Today's Workforce Research Articles

Bahraini and Non‑Bahraini Women in Bahrain’s Workforce

This paper describes the parallel entry of Bahraini and non‑Bahraini women into the workforce and explores the intersections of gender, work and nationality in Bahrain, as well as local variations in the globalizing work force. The research provides both a sociocultural and historical contextualization to women’s entry into the workforce. The patterns of gender and nationality characterizing Bahrain’s workforce today are to be situated within an economic and social framework which has undergone many changes since the early 20th century. Now, within a context where Bahraini women are encouraged and motivated to seek employment, does the employment of foreign women help or hinder their entry into the work force? And in a cultural context where certain occupations have long been viewed as unsuitable for women, does foreign women employing impact cultural perceptions of these jobs? These questions are asked of occupations in which relatively large numbers of women work, namely education, hospitality, retail and household work.

Digital Discernment: An E‐Commerce Web Site Evaluation Tool

ABSTRACTStudents entering the business workforce today may well share some responsibility for developing, revising, or evaluating their company's Web site. They may lack the experience, however, to critique their employer's Web presence effectively. The purpose of developing Digital Discernment, an e‐commerce Web site evaluation tool, was to prepare students for this work. The tool provides them with a listing of criteria with which to assess e‐commerce sites, lets them evaluate pre‐selected sites qualitatively and quantitatively, and allows them to compare their evaluations with their peers. In this article, we discuss and examine the effectiveness of this tool and consider the ways in which it can help students in their future business careers.

A career story approach to management, business, and financial occupations

Business, management, and financial occupations are found in organizations in which individuals direct activities and perform tasks related to business and finance. The career cluster includes 144 occupational titles across 57% of the 23 major Standard Occupational Classification groups, with almost half of the occupations considered “bright outlook” and 21% in the “green economy.” However, individuals seeking employment in these areas are not immune from the economic downturn in the United States and abroad. The storied approach (Brott, 2001) is presented in a case study that embraces the client's subjective goal in taking control and finding a place in today's workforce.

The Next Frontier in Making Disciples: 21st-Century Technology Use in CCCU Member Institutions

An unprecedented opportunity exists for Christian colleges and universities to utilize 21st-century technology and the impact of globalization to broaden the use of distance learning for missional purposes through their educational offerings. Some institutions offer open education that allows those with Internet access to take courses at no cost online without earning credits. A more open approach by Christian colleges and universities to providing educational resources via electronic means can better equip Christians from around the world while also serving students, alumni, and other lifelong learners who seek to remain relevant in today's workforce. Few member institutions of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities have availed themselves of free access through Apple, Inc.'s iTunes U to provide content, particularly their theological or biblical curriculum, on the Internet. Christian colleges and universities may expand distance learning to include open education as a free, viable, missional approach to the world.

Managing and motivating today's contact‐center workforce

Managing and motivating today's contact‐center workforce

Why me? Bullying and the answer to an age-old problem

Why me? Bullying and the answer to an age-old problem

Integrating Cross-Cultural Marketing Research Training in International Business Education Programs: It's Time, and Here's Why and How

International business necessitates that its international business educators prepare today's workforce with skills necessary to take on cross-cultural research tasks and challenges. Yet, global business finds these skills in short supply. Perhaps this is the case because empirical evidence shows U.S. academic coverage of cross-cultural research complexities are severely limited as measured by text coverage. Slightly lagging behind international business and marketing programs located outside the United States in recognizing and acting on this this need, many U.S. programs now seek to enhance cross-cultural coverage. However, empirical evidences show that U.S.-based programs and the textbooks they use are lagging behind in their treatment of cross-cultural marketing research. Coverage in these texts is typically limited to a single chapter that repeats basic research concepts usually covered in principles of marketing courses. This article discusses a customized international marketing research course integrated with training that includes cross-cultural research issues and complexities and provides a framework of criteria useful in selecting an appropriate text.

How Efforts to Develop the Experts and Manpower Professional in Indonesia

Development experts and skilled professionals in Indonesia is still needed today. This paper highlights the development efforts of experts and professionals in the Indonesia's executive power, as well as scientific studies which could give input for the government or educational institutions and industry. The approach used in this paper is library study by exploring the relevant references to the topic, and performed descriptive analysis. Institutions, such as universities and secondary vocational schools, are expected to produce skilled professionals with specific competence requirements. It is expected the government to prioritize opportunities to those less educated to follow a course skills, because they are the largest part of today's workforce. The weakness today is still a lot of educational institutions that do not have adequate infrastructure according to the requirements specified. The important conclusion is that the government is expected to give impetus and greater responsibility for higher education institutions, vocational schools and training centers and courses of work skills. In addition to the certification body to work more effectively because many Indonesian workers within and outside the country who do not yet have certification.

