Work Engagement Antecedents and Consequences Across Generations in the United Arab Emirates

Drawing upon generational differences and work engagement literatures, this research examines the antecedents and consequences of work engagement in the context of the UAE, and the moderating effect of generational membership. Statistics predicted that in the year 2015, 45% of the UAE labor market was comprised by individuals born between 1980 and 1999, known as the Y Generation. However, little is known about generational differences in the UAE, in particular among members of the Y Generation with respect to work engagement. Whereas organizations need suitable human resources practices and tools to ensure the consistency and growth of the three generations that are operating together for the first time in the current UAE labor market. This research accordingly identifies and examines organizational antecedents and associated consequences of work engagement in relation to both the current state of employment in the UAE and its broader culture, and the current literature on generational differences. As it also examines the moderating effect of generational membership on the hypothesized relationship of identified antecedents and consequences of work engagement. A review of the literature identifies four key organizational antecedents, namely, job characteristics (performance feedback and job autonomy), rewards, corporate social responsibility and work/life balance. These have been found to be of great importance in the context of generations. Furthermore, the literature identifies three consequences of work engagement in the context of organizations and generations, namely, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior and intention to leave. These factors have been evaluated with regard to generational membership and associated differences in the UAE. The results of the current study indicate that all the identified antecedents and consequences are positively correlated with work engagement in the context of the UAE\u27s culture, except for work/life balance (as well as the negative expected relationship with the intention to leave). Moreover, the current study illustrates that generational membership moderated only two of the identified relationships associated with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and intention to leave, the relationship being stronger for Baby Boomers than for the X and Y Generations. To summarize, this study contributes to the literature on work engagement and generational differences in several relevant and substantive ways. First, it examines the impact of the selected organizational antecedents on work engagement and certain consequences in the context of the UAE\u27s culture. Second, it examines the moderating effect of generational membership on the selected antecedents and consequences. Finally, it examines work engagement in the UAE workforce from both demographic and socioeconomic perspectives. In light of this, a list of recommended tools for enhancing work engagement is illustrated. The current study thereby promises a better understanding of work engagement and generational differences in the context of the UAE, upon which it recommends that further attention should be paid to individual differences and organizational culture rather than tailoring HR policies and practices for the purpose of accommodating generational differences

Are Leaf Traits Suitable for Assessing the Feeding Value of Native Grass Species?

Research on forage feeding value other than in vivo assessment can be roughly divided into three kinds of approach. The first aims to predict feeding value using a set of enzymatic or physical methods. A second approach is based on phenological stages of species. These approaches are mainly used for pure stands of improved grasses or legumes. However, for native grassland, a complex type of vegetation, a third approach, based on botanical records, has been proposed to rank grassland communities for their feeding value. The aim of this work concerns the third approach. We tested whether leaf traits (e.g. specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and leaf life span (LLS)), assessed under non-limiting plant growth conditions, ranked the species in the same order as did chemical components and digestibility

Saving energy in aggressive intrusion detection through dynamic latency sensitivity recognition

In an always connected world, cyber-attacks and computer security breaches can produce significant financial damages as well as introduce new risks and menaces in everyday's life. As a consequence, more and more sophisticated packet screening/filtering solutions are deployed everywhere, typically on network border devices, in order to sanitize Internet traffic. Despite the obvious benefits associated to the proactive detection of security threats, these devices, by performing deep packet inspection and inline analysis, may both affect latency-sensitive traffic introducing non-negligible delays, and increase the energy demand at the network element level. Starting from these considerations, we present a selective routing and intrusion detection technique based on dynamic statistical analysis. Our technique separates latency-sensitive traffic from latency-insensitive one and adaptively organizes the intrusion detection activities over multiple nodes. This allows suppressing directly at the network ingress, when possible, all the undesired components of latency-insensitive traffic and distributing on the innermost nodes the security check for latency sensitive flows, prioritizing routing activities over security scanning ones. Our final goal is demonstrating that selective intrusion detection can result in significant energy savings without adversely affecting latency-sensitive traffic by introducing unacceptable processing delays. \ua9 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Combustion and emissions characterization of terpenes with a view to their biological production in cyanobacteria

