Employment Experiences Research Articles

Effect of Work-Family Conflict on Job Performance: Moderating Effect of Social Support among Teleworkers

The pressing economic situation that has made the Sri Lankans work remotely or work from home is highlighted as a tremendous challenge for businesses. Thus, the current study's primary purpose is to explore whether work-family conflict; both work-interference family and family-interference work affects the job performance among the selected teleworkers of Finance companies, while they were forced to work from home. In addition, the role of social support in this dynamic remains underexplored, particularly in high-stress environments like finance. Thus, the study focuses on the moderating effect of social support gained from both supervisor and family support in examining the relationship. The research utilized a mixed research approach to meet the objectives of the current study, where 125 workers of finance companies in the Colombo region who worked from home provided data through structured questionnaires and interviews. The sample was extracted using stratified random sampling. The statistical methods for analyzing the data were hierarchical regression and thematic analysis. In this study, the authors examined work-interference family and family-interference work as being negatively correlated with job performance. Furthermore, the results indicated that the social support received from supervisors and family members moderated the effect of work-family conflict on job performance, where it showcased a tactic to lessen the teleworkers' work-family friction. This study fills in gaps in the literature and assists employers in addressing issues that WFC employees experience.

Change on the Brain? The Neuroscience of Organizational Transformation

True transformations aim to change the core identity of an organization, are often disruptive, and rarely result in their intended outcomes. The objective of this paper is to propose a theoretical approach for more effective transformations via the syntheses of emerging findings in managerial science, organizational psychology, and social cognitive neuroscience. The authored conducted a literature review of traditional methods and the application of neuroscience to organizational transformation, proposing that consideration to leader and employee neuroanatomy can significantly impact transformation success. The emergent five-phase approach - Exploration & Discovery, Surfacing & Co-Creation, Enablement & Prioritization, Implementation, and Empowerment - integrates practices informed by neuroscience to enhance leadership alignment, employee engagement, and change sustainability. By focusing on activities such as vision alignment, co-creation, and leadership development, the approach seeks to optimize brain functions related to trust, motivation, and adaptability. Neuroscientific concepts like neural synchrony, hormone and neurotransmitter release, and specific neural circuit activations are utilized to improve team dynamics, decision-making, and learning. This neuro-informed approach challenges conventional practices by emphasizing co-creative solutioning with employees, piloting programs, and empowering middle managers to lead transformation efforts. Data from case studies demonstrate significant improvements in employee experience and sustainable shifts in organizational behavior. The paper concludes with a call for further research to solidify the emerging intersection of neuroscience and organizational transformation.

Island destination workforce development and inclusion

The one island-one resort concept of the Maldives features a distinct upscale tourism experience for visitors that offers seclusion, remoteness, and privacy. In view of each island as its own resort, the isolation among the islands poses unique challenges for workforce development as employees live on the same island where they work to serve the tourists. In an increasingly competitive tourism market, the resilience of the Maldives as a tourism destination stands on the inclusion of its local residents in the workforce. Largely dependent on tourism to sustain the economy, the Maldives persists with environmental concerns, political strife, and rapid socio-cultural changes along with other unprecedented challenges of an island destination. To understand the experiences of the local employees working in remote upscale resorts, the transcendental phenomenology approach was used to capture the essences of the employees’ lived experiences. Essences are the building blocks of experiences with narratives filtered into specific essences and sub-essences derived from the one island-one resort model. The examined essences including serenity, solidarity, self-development, discontentment, antagonism, and workplace alienation can advance understanding to promote inclusive tourism policies for transitioning remote island destinations.

Employee tenure and macroeconomic conditions

ABSTRACT This analysis examines the effects of macroeconomic conditions on worker tenure using econometric hazard rates to model the annual probability that workers separate from (or leave) their employer. The models are estimated using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth on the weekly employment experiences of an older cohort of individuals born between 1957 and 1964 and surveyed from 1979 to 2019 and a younger cohort of individuals born between 1980 and 1984 and surveyed from 1997 to 2019. This analysis is one of the first to examine completed employment spells. Most tenures are short. Good economic conditions decrease the likelihood of leaving an employer in the first year or two on a job but increase the probability of leaving during subsequent years of tenure.

