Emotional well-being and performance of middle leaders: the role of organisational trust in early childhood education

PurposeThe current study investigated the impact of organisational trust on emotional well-being and performance of middle leaders during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA convenience sample of 265 middle leaders in kindergartens in China responded involving trust in schools (e.g. trust in principal and trust in colleagues), emotional well-being and job performance. Both confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used in the investigation.FindingsThree hypotheses on the relationships between the three constructs were verified. Trust in schools significantly influenced emotional well-being and job performance of middle leaders which correlated with each other. The interactive effects of trust in principal and trust in colleagues were discussed for improving the well-being and job performance of middle leaders. Relationships between the two kinds of trust and pride were also identified in the research.Research limitations/implicationsFurther studies may put efforts towards improving these three outcomes synchronously.Practical implicationsBased on the evidence of the current study, future research may focus on how middle leaders act as a bridging role between different stakeholders such as principal and teachers, principal and parents, teachers and children, meanwhile how to boost the leaders' own well-being and performance in the early childhood education (ECE).Originality/valueThis study established the empirical linkages between school trusts, emotional well-being and job performance.

Dual Role of Leadership in ‘Janus-Faced' Telework from Home

The ‘forced' telework from home during the pandemic changed the practices, routines, and especially the working contexts of many employees in a leadership position as leaders themselves became teleworkers in addition to those they were expected to lead. This chapter looks at the challenges and resources of working from home (WFH)-and their ambivalences-among teleworkers and teleworking leaders during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey data was collected immediately after the lockdown. From this data, two subsets were filtered. First, the responses of teleworkers (N = 228) and, second, of teleworking leaders (N = 195) were identified and analysed in regard to the ‘the most challenging' and ‘the most rewarding' issues when working from home. The study shows that telework from home is ‘Janus-faced': telework is simultaneously challenging and rewarding in several respects. In addition, teleworking leaders have a dual role, as they must both adapt to working at home as teleworkers themselves and to being leaders of homeworkers. The findings can be used for designing, organizing, performing, and leading hybrid work in the future. In this evolving ʼnew normal, ' leaders need to adapt to their dual role, learn new leadership competencies, and encourage their employees to lead themselves. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Fear of COVID-19 among critical care nurses of public hospitals in Lahore: empirical evidence during third wave

The world has seen a pandemic that dis-rupted life. Till now there are aftershocks of COVID-19 such as Omicron instilling fear among individuals. Healthcare staff is on alert specifically the nurses have suffered a lot mentally due to this issue by developing fatigue. The study was conducted during the deadly 3rd COVID-19 wave. The data were collected by developing the questionnaire of the previously validated measures related to the variables under study from nurses working in the intensive care unit, critical care unit, and floor wards of COVID-19 at Services Hospital, Lahore. A total of 140 questionnaires were used for data analysis. The study used Statistical Package for Social Sciences for frequency and descrip-tive statistics. Whereas the outcomes of fear of COVID-19 were assessed by using the latest Smart Partial Least Squares software which allows to assess the complex research frameworks. The results of the study revealed that the fear of COVID-19 results in poor quality of life among nurses and fatigue. Resilience among nurses can reduce the negative consequences but did not get statistical support.

The impact of trust in the leader as a mediating variable between the moral integrity of the leader and job engagement: A field study in public sector institutions in Sultanate of Oman

This study aims to examine the impact of trust in the leader (TIL) as a mediating variable between the moral integrity (MI) of the leader and job engagement (JE) and to identify the consequent results that benefit officials in the surveyed institutions. The study population consisted of the employees of two public institutions (The Financial Supervisory Authority in the Governorate of Dhofar and the Directorate of Municipal Affairs in the Governorate of Dhofar). Primary data was collected from a convenient sample of 145 via an electronic questionnaire due to the directives related to social distancing in light of the global health crisis (COVID 19). The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Smart Partial Least Squares (Smart PLS). The findings of the study reveal that there is a statistically significant impact of the MI of the leader on the levels of JE on one hand and MI of the leader on the TIL, on the other hand. Moreover, it was also found that TIL partially mediates the relationships between the MI of the leader and JE. © 2023 by the authors;licensee Online Academic Press, USA.

A new uncertain multi-objective programming model with chance-entropy constraint for advertising promotion.

