Search Results (793)

This study examines how the resource configurations of early-stage startups are associated with intellectual property (IP) management capability. To achieve this objective, a dual analytical framework integrating hierarchical regression analysis (OLS) with machine learning techniques (XGBoost and SHAP) is employed. Because conventional linear models may not capture complex associations, the analysis also explores potential nonlinear patterns among key variables, which are interpreted as exploratory, model-based tendencies rather than as causal or temporal effects. The empirical findings reveal several important insights. First, the results of the linear regression analysis indicate that the main effects of simple quantitative indicators—such as firm age and organizational size—are not statistically significant. The interaction between the startup period and pre-startup education (H1) is the only relationship to approach statistical significance, although it is borderline and not robust to alternative variable coding. This pattern suggests that IP management capability is associated not with the quantity of inputs but with the preparedness of the entrepreneur’s knowledge resources. Second, the explainable artificial intelligence (XAI)-based analysis surfaces nonlinear patterns that are not captured by conventional linear models. Specifically, the model-estimated contribution of entrepreneurial education is comparatively small among firms in their first two years and larger among firms around the third year, and the model-estimated contribution of organizational size diminishes once the firm reaches roughly thirty employees. These inflections are model-based tendencies observed in SHAP dependence plots and are corroborated by formal segmented (breakpoint) regressions (spline terms p = 0.010 and p = 0.002). Methodologically, the study shows how integrating hierarchical regression with explainable machine learning (XGBoost and SHAP) can reveal nonlinear and threshold patterns that conventional linear models overlook. Building on this, it proposes resource latency as an interpretive lens, rather than an established construct, for age-related patterns in startup resource utilization, to be examined in future longitudinal research. From a practical perspective, the findings suggest the value of sustained support during the early scale-up period and of more systematic management structures as firms grow, while recognizing that these patterns are cross-sectional associations. Full article

Career growth path planning is still dominated by statistical association models that summarize historical transitions but do not explicitly represent the causal mechanisms linking capability development, project exposure, policy support, performance improvement, and promotion outcomes. This study develops a reproducible simulation benchmark for evaluating whether prompt-structured priors, when coupled with dual validation, can help assemble intervention-ready career causal graphs. A structural causal model (SCM) first generated 20,000 synthetic career trajectories with known ground-truth dependencies among ten variables, including education, experience, training hours, certification, project exposure, performance, and promotion. Four prompt families-zero-shot, few-shot, Chain-of-Thought (CoT), and CoT plus schema constraints-were instantiated through a controlled prompt-response emulator so that prompt structure could be studied independently of vendor-specific model drift. The emulator gradients should therefore be read as literature-informed design assumptions about structured prompting rather than as empirical measurements from any named production LLM. Candidate edges were subsequently refined by data validation and expert-proxy domain rules. In the main 30-run benchmark, the best prompt-only setting (CoT plus schema) achieved an F1-score of 0.842, while the proposed hybrid method achieved an F1-score of 0.959 and an intervention-effect mean absolute error of 0.0046. Run-wise confidence intervals and approximate significance checks further indicated that the hybrid workflow materially outperformed the prompt-only variants under the benchmark protocol. A public employee-promotion dataset (N= 54,808) was further used as an external plausibility anchor, where KPI attainment, awards, previous ratings, training score, and length of service were all positively associated with promotion. The results indicate that prompt-structured priors can be useful as a transparent proposal-and-validation mechanism, but not as a substitute for direct validation on real LLMs, matched comparisons with standard causal-discovery baselines, or real HR deployment settings. Accordingly, the central aim is a domain-specific methodological benchmark for testing prompt-structured proposal mechanisms in career-growth causal modeling, rather than a claim of standalone LLM causal discovery or a universal benchmark for every causal-discovery setting. Full article