Hospital staff's experiences of unsafe staffing levels and employers' responses to their concerns: a survey.

There is a wealth of evidence that demonstrates a link between inadequate nurse staffing levels and suboptimal patient care. Over the last decade, policies and legislation on safe nurse staffing levels have been developed for specific settings and countries in the UK, all of which emphasise employers' responsibility in responding to staff's concerns about unsafe staffing. However, the effectiveness of mechanisms for monitoring and responding to such concerns is unclear. This article provides an overview of some of the results of a union-led pilot survey of acute hospital staff that aimed to explore the prevalence of unsafe staffing levels and employers' responses to concerns raised by staff about staffing levels. Overall, the results demonstrate that hospital staff working in clinical roles often regarded staffing levels as unsafe and that the delivery of nursing interventions was often disrupted on shifts reported as unsafe. In addition, most staff who had raised concerns about staffing levels perceived their employer's response as unsatisfactory. Employers appeared to rely on staff redeployment or temporary staff to address staffing shortfalls, but these are not always effective or viable options. Employers need to explore alternative means of alleviating staffing shortfalls and of supporting their staff.

An Ethical Sustainability Model for the Ready-Made Garments Enterprises in Bangladesh

The primary purpose of this study is to assess the policies that affect the ethics of business and draw recommendations for an ethical and sustainable policy for the improvement of Business Sustainability in Bangladesh’s RMG sector. The RMG sector is crucial to Bangladesh’s economy, being the backbone and providing the highest export earnings. A PST (Purposive Sampling Technique) was used to collect the data by conducting self-administered surveys completed by 279 participants from 20 RMG companies situated in five different areas. The potentials and perspectives given in the feedback are practical in terms of ethics and the present tendencies in the field. The research shows a strong positive link between an ECC (Ethical Code of Conduct) and BS (Business Sustainability) (r = 0. 256) and an even more substantial correlation for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) (r = 0. 355). Ethical leadership also demonstrates a positive relationship with business sustainability (r = 0.282). Additionally, there is a weaker but still positive connection exists between BS and NG (New Governance) (r = 0. 168). Such findings highlight the importance of ethical business regulation since it can be instrumental in enhancing Bangladesh RMG firms’ sustainability. Managers, who play a critical role in this process, are particularly important in retaining experienced employees and promoting ethical practices. This study underscores the need for robust ethical frameworks to ensure the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the RMG industry in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi enterprises participating in such RMG industry must imitate sustainable studies in their operations to gain a competitive benefit in the market and develop sustainable value propositions.

Employee experiences, internal employer branding and personal initiative: the mediation effects of employee fun and growth

PurposeThis study examined the cross-level effect of internal employer branding on the employees’ personal initiative through their experiences of both growth and fun as the mediators guided in self-determination theory.Design/methodology/approachThis study developed a multi-level design and used multi-source data. Data were collected from 619 employees and 73 managers from 73 firms in Taiwan, which yielded 73 employees–organization dyads. Internal employer branding was treated as an organization-level variable and was rated by a human resources/senior manager from each firm. Employee fun, growth and personal initiative were all treated as individual variables and were rated by five to ten employees from each firm.FindingsThis study provides evidence to support both the direct and indirect positive effects of internal employer branding on existing employees’ personal initiatives through growth and fun.Practical implicationsThe findings provide practical implications for the internal employer branding and employee experience management.Originality/valueThis study addresses the effects of internal employer branding on employees’ experiences and identifies the key psychological state of growth and fun as crucial motivational mechanisms between internal employer branding and personal initiative.