Working without commitments: the health effects of precarious employment

From the end of the Second World War to the early 1980s, the North American norm was that men had full-time jobs, earned a wage, and expected to stay with the same employer for life. In households with children, most women were unpaid caregivers. This situation began to change in the mid-1970s as two-earner households became commonplace, with women entering employment through temporary and part-time jobs. Since the 1980s, less permanent precarious employment has increasingly become the norm for all workers. Working Without Commitments offers a new understanding of the social and health impacts of this change in the modern workplace, where outsourcing, limited term contracts, and the elimination of pensions and health benefits have become the new standard. Using information from interviews and surveys with workers in less permanent employment, the authors show how precarious employment affects the health of workers, labour productivity, and the sustainability of the traditional family model. A timely and relevant work for uncertain economic times, Working Without Commitments provides helpful information for understanding the present workplace and securing better futures for today's workforce.

The impact of generational differences on the workplace

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore workplace implications of the changing workforce demographic.Design/methodology/approachThe author identifies the different generations in today's workforce. The workplace expectations of the different generations are explored.FindingsCorporate real estate (CRE) managers need to establish the different needs of the different generations. In addition, the CRE manager needs to create an environment that allows all generations to coexist in the same workplace.Practical implicationsCRE managers can use the information to assist in alignment of their workplace to the different generational expectations of the workforce.Originality/valueThe paper fills a void by evaluating office occupiers' workplace preferences based on age.

Enhancing facilities management through generational awareness

PurposeFacilities management centers on the triad of people, process, and place, but the element of people is incomplete without recognition and consideration of the different generations that make up today's workforce and the differences between these groups. The purpose of this article is to suggest that facilities managers should take advantage of available current information on generational differences, in order to maximize their ability to manage people and knowledge.Design/methodology/approachThis article presents pertinent findings from a recent pilot study that surveyed 55 facilities management professionals from the mid‐Western USA, presents a brief overview of current knowledge relating to generational differences, and highlights the relevance of such knowledge to effective facilities management.FindingsAlmost one quarter of the respondents to the pilot study did not agree that knowledge of generational differences was important, while about half of the respondents only somewhat agreed that it was important. However, a survey of relevant literature suggests that successful management of generational differences in the workplace has the potential to improve the efficiency and viability of an enterprise, including facilitating knowledge management.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study is limited by its small sample size. Additional research is needed to further examine the value facilities managers place on generational knowledge and the relationship between facilities management and knowledge management.Originality/valueThe current paucity of information regarding the relationship between generational differences, facilities management, and knowledge management makes studies like this one relevant and valuable to facilities managers operating in a workplace with unprecedented generational diversity and an increasingly knowledge‐driven economy.

Tune in to What the New Generation of Teachers Can Do

The changing demographic in today's teaching workforce has consequences for how teachers relate to each other and how they will shape the culture of the profession.

Maquiladoras: An Important Asset For Mexicos Economy

Maquiladoras are foreign-owned companies located for the most part along the California and Texas border in Mexico. Because of particular customs treatments, very low wages compared to wages in the United States, and the geographic proximity to the United States, maquiladoras represent a strong attraction for American investors and corporations. Maquiladoras are also an important asset for the Mexican economy and are accountable for about 45% of Mexicos total exports. Finally, maquiladoras are an important source of job opportunities for the Mexican workforce today and in the future.

Multigenerational and virtual: How do we build a mentoring program for today's workforce?

This article looks at virtual mentoring programs through a lens of generational differences, technological preferences, and communication styles. Best practices are framed to address the need to prepare the incoming millennials to lead the workforce as baby boomers exit. After a review of the literature, ideas are culled to apply the theory to a virtual mentoring program. Special attention is paid the concept of virtual mentoring based on lack of collocation of modern teams.

Core competencies for leading today's workforce

Core competencies for leading today's workforce

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY LITERACY: WHAT DO BUSINESSES EXPECT AND WHAT DO BUSINESS SCHOOLS TEACH?

ABSTRACTToday's information and communications technology (ICT) provides unprecedented amounts of information to organizations and their employees. This overabundance challenges workers, placing an increasing premium on skills of sifting through information of sometimes dubious quality, integrating information critically, and producing well‐reasoned conclusions. This paper explores the hypothesis that employers want new hires skilled in ICT literacy, which includes navigating information effectively and using technology efficiently. Based on an ICT literacy framework for higher education, two surveys were created to assess the opinions of human resources (HR) consultants and business school faculty. HR consultants endorsed practically all elements of the framework as being important or essential for new hires. Especially valued were skills associated with information security, confidentiality, and ethical behavior. However, business school faculty did not report a corresponding focus on ICT literacy generally, or ethical/legal issues in particular, in their instruction. The results suggest that while ICT literacy does indeed appear to be among the key skills for today's workforce, much work must still be done to integrate these skills throughout the business school undergraduate curriculum.

