Work Location Research Articles

Comparative Evaluation of the External Social Capital of Food Firms Between Respondents

Purpose: To investigate the external social capital of food firms. In addition, the comparative evaluation between respondents of genders, job positions, ages, academic standards, career seniority, and work location is one way to evaluate the external social capital of food firms. Theoretical framework: Social capital affects innovation in firms and entrepreneurship, thereby bringing solutions to difficult situations for firms, and social capital also helps firms improve their adaptability, minimize risks, maintain existing economic strength, and affect business performance. Method/design/approach: Data were collected through questionnaires sent to 200 employees of food firms, but only 156 questionnaires were suitable. SPSS was utilized for a comparative evaluation of the external social capital of food firms between respondents. Multiple statistical techniques were employed for data analysis, including SPSS via the independent t-test and ANOVA. Results and conclusion: The study's results indicate that there is no difference in assessing the external social capital of food firms between different subjects in terms of gender, academic standards, work location, job position, career seniority, and age. This study offers theoretical and practical implications for improving the external social capital of the food firms in Hanoi, thereby improving business performance. Based on this result, the study proposes some recommendations for food firms. Research implications: This research utilizes the external social capital mix concept based on prior studies in the realm of firms. Within the context of the digital transformation of the entire society, these variables are useful solutions for firms. Originality/value: The analysis of the external social capital of food firms is one of the effective solutions that contributes to improving the business performance of food firms.

When Change and Stability in Work Location Matter for Psychological Distress: A Study of Workers Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Prior research has explored the consequences of the sudden transition to remote work during the pandemic. Less is known, however, about how the mental distress of individuals who changed work locations during the pandemic differed from that of those who consistently worked from home or consistently worked on-site, nor to what extent these differences varied across worker characteristics, such as gender and caregiving obligations. This study addresses these gaps using data from the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel survey and a Stress Process Model framework. Results show that those who transitioned into working from home during the pandemic reported greater mental distress than those who consistently worked from home or on-site. This association was larger among women with school-aged children. These findings suggest that structural changes in work location during the pandemic were more strongly related to mental distress. Moreover, the finding that this distress was unevenly distributed by gender and caregiving obligations has important implications.

Career trajectory and cross‐system mobility: Career planning of doctoral students in Macao

AbstractThis study investigates career trajectory and work locations of doctoral students trained in Macao and analyses how their career paths are shaped by perceived macro‐level factors. Respondents from four applied disciplinary areas were selected for semi‐structured in‐depth interviews. Research results show that doctoral students who graduated from Macao higher education institutions enjoy good career prospects in Mainland China. Their competitiveness in the research‐related job market benefits from having a multi‐level support system and a training mode that promotes government–university–industry collaboration. Policies and demand from industrial sectors are involved in students' learning experience through channels such as financial support, project collaboration and networks. Doctoral students in Macao are strategic planners and actors in leveraging their human capital. As Macao becomes an emerging destination for cultivating high‐level research labour, findings from this study capture a model of human capital formation in China's cross‐system context.

An automated protocol for assessing career rurality outcomes of Australian health professionals using retrospective data.

Addressing the imbalance of the health workforce between metropolitan and rural areas requires a clear understanding of trends in choices of work location of health care staff. Here, we provide an automated and highly reproducible protocol to examine the location of health care workers over multiple years using medical graduates as a case study. Data linkage cohort study. The study cohort examined was University of Wollongong Medical graduates from 2010 to 2021 who were registered to practice in Australia. The main outcome measure was graduate location of practice in Modified Monash regsions MM1 or MM2-7 across multiple postgraduate years. This protocol used R Markdown. An automated and reproducible protocol was used to analyse choices of work location for the University of Wollongong's medical graduates. Over 90% of graduates were registered with AHPRA. Around 25%-30% of graduates were found to work in MM2-7 regions across their careers, exceeding the national average. The protocol presented allows for a fast and reproducible analysis of work location by region for health care workers. This will allow comparisons of outcomes between universities or health professions.

