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Ethical leadership wields a significant influence on productive work attitudes of employees. The relationship may partly be because of existing conditions in the organization. However, there is dearth of research on the impact that conditions in the organization affect work attitudes and other employee behaviours. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine organizational climate as an explanatory mechanism for the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ productive work attitudes (employee commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour).

The researchers obtained responses from 150 employees working in micro financial institutions in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The cross-sectional survey design was used. The hypotheses of the study were analysed using regression analyses.

Findings indicated a positive and significant relationship between ethical leadership and productive work attitudes (employee commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that organizational climate moderated the relationships between both ethical leadership – employee commitment and ethical leadership – organizational citizenship behaviours. Explicitly, ethical leadership produced the highest productive work attitudes when organizational climate was favourable for productive work attitudes.

Generally, this study highlights the prominence of organizational climate in understanding the influence of ethical leadership on employees’ work attitudes.

Potentially harmful elements (PHEs) in the soil at gold mining sites can endanger the health and sustainability of the local community. We examined the potential health risks associated with the presence of PHEs (Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Pb, Sb, Se and Ti) in the soils of active, closed/abandoned/former and profile gold mine sites in Ghana.

We collected 102 soil samples from these mine sites, analysed them for their total element contents and calculated the geo-accumulation index, enrichment factor, contamination factor and pollution load index (PLI) (Igeo). We calculated the risks to human health by utilizing the hazard index (HI) and hazard quotient (HQ) for adult males, adult females and children who may ingest contaminated soil particles.

The average total Cd concentration in the soils was above the global average of 0.2 mg/kg for abandoned (2.86 mg/kg), active (3.93 mg/kg) and profile (4.04 mg/kg) areas. Mercury was detected at elevated concentrations in the soil of active mines (0.92 mg/kg), profiles (0.89 mg/kg) and abandoned mines (0.87 mg/kg). In the active, abandoned and profile soils, titanium concentrations were 14.18, 6.74 and 4.82 mg/kg, respectively, in several folds above the global average of 0.57 mg/kg. The majority of the sites were contaminated with Cd, Hg and Ti based on the calculated PLI values (active = 2.04, abandoned = 1.77 and profile = 2.7). Cadmium, mercury, lead and titanium in mine spoils were found to be correlated with aluminium, iron, manganese, pH, total carbon, clay content and phosphorus in a multivariate analysis using correlation and principal component analysis.

Both natural and anthropogenic processes contributed to the elevated metal contents in the mining sites, as indicated by the investigation’s results. The children’s hazard index values exceeded the threshold of 1.0, indicating the presence of non-carcinogenic risks.

Green space technology (e.g. revegetation) may thus be critical for preserving public health and reviving the ecological integrity of the contaminated sites.

This study highlights health risks to local communities in southwest Ghana by investigating the presence of potentially harmful elements in soils from gold mining sites for the first time. It assesses non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks using a methodology recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency for soil-to-human health risk assessment, especially for children. The study highlights how contamination has been found, making green space technology essential for preserving ecological integrity and protecting public health. The inclusion of geospatial distribution mapping of PTEs offers a visual depiction of the spread of contamination at both active and closed mining sites.

This study examined the factors influencing oil palm farmers’ decisions to engage in contract farming as well as their extent of participation.

The study used cross-sectional data collected from 210 oil palm producers in the western region of Ghana. Descriptive statistics and Cragg’s double hurdle model were the methods of analysis.

The results showed that household size, membership of farmer association, farm size, market knowledge and loan availability significantly positively influence farmers’ decisions to engage in contract farming. Also, while membership in farmer associations and market knowledge exerted significant positive influences on the extent to which farmers participated in contract farming, extension contacts and distance to the farm exerted significant negative influences on the extent of farmers’ participation.

The government, in collaboration with other interested parties, should educate and encourage farmers on the benefits of participating in contract farming arrangements with reputable and well-known institutions that have taken steps to make their services available to farmers.

The study recommends that the government and other contracting firms, like the Golden Star Oil Palm Plantation, should make farm credit a key aspect of their packages, as this will be more attractive to the smallholders.

The study adds to existing literature by providing contracting companies with helpful information on factors influencing oil palm farmers’ decisions to engage in contract farming.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2024-0284

This research explores to answer the question: What accounts for the substantial underwriting losses in the Ghanaian insurance industry?

Thirty-four (34) insurers' audited financial reports covering the period of 2007 to 2017 were analysed through dynamic panel regression to uncover the underlying causes of high underwriting losses in the Ghanaian insurance industry.

The findings indicate that efforts at increasing market share by overtrading add no value to insurers underwriting profitability. The underwriting risk suggests that the industry charges disproportionately too small premiums for the risks it underwrites. This may indicate under-pricing by some insurers to grow their customer base.

The findings have implications for managerial efficiency and risk management structures that align compensation with underwriting efficiency.

The association between managerial preference and the underwriting performance of insurers in emerging markets has rarely been researched. This study responds to this knowledge challenge.

Notwithstanding that numerous studies have focused on strategy in quantity surveying (QS) professional service firms, there is a paucity of investigation on the segmentation of QS professional services. The purpose of this study is to investigate the segmentation of QS services for diversification and a focus strategy formation.

This study adopts the positivist stance and quantitative approach in which a simple random sampling technique was used to select participants. In total, 110 survey questionnaires were administered to registered professional QS, out of which 79 completed questionnaires were returned for analysis.

The paper identifies three main QS service segments characterised by low, moderate and high competition. In addition, this study found that the concentration of traditional QS services in the building construction sector is due to the unwillingness of QS professional service firms to diversify into the non-construction sectors such as oil and gas. The diversification of QS services in the low competitive segment requires the adoption of agile approaches.

The study was limited to numeric analyses and so would be complemented by qualitative research in the future.

This paper is useful to QS professional service firms interested in diversifying their services into the non-construction sectors to enhance the pricing of their services.

Segmentation of QS services is fundamental to the formulation of focus strategy for non-construction sectors such as oil and gas and mining to enhance the pricing of QS professional services.