Using participatory research methods to explore residents’ perception of workplace stressors during residency training

Introduction: The culture of the learning environment is a major determinant of behaviours developed by residency trainees. This study explores anaesthesia residents perceptions of workplace stressors which affect behaviour and work performance adversely during the training period. Methods: We used two complementary qualitative participatory research methods based on focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews, with volunteers from each year of residency. The discussions were held in complete privacy and recorded on a digital voice recorder. Report of each discussion was shared with all participants to ensure credibility through member checking. Results: The stressors identified by anaesthesia residents which impaired work performance and generated stress were related to multiple supervisors, conflicting attitudes of different supervisors, workload and unsupportive organizational culture outside the parent department. Conclusion: Tensions due to lack of tolerance for divergent practices, diverse faculty, lack of constructive feedback and respect are the major stressors identified by residents which affect behaviour adversely. This information is a valuable resource for evaluation of workplace culture as perceived by the trainees, and planning self-development programs for faculty members and medicals resident

The role of customer-focused strategies to improve Islamic microfinance institutions performance: empirical evidence and lessons from Yemen

Microfinance, a tool to fight poverty and to promote economic development, has attracted the attention of governments, international organizations, and academicians across the globe. Although the literature provides substantial evidence on the significant effects of the customer-focused strategies such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and Market Orientation (MO) on organizational performance, research on the role of these factors in the context of microfinance is still too limited, and in the field of Islamic microfinance is even more neglected. Moreover, empirical research related to these factors has shown that the findings are not conclusive, indicating the need for further research in the area.Thus, this study aims at examining the roles of TQM and MO on Islamic Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) performance in Yemen which provides additional insights into the literature.Cross-sectional survey was employed, and questionnaires were administered to collect data from the branch managers of Islamic MFIs in Yemen.Out of 93 questionnaires distributed through a self-administered approach, 71 usable responses were used for the analysis.Partial least square-structural equation modeling was used and the results provide an empirical evidence of the significant roles of TQM and MO on the Islamic MFIs performance.The study is of great importance for academicians as it opens the door for further research into the area.It is also useful for practitioners as it provides empirical evidence on the significant roles of these strategies in achieving sustainability and better performance by Islamic MFIs in Yemen.These strategies are essential in establishing the platform for innovation to enable Islamic MFIs to develop and generate new Islamic financing products that satisfy Muslims entrepreneurs

Toward Suicidal Ideation Detection with Lexical Network Features and Machine Learning

In this study, we introduce a new network feature for detecting suicidal ideation from clinical texts and conduct various additional experiments to enrich the state of knowledge. We evaluate statistical features with and without stopwords, use lexical networks for feature extraction and classification, and compare the results with standard machine learning methods using a logistic classifier, a neural network, and a deep learning method. We utilize three text collections. The first two contain transcriptions of interviews conducted by experts with suicidal (n=161 patients that experienced severe ideation) and control subjects (n=153). The third collection consists of interviews conducted by experts with epilepsy patients, with a few of them admitting to experiencing suicidal ideation in the past (32 suicidal and 77 control). The selected methods detect suicidal ideation with an average area under the curve (AUC) score of 95% on the merged collection with high suicidal ideation, and the trained models generalize over the third collection with an average AUC score of 69%. Results reveal that lexical networks are promising for classification and feature extraction as successful as the deep learning model. We also observe that a logistic classifier’s performance was comparable with the deep learning method while promising explainability

Budaya Organisasi, Kepuasan Kerja dan Prestasi Kerja Pegawai Polis di Jawa Barat Indonesia (Organizational Culture, Job Satisfaction and Job Performance of Police Officers in West Java, Indonesia)

