Aloyce GERVAS, Anne W. KAMAU, Godbertha KINYONDO
et al.
Les auteurs analysent la capacité des associations professionnelles informelles à fournir une protection sociale en cas de crise multiforme au Kenya et en Tanzanie. Ils comparent la situation de trois secteurs (construction, petit commerce et transport de passagers) avant et pendant la pandémie de COVID-19, et constatent que les associations parviennent moins bien à amortir l’impact des chocs covariants que celui des chocs idiosyncratiques. S’ils mettent en évidence des disparités entre les pays et les secteurs, ils observent aussi que la plupart des associations ont restreint ou adapté leurs activités durant la pandémie. Ils concluent à la nécessité de renforcer les systèmes de protection formels afin de mieux faire face aux chocs covariants et d’éviter ainsi l’effondrement des structures de soutien informelles.
This article presents applied research on line balancing within the modern garment industry, focusing on the significant impact of intelligent hanger systems and hanger lines on the stitching process, by Lean Methodology for garment modernization. It explores the application of line balancing in the modern garment industry, focusing on the significant impact of intelligent hanger systems and hanger lines on the stitching process. It aligns with Lean Methodology principles for garment modernization. Without the implementation of line balancing technology, the garment manufacturing process using hanger systems cannot improve output rates. The case study demonstrates that implementing intelligent line balancing in a straightforward practical setup facilitates lean practices combined with a digitalization system and automaton. This approach illustrates how to enhance output and reduce accumulated work in progress.
With the growing popularity of blockchains, modern chained BFT protocols combining chaining and leader rotation to obtain better efficiency and leadership democracy have received increasing interest. Although the efficiency provisions of chained BFT protocols have been thoroughly analyzed, the leadership democracy has received little attention in prior work. In this paper, we scrutinize the leadership democracy of four representative chained BFT protocols, especially under attack. To this end, we propose a unified framework with two evaluation metrics, i.e., chain quality and censorship resilience, and quantitatively analyze chosen protocols through the Markov Decision Process (MDP). With this framework, we further examine the impact of two key components, i.e., voting pattern and leader rotation on leadership democracy. Our results indicate that leader rotation is not enough to provide the leadership democracy guarantee; an adversary could utilize the design, e.g., voting pattern, to deteriorate the leadership democracy significantly. Based on the analysis results, we propose customized countermeasures for three evaluated protocols to improve their leadership democracy with only slight protocol overhead and no change of consensus rules. We also discuss future directions toward building more democratic chained BFT protocols.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is examining the effects of spiritual leadership and its consequences among nurses and healthcare system. Because nurses have different problems such as high work pressures and lack of benefits .
Methodology: For testing the conceptual model, 1200 nurses were selected by stratified random sampling. They belonged to 18 provinces in Iran. Then, according to the population of public and private nurses, questionnaires were sent.
Within three months and with one-month follow-ups, out of 1200 questionnaires, 1058 items were returned. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap approach were used to test H1 to H3 in Mplus7.4. Also, Ordinary least squares regression analysis was used in SPSS. 24.0 for moderation effect test.
Findings: Empirical results show that the mediating effect of both dimensions p-j & p-o fit in the relationship between spiritual leadership & job engagement. Furthermore, career commitment strengthens the positive effect of p-j fit on job engagement. These findings are consistent with P-E fit & identity theory.
Originality/ value: This study contributes to the literature by considering P-E dimensions as an additional explanatory mechanism in the relationship between spiritual leadership and job engagement. In other words, this study supplements and adds a new perspective to the explanation of the relationship between spiritual leadership and job engagement. Also, from identity theory, this study consider career commitment as a moderator between person-job fit and job engagement. It can deepen understanding the contingency factors that influence the outcomes of person-job fit.
