Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Leadership

Failing of most start-ups is a global phenomenon. The start-up’s dealing with technology are often lacking the understating that there are two different sales processes, one dealing with investors and one with actual customers. By understand the importance of business development, their changing unique competing space and the importance of the timing and combining this with customer relationship management and sales process management can produce positive effects on start-ups’ success rate, especially when combined with the under-standing of the need for continuous cash flow. This article introduces sales approaches and models for start-ups to utilize.

The aim of the research is to highlight the cultural impact on value formation between sales. What role does culture play in the globalization of sales. Culture itself is a broad concept, and its implications for the uses studied from different perspectives and starting points. The influence of cultures on the company’s operations is emphasized in all forms, in which case the company strives to create all cultural activities with the company. Modeling has highlighted the impact of culture on the sales process. The research prioritizes the smallest smallest cultural differences that arise at the highest value.

The article introduces and applies the concepts of Pierre Bourdieu to study the professional habitus of sales professionals and its relation to the field of sales, doxa of sales and the logic of practice. Article discusses these concepts and proposes a research design to study the combination of the theoretical concepts with a practical approach. Further research is needed to gain new insights on sales professionalism and to help to improve the sales performance and to illustrate why experienced and successful sales professionals for example “just know” the right time to close the deal with the right proposal.

The aim of the study was to understand the behavior of young people in the investment market and the impact of social media and ethics on investment. The operation of the investment market is strongly influenced by the activities of the investors operating there. The study also highlighted young people’s views on internships in terms of internships. The impact of social media on the investment market has already been observed in individual and limited cases, but the exceptional behavior of private investors in early 2021 led to restrictions in the investment market. The importance of young people’s behavior in the investment market is significant.

Societies around the globe are facing enormous changes based on new technologies and an exponential growth in the amount of data. At the same time, we are facing the ‘wicked’ problems of world, like climate change, population growth and the lack of natural resources. Due to the importance and complexity of this transition, it is referred to as the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. The change will be fast and complex; it will affect all sectors of society and fundamentally change the way we live. The goal of this article is to identify the available methodological components and fine-tune them to create new concepts to build a framework for ecosystem-based development in the transition of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the same time, this article attempts to develop framework for the strategic management of complex change in order to achieve a competitive edge for companies and to improve the regional business environment.

The existing energy system is heavily centralized, where production and distribution systems are largely controlled by big utility companies. The issue of global warming, the need to reduce emissions, sustainable use of conventional hydrocarbons, and improvements in renewable energy technologies – both in terms of cost and performance – has highlighted the need to transform the energy market. The trend is further exacerbated by the advancement in technology. The transformation is said to have implications for the stakeholders involved in the process, including customers, utility companies, and regulatory bodies. The objective of this study is to explore the effect this transformation would have on the local energy system and the changes needed to be made to ensure the transition provides desired outcomes. Based on the findings, the study proposes changes companies need to make in their business models to adapt to the changing needs of the market as well as of customers.

Pakistan is struggling to cope up with its mounting energy needs. The gap between electricity generation and consumption is widening, leaving power cuts as an only choice to bridge the gap. The adverse effects of this crisis can be observed at household and industrial level. In order to mitigate the impacts of this prolonged load shedding, people have started using power generators, uninterrupted power supplies and solar photovoltaics (PV) for generating electricity at homes and work. Solar power, a promising renewable energy source in Pakistan, renders an excellent opportunity to be a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative for self-generation. However, despite all the benefits it can offer, its adoption is at earlier stages, citing high cost as one of the major barriers. The objective of this study is to explore how the barrier of high cost can be addressed to enhance the use of solar PV in Pakistan. By using the qualitative case study design, the findings of this research highlight the need to introduce innovative business models to make solar PV affordable.

The COVID-19 crisis has generated considerable research efforts in all areas of knowledge, including the area of business and management. This article aimed to describe the body of knowledge generated on COVID-19 regarding business and management to generate the basis for future research. The present study identified 1,751 relevant articles in the Scopus database. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia stood out in terms scientific production, whereas the National Natural Science Foundation of China dominated in funding studies. The analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords in the articles allowed the identification of four thematic clusters that correspond to the priorities given by the research: 1) the crisis and use of technology to overcome it; 2) leadership and risk management; 3) impact on the hospitality, tourism, and air transport sectors; and 4) social impact and corporate social responsibility. This article ends by discussing these results and their implications.