The Future of Human Resources: How Technology is Shaping Workforce Management

In today's corporate world, technology is fundamentally altering HR departments. These technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), automation, and advanced data analytics, expand HR's capabilities from hiring and personnel management to performance reviews and employee engagement. This study investigates the ways in which these technologies affect personnel management and the strategic expansion of businesses. By using real-world examples and then analyzing the difficulties based on a survey of the literature, this research has brought attention to the strategic importance of implementing HR digitalization. However, despite the obstacles emerging from those paths - privacy issues, inadequacies in skill, and opposition to changes - the long-term efficiency achieved through decisionmaking and employee experience pushes the adoption of HR technology as an essential aspect of organizations. KEY WORDS: HR Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Workforce Management,Machine Learning (ML), Data Analytics, Employee Engagement, Automation

Performance Appraisal and Job Productivity of Academic Staff in Kwara State University, Malete

Academic staff are crucial and valuable assets in any institution, such that if they are properly managed, they contribute to the overall growth and success of the institution. Performance appraisal has proven to be an effective instrument that helps institutions improve employee productivity. This paper carried out a thorough examination of the relationship between performance appraisal and job productivity of academic staff in Kwara State University, Malete highlighting the different elements, processes, and results connected to this relationship. The study examined theories such as equity theory, Herzberg’s two-factor theory to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the link between performance appraisal and job productivity. The research utilized a cross-sectional survey design, integrating a quantitative approach. With a population of 430, a sample size of 207 employees was arrived at; using the Taro Yamane Formula (1967). Multiple Regression analysis was employed on the data collected. Findings revealed that performance appraisal through teaching (PAT); research; community engagement; and community development (r=0.755, p>0.05) significantly affect academic staff job productivity in Kwara State University. The study concluded that, performance appraisal through teaching (PAT); research; community engagement; community development, and job productivity are closely intertwined aspects of the employee experience. Institutions that prioritize effective performance appraisal systems can reap benefits in terms of increased employee engagement and overall performance. The study recommended among others that, to enhance job productivity among academics and researchers, institutions should focus on creating a supportive and nurturing environment, considering the well-being of academic staff alongside research productivity.

From the Personal to the Professional

International students in U.S. higher education who pursue work must balance personal and professional pressures while seeking employment. While much attention has been given to their experiences of acculturation, stress, and psychological well being, further work is needed to document experiences of seeking employment. This phenomenological study utilized semi-structured interviews to explore international students’ experiences of personal growth and change, economic pressures, and seeking employment in the US. The results indicate that international students share many of the same experiences of personal change of their domestic counterparts while simultaneously navigating a new cultural context, deal with differing levels and a variety of sources of economic pressure, and navigate barriers to their employment search rooted in the lack of clear information, misaligned support resources, personal shortcomings, employer perceptions, and visa restrictions.

High Efficiency Irrigation System and Socio-Economic Development for the Farmers of Pakistan

This study examine the factors in the adoption of high-efficiency irrigation system (HEIS) for socio-economic development in southern Punjab, Pakistan. Multi-stage sampling is used to select the sample of 400 farmers (200 HEIS adopters and 200 non-adopters) from major districts of south Punjab. The results demonstrated that determinants including average landholding, age, education and awareness of HEIS all had a significant impact on the adoption of HEIS. The adoption rate of HEIS was also found to be impacted by energy crises, operational and maintenance issues, high installation prices and a lack of experienced employees. A higher proportion of participants strongly believed that HEIS might increase agricultural productivity while simultaneously saving water for future use. Additionally, respondents believed that shifting HEIS to high-value crops improves social status, particularly in rural areas. BCR values for wheat, guava and citrus using SI and DI were found to be larger than 1. The SI system NPV values for the wheat crop ranged from Rs. 248034 to Rs. 463191. Similarly, the results are consistent for DI for guava and citrus orchards (BCR > 1 and NPV positive values demonstrate that HEIS project is more economically feasible and viable than TI). Moreover, the benefit-cost ratio demonstrated that, when compared to conventional irrigated growers, the yield and net benefit due to HEIS of a variety of crops, including citrus, wheat, and guava, improved significantly to 48.48%, 70%, 44.83%, 102%, 178% and 107%, respectively. Water productivity of HEIS-irrigated wheat, guava and citrus were calculated as 1.2, 2.6 and 2.5 kg/m3, respectively and increased highly significantly than TI. The findings suggested that government initiatives should focus to enhance adoption rate of HEIS. This could be accomplished by providing modest subsidized HEIS and imparting awareness to farmers about the socioeconomic benefits of HEIS.. KEYWORDS :Agriculture, Cost-benefit, HEIS, Socio-economic development, Sustainable, Water productivity, NPV.

