Educational Background Diversity Research Articles

Implementation of the Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) Method for Employee Performance Assessment in the Office of Perum Bulog

Employee Performance Appraisal is very important, especially for employees in the scope of Perum BULOG Divre Bengkulu to encourage motivation and professionalism of employees in improving work quality. Constraints faced in conducting performance appraisals are due to the diversity of educational backgrounds, experiences, competencies and employee portfolios, so we need a system that can assist in the performance appraisal process so that the Employee Performance Appraisal does not become slow and experience difficulties. In the process of designing an employee performance appraisal decision support system application design uses the ARAS approach. The ARAS (Additive Ratio Assessment) method is one of the multicriteria decision-making methods based on the ranking concept using the utility degree, namely by comparing the overall index value of each alternative to the overall index value of the optimal alternative. The system implementation uses the Visual Basic 2010 programming language and the method used in this research is the waterfall method. From the results of the tests carried out, it can be concluded that this decision support system can provide selected employee decisions which later can be used as a reference for determining the quality of employee performance.

MENGENALKAN DUNIA INTERNASIONAL PADA GENERASI DINI (SEBAGAI KURIKULUM PEMBELAJARAN TK)

The international world is very closely related to children in the present era. One way to introduce it is by inserting international science in kindergarten level education. This knowledge is rarely conveyed to early age students because the lack of providing material training for kindergarten teachers and the diversity of educational backgrounds makes it difficult to determine international material. Community service uses the method of delivering basic international material to kindergarten teachers, then it can be delivered to kindergarten students. The learning activities that will be provided are in the form of: 1) selection of basic materials about the international world, 2) the use of effective and fun learning media for kindergarten students. This community service aims to increase the knowledge of kindergarten teachers and students about the international world through quality and fun learning activities.

An Empirical Analysis of Key Antecedents of Workforce Diversity on Job Performance in Nigeria

The study examined the effect of workforce diversity on job performance. The employees’ diversity were conceptualised in terms of gender diversity, age diversity, and educational background diversity. The study was underpinned by the social identity theory as it examined such characteristics as gender, age and education. The social identity theory infers that employees have a tendency of classifying themselves based on groups in which they fit in. The study area was public sector in Abuja, Nigeria. The study adopted the quantitative research design whereby questionnaires were administered to the participants. A sample size of 208 participants were drawn from a population of 452 employees of the government agency in Abuja using Raosoft sampling size calculator. However, only 137 valid questionnaires were retrieved from the participants. Therefore, the data analysis was based on the valid retrieved questionnaires. Data analysis and hypotheses test was done using multiple regression analysis. The results showed a significant relationship between the dimensions of the explanatory variables (gender diversity, age diversity and educational background diversity) and the outcome variable (employee performance). The study also revealed that the combination of gender, age and education were the core elements that explained employee performance by 62.9 percent. In terms of individual contribution, the results indicate that educational background diversity contributed most to the variation of employee job performance while both age and gender also contributed significantly. The study therefore recommended that leadership of organisations need to focus more on diversity management in order to integrate the diverse characteristics of the workforce within the organisation.

Sociocultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Mid-European (Slovak) Economic and Technological Space

Introduction. Social cultural aspect and linguistic diversity of educational background play an important role in teaching a foreign language. Although there are a lot of publications on this theme, it is hardly possible to find surveys which study the impact of globalization accompanied by the English language expansion, on transformation of cultural identity. The aim of this article is to analyse changes of social cultural phenomena and linguistic diversity in common life and foreign languages education in a Mid-European (mostly Slovak) economic and technological spheres. Materials and Methods. Within this research the content analysis method was employed together with critical comparison of relative scientific papers and other materials in the respect of the problem investigated. Questionnaires were developed and educators who run practice oriented professional programmes were interviewed. After the results of the interview being analysed and synthetized, some crucial points of the discussed problem were revealed. Results. The research revealed the main factors which determine diversity of linguistic communication in a Mid-European former socialist country (Slovakia as an example); reasons and types of social cultural transformations in the society under research were analysed; economic and technological conditions of the transformations discussed were defined; recommendations for educators who run practice oriented professional programmes were developed. Discussion and Conclusion. The results of the research done are considered to be some contribution to the development of bilingual practice oriented education under the condition of European economic and technological integration. However, the task of reserving peculiar cultural values of the nation which is subject to unavoidable social cultural transformations is the major one in this respect.

