Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of Employee Engagement on Temporary Agency Workers in a Partner-led Environment

The recent Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the increasing reliance of organisations on temporary agency workers (TAWs) to survive in business environments that are characterised as being temporal, unpredictable, and cyclical. Temporary workforces are growing in popularity as it offers flexibility and independence for both employees and the employer (i.e., The Client). At the same time, the recruitment industry has witnessed significant growth and heightened competition to source reliable, high-quality TAWs as this niche cohort of the workforce underpin the successful performance and outcomes of both agency and client.Despite the increasing number of TAWs and their significant contributions to sustaining competitive advantage and economic growth, extant literature on employee engagement of TAWs to date is rather limited. Also, what research does exist is rather limited as seminal research focused on employee engagement of full time employees, rather than any rigorous examination of engagement with TAWs who operate in turbulent and constantly changing ‘real world’ business environments.This study addresses this gap in knowledge by “examining employee engagement from the perspective of the TAWs to identify the influence and implications of job and organisation engagement”. This study draws on an exemplar case study of a well-known large UK retailer (i.e., The Client) that operates a distribution warehouse and employs TAWs who are sourced through three recruitment agencies.A review of seminal literature provides the theoretical base for the antecedents and proposed outcomes of employee engagement to inform the proposed research model to capture the perceptions of TAW engagement at The Client organisation. A self-completion questionnaire was completed by 277 TAWS and the research model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and SmartPLS v.4.The findings challenge two long-held assumptions about employee engagements First, job engagement and organisation engagement are two significantly distinct constructs that have implications for The Client organisation. Second, experiences of employee engagement for TAWs differ from that of traditional employees as they are heavily reliant on The Client organisation’s ability to support, value and embed them into the workforce and wider mission of the organisation

Social commerce Open Innovation in healthcare management: an exploration from a novel technology transfer approach

This paper presents an Open Innovation approach, AgorIP, for commercialisation of opportunities within Health & Social Care and Life Sciences, piloted in south-west Wales. This approach, supported by Welsh Government, NHS Wales, universities and private sector aims to develop new markets and innovations, where all opportunities are rigorously assessed for existing and/or new market potential. In parallel, the empowerment of citizens to manage their personal and collective health, and to access information and services has become an important driver, becoming a disruptive development within the state-centric integrated health economy. This paper examines the relevant policy context and emerging portfolio of innovations within AgorIP to explore emergence of social commerce innovation in Health care management. Findings reflect the above dynamics and constraints, with innovations showing segmentation across geographic, demographic and disease-sufferer groups. The authors therefore offer the AgorIP initiative as an interesting space to observe the potential for Open Innovation of social commerce within the health sector

Gender, Age, and Frequency of Internet Use as Moderators of Citizens’ Adoption of Electronic Government

This paper proposes a model of citizen acceptance of e-government systems by extending UTAUT with two additional constructs (Anxiety and Attitude), and includes three moderators; gender, age, and frequency of Internet use. The model was tested with primary data gathered within the context of use of an e-government system in India. The model received good empirical support, explaining 53.7% of variance in citizen intention to make use of e-government systems. The paper contributes to e-government services research by highlighting key influencing factors (particularly the importance of attitude), identified a number of significant differences based on the use of the moderators, and identified a number of aspects appropriate for government attention and future work

Developing an online learning community through an open reflective assessment

The concepts of learning communities, open educational practices and co-created teaching and learning are topics of current debate, particularly since the switch to online learning in 2020/21 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study uses student feedback to evaluate a new assessment method introduced within an online distance learning Master of Public Health programme. The assessment required students to blog about their motivations for studying public health, submitting their reflections to an open online platform, resulting in the co-creation of a shared, open-learning resource for current and future students. The assessment design was informed by the benefits of open educational practices and co-created teaching and learning, with the overall aim of developing an online learning community that will continue to grow and develop beyond the initial assessment and cohort. Feedback suggests that the open, reflective nature of the assessment had a positive impact on the student learning experience and contributed towards a sense of learning community through enhanced social cohesion within the group

Corporate Digital Responsibility: A Preliminary Review

Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) has become a vital focus in business and academia, addressing the ethical challenges of digital technology advancement. This paper offers a structured overview of CDR literature from 2013 to 2023 through a systematic literature review (SLR), identifying key dimensions, benefits, challenges, and frameworks. The findings emphasise the integration of CDR into business decisions and sustainability reporting, extending traditional Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Ethical considerations, stakeholder trust, and social justice are central themes. Effective CDR enhances corporate reputation, builds trust, and offers competitive advantages, but challenges like clear ethical guidelines and resources remain. The review shows growing scholarly attention to CDR, highlighting the need for interdisciplinary research and practical recommendations. The study calls for further research to develop ethical frameworks and guidelines, fostering responsible digital practices aligned with ethical standards and stakeholder expectations

