Strategic Aspects of Professional Position Development: Implications for Adjustment from Administrative to Professional Positions in Indonesia

The mandate of government policy is to flatten bureaucracy structure through transferring administrative positions to professional ones. Such policy has caused many issues. Thus, it is necessary to develop professional positions. This research analyses three strategic aspects of professional position development that include legal, technical, and welfare aspects using a systematic literature review method. It shows that the legal aspect requires certain policies to accelerate the implementation of flat bureaucracy and problem-solving in organizational structure as well as in personnel management. The government's commitment is required by the planning system related to the development of professional positions both at the central and regional levels. In the technical aspect, the analysis shows competency development become mandatory for agencies to solve the competency gap between administrative positions and professional positions. Then on the welfare aspect, there is an income gap between administrative positions and several professional positions. The government has to make a regulation about allowance to resolve the income gap.

Burnout Syndrome in public school teachers in Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil

Objective: To identify the prevalence of Burnout Syndrome (BS) in a sample of 107 elementary school teachers (cycle II and high school) in Sorocaba/SP and analyze possible associations of psychosocial and organizational factors at work with the dimensions of burnout. Methods: Cross-sectional epidemiological study, conducted through a selection of a convenience sample, which included 107 teachers from state schools in Sorocaba using the following criteria: having entered the public teaching career for at least one year and working predominantly as a teacher, that is, not having more hours in administrative positions. Data collection was conducted in eight schools in the city, and two forms were used, the “Maslach Burnout Inventarie-Educators Survey” (MBI-ES) and a biopsychosocial form. Pearson's chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were performed for data analysis, adopting a significance level of 5%. Results: There was a prevalence of BS in 4.7% of teachers, with 29% of teachers showing high Emotional Exhaustion, 33.6% high Depersonalization and 18.7% low Professional Fulfillment. Positive associations were found between factors such as lack of recognition, dissatisfaction with work and situations of harassment with the dimensions of the BS. Conclusion: The results suggest a warning sign for illness characterized by burnout in the sample of teachers studied.

Survival in a Nazi Concentration Camp: The Spanish Prisoners of Mauthausen

Analysis of the extent to which higher social class (along with other demographic variables) was an advantage for Spanish prisoners at the Mauthausen concentration camp advances the study of the determinants of survival in contexts of indiscriminate violence. Use of Cox event-history models, based on detailed information collected by well-placed Spaniards at the camp, reveals that individuals from higher social classes who filled administrative positions at Mauthausen were prominent in support networks and had a good command of the German language were more likely to survive. The risk of death was highest among unskilled agricultural workers, followed by unskilled non-agricultural workers.

Russian “Party of Power” vs Dominant Party

The article presents a factual analysis of the origin and formation of the “party of power” in Russia. The work demonstrates that at all stages the Russian “party of power” was designed and controlled by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. The research carried out by the author shows that Russia’s “party of power” does not meet the criteria that would allow to qualify this political party as dominant, in any of its “incarnations”. This fully applies to the United Russia party that does not exert a significant impact on the appointments to the political and administrative positions and does not have any effect on the decisions that determine the state’s policy. The dominance of the United Russia party in the electoral field is ensured primarily by the electoral corruption, as well as by the fact that its “electoral machine” is represented by the system of public authorities at all levels, from federal to local. In turn, the dominance of this party in the State Duma and the rigid and strictly hierarchical administrative structure that it built in the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament allows the Presidential Administration to control the legislative process and parliamentary activity in general. According to the author’s conclusion, the “party of power” is an externally controlled political organization of a party type that protects the interests of Russia’s ruling nomenklatura and implements its goals in the processes of the formation of public authorities through electoral procedures, as well as in the course of the legislative and parliamentary activity. Not only does such an organization fail to meet the criteria of the dominant party, but it also fails to fully correspond to the concept of a political party per se.

