Creating Agile Institutions with Organizational Trust in the Finance Sector of Turkey: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment in Times of COVID-19

The study aims to evaluate the way for creating agile institutions with organizational trust. Besides that, the understanding of the mediating role played by psychological empowerment during COVID-19 pandemic is one of the major objectives of this study. The way psychological empowerment affects the creation of agile organizations is another major aspect that the study investigated. The philosophical stance that the research has adopted is the positivism philosophy. The study was done by collecting and analyzing quantitative data. The approach for the study is deductive whereas the design of the research is descriptive. The study used a survey method for collecting information. Structural equation model was used for analyzing quantitative information. The study was done on 325 samples who are working at the finance sector of Turkey. All the samples have a residence in Turkey. It was identified that the leadership approach of a company has a huge impact on the psychological construction of the samples. Descriptive statistics and t-test for inferential statistics were done by the researchers. There is a strong positive relationship between the centricity of the organization towards the workforce or customer and employee performance. It was identified that the leadership approach helps employees to address and adopt the change in the marketplace. It was also found that an agile organizational structure has more possibilities to modify the processing based on the change in the marketplace. The structural equation model was used to represent the relationship between the variables.

Impact of Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 on the Relationship between Healthcare Expenditures and Sustainable Economic Growth.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic led to a catastrophic burden on the healthcare system and increased expenditures for the supporting medical infrastructure. It also had dramatic socioeconomic consequences. The purpose of this study is to identify the empirical patterns of healthcare expenditures' influence on sustainable economic growth in the pandemic and pre-pandemic periods. Fulfilment of the research task involves the implementation of two empirical blocks: (1) development of a Sustainable Economic Growth Index based on public health, environmental, social, and economic indicators using principal component analysis, ranking, Fishburne approach, and additive convolution; (2) modelling the impact of different kinds of healthcare expenditures (current, capital, general government, private, out-of-pocket) on the index using panel data regression modelling (random-effects GLS regression). Regression results in the pre-pandemic period show that the growth of capital, government, and private healthcare expenditures positively influence sustainable economic growth. In 2020-2021, healthcare expenditures did not statistically significantly influence sustainable economic growth. Consequently, more stable conditions allowed capital healthcare expenditures to boost economic growth, while an excessive healthcare expenditure burden damaged economic stability during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the pre-pandemic period, public and private healthcare expenditures ensured sustainable economic growth; out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures dominantly contributed to the pandemic period.

Digital Financial Inclusion: COVID-19 Impacts and Opportunities

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the acceleration of digitization and the consideration of digital financial inclusion as a means to minimize negative economic consequences and increase the resilience of households and SMEs. The purpose of this article was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital financial inclusion by constructing and calculating an integral index of digital financial inclusion (DFI) based on Global Findex Database indicators. The approach to calculating the DFI index and two sub-indices that characterized passive participation in financial relations and active use of digital technologies was based on a linear mathematical model of the integrated indicator and on the use of the Fishburn formula to calculate the weight coefficients. The obtained results proved the acceleration of digital financial inclusion in 2021 and revealed significant differences in DFI between countries and groups of countries according to income level as well as problems of financial exclusion of the most vulnerable groups of population, especially in developing countries. The obtained results regarding the level of DFI are discussed from the point of view of COVID-19 impacts: both directly by influencing consumer behavior and decisions regarding digital financial services and from a broader perspective by influencing business entities, financial service providers, and regulation.

Health Risks and Country Sustainability: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic with Determining Cause-and-Effect Relationships and Their Transformations

The authors investigated the coronavirus pandemic as a health and safety risk factor for sustainable state development. The main purpose is to determine the cause-and-effect relationships between the key spheres of society life: economic, financial-budgetary, political--institutional. The authors hypothesize that these spheres influence each other and that this influence becomes more obvious and important to consider during significant shifts such as health threats and transformations in the public health system. As part of the calculations, the methodology of canonical regression analysis was used, which made it possible to evaluate the influence of a set of indicators using the construction of a correlation matrix. Aggregation of the complex of development indicators for each direction was carried out, and their mutual influence and degree of importance within each group of indicators was determined. The identified interdependencies are valuable for predicting the state of various industries in the future. It was concluded that there were no significant changes between the indicators of the analyzed components of a country's development in the pre-and post-pandemic period. This makes it possible to state with a high probability that forecasting in the long-term perspective of a country's development is possible based on the degree of interrelationships between the indicators of individual areas of development. Forecasting can also be based on the trends occurring in a specific related field to correct the upward or downward movement of a particular indicator, and to change the functioning of the complex system under the influence of threats to public health.