Economic growth, development, planning, Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Code ownership -- an approximation of the degree of ownership of a software component -- is one of the important software measures used in quality improvement plans. However, prior studies proposed different variants of code ownership approximations. Yet, little is known about the difference in code ownership approximations and their association with software quality. In this paper, we investigate the differences in the commonly used ownership approximations (i.e., commit-based and line-based) in terms of the set of developers, the approximated code ownership values, and the expertise level. Then, we analyze the association of each code ownership approximation with the defect-proneness. Through an empirical study of 25 releases that span real-world open-source software systems, we find that commit-based and line-based ownership approximations produce different sets of developers, different code ownership values, and different sets of major developers. In addition, we find that the commit-based approximation has a stronger association with software quality than the line-based approximation. Based on our analysis, we recommend line-based code ownership be used for accountability purposes (e.g., authorship attribution, intellectual property), while commit-based code ownership should be used for rapid bug-fixing and charting quality improvement plans.
Background & Purpose: Today, flexibility has become one of the important subjects in management theories and policies, and flexible human resource is the most important factor in responding to changes in the external environment. Human resource flexibility patterns are one of the most important aspects of organizational flexibility, which focuses on the adaptation of employees in characteristics such as knowledge, skills, and behavior to changing environmental conditions. In this regard, this research seeks to re-identify the effective factors and results of the flexibility of human resources based on quantitative studies.Methodology: The current research is developmental in terms of purpose, applied regarding type of use, and quantitative in terms of the type of data. The research population included scientific-research articles and theses in internal and external databases in the field of human resource flexibility from 2011 to 2021, during which 38 cases were included in the meta-analysis using a non-random sampling method. The selected studies were analyzed using comprehensive meta-analysis software.Findings: According to the findings of the research, two types of factors are effective in creating the flexibility of human resources: organizational and individual factors, and among the antecedents of human resource flexibility, leadership style variables, meaningful approach training, and commitment-oriented human resource management measures have the greatest effect size respectively, and among the outcomes of human resource flexibility, human resource development variables, employee well-being, and organizational ambidexterity have the largest effect size.Conclusion: Based on the results of this research, a suitable framework of antecedents and approaches to the flexibility of human resources has been presented. Identifying and creating the flexibility of human resources, as the ability to respond appropriately to environmental changes, are effective in gaining competitive advantage and organizational success. Flexible human resources are realized through the tools available to managers, such as leadership style, training, and commitment-oriented actions, and it entails creative, innovative, perfectionist, and flexible employees.
Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Background & Purpose: One of the concerns of knowledge-based organizations after the retirement of their skilled employees is to ensure that their knowledge is retained by the organization. This issue is especially important for retired university faculty members who have extensive experience and a lot of explicit and implicit knowledge. In this regard, one of the key questions is how to take advantage of precious knowledge and literacy of these intellectuals, which has been created with great difficulty during their years of activity? The purpose of the current research is to qualitatively examine the lived experience of retired faculty members during their working years.
Methodology: Using Husserl's descriptive phenomenology, 17 retired faculty members of Isfahan universities were chosen as participants using purposive sampling. The total number of participants was determined through theoretical saturation. In-depth interviews were used in order to collect information about the experiences of the participants. The interviews were analyzed using Colaizzi's method.
Findings: The results identified five main themes including adherence to university norms and red lines, personal, work and life balance, shifting focus from quantity to quality, preparing for life after retirement, and developing communication skills. Besides, the results identified 16 sub-themes.
Conclusion: From a theoretical point of view, the results of this study contribute to the development of concepts on knowledge management and especially knowledge sharing among retired faculty members. Practically, the results obtained can be used at the individual level (i.e., for younger faculty members), at the university level (i.e., for university administrators), and at the national level (i.e., for major policy making at Ministry of Science).
Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Vajhollah Ghorbanizadeh, Habib Roodsaz, Mir Ali Seyed Naghavi
et al.
Purpose: This article aimed to present a description for inter-organizational learning essence.
