Causal Relationship Between Economic Growth and Energy Consumption in Jordan

Due to the current situation of the Jordanian economy, this paper aims to evaluate the impacts of economic growth on energy consumption in a developing country like Jordan, a country with limited resources such as oil, agricultural land, and water. This study is very important since the energy bill reflects a notable share in the GDP for Jordan, especially in the recent decade that witnessed energy bills rising due to different political and financial crisis events. The study investigates the causal relationship between the per capita energy consumption and economic growth (proxied by real gross domestic product per capita in constant prices) over the 1975-2011 period. A Granger causality test is utilized on annual time series data. The results of the study confirm a neutral relationship between real GDP and energy consumption, indicating that per capita increase in economic growth may not cause any perpetual rise in energy consumption in Jordan.

The Modern Approach to Rapport Building with Children Affected by Crisis Events

The article is dedicated to the problem of providing an opportune psychological aid to children who were affected by crisis events. Observation, surveys, conservation were used as the methods of the study. The article emphasizes that the rapport building with children and their parents is one of the first and basic steps to provide psychological help. In order to develop the effective psychological methods and techniques of working with children who were affected by crisis events, scientific works of Ukrainian and foreign scientists were analysed. Therefore, the positive regard, emergence of interest and topic of conservation were determined as essential aspects of any rapport establishing. As well as, the main goals of the rapport building are the abatement of emotional tension and mutual trust development. As a consequence of the study, two stages of the child-psychologist interaction were determined. The first is providing the sense of safety and the second is direct interaction with a child. Also, some rapport building techniques for children of different ages were proposed in the article. These techniques should be used only individually for each specific case. In addition, the rapport building is determined as an inalienable condition of any effective further treatment.

SMEs and exogenous shocks: A conceptual literature review and forward research agenda

Economic crises, natural disasters, armed conflict and infectious disease outbreaks, amongst others, present interlinked challenges for small businesses and have generated a recent wealth of research across varied fields. Therefore, this article outlines an analytical lens suggesting how SMEs experience shocks and crises that focuses on the interlinked nature of (i) the business, (ii) the shock and (iii) the response within a given context. We thematically draw out key trends, knowledge gaps and tensions and highlight promising research and engagement avenues for future scholarship and practice. We contextualise (i) how small businesses are distinct from large firms in how they experience shock and crisis events; (ii) how different types of crises impact small business; (iii) how shocks and crises shape SME-specific responses and (iv) how the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘novel exogenous shock’ influences all of the above. We conclude by emphasising emerging knowledge avenues for future small business, shock and crisis research.

Understanding Multiple Dimensions of Perceived Greenspace Accessibility and Their Effect on Subjective Well-Being During a Global Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how the accessibility of greenspace can shift in response to social-ecological disturbance, and generated questions as to how changing dimensions of accessibility affect the ecosystem services of greenspace, such as improved subjective well-being. Amidst the growing consensus of the important role of greenspace in improving and maintaining well-being through times of duress, we examine how access to greenspace is affecting subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the relationship of greenspace to subjective well-being and the barriers to greenspace access are well-established for normal conditions. Much remains to be known, however, about how barriers to access and the effect of greenspace on subjective well-being shift in response to periods of social duress, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from surveys and interviews conducted with 1,200 university students in the United States during the spring of 2020, we assess the effect of going outdoors on subjective well-being, commonly experienced barriers to going outside, and how these barriers in turn affected subjective well-being. We find that time spent outside, particularly in greenspace, correlates with higher levels of subjective well-being, and that concern over COVID-19 risk and transmission negatively affects this relationship both in reducing time spent outdoors and the subjective well-being benefits. We also find that type of greenspace (public vs. private) does not have a significant effect on subjective well-being, that while those in areas with lower population density have significantly higher subjective well-being when outdoors, all participants experience a statistically equal benefit to subjective well-being by going outside. Our findings suggest how understanding the ways dimensions of accessibility shift in response to times of social duress can aid public health messaging, the design and management of greenspace, and environmental justice efforts to support the use of greenspace in improving and maintaining subjective well-being during future crisis events.

