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Green building is a promising approach to improve resource efficiency and achieving sustainable development. The success of green construction projects is closely associated with the performance of project managers (PMs), while job satisfaction plays a major role in the performance of PMs. However, the emphasis placed on the job satisfaction of PMs in green construction projects remains minimal. The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationships between the job satisfaction of PMs and its key influencing factors in green construction projects, and to propose feasible strategies to improve the job satisfaction of PMs.

A questionnaire survey is conducted, data collected from 105 construction PMs are analysed using structural equation modelling. Interviews with five industry experts are further conducted to substantiate the results.

The results identified four major components of job satisfaction, namely, “job content”, “resource adequacy”, “work context” and “the personality and competence of jobholders”. The analysis also found that “technical requirement” and “split incentive” condition of green construction projects, “the expertise and awareness of PMs” and “demand and support from stakeholders” has significant impacts on PMs’ job satisfaction. Furthermore, this study developed eight strategies to improve PMs’ job satisfaction, including “increase recognition opportunities for PMs”, “government incentives and financial support” and “introductory and training courses on green construction legislation and processes”.

The findings assist construction companies in formulating measures to improve the job satisfaction and performance of PMs in green construction projects.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the safety and efficiency of, and acceptance by, patients for an express refill service (ERS).

A pilot uncontrolled, cross-sectional, single-centred study was conducted at the outpatient pharmacy of a tertiary acute care hospital. Under ERS, prescriptions were dispensed without clinical review and counselling for patients refilling prescription medications. Efficiency was assessed by comparing processing times of ERS prescriptions with regular prescriptions. Safety was assessed by independent review of prescriptions by two pharmacists. Patient acceptance was assessed by a survey.

ERS reduced processing time of prescriptions by more than 30 per cent compared to the regular fill process. ERS was generally safe for patients, with drug-related problems identified in only one prescription which may have warranted closer monitoring. It was accepted by patients who opted for the service, as 91.4 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the service.

The study was conducted on a small convenience sample of patients in a single centre, with no control group.

Results showed that ERS was efficient, safe and well-accepted for select patients refilling their prescriptions. This leads to shorter waiting times and greater patient satisfaction.

This is the first published study that has explored the feasibility of an express prescription refill service. Despite some limitations, this study showed that omitting prospective clinical review and patient counselling for a defined population segment is safe, and can reduce processing time and improve patient satisfaction.

This study aims to investigate the perceptions, acceptance, usage and access to social media by students and academics in higher education in informatics programs in Malaysia. A conceptual model based on Connectivism and communities of practice (CoPs) learning theory was developed and were used as a basis of mapping the research questions to the design frameworks and the research outcomes. A significant outcome of this study will be the development of a design framework for implementing social media as supporting tools for student engagement and teaching and learning of informatics programs in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia.

A mixed-method research methodology with a significant survey research component was employed for this research. This methodology focused on collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to better understand the research problems. For this study, a mixed-method sequential transformative research strategy based on a QUAN-Qual model was used in the data collection process. Mixed-method research methodology is considered to be most appropriate for this study, as it allows the researcher to gather multiple forms of data from diverse audiences such as educators, administrators and students.

The findings show the close matched of the ownership, amount of hours spent online, types of social media technologies (SMTs) used and pattern of usage between informatics and non-informatics students. It also shows that many students and instructors have started to explore and accept the use of SMTs as a tool for engaging with their institution and their peers as well as for teaching and learning purposes. Innovative institutions need to understand the critical success factors and the barriers that restrict the implementation of SMTs within the HEI to take advantage of the opportunities offered by SMTs in higher education.

The surveys and interview participant, in part, are self-selecting, so the data collected cannot be claimed to be representative of the population. However, because of the relatively large number of participants, it can be considered that the findings are indicative. Other limitation includes the depth of data that can be collected using this methodology.

There is wide range of social media usage in educational settings now being reported, but many issues are still unexamined. Limited studies have been focusing on the educators’ readiness, acceptance or refusal in integrating social media into their courses, the perceived effectiveness of the tools and student outcomes for their learning. The central outcome of this research will be the development of a design framework that will be used as a guide for Malaysian HEIs and informatics academics to engage students using SMTs in creating effective learning communities for informatics programs.

The framework will have implication for the social interaction and engagement of students with their institution.

Very little work has been reported on student and academic engagement, their perspectives and perceived effectiveness of social media usage in higher education, especially in the Malaysia context. Most of the research focused only on the quantitative research with students from universities in the USA and Australia, with an emphasis mainly on student’s perception and acceptance. There are calls for more research to examine how social media is perceived and accepted by students and academics for teaching and learning, especially in Malaysia.

‘Interactive multimedia’ was, only a few years ago, just a fuzzy shape on the horizon of new technology. With rapid developments in computing, telecommunications and home entertainment, interactive multimedia now describes a range of products for corporate and consumer markets which — after more than a decade of promise and potential — are setting standards for the decade to come. A handful of products are of particular interest to libraries now; however, a wide range of products and issues, from electronic books and computer games to compression technology and networking, will profoundly influence the future of publishing and communications. This article identifies some of the key issues and platforms including interactive video (IV), multimedia computers, electronic books, and optical discs in the LaserDisc and compact disc (CD) formats.

