Planning for Success in Introducing and Embedding Technology to Enhance Learning

The authors reflect on the outcomes of recent change management projects for introducing technology into Higher Education in the UK and discuss key aspects which have led to success in the increasing use and subsequent embedding of learning technologies in the classroom. They focus on three areas where it is suggested that institutions need to ‘get it right’ in terms of justifying the expensive introduction of technology into the learning environment: the building and maintaining of the technical infrastructure; the provision of appropriate initial and continuing user support, which includes relating the use of technology to pedagogy; and the management of the impact of change on those who are faced with adapting to different ways of learning and teaching. These are mapped to a set of critical success factors by the authors. The paper investigate these firstly, via a case-study within a technology-focussed university, where its commitment to the enhancement of the student experience through using technology to support assessment and feedback mechanisms has increased. The authors explore how academics were encouraged to become further engaged within the process. Consequently, the use of technology in the classroom was no longer seen as being the preserve of a group of ‘enthusiasts’ or ‘early adopters’ but was perceived to be relevant to a wider user group. A further case-study shows how the critical success factors were applied to develop a flexible learning module within a more traditional teaching environment. This paper explores the importance of balancing underlying pedagogical approaches to the introduction of new technologies. It is proposed that while technology can be an excellent tool it should not drive the pedagogy. The aim finally is to ensure that throughout and following a period of change both academics and students can benefit from the appropriate use of technology to enhance learnin

Pay Satisfaction, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention in Taiwan Banking: Structural Equation Modeling

Various investigators have researched voluntary employee turnover intention within both the private and public sectors. However, little is known about employee turnover intention within the domestic private banking industry in Taiwan. This study examined the fundamental theoretical literature and empirical studies related to employee turnover intention among Taiwanese domestic private banking employees. The relationship among pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and voluntary employee turnover is an important issue for any organization. Employee turnover as the result of practices within the fields of economics, human resource management, organizational behavior, psychology, and ethics have been examined in this study. This research explored those factors influencing employee turnover intention, and identified areas of future scholarly inquiry. Findings indicated that employee turnover intention is complex. Existing turnover models are unable to comprehensively explain turnover. However, existing turnover theories provide a framework within which to research the topic. Contemporary turnover theories provide valuable information for leaders to use to improve their leadership styles, training procedures, and policies, and are very useful in predicting turnover or decision-making. The purposes of this study were to explore the relationship among pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention in the Taiwanese domestic private banking industry; to describe the degrees of pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention of entry-level and mid-management branch office employees of Taiwanese domestic private banks and their sociodemographic characteristics; to examine existing pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover theories as well as some conflicts between different theories; and to explore whether pay satisfaction plays a critical role in turnover decisions. Three research questions and 23 hypotheses were developed for this quantitative, non-experimental study. Further, this study adopted an explanatory and correlational survey to answer those questions and hypotheses using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factory analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Future studies may try to examine related variables in different groups, industries, cultures, or countries, and explore the relationship between employee turnover intention and the actual departure of an employee

Educational leadership for international partnerships between New Zealand and east Asian Chinese higher education institutions

This study examines how higher education leaders in different socio-cultural contexts are involved in the practice of distributed leadership in international partnerships. This study employs socio-cultural theorising to help explain the 22 New Zealand, Singaporean, Chinese and Taiwanese higher education leaders' multiple experiences, perceptions and practices in international partnerships. In this study, socio-cultural theorising entails a view of constructivist epistemology and the ontology of constructive realism. Grounded theory methodology and Wallner's strangifications were employed to acquire, analyse, interpret and compare qualitative data across different contexts in this study. Semi-structured interviewing and document collection were the methods used for data generation. The findings suggest that distributed leadership in international higher education partnerships should move beyond simply arranging formal leadership roles, responsibilities, and resources. Distributed leadership in such cross-cultural contexts should be conceived as an inclusive approach to multiple leadership practices. Five interrelated key elements of distributed leadership emerged. They are formal arrangements, enhanced leadership opportunities, understanding the context, sustainability and learning. All the key elements entailed certain levels and aspects of learning. Learning and distributed leadership practices are closely intertwined and informing each other. A conceptual framework for the learning and practice of distributed leadership in international partnership is proposed to theorise the relationship between three sources of learning of distributed leadership, and multiple distributed leadership practices. The three sources of learning identified in this study are understandings of the context (in actuality), prior knowledge (in lifeworlds), and knowledge of leadership capital, issues and factors (in microworlds). This study provides wider implications for education practitioners in other contexts to explore in international partnerships how social, cultural and economic forms leadership capital can be successfully distributed, exchanged and sustained, and how higher education leaders at all levels can actively participate and learn in international partnerships. Recommendations for researchers to conduct cross-cultural studies are provided