The COVID-19 outbreak has forced people to stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus. In this case, social media platforms have become the main communication venue for people. Online sales platforms have also become the main field for people's daily consumption. So, how to make full use of social media to carry out online advertising promotion, and then achieve better marketing, is one of the core issues that the marketing industry must pay attention to and solve. Therefore, this study takes the advertiser as the decision-maker, maximizes the number of full playing, likes, comments and forwarding, and minimizes the cost of advertising promotion as the decision-making goals, and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) selection as the decision vector. Based on this, a multi-objective uncertain programming model of advertising promotion is constructed. Among them, the chance-entropy constraint is proposed by combining the entropy constraint and the chance constraint. In addition, the multi-objective uncertain programming model is transformed into a clear single-objective model through mathematical derivation and linear weighting of the model. Finally, the practicability and effectiveness of the model are verified by numerical simulation, and decision-making suggestions for advertising promotion are put forward.

The influence of top management team gender diversity on firm performance during stable periods and economic crises: An instrumental variable analysis

Does a greater representation of women in top management teams (TMTs) contribute to higher firm performance? Although several studies have investigated this question, they have failed to sufficiently account for endogeneity. We address the endogeneity problem by using an instrumental variable (IV) design to estimate the causal effect of women's representation in TMTs on firm performance. We use a shift-share or Bartik-type instrument, which is well-established in economics but has received little attention in management and leadership research. We analyze the effect of TMT gender diversity on four types of firm performance: profitability, market-based performance, liquidity, and growth. Our sample is based on firms in the S&P 1,500, which we observe over 24 years (1997–2020). Our findings indicate that TMT gender diversity positively affects the profitability, liquidity, and growth of firms but does not impact market-based performance. We also analyze whether the effect of TMT gender diversity was stronger during two economic crises, namely the 2008/2009 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, but our instrumental variable analysis provides no evidence for such an interaction effect. Our results are robust to multiple alternative specifications. This study contributes to research on strategic leadership, specifically regarding the effect of women leaders, as well as the crisis leadership literature.

Quality internships in the hospitality industry: a way to help address the labor shortage

Internships can serve as a pipeline to employers and have played an important role in hospitality education programs. The COVID-19 Pandemic has moved many internships online limiting student benefits and options. As the hospitality industry struggles to compete in the post-Coronavirus labor market, it has never been more important to ensure highly satisfying internship experiences. Findings indicate that host sites permitting student interns to be creative and feel appreciated while identifying long-term career opportunities produce more satisfied interns. While satisfaction may be enhanced when supervisors mentor their interns by building strong Leader-Member Exchange relationships, they may not be required for intern satisfaction. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Relationship between leadership-member exchange (LMX) and flow at work among medical workers during the COVID-19: the mediating role of job crafting.

Based on relational leadership theory and self-determination theory, this study aims to investigate the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX), job crafting, and flow at work among medical workers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants in the study consisted of 424 hospital employees. The results showed that: (1) the LMX positively predicted flow at work; (2) two types of job crafting (increasing structural job resources and challenging job demands) played a mediating role between the LMX and flow at work; and (3) gender did not moderate these mediating effects as suggested by previous studies. These results indicate that the LMX can not only directly predict flow at work, but also indirectly predict work-related flow through job crafting by increasing structural job resources and challenging job demands, thus providing new insights for enhancing flow experiences of medical workers.

Post COVID-19 workplace ostracism and counterproductive behaviors: Moral leadership.

BACKGROUND: The wide proliferation of Covid-19 has impacted billions of people all over the world. This catastrophic pandemic outbreak and ostracism at work have posed challenges for all healthcare professionals, especially for nurses, and have led to a significant increase in the workload, several physical and mental problems, and a change in behavior that is more negative and counterproductive. Therefore, leadership behaviors that are moral in nature serve as a trigger and lessen the adverse workplace effects on nurses' conduct. AIM: this research is directed to explore the impact of post-COVID-19 workplace ostracism on nurses' counterproductive behavior and examine the role of moral leadership as a mediating factor in post-COVID-19 workplace ostracism and nurses' counterproductive behavior. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION: Ethical review and approval Was received from Ethical Committee at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. METHODS: A cross-sectional and correlation study was implemented in all units of medical, surgical, critical and intensive care units by using three tools; moral leadership questionnaire, Workplace Ostracism Instrument (WOS), and Counterproductive Work Behaviors Questionnaire (CWBs). A convenient sample of 340 from 699 bedside nurses was granted. RESULTS: This study revealed that nurses' perceived moderate mean percent (55.49 ± 3.46) of overall workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior (74.69 ± 6.15). However, they perceived a low mean percentage of moral leadership. There was a significant positive correlation between workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior. Otherwise, a significant negative correlation was found between moral leadership, workplace ostracism and counterproductive behavior. Also, this study proved the mediating effect of moral leadership in decreasing workplace ostracism by 79.3% and counterproductive behavior by 36.7%. CONCLUSION: Hospital administrators need to be aware of the significance of moral leadership and apply integrity in the clinical setting to reduce the drawback of isolation on nurses' conduct and increase value for the organization as a whole and nurses in particular.

