This paper explored online shoppers perspectives of the quality of their systemic interactions with digital transaction platforms provided by e-commerce firms to excite their shopping experiences, especially during this period of Covid-19 pandemic, with a corresponding significant impact on consumer behaviour. Guided by a survey research design, quantitative data was collected from 304 online shoppers and analyzed descriptively and inferentially. The results showed that digital platform factors that excite clients shopping experiences include senses of care, flexibility, community, customization, character, and interactivity. Female clients were found to found relate more to such enablers than male clients, even though, the differences in their premium ratings the factors were not insignificant. It is concluded that the increase in clients usage of digital platforms for shopping and subsequent excitement is influenced by the quality of the platforms’ interactivenesses derived from feelings of care, customization, community, character and flexibilities provided by its design. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

This study explored workers engagement in involuntary cognitive intentionality leading to their circumvention of structured and routinized activities at the workplace. Guided by Bedny and Karwowski’s postulation that activities of individuals are realized by goal-directed actions, informed either by mental or motor conscious processes, as objects of the cognitive psychology of skills and performances, qualitative data was collected from documented interactions between graduate students engaged in research work and their supervisor, and analyzed morphologically to understand the significance of workers involuntary cognitive intentionality in different work setting. It was found that individuals assigned consciously designed and assigned structured activity in work-settings can think that they know how to do such activities better, and even understand everything about how to do the activity properly in their minds. It is concluded that workers involuntary cognitive intentionality makes them circumvent consciously designed and assigned routinized structured activity, yielding outcomes that deviate from expectations. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

This study explored and empirically determined the influence of gender in the goal classification and goal formation processes of individuals, as well as on their considerations of activity strategy and decision outcome expectations in an exam organizational activity. Data was collected from male and female graduate students preparing for end-of-semester examinations and comparatively analyzed inferentially. It is found that by segregating gender, the cognitive dynamics of male and female students when preparing for an exam organizational activity, in terms of their individual goal classification and goal formation processes, as well as their considerations of activity strategy and decision outcome expectations, differ in perceptual orientation. It is concluded that the cognitive dynamics of male and female individuals’ when preparing for an organizational activity, in terms of their individual goal classification and goal formation processes, as well as their considerations of activity strategy and decision outcome expectations differ in their perceptual orientations.

This study examined the influence of students ‘goal characterization on their goal-formation processes, as characterized by their goal-classification, the systemic consideration of their activity-strategies and decision-outcomes when preparing for an examination. Using the Structural Equation Modeling approach, a functional analysis underlined by systemic principles was conducted. Firstly, the issue of whether the influence of students’ considerations of activity strategies on their decision outcomes is truly moderated by their activity goal formations, if they set highest-goals, is determined. Secondly, the issue of whether the influence of students’ considerations of activity strategies on their decision outcomes is truly mediated by their activity goal formations, if they set best-goals, is also determined. Based on the findings, the conscious goal-directed processes associated to the emergence of an individual’s thoughtfully mastered learning activity and its consequence on future design of systemic structural activity of individuals will be established.

This study explored how personal social capital influences employee growth in different industrial sectors in Ghana. This is informed by the prevailing argument on the need for knowledge generation on the role of social capital on employee growth, and which dynamics continue to gain currency in human resource management research. Using data from the banking, telecommunication and media sectors, it was found that the social interdependence between workers and other colleagues, information from their personal social networks, their personal relationships with colleagues that encourage the prevalence of trustful work environments, and the personal relationships they develop with others during social gatherings are all predictive of workers’ personal social capital that contribute variously in enhancing their professional growth in the work environments of different industrial sectors. It is concluded that the incorporation of workers’ personal social capital in organizations’ human resource management systems will help add value to their productiveness.

