Location United: Arab Emirates

Closing date:18 Sep 2024

College of Business

Faculty Opportunities

Abu Dhabi University’s (ADU) College of Business is a multi-campus business school offering international programs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The College is among the 1% of the world’s business schools accredited by both the AACSB and EQUIS and in 2024 was ranked by Times Higher Education at 101 – 125 in the world in Business and Economics.

We are now seeking faculty to deliver undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral teaching as well as thesis supervision in the following discipline areas:

Assistant Professor in Management. Assistant Professor in Human Resources Management. Assistant Professor in Accounting (Auditing, Taxation, Government Accounting and Computer Applications in Accounting). Assistant Professor in Operations and Supply Chain Management. Assistant Professor in Digital Marketing.
ADU offers a competitive remuneration package that includes tax free salary, annual flights for self and immediate family, family housing, children’s education allowance, private health insurance and end of service benefits.

Criteria you must have:

Applications that do not meet these criteria will not be considered.

A Doctoral degree in one of the above business specializations from an internationally recognized university (preferably AACSB or EQUIS accredited). Having a multidisciplinary background is a plus, for example, in digital technologies and operations management.

A minimum of three journal articles published or accepted for publication in Scopus Q2 journals. Applicants must rank their research articles with the Scopus Quartile found here: https://www.scopus.com/sources. Articles not ranked will be assumed to not be Scopus listed.

Applicants should submit the following to cobrecruit@adu.ac.ae

Letter of Application, addressing how your experience matches position requirements. Curriculum vitae that includes education, teaching and research experience with a ranked list of publications.

Application Deadline: Applications will be reviewed immediately and continue until positions are filled.

https://academicscores./2024/08/30/faculty-positions-in-college-of-business-abu-dhabi-university/

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak—as a typical emergency event—significantly has impacted employees’ psychological status and thus has negatively affected their performance. Hence, along with focusing on the mechanisms and solutions to alleviate the impact of work stress on employee performance, we also examine the relationship between work stress, mental health, and employee performance. Furthermore, we analyzed the moderating role of servant leadership in the relationship between work stress and mental health, but the result was not significant. The results contribute to providing practical guidance for enterprises to improve employee performance in the context of major emergencies.

Keywords: COVID-19, work stress, mental health, employee performance, social uncertainty

INTRODUCTION

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the key drivers of economic development as they contribute >50, 60, 70, 80, and 90% of tax revenue, GDP, technological innovation, labor employment, and the number of enterprises, respectively. However, owing to the disadvantages of small-scale and insufficient resources (Cai et al., 2017; Flynn, 2017), these enterprises are more vulnerable to being influenced by emergency events. The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak—as a typical emergency event—has negatively affected survival and growth of SMEs (Eggers, 2020). Some SMEs have faced a relatively higher risk of salary reduction, layoffs, or corporate bankruptcy (Adam and Alarifi, 2021). Consequently, it has made employees in the SMEs face the following stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic: First, employees’ income, promotion, and career development opportunities have declined (Shimazu et al., 2020). Second, as most employees had to work from home, family conflicts have increased and family satisfaction has decreased (Green et al., 2020; Xu et al., 2020). Finally, as work tasks and positions have changed, the new work environment has made employees less engaged and less fulfilled at work (Olugbade and Karatepe, 2019; Chen and Fellenz, 2020).

For SMEs, employees are their core assets and are crucial to their survival and growth (Shan et al., 2022). Employee work stress may precipitate burnout (Choi et al., 2019; Barello et al., 2020), which manifests as fatigue and frustration (Mansour and Tremblay, 2018), and is associated with various negative reactions, including job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment, and a high propensity to resign (Lu and Gursoy, 2016; Uchmanowicz et al., 2020). Ultimately, it negatively impacts employee performance (Prasad and Vaidya, 2020). The problem of employee work stress has become an important topic for researchers and practitioners alike. In this regard, it is timely to explore the impact of work stress on SME problems of survival and growth during emergency events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although recent studies have demonstrated the relationship between work stress and employee performance, some insufficiencies persist, which must be resolved. Research on how work stress affects employee performance has remained fragmented and limited. First, the research into how work stress affects employee performance is still insufficient. Some researchers have explored the effects of work stress on employee performance during COVID-19 (Saleem et al., 2021; Tu et al., 2021). However, they have not explained the intermediate path, which limits our understanding of effects of work stress. As work stress causes psychological pain to employees, in response, they exhibit lower performance levels (Song et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2022). Thus, employees’ mental health becomes an important path to explain the relationship mechanism between work stress and employee performance, which is revealed in this study using a stress–psychological state–performance framework. Second, resolving the mental health problems caused by work stress has become a key issue for SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the core of the enterprise (Ahn et al., 2018), the behavior of leaders significantly influences employees. Especially for SMEs, intensive interactive communication transpires between the leader and employees (Li et al., 2019; Tiedtke et al., 2020). Servant leadership, as a typical leader’s behavior, is considered an important determinant of employee mental health (Haslam et al., 2020). Hence, to improve employees’ mental health, we introduce servant leadership as a moderating variable and explore its contingency effect on relieving work stress and mental health.

This study predominantly tries to answer the question of how work stress influences employee performance and explores the mediating impact of mental health and the moderating impact of servant leadership in this relationship. Mainly, this study contributes to the existing literature in the following three ways: First, this research analyzes the influence of work stress on employee performance in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic, which complements previous studies and theories related to work stress. Second, this study regards mental health as a psychological state and examines its mediating impact on the relationship between work stress and employee performance, which complements the research path on how work stress affects employee performance. Third, we explore the moderating impact of servant leadership, which has been ignored in previous research, thus extending the understanding of the relationship between the work stress and mental health of employees in SMEs.

To accomplish the aforementioned tasks, the remainder of this article is structured as follows: First, based on the literature review, we propose our hypotheses. Thereafter, we present our research method, including the processes of data collection, sample characteristics, measurement of variables, and sample validity. Subsequently, we provide the data analysis and report the results. Finally, we discuss the results and present the study limitations.

https://meziesblog.com/work-stress-mental-health-and-employee-performance/

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak—as a typical emergency event—significantly has impacted employees’ psychological status and thus has negatively affected their performance. Hence, along with focusing on the mechanisms and solutions to alleviate the impact of work stress on employee performance, we also examine the relationship between work stress, mental health, and employee performance. Furthermore, we analyzed the moderating role of servant leadership in the relationship between work stress and mental health, but the result was not significant. The results contribute to providing practical guidance for enterprises to improve employee performance in the context of major emergencies.

Keywords: COVID-19, work stress, mental health, employee performance, social uncertainty

INTRODUCTION

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the key drivers of economic development as they contribute >50, 60, 70, 80, and 90% of tax revenue, GDP, technological innovation, labor employment, and the number of enterprises, respectively. However, owing to the disadvantages of small-scale and insufficient resources (Cai et al., 2017; Flynn, 2017), these enterprises are more vulnerable to being influenced by emergency events. The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak—as a typical emergency event—has negatively affected survival and growth of SMEs (Eggers, 2020). Some SMEs have faced a relatively higher risk of salary reduction, layoffs, or corporate bankruptcy (Adam and Alarifi, 2021). Consequently, it has made employees in the SMEs face the following stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic: First, employees’ income, promotion, and career development opportunities have declined (Shimazu et al., 2020). Second, as most employees had to work from home, family conflicts have increased and family satisfaction has decreased (Green et al., 2020; Xu et al., 2020). Finally, as work tasks and positions have changed, the new work environment has made employees less engaged and less fulfilled at work (Olugbade and Karatepe, 2019; Chen and Fellenz, 2020).

For SMEs, employees are their core assets and are crucial to their survival and growth (Shan et al., 2022). Employee work stress may precipitate burnout (Choi et al., 2019; Barello et al., 2020), which manifests as fatigue and frustration (Mansour and Tremblay, 2018), and is associated with various negative reactions, including job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment, and a high propensity to resign (Lu and Gursoy, 2016; Uchmanowicz et al., 2020). Ultimately, it negatively impacts employee performance (Prasad and Vaidya, 2020). The problem of employee work stress has become an important topic for researchers and practitioners alike. In this regard, it is timely to explore the impact of work stress on SME problems of survival and growth during emergency events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although recent studies have demonstrated the relationship between work stress and employee performance, some insufficiencies persist, which must be resolved. Research on how work stress affects employee performance has remained fragmented and limited. First, the research into how work stress affects employee performance is still insufficient. Some researchers have explored the effects of work stress on employee performance during COVID-19 (Saleem et al., 2021; Tu et al., 2021). However, they have not explained the intermediate path, which limits our understanding of effects of work stress. As work stress causes psychological pain to employees, in response, they exhibit lower performance levels (Song et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2022). Thus, employees’ mental health becomes an important path to explain the relationship mechanism between work stress and employee performance, which is revealed in this study using a stress–psychological state–performance framework. Second, resolving the mental health problems caused by work stress has become a key issue for SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the core of the enterprise (Ahn et al., 2018), the behavior of leaders significantly influences employees. Especially for SMEs, intensive interactive communication transpires between the leader and employees (Li et al., 2019; Tiedtke et al., 2020). Servant leadership, as a typical leader’s behavior, is considered an important determinant of employee mental health (Haslam et al., 2020). Hence, to improve employees’ mental health, we introduce servant leadership as a moderating variable and explore its contingency effect on relieving work stress and mental health.

