Donald C. Barnes, Joel E. Collier and Stacey Robinson
The purpose of the current research is to evaluate how customer contact level and customer service-based role conflict influence the relationship between customer emotions and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the current research is to evaluate how customer contact level and customer service-based role conflict influence the relationship between customer emotions and work engagement, while simultaneously evaluating psychological capital as an outcome of work engagement. Customer service research highlights the impact of employee attitudes and behaviors on customer satisfaction. More recently, this relationship has been examined in reverse, evaluating how customer emotions influence the employee. Unfortunately, previous research has not evaluated variables that inhibit the impact of customer emotions on the employee.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from frontline employees across high and low customer contact service contexts. The hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings
This research provides empirical evidence that employee-perceived customer delight impacts employee work engagement. However, through a process of feedback, customer service-based role conflict impacts the relationship between customer emotions and employee emotions. Finally, the conceptual model illustrates how engaged employees can create their own personal resources vis-à-vis the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.
Research limitations/implications
This research identifies both antecedent and outcomes variables associated with work engagement, as well as identified mediating factors.
Practical implications
Results suggest that the quality and level of contact that frontline employees have with customers impact their work engagement. Furthermore, engaged frontline employees have the ability to create their own personal resources.
Originality/value
This research makes contributions to the understanding of the impact of positive customer emotions on frontline employees.
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Ebony O. McGee, Devin T. White, Akailah T. Jenkins, Stacey Houston, Lydia C. Bentley, William J. Smith and William H. Robinson
Much of the extant research, practice and policy in engineering education has focused on the limited persistence, waning interest and lack of preparation among Black students to…
Abstract
Purpose
Much of the extant research, practice and policy in engineering education has focused on the limited persistence, waning interest and lack of preparation among Black students to continue beyond the post-secondary engineering pipeline. However, this research suggests that many Black PhD students persist and succeed in engineering, fueled by various motivational strengths. To better understand the motivations of Black students in engineering doctoral programs, this study aims to explore the factors that influence their decision to enroll in either an engineering or a computing doctoral program.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses an intrinsic and extrinsic motivational framework to investigate the inspiration of 44 Black engineering doctoral students in PhD engineering programs in 11 engineering schools across the country.
Findings
Results show that the participants’ motivation to pursue a PhD in engineering comes from several distinct factors, including the following: an unyielding passion for their particular discipline, a sense of responsibility to serve marginalized peoples and society, a path toward autonomy, pre-PhD mentorship and research opportunities and family and prior work experience.
Research limitations/implications
Based on this study’s findings, a reconceptualization of graduate engineering education that incorporates the importance of “being Black” and its relationships with motivating and, potentially, retaining Black science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students is also offered.
Originality/value
This paper seeks to expose particular constructs and behaviors surrounding Black students’ motivation to learn and achieve in engineering at the highest academic levels, offering a more nuanced perspective than currently is found in traditional engineering education literature.
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Ministry of Health, Whitehall, S.W.1. 31st July, 1925. SIR, I am directed by the Minister of Health to draw the attention of the Council to the Milk and Dairies (Consolidation…
Abstract
Ministry of Health, Whitehall, S.W.1. 31st July, 1925. SIR, I am directed by the Minister of Health to draw the attention of the Council to the Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act, 1915, which will come into operation on the 1st September, 1925. Section 21 (1) of the Act provided that it should come into operation on such date, not being later than the expiration of one year after the termination of the war, as the Local Government Board might by order appoint. Section 1 of the Milk and Dairies (Amendment) Act, 1922, enacted that the 1915 Act, notwithstanding anything contained therein, should not come into operation before the 1st September, 1925. Although it was the evident intention of the 1922 Act that the 1915 Act should come into operation on the date mentioned, the Minister is advised that it is not certain that this is effected automatically by the Act itself. He has therefore deemed it advisable, in order to remove any possible doubt, to make an Order formally appointing the 1st September, 1925, as the date of commencement of the Act.