Business to business (B2B) sales professionals are represented in all industries and service sectors. However, there are all too few possibilities for South-East Asian higher education students to apply for B2B sales degree programmes or courses. In the European Commission co-funded South-East Asian Sales Competition SEASAC project, new courses are introduced, and special attention is addressed in assessing students’ learning outcomes and in accelerating university-business cooperation. Core aims are realized by establishing local and international sales competitions. In this paper, authors from Finland, Indonesia and Thailand present first impressions and effects of SEASAC activities in South-East Asia.

Global pollution has brought together several countries over time in order to reduce global warming by about 1.5 °C, as the productive sector is one of the main causes, It is suggested to use the model proposed by UNEP and UNIDO for Cleaner Production (C+P), aiming at reducing raw material consumption and waste reduction; analysis on production processes is started to obtain data on the use and waste generation, using descriptive statistics and Pareto analysis in the 2019 processes, the main causes are identified through the 6 Ms of Ishikawa, so it is concluded that 2 raw materials are responsible for more than 88% of waste, thereafter, it is identified that the highest percentage of waste is below the central limit through the use of C+P and statistical process control, which is expected to reduce waste and environmental impact by 18% and increase productivity by 22%.

The present work aims to evaluate the factors involved in energy consumption and determine the impact on production costs and competitiveness of the refined tuna protein processing company. Historical data, consumption records, and productive volumes of the 5 stages (reception of raw material, reactor or solids separator, filtration, evaporation, and drying) were analyzed, where the equipment involved in each stage was identified. The electricity demand is 24 h a day, and on average 6 days a week, generating costs that are around 153,000.00 USD per year. As result of the analysis, it was identified that in a general way the percentage of incidence of costs within the production process is 23% of intervention, where the values ​​in dollars invoiced were analyzed, with the costs of the energy consumed per stage within the production process of refined tuna protein. This analysis will allow making decisions regarding investing in projects that help improve energy management through clean energy systems, to protect the environment and be more competitive in the market.

Industrial Symbiosis is a way to implement Circular Economy, by connecting industrial waste as an input for another industrial process. These circular material flows have an important role to sustainable development. Earlier research shows that there is lack of information related to waste and by-products, that brings challenges to logistics and managing sufficient input for production. There is a gap in the knowledge of information sharing in ongoing and long-term Industrial Symbiosis. This paper presents a case of biobased Industrial Symbiosis with one by-product producer and three by-product producers and seeks answers to how information is shared between companies.

This research discusses ergonomic procedures at building sites and further addresses the usefulness of protection and productivity management practices in the construction industry. Over the last three decades, the construction industry has experienced dramatic changes in terms of the type of project to be delivered, the technology used, the design and tools required by the job, and the communication medium in place. This development put construction firms on their toes as the business becomes trickier. This development in the construction industry necessitates the consideration of effective strategy that will ensure optimality in practice especially in the area of safety and productivity management. To attain enhanced productivity in the construction practice, a safe workplace is very crucial. The key purpose of the analysis is to examine the feasibility of applied ergonomics as a tool for the construction sector’s safety and efficiency management. The study approach focused on the employee and work team, the workplace and the environment, the material involved, the equipment involved, and the organization at large through an applied system of ergonomic practice. Literature was critically reviewed under the categories of construction safety and construction productivity. The two categories were reviewed concerning their geographical location including international, regional, and local. The technique followed is survey design, primary data were gathered to gather data from the selected population by using a possibly the best survey. The appropriateness of the research design can be justified because the design allowed the use of a questionnaire to capture data, the provided data can be quantitatively analyzed for inferential implication. The research uses multisampling techniques which combined stratified and random sampling methods. The stratified sampling was used to group the construction firms according to their sizes, the random sampling is used to select respondents from each stratum. The study indicated that productivity would be enhanced by a safe working environment. This is after the result revealed that productivity would be significantly affected by the condition of the working environment. The study concludes that the ergonomics practices in a construction site is very essential for a safe working environment and enhanced productivity.

