Search results

The purpose of this paper is to use Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus to explore how refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and mobilise social, cultural, symbolic and economic capital to find meaningful work in the Australian construction industry.

The paper reports the results of a survey of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who have either successfully or unsuccessfully searched for employment in the Australian construction industry.

The findings dispel widely held negative stereotypes of about this group by describing a highly capable workforce which could address significant skills shortages in the industry, while concurrently diversifying the workforce. However, it is found that refugees, asylum seekers and migrants face considerable barriers to finding meaningful employment in the construction industry. In circumventing these barriers, education institutions, charities and community-based organisations play an especially important role, alongside friends and family networks. They do this by helping refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and deploy the necessary capital to secure meaningful work in the construction industry. Disappointingly, it is also found that the construction industry does little to help facilitate capital accumulation and deployment for this group, despite the urgent need to address diversity and critical skills shortages.

Employing Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus, the findings make a number of new theoretical and practical contributions to the limited body of international research relating to the employment of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers in the construction. The results are important because meaningful employment is widely accepted to be the single most factor in the successful integration of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants into a host society and the construction industry represents an important source of potential employment for them.

The purpose of this paper is to present a model for building information modelling (BIM) implementation at small and medium-sized construction contractor organisations (SMOs). The proposed BIM adoption model assesses BIM implementation benefits, costs and challenges faced by SMOs. Correlation between BIM adoption in SMOs and the associated impacting factors, including knowledge support and BIM adoption motivation, is captured through the model.

A literature review of BIM adoption in construction was first presented. Research data, collected from 80 SMOs in Australia through a conducted survey, are then analysed. Descriptive analysis and structural equation modelling were used to investigate SMOs’ understanding of BIM, and to qualify the correlations among the proposed latent variables impacting BIM implementation at SMOs, respectively. Additionally, this study used χ² test to compare differences between BIM users and non-BIM users regarding BIM understanding, interested applications and attitudes towards implementation benefits and challenges.

Potential benefits associated with BIM implementation are a major motivation factor when it comes to BIM adoption at SMOs. In addition, existing staff’s capability in using BIM tools positively affects the establishment of an organisational knowledge-support system, which determines the decision of adopting BIM eventually. Ultimately, there is a need for further emphasis on staff engagement in the implementation process.

The results presented in this paper are applicable to SMOs in the building sector of construction. BIM implementation at organisations involved in non-building activities, including civil works and infrastructure, needs to be assessed in the future.

The results indicate that rather than placing the focus mainly on benefits of BIM implementation, successful implementation of BIM in practice requires adequate effort to assess implementation problems, establish knowledge support and engage staff in using BIM.

Results of this study provide an insight into the adoption challenges of BIM in SMOs, given that the focus of previous studies has been mostly placed on BIM adoption in architectural firms and large contractors.

In Australia, as in many other countries, refugees are over-represented in the ranks of the unemployed, under-employed and precariously employed and often become frustrated in their attempts to secure work. Despite the construction industry being a major potential source of employment for refugees, there has been a surprising lack of research into their experiences of securing work in the industry. Addressing this gap and also the general lack of voice for refugees in construction research, the aim of this paper is to explore the barriers refugees face in securing employment in the construction industry.

This paper reports a survey of refugees who have worked or attempted to seek work in the Australian construction industry.

Results show that the main barriers to securing employment in construction are: lack of local work experience; employer discrimination; employer failure to recognise previous qualifications, skills and experience and employers not understanding the challenges they face. Government employment agencies and systems are also perceived to be of limited value and overly complex, in contrast to the activities of not-for-profit support agencies.

While the research is limited to Australia, the findings contribute an important and missing refugee dimension to the emerging body of research on construction social procurement. They also contribute unique sector-specific insights into the broader debate about refugee resettlement and employment. Further research is needed in other national contexts.

Recommendations are made to address the barriers to employment identified including: initiatives to provide refugees with work experience in the industry; education to break-down negative stereotypes of refugees among employers; greater support for not-for-profits supporting refugees and reform of government and employment agency systems and procedures.

