Airports at Risk: The Impact of Information Sources on Security Decisions

Security decisions in high risk organizations such as airports involve obtaining ongoing and frequent information about potential threats. Utilizing questionnaire survey data from a sample of airport employees in European Airports across the continent, we analyzed how both formal and informal sources of security information affect employee's decisions to comply with the security rules and directives. This led us to trace information network flows to assess its impact on the degree employees making security decisions comply or deviate with the prescribed security rules. The results of the multivariate analysis showed that security information obtained through formal and informal networks differentially determine if employee will comply or not with the rules. Information sources emanating from the informal network tends to encourage employees to be more flexible in their security decisions while formal sources lead to be more rigid with complying with rules and protocols. These results suggest that alongside the formal administrative structure of airports, there exists a diverse and pervasiveness set of informal communications networks that are a potent factor in determining airport security levels

Communication and social identity dynamics in UAE organizations

This research focuses on cross-cultural communication in the workplace between United Arab Emirates Nationals (Emiratis) and western expatriate employees. Communication Accommodation Theory and Social Identity Theory were the major theoretical frameworks used, to examine how Emirati employees perceived expatriate employees in terms of either “ingroups” or “outgroups”. 192 Emiratis (158 males and 34 females) from a variety of organizations in Dubai completed questionnaires in which they described an interaction they recently had with a western expatriate co-worker. The results indicated that miscommunications and negative perceptions invoked Emiratis’ perceptions of social distance from their western co-workers; that is, negatively perceived co-workers were categorized in negative outgroup stereotypes. However, many Emiratis reported positive communication with their expatriate co-workers. These respondents perceived their interactants at a more individualistic level, as opposed to categorizing them as a member of a stereotypical cultural outgroup. Given the rapid globalization of the workforce in the Middle-East, this study contributes towards a better understanding of cross-cultural communication between Arabs and westerners in a workplace context. Individuals from different nationalities, religions and values need to adopt a more inclusive approach to communicating with each other, to enable a shared a common identity and purpose when working shared towards organizational goals

Happy High Performing Managers: Self-Sustaining Urban Myth or a Cause for Optimism?

A seminal question in human resource management is revisited by this investigation: ‘Do happy managers perform better than their discontented counterparts?’ This study provides support for the ‘happy-performing managers’ proposition by linking managers’ affective wellbeing and intrinsic job satisfaction with their contextual and task performance. The ‘happy-productive worker’ thesis has intrigued organisational researchers and practitioners for decades. Despite mixed empirical evidence from research, there is support in the literature and by practitioners for the notion that ‘a happy worker is a good worker’. A variation on the enduring debate of the happiness–productivity theme is presented, the ‘happy-performing managers’ proposition. An empirical study of Australian managers is reported to indicate which aspects of affective wellbeing predict their specific contextual and task performance.The emphasis was on investigating an aspect of human behaviour with the potential to enhance managerial performance. An empirical methodology was used to test the hypotheses and develop a Partial Model of Managers’ Affective Wellbeing, Intrinsic Job Satisfaction and Performance. Survey items were derived from the literature and administered to managers from Australian organizations using self–report on established affective wellbeing and intrinsic job satisfaction scales

Perceived change in ethnolinguistic vitality by dominant and minority subgroups

This paper reports work on perceived ethnolinguistic vitality of Vietnamese- and Anglo-Australians in Brisbane, as well as differences based on sex, level of education and, for Anglo-Australians, residence in areas with either high- or low-concentrations of Vietnamese-Aus- tralians. As expected, Anglo-Australians were perceived as much higher in vitality than Vietnamese-Australians by all groups, while the latter were perceived as increasing markedly in vitality over the next 25 years. Non tertiary-educated Anglo-Australians from high-concentration suburbs had an exaggerated perception of the vitality of the Vietnamese, relative to their own group

Grounding: sharing information in social interaction

SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

A Survey that Contributes to the Development of a Framework to Evaluate Health and Safety Strategies in Supply Chains

This paper reports on the results of a survey that was part of wider research to link small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and larger organisations to help improve the health and safety records of SMEs. The survey results suggest that networking, as virtual organisations, would be a valuable way to link SMEs with their larger counterparts, partly because SMEs do not have the resources and time to release members of staff easily to attend physical workshops and other events. SMEs are important to many economies, but tend to have poor health and safety records. It is in the interests of larger organisations to assist SMEs within their supply chains, as the effects of absences resulting from poor health and safety management in SMEs result in supplies being disrupted. The research focussed on the construction industry. It is mapped to existing literature in relevant domains

Are Leaders and Managers with High Emotional Intelligence Superior Performers?

Leaders and managers with high emotional intelligence are often argued to be high job performers.Evidence from the literature is used here to examine the veracity of this claim. Emotional intelligencewas found to be a necessary but not sufficient precondition for improving individual leader andmanagers’ job performance and ultimately organisational productivity. EI is best most appropriatelyconceived of in terms of the abilities concerning the recognition and regulation of emotion in the selfand others. Organisational culture needs to support the application of EI competencies and rewardmanagers and leaders who exhibit socio-economic competencies for this proposition to be supported