Methodology: Phenomenological method was applied to analyze data which were acquired from semi-structured interviews with the individuals experienced in The Shared Project of Anti-Contraband and Currency Smuggling.
Findings: Results show that the substance of a phenomenon is perceived when the following factors are present: 1) sharing, optimizing, and localizing, 2) the perception of the success of a project, 3) collecting feedback, and monitoring and modifying the process. The specifications of a phenomenon include trust building, reducing resistance, and strengthening a perception based on public interest. The pervasive factors of a phenomenon include developing virtual collaboration and developing informal communication. The outcomes of a phenomenon include utilizing unused potentials and improving effectiveness as well as efficiency. Finally, the deficiencies of a phenomenon include evading, and lack of systematic relationships, challenges of shared responsibilities, and no regard for long-term planning.
Originality: Using quantitative investigations in the private sector organizations, former studies in this domain have only led to the evaluation of the impacts of scattered factors, which in turn, have created limited understanding of the essence of the phenomenon and even the generalization of the factors presented in the causal relationship of the phenomenon. However, by analyzing content and conceptual aspects of inter-organizational learning phenomenon in state organizations with various lines of service and by presenting rich descriptions and a comprehensive conceptual framework, the present study has provided a vaster and more suitable range for the understanding of this phenomenon.
Economic growth, development, planning, Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Aiming at helping users locally discovery retail services (e.g., entertainment and dinning), Online to Offline (O2O) service platforms have become popular in recent years, which greatly challenge current recommender systems. With the real data in Alipay, a feeds-like scenario for O2O services, we find that recurrence based temporal patterns and position biases commonly exist in our scenarios, which seriously threaten the recommendation effectiveness. To this end, we propose COUPA, an industrial system targeting for characterizing user preference with following two considerations: (1) Time aware preference: we employ the continuous time aware point process equipped with an attention mechanism to fully capture temporal patterns for recommendation. (2) Position aware preference: a position selector component equipped with a position personalization module is elaborately designed to mitigate position bias in a personalized manner. Finally, we carefully implement and deploy COUPA on Alipay with a cooperation of edge, streaming and batch computing, as well as a two-stage online serving mode, to support several popular recommendation scenarios. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate that COUPA consistently achieves superior performance and has potential to provide intuitive evidences for recommendation
Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the achievement of goals and the quantitative indicators of higher education focusing on capacity building and human resource development according to the Sixth Development Plan and at the same time, highlighting key lessons as to the preparation of documents for the Seventh Development Plan.
Methodology: Using the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology together with prescriptive orientation, this study applied the case study research method and documentary study to evaluate the outcomes of higher education in the Sixth Development Plan. In terms of data collection and analysis, independent samples of T-test and bibliographic method based on indexing were performed.
Findings: The findings of the study indicate that conceptually all indicators in the higher education sector have been input and/or output-oriented; however, effectiveness and outcomes have not been considered. In terms of performance review, such indicators as "share of non-governmental university students", "ratio of full-time faculty members including assistant professor and higher ranks to the total of full-time faculty members in universities affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology", as well as "number of Iranian university branches abroad" are all in a good condition; Nevertheless, the indicators "share of foreign students", "number of postgraduate students in departments of Basic Sciences" and "share of skills training" are not satisfactory.
Originality: Applying index-based and outcome-based model, the performance of the quantitative goals of higher education under the Sixth Development Plan has been evaluated for the first time in Iran. Accordingly, the research results provide policy implications for policymakers so that they may consider a more diverse range of indicators in different performance dimensions.