Does inclusive leadership influence task performance of hospitality industry employees? Role of psychological empowerment and trust in leader.

Drawing on the social exchange theory, this research advances the understanding of leadership and task performance in the hospitality industry in China by exploring the impact of inclusive leadership on the task performance of subordinates working in dyadic forms. The current literature is scarce on the role of leadership in increasing the task performance of employees working in teams in dyadic forms. Multi-level sample of 410 leaders-subordinates in the hospitality industry was used to derive the research findings using PLS-SEM. The results indicated a positive influence of inclusive leadership on the task performance of subordinates. Psychological empowerment mediated this direct relationship. In addition, trust in leaders strengthened the direct link of inclusive leadership with task performance and psychological empowerment. The findings demonstrate that leaders in the hospitality industry should adopt an inclusive leadership style as it contributes to employee task performance, which improves the industry's performance.

Higher education leadership and curricular design in industry 5.0 environment: a cursory glance

PurposeTo offer an insight into post-COVID-19 Industry 5.0 environment, educational responses that are being made by Higher Education institutions (HEIs), and leadership qualities that appear to be effective in this environment. Also, to develop a conceptual model of causal relationships between the identified constructs in producing educational curricular outcomes.Design/methodology/approachInterpretative review was conducted identifying, analyzing and synthesizing the relevant literature on the relationships between post-COVID-19 Industry 5.0 environment, HEI's leadership characteristics, their decision-making bases and curricular design outcomes.FindingsThe literature showed that in unpredictable post-COVID-19 Industry 5.0 environment, thriving HEIs are found to have leaders who are perceptive, visionary and agile with effective communication and navigation skills;embracing change culture;and able to learn from concrete experiences. Responding to the pandemic and Industry 5.0's disruptive technology, these leaders are accelerating university–industry engagement and developing more flexible, student-centered, work-based curricula. Synthesis of the literature resulted in developing a conceptual model that shows that environmental turbulence is likely to influence curriculum design through leaders' decision bases, and that leaders' characteristics and industry engagement may interact with leaders' decision bases to strengthen this influence.Originality/valueA different lens was offered of the type of leadership that is seen to be effective in the turbulent and HE post-COVID-19 Industry 5.0 environment, and a novel conceptual model of relationships was developed which has potential impacts for HE leadership theory and practice.

Exploring the limits of mindfulness during the COVID-19 pandemic: qualitative evidence from African context

Purpose: This paper is one of the first studies to examine specificities, including limits of mindfulness at work in an African organisational context, whilst dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It specifically addresses the role of organisational and managerial support systems in restoring employee wellbeing, social connectedness and attachment to their organisations, in order to overcome the exclusion caused by the ongoing pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a qualitative research methodology that includes interviews as the main data source. The sample comprises of 20 entrepreneurs (organisational leaders) from Ghana and Nigeria. Findings: The authors found that COVID-19-induced worries restricted the practice of mindfulness, and this was prevalent at the peak of the pandemic, particularly due to very tough economic conditions caused by reduction in salaries, and intensified by pre-existing general economic and social insecurities, and institutional voids in Africa. This aspect further resulted in lack of engagement and lack of commitment, which affected overall team performance and restricted employees' mindfulness at work. Hence, quietness by employees even though can be linked to mindfulness was linked to larger psychological stress that they were facing. The authors also found leaders/manager's emotional intelligence, social skills and organisational support systems to be helpful in such circumstances. However, their effectiveness varied among the cases. Originality/value: This paper is one of the first studies to establish a link between the COVID-19 pandemic and mindfulness limitations. Moreover, it is a pioneering study specifically highlighting the damaging impact of COVID-19-induced concerns on leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) relationships, particularly in the African context. It further brings in a unique discussion on the mitigating mechanisms of such COVID-19-induced concerns in organisations and highlights the roles of manager's/leader's emotional intelligence, social skills and supportive intervention patterns. Finally, the authors offer an in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of organisational interventions and supportive relational systems in restoring social connectedness following a social exclusion caused by COVID-19-induced worries. © 2023, Obinna Alo, Ahmad Arslan, Anna Yumiao Tian and Vijay Pereira.

