First-year Management Research Articles

Improving Vocational and Technical Education: Comparing Flipped and Traditional Classrooms’ Impact on Learning Performance in Management Courses

This essay examines the effectiveness of flipped classroom approaches in improving learning outcomes among first-year management students at Chinese vocational colleges. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study involved fifty classes with a total of 1,000 students, divided into experimental and control groups. The study aimed to evaluate how the flipped classroom model influences academic achievement, analytical, creative, and practical intelligence, as well as learning attitudes. It also investigated whether cognitive styles (visual vs. verbal orientation) moderated the relationship between teaching methods and learning outcomes. Results show that the flipped classroom significantly enhances cognitive learning achievements, analytical, creative, and practical intelligence, and fosters a more positive learning attitude compared to traditional methods. Notably, cognitive styles had a minimal impact on learning outcomes, suggesting that the benefits of flipped classrooms apply broadly across different learning preferences. This research enhances the understanding of effective pedagogical strategies in vocational education and underscores the flipped classroom’s potential to improve student learning experiences.

Scalable competitive intelligence education through micro-learning and micro-credentials

It is essential for students, both inside and outside the business school, to learn business information literacy skills to make ­evidence-based decisions. To address this need, faculty from a large public university developed a competitive intelligence digital module using micro-learning and micro-credentialing concepts designed to be scalable for use in many disciplinary areas. During the pilot, students in a first-year Management course and a senior capstone Engineering Technology course were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the content’s utility and usability. This paper presents the results of this survey to determine student perceptions and if there are any disciplinary differences.

Analyzing Grammatical Errors in Students’ Essays: the case of BBS 1st Year Management Students at Bal Kumari College

This paper attempts to assess the grammatical errors committed by bachelor first-year management students studying English as a foreign language at Bal Kumari College, Naryangarh in the year 2023. To identify the errors, every student was assigned to write an essay on “The Pros and Cons of Social Media for Students” in about 500 words within 50 minutes. 80 essays were collected through the simple random sampling method, and those essays were checked in depth. All the errors in their essays were collected, identified, classified, explained and analyzed. The results revealed that the most common grammatical errors made by the students involved subject–verb agreement, verb tenses, spellings and punctuation and the causes of the errors were due to intralingual transfer and interlingual transfer.

Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Academic Adjustment of First-Year Management Undergraduates of State Universities in Sri Lanka

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of emotional intelligence on academic adjustment of first-year Management undergraduates of State Universities in Sri Lanka. To achieve this purpose, the researcher established three basic questions. Those are to explore the existing level of Emotional Intelligence on Academic Adjustment, relationships between Emotional Intelligence and Academic Adjustment, and the impact of Emotional Intelligence on Academic Adjustment of first-year Management undergraduates of State Universities in Sri Lanka. A structured questionnaire was used as the method of data collection and a sample of 347 first-year management undergraduates in state universities were selected using a stratified sampling method, through Morgan Table. The researcher considered three state universities in Western Province, Sri Lanka: University of Kalaniya, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and University of Colombo. Quantitative research approach was used for this study. The data were analyzed using reliability analysis, validity analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analysis. The result indicated that Appraisal and Expression of Emotions, Regulation of Emotions, and Utilization of Emotion are in high level among selected respondents. Also, results indicated that emotional intelligence has a strong positive relationship with academic adjustment among first-year undergraduates of state universities in Western Province, Sri Lanka. Further, regression results reveal that Appraisal and Expression of Emotions (0.330), Regulation of Emotions (0.117), and Utilization of Emotion (0.146) significantly impact on Academic Adjustment among first-year management undergraduates of state universities in the western province, of Sri Lanka.

A Study of ESP Students' English Language Learning Beliefs, Strategies, and Academic English Achievement

This study set out to examine students' academic English competency, as well as their perspectives on the language-learning process and the methods they employ to succeed. Quantitative techniques were used in this study, including descriptive and correlational designs. The BALLI and SILL tests, as well as the final English exam scores of first-year students, were used as indicators. The research sample consisted of sixty-six first-year management students from Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multivariate correlation, and the Pearson Product Moment correlation. Motivation and expectations ranked highest (M = 3,65), followed by the nature of language learning (M = 3,35), the ability to speak a foreign language (M = 2,97), the method of learning and communication (M = 2,86), and the difficulties associated with language learning (M = 2,74). Students used metacognitive techniques (3.35 times as often as memory strategies (3.28 times), cognitive strategies (3.28 times as often as memory strategies), emotional strategies (3.24 times as often as social strategies (3.28 times as often as compensating methods (3.18 times as often as memory strategies), and so on. Beliefs and techniques were found to have a positive and indirect link with students' English academic achievement (R.035). Academic English performance correlated positively but not significantly with attitudes towards learning the language (r =.145, p 0.245 > 0.05), while it correlated negatively but significantly with strategies for learning English (r = -.144, p 0.248 > 0.05).