Safety in construction processes is still a major subject of discourse among stakeholders in the construction industry. Accidents on construction sites have been a perennial problem and the issues still persist despite the renewed efforts in making sure it is drastically curtailed. The South African construction industry is not spared from the daunting challenges of site accidents. To this end, this study makes efforts in reassessing the measures of abating site accidents in the South African construction industry. A quantitative approach was adopted, which employed the use of questionnaire as the instrument for data collection. Acquired data was subjected to appropriate methods of statistical analysis. Findings from the study showed that the correct use of equipment and tools, and carrying out risk analysis are the most significant measures for the abatement of site accidents. The study made insightful recommendations that will help stakeholders in the construction industry in adhering to safety practices which in turn will bring about a mitigation of accidents occurrence on site.

The policy environment has become increasingly complex over the past decades, adapting to shifts in society, economy, as well as showing more harmonization internationally. Simultaneously, the business environment has been shaped by emerging trends, technological advancements, and a steep increase in competition. Therefore, the ability to innovate and capture value, potentially disrupting an industry, is a significant success factor in achieving business growth and relevance. For those purposes, this paper aims to examine the complexities between policy development and innovation, by analyzing existing literature and supplementing it with a specific research, in order to establish a better understanding of the linkages between the macro and micro levels. Subsequently, this paper explores how outcomes of such interactions can be evaluated and decision-making processes, as well as strategies, adapted, in order to successfully navigate those complexities, whilst enhancing innovation capabilities.

Bioeconomy is one of the key areas to find new approaches to manage bio-based resources by sustainable and efficient way. Sustainable chains have to be efficient to use recourses by optimized way and to return nutrients back to field for future agriculture. The important issue also is to process biowaste as biofuels. Biomaterial chains are often long and complex including processing, transportation, storages side flow and energy. Because of this it has not been possible to optimize the value chain and production the same way as in manufacturing industry.To create efficient bio-based value chains, organizations need to create value and share the information to partners in the ecosystem. Standardization as well as harmonization of data is needed to make it possible. All the data should be integrated and processed to optimize operations of the whole chain. Industry 4.0- framework provides standardization, RAMI architecture, as a reference databased business architecture for this development.The aim of this article is to create an innovation ecosystem concept for the development of bio-based value chain more efficient and enable a more efficient circular economy. This article introduces as a case study an implementation of a framework on digitalization of farming ecosystem.

In this research, the bankruptcy situation of companies listed on the Santiago de Chile Stock Exchange and the São Paulo Stock Exchange are tested, through models: Z-Score, Logit and Probit, comparing the forecast of the companies classified as likely to fail, in order to assess whether the models could anticipate a possible crisis situation. The results indicate that, for the year 2016, the bankruptcy of 13 Chilean companies and 59 Brazilian companies, mostly belonging to the construction and manufacturing sector in both countries, was forecast. It is concluded that the Z-Score and Z1 Models would be more applicable to the economies under study, as they were correct in the forecast of all Chilean companies and 49 Brazilian companies, and it is always necessary to complement the tools oriented to financial analysis.

The aim of this paper is to identify initial requirements for a proactive and human-centered automotive development process, which considers future effects of global trends and challenges. For this, a qualitative case study is conducted on an industrial project, which focused on the effects of demographic development in a worldwide known and leading German automotive manufacturer. The actual demographic situation and future challenges are analyzed with the use of demography relevant criteria by workshops with experts from the manufacturer. Four topics were identified as crucial in the context of demography for the future (ergonomic workplace design, age-differentiated workplace design, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and personnel development). These topics are further explored by an expert workshop. In a case study, requirements for a human-centered automotive development process are derived from the discussions and results of the expert workshop. The paper concludes with an outlook regarding future actions to identify additional requirements and the development of a more human-centered automotive development process for practical use.