The impact of leader in me on elementary school culture: A quantitative study of the impact of leader in me on school culture during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

The purpose of this quantitative study is to understand the role that character education curriculum, specifically the Leader in Me, plays on overall elementary school culture. The primary question guiding this study is, has the implementation of Leader in Me provided any measurable impact on elementary school culture prior to and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? The review of the literature demonstrates a rich history of character education throughout the history of education and the impact that it plays on self-efficacy, school culture, and student achievement. This study intends to investigate the impact that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had on elementary school culture and determine whether the implementation of Leader in Me provided better conditions for positive school culture. In order to achieve this overall objective, the following research questions framed this quantitative study: 1. What is the relationship between the length of implementation of the Leader in Me character education curriculum on elementary school culture? 2. What impact did the implementation of the Leader in Me character education curriculum play on elementary school culture prior to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? 3. What impact did the implementation of the Leader in Me character education curriculum play on elementary school culture during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?A quantitative approach has been chosen for this study to examine the impact that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had on elementary school culture and determine if the implementation of Leader in Me provided any benefit. Archival data was utilized to provide a foundation for the analysis of the data through the utilization of the 5Essentials Survey and the Measurable Results Assessment. The study also utilized an independently created survey to measure the school culture of schools that have and have not implemented Leader in Me. The data included responses from staff and administrators at 817 elementary schools across Northern Illinois. Statistical tests were conducted to determine the impact that the implementation of Leader in Me may have on elementary school culture.While this study was unable to replicate the results of prior studies regarding the impact that Leader in Me plays on school culture, it did find a statistically significant difference in school culture during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Furthermore, the research concluded that regardless of the implementation of Leader in Me, school culture was negatively impacted during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.Recommendations from this study include the need to analyze school culture following the pandemic to understand the true impact of Leader in Me during the pandemic, utilize a greater population size in order to provide more generalized results, and consider the use of a mixed methods study to gain a greater understanding as to why respondents perceive their school culture to be the way that it is. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Leader development: How ‘leaders in the making' manage uncertainties

Managing uncertainty is a critical leadership capability. Keeping the COVID-19 pandemic as the background, we conducted a panel discussion with senior corporate leaders to understand how they had approached challenging situations in the past, managed uncertainties, and how these learnings have contributed to their development as leaders. We draw upon the extant literature on leadership under uncertainty and leader development to frame our study. The rich narratives of the panellists provide theoretical insights and significant lessons for managers and emerging leaders. © 2023

Embracing relational competencies in applying the LEADS framework for health-care leaders in transformational change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which the LEADS Framework guided health-care leaders through organizational change and the COVID-19 pandemic in a western Canadian province. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A qualitative exploratory inquiry assessed the extent to which health leaders applied competencies that aligned with the LEADS Framework. A purposeful sample of 22 health-care leaders participated in the study representing senior, mid-level and front-line health-care leaders in various health-care organizations to ensure diverse representation of leader competencies. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews to collect the data and used Braun and Clarke's (2006) six-phase approach to guide data analysis. FINDINGS: The analysis suggests that health-care leaders found Engaging with Others and Developing Coalitions were the most critical themes of the LEADS Framework for change management and for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings reveal that during transformational change and a crisis context, leaders embrace relational approaches to adapt and improve performance in dynamic organizations. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: These findings have implications for a relational approach to improve teamwork and decrease emotional strain; a focus on mobilizing and sharing power with nurses; and educational programs to advance relational and self-management skills, shared leadership, communication, change management, human resource and talent development as critical learning components for current and future health-care leaders. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The LEADS Framework is used to examine how health-care leaders responded to transformational change in the organization while situated in a pandemic context.

Challenges of being a maternity service leader during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive analysis of the journey.

BACKGROUND: In Australia, maternity care services provide care for pregnant and postpartum women and their newborns. The COVID-19 pandemic forced these services to quickly adapt and develop policies and procedures for dealing with transmission in health care facilities, as well as work under public health measures to counter its spread within the community. Despite well-documented responses and adaptations by healthcare systems, no studies have examined the experiences of maternity service leaders through the pandemic. This study aimed to explore the experiences of maternity service leaders, to understand their perspectives on what happened in health services and what was required of a leader during the COVID-19 pandemic in one Australian state. METHODS: A longitudinal qualitative study collected data from 11 maternity care leaders during the pandemic in the state of Victoria. Leaders participated in a series of interviews over the 16-month study period, with a total of 57 interviews conducted. An inductive approach to developing codes allowed for semantic coding of the data, then a thematic analysis was conducted to explore patterned meaning across the dataset. RESULTS: One overarching theme, 'challenges of being a maternity service leader during the pandemic', encompassed participant's experiences. Four sub-themes described the experiences of these leaders: (1) needing to be a rapid decision-maker, (2) needing to adapt and alter services, (3) needing to filter and translate information, and (4) the need to support people. At the beginning of the pandemic, the challenges were most acute with slow guideline development, rapid communications from the government and an urgent need to keep patients and staff safe. Over time, with knowledge and experience, leaders were able to quickly adjust and respond to policy change. CONCLUSION: Maternity service leaders played an important role in preparing and adapting services in accordance with government directives and guidelines while also developing strategies tailored to their own health service requirements. These experiences will be invaluable in designing high quality and responsive systems for maternity care in future crises.

