Artificial Intelligence Assisted Social Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) for Sustainable Product Design

Nowadays, the social dimension of product sustainability is increasingly in demand, however, industrial designers struggle to pursue it much more than the environmental or economic one due to their unfamiliarity in correlating design choices with social impacts. In addition, this gap is not filled even by the supporting methods that have been conceived to only support specific areas of application. To fill this gap, this study proposed a method to support social failure mode and effect analysis (SFMEA), though the automatic failure determination, based on the use of a chatbot (i.e., an artificial intelligence (AI)-based chat). The method consists of 84 specific questions to ask the chatbot, resulting from the combination of known failures and social failures, elements from design theories, and syntactic structures. The starting hypothesis to be verified is that a GPT Chat (i.e., a common AI-based chat), properly queried, can provide all the main elements for the automatic compilation of a SFMEA (i.e., to determine the social failures). To do this, the proposed questions were tested in three case studies to extract all the failures and elements that express predefined SFMEA scenarios: a coffee cup provoking gender discrimination, a COVID mask denying a human right, and a thermometer undermining the cultural heritage of a community. The obtained results confirmed the starting hypothesis by showing the strengths and weaknesses of the obtained answers in relation to the following factors: the number and type of inputs (i.e., the failures) provided in the questions;the lexicon used in the question, favoring the use of technical terms derived from design theories and social sustainability taxonomies;the type of the problem. Through this test, the proposed method proved its ability to support the social sustainable design of different products and in different ways. However, a dutiful recommendation instead concerns the tool (i.e., the chatbot) due to its filters that limit some answers in which the designer tries to voluntarily hypothesize failures to explore their social consequences.

Converging Crises and the Cost of Exclusion: Unveiling the Invisible Women of Sri Lanka's Economy

In Sri Lanka, womens labor force participation has never exceeded 35% in over three decades. As of 2022, the country was ranked 110 out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forums Gender Gap Index. The gaps in womens participation in the formal economy alongside womens limited political empowerment are two leading causes for the country to be lagging in such global gender equality indicators. At a large cost to the economy, the existence of archaic gender norms that promulgate womens unpaid care work often exclude women from the formal labor force. This paper dissects the socio-economic and socio-political factors that lead to the invisibility of women in Sri Lankas economy, while seeking to understand how such underlying causes have been aggravated within the precarity of the post-pandemic context. It is important, now more than ever, to recognize the invisibility of women in Sri Lankas formal economy, while bringing about a transformative vision with a multi-pronged approach to address existing gaps and challenges. With reference to key principles of feminist economics, including the theoretical foundations of Claudia Goldin, Nancy Folbre, and Diane Elson, among others, the paper will make a case for inclusivity and intersectionality in policy recommendations aimed at encouraging womens entry, active engagement, contribution, and retention in Sri Lankas economy. The paper reaches a conclusion that when women lead, participate, and benefit equally in all aspects of life, societies and economies will thrive, thereby contributing to sustainable development and inclusive economic growth.

Women's Participation in Firms' Management and Their Impact on Financial Performance: Pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 Period Evidence

At a time when gender equality is a key priority of all international organizations, this paper can be considered a remarkable contribution to the role of women executives in firms' performance. More specifically, this study focuses on the effect of women holding positions of responsibility on firms' performance worldwide. For the purposes of our research, we applied cross-sectional and panel data analysis for all sectors at an international level from 2019, the year preceding the breakout of the pandemic crisis, to 2021, while the indicators used to measure the participation of women in executive positions are classified as ESG indices. The empirical analysis findings end up showing that the participation of women in executive positions positively affects firms' performance over time, while there is no material change observed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic period. More specifically, when the percent of women processing job positions of responsibility increases by 10%, then the index of profitability will increase from 1.4% to 1.8%, regardless of the measurement of female participation in executive positions used. The results of this study constitute a remarkable contribution to the promotion of the creative economy, the progress of societies, and sustainable development. The research's outcome can be primarily used by policymakers drawing up policies for achieving gender equality in the labor market and workplaces and by shareholders and firms' managers in order to trust females in executive positions in favor of their firms' financial performance. The current study is unique in that it focuses on the period before and during the COVID-19 period, as a period of high volatility in economic activity worldwide, while the sample includes firms from large and mid-cap companies belonging to developed and emerging markets. The above approach will contribute to providing more credible information related to the role of women executives in firms' performance.

