International Journal of Educational Management

Masry-Herzallah, Asmahan; Stavissky, Yuliya

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-10-2022-0442

This research examined correlations between contextual factors: frequency of online teaching (OT) (number of hours per week), Transformational Leadership Style (TLS) and TPACK (TPACK) among Arab and Jewish teachers in Israel after more than a year of teaching online during the Covid-19 crisis.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative methodology elicited data from 437 questionnaires. An online questionnaire was first sent to Israeli Arab and Jewish teachers studying for M.A degrees in three randomly selected higher education institutes in Israel, and then the questionnaire was sent to other teachers, selected through the snowball method. After data collection common method variance was precluded.FindingsThe findings of this research indicated a positive correlation between frequency of OT, TLS and TPACK among Israeli teachers. Major differences were found between Arab and Jewish teachers: Arab teachers (AT) reported more improvement of TPACK, although they taught fewer hours than Jewish teachers (JT). In addition, TLS and sector (Arab/Jewish) moderated the positive correlation between the frequency of OT and TPACK among ATs.Originality/valueThe findings of this research validate the opportunity created by the Covid-19 crisis for cultivation of teachers’ TPACK through OT. This research contributes to extant relevant literature and practice concerning the influence of contextual factors on teachers' improvement of their TPACK while performing OT during the Covid-19 crisis and can inform the design of ecological and culturally appropriate education policies in the post-COVID-19 period. The research was built on the theories of TLS, which is a crucial component supporting the influence of technology integration. The findings strengthen existing knowledge on the unique capacity of TLS to buffer negative external influences imposed on teachers' TPACK and motivate them.

Harris, Alma; Ismail, Nashwa; Jones, Michelle

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-02-2023-0049

The purpose of this article is to outline how far the empirical evidence supports the centrality of leadership in the process of improving underperforming schools.Design/methodology/approachThis article draws on evidence from a contemporary, selected, review of the literature.FindingsThe findings show that leadership is the critical factor in the improvement of underperforming schools. Seven new themes, derived from the selected evidence, are presented that illuminate how leaders secure improvement in the most challenging of school contexts.Research limitations/implicationsThis review is not a systematic review of the evidence and does not claim to be. It provides a commentary based on selected contemporary evidence and therefore is not comprehensive account of all the relevant evidence pertaining to leading the improvement of underperforming schools. The evidence is derived from sources written in English; therefore, it is fully acknowledged that other sources, in other languages might exist but are not included or reflected.Practical implicationsThe practical implications are clearly laid out in the form of seven key themes about leading the improvement of underperforming schools that are of direct practical use.Originality/valueWith so many schools in high poverty areas finding themselves in difficulty, this contemporary review provides new insights about the leadership approaches and practices that continue to make a considerable difference to underperforming schools.

Mousa, Mohamed; Althalathini, Doaa; Abdelgaffar, Hala

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-04-2022-0165

The purpose of this study is to investigate how cronyism is employed by some married female faculty to secure workplace rights and privileges.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research design is employed and interviews were conducted with 32 female academics working at four different universities.FindingsThe narrative demonstrates the gendered use of cronyism at work – pre-COVID-19, during which female academics had to work full-time and be present on school campuses, and after COVID-19 pandemic, when academic working conditions changed due to the lockdown of university campuses and the reliance on remote online protocols to fulfil academic duties. The paper shows an increased use of cronyism as a mechanism to reduce heavy workloads. This type of cronyism is known as the expectation of mutual favour cronyism, which means that benefits are exchanged between a female academic and the chair of her department and/or the school rector, but the interests of the university they work in are not taken into consideration.Originality/valueVirtually, no research exists on the sociocultural determinants of nepotism that undermine the professional performance of female academics at work. The authors draw on social exchange theory and the norm of negative reciprocity to identify the conditions under which social capital is undermined. The results have important implications for theory, practice and future research.

Al Zeer, Imad; Ajouz, Mousa; Salahat, Mahmoud

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-03-2023-0095

Considering the importance of employee performance in the changes in state higher education institutions, this study aims to conceptualize the mediating role of employee engagement and empowerment in predicting employee performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a quantitative survey method to collect data from staff members employed in higher education institutions and applies a partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the data. In addition, the study performs a systematic bibliometric analysis of contemporary literature on the factors influencing employee performance.FindingsThe study's results confirm employee engagement and empowerment's critical role in improving employee performance. Unexpectedly, the study also has found no supporting evidence of the relationship between work environment and employee performance. Further, the proposed model explains 51.6% of the variance in employee productivity.Originality/valueAmong the theoretical implications of this study are the importance of introducing new and theoretically sound mediators to explain how the relationship between a higher education institution's employee engagement and empowerment and its employees' performance unfolds.