The Impact of Leader Humor on Employee Creativity during the COVID-19 Period: The Roles of Perceived Workload and Occupational Coping Self-Efficacy.

Based on the relief theory and similarity attraction theory, this study investigates the influence of leader humor on employee creativity through the mediate impact of employees' perceived workload, occupational coping self-efficacy, and employee similarity perception with a leader as a potential moderator. The data were collected through an online survey that included matched questionnaire data from 351 employees and their direct leaders in China. This study used SPSS 26 software and Mplus 7.0 software to analyze the data and found that (1) leader humor has a significant positive impact on employees' creativity; (2) employees' perceived workload and occupational coping self-efficacy mediated the positive relationship between leader humor and employee creativity; (3) similarity perception negatively moderated the influence of leader humor on perceived workload, and it also positively moderated the influence of leader humor on occupational coping self-efficacy. In addition to corroborating and expanding on previous findings regarding the relationship between leader humor and employee creativity during the COVID-19 period, the aforementioned conclusions also derive management implications for fostering employee creativity and reducing employee workload from the perspective of leader humor.

Economic forecasting in a pandemic: some evidence from Singapore.

This paper aims to investigate whether the predictive performance and behaviour of professional forecasters are different during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared with the global financial crisis of 2008 and normal times. To this end, we use a survey of professional forecasters in Singapore collated by the central bank to analyse the forecasting records for GDP growth and CPI inflation for the period 2000Q1-2021Q4. We first examine the point forecasts to document the extent of forecast failure during the two crises and explore various explanations for it, such as leader-following and herding behaviour. Then, using percentile-based summary measures of probability distribution forecasts, we study how the degree of consensus and extent of subjective uncertainty among forecasters were affected by crisis conditions. A trend break is observed in the subjective uncertainty associated with growth projections after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. In contrast, both subjective uncertainty and the degree of consensus in inflation projections were essentially unchanged in crises, suggesting that the short-term inflation expectations of forecasters were strongly anchored.

Remote Leadership: A (Re)qualification of School Leaders in Portugal

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about new challenges to schools' organization leaderships and to school leaders. This study, of qualitative nature, aims at understanding the impact occurred in the area of school management, in pandemic times, from the leaders' perspective, in Portugal. The investigation question is: what prevailed during the remote school management of the leader's team amidst the COVID-19 pandemic time? The sample is a video, with 2 min and 47 s, done by the Leader of a Cluster of Schools, in the North of Portugal, within the context of activities related to affection, promoted by the group of Schools' Libraries, entitled "Month of Affections”, when COVID-19 lockdown was mandatory. The content analysis was done using the webQDA® software. All ethical rules were accounted for. The main results are: (i) adaptation and remote management;(ii) challenges to leadership and (iii) vision for the future. It was concluded that, due to the mandatory social distance, the Leader chose for an active and creative virtual presence (re)qualifying his leadership. The concept of this remote leadership kept the organizational balance, leading his co-workers to achieve the defined objectives. The remote leadership will have to be a dialogical field in the Public Policies of the Ministry of Education and Science in Portugal. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The role of organisational commitment and leader-member exchange in knowledge application during the COVID-19 pandemic: Very Informal Newsletter on Library Automation

PurposeThis study aims to examine the role of organisational commitment (affective, normative, continuance) in influencing employees' knowledge application behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also probes the moderating role of leader–member exchange (LMX) in the association between organisational commitment and knowledge application.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a sample of 206 employees working in various private sector organisations in Brunei Darussalam. Structural equation modelling using Smart-PLS was used to test the hypothesised relationships.FindingsThe findings show that affective and normative organisational commitment spurred employees' knowledge application behaviour significantly during the COVID-19 crisis. However, the moderating effect of LMX could not be established in this study.Practical implicationsThe findings provide managers with insights into the crucial role organisational commitment can play in encouraging knowledge application in an organisation.Originality/valueStudies exploring the enabling factors of knowledge application are scarce, especially in the context of a global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study develops a model and empirically validates the importance of organisational commitment for knowledge application amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also provides insights for managers into how LMX can affect knowledge application outcomes, particularly during uncertain times.