The role of digital transformation in the socio-economic recovery post COVID-19

Several measures have been taken to reduce the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. One of these measures is the broad digital transformation that has rapidly and unexpectedly forced the deployment of digital technologies into corporations' business models and organizational structures. This digital transformation has affected all the socio-economic aspects. In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, this paper explores the impact of the implementation of digital transformation on the socio-economic recovery by employing cross-sectional regression analysis on 99 countries in year 2020. The paper analyzes the impact of digital transformation on each of economic growth, health care, and income inequality. The results reveal that the digital transformation has a positive and significant impact on the GDP per capita in which a 1% increase in digital transformation results in 1.52% increase in GDP per capita, a positive and significant impact on income equality in which a 1% increase in digital transformation leads to 0.05% increase in income equality, and a negative and significant impact on infant mortality rate, in which a 1% increase in digital transformation results in 0.85% decrease in infant mortality rate which reflects its positive impact on the health care. Hence, the digital transformation has a positive and significant effects on different socio-economic aspects.

The Long Game: The Opposition Wins in Honduras

Opposition parties in competitive authoritarian regimes rarely win elections by a landslide, especially where poverty, repressive security forces, and clientelism abound. Yet in November 2021, Honduras's opposition defeated the incumbent National Party against the odds. This essay argues that the opposition succeeded by "playing the long game": 1) building a mass-party organization, 2) continually participating in elections, and 3) forging unity through power-sharing. Paradoxically, the Honduran opposition's lack of international support incentivized these choices and became a blessing in disguise. Whether Xiomara Castro will rebuild democracy remains uncertain, but her coalition's route to power yields lessons for oppositions elsewhere.

Place and the Structuring of Cross-Sector Partnerships: The Moral and Material Conflicts Over Healthcare and Homelessness.

Local places, such as communities, cities, and towns, host many cross-cross sector partnerships, many geared primarily toward alleviating local social and environmental issues. Yet, existing literatures focus predominantly on largescale systemic impact and global challenges such as climate change, paying scant attention to the role of local, geographically bounded dynamics in shaping these partnerships. In this article, I conceptualize places as geographic locations imbued with specific meaning systems and material resources to unpack how local embeddedness shape the structure of cross-sector partnerships. Specifically, I investigate how place-based conflict, arising from tensions between the moral and material aspects of a partnership, can shape formalized aspects of organizational structure. These include the scope of operations, partners' roles, and shared resources. I unpack these relationships using a case study of Occupy Medical, a local partnership between the civic society and the local government in Eugene, Oregon, tackling the problem of providing healthcare to the homeless and other marginalized and disenfranchised communities. The analysis covers the nine-year period of 2011-2020 and spans three major restructurings of the organization, the latest prompted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. I theorize two forms of structural arrangements for cross-sector partnerships, confined and leveraged, and further elaborate on the role of cross-sector partnerships in crises response on the local level.

When "Time Is Not Your Own": Experiences of Mothering Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As COVID-19 reached pandemic levels in March 2020, schools shifted to remote learning. Student parents in higher education had to adapt to their own remote learning and assume responsibility for childcare and their children's education. Few studies have explored the impact of COVID-19 on mothers who are also full-time students. This study utilized a phenomenological approach to understand the lived experiences of mothering students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Student mothers were recruited from a large, public, Hispanic-serving university in a Southern state. We conducted interviews with 15 student mothers who had at least one child under the age of 18 during the first six months of the pandemic. Three main themes emerged from the analyses: (1) successfully meeting educational requirements;(2) dealing with the mental health impact of the pandemic;and (3) changing the institutional structure. The first theme captured strategies mothering students implemented to ensure their own or their children's educational goals were met. The second theme encompassed how mothers handled the stress caused by the pandemic. The third theme explored ways that mothers resisted gendered expectations and norms around care. Implications for policy and social work practice include changing institutional structures to enhance support for mothering students.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Translation Industry: Insights from Türkiye

The COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated social and economic life all over the world, led to significant changes in the organizational processes within educational, social, medical, and working settings. The primary aim of this study is to explore the perceptions and first-hand experiences posed by the actors of the translation industry regarding the permanent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on socio-economic and psychosocial conditions in the wider and personal context through inductive content analysis. With this purpose, drawing upon a course-based applied research project, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews administered to 86 participants were instrumentalized to scrutinize socio-economic vulnerability, the dynamics of work-life balance, work-family balance, changes in the translator and interpreter profiles, and permanent changes in the field on the basis of the evolving translation market during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings revealed that participants informed about negative experiences about teleworking or telecommuting during the pandemic, (i.e., lower performance, demotivation, work-life imbalance, work-family conflict, and the risk of burnout) in addition to some favorable outcomes such as enhancement of quality of life, increasing job performance and satisfaction, lesser work-family imbalance, reduced rates of stress. In spite of a rise in the required qualifications of the workers in the sector concerning technology literacy, skills in using CAT tools and familiarity with remote interpreting, promotion opportunities and wages were reported to decrease. Moreover, this study underlines the emergence of an interpreting mode and the required technology literacy impel a revolutionary change in the translation training and inevitably jeopardize the job of those who cannot keep up with the digitalization and technological development.

Factors That Affect the Effectiveness of Management Accounting Software

This study aims to examine the suitability of the conceptual model regarding the effect of business strategy, user competence, organizational structure on the Effectiveness of Management Accounting Software (MAS), and how the influence between the variables studied during the Covid 19 Pandemic took place. Quantitative methods are used to test the suitability of the proposed model and to determine the predicted effect between the variables studied. The data were tested using Covarian Base Structural Equation Model (CB-SEM) with Lisrell 8.5 software. This study uses primary data collected through questionnaires to a population of 118 State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Management Accounting departments in Indonesia, with a selected sample size of 100 SOEs, which were selected using a simple random technique. The results of this study succeeded in confirming the conceptual model developed by the researcher and empirically proving the influence of business strategy on MAS Effectiveness, user competence on MAS Effectiveness and organizational structure on MAS Effectiveness in Indonesian SOEs companies. The effectiveness of MAS depends on the relevance of the needs of its users. The right business strategy, effectively provides relevant information for the company to design MAIS according to user needs, so that the company's operational activities run effectively and efficiently, the company is able to implement a Cost Reduction Strategy through production cost savings, production process accuracy, implementing product differentiation and low pricing strategy with a focus on customer needs during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of this study contribute to producing strategic management accounting information to anticipate business continuity during and after the Covid 19 Pandemic and to help overcome the crisis due to the Covid 19 pandemic in the early stages of the Covid 19 Pandemic by optimizing business strategy, organizational structure, and company HR competencies. © 2022 IEEE.

Health expenses and financing: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From 2013 to 2019, expenditure growth rates have increased sharply in almost all European countries. This increase followed a period of stabilization, or in many cases a negative trend in health expenditure ratios across the European Union, resulting from the economic crisis that began in 2008. Expenditure in 2020 in all European states was significantly affected by the COVID-19 disease pandemic. The level of health expenditure and how it changes over time depends on a wide range of factors, including the organizational structure of the health system. Examination of these data reveals wide fluctuations in the levels, with increase of expenditures, especially in the financing of countries to deal with the pandemic. The European Union has financed its member-states through special programmes, in order to cope with the increased demands. This article attempts to analyze the health costs before the COVID-19 period and the ways in which they have been affected during the pandemic. In addition, the impact of the spread of the pandemic on the supply chain of medical supplies and medical equipment, and its expenditure, at the national and the European Union level, is presented.Copyright © Athens Medical Society

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on firms' organizational designs

This commentary examines the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on firms' organization designs and speculate on how the pandemic may influence organization design research. By organizational design, I mean an organization's optimal levels of differentiation and integration given relevant internal and external contingencies. In this regard, a key distinction is between the short-run, that is, the situation in the aftermath of the decision by a large number of countries, international associations, and other agencies that the health crisis was a pandemic that required drastic measures, and the long run in which the disease is better understood and handled. The temporal frame is likely to crucially matter to the effect of the pandemic on firms' organization designs. The long run may mean everything from a complete reversal to the pre-pandemic situation to a more or less permanent situation of sporadic outbreaks and lock-downs that require more social distancing. Whichever scenario manifests will have important implications for organization design. However, even with a relatively quick reversal to pre-pandemic trading and interaction patterns, there are likely to be permanent traces left on organization design. For organization design scholars the pandemic presents not only a unique test-bed for examining existing principles of organizational design but might also stimulate new theory related to the temporal dimension of organization design and the influence of path-dependence. Thus, reflecting on the pandemic suggests that major external contingencies have different short-term as compared to long-term effects on organizational design, but also that major disturbances are likely to leave 'permanent' traces on the design of organizations - notions that seem absent from extant organization design research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The Impact of Internal Environment Factors in Achieving Strategic Agility During COVID- 19 Pandemic at Jordanian Commercial Banks: The Moderating Role of Information Technology

