scholarly journals The Changing of the Guard in Academia and Academic Research Leadership—Employing Natural Language Processing

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Eyal Eckhaus ◽  
Nitza Davidovitch

This pioneering study examines the meaning of academic leadership in terms of the changing of the guard in academia. Research findings on seniority and experience and their association with leadership show that these have a considerable impact on management skills and on the ability of those with experience and seniority to influence the young leadership. This is particularly essential in academia where research is the most meaningful and effective value that serves as a measure of faculty members. Management skills are not perceived as a coherent part of faculty members’ work. Structural Equation Modeling confirmed the developed model. Findings show that indeed, from the perspective of faculty at the academic institution, senior experienced faculty members undoubtedly contribute to the academic institution first of all in research, but also otherwise. Senior and experienced faculty members contribute by encouraging, directing, and guiding young faculty members on how to contribute to the institution, particularly through the activity which is expected of them as academic faculty – i.e., research. This urging and direction is one of the most well-known qualities in the context of academic leadership – the ability to help people develop, advance, and to outline a high-quality academic research tradition. The meaning of the findings is that senior faculty has a contribution beyond their direct output in the form of scientific publications, as a research engine and spotlight for the young faculty. Notably, no difference was found in faculty’s perception of this contribution of senior faculty members by gender or age.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Nitza Davidovitch ◽  
Eyal Eckhaus

The current study is an exploratory study designed to examine the traits that are considered essential or important for research students, from the perspective of student advisors. The study addresses the broad question of whether and how academic faculty members select research students when seeking to maximize their own research outputs and achieving their own research goals. We employ a mixedmethods design, which incorporates content analysis based on Natural Language Processing techniques, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to assess our model’s goodness of fit. Prominent traits that faculty members used to assess research candidates are investigated and discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumukh Hungund ◽  
Anandkumar R. Annigeri ◽  
Ishita Pandey ◽  
Gurubasavarya Hiremath

PurposeThe performance of an academic institution is widely measured by their research performance. In this regard, the role played by leaders in an academic institution is vital. The focus of this paper is on the role played by academic leadership towards research performance.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study is designed, and data are collected from 267 faculty members from various technical institutes across India through an online survey. A snowball sampling is adopted to reach the data point, and structural equation modeling is used to analyze the relationship using Smart PLS (partial least squares).FindingsThe study indicates that leadership in academic setup in developing countries does not directly influence research performance among the faculty members. To enhance research performance, institutes should promote collaboration and facilitate knowledge acquisition and individual development.Practical implicationsThe proposed model aids the leadership in devising strategies and approaches to encourage collaborations and individual initiatives in an academic setup.Social implicationsThe study identifies the importance of Individual initiative in Research Performance and knowledge acquisition for Higher Educational Institutions (HEI).Originality/valueThis research study is unique because it investigates the relationships between Academic Leadership and Research Performance of engineering faculty in emerging nations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Nitza Davidovich ◽  
Eyal Eckhaus

Many studies have been conducted on teaching evaluations and student surveys. The current study is unique for examining, by means of direct questions, the meaning of teaching surveys as perceived by academic faculty in Israel. Senior faculty members at academic institutions completed questionnaires, with a total of 182 questionnaires collected. We employed mixed research methods, beginning with qualitative analysis followed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), with the goal of developing a model that reflects faculty members’ beliefs on teaching surveys. The research findings show that the lecturers find that student evaluations are detrimental to their relationship with their students, and adversely affect their teaching practice and interpersonal interactions with their students. In view of the importance attributed to students' voices and their opinions of teaching, the question is how should these evaluations be addressed, Do teaching surveys constitute a reliable managerial tool and a foundation for improving teaching – or should other tools be developed to improve teaching practices, independent of students' opinions?


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Nitza Davidovitch ◽  
Eyal Eckhaus

This study is a pioneer study examining the significance of retirement in terms of lost investments and outcomes. Research findings on the output of academic faculty and on measures of excellence in higher education indicate that upon retirement the academic institution as an organization loses not only faculty who are still capable of contributing both to research and to teaching, but rather also two other important products: valuable knowledge and experience accumulated by senior faculty in the academic system in light of the institution’s investments in them. 107 questionnaires were collected from senior faculty members in a case study of one academic institution. A combined research method was utilized, consisting of qualitative and statistical analysis, with the aim of exploring the significance of retirement in terms of lost input and output, as perceived by academic faculty members. The research findings indicate that indeed, as perceived by the faculty, academic institutions as an organization lose faculty who are still capable of contributing to both research and teaching, as well as valuable knowledge and experience accumulated by senior faculty members within the academic system, after being nurtured by the academic institution.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roohollah Kalhor ◽  
Nadia Neysari ◽  
Saeed Shahsavari ◽  
Sima Rafiei

