The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has and continues to have far-reaching global economic and environmental implications. In developing economies and regions, the pandemic's disruption of the agriculture commodity supply chain has made it difficult for smallholder farmers to exist. Smallholder farmer's traditional struggles have worsened. However, technology may provide promise of improving conditions for vulnerable farmers even in a period of crises such as the COVID-19 period. In this article, we draw on lessons learned in developed and developing countries to propose critical digital transformation for building a resilient and sustainable post-COVID-19 supply chains for developing countries, especially for smallholder farmers operating in global value chains. We discuss how digital technologies and specifically digital inclusion of smallholder farmers can prevent major disruptions from damaging the livelihoods of society's most vulnerable. We discuss feasibility and provide some caveats for a post-COVID-19 digital inclusion in developing countries.
PurposeThe purpose of the work is to use a systematic process to identify the environmental and social impacts of small-scale alluvial gold mining projects using data from Ghana.Design/methodology/approachIn this work, we used survey data collected from experts in the mining sector. This was followed by the use of a risk analysis approach to identify the significant and non-significant environmental and social impacts.FindingsSeven key impacts associated with typical alluvial mining operations were identified. The first two are the loss of vegetation and the issue of airborne diseases from dust as a result of vegetation losses during the clearing of vegetation in the block out area. The third and fourth issues were loss of vegetation and airborne diseases as a result of vegetation losses during the removal of overburden. The fifth, sixth and seventh, most significant issues identified were the pollution from smoke fumes from the processing machines; and wastewater from the washing process. The last issue of significance was the dust pollution from the transportation of the washed gravel back to the mined pit.Research limitations/implicationsOne main limitation is that the data for this study were collected from Ghana.Practical implicationsThe results indicate the need for proper and systematic measures to identify the environmental and social impacts of mining activities.Originality/valueThe work provides some insights into the strategies of identifying environmental and social impacts of mining activities. It is also one of the key works that systematically identify environmental and social impacts of small-scale alluvial gold projects.
The Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance: A Case of Barclays Bank Ghana Limited 1. Introduction Employees form the basis for growth for every organisation; thus, the outworking of expected organisational growth depends on the competencies and skills of employees and dedication to their job roles (Jon, 2010). However, the level of dedication of employees to work is based on the motivation they receive from the employer (Jon, 2010; Heathfield, 2012). In today's rapidly changing workplace, organisations need motivated employees to increase productivity and survive modern competition. Thus, managers must understand exactly what motivates employees to effectively perform their roles within the organisation. Motivating employees is considered to be arguably the most complex of all the functions a manager performs. This is largely due to the fact that the key drivers of employee motivation changes constantly and managers must understand how to vary existing policies to match each new change (Bowen & Radhakrishna, 1991). Motivation has been defined as the psychological feature that encourages/fuels an entity to perform a particular action toward a desired goal (Wigfield et al., 1995). It is the psychological process that gives purpose and direction one's behaviour (Kreitner, 1995); and tendency to behave in a particular manner to achieve specific needs (Buford, Bedeian & Lindner, 1995). Employee motivation can therefore be considered as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organisational goals. As noted by (Heathfield, 2012), motivation is an employee's inherent interest and drive to accomplish work-related activities. The seminal work of Frederick Herzberg proposed the notable two-factor theory of motivation, which focuses on the job and environment where work is done (Tyner, 2007). In his theory, Herzberg classified the determinants of employee motivation into two groups, namely, hygiene factors and motivational factors. Hygiene factors are related to employee safety and comfort, including adequate wages, comfortable and safe working conditions, fair company policies, and job security. Herzberg asserted that hygiene factors help to keep employees satisfied with their work and their absence may be a potential source of dissatisfaction and high turnover. Motivational factors on the other hand are related to the content of the work itself, and include achievement, recognition, involvement, responsibility, and advancement factors that keep employees motivated to excel (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). Both hygiene and motivational factors are required in the organisation to keep employees satisfied with their work and motivate them to excel. There have been some criticisms against the Herzberg theory of motivation. For instance, Hellriegel et al. (1995) critiqued Herzberg's method for determining employee motivation based on the two factors and argued that some leading
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