This study predominantly tries to answer the question of how work stress influences employee performance and explores the mediating impact of mental health and the moderating impact of servant leadership in this relationship. Mainly, this study contributes to the existing literature in the following three ways: First, this research analyzes the influence of work stress on employee performance in SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic, which complements previous studies and theories related to work stress. Second, this study regards mental health as a psychological state and examines its mediating impact on the relationship between work stress and employee performance, which complements the research path on how work stress affects employee performance. Third, we explore the moderating impact of servant leadership, which has been ignored in previous research, thus extending the understanding of the relationship between the work stress and mental health of employees in SMEs.

To accomplish the aforementioned tasks, the remainder of this article is structured as follows: First, based on the literature review, we propose our hypotheses. Thereafter, we present our research method, including the processes of data collection, sample characteristics, measurement of variables, and sample validity. Subsequently, we provide the data analysis and report the results. Finally, we discuss the results and present the study limitations.

https://meziesblog.com/work-stress-mental-health-and-employee-performance/

There are many important factors to consider when starting your own business, but one of the most important is creating a sustainable competitive advantage. This is what will set your business apart from the competition and help you to succeed in the long run.

There are a few key things to keep in mind when trying to create a sustainable competitive advantage. First, you need to identify your unique selling proposition. What is it that makes your business different from the competition? This could be anything from a unique product or service to a more efficient production process.

Once you have identified your USP, you need to make sure that it is something that is sustainable. For example, if your USP is that you have the lowest prices in the market, then you need to make sure that you can continue to offer low prices even as the market changes. If you have a unique product, you need to make sure that it is not easy for the competition to copy.

You also need to make sure that your competitive advantage is something that your customers value. It is no use having the best product in the world if no one wants to buy it! Make sure that you carry out market research to find out what your target market wants and needs, and then make sure that your business can provide it.

Finally, you need to make sure that you can protect your competitive advantage. If you have a patent on your product or process, make sure that you register it and enforce it. If you have a trade secret, make sure that you keep it safe and do not let anyone else find out about it.

By following these tips, you can make sure that you create a sustainable competitive advantage for your business. This will give you the best chance of success in the long run.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
The term sustainable competitive advantage is one that is used a lot in the business world but what does it actually mean? In order to have a sustainable competitive advantage, a company must have an edge over its competitors that cannot be easily replicated or imitated. This could be due to a number of factors such as having a unique product, a strong brand or a loyal customer base.

If a company does not have a sustainable competitive advantage, it is likely that its competitors will soon catch up and overtake it. This is why it is so important for businesses to continuously strive to stay ahead of the curve.

There are a number of ways in which a company can create a sustainable competitive advantage. One way is to develop a unique product or service that cannot be easily replicated. This could be something that is patented or has unique features that make it stand out from the competition. Another way to create a sustainable competitive advantage is to build a strong brand that customers are loyal to. This could be achieved through excellent customer service, creative marketing or a strong online presence.

Finally, another way to create a sustainable competitive advantage is to have a loyal customer base. This could be achieved by providing a great experience that keeps customers coming back for more. It could also be achieved by offering loyalty rewards or discounts which encourage customers to stick with your brand.

Creating a sustainable competitive advantage is not easy but it is essential for any company that wants to stay ahead of the competition. By continuously striving to create an edge over your rivals, you can ensure that your business remains successful for years to come.

There are two companies that the AI Fund has invested in – Woebot and Landing AI – and the AI Fund has a number of internal teams working on new projects. We usually bring in people as employees, work with them to turn ideas into startups, then have the entrepreneurs go into the startup as founders.

— Andrew Ng

How to create sustainable competitive advantage for a startup by focusing on product

In order to create a sustainable competitive advantage for your startup, you need to focus on product benefits. This means creating a product that provides value for your customers and is able to meet their needs in a way that other products on the market cannot. There are a few key ways to do this:

1.IDENTIFY CUSTOMER NEEDS AND PAIN POINTS.
The first step is to really understand your target customer and what they need from a product like yours. What are their pain points? What are they looking for in a solution? Once you understand this, you can start to craft a product that will address their specific needs.

2.CREATE A UNIQUE OFFERING.
Your product needs to be different from what else is on the market. It should offer something unique that your target customers will find valuable. This could be a new feature, a better design, or a more affordable price point.

3.MAKE IT EASY TO USE.
Your product also needs to be easy to use. Customers should be able to quickly and easily understand how to use it and get the most out of it. If it's too complicated, they will likely just give up and go with a different option.

4.ENSURE QUALITY.
It’s also important that your product is high quality. This means using quality materials and ensuring that it is built to last. If your product is constantly breaking or falling apart, customers will quickly lose faith in it.

5.PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCT BENEFITS.
Once you have a great product, make sure you’re promoting the benefits to your target customers. They need to know why your product is the best option for them and what specific benefits it can offer them. If you can effectively communicate these things, you’ll be well on your way to creating a sustainable competitive advantage for your startup.

LANGUAGE ISSUES
One of the most common academic writing challenges is language issues, which can include grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and coherence. These issues can make your writing unclear, confusing, or unprofessional; they can also lead to plagiarism or misunderstanding. To avoid these problems, you should proofread and edit your writing carefully with tools such as Grammarly or Hemingway. Additionally, it’s helpful to seek feedback from native speakers, peers, or instructors so you can learn from your mistakes. Furthermore, reading and studying academic texts in your field and using a dictionary, a thesaurus, or a glossary to check the meaning and usage of words are also useful strategies.

Non-native English speakers face writing challenges academically when they do not get the right words and vocabulary issues. The sentences do not flow as naturally, and as grammatically sound as native English speakers, it’s because many of them are not habituated. They also qualify to read and write in English, but proficiency comes with daily life practice. And incorporating English use, and using language aid tools like Grammarly can help you edit your writing while referring to glossary for more word suggestions if you find it confusing.

STRUCTURE PROBLEMS
Structure problems are a common academic writing challenge and refer to the organization and layout of your writing. These issues can make your writing difficult to follow, understand, or evaluate, and can also affect your argument and evidence. To avoid structure problems, it is important to plan and outline your writing beforehand using a clear and suitable format for the genre and purpose. Additionally, you should adhere to the guidelines and expectations of your discipline, institution, and audience, as well as use appropriate conventions and standards. Utilize clear and concise sentences, paragraphs, and sections that are connected and relevant to the main point. Signposting words such as however, therefore, firstly, secondly, etc., can be useful for guiding readers through your writing.

STYLE ISSUES

Read more: https://meziesblog.com/which-academic-writing-challenges-are-you-facing-now/

EHealth researchers have at their disposal a number of approaches and methods for making sense out of existing literature, all with the purpose of casting current research findings into historical contexts or explaining contradictions that might exist among a set of primary research studies conducted on a particular topic. Our classification scheme is largely inspired from Paré and colleagues’ (2015) typology. Below we present and illustrate those review types that we feel are central to the growth and development of the eHealth domain.

9.3.1. Narrative Reviews

The narrative review is the “traditional” way of reviewing the extant literature and is skewed towards a qualitative interpretation of prior knowledge (Sylvester et al., 2013). Put simply, a narrative review attempts to summarize or synthesize what has been written on a particular topic but does not seek generalization or cumulative knowledge from what is reviewed (Davies, 2000; Green et al., 2006). Instead, the review team often undertakes the task of accumulating and synthesizing the literature to demonstrate the value of a particular point of view (Baumeister & Leary, 1997). As such, reviewers may selectively ignore or limit the attention paid to certain studies in order to make a point. In this rather unsystematic approach, the selection of information from primary articles is subjective, lacks explicit criteria for inclusion and can lead to biased interpretations or inferences (Green et al., 2006). There are several narrative reviews in the particular eHealth domain, as in all fields, which follow such an unstructured approach (Silva et al., 2015; Paul et al., 2015).

Despite these criticisms, this type of review can be very useful in gathering together a volume of literature in a specific subject area and synthesizing it. As mentioned above, its primary purpose is to provide the reader with a comprehensive background for understanding current knowledge and highlighting the significance of new research (Cronin et al., 2008). Faculty like to use narrative reviews in the classroom because they are often more up to date than textbooks, provide a single source for students to reference, and expose students to peer-reviewed literature (Green et al., 2006). For researchers, narrative reviews can inspire research ideas by identifying gaps or inconsistencies in a body of knowledge, thus helping researchers to determine research questions or formulate hypotheses. Importantly, narrative reviews can also be used as educational articles to bring practitioners up to date with certain topics of issues (Green et al., 2006).