Economic growth, development, planning, Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Background & Purpose: Dark sides of the organization are integral parts of any organization and encompass all aspects of the organization. The theory of social interactionism also examines the behaviors and interactions of human beings in social life. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to present a model of the dark sides of the organization in the higher education system based on the theory of social interaction.Methodology: This research is applied in terms of type, developmental in terms of purpose, descriptive-exploratory in terms of implementation method, and qualitative in terms of data type. The sample of participants in the study included 15 scientific experts in the field of higher education management in Fars Province who were selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected using interview tools. The interviews continued until the theoretical saturation stage was reached after 12 interviews. Data were analyzed using the foundation data theorizing approach in three stages of open, axial, and selective coding.Findings: 118 concepts of open source interviews were classified into 24 sub-categories and 12 main categories, which were placed in a paradigm model in the form of six main categories: causal conditions (organizational causes and individual causes), background (internal and external environment), interventionist (employee characteristics and managerial characteristics), central phenomenon (dark sides of organization), strategies (individual development strategies and organizational level strategies) and consequences (individual, organizational, and social consequences). The model deeply describes the dark sides of the organization in the higher education system based on the theory of social interaction.Conclusion: Understanding the influential factors, strategies, and consequences of the dark sides of the organization in the higher education system using the proposed model can help policy makers, planners, and agents of the higher education system to manage this phenomenon.
Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Hosein Nasiri, Mohammad Yamani Douzi Sorkhabi, Gholamreza Zaker-Salehi
et al.
Purpose: : The stakeholders of science and technology, like other areas of public policy, have an important role in the success and failure of policies by influencing and being influenced by policies. The research was conducted with the aim of analyzing the anticipated interactions of the stakeholders of science and technology in the upstream documents.
Methodology: The research is an applied research from the point of view of the goal and thematic analysis from the point of view of the data collection method. For this purpose, among the upstream documents, eleven documents were selected and analyzed in the four dimensions of stakeholder identification, type, purpose and method of stakeholder interaction.
Findings: In the analysis, stakeholders in four sections; Government, private, individuals and civil society were categorized, and the beneficiaries of the public sector had the largest share. Stakeholder interaction is predicted in seven types, and "institution-to-institution" interaction was the most frequent . The objectives of stakeholder interactions are foreseen in fifteen themes, the most important of which were "Development of science and technology" and "Strengthening interactions between stakeholders". Stakeholder interaction methods were introduced in the form of ten themes, among which "development of incentive mechanisms" and "creation of cooperation networks" were introduced as important methods of interaction.
Originality/ value: : For the first time, the research has taken a comprehensive look at the issue of stakeholder interactions, which, in addition to identifying the stakeholders, has determined how the stakeholders interact, the purpose and the modes of their interaction.
Economic growth, development, planning, Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Denis S. Gusev, Elena G. Demidova, Olga A. Novikova
The purpose of the research presented in this article is to develop a dynamic system for forecasting and minimizing the risks of an industrial company based on their quantitative assessment. The article considers the conceptual apparatus of the essential content of risk management of an industrial enterprise, reviews the theoretical aspects of risk management systems and the most significant risk management methods from a practical point of view. The methodological apparatus of qualitative and quantitative analysis and risk assessment has been expanded on the basis of some conditionality of risk classification features identified and a systematic approach to the classification of risks of an industrial enterprise has been proposed, taking into account the dynamics of their impact on the object, the stages of building a dynamic risk management system are given. The article substantiates the need to supplement the dynamic risk management system of industrial enterprises with methods of qualitative and quantitative risk assessment in order to form effective risk management strategies
The utilization of management control systems in university management poses a considerable challenge because university's strategic goals are not identical to those applied in profit-oriented management. A university's management control system should take into account the processing of management information for management purposes, allowing for the relationships between different groups of stakeholders. The specificity of the university operation assumes conducting long-term scientific research and educational programmes. Therefore, the controlling approach to university management should considerat long-term performance measurement as well as management in key areas such as research, provision of education to students, and interaction with the tertiary institution's socioeconomic environment.This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework of the Intelligent Management Control System for Higher Education (IMCSHE) based on cognitive agents. The main findings are related to developing the assumption, model, and technological basis including the artificial intelligence method.