Abstract Background Job performance is an important organizational factor that plays a significant role in the success of organizations. This study aims to investigate the moderating role of entrepreneurial behavior in the relationship between social capital and job performance among faculty members of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. Methods This is a descriptive-analytical study which has been conducted through a structural equation modeling among all university faculty members working in different faculties of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in 2017. To evaluate the causal relationships between study variables, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) on AMOS software, with the significant level of 0.05 was used. Results Findings indicated that entrepreneurial behaviors and social capital could predict job performance. The direct effect of social capital on job performance (path coefficient: 0.17) and its indirect effect with the moderating role of entrepreneurial behavior (path coefficient: 0.39) were confirmed (P< 0.05). Furthermore, Sobel test affirmed the indirect associations between variables (P< 0.05). Conclusions Strengthening social capital and promoting entrepreneurial behavior can lead to higher levels of performance. Building trust among organizational members and designing new incentive methods which use entrepreneurial indicators for performance evaluation can improve social capital. Therefore, managers can contribute to the improvement of job performance through developing entrepreneurial behavior among their employees.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Shan Wei ◽  
Hsi-Peng Lu

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence people to play socially interactive games on mobile devices. Based on network externalities and theory of uses and gratifications (U&G), it seeks to provide direction for further academic research on this timely topic. Design/methodology/approach – Based on 237 valid responses collected from online questionnaires, structural equation modeling technology was employed to examine the research model. Findings – The results reveal that both network externalities and individual gratifications significantly influence the intention to play social games on mobile devices. Time flexibility, however, which is one of the mobile device features, appears to contribute relatively little to the intention to play mobile social games. Originality/value – This research successfully applies a combination of network externalities theory and U&G theory to investigate the antecedents of players’ intentions to play mobile social games. This study is able to provide a better understanding of how two dimensions – perceived number of users/peers and individual gratification – influence mobile game playing, an insight that has not been examined previously in the mobile apps literature.


Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Ashill

Over the past 15 years, the use of Partial Least Squares (PLS) in academic research has enjoyed increasing popularity in many social sciences including Information Systems, marketing, and organizational behavior. PLS can be considered an alternative to covariance-based SEM and has greater flexibility in handling various modeling problems in situations where it is difficult to meet the hard assumptions of more traditional multivariate statistics. This chapter focuses on PLS for beginners. Several topics are covered and include foundational concepts in SEM, the statistical assumptions of PLS, a LISREL-PLS comparison and reflective and formative measurement.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Mahdi Shahin

<p>The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of indicators of good governance in public organizations to improve the level of employees’ job satisfaction. The methods were confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling using LISREL software and SPSS18 packages. The population consisted of all faculty members and staff of Lorestan University (N=500), which 217 of them were selected systematically using Kerjisi Morgan table. To collect the data 2 standardized questionnaires consisted of good governance and job satisfaction (residents and Ramadan, 2011) were used and the reliability of the questionnaire was (0.73) by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The results of the study showed that the implementation of the indicators of good governance in the organization will lead to an increase in employees’ job satisfaction.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 872-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Jalilvand ◽  
Javad Khazaei Pool ◽  
Masood Khodadadi ◽  
Mehdi Sharifi

Purpose This study aims to provide a better understanding of how information technology (IT) competency and knowledge management (KM) contribute to service supply chain (SSC) (coordination, collaboration and efficiency) practices in the hospitality industry. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on tourism businesses, this study tests the structural relationships of IT competency, KM and SSC. Structural equation modeling is performed to test the hypotheses. A survey of 494 hotels in Iran provided empirical evidence for the existence of interrelationships between multiple constructs. Findings The analysis demonstrated that IT competency is significantly associated with KM. Furthermore, SSC practices are found to be directly impacted by KM and IT competency. Originality/value This study unpacks the mechanism that operates between IT competency, KM and SSC and contributes to the academic research on SSC in the context of the hospitality industry.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoleixa Asadi ◽  
Mohammadhiwa Abdekhoda ◽  
Haidar Nadrian

Purpose Applying cloud computing (CC) in education is a great opportunity to globalize knowledge with the minimum costs and maximum accessibility. This study aims to understand and predict teacher intention to use cloud commuting as infrastructure in Smart education. Design/methodology/approach This was a cross-sectional study in which faculty members’ perception concerning CC services adoption in education were assessed based on the extended model of theory of planned behavior, by researcher-developed questionnaire (a = 0.9). Collected data were analyzed by regression analysis and the final model was tested by structural equation modeling. Findings Attitude towards the behavior, perceived behavior control and privacy; had direct and significant associations with faculty members’ intention to use CC. However, subjective norms (p = 0.311) and security (p = 0.505 ) were not significant predictors of intention to use CC. Originality/value The results of this study elucidate the critical factors associated with teacher’s behavioral intentions toward CC services and also serve as a valuable reference for education sector to plan for the better use of these services. The presented model can be considered as best practice framework for adapting cloud commuting as infrastructure in education. Applying CC services in education is great opportunity and should be subsequently the major concern of educational organizations. This study clearly identified significant and non-significant factors that should be considered when successful implementation on could computing services is in progress.


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