Recently, there have been several efforts to introduce more rigour in narrative reviews that will elucidate common pitfalls and bring changes into their publication standards. Information systems researchers, among others, have contributed to advancing knowledge on how to structure a “traditional” review. For instance, Levy and Ellis (2006) proposed a generic framework for conducting such reviews. Their model follows the systematic data processing approach comprised of three steps, namely: (a) literature search and screening; (b) data extraction and analysis; and (c) writing the literature review. They provide detailed and very helpful instructions on how to conduct each step of the review process. As another methodological contribution, vom Brocke et al. (2009) offered a series of guidelines for conducting literature reviews, with a particular focus on how to search and extract the relevant body of knowledge. Last, Bandara, Miskon, and Fielt (2011) proposed a structured, predefined and tool-supported method to identify primary studies within a feasible scope, extract relevant content from identified articles, synthesize and analyze the findings, and effectively write and present the results of the literature review. We highly recommend that prospective authors of narrative reviews consult these useful sources before embarking on their work.

Darlow and Wen (2015) provide a good example of a highly structured narrative review in the eHealth field. These authors synthesized published articles that describe the development process of mobile health (m-health) interventions for patients’ cancer care self-management. As in most narrative reviews, the scope of the research questions being investigated is broad: (a) how development of these systems is carried out; (b) which methods are used to investigate these systems; and (c) what conclusions can be drawn as a result of the development of these systems. To provide clear answers to these questions, a literature search was conducted on six electronic databases and Google Scholar. The search was performed using several terms and free text words, combining them in an appropriate manner. Four inclusion and three exclusion criteria were utilized during the screening process. Both authors independently reviewed each of the identified articles to determine eligibility and extract study information. A flow diagram shows the number of studies identified, screened, and included or excluded at each stage of study selection. In terms of contributions, this review provides a series of practical recommendations for m-health intervention development.

https://academicscores./2024/06/15/types-of-review-articles-and-brief-illustrations/

INTRODUCTION

The pressure to perform in the workplace is omnipresent (Mitchell et al., 2019) and increases even more when a person is immersed in a range of technologies that are seen as complex and cause employees to be stressed (Ayyagari, Grover, & Purvis, 2011; Tarafdar et al., 2010). The use of diverse applications and the increasing adoption of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the workplace have changed working behavior (Hu et al., 2021). For instance, Meyer et al. (2017) studied ICT usage patterns among “heavy users” and found that the study participants collectively used over 331 different applications over a period of 11 working days. Even though the use of ICT can bring many benefits (e.g. increased access to information, as well as enhanced performance and productivity; Brynjolfsson, 1996; Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 2000; Keeney, 1999), it may also have negative consequences, a fact which has been aggravated since the COVID-19 pandemic (Kalischko & Riedl, 2021). The workplace has undergone a significant transformation that results from increased ICT usage in organizational, social, and individual contexts. Organizations’ responses to this phenomenon of digital transformation have become perennial discussion topics (Gong and Ribiere, 2021).

The current state of research on digital transformation can be described as fragmented, spanning different approaches and views. This fact is illustrated by recent reviews, which have viewed digital transformation research from procedural (Vial, 2019), innovation and entrepreneurship (Nadkarni and Prügl, 2021), multidisciplinary (Verhoef et al., 2021) and organizational change (Hanelt, Bohnsack, Marz, & Antunes Marante, 2021) perspectives. Vial (2019) defines digital transformation as “a process that aims to improve an entity by triggering significant changes to its properties through combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies” (p. 118). The implementation of organizational information systems (IS) which offer the potential for EPM (e.g. enterprise resource planning systems, process mining tools or more specific monitoring software) could be viewed as an instance of digital transformation. However, it is questionable whether EPM use improves an organization, in particular, if viewed from the employees’ perspective.

Many organizations have been taking steps to transfer employees from working face-to-face to working remotely, and teleworking that depends largely on electronic communication is becoming the “new normal”, particularly as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic (Hu et al., 2021; Society of Human Resource Management, 2021). This change has given the surveillance industry a new lease on life (BBC, 2020; Businessinsider, 2020; MIT Technology Review, 2020). The Guardian (2018) reported that EPM has become a significant privacy issue in companies. Similar reports can be found in other magazine and newspaper reports (New York Times, 2021; 2018; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2019). Such surveillance scenarios, which were already described by Spiekermann (2015) and other authors several years ago, are now increasingly finding their way into our everyday working lives and are therefore becoming increasingly relevant for research (Ball, 2021; Kalischko and Riedl, 2020, 2021, 2022; Ravid, Tomczak, White, & Behrend, 2020). The core focus of such systems is to monitor operational performance, with the ultimate goal to improve work performance.

However, EPM can be reacted to in a variety of ways by employees. They can, for example, accept the surveillance implementation and gradually lose their privacy, or they might resist and risk making themselves unpopular with the employer. Some employees express displeasure due to the use of workplace surveillance, leave the organization or engage in reverse surveillance (Watkins Allen et al., 2007). Studies already exist on the effect of EPM on individual performance. However, research shows a mixed picture (Aiello & Douthitt, 2001; Aiello and Svec, 1993; Bartels & Nordstrom, 2012; Becker and Marique, 2014; Davidson and Henderson, 2000; Goomas and Ludwig, 2009; Huston et al., 1993; Irving et al., 1986; Mallo et al., 2007; Stanton and Sarkar-Barney, 2003).

Although the use of technology to monitor employees experienced an upsurge as early as the 1980s (e.g. Irving et al., 1986) and is, therefore, a phenomenon that has been around for approximately four decades, the consequences of EPM on work itself, including employee perceptions and reactions, have not yet been systematically explored in detail and hence significant research potential exists (Ravid, White, Tomczak, Miles, & Behrend, 2022). Because the existing EPM literature is predominantly based on rather outdated technologies (e.g. cameras in working environments), and considering the fact that employee and user behavior have significantly changed during the past decade (e.g. more and more people track their own physiological parameters such as heart rate and behaviors such as steps per day or sleeping behavior), it is not surprising that recent articles made explicit calls for new studies on the consequences of EPM (Ball, 2021; Kalischko & Riedl, 2021; Ravid et al., 2020). As a direct response to these calls, in the present study, we develop a theoretical framework that uses perceived EPM as an independent variable and individual performance as a dependent variable. Moreover, the framework conceptualizes three different mediator variables: privacy invasion, organizational trust and individual stress. Based on a large-scale survey study in three German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland; N = 1,119), we tested nine hypotheses that we derived from our framework.

Read more: https://meziesblog.com/post-pandemic-digital-transformations-in-organizations/

This paper aims to investigate the impact of employee silence on performance and turnover intentions. In addition, it seeks to explore the mediating role of burnout in the link between employee silence, and three employee outcomes-supervisor-rated task/contextual performance and self-reported turnover intentions.

Design/methodology/approach
Using survey questionnaire design, this paper collected data from 508 telecom engineers and their immediate supervisors and analyzed the result using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, bootstrapping.

Findings
Results reveal that employee silence leads to burnout which results in debilitating employee performance, increase in withdrawal behaviors and turnover intentions; burnout mediates these direct relationships. The findings have implications for organizational behavior (OB) research. Moreover, the study found that silence has more pronounced negative effect on employee performance and positive impact on turnover intentions through mediation of job burnout.

Practical implications
The study helps managers identify the psychological ramifications of defensive silence and the underlying mechanism that connects this to employee outcomes. It also highlights the plausible danger zones in which the employees lose self-expression and show symptoms of exhaustion and cynicism, thus ultimately affecting their performance and withdrawal behaviors.

Originality/value
The current study contributes to employee behavior literature by considering silence as an organizational loss in the backdrop of the COR theory which initiates loss process that leads to further losses in individuals.

https://meziesblog.com/the-role-of-burnout-as-a-mediator-between-silence-and-employee-outcomes/

Personality traits, assessment centre quality and management development among managers at telecom companies in Nigeria

Abstract
Purpose
Personality profiling in today’s business world has become an essential organisational development practice targeted at identifying a set of employees' traits, which differentiate an employee from one another. Given the assumption that personality traits form an essential indicator of developing the potential of an individual workforce, possible to establish how employees function in a certain job role and their suitability for the particular tasks in an organisation. This study aims to explore the relationship between personality traits, assessment centres (ACs) quality and management development in Nigeria telecommunication organisation among its managers.

