The moderating role of corporate reputation and employee-company identification on the work-related outcomes of job insecurity resulting from workforce localization policies

Although previous studies have examined the impact of job insecurity, there remains a need to understand specific issues related to job insecurity that results from government workforce localization policies. This study addresses this gap by examining employees' work-related outcomes: employee engagement, job burnout, and intentions to quit, recognizing the interplay of employees' identification with an organization and perceived corporate reputation in the context of Saudi Arabia's localization policies. The study uses social identification theory to explain how employees' perception of corporate reputation and their identification with a company shape their work attitudes in the presence of job-insecurity. Partial least square - path modeling (PLS-PM) and PROCESS tool is used to test hypotheses from data collected from 135 expatriate migrant employees working in different organizations in Saudi Arabia. Findings show that job insecurity has a significant effect of reducing the engagement of immigrant employees and leads to increased employee burnout and intentions to quit jobs. The results of moderation analysis show that favorable corporate reputation reduces the negative impact of job insecurity on employee's burnout and intentions to quit, whereas high level of identification with company may also reduce employee burnout, even during job insecurity. Although immigrant employees do not seek to leave a reputable organization due to localization policies, they still experience stress, become disengaged, and so are less productive. As a result, businesses should leverage their reputation towards governmental policies of localization, by advocating expatriate employees' contributions towards organizations and economy

What are the educational needs and experiences of asylum-seeking and refugee children, including those who are unaccompanied, with a particular focus on inclusion? - A literature review

In a context of mass displacement and flows of asylum-seeking and refugee peoples across national borders, the need to respond and attend to the education of asylum-seeking and refugee children is urgent and pressing, though it is not without its challenges. This literature review focuses on the educational experiences of asylum seeking and refugee children, including those who are unaccompanied, with a particular focus on inclusion. It seeks to respond to the following three interconnected questions: 1. What does current educational literature tell us about the educational needs and experiences of asylumseeking and refugee children as they relate to inclusion? 2. What does current educational literature tell us about the educational needs and experiences of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children as they relate to inclusion? 3. What implications and recommendations can be drawn from existing literature? The review has a particular interest in the needs and experiences of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children, but recognises that though there is a developing literature specifically on unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children (see, for example, Stanley, 2001; Derluyn and Broekaert, 2008; Pastoor, 2015) such needs must be understood and positioned in relation to the wider educational needs and experiences of asylum seeking and refugee children more generally. While other literature reviews on asylum-seeking and refugee children are available (see, for example, Hek, 2005; McBrien, 2005), the present review adds to existing work by: • including an explicit focus on the educational needs and experiences of asylum-seeking and refugee children who are unaccompanied; • providing an up-to-date review of literature which analyses and reports the educational needs and experiences of asylum-seeking and refugee children. The review focuses in particular on post-migration experiences within school settings as they relate to asylum seeking and refugee children’s social inclusion

HRM formality differences in Pakistani SMEs: a three-sector comparative study

Purpose Guided by institutional theory, this empirical paper examines variations in the adoption of HRM practices among SMEs in three different business sectors (services, manufacturing and trade). Design/methodology/approach Data from 300 owners/managers representing three business sectors were collected through a survey method. Findings The results suggest that service SMEs use more formal HRM practices than manufacturing and trade SMEs. Manufacturing SMEs are more formal than trade firms. Results are not affected by firm age. Research limitations/implications Social desirability bias may have influenced respondents into portraying a positive image of the organization by inflating HRM sophistication. A further limitation is that the performance of the firms was not measured. As such, it is not possible to judge whether greater HRM formality correlated with improved organizational performance. Practical implications This study shows how the business sector shapes HRM practices in Pakistani SMEs. Findings help to inform Pakistan's Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) in dealings with manufacturing and trade firms in terms of improving HRM practices. Originality/value Given the important role of SMEs in economic development, comparative research on HRM in SME contexts is scarce. Since SMEs are vital for Pakistan's economy, an improved understanding of the sector's approach to human resource development is important. The findings extend the boundaries of prior comparative HRM literature in SMEs by addressing sector influences while controlling for contextual factors

Inclusive educational provision for newly-arrived unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children: a study in a single school in Kent