How to Organize Creative and Innovative Teams: Creative Self-Efficacy and Innovative Team Performance

ABSTRACT What makes teams creative? We investigated how the diversity and agreeableness of team members moderate the relationship between creative self-efficacy (CSE) and innovative performance at the team level. We found that the educational background diversity is a critical factor to affect the knowledge, perspective, and problem-solving skills and, in turn, has a positive effect on innovative performance. We also showed that the relationship between aggregated CSE and innovative performance was not linear but inverted U-shaped at the team level. We expect our study to provide meaningful managerial implications about team composition and team innovative performance.

Do you like where I brought you? Disenchantment and re-enchantment in Vintilă Mihăilescu’s anthropological teachings (25.05.1951-22.03.2020)

Always provoking, creating disruption, advocating for inclusiveness, questioning elite assumptions and often going against the grain of dominant intellectual voices, Vintilă’s pedagogical lessons remain a source of inspiration for those whom he has shaped as students and influenced as colleagues. The bulk of the students still come from a diversity of professional and educational backgrounds, ranging from the humanities to technical fields. What they seek are answers; what we still aim to provide, in keeping with Vintilă’s legacy, is the ability to ask the right questions and to think anthropologically, no matter the field.

BOARD COGNITIVE DIVERSITY AND FIRM PERFORMANCE NEXUS: EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

Purpose of the study: This study examined the influence of board cognitive diversity on firm performance in Nigeria. The researchers investigated consumer goods firms listed in the Nigeria Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2018.
 Methodology: This research is hinged on the positivist research philosophy; and the deductive research approach. The study adopted the multi-method quantitative research design. Data was hand-collected from the annual financial statements and firms’ websites of consumer goods firms. The researchers measured board cognitive diversity by educational level diversity, education background diversity, and professional member diversity; while performance was measured via financial performance (ROA) and market performance (Tobin's Q). Panel least squares were used to estimate the model of the study.
 Main Findings: Results from the panel least squares regression revealed mixed findings on the nexus between the proxies of board cognitive diversity and firm performance in Nigeria. Specifically, we found that education level diversity and professional member diversity of board members positively and significantly affects market performance. In contrast, the educational background diversity of the board negatively and significantly affects the market performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria. Furthermore, we found no evidence on the nexus between educational level diversity; educational background diversity; professional membership diversity of board members, and financial performance of firms investigated.
 Implications/Applications: The researchers concluded that board cognitive diversity partially influences firm performance in Nigeria. The study recommended that firms in Nigeria, specifically consumer goods firms, should encourage more representation of board directors with a postgraduate degree. This is because they have advanced knowledge and expertise to improve the firm's performance.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: This is pioneer research to investigate the influence of board cognitive diversity on firm performance in Nigeria.

Analisis Metode al-Qiraah al-Jahriyyah dalam Meningkatkan Keterampilan Membaca Teks Berbahasa Arab

Many of the problems in Arabic language learning are found by students, for those who do not have Islamic educational background. SMAIT Insantama is one example of a school that has students with a diversity of previous educational background. Many students studying in the school have minimal knowledge of Arabic language, for students who have difficulty reading Arabic texts. The teachers at SMAIT Insantama tried to alleviate the problem by implementing the Al-Qiraah al-Jahriyah method as a solution to the problem. This research aims to describe the problem in SMAIT Insantama and the solutions given so that it can solve the problems that exist. And the method used is a descriptive analysis, a study with an investigation approach to upload the problem thoroughly. While the results are found with the application of al-Qiraah al-Jahriyah method students are more active in Arabic language learning and more daring to pronounce the vocabulary read. And after several meetings by implementing the method al-Qiraah al-Jahriyah students who previously did not have the mental to read the Arabic text in front of the other students is now more daring and even the degree of guilt was reduced. This is a challenge with students ' learning outcomes in their cycle tests with an increase of 9.37% or 75.25 in the 1st, 84.38 cycles of the 2nd and the 92.29 in the 3rd cycle. Thus, al-Qiraah al-Jahriyah method is very suitable to alleviate students ' problems in reading Arabic text.