Kajian mengenai prestasi kerja dan prestasi pekerja di dalam organisasi telah banyak dijalankan tetapi kajian serupa di dalam organisasi pegawai beruniform sukar didapati, khususnya di Jawa Barat Indonesia. Tambahan pula, kebanyakan kajian memberi fokus kepada budaya dalam organisasi berasaskan perniagaan, bukannya organisasi kerajaan badan beruniform. Di samping itu, kajian berkaitan prestasi kerja hampir kesemuanya menggunakan data primer berdasarkan persepsi responden. Data sedemikian mempunyai kelemahan kerana terdapat unsur bias yang menguntungkan diri sendiri (self-serving bias), di mana responden berkecenderungan untuk memberi penilaian yang lebih tinggi terhadap prestasi mereka sendiri. Kajian ini melibatkan prestasi individu (pegawai polis) di dalam organisasi polis di Indonesia. Dalam kajian ini, penilaian majikan digunakan untuk menentukan prestasi kerja pekerja di dalam organisasi. Dengan mengambil kepuasan kerja pegawai polis sebagai faktor mediasi, dimensi-dimensi budaya organisasi (motivasi, ganjaran dan saling-percaya) dianalisis untuk mengetahui pengaruhnya terhadap prestasi kerja berdasarkan nilai prestasi sebenar yang diberikan oleh majikan, bukannya persepsi pekerja itu sendiri. Analisis faktor menunjukkan bahawa dua dimensi kepuasan kerja iaitu (i) dimensi faedah dan (ii) dimensi hubungan di antara staf di dalam organisasi memediasi hubungan di antara budaya organisasi (dimensi motivasi, ganjaran dan saling-percaya) dan prestasi kerja pegawai polis di Indonesia. Dapatan analisis ini menunjukkan terdapat perbezaan dengan model hubungan di antara budaya organisasi dan prestasi kerja bagi penjawat awam, khasnya pegawai polis and begitu juga dengan faktor mediasi, kepuasan kerja

An embedded pedagogic model for computer forensics within an undergraduate programme

The discipline of computer forensics which has a strong multi-disciplinary background derives from the computing subjects in networking, programming, security and mathematics. Increasing awareness of cybersecurity and emphasising the need for a common vision among students addresses the challenges. The proposed pedagogic model is to embed the computer forensics materials within the undergraduate modules to extend students’ knowledge and skills in a practical context. However, it is also recognised that the depth of knowledge required learning such topics as cyber security should be offered from the underlying principles to their abstraction. Cyber crimes are on the rise however, Cyber security professionals are in a depressingly low numbers. The lack of focus on this area has certainly resulted in a limited number of experts. Today, there is a demanding need to create new cyber security jobs, which should hopefully bring leverage to the uncontrollable rise of cyber crimes. It is, therefore, necessary to develop the analytical skills which create challenges in building a constructive approach to learning. Also, reflecting the technological fluctuations, it is seen as essential for students to be continuously updated. The proposed model focuses on the delivery and assessment of certain computing modules, with an evaluation of its efficiency on the use of time and effort in order to satisfy the minimum requirements of the curriculum. The study has also discovered that some of the modules already cover part of computer forensics implicitly. Therefore, highlighting these topics to the students and making them more visible as computer forensics is one of the main objectives. Another objective is to enhance the existing computing modules by dedicating certain amount of lecture time on computer forensic related concepts. The model can then be adopted by Universities when considering developing new modules. Over the last few years there have been large increases in cyber-crimes which have threatened individuals and organisations. To reduce the threat it is imperative that the computing courses within universities increase the level of student awareness by providing them with professional education in computer forensics and cyber-security without the need to create a separate specialised pathway

Order fulfillment in supply chain management: Does the dimension of inventory management matter in the Aerospace Industry in Malaysia?

Inventory management is important in meeting customers’ requirements. Similarly, the effectiveness of supply chain management in the order fulfillment process is critical for the organization to stay in business. Inventory determines the service level of any organization as the adequate and timely flow of inventory across the supply chain and manufacturing processes is imperative for the success of the organization. This ensures high rating on order fulfillment and ensures profitability. In the supply chain, inventory management is a critical part of the process as inventory is an asset and any shortage of inventory impact performance negatively. To keep the right level of inventory is a challenge for all companies and the challenge is becoming more complex with the drastic and frequent changes in demand. This also makes the forecasting process more tedious and difficult. The constant changes in customer preferences with the increases in demand have affected order fulfillment as most manufacturing facilities do not have the additional capacity to cope with sudden increase in orders. They require huge investment and with the shortening of product life cycle, the period to apportion return on investment has to be relatively short compared to the past experience. This affects working capital and increasing working capital is not an easy task unless the organization is wealthy. As Malaysia embarks on the aerospace industry, the dilemma for the manufacturers are similar. The high cost of raw materials in inventory and inventory holding significantly affects order fulfillment. The findings of this study differs from the normal business inventory management practices, thus offering new knowledge and learning curve in the inventory management context of the high technology industry, in particular, the aerospace. The findings indicate that inventory management or the inventory conversion period has an inverse relationship with organization’s profitability

On-Time Delivery rating is highly determined by the performance of the Inventory Management.A study in the aerospace industry in Malaysia.