Design/methodology/approach
The study employed multi-stage sampling techniques and further stratified the hierarchy of the management and finally used a simple random sampling strategy on each stratum. A combination of 482 managers in Nigerian telecommunication organisations participated in this study. The study investigated 12 hypotheses and 1 mediating postulation. Multiple scales were adapted to measure dimensions of endogenous and exogenous variables along the path of mediating variables of the study. The study employed a cross-sectional survey approach to administering the research instrument across all the departments among the managers of the organisations. A structural equation model of assessment was used to analyse the data collected from managers of the telecoms organisations.

Findings
The outcome of the study was significant, 10 of the postulated hypotheses were found to be significant while 3 were not significant. The study revealed that a combination of openness to experience, conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness and extraversion personality have no significant relationship with the AC. Also, employees who are high in neuroticism like being emotionally unstable did not find a significant relationship with the AC. In a similar situation, the combined effect of all the big-five personalities was not significant in management development among the managers of the telecommunication industry. The AC is discovered to mediate between personality traits and management development. Individually, the big-five model finds a significant relationship with AC and management development, respectively.

Research limitations/implications
The study is restricted to managers of the Nigerian telecoms industry alone and not all the entire workforce. It adopted cross-sectional analysis to make an inference on all the managers of the organisations. The implication is that the period of the view of a particular point in a sequence of the event may not be representative. Another implication is that the results from the cross-sectional design are for the relationship, and they do not indicate causation.

Originality/value
In practice, this study has shown that personality profiling is important to managing organisational behaviour to highlight a set of traits of employees suitable for peculiar roles. This study implies that personality elements constitute a vital signal of the potential development of the workforce. It helps to illuminate an individual functioning style in a certain task situation, therefore determining both professional and managerial suitability in performing a given role.

https://meziesblog.com/personality-traits-assessment-centre-quality-and-management-development-among-managers-at-telecom-companies-in-nigeria/

ABSTRACT
PURPOSE
The explosion of internet-generated content, coupled with methodologies such as sentiment analysis, present exciting opportunities for marketers to generate market intelligence on consumer attitudes and brand opinions. The purpose of this paper is to review the marketing literature on online sentiment analysis and examines the application of sentiment analysis from three main perspectives: the unit of analysis, sampling design and methods used in sentiment detection and statistical analysis.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
The paper reviews the prior literature on the application of online sentiment analysis published in marketing journals over the period 2008-2016.

FINDINGS
The findings highlight the uniqueness of online sentiment analysis in action-oriented marketing research and examine the technical, practical and ethical challenges faced by researchers.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The paper discusses the application of sentiment analysis in marketing research and offers recommendations to address the challenges researchers confront in using this technique.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE
This study provides academics and practitioners with a comprehensive review of the application of online sentiment analysis within the marketing discipline. The paper focuses attention on the limitations surrounding the utilization of this technique and provides suggestions for mitigating these challenges.

https://meziesblog.com/online-sentiment-analysis-in-marketing-a-literature-review/

Insecurity in Nigeria is a significant problem, affecting access to essential services and causing fear among citizens. Here are 10 solutions to make Nigeria safer:

1. UNDERSTANDING THE ROOT CAUSES OF INSECURITY
Factors: Weak local governance, corruption, economic inequality, organized crime, and terrorism contribute to insecurity. Addressing these issues is crucial for long-term stability.

2. ENHANCING SECURITY INFRASTRUCTURE
Improvements: Invest in roads, railways, and airports. Recent investments in Lagos’ transportation infrastructure highlight the importance of safe and efficient travel.

3. INVESTING IN COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
Programs: Promote education, health, and economic empowerment. Building and repairing schools and expanding healthcare access can significantly reduce crime rates.

4. STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF THE POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES
Actions: Invest in police training and resources. The 2023 police reform act aims to increase accountability and training standards.

5. IMPROVING EDUCATION AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Youth Focus: Expand scholarships, public universities, and vocational training. Initiatives like the 2022 youth employment program in Edo State demonstrate positive impacts.

6. ESTABLISHING EFFECTIVE CONFLICT RESOLUTION STRATEGIES...

https://meziesblog.com/nigeria-the-way-forward/

The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in Nigeria is one of the largest and most dynamic markets in the African continent. It is estimated that the sector is worth close to US$20 billion and has grown significantly over the last decade. With an expanding population of over 200 million, the FMCG industry in Nigeria has the potential to be an important economic driver for the country. The sector is highly competitive and the industry players are constantly innovating to remain ahead of the competition. From traditional retail stores to e-commerce platforms, FMCG companies are exploring new ways to reach out to their target customers. The industry is expected to continue its rapid growth in the coming years, driven by the increase in consumer spending power as well as innovative products and services.

WHAT IS THE FMCG INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA?
The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in Nigeria is one of the largest and most dynamic markets in the African continent. It is estimated that the sector is worth close to US$20 billion and has grown significantly over the last decade. With an expanding population of over 200 million, the FMCG industry in Nigeria has the potential to be an important economic driver for the country. The sector is highly competitive and the industry players are constantly innovating to remain ahead of the competition. From traditional retail stores to e-commerce platforms, FMCG companies are exploring new ways to reach out to their target customers. The industry is expected to continue its rapid growth in the coming years, driven by the increase in consumer spending power as well as innovative products and services.

MARKET SIZE AND GROWTH...

https://meziesblog.com/a-review-of-the-fmcg-industry-in-nigeria/

THE REPRESENTATION OF PROCUREMENT IN PORTER’S VALUE CHAIN CAME AS A RECOGNITION OF THE (STRATEGIC) IMPORTANCE THAT PROCUREMENT GAINED AS A FUNCTION INSIDE THE FIRM.

Value Chain Model: A tool to analyse firm’s sources of competitive advantage

According to Cambridge University, the Value Chain is a model used to define the core competencies and activities that will create a competitive advantage for the company. McGrath and Bates (2013) defined Michael Porter’s value chain as a strategic business planning tool used to identify the sources of competitive advantage in the firm. Harvard Business School (Institute for strategy and competitiveness) explains that the model was developed by Michael Porter and used throughout the world for nearly 30 years, and that it constitutes a powerful tool that helps dis-aggregating a company into its strategically pertinent activities with aim to focus on the sources of competitive advantage. McGrath and Bates (2013, p.226) advocate that the tool “tracks the impact made on a product or service by every process from its start to delivery. The nine main stages of the value chain are grouped together as five primary activities and four support activities”.

In his paper dated 1985 and called: “the value chain and competitive advantage’ Porter considers every firm as a ‘’collection of activities that are performed to design, produce, market, deliver and support its product’ (Porter 1985, p. 51). Porter suggests the necessity -if we are to analyse the firm’s sources of competitive advantage- to systematically examine all the activities a firm performs and the way they interact. He represented these activities using a value chain (Fig. 1) that he introduced as a basic tool to perform this systematic assessment.

Continue reading here: https://meziesblog.com/value-chain-theory/

Some activities can actually cause you to live less, but some may just be a coincidence and other aspects may have to be considered. Science has been studying this for a long time and lots of research has been conducted. Of course, causation and correlation come into play when we talk about some of these things.

SITTING A LOT
Sedentarism can really have an impact on longevity, and sitting a lot is one of the main culprits. This is indeed bad news for those who have to spend the vast majority of their working hours sitting at a desk. Trying to incorporate some breaks to stand for a while, or using a standing desk, may be helpful.

Sitting a lot really has an impact on our lives. Research has found that reducing daily sitting time to under three hours might add up to two years to your life. The same study also concluded that reducing the amount of time we watch TV to less than two hours a day might add an extra 1.4 years to our lives!

SITTING IN TRAFFIC
Sadly, many of us endure this day in, day out. And a study has found that although long commuting affects both men and women, the impact on women’s longevity is greater.

People who commute longer distances not only spend more time sitting, but they also have less time to be active. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine concluded that “commuting distance was adversely associated with physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, adiposity, and indicators of metabolic risk.”

TOO LITTLE SLEEP
If you regularly get less than five hours of sleep per night, your risk of death is higher than someone who stays in bed for an extra couple of hours.

TOO MUCH SLEEP
The same goes for those who like to have a lie-in on a regular basis. If you often spend over nine hours in bed each night, then your risk of developing diabetes or coronary heart disease, and consequently dying early, is also higher.

NOT DRINKING ANY ALCOHOL
Yes, you’ve read that right! Not drinking can actually increase your risk of death. Of course, we’re not talking about all types of booze, nor about excess consumption (this would have the opposite effect and increase your risk of early death). The exception here is wine.

Wine is full of antioxidants, so an occasional glass of wine can do wonders for inflammation. Red wine may also decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

TOO MUCH RED MEAT
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a nice steak or a juicy burger once in a while. If you do so every single day, though, we have bad news for you. Daily red meat ingestion is estimated to increase your risk of death by about 13%.

TOO MUCH PROCESSED MEAT
The same applies to processed meats, so swapping your steak for deli meat won’t really do you any favors. Poultry is a good alternative, as it may reduce your mortality risk by 14%. The same goes for fish, which can do so by around 7%.