By enhancing understanding of the barriers to employment for refugees in construction and proposing solutions to reduce those barriers, this research contributes new insights into a growing global challenge of how we better integrate growing numbers of refugees into harmonious and prosperous societies.

The findings are important in facilitating the smoother integration of refugees into society. Beyond the moral imperative, there are significant social, cultural and economic benefits which successful refugee integration brings to host countries and industries like construction which in many countries are now being required to employ refugees in their workforce as a condition of public sector contracts.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is known for its extreme weather conditions during Summer. A major determinant of the sustainability of the design of a building is its fenestrations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem of designing and locating windows on building facades such that a number of relevant criteria to the MENA region are optimised, including solar heat gain, privacy, daylighting and cost of installation.

A multi-objective optimisation problem is proposed with the focus on capturing the requirements of residential dwellings in the MENA region. Since the problem contains conflicting objectives that need to be optimised, a lexicographic approach is adopted. In order to display the Pareto curve, a bi-objective analysis based on the ε-constraint method is utilised.

The conflicting nature of the proposed problem is indicated via the Pareto optimal solutions yielded. Depending on the preference of criteria adopted in lexicographic optimisation, the location of the windows on the building façade tends to change. The bi-objective analysis indicates the importance of balancing out the daylight factor against each of privacy, solar heat gain and installation cost criteria. Furthermore, an analysis conducted in three major cities in the MENA region highlights the discrepancy in design alternatives generated depending on the local climatic condition.

This work proposes a novel mathematical optimisation model which focuses on producing a sustainable design and layout for windows on the facades of residential dwellings located in the MENA region. The proposed model provides designers with guidance through an automated support tool that yields optimised window designs and layout to ensure the sustainability of their designed buildings.

This chapter provides a critical and comprehensive review of the internationalisation literature. It starts with a brief discussion of the main factors and features that need to be considered when internationalising the educational administration and leadership field. This is followed by a critique of the internationalisation of education and the many challenges that hinder the achievement of proper internationalisation. The third section provides an overview of the internationalisation models and practices in different disciplines such as psychology, sociology and political science, which is followed by a discussion on the internationalisation of education organisations in different countries with some examples from Arab and non-Western countries. The final section presents a critical review of literature on internationalising the curriculum and how culture competency and knowledge acquisition are key factors in achieving effective internationalisation. The chapter concludes with an overview of the book collection and the main ideas and concepts discussed in each chapter.

Research investigating the impact of school leadership on teachers’ emotions and practices has mostly focused on the leadership behaviors of school principals, thus ignoring the potential leadership qualities of other school members, especially teachers. The current study aimed to bridge this gap by providing further insight into the link between teacher leadership and teacher outcomes in Egyptian schools. Specifically, the study examined the mediating role of collective teacher efficacy in the relationship between teacher leadership and teacher commitment.

The study employed structural equation modeling and bootstrapping to analyze survey data collected from 497 teachers in primary and middle schools in Damietta city, Egypt.

The results supported our proposition that teachers’ leadership practices have more indirect than direct effects on teacher commitment through collective teacher efficacy. That is, teacher leadership practices positively affect teachers’ efficacy beliefs, which, in turn, increase their sense of commitment to school.

The study adds a new aspect to the literature by investigating the potential role of teacher leadership in promoting positive teacher attitudes that can have a positive impact on student learning. This is significant given the growing emphasis that educational systems place on enhancing school effectiveness. Specifically, understanding the factors that contribute to teacher commitment can inform strategies for retaining effective teachers and improving the overall quality of the teaching workforce. Additionally, since most of the empirical research on teacher leadership has been produced in Western contexts, it is important to enrich the field with studies conducted in other societies, especially in the Arab region.

Employee green behavior can lead to a firm's green performance. However, green management research has not accorded adequate attention to the mechanism underlying green creativity. This study aims to investigate the influence of green human resource management (GHRM) practices on green creativity at both individual and collective levels.