In representative democracies, the election of new representatives in regular election cycles is meant to prevent corruption and other misbehavior by elected officials and to keep them accountable in service of the ``will of the people." This democratic ideal can be undermined when candidates are dishonest when campaigning for election over these multiple cycles or rounds of voting. Much of the work on COMSOC to date has investigated strategic actions in only a single round. We introduce a novel formal model of \emph{pandering}, or strategic preference reporting by candidates seeking to be elected, and examine the resilience of two democratic voting systems to pandering within a single round and across multiple rounds. The two voting systems we compare are Representative Democracy (RD) and Flexible Representative Democracy (FRD). For each voting system, our analysis centers on the types of strategies candidates employ and how voters update their views of candidates based on how the candidates have pandered in the past. We provide theoretical results on the complexity of pandering in our setting for a single cycle, formulate our problem for multiple cycles as a Markov Decision Process, and use reinforcement learning to study the effects of pandering by both single candidates and groups of candidates across a number of rounds.
Jenny Weissbourd, Maureen Conway, Joyce Klein
et al.
PurposeThe paper discusses the relationship between systemic inequity and wealth disparity and advocates for expanding employee share ownership as a strategy to address divides in income and wealth by race and gender. It targets diverse actors including policymakers, philanthropic leaders and social investors and presents a set of policy proposals and practice ideas that seek to advance a broader understanding of employee share ownership and build the capacity of key organizations to support employee-owned businesses.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on data indicating positive outcomes from employee share ownership programs (ESOPs) related to job quality, economic stability and wealth-building, as well as widespread political support for ESOPs.FindingsThis paper suggests that employee share ownership can help to strengthen job quality and address race and gender income and wealth gaps. It argues that there is both public support and a range of different strategies actors can implement to expand awareness and access to different forms of employee share ownership.Research limitations/implicationsAdditional research focused on other forms of employee share ownership (beyond ESOPs) is needed to deepen understanding of how each form can play a role in addressing racial and gender wealth inequities. The paper acknowledges that despite the potential of employee share ownership to mitigate racial and gender wealth gaps, additional simultaneous strategies are required to address the range of systemic barriers that have disproportionately limited women and people of color's participation in ESOPs.Practical implicationsPolicymakers are actively seeking new proposals, while philanthropic leaders, social investors and others are also eager to build awareness and understanding of employee ownership models and develop the institutional capacity necessary to support strong employee-owned businesses. This paper directly responds to these needs and contributes to a broader collaborative effort to spread employee share ownership policies and practices that support economic recovery and lay the foundation for a more equitable and resilient economy.Social implicationsEmployee share ownership is not yet a strategy that is well understood among policymakers and the public, but it connects to and supports outcomes that are top of mind for many, including increasing local ownership and bolstering local economies, helping small business owners retire in ways that preserve local jobs and businesses, strengthening job quality and workforce development, addressing racial inequity and economic inequality and providing workers greater voice and agency. This paper seeks to connect employee ownership to these high-priority issues and support efforts by a range of organizations to implement policy and practice solutions.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to aggregate recent research on the relationship between employee share ownership and wealth inequities on the basis of race and gender. It also offers a timely argument that employee ownership strategies can play an important role in responding to the challenges facing communities and workers – particularly women workers and workers of color – as we rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hassan Chaharmahali, Hamidreza Izadbakhsh, Hamidreza Kordlouie
et al.