E-commerce, delivery drones and their impact on cities

E-commerce has gained importance over the last years and the COVID-19 pandemic has further strengthened this development. With the increasing opportunities that novel transport technologies such as cargo drones offer, e-commerce is likely to even become more attractive in upcoming years. This paper therefore analyses the long-run effects of increasing importance of e-commerce and, more specifically, the impact of a shift towards package delivery via drones. Using a polycentric urban spatial general equilibrium model that incorporates the different retail channels, we model the consumer’s choice between local and online shopping. In the case of online shopping, delivery takes place either via drone or via truck. Due to the equilibrium mechanisms, changes in shopping behavior potentially result in different home and work location choices or labor supply choices. The model thus allows assessing the long-run effects of e-commerce and drone delivery, also on related markets such as the markets for land, labor and goods. A numerical simulation of the model shows that each additional retail channel adds welfare and that changes in the shopping channels result in changes in location choices of households and companies.

Adoption and intensity of agricultural mechanization and their impact on non-farm employment of rural women

This study analyzes the impact of the adoption of agricultural mechanization and its intensity on the non-farm employment of rural women using the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey data. The study captures mechanization adoption as a dichotomous decision and adoption intensity using three types of farming strategies: non-mechanized, semi-mechanized, and fully-mechanized. Non-farm work is categorized based on work types (self-employment or wage employment) and work locations (local or migrated non-farm work). Both inverse probability weighting with regression adjustment (IPWRA) estimator and multivalued treatment effects (MVTE) model are utilized to address selection bias. The IPWRA estimates reveal that mechanization adoption increases the probability of rural women participating in non-farm work in general and wage employment and local and migrated non-farm work in particular. The impact is greater for unmarried women than for their married counterparts. The MVTE estimates show that relative to non-mechanized farming, the adoption of semi-or fully-mechanized farming increases the probability of rural women participating in non-farm work, wage employment, and local and migrated non-farm work, with fully-mechanized farming playing a larger role. Meanwhile, relative to semi-mechanized farming, adopting fully-mechanized farming does not have a significant impact on any type of non-farm work.

COVID-19 and Public Transport in Auckland, New Zealand: Investigating Vulnerable Population Groups’ Ridership Behavior

Public transit ridership was severely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the effects have continued since. The present study examines changes to ridership immediately post-pandemic in 2021. Research investigating the effects of COVID-19 on disadvantaged population groups is limited and the present study addresses this knowledge gap. Ridership of socially-disadvantaged groups such as low-income, female, and ethnic minority people is examined using order logit regression models. The study uses data from an online travel survey conducted in Auckland, New Zealand, immediately after all COVID-19-related restrictions were lifted. This allowed the collection of revealed preference data for the post-pandemic period. The regression models included the effects of socio-demographic characteristics of individual riders, travel attributes, and built environment factors. Findings suggest that those with lower income and from an ethnic minority group are likely to continue using transit frequently post-pandemic. Younger riders from the ethnic minority group are less likely to use transit frequently, while pre-COVID-19 they were more likely. Access to transit stops near home and work are significant factors for the ethnic minority group. Higher land use mix near the residence and work locations are found to induce more transit trips for all. It is critical for transit agencies to understand how the usage has evolved post-pandemic. These findings highlight the importance of considering the effects of the pandemic on different disadvantaged groups. Public transport service providers are encouraged to consider equity as they develop strategies to improve transit ridership.

Attitudes towards and engagement in self-directed learning among paramedics in New South Wales, Australia: a cross sectional study

BackgroundAustralian paramedics must engage in continuing professional development (CPD), including self-directed learning (SDL). This study aimed to examine paramedics’ attitudes towards training and learning activities and perceptions about what could increase engagement in self-directed CPD.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted with New South Wales Ambulance paramedics. The 48-item survey examined learning attitudes, attitudes towards SDL and socio-demographic and professional characteristics.ResultsMost of the 149 participants (19% consent rate) were male (74.5%) and worked full-time (96.5%). All participants agreed that paramedics should reflect on the quality of their practice (100%) and most were committed to undertaking learning to improve their skills and capability (95.2%). However, 26.3% of participants did not feel motivated to undertake learning and 58.9% did not feel supported. Paramedics reported neutral to modestly positive attitudes towards SDL. Most participants agreed they would be more likely to engage in SDL if they had access to training equipment at their station (91%) and dedicated time during work hours (90.4%).ConclusionParamedics are highly committed to undertaking CPD. Increased engagement may be supported by providing SDL materials at work locations and ensuring dedicated time for learning during work hours.