Through a multisource, multiwave survey data obtained from employees of 3- to 5-star hotels in Kenya, the present study investigates how GHRM practices influence individual and collective green creativity. For the data analysis, we employed multilevel structural equation modeling using MPlus 7.2.

The study findings show that GHRM practices influence individual and collective green creativity. The proposed mediating role of the enablers of green culture (EGC) in these relationships was confirmed. Moreover, environmentally specific servant leadership moderated the relationships between GHRM and individual and collective green creativity.

The study recommends that hotel management should embrace GHRM practices to nurture green creativity at the employee and team levels. The hotels management is further persuaded by the findings of this study to pay attention to the four EGC (leadership emphasis, message credibility, peer involvement and employee empowerment) which play a key role in enhancing green creativity among hotel employees.

The study recommends that hotel management should embrace GHRM practices to nurture green creativity at the employee and team levels. The hotels' management is further persuaded by the findings of this study to pay attention to the four EGC (leadership emphasis, message credibility, peer involvement and employee empowerment) which play a key role in enhancing green creativity among hotel employees.

We develop and propose an integrated conceptual framework by which hotels can deploy to nurture green creativity at individual and team levels. We anticipate that our study findings will elicit further research into the mechanisms that reveal the nexus between GHRM and other employee green performance outcomes in the hotel sector.

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of corporate diversification on earnings management.

Based on listed firms regarding non-financial sector of Pakistan, the study runs mean comparison test along with panel least squares regression analysis.

The results of the study suggested that locally diversified firms and combination of industrial and geographical diversified firms mitigate earnings management. In support of the earnings equalizing hypothesis, managers of diversified firms have less need for accruals management because diversified firms had more free cash flows which naturally reduces earnings variability. This study also found that diversified firms had no informational asymmetry problems which reject the asymmetric information hypothesis. In addition, debt ratios are also associated with large organizations, but it shows that the more debt ratios are negatively associated with earnings management. Mean comparison test is also conducted, but the results are same as the regression results which does not confirm asymmetric information hypothesis.

Different business segments are affected by the world financial crisis in 2008. Because of those financial shocks, the diversified firms are affected more. In future studies, results will become more favorable in context of diversified firms.

The main function of earnings management is to make up the company for investors point of view to look healthier than it really is. But it may cause to disappointment for investors regarding loss of investment. It shows future projections of the company and has vital importance for investor’s perspective.

The misallocation of resources caused by earnings management refers to the value loss for society. Because the misallocation of funds will make that particular segment or division more vulnerable which ultimately make shareholders to go for entrenchment or liquidation. At the end, un-employment rises after entrenchment or liquidation and the society suffers.

This research makes an important contribution to the accounting and management literature by providing new and significantly different evidences on the relative roles of corporate diversification and earnings management.

Although researchers agreed that corporate image and employer image are important factors affecting organizational attractiveness, understanding the role of social identity within the attracting process, in addition to exploring the relationship between corporate image and employer image, is still a research gap. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of corporate and employer image on organizational attractiveness in addition to understanding the moderating role of social identity on the relationship between corporate image and employer brand and organizational attractiveness.

The study used a survey method for data collection from fourth year students.

The findings show that both employer image and corporate image have a significant positive effect on organizational attractiveness . In addition, it has showed that social identity consciousness plays partial role as a moderator in the model.

This paper is one of the first papers that include corporate image, employer image, social identity consciousness and organizational attractiveness in the same model . In addition, it is one of the limited papers that considered both signal and social identity theory in attraction process.

This chapter provides an overview of the postcolonial literatures and their critiques relevant to internationalising curriculum in the educational administration and leadership field. The aim is to both examine the problems culturally and institutionally with primarily Anglo-American globalised curriculum that still holds a hegemonic position internationally as well as identify proposals in diversifying the field to reflect context, policy requirements and practices, and cultural values and principles. Discussed also are a number of initiatives that have been taken that provide a foundation for furthering this kind of curricular development, and a set of principles for internationalising the field that indicate the various levels and factors involved.