Does Perceived Support in Employee Development Affect Personnel Turnover?

This paper focuses on the question whether it is beneficial for firms to invest in the general skills of their workforce or that these training investments merely encourage personnel turnover. We examine two contrary theoretical perspectives on how investments in employee development are related to their turnover behaviour. Estimation results derived from a sample of 2,833 Dutch pharmacy assistants show that participation in general training does not induce the intention of assistants to quit, as predicted by human capital theory. We find that a firm’s investments in general training, significantly contribute to the perceived support in employee development (PSED) among their workforce. Our results also show that PSED is negatively related to the intention of employees to quit the firm. This effect is to a large extent mediated by the job satisfaction of pharmacy assistants. Our findings support the importance of social exchange theory in explaining turnover behaviour as a consequence of personnel development practices. It should be noted, however, that PSED only diminishes the intention to quit for other occupations.labour economics ;

National hazard exposure worker surveillance: exposure to biomechanical demands, pain and fatigue symptoms and the provision of controls in Australian workplaces

Biomechanical demands such as repetitive hand or arm movements, lifting heavy loads or working in awkward postures contribute to the development or worsening of inflammatory or degenerative musculoskeletal disorders. However, little is known about patterns of exposure to different biomechanical demands and how they relate to the demographic and employment characteristics of Australian workers. To address this, in 2008 the National Hazard Exposure Worker Surveillance [NHEWS] survey collected information on 4500 Australian workers’ exposure to nine biomechanical demands, pain and fatigue symptoms and the provision of various risk controls. Almost all workers reported some level of exposure to the biomechanical demands surveyed and 22 per cent were deemed to have high overall (composite) biomechanical demand exposure. In particular, young workers, male workers, night workers and lower skilled workers were most likely to report exposure and had the highest overall biomechanical demand exposure. The reporting of pain and fatigue symptoms was highly related to the level of biomechanical demand exposure. Workplace size (number of workers at a site) and the overall level of biomechanical demand exposure were the best predictors of control provision: workers from large workplaces and those with high exposure were most likely to be provided with biomechanical demand controls. This report presents detailed findings of the NHEWS survey and discusses the implications of these findings for work health and safety policy

Social learning analytics: Navigating the changing settings of higher education.

Current trends and challenges in higher education (HE) require a reorientation towards openness, technology use and active student participation. In this article we will introduce Social Learning Analytics (SLA) as instrumental in formative assessment practices, aimed at supporting and strengthening students as active learners in increasingly open and social learning environments. The analysis of digital traces of students’ learning behaviors provides insight into learning opportunities and can raise students’ awareness about where to be and whom to join. Against the background of these HE trends and challenges, we discuss opportunities for applying SLA to support open learning practices, that will move students from awareness to productive engagement in learning activities that promote co–construction of knowledge

The Regional Face of Extremism: A Case Study of the Northern Netherlands

While the study of extremism has traditionally focused on the national and transnational contexts, systematic studies of extremism at the sub-national level remain scarce. This absence of such research is particularly striking in countries like the Netherlands, where efforts to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism (P/CVE) are typically delegated to local authorities. Thus, moving beyond the focus on how and why extremism develops, this study analyses when and where it arises. We do so by focusing on the Northern Netherlands (i.e. the provinces of Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe). This region is characterised by specific problems linked to societal discontent surrounding peripherality, the construction of wind farms, reception centres for asylum seekers, and induced earthquakes due to gas extraction. As such, it provides an interesting laboratory environment to study regional and local expressions of extremism. Empirical support is drawn from a wide range of primary and secondary sources, notably semi-structured interviews (N=33) with regional experts, professionals and practitioners, including municipal workers, police officers, and social workers. The findings indicate that the extremist landscape has changed considerably in recent years; specifically, anti-government extremism has become more prevalent than ‘traditional’ forms of extremism (e.g. far-left, far-right and religious extremism). While this is in line with national and transnational trends, the rise of anti-government extremism in the Northern Netherlands appears to be particularly pronounced because of the regional circumstances. This has implications for P/CVE efforts, since the latter remain largely geared towards and focused on countering jihadism. In other words, there is a discrepancy between the nature of extremism on the one hand, and P/CVE approaches on the other.   Acknowledgements This article is based on research that was commissioned by the Municipality of Groningen and funded by ‘reinforcement money’ (Versterkingsgelden) from the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security (see Nanninga et al. 2022)