Drivers of employment effects in tourism-related sectors: the case of Mainland China

PurposeTourism is a labor-intensive sector with extensive links to other industries and plays a vital role in creating employment. This study aims to propose a new framework to analyze the intrinsic structure of the employment effects of tourism-related sectors and their drivers.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses input–output and structural decomposition analysis (IO-SDA) to quantify the employment effects of tourism-related sectors and their driving mechanisms based on China's I-O tables of 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017.FindingsThe results show a declining trend in the intensity of direct or indirect employment effects in tourism-related sectors, indicating a decreasing number of jobs directly or indirectly required to create a unit of tourism output. Among tourism-related sectors, catering has the highest intensity of indirect employment effects over the study period. Catering stimulates the indirect employment of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery and food and tobacco manufacturing. The decomposition analysis reveals that final demand is the largest contributor to the increase in tourism employment, while technological progress shifts from an employment-creation effect in 2002–2012 to an employment-destruction effect in 2012–2017.Originality/valueThis study proposes a new analytical framework to investigate the structural proportional relationship between the direct and indirect employment effects of various tourism-related sectors and their dynamic changes. Doing so, it provides valuable references for policymakers to promote tourism employment.

"This Is Where We Have Scored”: Exploring the Interface between Project and Institutional Sustainability Facilitated by a Faith-Based Development Organisation in Sierra Leone

This paper explores the issue of project sustainability through an analysis of the experiences of a Faith-Based Development Organisation (FBDO) in Bo, Sierra Leone. The FBDO in question was approached by members of their local Catholic Women Association (CWA) to help them with the planning and management of a farm that had been donated to them by a chief. They agreed to this, and a series of workshops were held in June 2014, along with follow-up discussions with local experts and businesses as to what could be done to help support the women in their endeavour. Amongst other priorities, the women identified the need for the farm to produce food, income and help with their development. However, an outbreak of the Ebola virus that occurred between 2014 and 2016, following as it did on the back of an 11-year (1991–2002) civil war in Sierra Leone, led to a re-evaluation of the farm project in the eyes of the FBDO as they decided to shift to earlier priorities in education and health care. Given the constraints regarding resources and personnel, community projects, such as the CWA farm project, became of much lesser importance even though it resonated strongly with the goals of the FBDO and government, and had garnered much support amongst international donors. The paper sets out that story, beginning with the workshops and discussions held in 2014, and the ramifications of these responses to various ‘shocks', such as those presented by the civil war and disease outbreaks (Ebola and COVID-19);it also provides recommendations that might be of use regarding the interface between project and institutional sustainability within FBDOs and, indeed, the wider community of development organisations.

Crowd work in STEM‐related fields: A window of opportunity from a gender perspective?

After the Global Financial Crisis (2008) many people found new job opportunities on crowd platforms. The COVID‐19 crisis reinforced this trend and virtual work is expected to increase. Although the working conditions of individuals engaged on these platforms is an emerging topic, of research, the existing literature tends to overlook the gendered dimension of the gig economy. Following a quantitative approach, based on the statistical analysis of 444 profiles (platform Freelancer.com in Spain and Argentina), we examine the extent to which the gig economy reproduces gender inequalities such as the underrepresentation of women in STEM‐related tasks and the gender pay gap. While the findings reveal lower participation of women than men, this gap is not higher in Argentina than in Spain. Moreover, gender variations in hourly wages are not as marked as expected, and such differences disappear once STEM skill levels are controlled for. Asymmetry in individuals' STEM skill level provides a better explanation than gender of the hourly wage differences. This finding opens a window of opportunity to mitigate the classical gender discrimination that women face in technological fields in traditional labor markets. Finally, the paper identifies some issues concerning the methodological bias entailed by the use of an application programming interface in cyber‐research, when analyzing gender inequalities.

