Three New Directions for Time Banking Research

This chapter aims to highlight three viable fields of research within the domain of time banking (TB), a time-currency-based complementary economy system that has been implemented in various frameworks now for more than three decades. The areas of information management (IM), knowledge management (KM), and open source software (OSS) are almost totally unexplored within time banking. In information management, attention has mainly been devoted to IM frameworks. One link (among others) between knowledge management and open source software has been found in a core concept of the time bank called co-production. Finally, all three of these fields can be related directly to time banking and should have a place in further research, the results of which could also have applications in the field of complementary economic systems in general.

Analysis of the European ICT Competence Frameworks

The rapid evolution and expansion of ICT labor markets requires a common language to manage offer and demand of talent, which is especially critical and complex in a transnational integration scenario like the European Union. Models and frameworks represent useful tools for this purpose. This chapter analyzes the most relevant e-competences frameworks in the European Union (e-CF or EN16234, ESCO, and Body of Knowledge or BoK) as well as their integration and similarities. The present impact of these European frameworks in the ICT labor market and their connection to training and education is presented through data and several examples taken from two EU-funded projects: e-Skills Match and e-CF Council.

A Community-Driven Mobile System to Support Foreign Language Learning

The acquisition of foreign language competencies has become one of the main concerns of current ICT educational policies. Mobile smart devices allow teachers to provide students with personalized learning environments in line with their needs. However, most of the available apps, especially in the area of foreign language learning, still focus on form-based learning supporting mainly one-way interaction. In this chapter, the authors designed a learning system based on a dynamic, asynchronous and constructive learning approach. The chapter illustrates how the system helped students to get involved in their learning process by creating, sharing, and assessing their own learning resources and how teachers could benefit from students' logs to retrieve indicators for assessment processes. Finally, two algorithms that guide students' learning processes are compared: the first algorithm is based on community-driven behaviour, the second one on students' individual behaviour. Results show that both algorithms provide similar outcomes.

What Emotional Intelligence Does to Organizational Stress

The acknowledgement to develop emotional competencies of the workforce is a focal point of concern for human resource practitioners today. This chapter attempts to explore the relationship between organizational role stress and emotional intelligence in the Indian IT industry. Data was collected from a total of 250 employees, both managers and non-managers working in the Delhi NCR region. Emotional intelligence was measured by developing a scale consisting of 27 items. Stress was measured using the organizational role stress questionnaire comprising of 50 items. The results show a strong correlation between role stress and emotional intelligence. It was seen that by altering and increasing the levels of EI among the employees; workplace stress could be effectively reduced. There was also seen to be a and significant impact of emotional intelligence on organizational stress. Regression was applied to see the result of the EI variables on different factors of stress. It was seen that there is a significant impact of variables on organizational stress.

Analysis of Role Stress in the Indian IT Industry

Contemporary industries face new competition requiring employees to work for longer hours under competitive time-bound deadlines. Prolonged exposure to such stressful situations leads to a depletion and exhaustion of resources in the mind and body with dysfunctional effects on job performance and overall organizational effectiveness. The Indian IT industry is a fast-paced service industry that is characterized by such stressful work situations and related outcomes. This chapter analyses the various factors that contribute to organizational stress and the role of demographic factors on role stress among the professionals of the Indian IT industry. A sample of 250 employees has been collected from the Delhi NCR region. Role stress has been measured by using the ORS scale which comprises of 10 dimensions of the role of stress that are measured by 50 items. The results show that there is a considerable amount of work related stress along with a significant impact of demographic factors on the role of stress amongst the IT professionals.

Competence E-Assessment Based on Semantic Web

In light of trends toward increased requirements for skilled workers, e-assessment presents many challenges. It should address learners' real performance in life. Recognizing the inadequacy of current traditional knowledge-based assessment systems in higher education to achieve performance visibility, we need to rethink how we design new assessment systems that can respond to the corporate requirements of the twenty-first century and mirror the learners' competences. This concern has not been sufficiently investigated. This chapter considers the competence-based assessment. The authors explore the importance of competency and competence modeling conceptual understanding. The research reviews the benchmark literature on the concepts, models, and approaches of competence and competency and explores the confusion surrounding the pair of concepts. They propose a service-oriented framework for competence-based e-assessment to validate the above proposals. The experimentation results support the research goals and learners received a competence-based assessment, which they appreciated.

The Need for Multi-Disciplinary Approaches and Multi-Level Knowledge for Cybersecurity Professionals

Cybersecurity professionals face increased demand to acquire the knowledge and develop the skills required to keep citizens safe from cyberattacks, predict the latter with scientific methods, and advance citizens' social awareness. A proactive multidisciplinary approach against cyberattacks is effective via the combination of multidisciplinary and multi-professional knowledge. Increased public awareness with total quality multi-domain knowledge and social computing skills is likely to decrease cyberattacks' victims and improve cyber systems quality in general. This chapter 1) outlines the basic multidisciplinary research needs and multilevel strategic steps to be taken for timely citizens' protection, and 2) proposes multidisciplinary strategic research approaches and multilevel adult education directions for improving cybersystems' total quality management through collaborative research and by focusing on: a) increasing public awareness, b) predicting cyberattacks, and c) utilising multidisciplinary and multi-professional knowledge in social computing approaches.

Recruitment Trends in the Contemporary Era

Recruitment is the process of identifying and hiring the right talent for a job in an organization, within a timeframe and by incurring the least expenses. The life cycle of the recruitment process starts from identification of an open position which needs to be filled to the candidate joining the organisation formally. On hearing the word recruitment, what flashes in an individual's mind is the process the HR group would follow to choose a candidate, get him interviewed, cross levels, offer, joining formalities completion, and to integrate the new joinee with the organization's philosophy. But, over a period, this process has evolved and it has transformed its existence from a simple process to a much more organized and digitally equipped one. The importance of a recruitment service though has remained the same, that is, the candidate should have the right skills, right knowledge, aptitude, and most importantly, attitude. But what has been the focus of improvement of the Human resources is the time duration and the cost effectiveness.

Determinants of Job Satisfaction and Its Impact on Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment of Employees

This chapter aims to identify different factors of job satisfaction responsible for different types of commitment (i.e. affective, continuance, and normative commitment among the employees of IT organizations). The primary data was collected from 401 respondents of IT organizations using validated scales on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify different factors of job satisfaction and scale reliability of organizational commitment scale. The reliability and validity of all the constructs were further done through confirmatory factor analysis. Then related hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling through AMOS 21.0. Three factors of job satisfaction were extracted, namely growth opportunities and management practices, working condition, and fair treatment. Growth opportunities and management practices are the prominent reasons for affective commitment, whereas fair treatment ensures continuance and normative commitment among the employees of IT organizations with the given sample.

A Research on Students' Perceptions on a B-Learning English Environment to Improve Written Skills

The aim of the chapter is to explore university students' perceptions about the effectiveness of interactive and collaborative tools to improve written skills in a blended-learning environment. Based on this goal, a mixed methods research approach was adopted to enhance the mutual invigoration of the two types of methods, and the validity and reliability of data. Three-hundred-fifty-eight learners participated in the quantitative study and 91 in the qualitative one. All of them were enrolled in the subject English I. The instruments used to collect data were two tests and semi-structured interviews. The findings suggested students' positive perspective towards the possibilities offered by online glossaries, online quizzes, wikis, and forums to improve written skills and foster effective written communication in different contexts. It highlights their potentiality to create a learning community in which students could participate actively in the construction of knowledge, abandoning their passive role as simple observers.