Competencies and Development Needs of Physician Managers in Nigeria: A Case Study of selected hospitals in Ibadan City, Oyo State

The physician is traditionally the head of the medical team. To be an effective and efficient team leader is not innate but requires acquiring some competencies. The medical school curriculum was deficient in this regard hence the need for acquisition of these skills through training. Consequently, the present study aims to assess the influence of leadership competencies and Development Needs on the job performance of Physician Mangers. A cross-sectional survey was distributed among Physician Managers in various hospital types that were purposefully selected. Ten Physician Managers were also interviewed for in-depth information of skills they require to perform well. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize the items of the questionnaire at 5% level of significance and to determine if a significant difference existed between groups of Physician managers. Results show that possessing the competencies; communication and relationship management, leadership and business skills and knowledge do influence the job performance of Physician Mangers. There was a significant difference between physicians that had formal training in management and those that had none in the communication and professionalism domains. Seven Physician Managers from different types of hospitals were interviewed, two of them females. They had been in managerial positions from 6months to 34 years. They all emphasised communication and leadership skills as important competencies for every physician manager. They all also suggested that management training must be introduced either during undergraduate or postgraduate training and that physician as head of the medical team require regular management update training.

Media Ecology: The Competition of Local Private Television on Seizing Audiences for Broadcasting Sustainability in South Kalimantan, Indonesia

Media ecology examined the interrelationships between the media and their supporting environment. This research article aimed to determine the category of life-support sources (niche breadth) and to measure the level of competition (niche overlap) of local private television in South Kalimantan in seizing for viewers. This research used a quantitative approach. Target audience data, as the main data, was obtained by data collection techniques in the form of a log book survey results or management estimates from each television. The collected data was processed using the niche breadth formula to determine the category of each television media, and the niche overlap formula to determine the level of television competition in seizing for its viewers. The findings showed that Duta TV was in the generalist category and Prima TV was in the specialist category. The niche overlap scores differed between a number of target audience types, where the level of competition in seizing for viewers between the two televisions was quite high in the gender category compared to the other four types of target audiences, namely age group, socioeconomic status, recent education, and occupation.

Migrants during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Discursive Class Formation of Returnee Expatriates

Amidst the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, migrants are the most affected parts after the Health and economy. More than half a million migrants have returned from February to May 2020 to Bangladesh. The state and society have stigmatized returnee expatriates as suspected disease carriers. Some of them are being physically assaulted and humiliated by their neighbor and society. Researchers revealed a new dimension of "Othering" discourse; where consent of hate crime formed being solely blamed for bring coronavirus and ignoring mandatory quarantine period. The government officially stigmatized them by putting quarantined seals at their hands and hoisting red flags at their homes. Interestingly, we have found the distinction of stigmatization between returnee expatriates, where returnee workers were being humiliated rather than high-skilled returnee professionals from a so-called developed country. Returnee expatriates experienced a transformation of identity. Researchers argued about the discursive formation of a class of returnee expatriates who were once highly respected and spoiled of their identity as a probable source of virus carrier. Once labeled as a remittance fighter of the economy have to transients their so-called positions, and has to prove their worthiness as a citizen of the state, after starting the pandemic, governments and their developing partners were not humane, concerned about the returnee expatriates' social discrimination, risk of unemployment, uncertainty, economic crisis, and instability. Returnee expatriates' abandonment as a suspected carrier of the COVID-19 virus by the state and society should be worked out more comprehensively to protect them from social and economic exploitation.

Performance Measurement in Local Government: Institutional Factors

The purpose of this research is to give empirical evidence of the impact of management commitment, resources, legislative mandate, management innovation, and reward/incentive on performance measurement. This research data was collected through a Google Form, in which 64 questionnaires were sent to the Head of the Planning Subdivision and their staff in each of the Regional Apparatus Organizations in the South Tangerang City Government. With the technique used, census sampling, this study took a quantitative approach employing non-probability sampling. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using PLS version 3.0 was used to evaluate the data. Management commitment and legislative mandate have a considerable impact on performance measurement. Meanwhile, resources, management innovation, and reward/incentive do not. This study has implications for local governments in terms of describing how performance measurement is carried out based on institutional factors, as well as making recommendations for improving local government performance measurements in the future to make them more reliable, effective, and efficient.

Top-Down Naturalization: Turkish Government Propensity and Syrian Refugee Attitudes

Naturalization takes place at the intersection between a host government's propensity to give citizenship and refugees' attitudes towards it. However, the naturalization of Syrian refugees, with its top-down approach, shows the possibility of a divergence between a government’s propensity and refugees’ attitudes, and that divergence may spoil the expected benefits. This study questions the factors that determine government propensity and refugees' attitude, besides the convergence and divergence between them. The regressions have been estimated using data collected from a sample of 296 Syrian students at Mardin University, Turkey. The findings of this study revealed a contradiction between attitude and propensity, although they share factors of education and the hosting context. While the indications of social and cultural integration have a positive effect on attitudes, they do not affect propensity. Besides the contextual factors of hosting province shape attitude and propensity. Moreover, the most important factor in deciding attitude is the perception of the costs and benefits of naturalization.