Sources of Stress, Burnout, and Career Decisions of Male Health and Nursing Professionals: A Qualitative Inquiry of the Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The human resources and workforce shortage of registered health and nursing professionals has been a long-term problem in health systems internationally, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many health and nursing professionals face stress and burnout, which may influence their career decisions and long-term human resources development. The purpose of this study is to investigate and understand the relationship(s) between sources of stress and the reasons why male health and nursing professionals decide to leave the profession within the next six months. With the employment of the social cognitive career and motivation theory and general inductive approach with 40 male health and nursing professionals, the results outlined personal considerations: my physical and mental health conditions, surrounding environments and individuals: pressure from my co-workers, and political considerations: unsupportive government policies, were categorized. The study provides recommendations to healthcare leadership, government agencies, human resources planners, and researchers to establish sustainable human resources strategies to solve the ongoing and long-term workforce shortage internationally.

Perceived organizational justice and trust as mediators between perceived gender discrimination and organizational outcomes

Many people, especially women, have experienced gender discrimination in their work lives (e.g., Eagly & Diekman, 2005;Morrison et al., 1987). Gaining an understanding of how perception of gender discrimination is related to organizational outcomes is very important for organizations. In this study, I reviewed extant literatures on perceived gender discrimination, perceived organizational justice, perceived external organizational justice, trust in organization, trust in supervisor, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and corporate social responsibility. I proposed and used structural equation modeling to test the models of the relationships among these constructs to understand how people's perceived gender discrimination is related to turnover intention through the other constructs based on a sample of 880 U.S. participants. Results showed that employees' perception of gender discrimination was related to turnover intention indirectly through distributive, procedural, and interactional perceived organizational justice, perceived interactional external organizational justice, trust in organization, trust in supervisor, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. I also studied how COVID-19 impacted people's work and life. I discuss the implications, limitations, and directions for future study based on the findings of this study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

A cross-industry comparison of how women leaders experience gender bias

PurposeThis paper compares how women leaders in four US industries–higher education, faith-based non-profits, healthcare and law–experience 15 aspects of gender bias.Design/methodology/approachThis study used convergent mixed methods to collect data from 1,606 participants. It included quantitative assessment of a validated gender bias scale and qualitative content analysis of open-ended responses.FindingsResults suggest that, while gender bias is prevalent in all four industries, differences exist. Participants in higher education experienced fewer aspects of gender bias than the other three industries related to male culture, exclusion, self-limited aspirations, lack of sponsorship and lack of acknowledgement. The faith-based sample reported the highest level of two-person career structure but the lowest levels of queen bee syndrome, workplace harassment and salary inequality. Healthcare tended towards the middle, reporting higher scores than one industry and lower than another while participants working in law experienced more gender bias than the other three industries pertaining to exclusion and workplace harassment. Healthcare and law were the two industries with the most similar experiences of bias.Originality/valueThis research contributes to human resource management (HRM) literature by advancing understanding of how 15 different gender bias variables manifest differently for women leaders in various industry contexts and by providing HRM leaders with practical steps to create equitable organizational cultures.