Recent migration flows – including those resulting from conflict, persecution and natural disaster – place a responsibility on nations to honour international and humanitarian commitments with respect to refugees. A central part of these commitments is to make provision for the educational needs of asylum-seeking and refugee children, including those whom are unaccompanied. Indeed, education and schooling play a crucial role in the complex relationship between newly-arrived immigrants and their new host communities. In the UK and elsewhere a body of research evidence has developed regarding the post-migration educational needs and experiences of asylum-seeking and refugee children. As we have reported elsewhere (Peterson et al., 2016), such research points to a range of approaches, relationships and practices through which asylum-seeking and refugee children are, and indeed at times are not, included within their new communities, including the school community. The study reported here was conducted in a national and local context of increased recognition (both positive and negative) of the humanitarian plight and presence of asylum-seeking and refugee people and children, including children whom are unaccompanied. The study focused on the approach of a single 11-18 school –Hartsdown Academy – situated in Margate, Kent. Working with Virtual School Kent, the school has developed its existing educational provision to include newly-arrived unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children. The present study is concerned particularly with the perceived and actual social and cultural outcomes and benefits (including any notable challenges and barriers) of the school’s approach to including newly-arrived unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children

How international SME's vicarious learning may improve their performance? The role of absorptive capacity, strength of ties with local SMEs, and their prior success experiences

This study investigates whether inter-firm relationships can raise innovation and overall performance during SME internationalization, focusing on how SMEs learn from firms in transnational markets and the nature of such relationships. It contributes to research by proposing the role of vicarious learning from networked firms in the host country to improve their absorptive capacity (ACAP), innovation, and overall performance. In particular, this study proposes the moderating roles of the strength of ties with and prior success experience of SMEs in the host country market for enhancing international SMEs' vicarious learning to improve their ACAP, innovation, and overall performance. Structural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 163 valid responses received from international SMEs operating in various industrial sectors in Saudi Arabia. The obtained results support the significantly positive role of international SMEs' vicarious learning from local firms in developing their ACAP and enhancing their innovation and overall performance. However, international SMEs must have strong ties with local firms and learn from such firms' prior success experiences to derive these benefits fully

Thermodynamics of Ion Separation by Electrosorption

We present a simple, top-down approach for the calculation of minimum energy consumption of electrosorptive ion separation using variational form of the (Gibbs) free energy. We focus and expand on the case of electrostatic capacitive deionization (CDI), and the theoretical framework is independent of details of the double-layer charge distribution and is applicable to any thermodynamically consistent model, such as the Gouy-Chapman-Stern (GCS) and modified Donnan (mD) models. We demonstrate that, under certain assumptions, the minimum required electric work energy is indeed equivalent to the free energy of separation. Using the theory, we define the thermodynamic efficiency of CDI. We explore the thermodynamic efficiency of current experimental CDI systems and show that these are currently very low, less than 1% for most existing systems. We applied this knowledge and constructed and operated a CDI cell to show that judicious selection of the materials, geometry, and process parameters can be used to achieve a 9% thermodynamic efficiency (4.6 kT energy per removed ion). This relatively high value is, to our knowledge, by far the highest thermodynamic efficiency ever demonstrated for CDI. We hypothesize that efficiency can be further improved by further reduction of CDI cell series resistances and optimization of operational parameters

Negative index fishnet with nanopillars formed by direct nano-imprint lithography

In this paper we demonstrate the ability to fabricate fishnets by nanoimprinting directly into a pre-deposited three layer metal–dielectric–metal stack, enabling us to pattern large areas in two minutes. We have designed and fabricated two different fishnet structures of varying dimensions using this method and measured their resonant wavelengths in the near-infrared at 1.45 μm and 1.88 μm. An important by-product of directly imprinting into the metal–dielectric stack, without separation from the substrate, is the formation of rectangular nanopillars that sit within the rectangular apertures between the fishnet slabs. Simulations complement our measurements and suggest a negative refractive index real part with a magnitude of 1.6. Further simulations suggest that if the fishnet were to be detached from the supporting substrate a refractive index real part of 5 and FOM of 2.74 could be obtained

Ultrafine particles in rural and urban dwellings with different household fuel use in developing countries – An example from Pakistan

