Richard Welsh, Sheneka Williams, Karen Bryant and Jami Berry
Conceptualizing schools as learning organizations provides a potential avenue to meet the pressing challenges of school improvement in the USA. District and school leaders play an…
Abstract
Purpose
Conceptualizing schools as learning organizations provides a potential avenue to meet the pressing challenges of school improvement in the USA. District and school leaders play an important role in creating and sustaining the conditions for a learning organization, yet little is known about how leadership responds to learning-resistant contexts in their mission to improve schools. This study aims to examine the relationship between the district and school leadership and schools as learning organizations. The focus is on the conceptualization of schools as learning organizations and the challenges involved in creating and sustaining conditions and processes in which to improve schools.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses semi-structured interviews with district and school leaders in the state of Georgia and data from completed dimensions of a learning organization questionnaire (DLOQ) study to analyze how district and school leaders conceptualize or make sense of schools as learning organizations and overcome challenges associated with creating and sustaining a learning organization in learning-resistant contexts.
Findings
The analysis find that participants perceive their school or district as a learning organization when the structure allows others to work together to learn and grow for the benefit of students.
Originality/value
This study is unique in that it adds to a growing number of studies that examine schools as learning organizations using the DLOQ and sheds light on the nature of learning-resistant contexts.
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Mona Jami Pour, Mahnaz Hosseinzadeh and Narjes Sadat Mansouri
As social media applications have turned into popular platforms for interacting with customers, creation of a consistent customer experience in social commerce has attracted the…
Abstract
Purpose
As social media applications have turned into popular platforms for interacting with customers, creation of a consistent customer experience in social commerce has attracted the attention of many practitioners and academics. The migration to create and manage customer experience in social commerce has become an essential issue that will bring new challenges for companies. Despite the increasing investment in this area, few studies have been conducted on the challenges of managing customer experience in social commerce. To fill this theoretical gap, the current study aims at comprehensively exploring the main challenges of customer experience management (CEM) in social commerce and investigating their importance and possible effects in relation to each other.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the mixed method, first, the main challenges regarding CEM in social commerce were identified by reviewing the related literature. Then the challenges were enriched and categorized by expert opinions. Next, the challenges and the categorizations were confirmed by conducting a survey analysis applying the t-test and the factor analysis method. Afterwards, the main challenges were identified and weighted. Finally, the Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach was applied to investigate the causal relationship network among the challenges.
Findings
The results indicated that the main challenges of CEM in social commerce can be categorized into eight groups. Their weights and causal effects were calculated to identify the high priority challenges. By calculating the main SNA metrics such as degree and betweenness centralities, the high priority challenges of CEM in social commerce were identified. It was revealed that challenges with high out-degree centrality can create many other challenges and those with high betweenness centrality act as intermediary points, through which cause challenges may create effect challenges.
Research limitations/implications
The research results can help marketers to get a big picture of the challenges to successfully implement CEM in social commerce and select the appropriate migration strategies more effectively. They are further recommended to pay due attention to customers' issues as well as the organizational challenges of CEM in social commerce.
Originality/value
Social media has become a priority for businesses to create and improve the customer experience; yet there is no tool to identify the challenges of CEM in this context. This study addresses the overlooked but critically important area of social commerce. The most important contribution of this research is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and integrated framework of the challenges in implementing CEM in social commerce and explore the causal effects they may have on creation of other challenges using SNA.
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Muhammad Aqeel, Humaira Jami and Ammar Ahmed
The purpose of this paper is to establish the reliability and validity of an expended scale with translation, adaptation and cross-language validation of the student: thinking…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish the reliability and validity of an expended scale with translation, adaptation and cross-language validation of the student: thinking about my homework (STP) (Bareno, 1997; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 1999; Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler, 2005).
Design/methodology/approach
Response items rating are made from four-point Likert-type scales ranging from the 1 (never) to 4 (always). This study includes two versions of the scale: mother’s school involvement version (STPM) and father’s school Involvement version (STPF). Both versions have been translated from English language into Urdu language with a sample of 200 students. Standard back translation method was used for translation and adaption of the scale (Brislin, 1976; Hambleton, 1994). The ages of the students ranged from 12 to 18 years.