Smart Transition to Climate Management of the Green Energy Transmission Chain

Climate challenges in recent decades have forced a change in attitude towards forms of environmental interaction. The International Climate Conference COP26 evidences the relevance of the climate issue at the global level in Glasgow (November 2021). A decrease in natural energy resources leads to a search for alternative energy sources. Given this, this article is devoted to studying the peculiarities of the transition to climate management of the green energy transmission chain based on the circular economy and smart technologies. This paper has used simulation modeling to develop an algorithm for applying a smart approach to climate management of the green energy transmission chain based on the work of Industry 4.0 technologies. The result of this modeling will be the importance of strengthening the ability to develop intersectoral partnerships to create climate-energy clusters based on a closed cycle of using energy resources and developing smart technologies. At the same time, it has been found that COVID-19 has changed the behaviour of energy consumers towards the transition to the use of energy from renewable sources that are carbon neutral. With this in mind, this article has assessed the climate capacity of industries to use green energy from renewable sources based on resource conservation (rational use of energy resources) and climate neutrality. The industries of Ukraine, which are the largest consumers of energy and, at the same time, significantly affected by climate change, were taken for the study: industry, transport, and agriculture. The methodology for determining the indicator of the climate capacity of sectors in the transition to green energy has been based on the correlation index (ratio) of the consumption indicator of various types of energy by industries (petroleum products;natural gas;biofuels and waste;electricity) and the indicator of gross value added of industries in pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 conditions. The results have indicated that the use of energy from renewable sources (biofuels and waste) for the production of goods and services, as well as the economical nature of the provision of raw materials (biomass and faeces) are factors that ensure climate industry neutrality and enhance its climate capability. The prospects of such effects of assessing the climate capacity of sectors will be the basis for the rationale to develop intersectoral partnerships to create climate-energy clusters based on a closed cycle of using energy resources and developing smart technologies.

The Quality of Training Future Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case from TNPU

This article describes the experience of the communicative competence formation of future teachers in a blended form of education as a dominant one in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main features of such terms as “education quality” and “communicative competence” are revealed;the peculiarities of their components and structure are described. Using the results of a survey the authors draw conclusions about the advantages and disadvantages of online and offline learning and the efficacy of technical learning tools. The article also describes the educational platforms and technical means most frequently used by teachers and students in their everyday life. The results of testing in philological and linguodidactic disciplines after online and offline learning are presented in the paper. Conclusions are made concerning the peculiarities of online and offline training by means of Moodle and Google Classroom learning platforms, as well as Viber, Telegram, Email, Zoom Cloud Meetings and other platforms. Considering the results of the survey of students on the usage of technical means in online learning, the authors provide suggestions on improving the quality of training future teachers. The discussion part of the article presents the questions for discussion concerning a blended form of training as an effective one during the COVID-19 pandemic. The conclusion states the advantages and disadvantages of mixed forms of learning.

Educational Programs Accreditation in Pandemic Times: Challenges for NAQA (Ukraine)

The article discusses the first-year results of Ukraine's NAQA work -- the agency, whose activity is aimed at ensuring higher education quality. The results of the accreditation evaluation of the educational programs of Ukrainian universities are presented. More than 60% of the programs have been accredited, about 34% received conditional accreditation with the possibility to rectify the noted shortcomings within 1 year, and in more than 2% of cases HEIs have been refused in accreditation. The most changes in the accreditation process because of coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020. It was decided to use the provisional accreditation procedures using information technology tools and videoconferencing to respond to COVID-19 quarantine challenges. The current situation forces interview with stakeholders, discussions within the expert group, meetings with HEIs and NAQAs representatives to be done using videoconferencing and other IT tools (distance format). Given the uncertain situation in the world, it is argued that quality assurance agencies should be prepared to address these challenges and should develop alternative approaches and suggestions to pursue the same high quality of the accreditation procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Romanian Journal for Multidimensional Education / Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala is the property of Lumen Publishing House and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)