Background/Objectives: Retention of healthcare professionals in the workforce, their employment, and the improvement of working conditions largely depend on identifying the factors that influence their departure and their health. The study was conducted during the period from January to June 2021. This study aimed to examine the association between specific work-related stressors and work ability. The initial hypothesis was that general and specific occupational stressors negatively associate with work ability among healthcare professionals in emergency medical intervention teams. Methods: The study was designed as a cross-sectional comparative study. It was conducted among nurses and physicians in pre-hospital emergency medical services, employed full-time in intervention teams, while the control group consisted of employees from dispatch and call-receiving units. The study was conducted on the 840 participants, representing 43.3% of all healthcare professionals employed in pre-hospital emergency medical services in the Republic of Croatia. In addition to questions on participants’ personal characteristics, the following instruments were used: 1. a validated Questionnaire on Workplace Stressors among hospital healthcare professionals; and 2. the international standardized Work Ability Index (WAI) questionnaire for assessing work ability. Participants completed the questionnaires in paper form. Results: On average, the participants demonstrated lower levels of stress compared to reference values, both for overall stress and for individual stress factors, while their work ability, assessed using the Work Ability Index (WAI), ranged from very good to excellent. The control group showed higher levels of stress across all factors and lower work ability. However, the control group was older on average, generally had lower levels of education, and consisted more often of women—personal characteristics that may influence the examined variables. Lower stress levels and better work ability were associated with job satisfaction, ambition, and the fact that participants were working in their desired profession. Frequent sick leave (absenteeism) was highly correlating with both higher stress levels and poorer work ability. Conclusions: Greater job satisfaction and higher motivation have a positive impact on stress levels and employees’ work ability. The study results can serve as a starting point for institutional management in designing feasible decisions aimed at improving satisfaction, health, the work environment, and the work ability of emergency medical service personnel, as well as making these institutions more attractive for recruitment and retention of employees both in their positions and within the profession. Full article

Introduction: Streptococcus pneumoniae severely affects adults over 65, especially those with comorbidities. Since vaccination coverage among healthcare workers (HCWs) is unknown despite free availability, this study evaluates knowledge, behaviours, hesitancy and accessibility among employees of an Italian hospital. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional survey was administered via “SurveyMonkey.” From February 22 to June 15, 2024, healthcare and administrative staff aged ≥ 18 at the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Gemelli were recruited by email. Descriptive and inferential analyses used Stata 16.1. Results: Among HCWs, 72% are women, with an average age of 48. Pneumococcal vaccination coverage is 20%, with 82.7% vaccinated in-hospital. Preferred information sources include courses, webinars, and institutional websites. For management staff, vaccine safety and effectiveness were significant determinants. Among administrative employees, 65% are women (average age 51); 19% are vaccinated, 24% are unsure, and 43% prefer in-hospital vaccination. Physicians cited trust in vaccines (25.3%) and self-protection (23.2%) as key motivators, compared with 12.4% among nursing, technical and rehabilitative staff. Recommendation to family members was higher among medical and specialist professionals (90%) than in other groups (77% in nursing/technical/rehabilitative; <50% in assistants and auxiliary staff). About half of the groups rated their knowledge at level 2 (scale 1–4). Multivariable regression analysis showed that medical professionals and specialists exhibited a higher perception of the importance and safety of vaccines compared with other categories. Conclusions: HCWs showed greater knowledge of pneumococcal vaccination, while administrative staff had lower awareness and more hesitancy. Both groups preferred in-hospital vaccination and expressed interest in structured educational initiatives. Full article

This study examines the relationships between intrinsic motivation factors—task autonomy, personal growth and development opportunities, self-actualization, and decision-making participation—and employee retention, as well as the mediating role of perceived organizational pride. Using a quantitative cross-sectional survey, data were collected from 154 academic staff members at Taif University, Saudi Arabia. CFA supported the measurement model, and the hypotheses were tested using Hayes’ PROCESS macro. The findings show that all intrinsic motivation factors are positively associated with employee retention. Perceived organizational pride also mediates these relationships, suggesting that intrinsically motivating work conditions may support retention by strengthening employees’ pride in institutional membership. The results further indicate that developmental and participative factors show stronger associations with retention than task autonomy. This study contributes to employee retention research by integrating intrinsic motivation and identity-based explanations in the context of Saudi higher education. However, given the cross-sectional design and single-university sample, causal interpretation and generalizability should be treated with caution. The findings highlight the importance of growth-oriented, participative, and pride-enhancing work environments for supporting academic staff retention. Full article