Findings
The overall scale has good internal consistency reliability. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to explore covert and novel configuration of these versions (father’s school involvement and mother’s school involvement). Results revealed that mother’s school involvement consisted of 21 items, and father’s school involvement consisted of 22 items.
Originality/value
The investigated scale provides assessment of father’s and mother’s school involvement, respectively, in order to achieve better understanding of family’s role in academics.
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Michael Jay Polonsky, Ahmed Ferdous, Nichola Robertson, Sandra Jones, Andre Renzaho and Joanne Telenta
This study aims to test the efficacy of the awareness of a transformative health service communication intervention targeted to African refugees in Australia, designed to increase…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to test the efficacy of the awareness of a transformative health service communication intervention targeted to African refugees in Australia, designed to increase their intentions to participate in blood donation and reduce any identified barriers.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the intervention launch, a survey was administered to African refugees. The data were analysed with structural equation modelling.
Findings
Intervention awareness increases refugees’ blood donation knowledge and intentions. Although it has no direct effect on refugees’ medical mistrust or perceived discrimination, intervention awareness indirectly reduces medical mistrust. The findings, thus, suggest that the intervention was transformative: it directly and indirectly reduced barriers to refugee participation in blood donation services.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations include a relatively small sample size, single-country context and measures that address blood donation intentions versus behaviours.
Social implications
Addressing health service inequities through intervention awareness, via the mere exposure effect, can facilitate refugees’ health service participation and inclusion.
Originality/value
This study contributes to transformative service research and responds to calls to improve individual and community well-being by testing a transformative intervention targeted towards vulnerable consumers. Not all targeted refugees donated blood, but being encouraged to participate in this health service within the host society can foster their greater inclusion.
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This paper aims to illustrate the application of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in higher education institutions (HEIs). A real-time case study presented as part of the paper highlights the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to illustrate the application of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in higher education institutions (HEIs). A real-time case study presented as part of the paper highlights the value which LSS can bring to the higher education system.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper commences with an overview and the success of the LSS methodology. The uniqueness of the higher education system for imbibing quality excellence is elaborated, comparing it with the manufacturing industry. Various opportunities for LSS projects in HEIs are then discussed as part of the paper. The last section of the paper elaborates a real-time case study, explaining how LSS was leveraged to improve a university library process.
Findings
The study identified the key attributes of the higher education system, which need to be understood for imbibing quality excellence. The study also provided an insight into the upcoming application of LSS and the benefits it can bring to HEIs.
Practical implications
The introduction of LSS into the higher education setup could bring multifold organizational and social benefits
Originality/value
LSS has been successful in the past few decades in the manufacturing and service sector. However, its application in HEIs was very nascent. This study illustrates its importance and application to a highly responsible area of the service sector, for imbibing quality excellence, serving as an excellent resource for researchers and higher education professionals.
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Samsul Islam, Mohammad Jasim Uddin, Michael Wang, Yangyan Shi and V.G. Venkatesh
Truck-sharing stands out as an impactful strategy for minimizing emissions and optimizing the streamlined transport of goods. This study seeks to address a gap in understanding by…
Abstract
Purpose
Truck-sharing stands out as an impactful strategy for minimizing emissions and optimizing the streamlined transport of goods. This study seeks to address a gap in understanding by investigating the barriers shippers face in adopting truck-sharing services.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs the innovation resistance theory to examine a range of potential barriers. A total of seven potential barriers are included in the investigation. Survey data from Bangladeshis are analyzed using an artificial neural network.
Findings
The barriers, ranked in importance, include image, tradition, value, usage, risk, psychological ownership and privacy concerns. Thus, psychological barriers (image and tradition) mostly underpin resistance to change, showing that the issue is more rooted in shippers' perceptions than operations. Also, they often do not find a financial cause to use truck-sharing services. Usage barriers, explicitly addressing the practical application of truck-sharing services, have now assumed the third position, underscoring their significance in overcoming the barriers.
Research limitations/implications
The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers to reconsider their approaches in addressing the most formidable truck-sharing barriers.
Practical implications
This insight holds implications for shippers and transport companies, offering strategic guidance to optimize their engagement with and support for such services.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this study examines shippers' reluctance to adopt truck-sharing services in a developing country.