The Public Sector Personality: The Effects of Personality on Public Sector Interest for Men and Women

An important factor in vocational choice is whether to pursue a career in the public sector or the private sector. The perception of each sector impacts career choice, attracting individuals with certain traits. This perception-based attraction is important for public sector managers to understand what the ramifications of their branding are on recruitment, and whether it is impacting their workforce or ability to attract appropriate talent. Despite this importance, existing literature is very limited and presents contradictory findings. The present study investigated the impact of the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) on interest in public sector employment generally, as well as separately for all three levels of government (local, provincial, and federal), for men and women enrolled in a first-year management program. Extraversion was negatively related to an interest in the public sector for all three levels of government. Men and women did not differ significantly in their level of attraction to the public sector, and no statistically significant differences in personality-based interest were found between the three levels of government. An exploratory analysis of general interest in each level of government found that interest in the federal government was significantly higher than the municipal and provincial governments, although still low for all three levels of government. These results indicate potential challenges for public sector managers to attract candidates for highly social roles requiring an extraverted character.

Opportunity and the Pandemic: Re-imagining Business Management Curriculum for First-generation Students under Cover of Pandemonium

First-generation university students negotiate with clear and evident difficulty the transition from the familiarity of secondary (high school) education to tertiary (university) education. The impersonal nature of tertiary education generally—and particularly so since the pandemic advent—accentuates marginalisation of vulnerable youth and impinges on effective learning and a favourable learning experience. A more desirable state would include demystification of the processes of becoming a student-customer, firstly, and thereafter a learner-initiate. Teaching faculty, in the (necessarily virtual) classroom, serve as the user-interface with the impersonal and often impenetrable administrative and teaching dimensions of the university exosystem. The rationale is that, were the pathway from high school graduate to student-customer and learner-initiate to be less harrowing, the transition would be more composed and the journey to degree completion more gratifying. Scaffolding this rationale as a reconceptualised first-year management studies curriculum draws upon Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of learner development, and the foundations established by Vygotsky’s socio-cultural model of learning. In this frame, proximal processes arising as learner interaction with microsystem and exosystem dimensions of socio-economic and socio-cultural inheritance, can be addressed in the classroom to transcend learner disaffection. An entry-level management principles curriculum delivered to a substantial cohort in the second semester of 2021 served as object of phenomenological observation and interpretation. The student-experience pathway was emphasised as instructor-directed, student-focused and compensatory. Two foci are brought to the fore in this paper, rendering the curriculum content accessible for the student profile, and overcoming assessment helplessness and despondency. These accomplishments are elaborated as features of backwards design and emphasis on teaching and learning as social interaction with a more knowledgeable other.

Application of Kagan’s Cooperative Learning Structures to Maximize Student Engagement: An Action Research

Aims: This action research attempted to apply and evaluate the impact of Kagan’s Cooperative Learning Structures at Gedu College of Business Studies.
 Study design: Lim’s [1] Balanced Action Research Model was used in this action research as it captures wide range of action research processes and provides the researchers to validate one's actions through critical analyses and reflections. 
 Place and duration of study: The study was conducted in one college under the Royal University of Bhutan for a period of one year (2019-2020). 
 Sample: One first-year Management class was selected as the focus of this action research using purposive sampling technique. Observation and a five-point Likert scale questionnaire were used as data collection tools. There were 45 students and all of them participated in filling out the questionnaire.
 Methodology: Data were collected using observation and questionnaire. Observation data were analysed using content analysis technique. Out of two general categories of content analysis (conceptual analysis and relational analysis), the researchers used conceptual analysis. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to collect data on CL structures and student engagement, its feasibility and impact. Responses from the completed questionnaires were entered into SPSS for descriptive analysis.
 Results: The findings revealed that CL structures like team builders, class builders and team cheers helped the students know their friends better, created a positive learning environment and helped in gaining and retaining students’ attention. Similarly, the findings revealed that CL structures helped in developing positive interdependence and individual accountability, ensured equal participation and encouraged simultaneous interaction in the class. In contrast, the findings revealed that small classroom size, large class strength and classroom furniture that do not support CL structures hindered the application of CL structures.
 Conclusion: In view of these findings, the researchers recommend that the college plan and come up with classrooms and furniture that support the CL structures in teaching and learning. Further, the college should bring the class strength down as per the teacher-student ratio maintained by the Royal University of Bhutan and provide training and workshops to teachers on CL structures. Finally, teachers should make use of CL structures while teaching to engage, encourage and empower the learners.

