROs’ activities align with three dimensions of CP: community partnerships, problem-solving, and organizational adaptation. This study finds that SROs’ described activities align well with these dimensions, suggesting that a CP framework may be a strong model for organizing and describing the work of SROs. This framework can be viewed as an initial proof of concept, and research may elaborate on the framework and assess its utility.

Self-Employment or Selfless Employment? Exploration of Factors that Motivate, Facilitate, and Constrain Latina Entrepreneurship from a Family Embeddedness Perspective

As the economic and social importance of Latina-owned businesses continues to grow, research is needed on the factors that motivate entrepreneurship among Latinas and that facilitate and constrain their success. This study draws on in-depth interviews and survey data to explore the experiences of Latina entrepreneurs in Idaho, USA, from an embeddedness perspective combining family embeddedness and intersectionality frameworks to illustrate how family and social positioning affects motivations, opportunities, and access to resources. We found Latinas were motivated to start businesses by a range of interacting factors, including centrally a strong sense of responsibility to their nuclear and families of origin. Prominent family motivations included the desire to provide opportunities for younger and older generations and the need for flexibility to manage family and work obligations. Compared to their middle-class peers, working-class Latina entrepreneurs were more likely to need flexibility because they could not afford third-party care for a family member, to experience greater barriers to accessing traditional financing and professional advice, and to be more dependent on family support for their success, although not all had family-based resources upon which they could rely. Latinas struggled to fulfill traditional family role expectations and obligations while assuming the expanded responsibilities of running a business. While a central tension in their lives, this struggle provides the impetus to renegotiate and update traditional gender and family expectations as they navigate role conflict and strain.

Assessment of job stress among non-teaching staff: A cross-sectional study at teaching hospital, Central India

Introduction: Job stress plays an important role in the maintenance of organizational performance. A key aspect of job stress is increased workload, role conflict, poor job control, lack of support from coworkers and interpersonal conflict. Most studies in the field of job stress have focused on private sectors. The objective of this study was to assess the job stress among non-teaching staff at government teaching hospital. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was carried out in a government teaching hospital in central India between Jan 2020 to March 2020 among 90 participants purposively chosen for the study. New Job Stress Scale was used to assess the extent of stress among the participants. Approval from Institutional Ethical Committee was obtained before commencing the study. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20 for percentages, mean and standard deviation. Results: A moderate level of stress affects 47.78 percent of participants. The present study found that most problematic dimensions of job stress variables were dimension of role conflict with as many as 51% of participants had experience role expectation conflict. Conclusion: We can infer from this finding that we need to have formal job description written for their non-teaching staff so that their role should be clear and unambiguous.