This study aims to explore the significance of job embeddedness (JE) theory and practices to reducing employee turnover and then suggest future research directions. It also reviews the systematic development of JE theory and its relationship with different workplace theories. A comprehensive content analysis, including a systematic review of articles published between 2008 and 2018, is conducted to understand the extensive role of JE in the workplace. A total of 108 research papers published in various high-ranking journals are selected for further analysis. To identify the mediating role of JE in the service and manufacturing industry, most of the existing studies focus on turnover intention, organizational commitment, employee engagement, and job satisfaction. However, many other key areas, which can be linked to JE to understand and evaluate the theory of organizational and employee behavior, are ignored in the literature. In this study, a further understanding of JE is suggested to be expanded in accordance with various elements of organization and employee theories, such as job design, job burnout, and role performance. This study contributes to the literature by further expanding JE theory and proposing a comprehensive JE framework that researchers and practitioners can adopt in future research.

No abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a widespread shift to online education around the world and in Hungary, too. Educational institutions from kindergartens to universities were forced to adapt rapidly to this new situation, when the space of education moved from classrooms to online video meetings; the regular methods and tools needed to be changed or modified. Nonetheless, we should keep in mind that online education itself was an already existing concept before the pandemic as part of digitalization as a current societal megatrend, however it was not widely used in educational institutions across different programs. By 2021, there are university students who have mostly or exclusively participated in higher education online. Online classes could be a new normal situation to these students instead of the pre-pandemic personal activities in physical classrooms, leading to altering the norms of participation. In our research, we collected answers to open-ended sentences from such students. As we wish to understand how students perceive the differences between online and offline education, we investigated the perceived advantages and disadvantages of online-only education, how this influenced their social networks, study efficiency and their whole experience in university education.

No abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue for the sustained need for the physical workplace and real-life encounters in higher education even in the digital age despite being seemingly transformable into the virtual sphere as seen during the COVID-19 situation. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a collaborative autoethnography by a group of seven higher educators with an overall 2,134 student encounters during the study’s time span. The authors then connect these practitioner observations with relevant COVID-19-related studies thereby adding to research on higher education as a workplace. Findings The data suggest that the physical workplace strongly bolsters the personal experience and effectiveness of higher education through contributing to its dynamics. Spaces predetermine the scope and levels of human interaction of teaching and learning. In a physical setting, all senses serve as mediators, whereas, online, only two senses are involved: vision and hearing. The two-dimensional screen becomes a mediator of communications. In the physical space, actors are free to adjust the working space, whereas the online working space is limited and defined by platforms. Practical implications Although higher education institutions may indeed fully substitute most practices formerly in a physical setting with online solutions, real-time encounters in the physical working space belong to its deeper raisons d'être. Originality/value This paper highlights the necessity of the physical workplace in higher education and describes the depriving potential of the exclusively online higher education teaching setting.

Young adults spend most of their leisure time in the company of their smartphones. Drawing on the theory of digital well-being and on the concept of psychological sustainability, our aim is to investigate the relationship between digitalization-dominated leisure-time consumption to identify the aggregated roles of smartphones. We suggest that smartphones play different roles in young adults’ daily life. To test our predictions, we used a qualitative method, a two-day time-use diary with structured interviews; two sample groups were recruited for data gathering. The results of the content analysis and of the qualitative sentiment analysis show that mobile devices have a marked agenda-setter function, along with the functions of ‘separator’ and ‘enabler’. The use of smartphones leads to idleness and perceived timelessness while staying physically immobile. Results expand our knowledge on the aggregated role of smartphones in young adults’ activities. Wider society can benefit from the research findings, stimulating young adults to acknowledge the aggregated roles and functions of their smartphones and to develop their digital well-being.

Internet memes-highly evolutive iconic, yet topical contents with shared meanings replicated and spread by and to the Internet folk-have become a prevalent Internet phenomenon (Figure 1). Embedded in a culture of consumption, Internet memes often employ branded contents in the expression of personal messages, which often could not be farther from the contexts originally intended by organizations. Yet, there is little business insight into memes. The following chapter introduces the concept of memetics and its connection with Internet memes as a cultural phenomenon and a social communication channel. The prospects for using Internet memes as marketing vehicles are then evaluated.

No abstract