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Xi Ouyang, Kong Zhou, Yuan-Fang Zhan and Wen-Jun Yin
Drawing on the extended self-theory, this study explores the dynamic process through which reactive helping could influence proactive helping through self-investment and…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the extended self-theory, this study explores the dynamic process through which reactive helping could influence proactive helping through self-investment and investigate the moderating role of task difficulty in affecting this process.
Design/methodology/approach
This study, with a sample of 582 diary surveys from 66 employees, used experience sampling techniques to analyze the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results revealed that self-investment could mediate the positive relationship between reactive helping and proactive helping. Additionally, task difficulty acts as an essential role in facilitating the process raised by reactive helping. Further examination revealed that the moderated mediation effect in this model was also significant.
Practical implications
Managers should encourage help-seeking and positive responses to requests, especially in groups with difficult tasks, which could build helpers’ extended self at work and increase their proactive helping behaviors at the following episode.
Originality/value
As verifying the dynamic trajectory of reactive helping, this study enriches our understanding of whether and how helping behaviors are likely to grow over time. Besides, it complements current pieces of literature by exploring the potential positive implication of reactive helping with a helper-centric perspective.
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Osman Seray Özkan, Seval Aksoy Kürü, Burcu Üzüm and Önder Ulu
The aim of this research, which uses the theories of social identity and social exchange, is to investigate the relationship between responsible leadership, prosocial behavior and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research, which uses the theories of social identity and social exchange, is to investigate the relationship between responsible leadership, prosocial behavior and the mediating role of psychological ownership in this relationship. In addition, the moderating role of ethical and social responsibility in the relationship between responsible leadership and psychological ownership is tested in the study.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample of the research consists of 246 participants who work full-time at İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport in ground handling services (GHS). The convenience sampling method was used in the research, and the research data were collected by the face-to-face survey method. The hypotheses of the research were tested with the partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and SPSS Process Macro.
Findings
According to the results, it was determined that responsible leadership affects prosocial behavior positively and significantly, and psychological ownership plays a mediating role in this relationship. In addition, the moderating effect of ethical and social responsibility on the relationship between responsible leadership and psychological ownership was determined. When ethical and social responsibility is perceived as high by the employees, it was revealed that the conditional indirect effect of responsible leadership on prosocial behavior through psychological ownership was strong.
Research limitations/implications
When responsible leadership encourages employees to take psychological ownership, they are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. This study contributes to the field by evaluating the structures discussed with social identity and social exchange theory. In the management practice of organizations, responsible leadership should be strengthened and training should be given to develop responsible leadership.
Originality/value
In the literature review, it was observed that although there are studies conducted with responsible leadership, the concept was not examined with prosocial behavior, and it was not studied in the aviation sector, which has become indispensable for the world economy. With these features, the study distinguishes itself from others and constitutes a source of motivation for researchers.
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Waheed Akhter, Hassan Jamil and Kim-Shyan Fam
This paper aims to identify Islamic influence on customer satisfaction in Pakistan Takaful and conventional insurance industry. Specifically, it analyses the vital role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify Islamic influence on customer satisfaction in Pakistan Takaful and conventional insurance industry. Specifically, it analyses the vital role of Shari’ah perception in achieving higher customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The data from 400 customers of both the family Takāful and life insurance (200 each) were collected. Further, the regression-based bootstrapping approach was applied through process macro developed by Hayes (2013).
Findings
The results indicate that a higher Shari’ah perception positively affects the customer satisfaction in the Takaful industry with improved service and relationship quality; whereas, it negatively affects customer satisfaction in case of the conventional insurance. Further, it has been found that customer satisfaction partially mediates the customer switching intentions in both the Takaful and conventional insurance industry in the presence of service quality and relationship quality.
Practical implications
This research will enable the practitioners to understand the factors that affect customer satisfaction in Pakistan. It has the essential policy and managerial implications for the growth of the Takaful and conventional insurance industry.
Originality/value
This is one of the pioneer studies investigating the impact of Islamic influence (specifically Shari’ah perception) on customer satisfaction in both the Takaful and conventional insurance industry in Pakistan.