How the Transformational Leadership Style of Superintendents is Associated With Employees’ Organizational Commitment via the Mediating Effect of Extrinsic Motivation Within Nursing Homes for Disabled People in Taiwan

In 2013, about 4.8% of Taiwanese people qualified as having a disability; a disability is classified as having mild, moderate or severe, and in some cases, extremely severe intellectual disabilities or having multiple disabilities (Ministry of the Interior, Department of Statistics, 2013; Tseng, 2013). In 2013, there were 254 nursing homes for people with disabilities that were registered with the Social and Family Administration at the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan (Lee et al., 2013; Tseng, 2013). The current problems in Taiwan’s nursing homes for the disabled include overworked employees, employees with a poor work-life balance and excessive job stress, ineffective leadership, poor communication among administrators, and little or no staff support (Lee, 2007; Lin, 2008; Tseng, 2013). This results in a low sense of job accomplishment, a low sense of belonging, low morale, and lack of cohesiveness (Lee, 2007; Lin, 2008; Tseng, 2013). This negative cycle has led to high turnover rates and minimal retention and has had crippling effects on the organizations (Chou, 2005; Lee, 2007; Lee et al., 2013). According to the Taiwan Council of Labor Affairs, there is nearly a 50% turnover rate of professional employees at these institutions (Lee et al., 2013; Tseng, 2013). The purpose of this study was to measure the degree to which the superintendents at nursing homes for disabled people in Taiwan demonstrate transformational leadership and how this is associated with employees’ organizational commitment via the mediating effect of extrinsic motivation. Data for analysis, using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the Work Preference Inventory (WPI), and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), were collected from full-time employees who were randomly selected from 70 nursing homes for disabled people. An SPSS program was used to analyze the data and descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and sequential multiple regression analysis were used to answer the research questions. This study’s findings showed that gender was not associated with organizational commitment and that superintendents should recruit married employees and employees with college degrees in order to promote more organizational commitment. The findings also indicated that physical care employees’ commitment, compared with the commitment of social workers, special education teachers, and other professionals in nursing homes of Taiwan, was low. Superintendents, therefore, should conduct official self-assessments and unofficial sessions with them to understand which factors lead to their stress and, ultimately, their intention of leaving the organization. The data further showed that deploying transformational leadership practices would be an inevitable trend in order to increase organizational commitment and lower turnover rates aggressively. Lastly, the findings showed that transformational leadership contributed to the variability of organizational commitment significantly and that extrinsic motivation was the important factor of shared variability of organizational commitment. This means that transformational leaders of nursing homes should not only use strategic techniques to develop future innovations and offer high quality services but also take into consideration extrinsic motivation to promote organizational commitment

Accepting Technology And Overcoming Resistance To Change Using The Motivation And Acceptance Model

This research analyzed why some university faculty resisted a new software program using a new model of motivation. The new model, called the motivation and acceptance model (MAM), was inspired by the technology acceptance model and the commitment and necessary effort model of motivation. This model was tested on faculty at a college in a large southeastern university who were resisting a new software program called LiveText. This research used regression analysis to determine the relationship between the variables of the MAM: perceived usefulness, perceived organizational support, perceived ease of use, and attitude toward LiveText. The research was conducted during the Spring 2007 semester. The data were analyzed with regression, independent-sample t-tests, and descriptive statistics using SPSS v15. This research demonstrates that the MAM accurately measured the relationship between professors\u27 perceptions and their use of LiveText. The research also suggests that the perceived utility of LiveText and users\u27 attitudes toward LiveText were statistically significant predictors of LiveText use and that perceived ease of use also predicted whether the professors found LiveText useful. Additional research should seek to develop a greater understanding of technology acceptance and employee resistance to innovations using larger sample sizes, a variety of environments and organizations, diverse populations, and different types of technologies and technology-implementation strategies

Occupational Commitment Under Conditions of Social Change: The Case of Professional Marine Engineering in Taiwan