Pension funds has become progressively important because of longer life expectation and greater uncertainty in crisis/ pandemic times. The Chilean pension fund has some remarkable characteristic. However, it has been strongly criticized by the low pensions that provide to retired workers. This paper aims to analyze the efficiency of the organizations that manage pension funds (AFPs), specifically during disrupted times, such as 2008 financial crisis. The methodology applied is a stochastic frontier model and compare its results with previous studies that utilized the alternative method of the envelope technological frontier, even though the period under study is not the same. The contribution is to answer how the crisis impacted in AFPs` outcomes using the stochastic method and the differences between stochastic and absolute methods findings. AFPs increase efficiency but did not impact retired workers. Nonetheless results about economies of scale differs. Further studies focus on workers return are need it.

The article is devoted to the study of peculiarities of work of psychologists and social teachers in quarantine conditions. The analysis of the mental state of specialists and the possibilities of conducting professional activities remotely is carried out. The ability of nature therapy to influence the restoration of the social and psychological state of children is considered. It is noted that the perspective direction of rehabilitation of children with special educational needs is inclusive tourism, namely, excursions, hikes, travels that contribute to the general process of socialization, integration and development of communication skills. Taking into account the increased demand for services, psychologists and social teachers can effectively work remotely in quarantine.

Humans typically have a need to be heard and recognized. This need is often felt as a need of fair treatment of people, especially in relationships between leaders and followers. Former research has shown a correlation of felt justice between students and staff. This means that in the situations where school staff members feel fairness and justice from their leadership, students also feel same from the staff. Typically, people feel to be treated well, just when they believe that their leaders or teachers hear their views and opinions. This research was done by utilizing two different questionnaire tools, one for staff and one for students. Data was gathered in 2019 and 2020 in annual organizational surveys. The overall research question is: Is there a correlation between felt justice of staff and students’ satisfaction? This article shows the correlations and discusses the results of these correlations. Future research aspects and practical recommendations will also be issued in the paper.

With the transformation of manufacturing industry entering a new era, the home furnishing industry is also facing changes. Catering to user needs accurately and improving users’ experience of purchasing household products are important means for companies to enhance their competitiveness. Through field study, this research explores the pain points of users during the whole process of purchasing household products, and develops the influence model of user behavior and preferences through quantitative analysis methods.

Obesity and overweight are worldwide issues, fortunately there are good treatment options and interventions to decreasing obesity for individuals and organizational bodies. Unfortunately, the good treatment options and interventions need resources. For effective resource allocation, it is crucial to understand how different interventions and different treatment options can be effectively measured for their impact and economic effects. In the article the authors present a concept to manage weight health problems and show why a broad approach is needed to tackle overweight and support individuals with obesity. The article also gives insight for how the treatment of overweight and obesity can be looked an investment towards individuals, businesses, regions and societies.

Mobile instant messaging (MIM) is one of the most influential technologies in society today due to its wide penetration in the world’s population. The present study aims to establish whether two consumer traits, extraversion and novelty seeking, have the potential to explain the intensity of MIM usage by consumers considering its good performance in explaining other consumer behaviors. The present study is based on a survey of 682 adults in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, which is a South American developing country. The data obtained are analyzed with structural equation modeling and establish that while extraversion is not related to the intensity of MIM use, novelty seeking does have a direct and positive effect. This study makes recommendations for business theory and practice.

Existing retail internationalization research, which has been theorized for innovative retail internationalization originating in developed countries, is insufficient for explaining the internationalization behavior of retailers originating in emerging countries, which have relatively fewer competitive advantages. Therefore, this study suggests new analytical concepts and future research directions for analyzing the internationalization behavior of retailers from developing countries entering China. This study adopted the value network concept for retailers and proposed the retail value network concept as a retailer-specific commercial transaction network to analyze ethnic Chinese retailers from developing countries. This study also suggests the need for studies on how the ethnic Chinese business network affects the formation of the retail value network as an avenue for future research.

Sustainable development, sustainable consumption and short supply chains are nowadays acquiring increasing relevance on the literature. On the other hand, from the consumers attitudinal statement, ethical consumption is also requiring more attention from marketing sciences. Besides that, the integration of the last concept on sustainability remains in a complete lack of systematic and integrative conceptualization. This paper tries to promote a potential integration of all the dimensions of sustainable consumption and to understand the potential linkage and interaction among them, in order to promote the Sustainable Development Goal 15 from the United Nations. The methodology follows a systematic literature review and preliminary information comes from a case study of the approved project SDGsConsum. The results confirm that, besides a huge development in sustainable development and sustainable consumption in the literature, the focus on shortly supply chains of production is yet modest. Moreover, the motivations and constraints that drive and restrain, respectively, consumers toward ethical and sustainable consumption presents several incongruences.

