Search results

This qualitative study aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators faced by workers during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in Ecuador. It focused on three work modalities: on-site, telework and mixed or hybrid. It also inquired into practical implications for management based on the workers’ experiences.

Between October and December 2021, 41 semistructured interviews were conducted to delve into the experiences of Ecuadorian workers. Thematic content analysis was employed for data charting and analysis.

Barriers and facilitators varied according to each working modality, although some were shared, contingent upon the specific contextual factors and job characteristics. The findings suggest that organizations should consider implementing flexible working hours and modalities, provide safe workspaces, ensure appropriate technology and connectivity, support employees and maintain their health and well-being.

This research explores the experiences of teleworkers, on-site workers and hybrid workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in an under-researched labor market within a developing country. The study provides valuable insights that highlight the potential for management development initiatives specifically tailored to hybrid work environments.

The production of news through artificial intelligence (AI) is a reality in many countries, including the United States, where two leading companies in this area are based. The purpose of this explanatory bibliographic research is to discuss who or what should bear the ethical responsibility for automated writing in a newsroom, considering that codes of ethics address only the conduct of people. This chapter compares the Code of Ethics of the National Federation of Brazilian Journalists with the code used in the United States and highlights examples of news released with incorrect information, produced by algorithms, and published by US news organizations. Facing the current informational scenario, the ethical responsibility of the automated news must be attributed to the media, represented in the figure of the editor. Such a conclusion is motivated by the fact that neither the algorithm nor the person who developed it takes part in the decision-making process of publishing an article or not.

This chapter presents theoretical and empirical studies that investigate the influence of digital culture on the educational process of university students where mobile devices and the internet have become increasingly present as resources in everyday school life. The researchers investigate how such devices and the internet interact with university environments in ways that change the more traditional academic practices, such as reading, writing, and studying. Moreover, in the context of what has been widely labeled as humanities studies, interest has grown in understanding how “culture” may be studied via varied strands of interpretative lines of inquiry, each configured by different methods and ways of reflection. At master education levels, digital technology becomes even more present as a means of academic activity and, as a result, amplifies the impacts of digital culture on contemporary university culture. The purpose of this work is to study the concept of culture, digital culture, and scholarly culture, and, on a second approach, to review aspects of the development of communication methods and their impacts on university educational environments. As a methodological theoretical procedure, this research builds on authors who have raised practical and scholarly cultural questions, such as Pierre Bourdieu, Pierre Levy, Raymond Williams, Roger Chartier, Anne Marie Chartier, and Bernard Lahire, among others. This study engages in empirical research with students in an Advertising and Marketing course in a private higher educational institution in the city of Araraquara, which is located in the “interior” of the state of São Paulo in Brazil.

Milton Nascimento is one of the most prolific Brazilian singers and songwriters of all time, an artist who has formed friendships and made songs with a host of Brazilian artists, with international stars from Latin America, and with artists abroad. Milton’s repertoire has made its way into the fabric of musical compilations of Brazilian music for international listeners. Perhaps unbeknownst to these international listeners, Milton, as an Afro-Brazilian artist, reflects a complex and paradoxical relationship to “race” in his music – at times openly touching upon racial themes, even during an area when the government forbade open discussion of racial tension in Brazil – but at times signifying race more subtly, either through subtle references to diversity in Brazil or through the very elements of his music.

Women’s indigenous organizations have existed for years in the Colombian Amazon. Yet, information about their members’ motivations and the opportunities and barriers those organizations face is missing in the literature on the indigenous movement, ecofeminist struggles, and efforts for a good life in Colombia. This chapter analyzes the connection between women’s indigenous organizations and the territory’s efforts to contain climate change. Two sources inform our understanding of the relationship: the systematization of the main program in Colombian institutional history supporting indigenous women’s led associations linked to conservation efforts, “Women Caregivers of the Amazon” and the mapping of indigenous women’s organizations in the region. This chapter offers a critical impact evaluation of the program “Women Caregivers of the Amazon,” analyzing the way in which the ecological native discourse, particularly on environmental practices of indigenous women, has permeated conservation initiatives in the Colombian Amazon. The impact this has had on women’s participation in self-governance and environmental governance remains to be analyzed. However, mapping indigenous women’s organizations in 2021 offered relevant information on those organizations and their care and conservation practices in the Amazon Forest. In turn, the systematization of “Caregivers of the Amazon” results offers an updated analysis of the scope, limitations, best practices, and lessons learned in developing the projects. A longitudinal and comparative analysis of these two sources of information will lead to an understanding of the incidence of intergovernmental and civil society actions for mitigation and adaptation to climate change carried out by indigenous women’s organizations.

This chapter examines possible relationships between use of social media in online mobilization and mainstream print media coverage during the June 2013 protests in Brazil, a series of demonstrations which happened throughout the country initially around bus ticket prices.

In order to develop the research, we compared news from leading Brazilian newspapers (O Globo, Folha de S. Paulo, Estadão, and O Dia) with the activities of most influential Twitter users in the dissemination of messages about these events in the country during the period from June 01 to 30, 2013. The results show trends in the emerging dynamics of social organization that may indicate the role of old and new media in today’s Brazilian politics.

The research analyzed the extent to which the events occurring on the streets shaped and/or reflected user-generated social media content.