To remain competitive in today's uncertain business environment, banks must develop capabilities that enable them to adapt and respond quickly to market changes. Therefore, this study aims to examine the impact of internal environmental factors on achieving strategic agility through the moderating role of information technology at the Jordanian Commercial Banks. Out of the 13 banks, 10 took part in the survey. Internal environmental factors being investigated include agile human resources, organizational structure, and organizational culture. The 240 middle and first-line managers who worked at the headquarters of the 10 banks made up the sampling unit. To get the information and data needed, 240 questionnaires were sent out, and 203 of them could be used for statistical analysis. The results indicate a statistically significant impact of internal environmental factors in achieving strategic agility. The findings of the moderation hypothesis also reveal that information technology as a moderator has improved the impact of internal environmental factors in achieving banks' strategic agility by 0.04. The results show that the agility of human resources has the highest impact in achieving banks' strategic agility. Consequently, it was recommended to enhance the skills and competencies of the banks' staff and to equip them with the needed training courses to be able to adapt to change successfully. © 2022 WITPress. All rights reserved.

The effects of organizational learning culture and decentralization upon supply chain collaboration: analysis of covid-19 period

Crises cause delays in supply chain management with resulting changes to organizations' internal structures. The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected the global supply chain and, with it, the organizational structure of companies. This research discusses supply chain collaboration (SCC) by considering two important organizational competencies: organizational learning culture (OLC) and decentralization (DC). It investigates the potential impact of these intangible resources upon SCC after the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical model was tested by variance-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using results of a questionnaire which was completed by 245 respondents. In fact, this study explores which organizational capabilities determine the SCC level specifically within the current COVID-19 pandemic period. We believe that this contribution is significant, as the level of collaboration between companies can change during risk periods. The results show that OLC have significantly positive effects on SCC. Moreover, DC plays a critical role for the relationship between OLC and SCC. In other words, this study reveals the importance of DC to observe the positive effects of OLC on SCC. Unlike previous studies which explored SCC, this research demonstrates the importance of an organization's inherent intangible resources in order to improve relationships with suppliers. The article ends with a discussion of the findings and their implications.

Rapid Rise of Pediatric Telehealth During COVID-19 in a Large Multispecialty Health System.

Background: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine use for outpatient pediatric specialty care was low. Stay-at-home orders (SHO) prompted rapid upscaling of telemedicine capabilities and upskilling of providers. This study compares telemedicine usage before and after the SHO and analyzes how a Children's Center addressed challenges associated with a rapid rise in telemedicine. Methods: Data on outpatient visits across 14 specialty divisions were abstracted from the institutional electronic medical record. The 12-week study period (March 9, 2020-May 29, 2020) spanned three epochs: pre-SHO; post-SHO; reopening to in-person visits. Changes in in-person visits, video visits, and completed, cancelled, and no-show appointments were compared between three epochs. Results: A total of 4,914 outpatient pediatric specialty visits were completed, including 67% (3,296/4,914) in-person and 33% (1,618/4,914) through video. During the first two epochs encompassing the SHO, video visits increased by 4,750%. During the third epoch when the SHO was lifted, video visits decreased by 66%, with 19.4% of visits conducted through video in week 12. Overall, for outpatient video appointments, 82.8% (1,618/1,954) were completed, 9.1% (178/1,954) were cancelled, and 8.1% (158/1,954) were no-shows. The percentage of completed and no-show appointments did not differ between epochs. However, the cancellation rate decreased significantly from Epochs 1 to 3 (p = 0.008). Conclusion: A SHO was associated with a large increase in pediatric specialty video visits. Post-SHO, the percentage of pediatric specialty visits conducted through video decreased but remained higher than before the SHO. Frequent, content-rich communications, self-directed tutorials, and individualized coaching may facilitate successful increases in telemedicine use.

Survey confirms enhancing patient access remains top priority

The article focuses on the Center for Connected Medicine (CCM) report which revealed that improving patient access to medical services remains a top priority for U.S. health systems as they grapple with economic uncertainty and the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Centralization and integration of public health systems: Perspectives of public health leaders on factors facilitating and impeding COVID-19 responses in three Canadian provinces.