Recasting Title IX: Addressing Gender Equity in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Professoriate

Questions of gender equity and the underrepresentation of women in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professoriate in U.S. institutions of higher education have become central issues in debates on the role and makeup of the STEM workforce in today's innovation-driven economy. In response, policy makers, advocacy groups, academics, and other stakeholders have called for the dedicated enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as a tool for combating gender inequities in the academic workforce. Although previously applied primarily to gender bias in athletic programs and participation, Title IX was created to address myriad aspects of gender equity in educational institutions and, as such, currently is being invoked in the realm of STEM academic employment. Accordingly, we analyze Title IX relative to categories of potential regulatory development in light of the policy environment and related dynamics. Providing an historical overview of Title IX and its associated regulations as background, we characterize and delineate its relevance to gender disparities in the STEM professoriate, identifying areas for policy consideration and future application.

Trends and Strategies in Recruiting and Retaining Talent

Talent & Technology The upstream oil and gas industry faces unique issues and challenges in today's changing global economy. Despite the recent downturn, multinational companies still will need to augment staff and expand the technology used in critical areas of the world to meet the growing needs of energy hungry countries. These companies face a number of challenges in meeting the human capital demands needed to meet the heightened demand throughout the world. These unique challenges include attracting highly skilled employees to sometimes remote locations with extreme weather conditions and retaining these employees as competing companies seek to relocate top talent to new regions requiring similar skills. In addition, the shifting workforce will create additional strains in meeting staffing requirements. As other sectors have seen, senior level workforce personnel in the baby boomer generation are beginning to retire and vacate high-level positions that require experience and specific expertise. This workforce adjustment will mandate that younger employees quickly learn skills and gain the necessary experience to maintain production quality as highly experienced employees retire. Trends in Recruitment Companies that will need to attract and recruit employees in the future will need to implement new strategies and tactics to address the immediate as well as long-term needs of reaching a targeted group of prospective employees. For instance, today's workforce is looking for more than a just a job. Younger job candidates are much more interested in creating solutions to daily challenges, working with new science and technology, and in seeking career growth and development. These individuals choose a career path on the forefront of innovation and find immense job satisfaction being a part of this. Therefore, employers must also "sell" the position to a prospective hire during the recruitment and interview process. Companies must start by looking internally to identify what makes a successful employee. An understanding of the motivation for the best workers will help to create a picture for what to look for when hiring. This will include what attracted this employee to the company, what makes him/her successful in the organization, as well as the factors that cause this person to stay with the company. Applying this information to the company's business model of retaining and strengthening the current workforce will create a solid foundation.

A Labor Law for the Digital Era

Key words laborlaw.employmentlaw.digitaleraThere is a serious problem with the labor and employment law system in the United Statestoday. Unions have declined to the point where they represent less than 8% of the privatesector workforce, employee wages have stagnated for more than three decades, employersare cutting back on workers’ health insurance and pensions, and there is a dramatic growthin the numbers of the working poor. At the same time, there has been a rising chorus ofcomplaints from labor scholars that the labor law has become “ossified” (Estlund 2002),that the law is failing to offer meaningful worker protection (Summers 1988; Gottesman1993), that the courts and Labor Board have abandoned the “core values of labor law”(Dannin and Bonior 2006), and that Congress has defunded the labor protective agenciessuch as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration (OSHA) and the Hour and Wage Division that administers the Fair LaborStandards Act (FLSA) (Dannin 2004; Brudney et al. 1999; McGarity and Shapiro 1996).Indeed, some have contended that during the past two decades, there has been a passiverepeal of the employment statutes (Hiatt and Becker 2005; Brudney 1996; Dannin andBonior 2006; Stone 1992).There is a reason that the field of labor and employment law has declined. Work itselfhas not declined in importance—it remains a central part of individual identity and aprominent aspect of social life, but the labor and employment laws do not address theconcerns or vulnerabilities of the majority of the workforce today. Instead, the regulatoryframework governing the workplace is becoming irrelevant.

Concept Mapping

Graduate nurses entering the workforce today are, at times, lacking in the area of critical thinking. Giving graduate nurses a concept map would provide a tool to guide their critical thinking until it becomes inherent or second nature. The concept map, a graphic illustration of key points, guides the focus of patient problems using a body system approach. This article details the use of a concept map in the application of knowledge to practice.