The Impact of Organizational Change on Employee Turnover Intention: Does Stress Play a Mediating Role?

This study examined the relationship between change interventions and employee turnover intention to see if change interventions lead to increased employee turnover intention. Moreover, the mediating role of employee stress was tested. Data were collected from 162 respondents working at various administrative positions in a large public organization. The results indicate that employee turnover intention is positively correlated to human process, techno structural, human resources, and strategic interventions. Limitations and direction for future research are provided.     

Risk and Benefit Perceptions of Mobile Phone and Base Station Technology in Bangladesh

Research in developed countries showed that many citizens perceive that radio signals transmitted by mobile phones and base stations represent potential health risks. Less research has been conducted in developing countries focused on citizen perceptions of risks and benefits, despite the recent and rapid introduction of mobile communication technologies. This study aims to identify factors that are influential in determining the tradeoffs that Bangladeshi citizens make between risks and benefits in terms of mobile phone technology acceptance and health concerns associated with the technology. Bangladesh was selected as representative of many developing countries inasmuch as terrestrial telephone infrastructure is insubstantial, and mobile phone use has expanded rapidly over the last decade, even among the poor. Issues of importance were identified in a small‐scale qualitative study among Bangladeshi citizens (n = 13), followed by a survey within a sample of Bangladeshi citizens (n = 500). The results demonstrate that, in general, the perceived benefits of mobile phone technology outweigh the risks. The perceived benefits are primarily related to the social and personal advantages of mobile phone use, including the ability to receive emergency news about floods, cyclones, and other natural disasters. Base stations were seen as a symbol of societal advance. The results furthermore suggest that overall risk perceptions are relatively low, in particular health risks, and are primarily driven by perceptions that related to crime and social inconvenience. Perceived health risks are relatively small. These findings show that risk communication and management may be particularly effective when contextual factors of the society where the system is implemented are taken into consideration.     

Neyman-type sample allocation for domains-efficient estimation in multistage sampling

We consider a problem of allocation of a sample in two- and three-stage sampling. We seek allocation which is both multi-domain and population efficient. Choudhry et al. (Survey Methods 38(1):23–29, 2012) recently considered such problem for one-stage stratified simple random sampling without replacement in domains. Their approach was through minimization of the sample size under constraints on relative variances in all domains and on the overall relative variance. To attain this goal, they used nonlinear programming. Alternatively, we minimize here the relative variances in all domains (controlling them through given priority weights) as well as the overall relative variance under constraints imposed on total (expected) cost. We consider several two- and three-stage sampling schemes. Our aim is to shed some light on the analytic structure of solutions rather than in deriving a purely numerical tool for sample allocation. To this end, we develop the eigenproblem methodology introduced in optimal allocation problems in Niemiro and Wesołowski (Appl Math 28:73–82, 2001) and recently updated in Wesołowski and Wieczorkowski (Commun Stat Theory Methods 46(5):2212–2231, 2017) by taking under account several new sampling schemes and, more importantly, by the (single) total expected variable cost constraint. Such approach allows for solutions which are direct generalization of the Neyman-type allocation. The structure of the solution is deciphered from the explicit allocation formulas given in terms of an eigenvector \({\underline{v}}^*\) of a population-based matrix \(\mathbf{D}\). The solution we provide can be viewed as a multi-domain version of the Neyman-type allocation in multistage stratified SRSWOR schemes.

     

‘WE ARE SCATTERED LIKE SEEDS AND THE WORLD IS FULL OF US’ (N. A. FROM AFGHANISTAN)1

This article does not have an abstract     

Youth underemployment: A review of research on young people and the problems of less(er) employment in an era of mass education

In this article, we examine the problem of youth underemployment and how it is conceptualised, operationalised and understood within wider sociology, with particular focus on the sociology of youth and youth studies literature. We outline the contours of this body of work, showing how in most cases underemployment is undefined and used as a general term to describe the challenges and inadequacies of the contemporary labour market for young people. Further, we show how despite a lack of clarity, most researchers in this field contend that underemployment is increasing for young people, becoming a normative experience, cutting across class, ethnicity and gender. For some, however, underemployment is a ‘choice’, but as the literature shows, how different groups of young people respond to underemployment varies. In addition, we show how overeducation, another form of underemployment, is being understood by both researchers and young people as a ‘new normal’ rather than being challenged as another flank in the on-going neo-liberalisation and massification of education. We conclude with a call to think through the ideas presented and to develop new understandings of youth underemployment that can facilitate change. The sensitising concept of less(er) employment is proposed as best placed to facilitate this reanimation.     

New Styles of Community Building and Philanthropy by Arab-American Muslims

Among Arab-American Muslims, secular ethnic and humanitarian giving, focused on ‘results’ and ‘measurable impact,’ is displacing religiously inspired giving, that is driven by ‘charity’ and ‘love of mankind.’ This trend is supported by evidence of the way donors position themselves and philanthropic organizations appeal to their donor base. The case is supported by qualitative data drawn from interviews with key informants and from trend data on giving. I propose a new model of giving based on identity and giving, using Grounded Theory methods. This model challenges our understanding about the connection between community and philanthropy and proposes that philanthropy can create ‘community.’     

Business incubators as international knowledge intermediaries: Exploring their role in the internationalization of start-ups from an emerging market

This paper investigates how business incubators facilitate the international growth of start-up clients originating from emerging markets. Drawing key insights from a network perspective, we explore the processes by which business incubators create international linkages between the networks of knowledge creation and knowledge application. Our analysis of interviews and archival data on five Chinese high-tech business incubators reveals that clients-interface, market-interface, and knowledge recombination practices of the business incubators create international knowledge linkages, which in turn facilitate the international growth of their start-up clients. This role of incubators as knowledge intermediaries is achieved through several networking and learning mechanisms, including clustering and coaching of international clients, upstream and downstream networking in international markets, and client-market matchmaking internally. This study demonstrates business incubators as an efficient modality of internationalization for locally bound international knowledge and network scarce start-up clients.     

论哈萨克族创世神话中的哲学思想

哈萨克族创世神话内容丰富,艺术特色鲜明。本文对哈萨克族的传世神话《迦萨甘创世》和《神与灵魂》进行深层次的阐释,探讨了创世神话所蕴含的哲学思想及其对哈萨克哲学思想观念形成的影响。