Illegitimate tasks are assignments that threaten professional identity by not being related to the intrinsic quality or morality of the main profession. This concept has gained attention within the Stress as Offense to Self (SOS) theory, which emphasizes the impact of self-esteem in stressful situations, particularly in the workplace. The SOS theory suggests that self-esteem plays a critical role in how individuals respond to stress: when self-esteem is threatened, it triggers adverse reactions affecting mental, physical, and behavioral dimensions; conversely, strengthening self-esteem promotes well-being. Illegitimate tasks are perceived as unnecessary or unreasonable, varying by profession and non-voluntary in nature, leading to a lack of purpose and meaning for the employee. The Bern Illegitimate Tasks Scale (BITS) was created to assess and quantify these tasks, demonstrating robust psychometric properties across different languages and cultural contexts, including Spanish, Swedish, and Portuguese adaptations. This study aims to translate and adapt the BITS for a public university context characterized by bureaucratic culture. The sample comprises 601 participants from a Portuguese public higher education institution. The translation process followed rigorous procedures to ensure equivalence between the original and Portuguese versions. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and internal consistency analysis, revealing satisfactory fit indices and high reliability. Despite contextual limitations, the findings affirm the reliability of the adapted scale for application in similar contexts. Future research should aim for more representative samples to enhance generalizability. Full article

Various industry organisations point to a pressing need for future employees to master a variety of soft skills. These include skills such as communication, empathy, active listening, flexibility, and so on. As higher education institutions have noted this industry need, they are dedicating more attention to integrating the development of these skills throughout their curricula. However, they are faced with several organisational challenges in doing so. Immersive virtual reality has been identified as a promising avenue to address both industry need and higher education challenges. In this study, we investigate the perceptions of higher education instructors of IVR technology for soft skills training, using Bodyswaps software. A total of 103 instructors from 45 higher education institutions across five countries participated in our study, via self-selection within a vendor-coupled, grant-driven deployment. An extended UTAUT2 research model was adopted to investigate their perceptions. Next, we asked them to rate commonly cited educational affordances of IVR technology, further detailing the concept of performance expectancy. The results indicate that our research model could account for 57% of the explained variance and show that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, and personal innovativeness significantly affect the behavioural intention to use. No significant moderating effects of age, gender, or prior IVR experience could be retrieved. Despite the limitations of self-selection recruitment bias in this grant-driven study, our findings provide both theoretical and practical contributions, following the ecological validity of this study. Several directions for future research are formulated. Full article

This study analyzes the relationships among spiritual leadership, emotion regulation self-efficacy, and service performance in the hotel industry where emotional labor is emphasized. Data were collected through an online survey of hotel employees at three-star or higher-grade hotels in Korea. A total of 347 valid samples were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Four hypotheses were established. First, spiritual leadership was expected to positively relate to emotion regulation self-efficacy. Second, emotion regulation self-efficacy would be positively related to service performance. Third, spiritual leadership was hypothesized to have a positive relationship with service performance. Fourth, emotion regulation self-efficacy was expected to mediate a positive relationship between spiritual leadership and service performance. The results of the analysis supported all four hypotheses. The findings indicate that spiritual leadership enhances employees’ emotion regulation self-efficacy, improving emotion regulation and, in turn, service performance. Therefore, hotel organizations should consider improving service performance and competitiveness by developing leadership strategies and educational programs that strengthen employees’ emotion regulation capabilities. Full article

As artificial intelligence reshapes professional workflows, understanding what drives effective AI use among employees has become a critical concern for organizations. Moving beyond traditional technology acceptance frameworks, this study develops an integrative multi-level model to examine the behavioral determinants of AI use performance (AUP) among journalists. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) and incorporating individual and organizational factors, a survey was conducted among 543 journalists in China. Hypotheses are tested via a hybrid PLS-SEM and artificial neural network (ANN) approach to capture both linear and non-linear relationships. The findings reveal that expectation confirmation significantly enhances AUP by driving perceived usefulness and satisfaction. Digital literacy, personal trust in AI, and organizational support positively influence AUP, whereas communication barriers exert the strongest negative effect. Demographic variables (gender, age, education) show no significant impact. Notably, the ANN sensitivity analysis identifies communication barriers as the most influential predictor overall, a finding not apparent from linear analysis alone. This study advances theoretical understanding of employee behavioral responses in AI-integrated professional contexts and offers practical insights into how organizations can foster effective employee–AI collaboration through targeted communication strategies and supportive infrastructure. Full article