Garg, Neha; Anand, Payal; Vakeel, Khadija Ali

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-06-2022-0218

Using the affect theory of social exchange, this study investigates the mediating role of students' affective commitment between their personality traits (extraversion and agreeableness) and academic performance.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs mixed-method study, that is exploratory text analysis using 123 responses followed by a survey of 300 responses among the management students to test the proposed model.FindingsResults reveal a direct positive association of extraversion and agreeableness with students' affective commitment towards their academic institution. Additionally, negative indirect effects of affective commitment were found between the two personality traits and academic performance.Originality/valueThe study highlights both positive and negative outcomes of so-called favorable personality types of extraversion and agreeableness, thereby, building a prima facie case for promoting personality diversity in management institutions.

Parray, Zahoor Ahmad; Islam, Shahbaz ul; Shah, Tanveer Ahmad

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-07-2022-0267

The main goal of this research study is to look at the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion in the association between workplace incivility and job outcomes (job stress, job satisfaction and employee turnover intentions) in the higher education sector.Design/methodology/approachThe authors gathered field data from individuals working in the Higher Education Sector of Jammu and Kashmir to test the proposed study paradigm. A total of 550 respondents reported their perceptions of workplace incivility, emotional exhaustion and job-related outcomes (job stress, job satisfaction and employee turnover intention) at Time 1 in the Kashmir division and Time 2 in the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir via a two-wave data collection design.FindingsThe findings supported the hypothesized relationships, demonstrating that emotional exhaustion acts as a mediator between workplace incivility and employee job outcomes (job stress, employee job satisfaction and employee intention to leave).Research limitations/implicationsThe research was undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir's higher education sectors. As a result, the findings may not apply to other sectors because workplace incivility may be regarded differently in different sectors.Practical implicationsThe findings of this research study will assist organizations and practitioners in comprehending the significance of workplace incivility and emotional exhaustion, as well as how they positively impact job-related outcomes (employee job stress, turnover intention) and negatively on job satisfaction.Originality/valueThis research study added to the existing Self-Determination Theory model developed by Deci and associates (2017) by incorporating Emotional Exhaustion, and workplace incivility as autonomous intrinsic and workplace context factors respectively into the SDT model to study work behaviors in terms of job outcomes. This study adds to existing knowledge on SDTs by suggesting and testing emotional exhaustion as a mechanism for determining the impact of workplace incivility on employee job outcomes.Contribution to impact

Tiwari, Chandan Kumar; Bhaskar, Preeti; Pal, Abhinav

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-10-2022-0407

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are becoming increasingly interwoven into people's daily lives, with applications in fields such as science, engineering, medical, the arts, education, finance and business. While much study has been conducted in the field of VR and AR in a variety of areas, less attention has been paid to online education. The purpose of this research is to conduct a systematic review of studies on AR and VR, as well as its applications in many disciplines of education, with a special emphasis on online education.Design/methodology/approachThe data were gathered from the SCOPUS database under the subject “Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications in Online Education.” The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) format has been used to summarize the available literature and research in academics throughout the world. First, systematic literature reviews and later bibliometric analysis were conducted for performance and science mapping analysis.FindingsThe research adds to the body of knowledge about the role of AR and VR in online education and its future prospects. AR and VR have demonstrated a substantial contribution to facilitating teaching in a variety of fields, including engineering, medicine, nursing and chemistry. Additionally, this research indicates that AR and VR can be utilized to teach various areas and specialties. Additionally, it can be used in other aspects of online education, such as admissions, industry visits, training, internationalization and specific courses for students with disabilities.Practical implicationsThis research lays the framework for educational institutions, legislators and researchers to investigate additional applications of VR and AR. Though this research suggests some possible uses for AR and VR in the online education system, more applications can be integrated into the online education system to fully leverage the potential of AR and VR worldwide. AR and VR have the potential to be a very cost-effective method of delivering online education on a wide scale in the future.Originality/valueThe article explores the applicability of VR and AR in education using bibliometric analysis. This is one of the first studies to do an assessment of VR and AR, evaluating their strengths, drawbacks and current applications. Future application areas are also identified as a result of the investigation.