The extent to which power, resources, and responsibilities for public health are centralized or decentralized within a jurisdiction and how public health functions are integrated or coordinated with health care services may shape pandemic responses. However, little is known about the impacts of centralization and integration on public health system responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine how public health leaders perceive centralization and integration facilitated and impeded effective COVID-19 responses in three Canadian provinces. We conducted a comparative case study involving semi-structured interviews with 58 public health system leaders in three Canadian provinces with varying degrees of centralization and integration. Greater public health system centralization and integration was seen by public health leaders to facilitate more rapidly initiated and well-coordinated provincial COVID-19 responses. Decentralization may have enabled locally tailored responses in the context of limited provincial leadership. Opacity in provincial decision-making processes, jurisdictional ambiguity impacting Indigenous communities, and ineffectual public health investments were impediments across jurisdictions and thus appear to be less impacted by centralization and integration. Our study generates novel insights about potential structural facilitators and impediments of effective COVID-19 pandemic responses during the second year of the pandemic. Findings highlight key areas for future research to inform system design that support leaders to manage large-scale public health emergencies.

Nursing management for temporary lodging facilities in Japan in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: A multiple-case study.

AIM: Temporary lodging facilities which were non-medical facilities were established to secure beds for severely and moderately ill patients with COVID-19, as well as for isolation, non-contact observation, and care of mildly ill and asymptomatic patients in Japan. This study aims to understand nursing management practices adopted in these facilities by examining cases of their establishment and operation. METHODS: A multiple-case study design was used. Interviews for qualitative data collection were conducted from August to October 2020. After analyzing the nursing management practices in four temporary lodging facilities, common points were collated and integrated. RESULTS: For the establishment and operation of temporary lodging facilities, a three-layer structure based on disaster management methods was adopted: headquarters at the helm as overseers, field supervisors in the middle, and frontline nursing staff at the base. The structure had clear roles, facilitated information exchange, and provided efficient and effective nursing care. Field supervisors mainly provided psychological and clinical support for staff and served as information and interprofessional hubs. CONCLUSION: It is recommended that temporary lodging facilities should be organized based on principles of the division of labor. The workforce should comprise nursing staff, and experienced nursing professionals should be recruited to the higher echelons.

Urban Logistics Services Supply Chain Process Modelling Based on the Underground Logistics System via the Hierarchical Colored Petri Net

The implementation of the urban underground logistics system (ULS) can effectively mitigate the contradiction between the surging logistics demand and the increased negativity of urban logistics. The widespread implementation of ULS still suffers from a lack of research into its operation in the marketplace, although the research on ULS system technology and network design appears to be sufficient. A new supply chain for logistics service based on ULS (ULS-SSC) was proposed, as ULS embedded in the urban logistics system could lead to the evolution of the role of supply chain participants. This article analyzed the organizational structure and operation characteristics of ULS-SSC and designed a top-down ULS-SSC operation process model based on the designed functional structure and subsystems relationship using the hierarchical colored Petri net (HCPN). The simulation results show that the integrated information management platform based on ULS can integrate urban logistics service supply chain resources and operate effectively under the two main service modes designed. The high-time delay intermediate links can be upgraded by system optimization, and the links with initial pickup and terminal distribution can be improved through outsourcing and supply chain collaboration. The findings provide new insights into the feasibility of the operation of ULS in the market and help stimulate the implementation of ULS.

Strategic Health Care Management: Challenges and Realities of Emergencies

The article is devoted to strategic management system improvement in the sphere of health care in conditions of emergencies by the example of Ukraine. Pandemic conditions and military actions substantiate the relevance of the research. The study aims to improve the system of health care system's strategic management in emergencies. The research's novelty is proposing a new model of interaction between emergency response bodies. An analysis of foreign experience, scientific literature, and normative regulation was carried out to find problem solutions. Methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction allow to find weaknesses of strategic management and offer ways of liquidation. The study results show the current state of strategic management in healthcare by systematizing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and conducting a SWOT analysis. As a result, weaknesses of the system are identified, and directions for their elimination are proposed. For this purpose, it is necessary to change the work of the Cabinet of Ministers and Health Service with the Emergency Services. The practical value of the research consists in the possibility of application of its results in forming new, more effective strategic aims of public health system development in the case of military operations. HIGHLIGHTS m The article is devoted to strategic management system improvement in the sphere of health care in conditions of emergencies by the example of Ukraine. m The study results show the current state of strategic management in healthcare by systematizing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and conducting a SWOT analysis. © 2022 Economic Affairs. All rights reserved.