Exploring the Role of \u27Price Value\u27 for Understanding Consumer Adoption of Technology: A Review and Meta-analysis of UTAUT2 based Empirical Studies

Price value is important theoretical addition to the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) as individuals bear monetary cost in using technology in consumer setting. A preliminary review of 650 UTAUT2 citations revealed majority of the studies utilized UTAUT2 in combination with external theories omitting some of original UTAUT2 constructs and rarely included moderators. Only 147 studies utilized at least one UTAUT2 construct in their research model. Thus, the aim of this study is to identify usage of price value construct in UTAUT2 based studies and their reason for inclusion or omission. The findings from 79 UTAUT2 empirical studies revealed only 32 studies (41%) utilized price value while the remaining 47 studies (59%) excluded the construct from their research model. The major reason for exclusion was studies examined technologies such as mobile applications and social networking sites that are available to individuals at free of cost

Life Sciences and Health in South West Wales: A Sub-regional Innovation Ecosystem

This chapter describes how efforts to develop the Life Sciences sector in south Wales have been undertaken through structured efforts of Understanding, Acting and Measuring, resulting in new ventures formed through spin-outs to commercialise research output and collaboration with other enterprises. Building upon concepts of clustering and regional innovation systems, the approach demonstrates the harnessing of a long-term strategy involving smart specialisation resulting in emerging and meaningful economic impact. Networking and knowledge exchange are shown as core components of a system reaching across wider sectors involving a diversity of skills

Immediate oral versus immediate topical versus delayed oral antibiotics for children with acute otitis media with discharge: the REST three-arm non-inferiority electronic platform-supported RCT

This article relates to a research study that included patients or members of the workforce as study participants from GP practices in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.Background: Acute otitis media is a painful infection of the middle ear that is commonly seen in children. In some children, the eardrum spontaneously bursts, discharging visible pus (otorrhoea) into the outer ear. Objective: To compare the clinical effectiveness of immediate topical antibiotics or delayed oral antibiotics with the clinical effectiveness of immediate oral antibiotics in reducing symptom duration in children presenting to primary care with acute otitis media with discharge and the economic impact of the alternative strategies. Design: This was a pragmatic, three-arm, individually randomised (stratified by age < 2 vs. ≥ 2 years), non-inferiority, open-label trial, with economic and qualitative evaluations, supported by a health-record-integrated electronic trial platform [TRANSFoRm (Translational Research and Patient Safety in Europe)] with an internal pilot. Setting: A total of 44 English general practices. Participants: Children aged ≥ 12 months and < 16 years whose parents (or carers) were seeking medical care for unilateral otorrhoea (ear discharge) following recent-onset (≤ 7 days) acute otitis media. Interventions: (1) Immediate ciprofloxacin (0.3%) solution, four drops given three times daily for 7 days, or (2) delayed 'dose-by-age' amoxicillin suspension given three times daily (clarithromycin twice daily if the child was penicillin allergic) for 7 days, with structured delaying advice. All parents were given standardised information regarding symptom management (paracetamol/ibuprofen/fluids) and advice to complete the course. Comparator: Immediate 'dose-by-age' oral amoxicillin given three times daily (or clarithromycin given twice daily) for 7 days. Parents received standardised symptom management advice along with advice to complete the course. Main outcome measure: Time from randomisation to the first day on which all symptoms (pain, fever, being unwell, sleep disturbance, otorrhoea and episodes of distress/crying) were rated 'no' or 'very slight' problem (without need for analgesia). Methods: Participants were recruited from routine primary care appointments. The planned sample size was 399 children. Follow-up used parent-completed validated symptom diaries. Results: Delays in software deployment and configuration led to small recruitment numbers and trial closure at the end of the internal pilot. Twenty-two children (median age 5 years; 62% boys) were randomised: five, seven and 10 to immediate oral, delayed oral and immediate topical antibiotics, respectively. All children received prescriptions as randomised. Seven (32%) children fully adhered to the treatment as allocated. Symptom duration data were available for 17 (77%) children. The median (interquartile range) number of days until symptom resolution in the immediate oral, delayed oral and immediate topical antibiotic arms was 6 (4-9), 4 (3-7) and 4 (3-6), respectively. Comparative analyses were not conducted because of small numbers. There were no serious adverse events and six reports of new or worsening symptoms. Qualitative clinician interviews showed that the trial question was important. When the platform functioned as intended, it was liked. However, staff reported malfunctioning software for long periods, resulting in missed recruitment opportunities. Troubleshooting the software placed significant burdens on staff. Limitations: The over-riding weakness was the failure to recruit enough children. Conclusions: We were unable to answer the main research question because of a failure to reach the required sample size. Our experience of running an electronic platform-supported trial in primary care has highlighted challenges from which we have drawn recommendations for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the research community. These should be considered before such a platform is used again