Ahmed Bâba at-Timbuktî

Ahmed Bâba (1556–1627) was among the most prolific and the most celebrated of Timbuktu scholars of the 16th and 17th centuries. During his childhood he was educated and trained in Arabic law and Islamic sciences by his father, Ahmad, and other relatives. His principal teacher, the man he named the regenerator (al-mujaddid), was the Juula scholar Mohammed Baghayogho al-Wangarî, whose teaching he followed for more than ten years. Following the Moroccan occupation of Timbuktu in 1591, he was exiled to Marrakesh in 1594 and jailed for two years before he was released but obliged to remain in the city for many years. He was widely known both for his teaching and for the fatwas (legal opinions) he issued. He was offered administrative positions but declined them all in favor of teaching. In 1608, he was permitted to return to his hometown, Timbuktu, where he continued to write and teach until his death in 1627, but he held no public office there. His special field of competence was jurisprudence. He was also recognized for his abilities in hadith and wrote several works on Arabic grammar. He is probably best known for his biographical compendium of Mâlikî (founded by Malik ibn Anas died A.D. 795 is orthodox school of Muslim jurisprudence predominating in Sudanic Africa and the Maghreb) scholars, Nayl al-Ibtihâj bi tadrîs ad-dibâdj, a valuable supplement for the Western Islamic world to Ibn Farhûn’s ad-Dibâj al-Mudhahhab. His work specifically addresses issues relating to the significance of racial and ethnic categories as factors in the justification of enslavement. In the Bilâd as-Sûdân, Ahmed Bâba influenced the debate over slavery by relying on interpretations of Islamic precedent, which was invoked to protect freeborn individuals from enslavement. By extension, he impacted the transatlantic slave trade on the basis of religious identification with Islam and the desire to avoid the sale of slaves to non-Muslims, especially Christian Europeans on the coast of West Africa.

Strategies for the survival of the Gusti School during 1939-1948

This article presents and analyzes the survival strategies of the Gusti School during 1939-1948. The specialized literature includes consistent information about the Gusti School, the monographs and research carried out, the School’s publications and the institutions in which the members of the Gusti School have been active. However, this article points out the important moments of the gustist activity after 1939, as forms of survival, through the documentary analysis of the texts published at that time, the documents of the Romanian Academy, as well as the subsequent sociological materials. An important part of the actions that indicate a certain type of strategy were extracted: journalism, the insistence to increase the sociological activity, even in conditions of war or the work carried out in different administrative positions. How was the activity of the Gusti School viewed after 1939 and what were the survival strategies? What were the main methods and strategies for promoting the Gusti School? In what (emergency) formula did the student teams continue their work? Is it possible to research in a time of war? Answering all these questions, we conclude that during 1939-1948, despite oppressive actions and purges targeting the Gusti School, its representatives managed to impose themselves, continuing the work to the limit allowed by the given political situations.

Examining the Influence of Academic and Non-academic Responsibilities on Academicians’ Job-related Stress in Higher Education

Academicians are commonly associated with academic tasks of teaching and research. However, recent scenario reveals that academicians’ workloads are not restricted to merely academic tasks. Academicians also hold administrative positions, involved with students’ development activities, community services and professional development. Shouldering with numerous responsibilities, academicians may be stressful to prioritize the assigned tasks and meeting deadlines. This necessitates serious attention to ensure that academicians can focus on the assigned responsibilities and perform their best. Thus, this study attempts to establish a relationship between academic and non-academic responsibilities with job-related stress among academicians. Through survey method, 120 usable responses received out of 391 questionnaires distributed to academicians in a public university. Using SPSS, a preliminary analysis indicates that the respondents were moderately stressful with their job. However, multiple regressions test demonstrates that job-related stress is not influenced by academic responsibilities but marginally contributed by non-academic responsibilities. The findings give insights to the university management on academicians’ reaction to their present job tasks and useful as guidance in any efforts or policy towards academicians’ workload setting. However, this study is confined to only one public university in the East coast region of Malaysia. Thus, future research may be expanded to the public universities in the West region of Malaysia with different working environment and lifestyle. Keywords Academicians, Academic Responsibilities, Non-academic responsibilities, Job-related Stress, Teaching workloads

