Muslim Diaspora in the West and International HRM

Interest in Islam and how Muslims organise themselves within the so-called Western world has largely stemmed from the flow of Muslim immigration since the 1960s and the 1970s (Loobuyck, Debeer, & Meier, 2013). Many of these immigrants have come to these new lands in the hope of making a better life for themselves economically, or to escape the political or religious pressures of their homeland (Lebl, 2014). Initially, deeming the influx of these foreigners to be largely irrelevant, there was little interest in their presence by the different governments across many jurisdictions. Typically, scant interest was shown towards entering into dialogue with the Muslim immigrant community. Indeed, until the 1990s, it was not uncommon for Islam to be perceived as a strange, foreign religion that was best managed through outsourcing to respective consulates (Loobuyck et al., 2013). Yet, migration and work-based mobility has a significant influence on the world of work and societies in which organisations are embedded. Many individuals migrate for better employment perspectives, as well as due to chain migration, betterment in the quality of life and based on fleeing famine, war and terror zones globally (Sharma & Reimer-Kirkham, 2015; Valiūnienė, 2016). Migration could involve upward as well as downward mobility/ wages, depending on the country and organisation. For example, minimum wages differ from € 184 in Bulgaria up to € 1923 in Luxembourg (Valiūnienė, 2016). Migration also contributes to the lived religion of diasporic communities as they navigate their faith at work (Sharma & Reimer-Kirkha

Sex Differences in Hookah-Related Images Posted on Tumblr: A Content Analysis

Hookah tobacco smoking (HTS) is prevalent, widespread, and associated with large amounts of toxicants. HTS may be viewed differently by males and females. For example, females have been drawn to types of tobacco which were flavored, milder, and marketed as more social and exotic. Individuals often use the growing segment of “anonymous” social networking sites, such as Tumblr, to learn about potentially dangerous or harmful behaviors. We used a systematic process involving stratification by time of day, day of week, and search term to gather a sample of 140 Tumblr posts related to HTS. After a structured codebook development process, two coders independently assessed all posts in their entirety, and all disagreements were easily adjudicated. When data on poster sex and age were available, 77% were posted by females and 35% were posted by individuals less than 18. The most prominent features displayed in all posts were references to or images of hookahs themselves, sexuality, socializing, alcohol, hookah smoke, and “tricks” performed with hookah smoke. Compared with females, males more frequently posted images of hookahs and alcohol-related images or references. This information may help guide future research in this area and development of targeted interventions to curb this behavior

Exposure Research Going Mobile: A Smartphone-Based Measurement of Media Exposure to Political Information in a Convergent Media Environment

In today’s convergent media environment, media exposure becomes increasingly channel-independent and social media-bound, and media content is more frequently accessed on mobile devices. This calls for new approaches to measuring media exposure. This study applies an innovative approach to survey (n = 2378) exposure to political information in the form of a mobile diary measurement, accessible via a specifically developed app. Respondents exhibited broad acceptance and uptake of the mobile measurement, resulting in an almost representative sample and equally satisfactory application of different platform modes. The study furthermore confirms limitations of mere usage time measurements of social media platforms in effects research and explores a range of actual content types that citizens encounter in social networks. It recommends more frequent use of mobile exposure measurements and argues for a content-related assessment of social media use in effects research

Achieving Effective Remote Working During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Work Design Perspective

Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We conducted a mixed-methods investigation to explore the challenges experienced by remote workers at this time, as well as what virtual work characteristics and individual differences affect these challenges. In Study 1, from semi-structured interviews with Chinese employees working from home in the early days of the pandemic, we identified four key remote work challenges (work-home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness), as well as four virtual work characteristics that affected the experience of these challenges (social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload) and one key individual difference factor (workers’ self-discipline). In Study 2, using survey data from 522 employees working at home during the pandemic, we found that virtual work characteristics linked to worker's performance and well-being via the experienced challenges. Specifically, social support was positively correlated with lower levels of all remote working challenges; job autonomy negatively related to loneliness; workload and monitoring both linked to higher work-home interference; and workload additionally linked to lower procrastination. Self-discipline was a significant moderator of several of these relationships. We discuss the implications of our research for the pandemic and beyond