This paper explored the consequences of employees’ perception on the digitization of financial management system in a Ghanaian public organization. Guided by the systemic-structural theory of activity, quantitative data was collected from 123 employees and analyzed morphologically to understand how employees perceived the implementation of the digitized system. The results show that while majority of employees perceived the digitization of the financial management system as useful towards improving the organization’s operational efficiency and effectiveness, a minority were skeptical. Such skepticism was cognitively translated into negative employees’ attitude towards the system’s digitization process, which negatively impacted on the successfulness of its implementation. It is concluded that the digitization of financial management systems in Ghanaian public institutions are constrained by minority employees’ skepticism, since such skepticism have cognitive implications that translates into employee’s negative perceptions of digitized systems, and which perceptions can have an impeding consequential effect on the system’s implementation process.

This study assessed the noise and ergonomics factors associated with the welding operations of Ghanaian informal-auto-mechanics and the implications it has on their personal well-being and productivity. Using the 2014 OSHA Hazards Assessment Checklist, the noise and ergonomics factors associated with welding operations in three selected shops were firstly assessed expertly. This was followed by interviews with the informal-auto-mechanics, using the checklist as interview-guide. The results showed that welding operations in all the shops were very noisy, with operators oblivious to the health hazards of their noisy operations. Additionally, all the informal-auto-mechanics’ reported ergonomics constraint in their welding operations, manifested as musculoskeletal disorders caused by inappropriate work postures, repetitive-motion and insufficient pause-periods in tasks performance. It is concluded that Ghanaian informal-auto-mechanics’ are oblivious of occupational hazards associated with their welding activities caused by noise and ergonomics constraints, and the negative consequence they have on their personal well-being and work productivity.

This study seeks to provide an understanding of how data security and trust is managed in the collaborative work between technology start-up firms in developing economies and third-party entities. Using qualitative data from Ghana which was analyzed thematically, it was found that the measures taken to ensure the security and privacy of client datasets vary in intensity among firms. Thus, in collaborating with third-parties, the firms largely depend on industry best practices, policies and service-level agreements, and thus do not attempt to integrate the policies of collaborators with their firm’s policies except in situations where the inclusion elimination of certain clauses are collaborative pre-requisites. The firms also have trust criteria which they use to pre-qualify third-party entities with whom they collaborate. It is concluded that technology start-ups possess attribute that show their core competencies and the quality of their deliveries, but might require a regulatory body to monitor their operations. 

Background

Although the concept of workload is important to nursing practice, only a few nursing researchers have focused on the issue of workload within the nursing context. Knowledge of how the dynamics of workload affects the job stress of nurses working in a specific unit or department in a hospital setting, and the influence of coworker support on this relationship, still remains limited. This study, therefore examined the effect of workload on job stress of Ghanaian outpatient department nurses and the moderating effect of coworker support on this relationship.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey design was used, and questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 216 outpatient department nurses from four major hospitals in Ghana. The data collected measured workload, job stress, and coworker support using National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Task Load Index, job stress scale, and coworker support scale, respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and hierarchical regression.

Results

High levels of workload were associated with high levels of job stress of the nurses. Also, higher levels of workload were related to higher levels of job stress for nurses who received high levels of coworker support, but this was not the case for those who received low levels of coworker support (reserve buffering effect).

Conclusion

The finding reiterates the adverse effect of workloads on employees' health, and the reverse buffering effect implies that supporting a colleague at work should be conveyed in a positive manner devoid of negative appraisal.

The influencing role of students’ activity goal formation informed by their goal classification (i.e. highest or best) in their cognitive considerations of both activity strategies and decision outcomes for a pending task is examined in this study. Using data from a sample of 300 Graduate students preparing for an end-of-semester examination and the systemic structural activity analytical approach, it is found that actors’ cognitive classification of goals for pending activity as “highest” or “best” has no significant effect on the students’ goal formulation and the dynamic influence it has on their cognitive considerations for both activity strategy and decision outcome. Irrespective of goal classification, the students’ cognitive process of activity goal formation is found to significantly influence both their cognitive considerations of activity strategies and decision outcomes. It is concluded that the cognitive classification of goal has no direct significance on an students’ Goal formation process for a pending activity.