Driving Employee Engagement through HR Automation

This article explores how human resources can leverage automation to drive employee engagement. Drawing on both scholarly research and practical industry examples, the article outlines the key benefits of HR automation, including its ability to streamline administrative processes, enhance the employee experience, and free up HR professionals to focus on more strategic, engagement-driven initiatives. The articles covers specific use cases where automation can have the greatest impact, such as onboarding, performance management, learning and development, and HR service delivery. It also addresses the common barriers to implementing HR automation and provides strategies for overcoming them through effective change management. Finally, the brief examines the future of HR automation and its potential to transform employee engagement through emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and predictive analytics. The aim is to provide HR practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of how to harness the power of automation to cultivate a more engaged and productive workforce.

Ethical implications of employee and customer digital footprint: SMEs perspective

In a world where Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) increasingly leverage their Digital Footprint (DF) for business growth, ethical concerns surrounding employee and customer DF pose a significant challenge. This research investigates how SMEs can navigate this complex landscape, balancing the creation of business value with the broader social value of managing data. Drawing upon Kantian ethics, which emphasizes the duties of organizations to respect individuals’ autonomy and protect their rights, the study addresses a critical gap in understanding the ethical implications of DF for business value creation and employee experiences. Using a social constructivist approach, the research reveals the importance of DF awareness and proposes a novel conceptualization of DF as a dual entity: (i) an independent actor influencing consumer decisions and (ii) a collaborative activity within and beyond the organization. This broadens the traditional view of DF and informs a new framework for ethical DF management in SMEs. This framework emphasizes four core pillars – data transparency, data protection, data privacy, and data transformation – supported by stakeholder involvement. The study also highlights overarching factors three key actions and DF strategic implications at the end.

Review of Smart Office Assistant

AI is playing major role in every field now a days and have become widely accepted in our society than traditional methods. The Smart Office Assistant is an intelligent system made to automate office environment in which employee attendance tracking and visitor management in offices can be done. Using web cam face recognition is done for people entering the office, for employees greeting is done by calling the name also their check in time and attendance is marked. For unrecognized faces it acts as a smart receptionist, which can handle appointment bookings and provide general office information for unfamiliar visitors through a chatbot interface. The Smart Office Assistant is for offices of all sizes and of various fields. Automating the office enhances the overall workplace experience, ensuring secure and efficient interactions for both employees and visitors. It takes more time for employees to manually sign in. Also visitors can easily book meetings or get information without anyone’s help using this technology. It helps to reduce administrative workload and staff can focus on more important tasks. To conduct this literature review of papers, we narrowed down the following areas relating AI-driven Smart Office Assistants; face recognition for attendance, Chatbot systems for visitor, integration of Artificial Intelligence in offices. The following databases were used: IEEE Xplore and Google Scholar; keywords included “AI office automation,” “face recognition attendance,” and “chatbot visitor management.”