Balasi, Aikaterini; Iordanidis, George; Tsakiridou, Eleni

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-04-2023-0208

To improve school organisational performance and innovativeness, and meet diverse student needs, school leaders should be innovative, risk-takers and proactive, thus applying entrepreneurial practices/strategies and market mechanisms. This study aims to investigate, from a schoolteacher's perspective, the degree of entrepreneurial leadership behaviour (ELB) applied by school principals in European primary schools. Given that school autonomy is perceived as an important predictor of leaders' entrepreneurship, this study investigates the impact of educational macro (autonomy and accountability) and micro (demographics) contexts on ELB by comparing centralised and decentralised European school systems with the highly centralised Greek school system.Design/methodology/approachThis comparative study was conducted in Greece (630 participants) and in 14 European countries (972 participants). Thornberry's Entrepreneurial Leadership Questionnaire was used, comprising general entrepreneurial leader (GEL), miner (MIN), accelerator (ACC), explorer (EXP) and integrator (INT) behaviours.FindingsThe results revealed that ELB is a multi-dimensional concept, and that all participating teachers perceived ELB application moderately, with more focus on the internal (than external) school environment. Furthermore, the dual-directional macro-contextual influence found in applying ELB indicates that high school autonomy and accountability activate ELB owing to the school's freedom to engage in entrepreneurial ventures, while low autonomy/accountability still activates ELB, but only for organisational survival within hierarchical-bureaucratic school environments. This feature differentiates “intrapreneur/intrepreneur” from “entrepreneur” school principals.Originality/valueThe theoretical basis of entrepreneurial leadership (EL) in education should include entrepreneurial multi-dimensional leadership aspects (competencies, behaviours, skills) and educational context (macro and micro). Implications for school leadership research and practice are also discussed.

Mgaiwa, Samson John

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-09-2022-0367

Leadership has been recognised as a critical factor for employees' job satisfaction. However, much remains to be learned about how university academics who work in developing country contexts perceive their head of departments (HoDs) and deans' leadership styles and how such leadership styles influence their job satisfaction. Therefore, extending earlier research on higher education leadership, this study was pioneered to examine deans' and heads of departments' leadership styles and how such leadership styles influenced their job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed an exploratory research design to draw on data from in-depth interviews with university academics sourced from two private and two public universities. Participants constituted fifteen academics (N = 15) from the studied universities. The collected data from interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to thematic analysis.FindingsThe findings revealed that overall, academics perceived their HoDs and deans as employing both transformational and transactional leadership styles. As such, both styles of leadership influenced academics' job satisfaction in diverse ways although the transformational leadership style appeared to be the most dominant in influencing academics' job satisfaction.Practical implicationsThe article highlights the need for university managers (i.e. heads of departments and deans) to flexibly employ preferred leadership styles to achieve job satisfaction among academics.Originality/valueFrom the theoretical point of view, this article contributes to expanding the earlier research by showing how academics' perceptions of leadership styles employed by their academic leaders shape their job satisfaction.

Kuriakose, Vijay; Bishwas, Sumant Kumar; Mohandas, Nimmi P.

2023 International Journal of Educational Management

doi: 10.1108/ijem-10-2022-0437

Anchoring on the Conservation of Resource Theory (Hobfoll, 1989), the study aims to examine the relationship between student bullying, helplessness and student well-being. Further, the study also examines the mediating role of helplessness and the conditional role of students' psychological capital in the model.Design/methodology/approachDrawing responses from 397 students in the business management program in various B Schools in India, the hypothesized relationships were tested using IBM SPSS version 23 and AMOS 23, and moderation was checked with Hayes Process Macros.FindingsThe results revealed that bullying among students poses a severe threat to their well-being. Further, the study found that bullying increases feelings of helplessness, and such feelings impair well-being. The study also found a significant moderating effect of psychological capital in the relationship between feelings of helplessness and student well-being.Research limitations/implicationsThe study findings provide students and educational administrators valuable insights into how student bullying deteriorates their well-being and how it can be tackled effectively using their psychological capital.Originality/valueThe study made a unique attempt to understand the effect of student bullying on their well-being. The study also provides valuable understanding about the roles of helplessness and psychological capital in the model, which will enrich the theory and practice alike.