Emily Caitlin Lily Knox, Hayley Musson and Emma J. Adams
Many adults fail to achieve sufficient moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The purpose of this paper is to understand how workplaces most effectively promote physical…
Abstract
Purpose
Many adults fail to achieve sufficient moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The purpose of this paper is to understand how workplaces most effectively promote physical activity for the benefit of public health.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected via two online surveys. First, 3,360 adults employed at 308 workplaces across England self-reported their MVPA, activity status at work and frequency of journeys made through active commuting. From this sample, 588 participants reported on the policies and practices used in their workplace to promote physical activity. Factor and cluster analysis identified common practice. Regression models examined the association between the workplace factors and engagement in physical activity behaviours.
Findings
Five factors emerged: targeting active travel, availability of information about physical activity outside the workplace, facilities and onsite opportunities, sedentary behaviour, and information about physical activity within the workplace. Further, five clusters were identified to illustrate how the factors are typically being utilised by workplaces across England. Commonly used practices related to promoting active travel, reducing sedentary behaviour and the provision of information but these practices were not associated with meeting MVPA guidelines. The provision of facilities and onsite exercise classes was associated with the most positive physical activity behaviour outcomes; however, these structures were rarely evident in workplaces.
Originality/value
Previous research has identified a number of efficacious actions for promoting physical activity in the workplace, however, research investigating which of these are likely to be acceptable to worksites is limited. The present study is the first to combine these two important aspects. Five common profiles of promoting physical activity in worksites across England were identified and related to physical activity outcomes. Guidance is given to workplace managers to enable them to maximise the resources they have for the greatest gains in employee health. Where feasible, facilities, and classes should be provided to achieve the most positive outcomes.
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Regional policy instruments are typically driven by economic rationales, from either a firm or industrial perspective. Yet too often, these rationales are taken as ex ante to the…
Abstract
Regional policy instruments are typically driven by economic rationales, from either a firm or industrial perspective. Yet too often, these rationales are taken as ex ante to the contexts within which firms and industries compete. Recent regional development research has urged a better link be developed between the individual, the firm, and their context, so as to understand the role of regions in supporting effective competitiveness of organizations. In this article, recent research themes are explored that may shed light on the nature of this relationship and that can be developed into an investigative methodology that could aid policy practitioners in generating policy instruments that reflect differing societal constructions of SME reality.
Michal Biron, Wendy J. Casper and Sumita Raghuram
The purpose of this study is to offer a model explicating telework as a dynamic process, theorizing that teleworkers continuously adjust – their identities, boundaries and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to offer a model explicating telework as a dynamic process, theorizing that teleworkers continuously adjust – their identities, boundaries and relationships – to meet their own needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness in their work and nonwork roles.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the lens of job crafting to posit changes teleworkers make to enhance work-nonwork balance and job performance, including time-related individual differences to account for contingencies in dynamic adjustments. Finally, this study discusses how feedback from work and nonwork role partners and one’s self-evaluation results in an iterative process of learning to telework over time.
Findings
This model describes how teleworkers craft work and nonwork roles to satisfy needs, enhancing key outcomes and eliciting role partner feedback to further recraft telework.
Research limitations/implications
The propositions can be translated to hypotheses. As such the dynamic model for crafting telework can be used as a basis for empirical studies aimed at understanding how telework adjustment process unfolds.
Practical implications
Intervention studies could focus on teleworkers’ job crafting behavior. Organizations may also offer training to prepare employees to telework and to create conditions under which teleworkers’ job crafting behavior more easily translates into need satisfaction and positive outcomes.
Social implications
Many employees would prefer to work from home, at least partly, when the COVID-19 crisis is over. This model offers a way to facilitate a smooth transition into this work mode while ensuring work nonwork balance and performance.
Originality/value
Most telework research takes a static approach to focus on the work–family interface. This study proffers a dynamic approach suggesting need satisfaction as the mechanism enabling one to combine work and domestic roles and delineating how feedback enables continuous adjustment in professional and personal roles.
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Tourism does not flourish in areas subject to armed conflict and strong, violent sociopolitical instability. This axiom has obvious implications on the debate in tourism studies…
Abstract
Tourism does not flourish in areas subject to armed conflict and strong, violent sociopolitical instability. This axiom has obvious implications on the debate in tourism studies on the risks associated with armed conflicts. The question therefore remains as to how (and if) tourism can contribute to the reduction of global conflicts. This chapter reflects on how the men and women perceive tourism (from both supply and demand side) in this specific period of ‘End of History’ (Fukuyama, 1992). Does tourism reflect the Kantian idea of hospitality in the context of a Perpetual Peace – thus a force for good – or is it just another instrument at the service of neo-liberalism and unbridled economism? Finally, a possible alternative is proposed for the use of tourism in reducing structural and cultural violence.