Cultural and creative products in colleges and universities play a role in disseminating the college and university culture. In order to promote their development, 19 factors impacting students’ decision on purchasing cultural and creative products in college and universities are sorted out in this paper. Then, the questionnaire method and DEMATEL are applied to analyze the influence relationship between different factors, providing references for the design of future cultural and creative products in colleges and universities. Corresponding research findings reveal that the brand construction of cultural and creative products in colleges and universities is critical to students’ purchase decision-making. Therefore, in order to improve the brand construction, various measures shall be taken from the perspective of design and marketing to strengthen the attraction of cultural and creative products in colleges and universities.

The social competences of the members of a community are learned in practical work. However, for people to perform their duties efficiently, personal and social competencies that are required in job roles need to be developed when working in new situations, with diversified teams, and with different cultures. In this paper, we present the results of a self-evaluation of 126 Finnish technical university students. The evaluation was performed using the Cycloid application. The focus of the paper is to identify the students’ views of the most important personal and social competencies among the 30 that have been identified in the project manager role. The analyses show that students who are at the beginning of their university studies need to develop especially their social competencies, such as leveraging diversity, understanding others, communication, and management as they grow in expertise. Social competences strengthen the lifelong learning of the individual’s personal and social competencies.

One of the most concrete tools to estimate research, development and innovation (RDI) investments is cash flow earnings simulation, which estimates return on capital employed. The simulation of cash flows earnings enables a comparable assessment of the returns on various investments related to research, development and innovation. It also facilitates the presentation of profitable research and development projects. This article describes why cash flow earnings is excellent way to predict the success of the coming RDI-Investment and reduce the risk of investment to fail and how to utilize it. In addition, the article also gives insights how the attitude towards RDI affected to the cash flow earnings on several Finnish SME-companies.

This study purported to explore the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the informal sector in Ghana. Particularly, the study sought to explore the nature of adversity, opportunities arising from the pandemic and remedial measures. The study adopted a mixed method and used a sample of 186 small-scale business owners and operators. The study found that the major driver of people into the informal sector were the lack of job opportunities in the formal sector rather than the need to evade government regulations. The adverse effects of the pandemic on informal businesses included lowered sales, shortage of supplies and closure of businesses. However, there were opportunities for informal businesses propelled by business diversification and technology. The study recommended the need for government to support and protect the informal sector to enhance mutual revenue generation amidst this pandemic.

Understanding value creation has a significant impact on regional vitality. Money or economic factors alone cannot generate vitality; it requires action according to human values, the production of customer value and the reconciliation of common interests. The mutual needs and interests of the private and public sectors must therefore be addressed and balanced as common acceptable policies. The objects of policy balancing are located at the interfaces of the sectors, which can be called value points. Value points focus critical interests and tensions between the partners. The balance of value points, mutual understanding and clarity of roles enable the emergence of vitality. Therefore, economic benefit is generated continuously by the processes and systemic nature of the private and public sector and as their result. Digitalization—the adoption of electronic services and operating models that utilize this systemic nature—enables new elements to generate value creation in constant change. Services, encounters and operating models must be renewed to meet the requirements of the operating environment. This article introduces how the Evolute method can be used to conceptualize and find the necessary information for successful change management in the layered and interdependent environment of continuous change.

Moral harassment at work has been defined as “all abusive conduct (gesture, word, behavior, attitude…) that attempts, by its repetition or systematization, against the dignity or mental or physical integrity of a person, endangering their employment or degrading the work environment” [1]. Mixed, descriptive study that analyzes the conditions that trigger workplace harassment and consequently alterations in the mental and physical health of workers. 86 drivers of a mining company in Bogotá-Colombia. Non-probability sample of volunteer participants. Informed consent signature. Instruments “Battery of Instruments for the Evaluation of Psychosocial Risk Factors” with intra-labor reliability levels 0.957; and stress 0.83. In relation to risks, 83% of those affected by aggressive communication processes, low levels of empowerment.

