The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has forced higher education institutions to shift from face-to-face to online education. However, many public institutions, especially in developing countries, often do not have access to formal online learning management systems (LMS) for facilitating communication with students and/or among faculty members. This research empirically examines the extent to which social media sites are adopted by faculty members and students for sustaining formal, i.e., sole and official tools, academic communication. For this purpose, online questionnaire surveys, supplemented with in-depth interviews, were undertaken with both faculty members and students. The results showed that students’ personal usage of social media has promoted its effective usage for sustaining formal teaching and learning. However, significant differences were found between faculty members and students regarding social media usage for student support and building an online community. Students used social media for building an online community and supporting each other, whereas faculty members were focused on teaching and learning exclusively. The results confirm that proper usage of social media could promote a new era of social learning, social presence and an alternative platform to foster online learning. Research implications for higher education policymakers, especially in developing countries, and scholars are discussed.

No abstract

Small lodging enterprises encompass a major proportion of the lodging industry worldwide. Nonetheless, limited research has addressed the HRM-innovation-performance link on these enterprises. This research draws on ability, motivation, opportunity (AMO) theory and resource-based view (RBV) theory to examine the influences of green human resources management (GHRM) practices by owner-managers of small lodging enterprises on their enterprises’ green innovation and environmental performance. More specifically, the research examines the direct influence of GHRM on the environmental performance of small lodging enterprises and the indirect influence through green innovation. A self-administered questionnaire was given to owner-managers of small lodging enterprises in Greater Cairo, Egypt. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) showed direct, positive and significant influences of owner-managers’ green ability, motivation and opportunity on both enterprise green innovation and environmental performance. The ability of owner-managers was the most influential GHRM practices on both green innovation and environmental performance. Moreover, the results showed that the influence of GHRM on environmental performance was doubled with green innovation, reflecting the value and vital role of green innovation in small lodging enterprises’ environmental performance. Several policy-level, theoretical and practical implications are identified and discussed.

This study examines the impact of both transformational leadership (TFL) and transactional leadership (TCL) on employee intention to stay (ITS) in deluxe hotels. It also examines the mediating role of organisational commitment (OC) in the relationship between leadership styles, i.e. TFL and TCL, and ITS. A pre-tested questionnaire survey was self-administered to front-line employees in deluxe hotels in Egypt, where these leadership styles were prominent. The key findings showed that TFL has more positive impact on OC and ITS than TCL. Affective commitment (AC) and normative commitment (NC) were found to partially mediate the relationship between both leadership styles and ITS. Employees exhibit higher ITS when they perceive proper leadership practices, especially TFL. Hotel executives should place more emphasis and investments on TFL to effectively achieve OC and positively influence ITS which is critical for the hotel industry that often suffers from high employee turnover.

The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 forced governments to continue with distance learning. Due to the absence of a formal digital learning management system (DLMS), public universities in many countries adopted social network sites (SNSs), e.g., Facebook and WhatsApp, and/or digital communication platforms, e.g., Microsoft (MS) Teams and Zoom for teaching and learning. This research investigates students’ learning experiences and responses to course/s incorporating SNSs and MS Teams as a sole distance learning platform during COVID-19. An online, pre-tested, questionnaire was used, directed at bachelor students in public institutions in Egypt, offering tourism and hotel programs, who received their courses using both SNSs and MS Teams. The results showed that the usage of both SNSs and MS Teams helped students to access information and learning resources, have good impact on their knowledge construction and critical refection, and report overall positive learning experience. The results of paired-samples t-test showed statistically significant differences between students’ experiences of course/s incorporating SNSs and MS Teams. However, students recorded limited support by their educators and peers and low participation in course activities that adopted MS Teams. They also reported poor assessment and feedback with course/s that incorporated SNSs. Hence, several implications for scholars, policymakers, and educators were presented for achieving better learning experience and to cope with the pandemic or similar crises, especially in universities with poor infrastructure, including unavailability of DLMS.

No abstract

The long-lasting pandemic has disrupted face–to–face education and has forced higher education institutions to adopt digital learning management systems, albeit many public universities in developing counties could not properly undertake this shift and adopted either free interactive platforms (e.g., zoom) or social network applications (SNAs) (e.g., Facebook and WhatsApp) due to their limited resources and infrastructure. Despite that the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the value of e-learning, some concerns were raised about the quality of learning outcomes and academic performance of students, using these SNAs for learning, compared to traditional face–to–face education. Therefore, examining the impact of SNAs as an e-learning platform on the academic performance students is inevitable, notwithstanding that this has not been sufficiently examined by researchers amid COVID-19. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was distributed to students via research teams’ personal networks, i.e., university lecturers at various public universities in Egypt. They were asked to distribute the survey link with their undergraduates via email or WhatsApp. A total of 600 valid questionnaires was obtained from students in nine public colleges that deliver tourism and hotel management courses in Egypt and adopted SNAs for e-learning at least one semester amid COVID-19. Unlike the results of previous arguments and research, the results of the structural equation modelling using AMOS showed a positive, significant impact of SNAs as e-learning platforms on students’ academic performance. The results have several implications for higher education policymakers, educators, and scholars, especially in relation to the future of use social media applications in higher education, particularly in developing countries’ contexts.

Over the last few decades, environmental impacts have been a major concern not only for policymakers but also for scholars and leaders of organisations. The leadership of organisations can drive the green behaviour of their employees, thus driving the overall green performance of enterprises. In this research, we examined the direct influence of green transformational leadership (GTFL) on the environmental performance of food organisations and the indirect influence via green behaviour of employees. More specifically, we have examined the mediating effect of employee green behaviour, whether task-related or pro-environmental behaviour, on the association between GTFL and environmental performance. For this purpose, we adopted a pre-tested research instrument for data collection from 1050 employees in different food enterprises across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We have used Amos structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the direct and indirect effects of GTFL. The results confirmed a positive significant influence of GTFL on both dimensions of green behaviour, i.e., task-related and pro-environmental behaviour, and on environmental performance. The results showed a partial mediating effect of task-related behaviour in the link between GTFL and environmental performance, whereas pro-environmental behaviour has a perfect mediation effect. The results highlight the dynamic role of pro-environmental behaviour in affecting the above link and send a crucial message to leaders in the food industry about prioritizing pro-environmental behaviour when selecting and recruiting new employees. Additionally, development programs should be conducted to enhance the pro-environmental behaviours among employees.