Empathic Psychology: A Code of Risk Prevention and Control for Behavior Guidance in the Multicultural Context

This study aims to uncover the relationship among multicultural differences, empathy, and the behaviors of risk prevention and control in the context of crisis events by using a sample of 300 individuals in 10 different multicultural countries. A theoretical logic model was applied to empirical analysis, and the results indicated that cultural differences positively influenced the behavior of empathy communication and risk prevention and control. Further analyses revealed that real-time monitoring of changes in empathy could provide better options of measures for local risk prevention and control when the same crisis event occurred in a multicultural context. With user-generated content (UGC) emerging in the web 2.0 era, this paper proposed a more profound empathy code regarding the periodicity of risk prevention and control. This paper expects to contribute to the circumvention of cognitive errors caused by cultural differences, and to further provide effective conduction for individuals' risk prevention and control behaviors.

Collective Mindfulness: The Key to Organizational Resilience in Megaprojects

The complexity, internal and external risks, and significant social impact of megaprojects make their organizational resilience particularly important. To survive potential adversities, megaproject organizational resilience depends on collective mindfulness. Drawing on an attention-based view, this study investigates the mechanisms of collective mindfulness for megaproject organizational resilience as a process that functions prior to, during, and after recovery from crises. The results from analyzing six embedded crisis events in two megaprojects indicate that collective mindfulness influences organizational resilience processes through the mechanisms of awareness allocation, emotional detachment, and attention alignment. The study's theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Gender specifics of experiencing a midlife crisis by University staff

Researched are gender characteristics of experiencing a midlife crisis among university teachers. Empirically reveals the gender specifics of the parameters of the experience of the crisis: the severity of the crisis and crisis events, as well as in the perception of the time perspective and perception of subjective age. Research methods are testing and statistical analysis. Based on the data obtained, recommendations are offered on psychological assistance to young university teachers who are experiencing a midlife crisis.

Sailing through the COVID-19 pandemic: managing expatriates' psychological well-being and performance during natural crises

PurposeThe unprecedented challenges brought about by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affected people's lives worldwide. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model to explain how natural crisis events, such as COVID-19, cause stress and influence the psychological well-being (PWB) and performance of expatriates.Design/methodology/approachThe model presented in this conceptual paper is based on Bader and Berg's (2014) two-stage stress emergence and outcome model developed to study expatriates' performance in terrorism-endangered countries. The authors apply their model to natural crisis events and provide propositions to explain the postulated relationships.FindingsThe proposed model delineates the stressors that emerge from psychological and situational factors, and how they impact the PWB and performance of expatriates. The article emphasizes how resilience, social network, and support from the organization, supervisor, and family can help mitigate the adverse effects of stress on the PWB of expatriates. Furthermore, keeping in mind the prevailing situations due to COVID-19, the authors shed light on the indispensability of virtual collaboration in ameliorating expatriates' performance in challenging times.Practical implicationsImplications are discussed for organizations in devising plans and strategies to deal with unforeseen crisis events.Originality/valueThis study extends the expatriation literature to the events of natural crisis by incorporating the stress emergence-outcome model. In doing so, the authors identify the factors relevant to natural crises and apply them to understand how they could impact expatriates in such times.

River chief system: an institutional analysis to address watershed governance in China

China suffers from frequent water crisis events caused by ecological pollution in watersheds. The river chief system policy is an institutional innovation by the government to deal with the ecological environmental crisis in the river basin. This study focuses on China's watershed environmental governance policy and describes the origin, operation mode, and governance effect of its river chief system policy. This study comparatively analyses the advantages of the policy in basin environmental governance, such as clear government responsibility, enhanced coordination among government departments, the accountability mechanism of the one-vote veto system, and the disadvantages of the policy in terms of high costs, information asymmetry, and lack of public participation. Furthermore, this study proposes suggestions on the sustainable development of watershed environmental governance from three aspects: regional characteristics, investment, and institutional innovation of policy implementation.