This study is to examine the inventory management as the key factor in determining the performance of the Supply Chain management.To test the significant relationship between the targeted components of inventory management (IM) against one of the measurement for supply chain management (SCM) performance, the On-Time Delivery. This study will be conducted in the aerospace industry in Malaysia.This advance technology industry with little potential for success due to poor shipment performance against customer expectation. The variables of IM are stock holding, safety stock, storage policy and inventory risk are being tested against the SCM performance dimensions of on-time delivery (OTD).The quantitative research methodology is opted for this study.Data collection will be performed involving 200 potential respondents in the aerospace industry in Malaysia. This counts for 40.5% of the population in the country.The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used to assist in the analysis. The findings indicated that only three variables to be used as predictors for the SCM performance.Contrary to the initial expectation, stock holding and stock policy were found to be insignificant for the theoretical relationship in this industry.The findings also suggested the need to examine further why stock holding is not significant in this relationship of aerospace industry.Moreover, these findings can be considered as new findings and offer different contributing dimensions to the SCM performance and these should change the mindset of the top managment of most organizations that have different attributes, in particular the new high technology industry in Malaysia

Relationship of perception and awareness towards utilization of government business support services (GBSS) in Malaysian SMEs perspective

This paper observed on the level of perception and awareness Malaysian SMEs in determining the utilization on Government Business Support Service (GBSS). A survey was conducted in West Malaysia in 3 months period with a response rate of 17.4%. About 139 of SME’s owner-managers has responded to the questionnaires. The findings reveal that perception and general awareness has a significant relationship toward utilization of GBSS. This paper proves the importance of GBSS in developing and assisting local SMEs, in particular, to position the companies in facing the competitive business environment, particularly with regard to enhancing the competitive strategies and policy formulation. Further, the results might help the SMEs in planning a proper plan for utilizing GBSS in order to support the company needs

Entrepreneurial network towards small firm performance through dynamic capabilities: the conceptual perspective

This conceptual paper reveals the hypothesized link between entrepreneurial network and small firm performance and the mediating effect of dynamic capabilities on the mentioned relationship. The theoretical grounds of the entrepreneurial network, dynamic capabilities and small firm performance established this conceptual framework. This paper adopts the Resource Based View (RBV) which claims that firm valuable strategic resources (entrepreneurial network) and capabilities (dynamic capabilities) both are important to make firm successful. Similarly, Dynamic Capability View (DCV) support and verify this conceptual framework. It means the stronger entrepreneurial network will lead to develop dynamic capabilities, which will ultimately cause the higher firm performance. Therefore, this paper incorporates two strategically important variables namely, entrepreneurial network and dynamic capabilities to enhance the small firm performance, whereas RBV suggests that firms make progress on the basis of resources and capabilities. Entrepreneurial network and dynamic capabilities both are regarded as the important elements to combat the lower firm performance in current turbulent business environment. By keeping in view, the theoretical foundations of RBV and DCV, this paper proposes a conceptual framework in examining the mediating role of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between entrepreneurial network and small firm performance

To pass or not to pass:modeling the movement and affordance dynamics of a pick and place task

Humans commonly engage in tasks that require or are made more efficient by coordinating with other humans. In this paper we introduce a task dynamics approach for modeling multi-agent interaction and decision making in a pick and place task where an agent must move an object from one location to another and decide whether to act alone or with a partner. Our aims were to identify and model (1) the affordance related dynamics that define an actor's choice to move an object alone or to pass it to their co-actor and (2) the trajectory dynamics of an actor's hand movements when moving to grasp, relocate, or pass the object. Using a virtual reality pick and place task, we demonstrate that both the decision to pass or not pass an object and the movement trajectories of the participants can be characterized in terms of a behavioral dynamics model. Simulations suggest that the proposed behavioral dynamics model exhibits features observed in human participants including hysteresis in decision making, non-straight line trajectories, and non-constant velocity profiles. The proposed model highlights how the same low-dimensional behavioral dynamics can operate to constrain multiple (and often nested) levels of human activity and suggests that knowledge of what, when, where and how to move or act during pick and place behavior may be defined by these low dimensional task dynamics and, thus, can emerge spontaneously and in real-time with little a priori planning