This paper investigates the extent to which six factors drawn from the theory and practice of knowledge management can be applied in small organisations. The factors are: balance between need and cost of knowledge acquisition; the extent to which knowledge originates in the external environment; internal knowledge processing; internal knowledge storage; use and deployment of knowledge within the organisation; and attention to human resources. Three cases demonstrate that the fundamental concepts and principles of knowledge management are similar for small and large organisations. Differences include the value placed on systematic knowledge management practices such as formalised environmental scanning and computer‐based knowledge sharing systems. Consultants, and library and information professionals, are advised to understand the organisation’s management and communication culture; emphasise simple and inexpensive systems integrated into everyday practice; and establish and monitor adherence to tools such as records management schedules. Information professionals can contribute much by managing systems which use vocabularies to enhance information retrieval for knowledge sharing.

While digital technologies have led to many important social and cultural advances worldwide, they also facilitate the perpetration of violence, abuse and harassment, known as technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA). TFVA includes a spectrum of behaviors perpetrated online, offline, and through a range of technologies, including artificial intelligence, livestreaming, GPS tracking, and social media. This chapter provides an overview of TFVA, including a brief snapshot of existing quantitative and qualitative research relating to various forms of TFVA. It then discusses the aims and contributions of this book as a whole, before outlining five overarching themes arising from the contributions. The chapter concludes by mapping out the structure of the book.

This article draws on longitudinal research into the establishment of co‐principalships. It discusses this innovative approach to school management in relation to women’s negotiations of their motivations, aspirations and strategies for career advancement and work/life balance. Longitudinal case studies of three primary school co‐principal initiatives were carried out between 1995 and 2000. Repeat interviews and observations with co‐principals, board chairpersons and school staff were conducted. Interviews were also undertaken with parents; students; and representatives of state education agencies, national governing boards, principals’ associations and teacher unions, alongside analysis of school and state policy documents. The resulting case study narratives described how each co‐principalship was initiated and either established or dis‐established. A discourse analysis of these narratives then examined how links between discourse, knowledge and power were being negotiated and challenged, as the new subject position of “co‐principal” was being constructed in New Zealand. This article analyses the significance of the similarities and differences in the women’s career backgrounds, motivations and strategies for moving into management positions. As they initiated their co‐principalships, the women variously went “against the grain” and/or co‐opted elements of the new public management corporate executive model for school leadership, which was introduced within the radical state restructuring during the late 1980s and early 90s in New Zealand.

This research aims to explore how female immigrants use consumption to challenge and support their husband's position within the context of their patriarchal bargain.

The sample group (n = 20) consisted of ten first-generation Nigerian immigrant married couples living in Britain, who were interviewed together, with the married female then re-interviewed separately.

This paper demonstrates how women transition from being a wife in a consanguine family in Nigeria, which they describe as patriarchal, to becoming one within a nuclear family in the UK, a society to which they attribute gender equality. Nigerian immigrant women alter their ways of thinking and consuming, with implications to their agency and empowerment. In particular, consumption choices demonstrated the limits of these women’s willingness to challenge their patriarchal bargain and instead often colluded with their husbands to maintain his position as the head of the family.

Immigrant women should not be seen as passive receptors of their male partner’s wishes or demands, but instead active participators in purchasing and consumption decisions. Although marketing encourages direct targeting of customers, this approach raises a number of ethical issues for female African immigrants.

Previous research on the consumption behaviour of immigrants is limited in scope and tends to focus on male immigrants, with female immigrants either invisible or stereotyped. Compounding this problem are disciplinary, geographical and linguistic barriers that hinder social scientists' research into the consumption of female migration. This paper works to address these omissions.

Sociability work, defined as the work involved in putting on community and charity events, provides one example of the intersections among gender and work. Yet sociologists have generally not included sociability work in their examinations of work. Based on ethnographic research in a breast cancer awareness organization, I analyze women’s sociability work to demonstrate how dimensions of power such as gender shape understandings of what counts and does not count as work. By applying the concept of sociability work to a contemporary group of volunteer workers in the U.S., I show first that this form of working is alive and well to day. I also highlight how sociability work complicates dominant conceptual understandings of work and consider the consequences of sociability work’s relative in visibility. I argue that excluding sociability work from the study of work shuts off critical discussion of its potential uses and misuses in shaping public policy and access to the public sphere.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has done a great deal to address the problem of discrimination against individuals with disability. In fact it is considered to be the most influencing civil‐rights legislation to come down in the last 25 years. In the Fiscal Year 2002, the EEOC received 15,964 charges of disability discrimination. The EEOC resolved 18,804 disability discrimination charges in FY 2002 and recovered $50.0 million in monetary benefits for charging parties and other aggrieved individuals. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has had a positive effect since it was enacted in 1992: in 2000, 22 per cent of employed people with disabilities report encountering job discrimination as opposed to 36 per cent in 1996. This article examines what is Mental Disability and discusses what questions regarding mental disability can be asked when managers are hiring salespeople.