The rise of the technological manager in India in the 1960s: the role of the Indian institutes of management

ABSTRACT A distinctive aspect of India’s managerial elite is that it is dominated by people with an educational background in engineering. This paper unravels the history of how this major phenomenon arose, by tracking the evolution of management education in mid-twentieth century India. It emphasizes the significance of the network developed between the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and points to important contextual factors including the industrial recession of 1968–70 and admission test criteria that contributed heavily to the rise of the ‘technological manager’. Some of these factors continued to be important in the early twenty-first century, having implications on the diversity of educational backgrounds and diversity by gender among India’s managerial elite.

Workforce Diversity on Employee Performance in the Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice, Kenya

Embracing and managing diversity in today’s business world is an essential part of successful business practices as it brings various voices to a team, improves morale and increases overall productivity. However, manager face difficulties in understanding the value of each person’s unique abilities or voice, there may arise some instances where certain employees still have conflicts. Ineffective communication of key objectives results in confusion, lack of teamwork, and low morale. In the office of the attorney general and department of justice now going through a massive influx of young workforce in both gender with diverse educational background and from different ethnic groups have brought a challenge of having different sets of values, expectations, and work styles in the work place and also understanding the other’s culture has been a heavy task on managing work force in the organization. It is due to this regard that this study sought to investigate the influence of workforce diversity on employee performance in the office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study specific objectives were to examine the influence of educational background diversity, ethnicity diversity, age diversity and gender diversity on employee performance. The theories guiding the study were the human capital theory, social identity theory, social exchange theory and social categorization theory. This study will use descriptive survey research design. The unit of observation was office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice in Nairobi City County, Kenya and the unit of observation was 5 Human Resource Managers and 50 Support Staff from HRM department. A census of 55 respondents was carried out. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. Quantitative data was analysed with the use of descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviations and presented using tables, graphs, charts and figures. Content analysis was used to test data that was qualitative in nature or aspect of the data collected from the open ended questions. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the extent to which the variables relate to each other. The study examined that educational background diversity, ethnicity diversity, age diversity and gender had a positive and significant relationship on employee performance. The study concluded that employees with diverse educational background promote higher levels of consistency, creativity because of their unique perspectives. Ethnicity diversity management improve gains in worker welfare and efficiency, leads to reduced turnover costs, fewer internal disputes and grievances, prevention of marginalization and exclusion of categories of workers, improved social cohesion and so on. Age diversity in the workplace provides a larger spectrum of knowledge, values, and preferences. Having a diverse gender within the organization leads to a wider talent pool, encourages different points of view and approaches that come from different life experiences and the organization to challenge gender stereotypes. The study recommended that the organization should employ people of different backgrounds in education so as to improve creativity and innovation. The organizational management has responsibilities when it comes to promoting and monitoring ethnic diversity policy in the workplace. It is highly essential for the organization to find effective ways to meet the challenges of age diversity because both the old and the young employees can make tremendous contributions to the organization, in their own unique way. The organization should encourage team leaders to select diverse groups for projects to ensure the genders do not naturally separate.

Professor Auxiliar e a Inclusão de Alunos com Transtorno do Espectro Autista

No Brasil, é direito do aluno com Transtorno do Espectro Autista com comprovadas necessidades, ter a presença de um acompanhante especializado em sala de aula, o professor auxiliar. Contudo, a legislação referente a esse profissional é recente. O presente estudo caracterizou esses profissionais e a percepção destes sobre suas atividades. Foram entrevistados 12 acompanhantes especializados de Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná. Os dados da caracterização foram tabulados e os dados qualitativos foram analisados pelo método do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo. Constatou-se que todos os 12 entrevistados eram do sexo feminino, apenas 03 com pós graduação em educação especial, média de idade de 37 anos e 08 professoras estavam tendo sua primeira experiência na atividade atual. Nos discursos observou-se conhecimentos limitados sobre autismo, pouca articulação com o professor regente, necessidade de capacitações com atividades práticas e um misto de frustrações e realizações pessoais em relação a atuação. A atividade do professor auxiliar ainda está em desenvolvimento, poucos estudos relatam essa atuação e necessita de normativas específicas delimitando seus requisitos profissionais, abrangência e metas educacionais.

Gender diversity in senior management, strategic change, and firm performance: Examining the mediating nature of strategic change in high tech firms

Only recently have enough women joined senior leadership positions in high tech firms for research on senior management gender diversity in high tech industries to be possible. We propose that senior management gender diversity fosters strategic change in high tech firms, especially under conditions where alliance formation intensity and top management team (TMT) educational background diversity are high, because the breadth of opportunity and knowledge associated with these conditions facilitates implementation of new ideas. Results show that both inter-organizational strategic alliance formation intensity and TMT educational background diversity positively moderate the relationship between senior management gender diversity and strategic change. We also find support for a moderated mediation model whereby a gender-diverse senior management positively impacts strategic change, which ultimately improves firm performance when the firm exhibits high alliance formation intensity and has a TMT that is diverse across educational background.