With Fear, Favor, and Flawed Analysis: Decision-Making in U.S. Immigration Courts

Immigration judges (IJs), housed within the Executive Office for Immigration Review within the Department of Justice (DOJ), make decisions in asylum and withholding claims, which are life or death matters. And although their title is “judge,” IJs are DOJ attorneys who lack independence and are particularly susceptible to political pressures. Federal court judges and scholars alike have criticized the quality and fairness of IJ decision-making, and many studies have been carried out to better understand the factors that impact it. The prior studies have relied principally on quantitative data because IJ decisions are not publicly available or searchable in any existing database. The authors of this study had unprecedented access to more than five hundred IJ decisions, allowing for both a quantitative and qualitative analysis. Our findings were consistent with other studies in noting that IJ experience and gender made a difference in case outcomes, with male IJs and IJs with enforcement backgrounds denying protection at higher rates. We were able to identify other significant trends as well, including that the most common reasons why IJs denied protection to credible asylum seekers were their findings that they failed to meet the extremely stringent requirements of two elements of the refugee definition—elements which arguably are overly restrictive and inconsistent with international norms. We also observed patterns of incompetence and bias among these decisions. This Article recommends several policy reforms to address the shortcomings we identify, among them: (1) the creation of Article I immigration courts, (2) improvement of IJ competence through more stringent hiring standards and continuing education, (3) increased diversity of IJs based on employment experience, (4) reduced deference to the Board of Immigration Appeals in reviewing cases, and (5) allocating additional resources to immigration adjudication.

Clinical decision making and moral distress among intensive care units nurses in Iran

BackgroundIntensive care units are often presented as environments where ethical issues are common and decisions can determine the life or death of patients, and these units have unique challenges due to critical health care. In these units, the relationship between the medical team and the patient’s relatives, their refusal of treatment, informed consent causes the nurses to have conflict in their decision making, therefore, this study aims to determine the level of clinical decision-making and moral distress and the relationship between them in intensive care units nurses.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted with a descriptive-analytical approach in 2023 in Gorgan city. The number of 198 nurses in the intensive care units of Gonbad Kavos hospitals in the north of Iran were investigated and evaluated using the Corley Moral Distress questionnaire (2002), and Laurie’s Clinical Decision questionnaire (2001) in 2023. Independent T-test and anova analysis of variance were used for bivariate analysis. The significance level in this study was considered 0.05.ResultsThe results of the study showed that the mean and standard deviation of clinical decision making was 60.98 ± 10.25 (analytical-systematic level) and moral distress was 92.2 ± 23.61 (moderate level). There was a statistically significant relationship between clinical decision-making and nurses’ moral distress (P < 0.001 and r = 0.370). The moral distress score had a statistically significant relationship with marriage, employment status, education level, age, work experience and duration of employment in the special department. Also, the clinical decision score had a statistically significant relationship with employment status, education level, age and work experience.ConclusionAccording to these results, it seems that more attention should be paid to the moral distress of nurses in intensive care units, and it is necessary to improve their decision-making towards intuitive interpretation, which is done by designing and compiling training programs and workshops for nurses can be done, so that we can provide optimal nursing services to the patients of this department.

Understanding the landscape: assistive technology and work challenges for people with disabilities in Saudi Arabia

Barriers, such as inadequate accessibility and accommodation, may impede employment access and progression for people with disabilities (PwDs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This study examined how assistive technology (AT) utilization influences the employment experiences of PwDs in KSA. We explored AT types in use and whether gender, age, and disability type shape AT effectiveness. We sought to identify challenges hindering AT adoption, and effectiveness in workplaces. We explored potential remedies through government and corporate actions. A qualitative case-report study was conducted with 13 PwDs (10 males, 3 females; age range, 26‒47 years) of varying occupations. Diverse disabilities were represented: cognitive impairment, speech impairment, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), visual impairment, mobility impairment, hearing impairment, learning disability, dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), physical impairment, and anxiety disorder. Individual interviews were conducted in Arabic with open-ended questions addressing employment opportunities, work challenges, the importance of employment, and employment-related factors. Mixed descriptive and inductive methods were used to identify themes. The participants also completed a 21-item Likert-type standardized exploratory questionnaire. The findings indicated that workplace inclusivity of PwDs and widespread AT adoption in KSA are hindered by a lack of awareness, stigma, accommodation costs, limitations of technical compatibility or lack of standardization, and inadequate AT training and technical support. Greater disability inclusion support in workplace environments, with tailored assistance and comprehensive accessibility measures, is needed in KSA. Companies should pursue accommodation individualization and actions aimed at improving awareness and reducing stigma. Governments should pursue legislation that supports AT adoption and awareness campaigns.