Learning from child welfare staff experiences during the pandemic: Practices to maintain and discontinue

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic led to multiple changes in the ways child welfare agencies operate. Child protection agencies had to make rapid changes that impacted where and how staff operate. Minimal research has examined child welfare workers' views of these practices. ObjectiveThis qualitative study seeks to understand CPS workers' perspectives regarding practices utilized during the pandemic. Staff provided input into practices they found beneficial and hope to see maintained and those they hope to see discontinued. Participants and settingThe full study involved 267 staff members from 50 agencies across Ohio; this study examines qualitative data from 100 staff members who responded to two open ended survey questions. MethodsThis qualitative study used thematic analysis to analyze two open ended questions from a survey sent to all the child welfare agencies in Ohio. ResultsThematic analysis of practices staff hoped to continue after the pandemic resulted in five themes: Nontraditional Site and Schedule, Remote Meetings, Safety Protocols, Communication and Support, and Helping Children and Families. Thematic analysis or practices staff hoped would end after the pandemic resulted in six themes: Masking, Virtual Meetings, Mandated Work Location, Unreasonable Policies, Overloading and Overwhelming Staff, and Separation from Coworkers. ConclusionsStudy results fill a gap in the research by asking CPS staff about their experiences and recommendations after practicing during COVID-19 restrictions. The most common recommendation from staff was to continue offering a nontraditional site and schedule. This study highlights the importance of soliciting and learning from staff perspectives.

Engineering method for predicting the displacement of the earth’s surface under the influence of stope workings of coal mines

The development of a sufficiently reliable forecast of the values of trough parameters on the earth’s surface and the displacement of undermined rocks using mathematical modeling methods is an urgent problem for mining. Not only the protection of objects on the earth’s surface depends on its successful solution, but also the choice of the location of mine workings and rational ways to protect them from the influence of rock pressure, the forecast of gas release from undermined sources, the occurrence of gas-dynamic phenomena, the rationale for rational ventilation schemes for excavation areas, the calculation of the bearing capacity supports and many other engineering tasks. The study is based on the use of experimental data obtained during the operation of a separate extraction area, respectively, at the first stage when the working face is removed from the split furnace and at the second stage above the working face when it is sufficiently removed from the open working. This makes it possible to obtain all the necessary experimental data for constructing a general scheme for the development of clearing operations and the formation of a trough for the displacement of the earth’s surface in two stages. On the basis of the studies carried out, it was found that the maximum subsidence of the earth’s surface above the cut working with a sufficient distance from the production face is equal to the subsidence above the production face at the stage of attenuation of the processes of displacement of undermined rocks and the earth’s surface. This gives grounds to make an assumption about the closeness of the displacement parameters of the stationary and dynamic semitroughs.

Understanding Burnout Among US Radiation Oncology Residents

Burnout is a significant concern among medical residents in the United States, including those in radiation oncology. This study aims to understand the extent of burnout among radiation oncology residents and identify modifiable factors within program structure and benefits that may help improve overall wellness and reduce burnout. A Qualtrics-based survey was administered to US radiation oncology program directors and coordinators, utilizing contact information gathered in FREIDA, with a request to forward to all residents. The survey included questions on benefits and program structure as well as the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. To date, 82 of 736 residents (11.1%) completed the survey with representation from all PGY-levels. Median participant age was 31, and 53% identified as male. 20% of surveyed residents feel emotionally drained from work a few times a week and 6% feel emotionally drained daily. 59% feel burned out from work at least a few times a month, with 6% feeling burned out daily. Despite this, 85% feel they are positively influencing other people's lives through their work at least weekly and 77% feel they have accomplished many worthwhile things in this job at least weekly. 65% have salaries between $60,000-$74,999, and 35% have the opportunity to moonlight for supplemental income. 49% have 3 weeks of vacation and 48% have 4 weeks. 27% reported their department had funded wellness events. 61% reported dual coverage rotations, with 40% requiring coverage of multiple attendings in one day. 65% reported protected academic time on all rotations, and 7% have no protected academic time. 48% of respondents have 12 months of research time. 85% and 36% of those with research and protected academic time, respectively, can complete this off-site. Respondent concerns include the job market (62%), declining personal fertility in residency (46%), and cost of living (40%). The most reported ways to decrease stress and anxiety were exercise (35%), a strong support system (34%), and spirituality (10%). Increased salary was identified as the top benefit that could improve wellness by 41 residents, while retirement matching (32), paid gym memberships (23), a personal wellness stipend (30), and free/subsidized childcare (16) were also ranked among the top 5 benefit changes that could improve wellness. Increased mid-level support (16), more protected academic time during the week (15), and flexibility with work location during academic/research time (13) were the top aspects of program structure that were reported as opportunities to improve wellness. Burnout is prevalent among US radiation oncology residents, and changes to residency programs and expanded institutional benefits are strongly perceived as the key components to improved resident wellness. This study highlights the need for further investigation into the root causes of burnout and the development of evidence-based strategies.