There is a growing interest in understanding the strategic behaviour of family firms producing international commodities such as coffee, particularly in contexts where decisions about what products to sell, where to commercialise them and how to promote them appear to be highly based on both business and family aspects. The purpose of this paper is to explore product differentiation strategies in family firms in the specialty coffee industry across Latin American countries. Whilst the socioeconomic relevance of coffee production in Central America is unequivocal, the approach and rationale of families that engage in specialty coffee production remain underexplored.

This study examines product differentiation in specialty coffee family farms across countries in Central America: Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The study relies on in-depth interviews, case studies and an interpretative approach to unpick the dynamics of product differentiation by families in business dedicated to producing specialty coffee.

The findings show that product differentiation in specialty coffee family farms is influenced by both business and family aspects and driven by entrepreneurial stewards. Coffee-farming families can engage in product differentiation through a shared vision, a combination of traditional and specialised knowledge, and through the continuous development of an exchange network. The findings reveal a connection between families in business balancing family and business interests, and the strategic intention to build up their assets entrepreneurially over time.

This study contributes to the literature on stewardship and strategic behaviour in family firms when families in business engage in differentiating their products in a highly competitive industry. More specifically, this study focuses on companies across countries where coffee is of crucial socioeconomic importance, and where the said companies are owned and managed by families. The study expands understanding of product differentiation in family-enterprise-first businesses and suggests that the family elements in differentiation can be explained through an entrepreneurial stewardship perspective.

The question has been recently raised as to how far the operation of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts of 1875, 1879, and 1899, and the Margarine Act, 1887, is affected by the Act 29 Charles II., cap. 7, “for the better observation of the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday.” At first sight it would seem a palpable absurdity to suppose that a man could escape the penalties of one offence because he has committed another breach of the law at the same time, and in this respect law and common‐sense are, broadly speaking, in agreement; yet there are one or two cases in which at least some show of argument can be brought forward in favour of the opposite contention.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been involved in academic programs in many Western countries, actively participating and reshaping policy implementation. This tremendous growth in external voluntary and philanthropic organizations in schools is associated with a global trend toward decentralization, commodification, privatization, neoliberalism and governmental budget cuts. NGOs have become very popular partners in attempts to meet education goals set by the government and are increasingly involved both in policy formation and implementation. And arise questions regarding the special challenges facing school principals. This study explored the perceptions of school principals regarding the NGO involvement in designing and implementing education policy in Israel.

The authors applied a qualitative research method, conducting in-depth interviews with primary school principals of schools with low socioeconomic student populations, where NGOs operate at the national level to promote educational achievement programs. This research approach acknowledges the existence of structured, fluid, subjective, flexible and dynamic realities that are attributed different meanings and interpretations and are shaped within political, cultural and social contexts. Thus, this study aims to reflect the perceptions of school principals regarding the involvement of NGOs in design and implementation of education policies. The authors utilized an inductive process of condensing, encoding, categorizing, and theorizing to analyze the data.

Data analysis revealed the following three major themes evident in the perceptions of school principals: intersectoral partnership policies in education; a policy of re-examining mutual responsibility for education; and the benefit of NGO engagement in education. Inter-sectoral partnership policy is the emergence of alternative models, defined as different political and institutional ways of organizing collective action is an effective way to organize and benefit, and is a way of introducing new ideas, actors and resources into public education systems. However, this new model is a complex, ongoing and dynamic process with school principals at the helm of these new relationships.

This study includes new information on how school principals see NGOs involvement in planning and implementation of education policy. However, it was conducted with various limitations. First, participants and their input all relate specifically to education in Israel. Any generalizations that may be drawn from them to shed light on similar processes around the world would require the study also be conducted in diverse sociocultural contexts. Second, interviews with principals were held through the 2016–2017 school year. A longitudinal study would be required to examine whether and how principals feel after years of working with NGOs on various projects. Finally, this study only focused on the opinions of principals, representing only one involved party. This cannot be a comprehensive perspective on the partnership and collaboration between formal education systems and NGOs. Thus, further research is necessary to examine the perceptions of NGOs managers, policymakers, supervisors, teachers, pupils and parents. Based on the authors’ study's findings, they recommend investigating whether, how, and under what conditions principals can nurture partnerships with NGOs as a platform for initiative, particularly the vigorous leadership needed to carry out the policy.

The establishment and support of intersectoral partnerships between the Education Ministry and NGOs is a complex, ongoing and dynamic process with school principals at the helm of these new relationships. Principals have been given more independence, autonomy and clout as they maintain the external networks now contributing to improved outcomes and addressing unique community needs. Consequently, the more external factors become involved in education, the more principals are required to manage and implement the partnership. As such, policymakers (main office and district supervisors), implementers (NGO managers, school principals, teachers) and recipients (parents and teachers) must stay attentive to each other, adjust expectations as to the limits of responsibility, and primary to recognize the needs to keep making improvements to the partnership that are based on reciprocal assessment. More, all involved parties must continue to be active in developing, deepening and maintaining the employed mechanisms, normalizing them to become the standard in intersectoral partnerships in education.

This study provides theoretical contributions and practical implications of NGO involvement in designing and implementing education policies from the perspective and function of school principals in this era of ever-changing economic and social reality. Establishment and support of intersectoral partnerships between the Education Ministry and NGOs is a complex ongoing and dynamic process with school principals at the helm of these new relationships. The principals have been given more independence autonomy and clout as they maintain the external networks now contributing to improved outcomes and addressing unique community needs and more principals are required to manage and implement the partnership.