Identification and management of poor response to growth‐promoting therapy in children with short stature

Growth hormone (GH) is widely prescribed for children with short stature across a range of growth disorders. Recombinant human (rh) insulin-like growth factor-1 (rhIGF-1) therapy is approved for severe primary IGF-I deficiency - a state of severe GH resistance. Evidence is increasing for an unacceptably high rate of poor or unsatisfactory response to growth-promoting therapy (i.e. not leading to significant catch up growth) in terms of change in height standard deviation score (SDS) and height velocity (HV) in many approved indications. Consequently, there is a need to define poor response and to prevent or correct it by optimizing treatment regimens within accepted guidelines. Recognition of a poor response is an indication for action by the treating physician, either to modify the therapy or to review the primary diagnosis leading either to discontinuation or change of therapy. This review discusses the optimal investigation of the child who is a candidate for GH or IGF-1 therapy so that a diagnosis-based choice of therapy and dosage can be made. The relevant parameters in the evaluation of growth response are described together with the definitions of poor response. Prevention of poor response is addressed by discussion of strategy for first-year management with GH and IGF-1. Adherence to therapy is reviewed as is the recommended action following the identification of the poorly responding patient. The awareness, recognition and management of poor response to growth-promoting therapy will lead to better patient care, greater cost-effectiveness and increased opportunities for clinical benefit.

Cost of care of colorectal cancers according to health care patterns and stage at diagnosis in France

Little is known about the economic burden associated with colorectal cancer in France. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of age, stage at diagnosis, health care pattern and level of comorbidities on the mean cost of the management of colorectal cancers, using data from a population-based registry and the French health care system. We estimated the direct costs of medical care for 384 colorectal cancers diagnosed in 2004, using the three main databases of the National Health Insurance. The cost of management was defined as the sum of all health expenditures over the 12 months following the date of diagnosis. The mean cost for first-year management was 24,966 euro (SE 1,195 euro). There was no significant difference in overall costs in relation to sex, age, Charlson index score, cancer location or health care pattern. Costs increased significantly with cancer extension from 17,596 euro for stage I to 35,059 euro for stage IV. Hospitalisation charges represented the greatest economic burden (55.2%), followed by medical purchases (24.4%), outpatient care (17.8%) and transportation (2.5%). These results confirm the major economic burden of colorectal cancer and indicate that total costs depend mainly on the stage at diagnosis. By improving stage at diagnosis, mass screening could contribute to decreasing the cost of managing colorectal cancers.

Syllabus: First Year Management Communication 2003

This note outlines Darden's innovative first-year management-communication curriculum. It provides a model for educators who are looking for a comprehensive introduction to essential communication topics and skills in the context of an MBA program. See also Fall Outline: First-Year Management Communication (UVA-BC-0161).

Teaching Enterprise — Can it Be Done in Large Groups?

This paper reports on work carried out in the School of Management at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Following a wide-ranging review of the first-year management programme, a module on enterprise was introduced. As part of that module students had to compete in a game, the object of which was to come up with a business idea, conduct market research and present a business plan and proposal to a panel of judges. The number of students was 225 in year one but reached around 500 within five years. The module has generated many good ideas and has attracted sponsorship from commercial sources. As yet the university has been unable to take the ideas further. It is possible that enterprise can be learned by people in large numbers, but perhaps universities are not the places in which to attempt such work.

Leaders' Gender-Role as a Correlate of Subordinates' Perceptions of Effectiveness and Satisfaction

This research investigated the relationship between perceived gender-role characteristics, satisfaction with leadership, and evaluation of leadership effectiveness. Subjects were 184 students in a first-year management course at a New Zealand polytechnic. A significant positive correlation obtained between perceived feminine and masculine characteristics and satisfaction with leadership, but results were mixed for the correlation of gender-role characteristics with effectiveness. Masculinity was perceived as effective for both male and female leaders, whereas femininity was perceived as effective only when shown by male leaders. Female subordinates perceived leaders as less effective when displaying feminine gender-role characteristics.

Perceptions of Gender-Role Characteristics and Transformational and Transactional Leadership Behaviours

This research was initiated to investigate the relationship between perceived gender-role characteristics and transformational and transactional leadership. Looking at the 1985 leadership model of Bass and the gender model of Bern (1974), a combination of the measures developed in their research was used. The resulting questionnaire was administered to a sample of 153 Polytechnic students in a first-year management course. Analysis suggested significant positive correlations between perceived gender characteristics and transformational leadership and significant positive correlations between some transformational and transactional leadership behaviours. Values were of low to moderate magnitude. The results imply that to be effective, leaders must display both feminine and masculine behaviours.