Australian radiation therapist's research capacity and culture: investigating the extent of assistance required to build research capacity.

Building research capacity within the radiation therapist workforce/profession is essential to guarantee research is embedded into core practices. Assessment of current capacity levels within organisation, department and individual domains needs to occur to establish a baseline and ensure research capacity building (RCB) strategies will be targeted successfully. This exploratory study aimed to identify the areas within each domain where radiation therapists would benefit from extra research assistance, that being research support and process changes, particularly in relation to the workplace and health sector. Practising radiation therapists (RTs) within Australia were recruited through professional organisations and invited to complete the online Research Capacity Culture Tool (RCCT). The survey was conducted using Qualtrics with data exported to SPSS.V27 for analysis. Descriptive statistics and the Industry Specific Item Interpretation for Policy and Strategy were used to analyse and report the results. Survey participation rate was 121/2640 (4.6%). Within the Organisation and Department domains, the most research assistance was required in infrastructure (n = 92-37) and support (n = 66-45) categories, respectively. Participants from private sector (Organisation: 42.7%, Department: 53.7%) and metropolitan centres (Organisation: 32.6%, Department: 47.5%) required a higher rate of assistance when compared to their counterparts in both categories. The individual domain showed similar levels of assistance required across health sectors and work locations. Workplaces showed similar levels of complexity of research activity; private sector (62.5%) recorded the highest level of no research activity. This study has provided insight into how the research capacity and culture of organisations and departments in which individuals' work will influence their abilities and opportunities to perform research.

How does day-to-day stress appraisal relate to coping among office workers in academia? An ecological momentary assessment study.

Existing literature indicates that academic staff experience increasing levels of work stress. This study investigated associations between day-to-day threat and challenge appraisal and day-to-day problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, and seeking social support among academic office workers. This study is based on an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) design with a 15-working day data collection period utilising our self-developed STRAW smartphone application. A total of 55 office workers from academic institutions in Belgium (n=29) and Slovenia (n=26) were included and 3665 item measurements were analysed. Participants were asked approximately every 90min about their appraisal of stressful events (experienced during the working day) and their coping styles. For data analysis, we used an unstructured covariance matrix in our linear mixed models. Challenge appraisal predicted problem-focused coping and threat appraisal predicted emotion-focused coping. Our findings suggest an association between threat appraisal as well as challenge appraisal and seeking social support. Younger and female workers chose social support more often as a coping style. While working from home, participants were less likely to seek social support. The findings of our EMA study confirm previous research on the relationship between stress appraisal and coping with stress. Participants reported seeking social support less while working from home compared to working at the office, making the work location an aspect that deserves further research.

Sea level rise already delays coastal commuters

Although the most dire societal impacts of sea-level rise (SLR) typically manifest toward the end of the 21st century, many coastal communities face challenges in the present due to recurrent tidal flooding. Few studies have documented transportation disruptions due to tidal flooding in the recent past. Here, we address this issue by combining home and work locations for approximately 500 million commuters in coastal US counties from 2002 to 2017. We find tidal flooding delays coastal commuters by approximately 22 min per year in 2015–2017, increasing to between 200 and 650 min by 2060 under various SLR scenarios. Adjustments in residential and work locations reduce the growth in commuting delays for approximately 40% of US counties. For residents in coastal counties, SLR is not a distant threat—it is already lapping at their toes.