In developing future fuels there is an opportunity to make use of advances in many fields of science and engineering to ensure that such fuels are sustainable in both production and utilization. One such advance is the use of synthetic biology to re-engineer photosynthetic micro-organisms such that they are able to produce novel hydrocarbons directly from CO2. Terpenes are a class of hydrocarbons that can be produced biologically and have potential as liquid transport fuels. This paper presents experimental studies on a compression ignition engine and spark ignition engine in which the combustion and emissions of 12 different terpenes that could potentially be produced by cyanobacteria were assessed as single components and blends with fossil diesel and fossil gasoline. The 12 terpenes were chosen to explore how small changes to the molecular structure of geraniol (a terpene most easily produced by cyanobacteria) impact on combustion and emissions. Furthermore, the toxicity of some of the best performing terpenes were assessed using the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 (hereafter, Synechocystis) as a prelude to a metabolic engineering programme. The compression ignition engine tests were carried out at constant injection timing and constant ignition timing, and the spark ignition engine tests were conducted at a constant spark timing and a constant lambda value of 1. Of the terpenes tested in the compression ignition engine, geranial and farnesene were found to be the best performing single component fuels in terms of combustion and emissions. In blends with fossil diesel, the presence of geranial or farnesene did not have a significant effect on combustion phasing up to a terpene content of 20% (wt/wt), though levels of NOx and CO did increase. In the spark ignition engine experiments of terpene and fossil gasoline blends, citronellene and linalool were found to be soluble in fossil gasoline and combusted in a steady manner up to a terpene content of 45% and 65% (wt/wt) respectively. Of those terpenes with the most potential as either diesel or gasoline fuels, geraniol and geranial were found to be the most toxic to Synechocystis, with farnesene and linalool less toxic and citronellene having no detrimental effect. Addition of n-dodecane to the cultures was found to ameliorate the toxic effects of all five terpenes

The Impact of Human Resources on the Banking Sector Performance in Syria

This research deals with the relationship between some of the general characteristics of human resources in the Syrian banking sector, such as the level of education, training and experience, and the operational financial efficiency of this sector. The data for the human resources is collected from the employees of several private banks in Syria, then testing the relationship with the financial data derived from the annual financial statements published by those banks for year 2019, the same year of data collection. This study is the cornerstone of complementary studies, which is more specialized in the field of human resources and financial performance. The study concluded that there is no effect of the human resources efficiency on financial performance for year 2019, which raises the urgent need of conducting similar research for a range of years and more comprehensive study on the factors that effect financial performance whether in the Syrian market or other markets as a part of behavior analysis on financial market

The Impact of Human Resources on the Banking Sector Performance in Syria

This research deals with the relationship between some of the general characteristics of human resources in the Syrian banking sector, such as the level of education, training and experience, and the operational financial efficiency of this sector. The data for the human resources is collected from the employees of several private banks in Syria, then testing the relationship with the financial data derived from the annual financial statements published by those banks for year 2019, the same year of data collection. This study is the cornerstone of complementary studies, which is more specialized in the field of human resources and financial performance. The study concluded that there is no effect of the human resources efficiency on financial performance for year 2019, which raises the urgent need of conducting similar research for a range of years and more comprehensive study on the factors that effect financial performance whether in the Syrian market or other markets as a part of behavior analysis on financial market

Enhancing consumers' self-reported loyalty intentions in Islamic Banks: the relationship between service quality and the mediating role of customer satisfaction

The main objective of this paper is to investigate how service quality and customer satisfaction are correlated to self-reported loyalty intentions in Islamic banks. The paper presents primary data collected by self-administered questionnaires involving a sample of 655 respondents from all local Islamic Banks in Jordan. The results show that compliance, tangibility, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy positively linked to self-reported loyalty intentions, with compliance and assurance appearing as the greatest correlation with self-reported loyalty intentions compared to other service quality dimensions. Islamic banks should focus on continuous improvement of service quality due to the direct correlation with customer satisfaction and loyalty. It is important for Islamic banks to review and endorse all policies and procedures to ensure that their documents and investments are undertaken in line with the requirements of Islamic law. Managers should pay special attention to the service quality provided by their employees and develop their skill set through training and education programmes based on Islamic principles. As the first study of its kind in Jordan, the paper’s contribution stems from filling the research gap in examining the relationship between the various service quality dimensions and self-reported loyalty intentions in Islamic banks using the CARTER model. Subjects: Marketing; Services Marketing; Consumer Behaviou

A Comparative Study for Bandwidth Selection in Kernel Density Estimation

Nonparametric kernel density estimation method does not make any assumptions regarding the functional form of curves of interest; hence it allows flexible modeling of data. A crucial problem in kernel density estimation method is how to determine the bandwidth (smoothing) parameter. This article examines the most important bandwidth selection methods, in particular, least squares cross-validation, biased crossvalidation, direct plug-in, solve-the-equation rules and contrast methods. Methods are described and expressions are presented. The main practical contribution is a comparative simulation study that aims to isolate the most promising methods. The performance of each method is evaluated on the basis of the mean integrated squared error for small-to-moderate sample size. Simulation results show that the contrast method is the most promising methods based on the simulated families considered