Teaching and Learning Centers for Faculty Professional Development in Turkiye: Administrative and Organizational Structure

Globalization and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have disrupted the way we live, work, and learn, which has resulted in an inevitable digital shift and transformation in education. In addition to the need for lifelong learning, continuous self-improvement, and renewing knowledge, the current digital transformation requires academics to apply their pedagog-ical and technological skills on their teaching and learning to address the newly-emerging needs. This study aims to determine the demographics, administrative and organizational structures, and the activities of Teaching and Learning Centers that strive to contribute to the profes-sional development of faculty members in Turkish higher education institutions. The data from the centers were collected in a three-step process and analyzed qualitatively. The findings revealed that most of the centers, other than the pioneer ones, were recently established and were affiliated with and supported by university senior management, where the center administrators undertake most of the workload. Therefore, ensur-ing faculty members' participation in professional development activities organized by these centers is important to increase their awareness of using technology as a tool in teaching.

Evaluation of an Ongoing Mentorship Program for Medical Students on Paediatric Placement: Feedback, Feasibility & Future

Aims Due to public health measures, such as social distancing, reductions of patient admissions and resulting lack of teaching opportunities, medical students' time spent on, and intensity of, paediatric placements was severely impacted. A mentorship program at Sheffield Children's Hospital (SCH) was developed in response to restrictions to paediatric medical student placements during the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even in the absence of a pandemic, medical students report high levels of apprehension and anxiety around paediatric patient interactions, therefore, the need to supplement student learning, and to offer teaching opportunities, was paramount. The mentorship program was developed, following a needs assessment of medical students on placement, and delivered by volunteer junior doctors. In its pilot version, 28 took part and returned feedback. The feedback was implemented into a revised mentorship program, and delivered to a further two cohorts. Aims 1. Evaluate the acceptability of the revised mentorship program for medical students on paediatric placement. 2. Evaluate the efficacy of the revised mentorship program for medical students on paediatric placement. 3. Assess feasibility to deliver the mentorship program long-term, without the acute Covid-19 context. Methods Between September and November 2021, 24 medical students were on placement at SCH. All students received an email with an allocated mentor, which they were told to contact. The mentorship program follows a clear pro-forma, with the student and mentor meeting a number of times to complete the tasks in the pro-forma [ range of meetings 1-4, depending on availability]. The scheme was also meant to run in January 2022, with 15 students on placement at SCH, however, there were only four volunteer junior doctors, which meant the scheme was unable to run. At the end of the mentorship program, participants (mentors, mentees) completed an online questionnaire to collect feedback, assess acceptability, ascertain efficacy and feasibility of the mentorship program. Results Out of the 24 students, only nine (38%) returned questionnaires at the end of their placement, and only five mentors completed feedback questionnaires. The program was found to have good acceptability, with 78% of students strongly agreeing that it has been beneficial to have a junior doctor as a mentor. The feedback regarding efficacy was mixed, with some students indicating their felt confident in some areas but not others (especially neonatal medicine). Feasibility of delivering this scheme project is dependent on voluntary participation of mentors. Conclusion Due to medical students' apprehension regarding paediatric student placements, and lack of exposure due to Covid-19, this ongoing mentorship seeks to support medical students during this time. Results indicate good acceptability and moderate efficacy. However, the feasibility of the program is dependent on voluntary participation from paediatric trainees. Ongoing high levels of burnout, staffing pressures and lack of organizational structures encouraging mentor-mentee exchanges especially impacted mentor retention and recruitment. Results are limited due to small numbers of returned feedback, despite implementing easier processes of giving feedback for students.

Towards innovation ambidexterity: The role of strategic entrepreneurship and strategic learning capabilities

Purpose>This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approach>This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.Findings>Companies that develop strategic entrepreneurship become better positioned to build the capacity to generate both exploitative and explorative forms of innovation. The process is further helped through strategic learning capabilities that are further enabled through an organic organizational structure founded on openness, collaboration, flexibility and decentralization.Originality/value>The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.