Assessment of anxiety levels for Heathrow Airport workers after Covid-19 pandemic situation

Objectives: The worldwide spreading of Covid-19 and the serious side effects associated with have pushed the scientist to study the several challenges produced after the end of the pandemic. Emotional health problems that airport workers have progressed after Covid-19 especially due to the high contact with people from different nationalities. The purpose of this research was to examine the level of anxiety of the selected population in the association with several factors like gender, age, and other demographical factors. Materials and methods: A 214 workers from Heathrow airport with 113 females and 101 males and with age range 20–50 were selected to the study. Different demographical factors were examined to see its relation with anxiety levels that resulted from Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS). SPSS 28x was used to perform different statistical analysis test on the collected data. Results: Gender, experience, salary, and education were found to affect the level of anxiety significantly with a P-value lower or equal to 0.05 at confidence interval of 95%. Males were found to exert higher percentage of anxiety symptoms when compared with female. While salary above or lower than 30000$ was found to have a similar percentages and effect. On the other hand, experience played an important role to reduce anxiety, while education have increased the risk of anxiety. Conclusion: Different authorities and work locations including airports should be taking in consideration the anxiety after the end of Covid-19 pandemic to reduce the serious clinical outcomes associated with anxiety.

The relationship between sleep quality, work and residential location and bedroom environment in Hong Kong

The relationship between sleep quality, work and residential location and bedroom environment in Hong Kong

The association between work and residential location and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

The association between work and residential location and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

Effect of Socio-economic Aspects on Women Work Force Participation Level in West Bengal, India

The participation of women in the workforce is crucial for the growth and development of an economy. Women contribute a significant portion of the total workforce, accounting for forty per cent. In rural India, the participation of women in the workforce is an important factor in bringing about social change. This has had a positive impact on women's empowerment and financial inclusion, as well as the overall living standards of their families. However, due to differences in cultural norms, the acceptability of women's working status varies across different regions in India. To shed light on this issue, the present study has been conducted in West Bengal state of India. Considering the regions defined by the NSSO, the study focused on five districts, one from each region, and interviewed 400 women engaged in economic activities. The results revealed that there are significant differences in livelihood opportunities across the regions. Education level is found to be a key factor in determining occupational status, job satisfaction, and decision-making power. Moreover, service is the most acceptable working status for family members of respondents. However, the study also finds that long working hours and location of work have significant impact on the acceptance level of women's working status. Socio-cultural issues are the major predictors of women's working status. To increase women's participation in the workforce and improve their working status, it is important to provide diversified working opportunities, develop need-based skills, and increase social awareness.

The perils of pre-filling: Lessons from the UK’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earning microdata

The role of the National Statistical Institution (NSI) is changing, with many now making microdata available to researchers through secure research environments This provides NSIs with an opportunity to benefit from the methodological input from researchers who challenge the data in new ways This article uses the United Kingdom’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) to illustrate the point We study whether the use of prefilled forms in ASHE may create inaccurate values in one of the key fields, workplace location, despite there being no direct evidence of it in the data supplied to researchers. We link surveys to examine the hypothesis that employees working for multi-site employers making an ASHE survey submission are more likely to have their work location incorrectly recorded as the respondent fails to correct the work location variable that has been pre-filled. In the short-term, suggestions are made to improve the quality of ASHE microdata, while longer-term we suggest that the burden of collecting additional data could be offset through greater use of electronic data capture. More generally, in a time when statistical budgets are under pressure, this study encourages NSIs to make greater use of the microdata research community to help inform statistical developments.

Rancang Bangun Alat Pengisian Laddle Nikel Matte Otomatis dengan Sensor HC- SR 04 dan Buzzer Menggunakan Mikrokontroller Atmega

As we already know that the majority of work accidents in mining in Indonesia are fatal. Advances in technology and shifting work practices can increase the number of work accidents due to a lack of understanding of workers at work locations. As a result, we need tools that can reduce the number of work accidents and the number of deaths due to work accidents. Microcontrollers are now very widely used because they are very useful and very helpful in solving problems. Microcontrollers are widely used in everyday life, for example traffic lights. Therefore, the author has the idea to create an automatic tool based on the Atmega microcontroller using the Research and Development (R&D) method. The design of this tool uses the Arduino Atmega microcontroller as a controller and the HC-SR04 sensor to detect the fill level in the laddle and a servo motor to open and close the filling valve. With this tool, it can overcome the problems of the mining industry in the form of human labor in very dangerous areas in the mining industry. The results of this study are that this tool is capable of filling, lifting, carrying and pouring matte nickel laddles automatically.