IMPROVING THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

SUMMARY: The peer review process has been regarded as an essential part of accepting or rejecting a paper for publication since 1752 when the process was started by The Royal Society of London in the publication entitled “Philosophical Transactions”. In developing countries, one of the primary reasons for submitting pieces for publication is to support promotion in universities. In fact, the argument can be made that the only reason for publishing in developing countries is for faculty promotion. Despite the peer review process being standard practice for scientic journals, many of the research publications on COVID-19 were not subjected to the peer review system. In fact, numerous publications were pre-prints and papers shared by researchers online which were not peer reviewed, yet they were accepted and published by scientic journals in developing nations. When authors start to lose condence in the peer review process of a journal, they are not likely to submit their research work to such journals and this can lead to a diminished impact and reputation of such journals. Additionally, the selection of the assessors by the Editor-in -Chief is usually from the academic space of the editor and from the colleagues of the editor that usually share the editor's view. Contrary to what some editors in the developing countries believe, medical and academic administrative positions do not necessarily result in expertise in the peer review process. An editor can easily identify a poor assessment of an article, from the vitriolic feed-back of the author to the editor about an assessor when a paper is not recommended for publication. This paper provides evidence of and outlines the possible reasons that the peer review process is substandard in developing countries.

Impact of Organizational Support on Faculty Commitment to Academic Accreditation in Higher Education Institutions

The study aimed to identify the degree of perceived organizational support (POS) of faculty members and their commitment to academic accreditation (CTAA). Then, it explores the effect of POS on CTAA, gender, nationality, and administrative positions on them. Participants included a convenient sample of 221 faculty members from Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. Data analysis included measures of central tendency and structural equation modeling to conduct confirmatory factor analysis and build regression models. Results showed moderate degree of faculty POS and high level of CTAA. Significant gender difference is also observed for POS, with male faculty members showing higher POS and female members showing higher CTAA. In addition, non-Omani members reported significantly more POS and those with administrative positions reported significantly higher CTAA. Finally, empirical evidence is validated for the positive influence of POS on CTAA. Keywords: Organizational support, commitment to change, academic accreditation, higher education, Oman

THE PROBLEMS OF DETERMINING THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL STATUS OF EMPLOYEES OCCUPYING POLITICAL POSITIONS IN THE EXECUTIVE AUTHORITIES

The article analyzes the opinions presented in scientific sources regarding the definition of political positions in the executive branch and the administrative and legal status of employees holding these positions. Instead, the specifics of the implementation of the administrative-legal status of employees holding political positions in the executive branch are studied in administrative science piece by piece. Particular attention is paid to the fact that administrative law consistently and persistently considers all aspects of the acquisition and implementation of the administrative and legal status of civil servants and employees of local self-government bodies. A terminological distinction is made between the terms «professionalism» and «qualifications». Professionalism means that a position in the executive branch is associated with a specific profession. For a candidate applying for the relevant position, additional requirements are imposed regarding his professional abilities. On the other hand, professionalism means that the person applying for the position must be qualified enough to carry out their duties effectively. Thus, “professionalism” is characteristic of all employees holding administrative positions in the system of executive bodies, and “professionalism”, in our opinion, is a common criterion for all categories of civil servants. It is proposed to highlight the following features of the civil service performed by persons holding political positions in executive bodies: 1) provides for the constitutional and legal procedure for entering and passing political service (constitutional and legal status of employees holding political positions); 2) the powers assigned to political positions in executive bodies require the availability of appropriate administrative and legal forms and mechanisms for their implementation (administrative and legal status of employees holding political positions); 3) employees holding political positions are not subject to disciplinary responsibility, and therefore the structure of their administrative and legal status does not provide for legal responsibility; 4) the professionalism of political figures in the system of executive authorities is manifested in a harmonious combination of their political and administrative activities.