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This chapter draws the book to a close by returning to the overarching goal of this book – to understand women’s experiences of sexual harassment on the London Underground. It…
Abstract
This chapter draws the book to a close by returning to the overarching goal of this book – to understand women’s experiences of sexual harassment on the London Underground. It brings together the key findings from each chapter. At its core, this book is about deepening and expanding our understanding of sexual harassment on public transport. However, by following the continuous thread of gendered mobilities, we can depart from expected lines of enquiry, broadening our focus to conjoin seemingly disparate conceptual and theoretical approaches and draw out the nuances of these experiences. So much is revealed through intimate observation of the seemingly mundane – an empty train carriage, the space between strangers, and the invisible rhythms that regulate and play out through our corporeal bodies. This is where we must look to further our enquiries and honour the complexity of these experiences. Along a similar vein, I hope this book demonstrates the continued need to offer space to women’s subjective and experiential stories as a form of rich empirical qualitative data, and how we must fight for the space and time to do this against the temporal latitudes of the neoliberal university.
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Silvia Baiocco, Luna Leoni and Paola Maria Anna Paniccia
This paper aims to enhance understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) contributes to sustainable development in the tourism sector. To do so, specific factors that act…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to enhance understanding of how sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) contributes to sustainable development in the tourism sector. To do so, specific factors that act as enablers or inhibitors of SE are identified according to a co-evolutionary lens.
Design/methodology/approach
A co-evolutionary explanation of the firm? Environment relationship is adopted to undertake a qualitative empirical study of the Castelli Romani tourism destination (Italy), via 23 semi-structured interviews according to a narrative approach.
Findings
The paper demonstrates that entrepreneurs play a crucial role in sustainable development but cannot act in isolation. In fact, according to the co-evolutionary approach, they influence and are influenced by 20 factors. Accordingly, SE can be conceptualised as resulting from effective co-evolutionary interactions between micro (i.e. entrepreneurs and their firm), meso (i.e. the destination where tourism firms are based) and macro (i.e. the wider socio-economic and natural system) levels.
Practical implications
Several actions are suggested to entrepreneurs and policymakers to help achieve specific sustainable development goals. These actions focus on: (1) training courses, (2) investments in technologies, (3) creation of innovative business models, (4) exploitation of cultural and natural resources, (5) community involvement and (6) multi-level partnerships.
Originality/value
This is the first study that adopts a co-evolutionary lens to investigate the influencing factors of SE in tourism, shedding light on the effects of their dynamic interdependence. Thus, it provides a more nuanced SE conceptualisation that takes a holistic and dynamic view of sustainability.
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Jessie Gevaert, Christophe Vanroelen, Lara Stas and Deborah De Moortel
The ideal-typical entrepreneur presents him/herself in the neoliberal iconography as an autonomous and pro-active individual who is highly engaged with his/her vocation…
Abstract
Purpose
The ideal-typical entrepreneur presents him/herself in the neoliberal iconography as an autonomous and pro-active individual who is highly engaged with his/her vocation. Nevertheless, empirical research on the actual work engagement of the self-employed is scarce. In addition, phenomena like “necessity self-employment” and “economically dependent self-employment” raise concerns about the potential eudaimonic well-being outcomes of these self-employed. In this study, it was therefore investigated to what extent necessity self-employment and economically dependent self-employment are associated to work engagement and whether this relation is mediated by intrinsic job resources.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) involving 5,463 solo self-employed participants. For analyzing the data, structural equation modeling (SEM) with the Lavaan package was used.
Findings
Both necessity self-employment and economically dependent self-employment were linked to poor work engagement, however, intrinsic job resources mediated both effects.
Originality/value
While previous studies have shown differences in hedonic well-being between opportunity/necessity entrepreneurs, and economically (in)dependent entrepreneurs, this study considers their distinct profiles regarding eudaimonic well-being. Eudaimonic well-being was deemed particularly relevant because of its implications for other outcomes such as life satisfaction, psychological well-being, ill-health, business performance and persistence in self-employment.
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This study aims to analyse the inequalities in access to teleworking in Spain. More specifically, the study examines what factors determine remote working in a pre-pandemic period…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the inequalities in access to teleworking in Spain. More specifically, the study examines what factors determine remote working in a pre-pandemic period and during the state of alarm (March 2020). Moreover, the study examines whether telecommuting is related to the likelihood of suffering emotional disorders during lockdowns.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodological approach followed to analyse access to teleworking mainly consists of the estimation of ordered response models. Two datasets are used: the first is the Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Households, conducted by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) in the pre-pandemic period (2018). The second is the Social Survey 2020. Habits and Living Conditions of the Andalusian Population during the State of Alarm, conducted by the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia (IECA) once the state of alarm was declared in Spain.
Findings
The results obtained indicate that ICT training is a key element in helping to explain the likelihood of working from home. However, some groups of workers might experience difficulties in their transition to teleworking. This could increase labour market segmentation and hinder the transition to the knowledge economy. Moreover, the findings detect that employees working both on the company premises and from home are more likely to suffer emotional disorders.
Originality/value
The paper sheds new empirical evidence on teleworking in Spain and Andalusia, including some novel methodological aspects to estimate the regressors’ effects on the probability of working from home.