Digitalisation is transforming the roles of the quantity surveying profession resulting in the improvement of their performances and the economic use of resources in the construction industry. All over the world, the quantity surveying profession is currently utilising digital technologies to assist them with various activities such as the measurement of construction works. This study seeks to assess the current level of adoption of digital tools by Quantity Surveying firms and examine how beneficial the digital tools are to the firms. In order to fulfil these objectives, a descriptive methodology was utilized through a quantitative approach. Data for the research was gathered through a survey of professional quantity surveyors working in South Africa. Empirical findings from the study reveal that the most utilised digital tool amongst quantity surveying firms in South Africa is the Microsoft Excel tool and that adoption of modern quantity surveying specific digital tools are a little bit slow. The results further highlight the major benefits of digitalisation in quantity surveying firms to include increase in accuracy and precision as well as reduce the time taken to execute required tasks and meet deliverables. These findings reveal that although the desire to go digital is present in professional quantity surveying firms in South Africa and that the benefits of digitalised quantity surveying firms are immense. The uptake of digital tools is still quite low. However, it is important to note that quantity surveyors and by extension, quantity surveying firms are aware of the immense benefits of utilising digital tools and are enthusiastic about digitalisation generally as the available tools will help to complete their professional tasks more efficiently. In conclusion, it is imperative for quantity surveying firms in South Africa to fully embrace the numerous digital tools available to them in other to optimally operate and compete with a fast-paced world.

Sustainable construction is a channel for the actualization of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The triple bottom line of sustainable development rest in the shoulders of the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural aspect. This research project determines the economic challenges facing the adoption of sustainable construction delivery in the south Africa construction industry (SACI). The study adopted a quantitative research methodology with the data gathered from the respondents with the SACI. The findings revealed the economic challenges facing the adoption of sustainable construction delivery in SACI to be misconception of land value for redevelopment, lack of reasonable consulting fees, lack of reasonable supply and demand, waste disposal cost, misconception of installation costs and lack of private and public investment. These were seen as the economic challenges facing the adoption of sustainable construction delivery in SACI. Sustainable infrastructural development has not been given adequate attention. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the three pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic and social) to achieve a well robust construction delivery. If the central government can give more credence to SDGs, it helps stabilize and put the society in a robust economic growth and social inclusion. This study will contribute greatly to the knowledge of construction project delivery, sustainable infrastructure development, for a robust economic and social development.

The New Zealand construction industry requires resilient construction professionals with soft skills and certain personality profiles to ensure that their teams are led well and thus resulting in the successful delivery of projects. These individuals will need to have previous experience that will have conditioned and honed their various skillsets and their own personality traits that have been moulded over time. The New Zealand (NZ) construction industry has a specific culture based on its ethnic profile that influences the way things are done. Selecting individuals with exceptional organisational performance is a significant task that NZ construction companies need to constantly be aware of. If the company selects the wrong individual it can have financial and relationship damaging consequences. Previous studies have indicated that there is a positive link between personality and performance outcomes. Psychometric tests can assist in effectively selecting more purpose-fit construction professionals. A Likert scale was used to rank the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) dimensions, according to importance, of construction professionals in NZ. Data was collected via Qualtrics from 266 Site Safe members, their industry partners and then analysed at Massey University. The SAPI personality results suggested that construction professionals in NZ most valued personality traits such as; Integrity, Orderliness, Interpersonal Relatedness, Facilitating, Achievement Orientation and Traditional-Religiosity. All of these fall within the SAPI main dimensions of Conscientiousness and Positive Social-Relational Disposition. The third main dimension reflected as Intellect/Openness with sub-dimensions such as; Epistemic Curiosity, Broad-Mindedness and Intellect. Extraversion proved to be of lesser importance, but in the context of a construction project and teamwork, there is, in moderate consideration, a time for displaying Sociability and Playfulness. The least preferred personality traits were presented under the main dimension of Negative Social-Relational. The sub-dimensions under the least preferred personality traits included Arrogance, Conflict-Seeking, Deceitfulness and Hostility-Egoism. The NZ construction industry is a very close-knit family and word of mouth or personal referrals are prominent in finding a career for many. To ensure individual retention, the correct connections must be made between and individual and the culture of a specific construction company. The research recommends that the personality tests used to employ construction professionals should be combined with a General Mental Ability (GMA) test, as this may increase the probability of a more industry purpose-fit selection. In the case of young graduates entering the often unforgiving work environment with all its complexities and actors, it is also recommended that they be advised through engagement (prior to commencing their appointment) of the stress that can be experienced and how to relieve some of this through maintaining work-life balance activities outside work as this is not part of the SAPI personality test.