Background & Purpose: Pension funds are among the most important institutions that affect economic and social conditions of society. Presenting appropriate solutions to maintain the balance of these funds requires accurate knowledge of the conditions and factors affecting its status. Demographic change is one of the disruptive factors upsetting the balance between resource and expenditure of the funds. In this study, a model for simulating the balance of resources and expenditures in pension funds based on demographic risks is presented.Methodology: In this article, first the key factors affecting the status of the Pension Fund were identified. Then using modeling with system dynamics method, both increasing crisis of spending on fund resources in the form of cause and effect model and flow mode model in Vensim software on the horizon were designed and predicted in 50 years.Findings: The results of this study uncovered that a 23% increase in the birth rate can have a positive effect on the liquidity of the organization. However, based on the results of this study, a sharp decline in the birth rate and an increase in inflation, in the long run, will have the most negative effect on the liquidity of the Pension Fund. The amount of support and liquidity ratio in the output of the simulation model indicates the emergence of a crisis in the gap between resource and expenditure of the Pension Fund after the early decades of the Year 1400.Conclusion: The results obtained from the simulation of the resource system and expenditures of Pension Fund is the indicator of the occurrence of a pension crisis in condition that the current trend continues in the near future. On the other hand, the study of different scenarios has shown that in the short run, increasing the deduction and the attractiveness rates has the greatest effect on the stability of the Pension Fund, but in the long run, due to the adverse effect of increasing the deduction rate on premiums, this factor reduces the attractiveness of the Pension Fund. Demographic variables will have the greatest impact on the stability of the Pension Funds.
Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Maryam Soufi, Fatemeh Aziz-Abadi Farahani, Ebrahim Hajiani
et al.
Purpose: Construction places are a part of people’s identity. The identity of the place affects the man-place relation. Influenced by modern urbanism system, today’s cities have lost their former identity function and consequently have an environment with no defined identity all caused by place. Accordingly, this study mainly intends to reach an optimal model of place identity in new cities.
Methodology: It was a basic, descriptive-exploratory research and applied theme analysis method. Data were collected through investigation into theoretical literature, experts’ ideas and deep interviews with ten urban affairs managers. To identify the related themes, MAXQDA software was used.
Findings: All in all, 46 preliminary codes and four main themes were identified and the relations among these themes are presented in the framework of a model. Based on the model, recommendations as to the solution of place identity problems of Parand New City are presented.
Economic growth, development, planning, Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Identifying the real causes of democracy is an ongoing debate. We contribute to the literature by examining the robustness of a comprehensive list of 42 potential determinants of democracy. We take a step forward and employ Instrumental Variable Bayesian Model Averaging (IVBMA) method to tackle endogeneity explicitly. Using the data of 111 countries, our IVBMA results mark arable land as the most persistent predictor of democracy with a posterior inclusion probability (PIP) of 0.961. Youth population (PIP: 0.893), life expectancy (PIP: 0.839), and GDP per capita (PIP: 0.758) are the next critical independent variables. In a subsample of 80 developing countries, in addition to arable land (PIP: 0.919), state fragility proves to be a significant determinant of democracy (PIP: 0.779).
Thierry Roncalli, Amina Cherief, Fatma Karray-Meziou
et al.
This article is part of a comprehensive research project on liquidity risk in asset management, which can be divided into three dimensions. The first dimension covers liability liquidity risk (or funding liquidity) modeling, the second dimension focuses on asset liquidity risk (or market liquidity) modeling, and the third dimension considers the asset-liability management of the liquidity gap risk (or asset-liability matching). The purpose of this research is to propose a methodological and practical framework in order to perform liquidity stress testing programs, which comply with regulatory guidelines (ESMA, 2019, 2020) and are useful for fund managers. The review of the academic literature and professional research studies shows that there is a lack of standardized and analytical models. The aim of this research project is then to fill the gap with the goal of developing mathematical and statistical approaches, and providing appropriate answers. In this second article focused on asset liquidity risk modeling, we propose a market impact model to estimate transaction costs. After presenting a toy model that helps to understand the main concepts of asset liquidity, we consider a two-regime model, which is based on the power-law property of price impact. Then, we define several asset liquidity measures such as liquidity cost, liquidation ratio and shortfall or time to liquidation in order to assess the different dimensions of asset liquidity. Finally, we apply this asset liquidity framework to stocks and bonds and discuss the issues of calibrating the transaction cost model.