Exposure to indoor particulate matter (PM) is a major public health concern, in particular, in developing countries where solid fuels are typically used as a household energy source.Despite the fact that emission from these fuels can have a dominant fraction of ultrafine particles, exposure to PM is generally characterised in terms of mass concentration of PM10 and PM2.5. The present study was carried out to examine the number concentration of ultrafine particles in rural and urban Pakistani households with different fuels. Air samples were collected from kitchens, living rooms and courtyards of two rural sites (Site I - Solid fuel; Site II - Natural gas) and an urban site (Natural gas) by using condensation particle counters.At rural site –I the 24 hour mean concentration of particles in the kitchen, living room and outdoors was 40,991#/cm3 (± 7472), 30,291#/cm3 (± 13774) and 34,534#/cm3 (± 4947), respectively. During cooking the number concentration can increase significantly with an average hourly maximum value of 169,455#/cm3. Higher outdoors levels than in living rooms highlight the effect of cooking in open kitchens on ambient levels. At the rural site II the daily average number concentration in living rooms was in the range of 10,745 – 16,126 #/cm3 with a mean of 13,542 #/cm3.These values were more than half those in living rooms at rural site I. Whereas in the kitchen the 24hour mean was 27,446#/cm3 (± 4487). At the urban site the mean 24 hour average in the living rooms and kitchens was 45,466 #/cm3 (± 5919)and 65,904 #/cm3 (± 11490), respectively. The 24 hour mean concentration was more than double in the urban kitchens than in rural kitchens at site II. The 24 hour average outdoors was 33,424 #/cm3 (± 6037)– slightly lower than outdoors at rural site I. Overall, the number concentration was higher in kitchens using natural gas fuel at the urban site than in those with solid fuels and natural gas at rural sites. While between rural sites the households with solid fuel had higher concentrations than those with natural gas. Furthermore, outdoors at rural site-I households had higher concentrations as compared to urban household outdoors

Heavy metal composition of particulate matter in rural and urban residential built environments in Pakistan

Heavy metals in outdoor and indoor airborne particulate matter (PM) and dust in different residential built environmentsat two rural and one urban site in Pakistan were analysed. An eight stage non-viable impactor (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., USA) loaded with EMP 2000 glass microfiber filter papers (Whatman, England) was used to collect airborne PM.The indoordust samples (settled dust) were collected from different indoor surfaces (floor, cupboards) in living rooms and kitchens from houses at rural sites. The outdoor samples were collected from courtyards of the houses.At the urban site dust samples were also collected by the roads at 27 different locations around Lahoreand at a background site (University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences).Additionally, samples of dung cake, used as solid fuel, at one of the rural sites were taken.Heavy metals (Si, Al, Zn, Mn, Cu, Ni, Cd, Pb, Co and As) were determined by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. At rural site I, in general, the concentrations of metals were higher outdoors than indoors, except for slightly higher indoor levels of Cu (0.85μg/m3 indoor: 0.56 outdoorμg/m3), Si (3.31μg/m3 indoor: 3.17 outdoorμg/m3) and Pb(11.99 ng/m3 indoor: 9.32 outdoor ng/m3). At the rural site II the mean concentration were higher outdoors than indoors, excluding Ni which was considerably higher indoors (55.68 ng/m3) than outdoors (31.91 ng/m3).At the urban site,outdoors, Si had the highest concentration (3.46 μg/m3) followed by Al, Zn, Mn, Cu, Ni, Cd, Pb and Co. Similarly, the indoor levels had a maximum contribution from Si (12.30 μg/m3) followed by Al, Mn, Zn, Cu, Cd, As, Pb, Ni and Co.With reference to dust at rural site I the top five metals outdoors were Si (708 mg/kg), Al, Cu, Zn and Pb (52 mg/kg) while, indoors Al was highest (281 mg/kg), followed by Si, Cu, Zn and Pb (57 mg/kg). At rural site II, both outdoors and indoors, Al (274 mg/kg – outdoor: 266 mg/kg - indoor), Si, Zn, Cu and Pb (61 mg/kg – outdoor: 80 mg/kg - indoor) were the five most abundant metals.The main five metals in decreasing order of their concentration in the road dust around Lahore were Si (686 mg/kg), Al, Cu, Zn and Pb (81 mg/kg). On the other hand, the dust samples from the background site showed Si (345 mg/kg) > Al >Pb> Cu > Zn (73 mg/kg). The airborne metal concentration of Pb was within the guideline value of WHO (0.5 μg/m3) but the levels of Mn, Cd and Ni were higher at all sites than the guidelines proposed by European Commission and WHO highlighting the risk of exposure to toxic metals in non-occupational environments