Cartooning and sexism in the time of Covid-19: Metaphors and metonymies in the Arab mind

Using a large-scale corpus of 706 coronavirus cartoons by male and female Arab artists, this study takes a fresh and more cognitive look at sexism in multimodal discourse. Specifically, it examines the role of salience and grammar (and hence of metaphor and metonymy) in gender bias and/or in discrimination against women. It argues that both men and women are vulnerable to the influence of stereotypical and outdated beliefs that create unconscious bias. But this raises the crucial issue of whether we can speak of 'overt' sexism in images. Issues around terminology and conceptualization are thus also investigated. Importantly, this paper makes the following contributions to feminist and cross-cultural pragmatics: (i) it brings a distinctly Arabic perspective to gender and language;(ii) it expands socio-cognitive pragmatics beyond spoken and written communication;(iii) it shows a close coupling between an Arabic grammar and other aspects of culture;and (iv) it has the potential for impact beyond academia, specifically in the sphere of coronavirus care or of health communication. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Discourse & Society is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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 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 . (Copyright applies to all s.)

A comparative analysis of construction workers' mental health before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria

Purpose>Because of the sort of working environment and the nature of construction jobs, a high rate of poor mental health has been recorded in the construction industry. The aim of this study is to compare construction workers' mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approach>A survey questionnaire was developed and administered online to building environment professionals working on construction sites. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. An independent sample t-test was also conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference in the mean before and during the COVID-19 infection.Findings>The results show that mental health challenges were more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic. The result of the independent sample t-test revealed that there exists a significant difference in all the mean before and during COVID-19 except sleeping too much or too little;having low or no energy and lack of emotion that shows no significant difference.Originality/value>This study is the first to compare the mental health of construction workers before and during COVID-19 in Nigeria. The significance of this study was that it would provide an insight for construction managers and other decision-makers on the most critical mental health challenges on construction sites, which will help in an attempt to improve the mental well-being of construction workers.

Peace Beyond the Binary: A Creative Intersectional Perspective on Global Forced Displacement

In a defiant celebration of their queer subculture at the end of the first act, the lead character exclaims: "the opposite of war isn't peace-it's creation!"1 This lyrical moment spotlights how peace cannot be a crucial determinant of health and well-being if underlying systems of power remain the same;when addressing forced displacement on a global scale, public health responses must instead prioritize dismantling binary social constructs and intentionally creating inclusive care systems. The global COVID-19 pandemic has intensified existing cycles of violence and displacement generated by structural inequality, poverty, the climate crisis, and political instability.2,3 These systems operate through divisive, binary social categories-rich and poor, woman and man, Black and White, perpetrator and victim, citizen and foreigner- making people at the intersection of marginalized identity dimensions increasingly vulnerable to violence and forced migration within and across societies.4 Binary frameworks also determine which displaced populations receive refugee designation and, thus, protection. A study of transgender asylum seekers in Mexico found that they experienced discrimination in education and employment based on their evolving gender identities, violence from both their families and state officials, and adverse mental health outcomes.6 In another study, LGBTQ+ refugees and asylees living in a range of contexts in the United States and Canada reported widespread experiences of violence and a lack of support resources and protection across institutional levels and locations.7 These studies highlight how refugees who transcend binary constructs face violence and displacement not just from their communities but also from a migrant protection apparatus designed for refugees whose identities are assumed to fit neatly into predetermined boxes. Kimberlé Crenshaw's original use of the framework explored how binary conceptions of gender and race in the US legal system produced differential access to systems of justice for women who had experienced violence;the structural separation of racial discrimination and gender discrimination privileged White women's and Black men's experiences and obscured the cross-cutting effects of gender and race for Black women.8 In seeking to address forced displacement, I argue that we must incorporate an expanded version of intersectionality- what I call "creative intersectionality"- that explores how global systems of power relate to and shape one another, recognizes that identity dimensions are not dichotomous nor essential but are developed by translocational experiences and sociocultural contexts, and prioritizes critical action to deconstruct binaries in favor of new systems for collective well-being.9,10 For example, using creative intersectionality as a lens to understand and ultimately address forced displacement requires that we examine all forms of binary constructs, and not just those imposed on an individual's identity dimensions.