Unlocking the Challenging Pathways of Youth Participation in Ghana’s Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency

Youth participation in public policies such as the employment policy process has gained prominence in academic and policy literature. Despite this, research on youth participation in the employment policy process has received little attention in Ghana. This paper draws on documentary analysis to unlock the challenging pathways of youth participation in Ghana’s youth employment and entrepreneurial development agency. The paper finds that a web of challenges such as insufficient access to information, over-politicization of GYEEDA, poor level of coordination of stakeholders, and prevalence of diversity and social exclusion are embedded in obstructing the youth participation in GYEEDA. The study recommends that policymakers such as the government and other stakeholders should provide adequate measures to ensure that beneficiaries such as the youths are engaged in the design, formulation, and execution of the youth employment policy process in Ghana.

Effect of Interest Rate on Stock Prices in Ghana

The paper assesses the effect of interest rate on stock prices, with emphases on Ghana Stock Exchange; using monthly time series data from July 2007 to December 2019. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test was employed to establish the stationarity properties of the data or otherwise. Using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation technique of Multiple Regression, the results (? = – 0.891, p < 0.05) revealed an indirect association between interest rates and stock prices in the Ghanaian context; which is consistent with the theoretical conclusion that an increase in interest rate results in a decrease in stock prices. Thus, in the light of this finding, it was recommended that policymakers should consider the stock market dynamics due to the significant relationship that exists between the two macroeconomic variables.

Populism: Utility of its Approaches and the Prospects of the Phenomenon's Resurgence in America

Populism in the 21st century became prominent in scholarly circles following Brexit and the 2016 electoral victory of Donald Trump. As democracy and globalization enthusiasts least anticipated these two monumental events in modern history, much emphasis came to be placed on the nature of populism and what conditions led to its manifestation in contemporary times. Working within this background, this study aims to review the ideational, political strategy and discursive approaches to the populism phenomenon and unpack the relative utility of each approach. I offer a thoughtful perspective that while the ideational approach’s “thin-centered” strand has the tendency to blur the boundaries of populism and lead scholars to accept “anything” as populism; it nevertheless enables us to comprehensively capture populism usage in multiple contexts. Further, I advance the notion that the 2020 electoral defeat of Donald Trump should not be misconstrued as the end or weakening of right-wing populism; the present state of American politics makes it ripe for populism resurgence.

Assessing the Effects of Regimented Administrative Structure of Education on Pupils Academic Performance of Basic Schools in Military Barracks, Ghana

Over the last five years, there has been a downward trend in the BECE performance by pupils in the Basic schools of military barracks in Ghana. The military high command has been concerned about the current performance of pupils in the BECE, and the responsibility lies with the Directorate of Education of the Ghana Armed forces to undertake all efforts at reversing the tide. The study is predicated upon the need to explore all possible causes of a consistent downward trend of BECE performance over the past five years. It is speculated that in the case of the Armed Forces schools, the quality of education could either be significantly enhanced or diminished by the peculiarity of the administration. Thus, the study quantitatively examined the place of military culture as a part of the administration and how the phenomenon impacts academic performance. The findings revealed that not only does military culture impact teacher work output, but the coercive nature of the relationship between the Educational Officers and civilian teaching staff is detrimental to the academic environment. Therefore, this paper recommends that the coercive administrative approach be modified to allow for a much more cooperative and social approach, which would create a conducive and free environment for academic work and consequently improve academic performances.

Pandemic Elections and the Covid-Safe Effect: Incumbents Re-elected in Six Covid-19 Safe Havens

The Antipodes have been amongst the safest places on the planet during the Covid-19 pandemic. The governments of Australia and New Zealand (national, state, and territory governments) have acted promptly, decisively, and cohesively in closing borders, quarantining incoming returnees, instigating rigorous contact tracing and extensive testing, social distancing, hand washing, masks, and occasional lockdowns. Antipodean governments and populations have long experience of awareness and compliance with biosecurity issues. Isolation and distance have long served to keep Australia and New Zealand free of many pests and diseases. Each Antipodean election held during the Covid-19 pandemic has returned the incumbent. During the first 14 months of the pandemic, six out of six incumbent governments facing elections during the Covid pandemic have been returned. Five returned incumbents were center-left while the sixth was center-right. Four of the elections have rewarded the incumbent government with an increased majority, the Northern Territory election returned a reduced majority, and the Tasmanian election returned the status quo with the narrowest of majorities maintained. The New Zealand election returned the Labor government to power in their own right and released them from the coalition. The Western Australian election saw Labor returned with a landslide result with an unprecedented, win of 53 out of 59 seats (90% of seats). The object of the present paper is to report the outcomes of the six antipodean elections conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic (to date) and to reflect on the Covid-safe effect on them if any.