SPENDING A LOT OF TIME INSIDE
We’ve written before about what happens to your body when you stop going outside. The gist of it is that it’s not good for you. Spending a lot of time indoors is unhealthy, and will increase your risk of death.

It turns out indoor air is actually more polluted than outdoor air, says the Environmental Protection Agency. Then there is also the lack of sunlight exposure, which messes up your circadian rhythm and may leave you deficient in vitamin D.

POOR FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Being careless with your money can literally cost you years of your life. Careful spending is actually good for your health, whereas the opposite can be bad for your heart.

While not everyone will be able to do so, having an emergency fund, instead of living paycheck to paycheck, has been shown to decrease risk of developing cardiovascular disease in older adults.

FORGETTING TO FLOSS
Poor oral hygiene is linked to poor heart health, so if you’re cutting corners, your longevity may suffer as a result.

Brushing your teeth and flossing is a way to ensure you get rid of bacteria that may potentially travel to other parts of your body. One study actually found that flossing your teeth can add as much as 6.4 years to your life expectancy.

AVOIDING SPICY FOODS
According to a study, people who eat spicy food daily have a 14% reduced chance of dying when compared to people who do so just once a week. Similar to other points on his list, it should be noted that this is just a correlation and there may be other factors at play.

The study did analyze a rather large sample though (over 500,000 people), so they might be onto something…

USING YOUR PHONE...

Read more: https://meziesblog.com/bad-habits-that-can-kill-you-faster/

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS ARE THOSE THAT CONSTANTLY LEARN AND ADAPT.

No matter what industry you’re operating in, it’s essential to understand what has happened in the past, what’s going on now, and to anticipate what might happen in the future. So how do companies do that?

The answer lies in data analytics. Most companies are collecting data all the time—but, in its raw form, this data doesn’t really mean anything. It’s what you do with the data that counts. Data analytics is the process of analyzing raw data in order to draw out patterns, trends, and insights that can tell you something meaningful about a particular area of the business. These insights are then used to make smart, data-driven decisions.

The kinds of insights you get from your data depend on the type of analysis you perform. In data analytics and data science, there are four main types of data analysis: Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive.

In this post, we’ll explain each of the four and consider why they’re useful. If you’re interested in a particular type of analysis, jump straight to the relevant section using the clickable menu below.

Types of data analysis: Descriptive
Types of data analysis: Diagnostic
Types of data analysis: Predictive
Types of data analysis: Prescriptive
Key takeaways and further reading

So, what are the four main types of data analysis? Let’s find out.

1. TYPES OF DATA ANALYSIS: DESCRIPTIVE (WHAT HAPPENED?)
Descriptive analytics looks at what has happened in the past.

As the name suggests, the purpose of descriptive analytics is to simply describe what has happened; it doesn’t try to explain why this might have happened or to establish cause-and-effect relationships. The aim is solely to provide an easily digestible snapshot.

Google Analytics is a good example of descriptive analytics in action; it provides a simple overview of what’s been going on with your website, showing you how many people visited in a given time period, for example, or where your visitors came from. Similarly, tools like HubSpot will show you how many people opened a particular email or engaged with a certain campaign.

Continue reading: https://meziesblog.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-data-analysis/

Academic writing should not be a hard task for students at different levels of education, particularly tertiary institutions.

Learning is fun, but not everyone enjoys the rigors of academic writing. Tutors provide lessons, give examples, and offer detailed guidelines on how students can write academic essays (including coursework, dissertation, thesis and more) without stress, but many students are either overwhelmed with academic activities or engaged at work. So, they need ‘an invisible hand’ to help them manage their academic essays at reasonable costs.

Considering that every student thinks and writes in a unique way, lecturers can hardly notice when students use academic writing services to score high marks. Why? Because academic writers are experts who understand terms, concepts, and theories in different fields and are experienced in professional writing, proofreading, editing, formatting, and referencing. Students only need adequate time to read the final draft before submitting and/or engaging the tutor in academic conversations relating to the topic.

AI writing tools cannot replace professional academic writers, but students can use the tools to improve their writing skills.

Here are some key points for students using AI-powered writing tools:

Automated Essay Scoring: AI can evaluate and score essays, providing immediate feedback to students. This is particularly valuable for educators who need to assess a large volume of assignments quickly.

Grammar and Spell Checkers: AI-driven tools, such as Grammarly, help students identify and correct errors in their writing, improving overall writing quality.

Text Generation: Some AI tools can assist with brainstorming or generating content before students start drafting their essays.

Plagiarism Detection: AI tools can also check for potential plagiarism, ensuring academic integrity.

However, it’s essential for students to be aware of the limitations and potential pitfalls of AI writing tools. While they offer convenience and efficiency, students should still engage in critical thinking and actively learn the writing process. Additionally, seeking guidance from professional academic writers on how to use these tools effectively can prevent misapplication and unintentional plagiarism.

Remember that AI tools are valuable aids, but they can't replace the need for genuine understanding and effort in writing. Moreover, universities and tutors have access to more powerful AI systems for detecting paraphrased and/or automated essays within seconds – and AI writing tools can never deliver essays with personalized writing styles or apply critical reasoning that aligns with theory and practice in any field.

If you have any specific questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!

https://academicscores.com/2024/05/18/what-students-should-know-about-ai-writing-tools/

Academic writing should not be a hard task for students at different levels of education, particularly tertiary institutions.

Learning is fun, but not everyone enjoys the rigors of academic writing. Tutors provide lessons, give examples, and offer detailed guidelines on how students can write academic essays (including coursework, dissertation, thesis and more) without stress, but many students are either overwhelmed with academic activities or engaged at work. So, they need ‘an invisible hand’ to help them manage their academic essays at reasonable costs.

Considering that every student thinks and writes in a unique way, lecturers can hardly notice when students use academic writing services to score high marks. Why? Because academic writers are experts who understand terms, concepts, and theories in different fields and are experienced in professional writing, proofreading, editing, formatting, and referencing. Students only read adequate time to read the final draft before submitting and/or engaging the tutor in academic conversations relating to the topic.

AI writing tools cannot replace professional academic writers, but students can use the tools to improve their writing skills.

Here are some key points for students using AI-powered writing tools:

Automated Essay Scoring: AI can evaluate and score essays, providing immediate feedback to students. This is particularly valuable for educators who need to assess a large volume of assignments quickly.

Grammar and Spell Checkers: AI-driven tools, such as Grammarly, help students identify and correct errors in their writing, improving overall writing quality.

Text Generation: Some AI tools can assist with brainstorming or generating content before students start drafting their essays.

Plagiarism Detection: AI tools can also check for potential plagiarism, ensuring academic integrity.

However, it’s essential for students to be aware of the limitations and potential pitfalls of AI writing tools. While they offer convenience and efficiency, students should still engage in critical thinking and actively learn the writing process. Additionally, seeking guidance from professional academic writers on how to use these tools effectively can prevent misapplication and unintentional plagiarism.

Remember that AI tools are valuable aids, but they can't replace the need for genuine understanding and effort in writing. Moreover, universities and tutors have access to more powerful AI systems for detecting paraphrased and/or automated essays within seconds – and AI writing tools can never deliver essays with personalized writing styles or apply critical reasoning that aligns with theory and practice in any field.

If you have any specific questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!

https://academicscores.com/2024/05/18/what-students-should-know-about-ai-writing-tools/

1.5 COMMON LITERATURE REVIEW ERRORS

Graduate-level literature reviews are more than a summary of the publications you find on a topic. As you have seen in this brief introduction, literature reviews are a very specific type of research, analysis, and writing. We will explore these topics more in the next chapters. Some things to keep in mind as you begin your own research and writing are ways to avoid the most common errors seen in the first attempt at a literature review. For a quick review of some of the pitfalls and challenges a new researcher faces when he/she begins work, see “Get Ready: Academic Writing, General Pitfalls and (oh yes) Getting Started!”.

As you begin your own graduate-level literature review, try to avoid these common mistakes:

Accepts another researcher’s finding as valid without evaluating methodology and data
Contrary findings and alternative interpretations are not considered or mentioned
Findings are not clearly related to one’s own study, or findings are too general
Insufficient time allowed to define best search strategies and writing
Isolated statistical results are simply reported rather than synthesizing the results
Problems with selecting and using most relevant keywords, subject headings and descriptors
Relies too heavily on secondary sources
Search methods are not recorded or reported for transparency
Summarizes rather than synthesizes articles

In conclusion, the purpose of a literature review is three-fold:

to survey the current state of knowledge or evidence in the area of inquiry,
to identify key authors, articles, theories, and findings in that area, and
to identify gaps in knowledge in that research area.

A literature review is commonly done today using computerized keyword searches in online databases, often working with a trained librarian or information expert. Keywords can be combined using the Boolean operators, “and”, “or” and sometimes “not” to narrow down or expand the search results. Once a list of articles is generated from the keyword and subject heading search, the researcher must then manually browse through each title and abstract, to determine the suitability of that article before a full-text article is obtained for the research question.