Fareeda Khodabocus, Goonesh Kumar Bahadur and Sheeba Armoogum
This chapter provides the multifaceted ways of how the institution has been supporting teaching and learning (T&L) with the use of technology and how it is equipping the younger…
Abstract
This chapter provides the multifaceted ways of how the institution has been supporting teaching and learning (T&L) with the use of technology and how it is equipping the younger generation with the skills required to face a changing job market. The prevailing status of use of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4th IR) in T&L was evaluated through: (i) outcomes of a survey approved by the institution undertaken with academics and students for its external audit in 2018; (ii) the continuous support being provided by the Center for Lifelong Learning for fully online programs through the Moodle Platform; and (iii) use of Google Classroom, smartphones, and tablets in faculty-based teaching by the information and communication technologies (ICT) department. This study aimed to identify gaps with a view to enhance the quality of blended/online learning. Findings of the survey reveal that 59.2% of academics who responded were satisfied with the applications of ICT in their teaching, with 42% indicating that there is a need for improvement. Similarly, 55.1% of students who responded indicated that they were satisfied with the use of technology in the classroom. The case studies support the surveys and provide indications of ongoing advancement in the use of ICT following the external audit. The advent of the pandemic has further accelerated our plans in the digital transformation process, leaving us with no choice but to innovate with the use of ICT in the classroom.
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This chapter revisits, reinforces, and extends our view of the underpinning principles and practices of school leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand. It presents extracts from case…
Abstract
This chapter revisits, reinforces, and extends our view of the underpinning principles and practices of school leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand. It presents extracts from case studies of schools that illustrate the crucial role of the principal in ensuring ongoing improvement and innovation while working in increasingly complex and uncertain environments. The chapter discusses the need to understand the importance of relationships between individuals and groups, actions, contexts, environments, and cultures where processes of interaction shape principals' practices. Features of complexity thinking are used as a lens through which to understand schools as complex adaptive systems and illustrate the importance of the dynamics of the interactions among the agents and elements within the New Zealand educational system. The chapter concludes by drawing together the implications for leadership that emerge across this chapter.
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Tacit knowledge is perceived as the most strategically important resource of the construction organisation, and the only renewable and sustainable base for its activities and…
Abstract
Purpose
Tacit knowledge is perceived as the most strategically important resource of the construction organisation, and the only renewable and sustainable base for its activities and competitiveness. Knowledge management (KM) activities that deal with tacit knowledge are essential in helping an organisation to achieve its long‐term organisational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence for the stronger strategic role of tacit KM in comparison to explicit KM.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was administered in 2005 to a sample of construction contractors operating in Hong Kong to elicit opinions on the internal business environment, intensity of KM activities as executed by targeted organisations, and contribution of these activities to business performance (BP). A total of 149 usable responses were received from 99 organisations representing about 38 per cent of the sampling frame. The statistical analyses helped to map the reported KM activities into two groups that, respectively, deal with tacit and explicit knowledge. The sensitivity to variations of organisational policies and strength of association with BP in relation to the two groups of KM activities were also compared empirically. A total of 15 interviews with the managerial and professional staff of leading contractors was undertaken to provide insightful narratives of KM implementations.
Findings
The effective implementation of organisational policies, such as encouraging innovations and strengthening strategic guidance for KM, would facilitate human interactions of tacit KM. Higher intensity of activities in managing tacit knowledge would ultimately help the organisations to achieve economic gain in the long run.
Originality/value
The stronger strategic role of tacit KM is empirically investigated and established within the context of construction organisations.
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Prakash C. Bhattarai and Jamuna Maharjan
In the context of cultural diversity and democratization in Nepal, ethical decision making with the central focus on the paradigms of care, justice, and critique is perceived as…
Abstract
In the context of cultural diversity and democratization in Nepal, ethical decision making with the central focus on the paradigms of care, justice, and critique is perceived as highly imperative in the life of school principals. However, the way each principal decides to remain ethical differs in practice as his or her own individual and school constructs vary from the other. The difference is much visible in the decision-making process of men and women principals. Considering this, a case study of men and women principals was carried out and the result showed that sociocultural constructs of the principals is primarily responsible to create the differences between them in terms of their ethical decision-making process. Sociocultural context of principals is not in the favor of the women’s decisive role, and thus women principals in their workplace make decisions after having several rounds of consultations. This serves to make their decision constructive as compared to the men principals who hardly consult in the decision-making process.
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Stacey Kent, Ashlea C. Troth and Peter J. Jordan
Aggression in the workplace has increasingly become a focus of organizational behavior research given its debilitating effects on employees and consistent links to reduced…
Abstract
Aggression in the workplace has increasingly become a focus of organizational behavior research given its debilitating effects on employees and consistent links to reduced organizational performance. The current literature on workplace aggression presents a bewildering array of definitions with overlapping meanings creating confusion for researchers and academics. In response to this, we consider a range of definitions of workplace aggression and build a taxonomy of workplace aggressive behaviors based on four dimensions: intensity, impact, intentionality, and indirect/direct aggression. This chapter contributes to the field offering a taxonomy of aggressive behaviors at work that can be used in subsequent research.