Human resource management (HRM) is one of the rapidly evolving areas of VR application. Recently, there has been an increasing focus on the development of staff selection and competency assessment tools. The purpose of this paper is to disclose the key points of immersive VR applications based on real work situations for the assessment of managerial competencies. In doing this, first, 29 and later, after improving the VR applications, 50 experiments were performed testing 11 different VR applications based on managerial issues. Immersion in VR was assessed using the Slater-Usoh-Steed questionnaire (SUS), supplemented by questions allowing for assessing the immersiveness of simulated managerial situations and subjective feelings of stress while in VR. In line with the research findings, insights are provided on how to enhance the immersive VR applications based on real managerial situations for the assessment of competencies.

The purpose of this study is to determine the roles and responsibilities of the project manager on Design-Build projects, in the context of projects completed in the Built Environment in the large metropoles of South Africa, as well as to study the factors that influences success on these projects. Utilising data obtained from interviews with relevant project managers, the components of success in projects and the success factors ensuring project success is compared with those components and factors found in the literature. The outcome of this comparison provides a summary of the differences in the roles and responsibilities of project managers appointed by clients and contractors respectively, as well as the links between project success components and factors. The application of these results guides the project manager to successfully deliver Design-Build projects.

The digital transformation created dramatic and important changes in the media industry. The content is saturated and consumption patterns have varied. Therefore, the audience migrated from traditional means to digital patterns, which has caused the sale and merging of the media. Every day business models for the media industry are integrated by new actors and dynamics. Leadership, innovation, and creativity are some of the alternatives which the media can rely on to make the most of the opportunities generated by the digital transformation. Leadership is a process of influence that seeks to achieve common goals. The media industry has been widely studied by psychologists, philosophers, historians, management theorists, scientists, politicians, educators, philosophers, biologists, and geneticists. The media industry is recognized by opinion formers such as Rupert Murdoch or Greg Dyke. Hence, this article is aimed to do a theoretical review of the latest researches on leadership in the media industry. It has been evidenced that little literature on leadership in the media industry has been done. It is established that human resources play an important role in the changing and competitive landscape of the media industry and it is determined that people need to be prepared to achieve the only competitive advantage which is innovation. In this context, innovation is addressed as long as the leadership style promotes changes and acts quickly in a very timely manner. Some authors point out that the most effective leadership style in industries is transformational leadership since it positively influences followers with motivation and inspiration provoking the achievement of the organizational goals, which exceed the selfish objectives set by followers. In addition, it is aimed to promote dialogue and to get the commitment. Thus, the importance of media leaders managing people and tasks.

A complete evaluation system should include two parts: evaluation index and index weight. Among them, the index weight plays a decisive role in the overall evaluation results. In this study, the social choice function in group decision-making theory is introduced to determine the index weight. Before using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to analyze the overall post responsibility scheme, researchers pre-sort the decision-makers, adjust the weight of decision-makers, and then carry out further AHP calculation, so as to reduce the deviation caused by the individual differences of decision-makers and make the index weight more reasonable. Finally, the effectiveness of this method is verified by an example of establishing a post responsibility evaluation system.

The continuing trend towards increasing functional diversity in control systems represents a major challenge for the development of human-machine interfaces, short HMI. This contribution provides expert knowledge in the topics of the development of HMIs, explicitly adaptive HMIs. The focus is on the used methods and their deficits. Parameters that are influencing HMI development are presented. This expertise is generated using the Delphi method. In addition, the common practice and estimations for the categorization of two operating technologies are investigated. Specifically, this concerns the optimal allocation of machine functions to either touch-based operating systems or haptic operating systems. These results form the basis for the development of a methodology that provides a special development process for adaptive HMIs, which focuses on a high user experience and usability.