Poverty with a feminine face: Theologising the feminisation of poverty in Mutasa District, Zimbabwe

The dissection of work based on biological sex orientation amid non-remunerated and remunerated work reduces females frugally and socially to become extra susceptible towards remaining poor and poorer in the society. This division is engineered by family, individual, communal and financial predicaments, especially those emanating from the cultural background, partisan and racial struggle circumstances or disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic. In Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe, women are marginalised and excluded by social discrimination and poverty, hence the call for action by the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Action is required specifically from the areas, such as education and environment, among others, to empower women to improve their situations or to develop communities and the country as a whole. Actions aimed at reducing impoverishment in society are perilous;hence, the Zimbabwean government decided to give preference to women in economic empowerment strategies and to advance acts that support monetary constitutional rights. While both men and women are susceptible to poverty, gender discrimination makes women to be more vulnerable to poverty and have meagre incomes to survive impoverishment. Women are always the last to feed, they are also usually the last to sleep and the first to wake up, they are the disadvantaged to get healthcare facilities and they are stuck in laborious, voluntary household chores from time to time. Unfortunately, some are left with no option and engage in prostitution as a means to survive. Using purposive sampling and cultural feminist lens, this study problematises the feminisation of poverty in Zimbabwe, using Mutasa community, particularly villages 4 and 30, as a case study to see how women alleviate poverty through mukando/marounds . The main argument presented in this study is that poverty must not have a feminine face;hence, the labels that synonymise scarcity with femininity must be eradicated. Contribution: This study contributes to the ongoing academic studies on the feminisation of poverty, using Mutasa district in Zimbabwe as a case study. It concludes by restating that the feminisation of poverty is a product of a flawed cultural system that denies women opportunities for realising their full potential.

Perceived organizational justice and trust as mediators between perceived gender discrimination and organizational outcomes

Many people, especially women, have experienced gender discrimination in their work lives (e.g., Eagly & Diekman, 2005;Morrison et al., 1987). Gaining an understanding of how perception of gender discrimination is related to organizational outcomes is very important for organizations. In this study, I reviewed extant literatures on perceived gender discrimination, perceived organizational justice, perceived external organizational justice, trust in organization, trust in supervisor, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and corporate social responsibility. I proposed and used structural equation modeling to test the models of the relationships among these constructs to understand how people's perceived gender discrimination is related to turnover intention through the other constructs based on a sample of 880 U.S. participants. Results showed that employees' perception of gender discrimination was related to turnover intention indirectly through distributive, procedural, and interactional perceived organizational justice, perceived interactional external organizational justice, trust in organization, trust in supervisor, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. I also studied how COVID-19 impacted people's work and life. I discuss the implications, limitations, and directions for future study based on the findings of this study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Impact of employees’ internal factors and job performance on organizational commitment in government organizations during COVID-19: Evidence from Kuwait

Modern hiring practices based on qualification, gender discrimination, person-job fit, and life satisfaction can allow employees to perform effectively and significantly contribute to organizational commitment. Thus, the study aims to develop and test a structural model that integrates the relationships between overqualification, life satisfaction, person-job fit, employees’ job performance, and organizational commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic in the public organizations of Kuwait. The person-job fit theory was applied to obtain fair results. Thus, the data were collected from 275 employees working in healthcare institutions, the education sector, and the Ministry of Defense in Kuwait. Overall, the results show a significant and direct impact of overqualification and life satisfaction on employees’ job performance;accordingly, employees’ job performance also affects organizational commitment. Thus, results indicate that person-job fit negatively affects employees’ job performance. Surprisingly, employees’ job performance mediates the relationship between overqualification, life satisfaction, and organizational commitment. However, employees’ job performance does not mediate the relationship between person-job fit and organizational commitment. The current paper contributes to understanding the broad impact of overqualification, life satisfaction, and employees’ job performance on organizational commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly in public organizations.