Recent reports indicate that employees are being subjected to harassment on social media. However, research in this area is highly interdisciplinary, often existing in disciplines that cater to occupational groups, such as politicians, journalists, or education professionals. We therefore conducted a scoping review to synthesize research in this area. Our scoping review sought to identify (1) the nature of social media harassment towards employees, (2) specific risk factors, and (3) how organizations manage the problem. We conducted searches of the Web of Science and Scopus databases, alongside keyword searches of Google Scholar. Our approach aligned with PRISMA recommendations for conducting scoping reviews, and the searches produced 47 studies, of which 35 met the inclusion criteria. Analyses revealed the varied nature of social media harassment towards employees, reflected in the use of 14 different labels to describe social media harassment. Only five studies addressed risk factors for experiencing harassment, which included greater prominence and visibility, more active use of social media, and working in an organization where offline harassment occurs. Moreover, just six studies have examined organizational responses to the problem, and were largely seen as ineffective, although thirteen studies addressed how individuals coped with social media harassment. This is the first paper that reviews research on social media harassment directed at employees. To consolidate this research area, we offer suggestions aimed at reducing construct proliferation and promoting a more coherent research agenda. Full article

Universities operate in an environment characterized by complexity, unpredictable challenges, rapid change and stakeholder demands. University employees are a key resource to achieve the strategic goals of the institution, linked to this complexity. Therefore, a conducive environment that fosters employee engagement in the university is critical. Employee engagement as a concept which encompasses employees’ positive attitude towards the organization and its values, whereby employees continuously improve how they perform their duties to improve organizational effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness is the ability of the organization to proactively adapt and adopt new ideas to continuously improve its operations. The purpose of the study was to explore the application of systems thinking as a strategic approach to foster employee engagement across functional boundaries in universities of technology (UoTs). Employee engagement is central to achieving the strategic goals of Universities of Technology. The problem is a lack of an overarching philosophy to foster employee engagement across the institution. To achieve the objectives of this study, a qualitative research methodology was used, underpinned by a constructivism philosophical worldview. A total of 15 participants were purposively selected from the employees of two universities of technology. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used to collect data. Thematic analysis was applied to analyze data. The findings revealed that systems thinking would create a conducive environment to foster employee engagement across functional boundaries in the UoTs. In addition, the findings revealed the prevalence of silo practices in universities of technology. Without systems thinking in the institution, departments generally operate in silos and there is no institutionalized philosophy to foster employee engagement, collaboration and knowledge sharing within and beyond functional boundaries. Full article

As enterprise social media (ESM) visibility increasingly exposes employees’ work-related behaviors and competencies to organizational audiences, its potential negative psychological consequences remain underexplored. Grounded in social comparison theory and adopting the three-stage “selection, appraisal, and response” research framework, this study investigates whether and how ESM visibility fosters workplace impostor thoughts and, in turn, influences employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior and workplace well-being. Moreover, this research further examines the boundary role of social comparison orientation in shaping these effects. A two-wave, multi-source survey design was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Data were collected from employees and their immediate supervisors in four companies across the finance, IT, management consulting, and education industries in China. To reduce common method variance, data collection was separated by a two-week interval. The final sample consisted of 447 matched employee–supervisor dyads. Hypotheses were tested using correlation and multiple regression analyses conducted in SPSS 23.0 and Mplus 8.3. Mediation and moderated mediation effects were examined using the PROCESS macro (Version 3.5) with 5000 bootstrap resamples. ESM visibility exhibited a significant positive association with workplace impostor thoughts and exerted a negative indirect effect on employees’ knowledge sharing and workplace well-being through workplace impostor thoughts. Moreover, social comparison orientation strengthens the positive effect of ESM visibility on workplace impostor thoughts, as well as the indirect effects of ESM visibility on knowledge sharing and workplace well-being via workplace impostor thoughts. The findings elucidate the relationship between enterprise social media (ESM) visibility and workplace impostor thoughts, highlighting the mediating role of workplace impostor thoughts and the moderating role of social comparison orientation. These findings suggest that ESM visibility generates unintended negative outcomes and complements research on the contextual antecedents of workplace impostor thoughts. Moreover, this study extends social comparison theory to explain employee responses to digital workplace visibility. Full article