Literature reviews should be reasonably complete, and not restricted to a few journals, a few years, or a specific methodology or research design. Reviewed articles may be summarized in the form of tables, and can be further structured using organizing frameworks such as a concept matrix.

A well-conducted literature review should indicate whether the initial research questions have already been addressed in the literature, whether there are newer or more interesting research questions available, and whether the original research questions should be modified or changed in light of findings of the literature review.

The review can also provide some intuitions or potential answers to the questions of interest and/or help identify theories that have previously been used to address similar questions and may provide evidence to inform policy or decision-making. (Bhattacherjee, 2012).

Read more: https://academicscores.com/2024/05/14/literature-review-errors-you-should-avoid/

Data and Methods
We use longitudinal administrative data from the North Carolina Education Research Data Center. With this information, we can track individual teachers matched to specific classrooms and schools for a time period of 22 years—from the 1994–1995 school year to the 2015–2016 school year. This data set contains a number of files at the student, teacher, classroom, and school levels, from which we extract relevant measures to create a final merged data set.

We restrict the sample to teachers of math and ELA in the middle school Grades 6 through 8. Within a school, the teachers of math (or ELA) in these grades are likely to teach similar types of material, may work together to offer a coherent curriculum, and, to some extent, may be interchangeable. Importantly, the departure of one of them is likely to affect the others. Turnover of teachers within these clearly defined subject groups, which conveniently also correspond to student-tested subjects, should allow clear interpretation of the effects of turnover. We further restrict the sample to teachers of only yearlong courses that do not combine multiple subjects and to cohorts with at least three teachers teaching that subject in the school that year.2

The data set begins with a single observation for every math or ELA classroom for each year, which generates approximately 600,000 total observations, or around 300,000 per subject. Each classroom is matched to its primary instructor. We merge in instructor-specific information on their licensure area code, type of teaching certification, teacher licensure exam scores (Praxis), and years of experience. We also merge in information on students, including total number of students in the classroom and proportion by race and gender. We collect information specific to each school, including the geographic location and the proportion of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch.

We specify five outcome measures designed to capture the following three categories of school response to teacher turnover: (1) changing the average qualifications of teachers through hiring or replacement; (2) shifting teachers within the school to subject areas that are not their primary area; and/or (3) combining class sections and increasing class size. Corresponding to the first category, we observe the proportion of teachers with three or fewer years of experience; the proportion of teachers with lateral or provisional licenses; and the average teacher licensure exam score measured in standard deviations (SD). Corresponding to the second category, we observe the proportion of teachers who are not certified in the subject they are teaching. And corresponding to the third type of response, we observe average class size. All outcome measures are calculated at the subject, school, and year levels. For example, to calculate the proportion of teachers who are novice, we divide the number of teachers in school j, subject s with three or fewer years of experience at time t by the total number of teachers in school j, subject s at time t. This means that, in contrast to earlier studies on the topic, we are not examining the characteristics of teachers leaving, or of teachers coming in, but rather the aggregate net effects of turnover on the full group of math and ELA teachers at the school.

The teacher turnover rate is our primary independent variable of interest. Because we are exploring the impacts of teacher departure on teachers of related subjects at the same school, we calculate teacher turnover at the school, subject, and year levels. This contrasts with Ronfeldt et al. (2013), who define both teacher attrition and teacher entry at the grade level. The use of school- and subject-level measures makes sense in the context of middle school math and ELA courses because teachers often teach across multiple grade levels and/or switch back and forth across grades.3 At school j in subject s, turnover is calculated as the number of teachers who left between school year �−1 and school year � divided by the total number of teachers teaching in that subject and school at year �−1:Turnover���=Teachersleaving��,�−1Teachers��,�−1.

This variable incorporates no information on why a teacher leaves the school and makes no distinction between a teacher leaving the profession or simply moving to a different school. As noted by Papay et al. (2017), counting teachers who leave a school temporarily and return in a later year in the turnover measure leads to misleadingly high turnover rates. This type of departure could represent personal leave or lapses in administrative records and is likely to be less disruptive to schools than teachers leaving for good. Therefore, we only count a teacher under Teachersleaving��,�−1 if they do not return to the same school.4

Recent research emphasizes the importance of measuring the long-term instability of schools with longitudinal turnover data for understanding the cumulative effects of turnover on schools (Holme et al., 2018).5 Although prior research typically used an annual turnover rate, we hypothesize that school administrators are more likely to respond to sustained periods of high turnover. Accordingly, we calculate a 3-year running average of teacher turnover for each subject within each school:Averageturnover���=13∑�=�−2�Teachersleaving��,�−1Teachers��,�−1.

We also examine alternative dynamic specifications of turnover by incorporating multiple lagged annual turnover rates (see Appendix Figure A1), and we test the sensitivity of our results to different moving averages (Appendix Table A1) and to the exclusion of outlier turnover years that could possibly skew the moving average (Appendix Table A2). All of our turnover measures include departure events both at the end of the school year and during the school year, from which we would expect particularly detrimental impacts on student learning (Henry & Redding, 2018).

Since both the independent and the dependent variables of interest vary at the school-subject rather than the classroom level, we collapse the student- and classroom-level data set to one observation for all math classrooms and one observation for all ELA classrooms for each year within each school. For most of the analyses, we also exclude the 1995, 1996, and 1997 school years since average turnover from the prior 3 years can only be calculated from the 1998 school year forward. This exclusion still allows a 19-year panel of data and results in a new, collapsed sample size of 15,640 observations, or 7,820 for each subject.6

Table 1 provides the summary statistics for the resulting analytical data set. One can note that, on average across math and ELA middle school classrooms, 21% of teachers have three or fewer years of experience, 12% have lateral or provisional licenses, and 29% are teaching outside their subject of certification. Licensure exam scores of middle school math and ELA teachers are on average 0.13 SD below the mean for all teachers.7 The average class size for this sample is 19.9 students. Table 1 Summary Statistics of Analytical Sample of Middle School Math and ELA Teachers.

Read more: https://academicscores.com/2024/05/14/a-research-on-the-cost-implications-of-teacher-turnover/

ABSTRACT

Corn silk (Stigma maydis) is an important herb used traditionally by the Chinese, and Native Americans to treat many diseases. It is also used as traditional medicine in many parts of the world such as Turkey, United States and France. Its potential antioxidant and healthcare applications as diuretic agent, in hyperglycemia reduction, as anti-depressant and anti-fatigue use have been claimed in several reports. Other uses of corn silk include teas and supplements to treat urinary related problems. The potential use is very much related to its properties and mechanism of action of its plant’s bioactive constituents such as flavonoids and terpenoids. As such, this review will cover the research findings on the potential applications of corn silk in healthcare which include its phytochemical and pharmacological activities. In addition, the botanical description and its toxicological studies are also included.

Keywords: corn silk, antioxidant, healthcare, pharmacology, phytochemical
Go to:

Introduction

Herbs which have been used for centuries in treating various illnesses play a major role in forming the basic platform of modern medicines [1]. The therapeutic effects of many traditional herbs are due to the presence of natural antioxidants, especially phenolic compounds [2]. These compounds are able to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) that may cause various diseases related to oxidative stress such as cancer, hypertension, and cognitive disfunction. In order to protect humans from oxidative stress, various herbs and plants are being utilized for their potential benefits in preventing diseases related to oxidative stress and in preserving health.
One of these herbs is corn silk (Stigma maydis). Corn silk (CS) is made from stigmas, the yellowish thread like strands from the female flower of maize. It is a waste material from corn cultivation and available in abundance [3]. It has been consumed for a long time as a therapeutic remedy for various illnesses and is important as an alternative natural-based treatment. It has been used as traditional medicine in many parts of the world such as China, Turkey, United States and France. It is used for the treatment of cystitis, edema, kidney stones, diuretic, prostate disorder, and urinary infections as well as bedwetting and obesity [4,5,6,7,8,9]. It soothes and relaxes the lining of the bladder and urinary tubules, hence reducing irritation and increasing urine secretion [10]. Other beneficial treatments of CS include anti-fatigue activity, anti-depressant activity and kaliuretic [4,11,12]. In addition, it possesses excellent antioxidant capacity [13,14] and demonstrated protective effects in radiation and nephrotoxicity [15,16]. However, a recent study showed that there is no antibacterial activity in CS when it was investigated against bacterial species such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia, Escherichia coli and Streptococcus pyogenes [17]. In China, it is considered very important medicinal plant in the treatment of prostate problems [18]. Meanwhile, the Native Americans used CS to treat urinary tract infections, malaria and heart problems [19]. Although not scientifically proven, CS tea has been claimed to have many benefits to human health such as lowering blood pressure, decrease prostate inflammation, diabetic and urinary tract infection, edema, obesity and promote relaxation. To date, there are various CS commercial products for medicinal uses available in the market [20].

