Businesses

Through systematic literature synthesis (2000–2024) integrating Foucault’s disciplinary power theory, Nissenbaum’s contextual integrity framework, and job design theory, this paper develops the Autonomy-Surveillance Conceptual Framework to explain differential psychological impacts of digital workplace surveillance. The embrace of remote work has increased surveillance practices among organizations as an increased need to ensure employee productivity in remote settings appears, along with a drive to ensure data security and streamline workflows. Many employees perceive such practices as a breach of privacy, signifying employer distrust. The framework predicts that surveillance creates varying degrees of contextual integrity violation based on job autonomy: high-autonomy knowledge workers experience severe violations through trust erosion, procedural injustice, and temporal autonomy loss, while low-autonomy workers evaluate surveillance primarily through fairness criteria. This paper addresses a critical gap in existing research, which has focused on low-autonomy roles. By examining which roles are most impacted by digital surveillance, this paper seeks to highlight transparency and autonomy-sensitive policies to maximize the associated benefits of digital surveillance, while calling attention to employee well-being, trust, and organizational performance.

The informal street food sector serves as a vital component of urban economies in South Africa, providing affordable nutrition and employment. However, this industry struggles to comply with required health and safety practices and standards. This study protocol outlines a mixed-methods investigation into hygiene practices, regulatory compliance, and the intersection with business sustainability among informal food vendors in Johannesburg’s inner city. This study aims to investigate how vendors’ perceptions of health risks and benefits influence compliance behaviours and, in turn, how these behaviours impact operational efficiency, financial stability, and customer trust. Grounded in the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) framework, the research seeks to explore both behavioural drivers and performance outcomes associated with hygiene adherence. The study will employ structured stall observations, semi-structured vendor interviews, and customer surveys across high-density vending zones. Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data will be thematically analysed and triangulated with observed practices. The expected outcome is to identify key barriers and enablers of hygiene compliance and demonstrate how improved food safety practices contribute to business resilience, customer trust, and urban public health. The findings aim to inform inclusive policy and innovative business support strategies that integrate informal vendors into safer and more sustainable food systems.

Introduction: Ethical climate theory traditionally conceptualizes organizational ethics as a set of distinct normative dimensions. However, recent evidence suggests that ethical perceptions may converge into a unified climate in culturally cohesive and institutionally regulated contexts. This study aims to validate the Emirati Higher Education Institutions Ethical Climate (EHEC) scale and examine whether the ethical climate operates as a unidimensional construct within Emirati higher education institutions. Methods: A quantitative validation design was employed using survey data from 200 academic and administrative staff across three Emirati universities. Data were analyzed via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), alongside reliability and validity assessments, using IBM SPSS (Version 27) and AMOS (Version 24). Principal axis factoring without rotation was applied to examine the latent structure, followed by CFA for model fit testing and to compare alternative structures. Results: EFA revealed a single dominant factor with an eigenvalue of 11.8, explaining 47.1% of the total variance, and factor loadings ranging from 0.46 to 0.79. CFA confirmed the adequacy of the one-factor model (χ²/df = 2.31; CFI = 0.93; TLI = 0.91; RMSEA = 0.06; SRMR = 0.05). The scale demonstrated excellent reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.93; CR = 0.95) and acceptable convergent validity (AVE = 0.48). Comparative analysis showed that the unidimensional model substantially outperformed the traditional five-factor structure. Discussion: These findings indicate that the ethical climate in Emirati higher education institutions is perceived as a single, shared institutional environment rather than as separate ethical dimensions. The validated EHEC scale provides a parsimonious, reliable, and context-sensitive instrument for assessing the ethical climate, suggesting that ethical climate theory may require contextual adaptation in institutionally cohesive and collectivist settings.