Background: Sustainability in education requires creating a supportive working environment that promotes the well-being, motivation, and professional development of employees in the education and science sector. From the perspective of sustainable human resource development in the education and science sector, it is essential to identify job resources that are positively associated with work engagement, as emphasized in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The aim of this paper is to examine whether three key work organization and job content resources (influence at work, possibilities for development, and meaning of work) predict work engagement among employees in the Lithuanian education and science sector from a sustainability perspective. Methods: Based on the JD-R model, this study applied a quantitative research design. Data were collected through a structured written questionnaire completed by 446 employees in the Lithuanian education and science sector. The relationships between key work organization and job content resources and work engagement were examined using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, with gender, age, and position included as control variables. Results: The hierarchical regression analysis showed that meaning of work and influence at work remained statistically significant positive predictors of work engagement after controlling for gender, age, and position, whereas possibilities for development showed a positive but non-significant tendency in the controlled model. These findings are consistent with the Job Demands-Resources theory and can be interpreted from the perspective of the UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development framework, which emphasizes the importance of empowering teachers, scientists and other employees in the education and science sector, fostering continuous improvement, and connecting their work to a broader educational and societal purpose. Conclusions: The hierarchical regression analysis indicates that meaning of work and influence at work are the most stable predictors of work engagement in the education and science sector from a sustainability perspective. This study contributes to the literature by applying the JD-R model through a sustainability lens in the education and science sector. The results provide new insights into how influence at work, possibilities for development, and meaning of work can be interpreted as sustainability-oriented job resources associated with work engagement in the education and science sector. Full article

Career development spans higher education through post-entry adaptation, retention, and transition. Organizational career management (OCM) links human resource management, career attitudes, and employability, yet lacks a coherent account of how organizational provisions become concrete developmental experience in daily work. This article re-specifies OCM as a developmental system comprising four layers: OCM as superordinate architecture, developmental HR practices as implementation infrastructure, developmental networks as a relational access layer, and proactive career behaviors/career self-management (CSM) as self-regulatory behaviors conditioned by institutional and relational support. The central contribution is proposing collective leadership behaviors (CLB) as a candidate for specifying the missing workplace-practice layer. Developmental networks explain who employees turn to for support; CLB explains how support is enacted in team interaction so that organizational provision becomes developmentally usable. CLB is treated not as shared leadership or a substitute for supervisor support, but as enacted workplace practice once institutional provision and relational access are in place. Because empirical studies linking CLB to career development remain limited, this framework advances as a theory-building integrative review: developmental networks matter most when the bottleneck is access to heterogeneous support, whereas CLB matters most when support exists but is not yet enacted as usable developmental experience. Full article

The integration of administrative staff into research processes within higher education institutions (HEIs) remains underexplored, particularly in Latin American contexts. This study aimed to examine the perceptions, motivations, and structural barriers experienced by administrative personnel regarding their involvement in institutional research at the Universidad Politécnica Estatal del Carchi (UPEC), Ecuador. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed using a validated Likert-type instrument. Data were collected from 70 administrative employees and analyzed through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), revealing seven latent factors: personal motivation, structural barriers, regulatory knowledge, institutional recognition, contribution to efficiency, training and participation, and institutional vision. The EFA yielded a cumulative explained variance of 54.5%, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.64 to 0.94 across factors, indicating strong internal consistency. Correlation analysis demonstrated moderate to strong associations between motivation and participation (r = 0.65), and between regulatory knowledge and institutional recognition (r = 0.50). Multiple regression analysis revealed that only the institutional recognition factor significantly predicted research participation among administrative staff (β = 0.41, p = 0.004), while other predictors—including motivation and structural barriers—did not reach statistical significance. These findings underscore the need to design inclusive research policies that strategically engage administrative personnel. The study contributes to expanding the discourse on research ecosystems by highlighting the overlooked potential of non-academic actors in institutional scientific output. Full article