CS is rich in phenolic compounds, particularly flavonoids [21]. It also consists of proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, calcium, potassium, magnesium and sodium salts, volatiles oils and steroids such as sitosterol and stigmasterol, alkaloids, and saponins [14]. Due to its potential benefits, there are several studies reported the pharmacological activities of CS. This review focuses on the available scientific evidence on potential uses of CS in healthcare including its phytochemical, pharmacological, and botanical description and its toxicological studies.

Source: https://meziesblog.com/medicinal-use-of-corn-silk-stigma-maydis/

Abstract

Whenever the term "Gender" is mentioned, many readily attribute it to the womenfolk who, in many societies, are challenged and often put in a disadvantaged position concerning the men. As a result, many women empowerment programs are being championed to cushion the effects of this subjugation on women. This paper attempts to look into gender=related issues and understand what has been in existence concerning gender roles, especially for females, and how it contributes to sustainable development. It is also important to note that development is not something that happens in space or the product of eventualities but a concrete phenomenon that requires all to achieve. There is a specific role to play by both men and women to attain African development. Therefore, gender issues with all that relates to it can impinge on societal development. The secondary data collection was used by empirically engaging literature and British council report in tracing how Gender inequality began to be perceived. The study applied the theory of recognition by Axel Honneth and the functionalist approach in explaining the issues of gender and how it can enhance development if adequately handled. It was discovered that if both genders are correctly appreciated with each playing their role, not discriminating or demeaning any position, the resultant effect will not only result in development; instead, sustainable development will be attained.

Keywords: Development; Gender; Gender inequality; Gender roles; Sustainable development.

Scholars in almost every academic institution in the world struggle to write their assignments. They try every single method to make a constructive assignment but do not get success. “What is the cause behind it?” “What did I do wrong?” “How can I create an effective assignment?” “Who can help me do my assignment?” Instead of asking these questions, they try to find a learning strategy or an academic writing professional.

Are you too looking for ways to overcome the writing challenges? If yes, the next part is for you!

There are varied reasons students hire academic writers: (a) to learn the basics of academic writing (b) to gain/boost confidence (c) to improve academic performance (d) to avoid risks of scoring low marks (e) to cover time spent on personal/career engagements, and (f) to achieve career goals with professional support.

Students who hire academic writers are not dimwits; in fact, they are smart students who understand that everyone needs a helping hand to reach the top. Using academic writing help might be unethical according to university standards for academic research. So, students collaborating with private researchers need to ensure there is high-level confidentiality, which is not guaranteed when dealing with "anyone claiming to be an academic writer."

Smart students collaborate with professional writers who have a strong online presence, not only to avoid privacy issues and breach of contract but to ensure they get value for their money.

Here are ways you can improve you academic writing performance:

Read Extensively: A good writer is the one who reads smartly, that is, someone who knows what the lecturer/course requires and reads to acquire important knowledge. Reading sparks innovative ideas in a writer’s brain and opens the ocean to raft on a specific idea or academic domain. Reading improves vocab and introduces you to new, relatable, and compelling words.

Look at the Deadline: Whatever work you are going to start, the very first action you need to take is looking at the deadline. The last date of submission bounds you to work accordingly and keeps you in check during preparations for the upcoming event. Set the goals and achieve them timely.

Know Readers’ Interest: The readers itself can be the most prominent help for a writer. When even a single topic does not come to your mind, go for the utmost help. Knowing readers’ interest helps you understand what to write about.

Plan Accordingly: When we talk about the right way of writing an assignment, a writer should not miss the planning part. Time scheduling is the key to every lock (challenge), or we can say that it is the passkey of getting success.

Draft the Raw Ideas: When you make a careful, coordinated plan, it becomes easy to figure out the best strategy or solution to every academic writing challenge. Then you must act. Whatever thoughts are coming to your mind, write them in a notebook immediately.

Collect Information from Authentic Sources: Prefer the most reliable and credible sources to accumulate information.

Focus on Each Portion of Assignment: An assignment has three portions: Intro, body, and conclusion. Focus on each portion, write each in very descriptive and compelling way.

Observe the Last Step More Often: Check your previously written line, paragraph, and sentence. This technique will keep your content logically correct and create a harmony.

Double-Check or Proofread Whole Document: When you complete an assignment, take time to check the work for grammatical and punctuation errors. Review your arguments and ensure they are going in the right direction. Keep the total word count within the stipulated limit and fix the errors.

There’s a picture in a frame
It’s my All-Star Hall of Fame
The picture reflects my past and present;
An inner sanctuary for my soul


That picture in a frame is you;
The centre of everything I do
Your strength makes me feel anew
Like the morning dew in summertime.


You’re amazing in a frame,
My eternal sparks of flame,
You blaze through me day and night
To keep these smiles from fading.


From the frame, I wade through life
With inspiration so divine
I don’t dream of fulfilling destiny
Since I found happiness in you.


Your hug is the strongest support,
Your warmth an assuring comfort
To my yielding body, soul, and spirit
Why do I obsess and overthink?


Your picture taught me how to smile
At life’s trite, beguiling surprise
But hanging you on the wall could be wrong;
If familiarity breeds contempt.


My life, my world, now a hearse
Where beloved ones submerse
Gently interred deep into this fain heart,
An earthly castle for immortals.

Source: IROBIKO CHIMEZIE KINGSLEY https://meziesblog.com/picture-in-a-frame/

Nairalanders nor go kee person. Laughter wan kee me first. The analogies are reasonable in their own right. We can interpret the picture based on our sexual or political ideas but, I must add, the two heart emojis show it's more about relationships than leadership.

Professional academic writer...Eye strain / sitting for many hours every day

A researcher’s freedom to advance knowledge is tied to his or her responsibility to be honest. Science as an enterprise producing reliable knowledge is based on the assumption of honesty. Science is predicated on agreed-upon systematic procedures for determining the empirical or theoretical basis of a proposition. Dishonest science violates that agreement and therefore violates a defining characteristic of science.

Honesty is the principal value that underlies all of the other relationship val-ues. For example, without an honest foundation, realizing the values of openness, accountability, and fairness would be impossible.

Scientific institutions and stakeholders start with the assumption of honesty. Peer reviewers, granting agencies, journal editors, commercial research and development managers, policy makers, and other players in the scientific enterprise all start with an assumption of the trustworthiness of the reporting scientist and research team. Dishonesty undermines not only the results of the specific research but also the entire scientific enterprise itself, because it threatens the trustworthiness of the scientific endeavor.

Being honest is not always straightforward. It may not be easy to decide what to do with outlier data, for example, or when one suspects fraud in published research. A single outlier data point may be legitimately interpreted as a malfunctioning instrument or a contaminated sample. However, true scientific integrity requires the disclosure of the exclusion of a data point and the effect of that exclusion unless the contamination or malfunction is documented, not merely conjectured. There are accepted statistical methods and standards for dealing with outlier data, although questions are being raised about how often these are followed in certain fields (Thiese et al., 2015).

Dishonesty can take many forms. It may refer to out-and-out fabrication or falsification of data or reporting of results or plagiarism. It includes such things as misrepresentation (e.g., avoiding blame, claiming that protocol requirements have been followed when they have not, or producing significant results by altering experiments that have been previously conducted), nonreporting of phenomena, cherry-picking of data, or overenhancing pictorial representations of data. Honest work includes accurate reporting of what was done, including the methods used to do that work. Thus, dishonesty can encompass lying by omission, as in leaving out data that change the overall conclusions or systematically publishing only trials that yield positive results. The “file drawer” effect was first discussed almost 40 years ago; Robert Rosenthal (1979) presented the extreme view that “journals are filled with the 5 percent of the studies that show Type I errors, while the file drawers are filled with the 95 percent of the studies that show non-significant results.” This hides the possibility of results being published from 1 significant trial in an experiment of 100 trials, as well as experiments that were conducted and then altered in order to produce the desired results. The file drawer effect is a result of publication bias and selective reporting, the probability that a study will be published depending on the significance of its results (Scargle, 2000). As the incentives for researchers to publish in top journals increase, so too do these biases and the file drawer effect.

Another example of dishonesty by omission is failing to report all funding sources where that information is relevant to assessing potential biases that might influence the integrity of the work. Conversely, dishonesty can also include reporting of nonexistent funding sources, giving the impression that the research was conducted with more support and so may have been more thorough than in actuality.

Beyond the individual researcher, those engaged in assessing research, whether those who are funding it or participating in any level of the peer review process, also have fundamental responsibilities of honesty. Most centrally, those assessing the quality of science must be honest in their assessments and aware of and honest in reporting their own conflicts of interest or any cognitive biases that may skew their judgment in self-serving ways. There is also a need to guard against unconscious bias, sometimes by refusing to assess work even when a potential reviewer is convinced that he or she can be objective. Efforts to protect honesty should be reinforced by the organizations and systems within which those assessors function. Universities, research organizations, journals, funding agencies, and professional societies must all work to hold each other to honest interactions without favoritism and with potentially biasing factors disclosed.