The usefulness of intellectual property rights in selected areas of museum activity

ABSTRACT As intangible resources, intellectual property rights are difficult to measure. The search for ways to measure and research them and their impact on the current activities of nonprofit organizations such as museums is important because it translates into the effectiveness of the institution’s cooperation with the environment and the stabilization of the organization over time. I aimed to identify the usefulness of intellectual property rights in the context of three main areas of museum activity: heritage collection and preservation, research and education, and sharing and access to heritage. To achieve the goal, I conducted empirical research among museum employees from Poland and other European countries, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Canada. A total of 190 respondents completed the survey. I determined the usefulness of intangible resources not by the characteristics of these resources, but by the key areas of museum activity resulting from the ICOM definition. Research results indicated that the most useful intellectual property rights were copyrights to collections. In selected areas, rights to employee works, databases, and know-how, namely implicit specialized knowledge resulting from employee experience, were also useful.

Implementing high-performance work systems: dynamics of professionalisation in a promoter-driven organisation

Purpose Recent literature on high-performance work systems (HPWS) has questioned the universal success of HPWS and highlighted the need to examine contextual factors and micro-level employee experiences. To address this issue, this study aimed to explore the dynamics of HPWS implementation. Using the case of an Indian public-limited pharmaceutical company transitioning towards professionalisation, it examined the inconsistencies between the intended, enacted and perceived HPWS practices. Design/methodology/approach This study used a case study approach, drawing on multiple data sources, including surveys, interviews with various stakeholders, observations, documents and reports. Quantitative data was gathered through job satisfaction and organisational culture surveys completed by 888 employees. The qualitative interview data was analysed deductively, with themes derived from the existing HPWS literature. Findings The analysis revealed the organisation’s struggle in integrating professionally oriented HPWS practices within its promoter-driven bureaucratic culture. Employees reported a lack of autonomy, poor communication and inequitable opportunities for training and promotion. These cultural misalignments undermined the effectiveness of HPWS, leading to perceptions of exploitation, decreased job satisfaction and reduced trust in management. The findings highlight that HPWS practices cannot be implemented in parts without holistically considering the organisational context and culture. Practical implications The study offers practical guidance to organisations on implementing HPWS effectively. It emphasises the importance of continuously integrating employee feedback into HPWS practices to ensure sustainable performance improvements. Originality/value This study addresses a critical gap in HPWS literature by offering a post-implementation analysis focused on employee experiences within a traditional family firm. It highlights the systemic challenges that hinder the effectiveness of HPWS in practice.

A Kantian Theory of Employment, or How Domestic Right Structures Contemporary Work: A Reply to Williams

This article shows how Kant’s framework of domestic right can be understood as a model for modern employment law, a suggestion made by Garrath Williams in a commentary on Kant’s Theory of Labour. I begin by exploring how Kant’s historical context informed his account of labor relations and argue that he made three key innovations: the theorization of domestic right, the linkage of work and political standing, and the development of contract right to make sense of the material dependency and formal equality of “free” contract workers. This account of contract-based work, however, sketches a dangerous “fantasy” of free contract that we see echoed in contemporary defenses of the gig economy. I show that this argument is central to understanding Kant’s evolving conception of the relationship between labor and citizenship, but I defend the claim that modern employment resembles domestic right more closely than contract right, by attending to both the formal structures of modern employment law and the lived experiences of professional employment in the digital age. Finally, I explore how drawing on the domestic model for understanding modern employment can help us to see the limits of both Kantian and contemporary accounts of the public good, by highlighting the ways that public law is deployed to formalize asymmetrical relations of dependence, to check their capacity for exploitation and domination. In so doing, public law acts to limit the scope of the state’s responsibility for both the formal and material conditions of equality, freedom, and flourishing, enforcing conditions in which citizens must rely on private employers for goods like health insurance, sick leave, and a minimum income.