We are proposing a use of the ACDC model to characterize the emerging leadership style and its fluctuations within a dyad cooperation situation. The ACDC model transcribes in graphical and digital form the conversational exchanges of a dyad, taking into account the nature of these exchanges as well as their temporal dynamics. We use the data collected during a previous experiment to validate the interest of this model to study the leadership style implemented within the observed dyad and temporal dynamics of this emerging leadership.

There is a widespread understanding that “good health is good for business”. Two of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), number 3 and 8, express a similar understanding aiming to improve wellbeing and ensure decent work and economic growth. Plenty of international tools and methods are available to support interventions to ensure wellbeing prevent stress, but organizations still search for ways to deal with the increasing and costly problem. Acknowledging the experience and knowledge among executives, managers and researchers, the aim of this study was to allow these actors inspired by Mode-2 knowledge production framework to co-create new knowledge on preventive strategies by combining a systems perspective on prevention and stress management interventions. The framework can help design sustainable organizations that are capable of identifying new solutions and enhance the implementability of stress preventive changes than can ensure both business relevance and employee wellbeing.

As organizations grow, it is often challenging to maintain levels of efficiency. It can also be difficult to identify, prioritize and resolve inefficiencies in large, hierarchical organizations. Collaborative crowdsourcing systems can enable workers to contribute to improving their own organizations and working conditions, saving costs and increasing worker empowerment. In this paper, we briefly review relevant research and innovations in collaborative crowdsourcing and describe our experience researching and developing a collaborative crowdsourcing system for large organizations. We present the challenges that we faced and the lessons we learned from our effort. We conclude with a set of implications for researchers, leaders, and workers to support the rise of collective intelligence in the workplace.

The new wave of technology gives impetus to the change of educational forms. Educational Informatization has become the theme of reform and development in China’s higher education. The COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020 has become catalyst that further pushes forward the integration of information technology and course teaching. In China, confronted with the serious epidemic situation in the first half of 2020, schools of all levels provided completely online teaching. This paper is intended to discuss how to effectively integrate information technology into college English teaching on the basis of previous attempts, especially the past year’s online teaching or blended learning.

Agile methodologies have been gaining more and more momentum since its inception in the beginning of the year 2000s. Its inherent iterative and user-centered behavior helps teams to dynamically prioritize, plan and execute work packages, which tend to be appropriate for innovative projects where problem-solution duo co-evolve throughout time. Thus, agile adoption, which naturally began within software development teams, has now been widespread throughout other corporate departments and diverse segments. The present work continues an ongoing research over CMII (Conceição Moura Impact Index), which is an analytics model that combines NPS (net promote score), OKRs (objectives and key results) and SROI (social return over investment) methods for measuring project impacts. Specifically, this current research proposes an integration of Scrum (an agile representative) with CMII model. The main objective is to make the model adoptable and practical for agile teams on social projects. Overall, it functions under Scrum’s sprint ceremonies – planning, daily meeting, review and retrospective –, where CMII KPIs and methods will be timely handled or executed, respectively. The main result is a project assessment methodology – comprised of phases, methods and metrics –, making it applicable for professionals when measuring the overall impact of their initiatives. It aims to dynamically informs strategic decision-making and links it to projects’ operational aspects.

Health system reforms in Latvia are the most ambitious and constructive in the last thirty years in the following areas: infrastructure and mapping, defining the role of local governments in the health care system, human resources, improving the selection process of state budget-paid health care providers, improvement of the health care quality system, e-health and patient identification; reorganization of the institutions subordinated to the Ministry of Health. Value-based healthcare is a new and effective management approach in the health sector, which has been introduced by leading European and global health service providers, and, in Latvia, it should be considered the next “post-reform” reform. An element of novelty is the introduction of a hybrid management approach and coordination within the health care system through the introduction of the clinics – leaders in the primary disease groups or central medical officer (CMO).