Source: https://academicscores.com/2023/05/03/the-role-of-honesty-in-research/

The hallmark of scientific thinking that differentiates it from other modes of human inquiry and expression such as literature and art is its dedication to rational and empirical inquiry. In this context, objectivity is central to the scientific worldview. Karl Popper (1999) viewed scientific objectivity as consisting of the freedom and responsibility of the researcher to (1) pose refutable hypotheses, (2) test the hypotheses with the relevant evidence, and (3) state the results clearly and unambiguously to any interested person. The goal is reproducibility, which is essential to advancing knowledge through experimental science. If these steps are followed diligently, Popper suggested, any reasonable second researcher should be able to follow the same steps to replicate the work.

Objectivity means that certain kinds of motivations should not influence a researcher’s action, even though others will. For example, if a researcher in an experimental field believes in a particular hypothesis or explanation of a phenomenon, he or she is expected to design experiments that will test the hypothesis. The experiment should be designed in a way that allows the possibility for the hypothesis to be disconfirmed. Scientific objectivity is intended to ensure that scientists’ personal beliefs and qualities—motivations, position, material interests, field of specialty, prominence, or other factors—do not introduce biases into their work.

As will be explored in later chapters, in practice it is not that simple. Human judgment and decisions are prone to a variety of cognitive biases and systematic errors in reasoning. Even the best scientific intentions are not always sufficient to ensure scientific objectivity. Scientific objectivity can be compromised accidentally or without recognition by individuals. In addition, broader biases of the reigning scientific paradigm influence the theory and practice of science (Kuhn, 1962). A primary purpose of scientific replication is to minimize the extent to which experimental findings are distorted by biases and errors. Researchers have a responsibility to design experiments in ways that any other person with different motivations, interests, and knowledge could trust the results. Modern problems related to reproducibility are explored later in the report.

In addition, objectivity does not imply or require that researchers can or should be completely neutral or disinterested in pursuing their work. The research enterprise does not function properly without the organized efforts of researchers to convince their scientific audiences. Sometimes, researchers are proven correct when they persist in trying to prove theories in the face of evidence that contradicts them.

It is important to note, in addition, Popper’s suggestion that scientific objectivity consists of not only responsibility but freedom. The scientist must be free from pressures and influences that can bias research results. Objectivity can be compromised when institutional expectations, laboratory culture, the regulatory environment, or funding needs put pressure on the scientist to produce positive results or to produce them under time pressure. Scientists and researchers operate in social contexts, and the incentives and pressures of those contexts can have a profound effect on the exercise of scientific methodology and a researcher’s commitment to scientific objectivity.

Scientific objectivity also must coexist with other human motivations that challenge it. As an example of such a challenge, a researcher might become biased in desiring definitive results evaluating the validity of high-profile theories or hypotheses that their experiments were designed to support or refute. Both personal desires to obtain a definitive answer and institutional pressures to produce “significant” conclusions can provide strong motivation to find definitive results in experimental situations. Dedication to scientific objectivity in those settings represents the best guard against scientists finding what they desire instead of what exists. Institutional support of objectivity at every level—from mentors to research supervisors, to administrators, and to funders—is crucial in counterbalancing the very human tendency to desire definitive outcomes of research.

Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the importance of interdisciplinary services marketing research and identify basic prerequisites for inter-disciplinary work in the field of services marketing, and to offer directions to services marketing scholars regarding future interdisciplinary research work.

Design/methodology/approach
Building on the available literature, the authors argue for the importance of interdisciplinary research in services marketing. The authors also develop a framework featuring “the key challenges impeding interdisciplinarity”, which need to be addressed to shift the services marketing field towards more sensible interdisciplinarity. Further, based on literature synthesis from different disciplines, they provide a framework with “four future research avenues for interdisciplinary research in services marketing”.

Findings
The authors identify five challenges that can likely impede services marketing research from progressing into true interdisciplinary work: limited cross-pollination, limited paradoxical thinking, limited conceptual development, limited cross-disciplinary collaboration and “inside–out” focus. The authors also propose four future research avenues to drive interdisciplinary research in the services marketing field: integration of services marketing and information management; linguistic perspectives in services marketing research; the interface between services marketing and medicine; and consumer personality and values in services marketing.

Originality/value
The authors propose two novel frameworks. The first concerns the key challenges of interdisciplinarity in services marketing research and the second provides avenues to drive future interdisciplinary services marketing research.

When people hear the term “academic performance” they often think of a person’s GPA. However, several factors indicate a student’s academic success. While some may not graduate top of their class, they may hold leadership positions in several student groups or score high on standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT.

Scholarly Achievement and Skills[b][/b]

People often consider grades first when defining academic performance. This includes schools, who rank students by their GPA, awarding special designations such as valedictorian and salutatorian for those who graduate first and second in their class. Scholarship organizations and universities also start by looking at grades, as do some employers, especially when hiring recent graduates. Grades carry more weight in some industries, especially technical professions such as law, medicine and finance. Other industries place less importance on GPA, particularly creative professions such as writing or art and occupations such as sales where people skills are more crucial than technical knowledge.

Impressive Test Scores[b][/b]

Grades don’t always reflect a person’s knowledge or intelligence. Some students don’t perform well in a classroom setting but are very intelligent and earn high marks on IQ tests, standardized testing or college entrance exams. Universities and employers consider these scores along with other measurements and may forgive a less-than-perfect GPA for students who perform well on these tests. Some tests, such as the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), determine if a student is accepted into graduate school. Law firms and medical facilities also place great importance on these scores and may eliminate anyone who scores below a certain number.

Extracurricular Accomplishments[b][/b]

The definition of academic performance extends to achievement outside the classroom. Some of the brightest students don’t earn straight As but are extremely well-rounded, succeeding at everything from music to athletics. The ability to master a diverse set of skills illustrates intelligence, curiosity and persistence, qualities attractive to universities and employers. Some colleges will admit and even award scholarships to students who earned average grades but display a pattern of achievement by consistently learning new skills. Many businesses also see this as a selling point, thinking these candidates are eager to learn and will be easy to train.

Student Leadership[b][/b]

Initiative can also indicate academic performance. Some students demonstrate their competence by serving as student body president or holding officer positions in student groups such as the honor society or the science club. Or, they might regularly organize student events such as fundraisers, pep rallies or dances. Others participate in volunteer organizations and coordinate food drives or other community outreach efforts. Universities and employers look favorably on consistent leadership activities, feeling these students will bring that same drive to their classrooms or board rooms.

Source: https://academicscores.com/blog/

This article throws light on the seventeen important qualities of a good researcher.

1. He should be a votary of truth, truth should be his goal.

2. He should be able to dispel prejudice. He should not conceive any pre-conceived notion; rather he should maintain objectivity while gathering information.

3. The researcher should be capable of gathering accurate and in-depth information from the respondents.

4. The researcher should be a keen observer of the phenomena and should not be complacent with approximates.

5. He should always maintain precision and must try to avoid unnecessary details.

6. He must analyze and interpret the collected information with a positive spirit and in the proper sense, notwithstanding his personal requirement or benefit.

7. As a scientific genius, the research investigator must be adequately sensitive to difficulties “Where less gifted people pass by untroubled by doubt.”

8. He should be in possession of sufficient moral courage to face the difficult situation and should not be discouraged due to non-cooperation of the respondents or nature of the research problem under investigation.

9. The researcher should be able to utilize his time properly in a balanced manner.

10. While making generalizations, the researcher must cautiously bear in mind that there is no short cut to truth. Therefore he must wait to obtain complete data and always eschew hasty statement. As a scientific man, says Karl Pearson, he should strive at self elimination in his judgment to provide an argument which is true for each individual mind as for his own.

11. A good researcher is always apathetic to the approval or disapproval of society. Rather, he should be bold enough to present his findings of research to the society, notwithstanding its disapproval.

12. The researcher should be conceptually clear. He should use the terms uniformly and appropriately. Otherwise, his whole exercise will be defective.

13. The researcher should not only be careful in selecting the research tools but also properly trained so as to use these tools to procure reliable and valid data.

14. The researcher should also develop proper communicative skill and the ability to establish rapport with the respondents so as to elicit proper response.

15. Knowledge in the language of the respondents will be of immense help for the researcher. This will enable him not only to communicate the questions properly but also to cognize the responses properly.

16. Awareness of the possible drawbacks and shortcomings of research is very essential on the part of a good researcher. By knowing it before, the researcher may try to minimize such problems, although it is well high impossible to claim complete perfection of a research work.

17. A good researcher will always be well behaved and well clad. These qualities will attract the respondents towards him; sufficiently motivate them to produce necessary information required for the purpose of research.