Don’t Read the Comments: Examining Social Media Discourse on Trans Athletes

How are transgender athletes understood in popular discourse? This paper adapts and merges Glaser and Strauss’ 1967 Grounded Theory Method with computerized Automated Text Analysis to provide clarity on large-n datasets comprised of social media posts made about transgender athletes. After outlining the procedures of this new approach to social media data, I present findings from a study conducted on comments made in response to YouTube videos reporting transgender athletes. A total of 60,000 comments made on three YouTube videos were scraped for the analysis, which proceeded in two steps. The first was an iterative, grounded analysis of the top 500 “liked” comments to gain insight into the trends that emerged. Automated Text Analysis was then used to explore latent connections amongst the 60,000 comments. This descriptive analysis of thousands of datapoints revealed three dominant ways that people talk about transgender athletes: an attachment to biology as determinative of athletic abilities, a racialized understanding of who constitutes a proper “girl”, and perceptions of sex-segregated sports as the sole way to ensure fairness in athletic opportunities. The paper concludes by drawing out the implications of this research for how scholars understand the obstacles facing transgender political mobilizations, presents strategies for addressing these roadblocks, and underscores the importance of descriptive studies of discourse in political science research concerned with marginalization and inequality.

Upcycling e-waste trash into innovative treasure

Renewable energy associations note that solar panels installed in the early-2000s solar energy boom are now reaching the end of their 25- to 30-year lifespan. Benjamin Sovacool, of the University of Sussex’s Science Policy Research Unit, describes how the developed world’s attempt to reduce its carbon footprint has led to environmental and public health risks, gender discrimination, child labour, and ethnic discrimination in the global South. Markus Spitzbart, head Sustainable E-Waste Management in Ghana, German Corporation for International Cooperation Furthermore, the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) has set up a project to create new centres and training courses for e-waste recycling and disposal methods for recyclers and scrap collectors.

Korean Female Graduate Students' Experiences in the United States: Recognizing and Addressing Their Challenges

The unique experiences of Korean female graduate students (KFGS) in the United States (US) have not received much attention or been discussed, although Korea has been one of the leading countries sending students to the United States. By examining literature regarding the experiences of KFGS studying and living in the United States, this paper reports the challenges they face (e.g., racial and gender discrimination, the model minority stereotype, and multiple roles as students and as wives and/or mothers) and the ways in which they respond to those challenges. This paper also urges one to conduct more research on the lives of KFGS to make them visible and heard in U.S. academia.

ACADEMIC UNFREEDOM

Academic freedom in the UK is generally taken to mean that we have the freedom to conduct research, to disseminate that research, and to teach the subjects we specialize in, largely free from interference. I say 'largely free' as our freedoms arc restricted by the need to find funding for empirical research and to abide by the requirements of the funding body, our institutions, and our academic peers and colleagues. Freedom is impacted increasingly by the demands of a government and industry that demand that universities 'produce' employable graduates, and increasingly subject to the opinion of journalists and the general public.

Two-Spirits' Response to COVID-19: Survey Findings in Atlantic Canada Identify Priorities and Developing Practices

The Wabanaki Two-Spirit Alliance, a regional Two-Spirit organization, administered an online survey in May of 2020 to identify priorities and concerns of Two-Spirit individuals and Indigenous 2SLGBTQQIA+ people in Atlantic Canada during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The respondents (n = 149) shared health concerns including deterioration(s) of mental health (56.32%). They described mental health supports (68.42%), health supports for Two-Spirit individuals (57.89%), healing gatherings (46.05%) and trans-specific supports (44.74%) as interventions in fostering Two-Spirit health. The Alliance's immediate response was to develop community-led responses to address urgent concerns. Our key promising practice has been hosting Two-Spirit gatherings as community-based health/cultural supports;the gatherings also serve as an opportunity for the Alliance to consult the Two-Spirit community about priorities and concerns. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Alliance explored ways to keep the TwoSpirit community united by maintaining social support(s). We designed a survey that provided essential feedback, resulting in the Alliance shifting priorities toward developing methods of bringing Two-Spirit people together safely by virtual means;seeking sustainable resources to address emerging health concerns;and increasing the Alliance's capacity development.