Does board diversity affect quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure? Evidence from Pakistan

AbstractThe study proposed that the effect of board diversity on quality of corporate social responsibility (QCSR) disclosure in Pakistan should be patterned differently from existing literature of other nations. The study has focused seven different dimensions of board diversity such as age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, educational level, educational background, and tenure across 86 firms listed in Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2017. The results of panel regression supported resource‐based view theory and indicated that gender, nation, and tenure diversity are resources improving QCSR disclosure. However, educational background has a negative impact on QCSR disclosure. Further analysis across alternative measurement and estimation techniques produces robust results. The results revealed that there is no universal law of CSR supportive board diversity, due to the unique characteristic of various institutional contexts. This study suggests policy makers to focus on gender,nation, tenure and relevant educational background diversity while setting board diversity framework in Pakistan.

Board nationality and educational background diversity and corporate social performance

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relationship between the nationality and educational background diversity of directors serving on corporate boards and the firms’ corporate social performance (CSP).Design/methodology/approachThis study measures nationality diversity by directors’ national citizenship and measures educational background diversity by countries from which they earned their undergraduate and post undergraduate degrees. It measures firms’ CSP using the MSCI ESG ratings. The study uses both univariate and multivariate analyses to empirically test the hypotheses.FindingsUsing a sample of US firms, the authors find that board nationality diversity and educational background diversity are positively associated with CSP. The findings suggest that improving director nationality diversity and educational background diversity could improve firms’ social performance.Originality/valueThis study shows that the increasing trend of foreign nationals in the US boards could shift the focus of US corporations to be more stakeholder-oriented.

The impact of team diversity on role clarity : The mediating effects of interaction frequency

According to the social categorization theory, people tend to categorize their group members into in-group or out-group members according to differences in demographic attributes. Generally, people prefer interacting with in-group members to out-group members. Our research focuses on which demographic attributes affect social categorization. We examined the influences of differences in gender, age, and educational background on role clarity in 58 teams in a Korean public enterprise. Moreover, we examined the mediating role of interaction frequency on the relationship between team diversity and role clarity. Our study provides evidence that interaction frequency can and does mediate the relationship between team diversity and role clarity. Gender diversity and educational background diversity have negative impact on interaction among team members, and consequentially lower role clarity within team. This study makes several academic and practical contributions. First, this study shows how team diversity affects role clarity within the team. The diversity of team members will make it difficult for an individual to find a team member who is similar to himself/herself and who feels intimacy, which may lower the quality and frequency of interaction. The lower the quality and frequency of communication among members reduces the opportunity to exchange and share information about each other, making it difficult to clearly identify and share their roles. Our study provides evidence that interaction frequency can and does mediate the relationship between team diversity and role clarity. Second, this study considers gender, educational background and age in the Korean context among the various dimensions of team diversity. Among them gender diversity and educational background diversity except age diversity have negative impact on interaction among team members, and consequentially lower role clarity within team. The team with many heterogeneous members of gender and educational background had less interaction frequency among the members, and the role clarity was also lower. Meanwhile, with regard to diversity in age, the company has implemented several strategies to do away with inefficient seniority rule which was dominant social norms in Korean organizations. There-through, age diversity in this study appears to be positively related with role clarity as well as interaction frequency, and not significant. It is suggested that managing the demographic diversity of team is an important factor in enhancing the team interaction frequency and role clarity. These results show that the negative effects of diversity can be overcome to some extent by corporate level efforts.

Top management teams’ managerial resources and international diversification

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to incorporate the resource-based perspective with upper echelon theory to examine the effect of top management teams’ (TMTs) managerial resources on international diversification.Design/methodology/approachThe authors sampled 360 listed companies in the USA that operated in the information technology industry in 2009, the year after the financial crisis.FindingsThe findings show that TMTs’ tenure has a negative impact on international diversification but international experience exerts a positive impact on international diversification. Furthermore, TMTs’ educational background diversity and international experience contribute to a reduction in the negative effect of tenure on international diversification.Originality/valuePrior studies have investigated the role of TMT in international diversification, but they pay less attention to the interactive effect of the variety of managerial resources on international diversification. In particular, the authors examined the effect of a variety of management resources on the level of international diversification under the uncertain environment.