The thesis is concerned with investigating the area of occupational commitment to marine engineering of students from various levels of higher education in maritime institutions. From a general description of socioeconomic change and its relationship to the seafaring profession, the study focuses on the case of Taiwan. A review of literature on commitment demonstrates that commitment may vary as the social-economy changes over time. As technology changes, ships' officers, more specifically marine engineers, are required by shipowners to be educated to degree level. The emphasis in this study is upon the commitment to the shipping industry of young engineering students at university. The theoretical model established takes individual intentions, willingness to study, and occupational commitment, as the dependent variables while students' demographic backgrounds, personal needs and values are taken as the independent variables. The theoretical model is tested with the aid of data from questionnaires administered to a sample of engineering students from various levels of academic institutions. The SPSS statistical package, including factor analysis and chi-squares, is employed on the data analysis. One result is that traditional Chinese cultural values, including "studying is superior to all other professions", and the current entrance examination system for Taiwanese universities, predominate in students "willingness to study", which in turn, affects the occupational commitment of engineering students. Another result shows that the "willingness to study" of students in seafaring-oriented departments is not related to their "occupational commitment". Marine Engineering at sea is not perceived as being able to satisfy the higher level needs of graduates. To overcome this disparity, the job characteristics of ships' engineer officers need redesigning to create a more challenging work context for graduate marine engineers. If, for whatever the reason, the job of the seagoing marine engineer cannot be redesigned to satisfy graduate engineers then the only alternative is to recruit non-graduate seagoing engineers from five year junior colleges.National Taiwan Ocean Universit

E-Learning and gender

This study is to examine gender differences and the adoption of technology in tertial education students. We have used TAM model to measure the acceptance and use of elearning of the respondents. ANOVA and Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used, specifically, the PLS multi-group analysis, to compare differences between groups. In summary, results show that students’ behavior of acceptance of e-learning technology do not manifest statistically significant differences between women and men

Evaluating the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Employee Organizational Commitment in the Taiwanese Banking Industry

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between leaders\u27 transformational leadership behaviors and employees\u27 organizational commitment. According to some of the literature reviewed, transformational leadership includes four factors: (a) charismatic leadership (or idealized influence), (b) inspirational motivation, (c) intellectual stimulation, and (d) individualized consideration (Bass 1985). Organizational commitment contains three factors: (a) a strong belief in acceptance of the organization\u27s goals and values; (b) a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization; and (c) a definite desire to maintain organizational membership (Mowday, Steer, & Porter, 1979). This study used quantitative, non-experimental, correlation, and explanatory research design. The three parts of a questionnaire administered to study participants were (a) socio-demographic profile, (b) transformational leadership dimension of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ; Bass, 1995), and (c) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ; Mowday et al., 1979). The target population of this study included all employees who work for Taiwan\u27s domestic banks (47 domestic banks with 133,139 employees in Taiwan). After stratified random sampling, a total of 12 of Taiwan\u27s domestic banks were selected, and a total of 1,000 questionnaires were distributed to their employees. A total of 408 bank employees participated in this study. The t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson\u27s Product-Moment Correlation, MANOVA, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data collected in this study. The results of this study revealed that there were significant relationships between transformational leadership behaviors and organizational commitment, and between demographic variables (age, marital status, and years of employment) and organizational commitment. The findings suggest that leaders who demonstrate transformational leadership behaviors will enhance their followers\u27 organizational commitment. In addition, older, married, and long-term employees may have a higher level of organizational commitment. Recommendations for future research are also discussed

The Determination Model to Use E-Learning

This research aim to examine the factors that influence intention to use  e-learning services. This research was conducted at Mercubuanan Universitas .The method of data collection is using primary data from 96 students who ever use e-learning through questionnaires, direct observation of the object under study and literature study by use a sample survey methodology. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 17 software. The result of analysis for this model shows that perceived easy of use and attitude affect the intention to use e-learning. This means that the intention to use e-learning is influenced by the construct perceived ease of use and attitude. The implication of this research is relevant to the management university to consider factor of perceived ease of use and attitude in applying and developing e-learning in the University system. Keywords : E-Learning, intention, attitude, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-21-09 Publication date:July 31st 2019

Investigation of factors that affect the willingness of individuals to share knowledge in the virtual organisation of Taiwanese non-governmental organisations

With the advent of knowledge-intensive economies, plus the ever-accelerating development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), organisational knowledge has become the key driver of an organisation’s value and ultimately, an important source of an organisation’s sustainable competitive edge. Thus, numerous organisations have started to invest heavily in establishing knowledge management systems (KMSs). Subsequently, they wish to access knowledge from individuals in order to enhance their acquisition of knowledge and ultimately transform this into organisational knowledge. Even though existing research studies have evidenced extensively the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators of individuals’ knowledge-sharing behaviour in organisations from diverse perspectives (e.g. organisational behaviour, sociology and psychology), individuals still seem inclined to hoard their knowledge, rather than share it with others in organisations. To this end, this research aims to investigate and identify essential elements related to individuals’ knowledge-sharing behaviour within the complex context of the virtual organisation of Taiwanese Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), comprising the whole system of Taiwanese Farmers’ Associations, by integrating multilevel perspectives of individuals in organisations (the micro-level), workplace networks in organisations (the meso-level) and organisational culture (the macro-level). [Continues.