Workforce Composition and Innovation: How Diversity in Employees’ Ethnic and Educational Backgrounds Facilitates Firm‐Level Innovativeness

This article studies how workforce composition is related to a firm's success in introducing radical innovations. Previous studies have argued that teams composed of individuals with diverse backgrounds are able to perform more information processing and make deeper use of the information, which is important to accomplish complex tasks. We suggest that this argument can be extended to the level of the aggregate workforce of high‐technology firms. In particular, we argue that ethnic and higher education diversity within the workforce is associated with superior performance in radical innovation. Using a sample of 3,888 Swedish firms, this article demonstrates that having greater workforce diversity in terms of both ethnic background and educational disciplinary background is positively correlated to the share of a firm's turnover generated by radical innovation. Having more external collaborations does, however, seem to reduce the importance of educational background diversity. The impact of ethnic diversity is not affected by external collaboration. These findings hold after using alternative measures of dependent and independent variables, alternative sample sizes, and alternative estimation techniques. The research findings presented in this article would seem to have immediate and important practical implications. They would suggest that companies may pursue recruitment policies inspired by greater ethnic and disciplinary diversity as a way to boost the innovativeness of the organization. From a managerial perspective, it may be concluded that workforce disciplinary diversity could be potentially replaced by more external links, while ethnic diversity could not.

A Genetic-algorithm Approach for Balancing Learning Styles and Academic Attributes in Heterogeneous Grouping of Students

Cooperative learning is an instructional approach in which students work together in small groups in order to achieve a common academic goal. In the context of cooperative learning, students in classrooms tend to learn more by sharing their experiences and knowledge. In addition, a diversity of educational backgrounds and student learning styles can be used to build heterogeneous groups of students. In this paper, we propose an approach for the group composition, regarding the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire and prior educational knowledge in order to achieve the mechanism for equity among groups and ensure that heterogeneous students are distributed optimally within the group formation. This causes the search for an optimized group composition of all students more complex and becomes a time-consuming task. Therefore, the proposed algorithm mimics the natural process of a genetic algorithm in order to achieve optimal solutions. In addition, we have implemented our algorithm to construct student groups. Our experiment shows that the algorithm enhances the quality of the group formation of heterogeneous students leading to better solutions.

The frontline delivery of activation: workers’ preferences and their antecedents

ABSTRACTThis article intends to contribute to the increasing body of academic literature on the frontline delivery of activation policies. In line with the broader literature on frontline work, this literature focuses attention on frontline delivery practices and preferences and how these can be explained. Activation work is an interesting case in this context, because activation workers’ jobs designs vary considerably and workers have a diversity of educational backgrounds (including but not limited to social work) in the many countries that have implemented activation policies. This article looks at workers’ preferences rather than actual delivery practices. It analyses how job design and educational background are related to workers’ preferences concerning servicing clients, managing activation workers and spending time on various activation-related activities. Although the findings of the research that are presented in the article show that educational background and job design play only a modest role as antecedents of workers’ preferences, future research into this issue remains interesting. For it may help to increase our insights into the optimal match between what activation aims to achieve and how the provision of activation is organized on the one hand, and workers’ skills/qualifications and job design on the other hand.

Top management team diversity and firm performance: Empirical evidence from the fashion and luxury industry

The purpose of this study is to advance the current understanding of the relationship between top management team (TMT) diversity and firm performance in the fashion and luxury industries. Predictions from the relevant theoretical perspectives – namely, Upper Echelons and Social Psychology theories – are often conflicting, and the controversial nature of this phenomenon together with the lack of empirical studies in the fashion and luxury industries have inspired the research question to investigate the link between TMT diversity and firm performance. Moreover, this is even more relevant in a setting where human capital management is one of the main keys to the long-term survival of fashion and luxury brands. To this extent, a principal component analysis and subsequent regression analyses have been performed on a sample of 78 listed companies operating in the fashion and luxury industries, over the five-year period 2011-2015. Results indicate that TMTs with greater gender, international experience, and educational background diversity are positively associated with higher firm performance. Hence, we found support for the Upper Echelons Theory, which predicts organizational outcomes as a function of managerial characteristics, thus offering few practical implications for companies operating in these industries