Women farmers’ participation in the agricultural research process: implications for agricultural sustainability in Ethiopia

Empowering women farmers to participate in agricultural research is a key strategy for sustainable agricultural development. Women empowerment has the potential to improve their roles in agricultural production while enhancing nutrition and food security. Although new agricultural development policies are focusing on improving women engagement in agriculture, there is limited literature on women empowerment in relation to agricultural research. This study used mixed methods to analyse women farmers’ participation in four stages of the agricultural research process – design, testing, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation. Two hundred and thirty individual interviews with women farmers and 16 focus group discussions with men and women farmers were conducted in four Woredas (districts) of Ethiopia. Quantitative data were analysed using binary and multivariate probit models. Qualitative data were analysed using line-by-line coding. The results showed that several empowerment indicator variables significantly (p?≤?.001) influenced women’s participation in different stages of agricultural research. Specifically, input in production decisions, autonomy in plot management, membership to farmer groups, and ability to speak in public enhanced women’s participation in different stages, in addition to access to information and extension services, education and land size. Cultural norms hindered women’s empowerment and engagement in research. To foster sustainable agriculture development, it’s important to integrate holistic and proactive gender perspectives into research strategies to increase women’s participation in farmer research groups, access information and knowledge, have voice and challenge constraining cultural norms and traditions.     

The empowerment expectation–perception gap: An examination of three alternative models

Previous empowerment research has focused on subordinate perceptions of empowering leadership and its outcomes. Met‐expectations theory suggests that subordinate expectations of leader behaviours are essential in forming their a posteriori evaluations. To address the lack of investigation of individual expectations in the empowerment literature, in this study, we explore how subordinates' empowerment expectations and perceptions combine to influence their job satisfaction and psychological empowerment based on three alternative, theoretically derived met‐expectation models, namely, the disconfirmation model, the ideal‐point model, and the experiences‐only model. The results of a 2‐stage study of 114 respondents indicate that employees are more satisfied with their work when perceived empowerment exceeds expectations. However, both empowerment perceptions and expectations positively contribute to higher psychological empowerment. We then discuss implications and directions for future research.     

How do empowered employees engage in voice behaviors? A moderated mediation model based on work-related flow and supervisors’ emotional expression spin

The study examines the impact of empowerment on promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors in a moderated mediation model, suggesting work-related flow as a mediator and supervisors’ emotional expression spin as a moderator for hospitality employees based on affective event theory. The proposed model was tested using longitudinal matched data collected from 142 restaurant employees and their supervisors across multiple time stages in China. Analysis found that work-related flow mediated the relationships between empowerment and employee promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors, and supervisor emotional expression spin moderated these mediation links. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for hospitality researchers and industry practitioners are discussed.     

Performance measurement system use in generating psychological empowerment and individual creativity

Individual creativity is essential to an organisation's ability to innovate (Amabile, 1988, 1996), and potentially, management control systems could be used to enhance or constrain this creativity in organisations (Amabile, 1988; Davila et al., 2009). The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of how interactive performance measurement system (IPMS) use is implicated in the generation of individual creativity. A conceptual framework linking IPMS use to creativity is developed, incorporating psychological empowerment as an intervening variable. The results of a survey of middle‐level managers confirm that IPMS use impacts on creativity through the psychological construct of psychological empowerment.     

An empirical study of the dimensionality of organizational justice and its relationship with organizational citizenship behaviour in the Indian context

Cross-cultural research shows that while the concerns about organizational justice may be universal, operationalization of justice standards is highly particularistic (Greenberg 2001). The present study explores the dimensionality of organizational justice in the Indian context. Apart from procedural justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice, another justice dimension, labelled as empowerment justice, emerged during the study. Next, the study tests the relationships between justice dimensions and Organ's (1988) 5-factor conceptualization of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), namely helping, compliance, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue behaviours. The perception of empowerment justice influences helping, compliance, sportsmanship, and civic virtue dimensions of OCB. Interpersonal justice significantly predicts courtesy behaviour. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

SheBelieves,but does she? Complicating white women’s understandings of the postfeminist-neoliberal empowerment discourse

Abstract

Though the academic literature focused on postfeminism, neoliberalism, and the relationship between the two is considerable, there is little exploration of these conjoined discourses as they relate to leisure culture in general, and women’s sporting lives in particular. At the level of lived experience, scholars have yet to empirically examine how women engage and are affected by the empowerment discourse punctuating many aspects of postfeminism. This study uses the U.S. Soccer Federation’s 2015 SheBelieves Campaign as an empirical site for critically examining women’s attitudes toward, and experiences of, issues of empowerment, feminism, and sexism associated with what scholars have labelled the postfeminist-neoliberal moment (McRobbie, 2009 McRobbie, A. (2009). The aftermath of feminism; gender, culture and social change. London, England: Sage. [Google Scholar]; Rottenberg, 2014 Rottenberg, C. (2014). The rise of neoliberal feminism. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 418–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.857361[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Working at the intersection of leisure studies, feminism, and physical cultural studies, this research provides a window into the complicated, and sometimes contradictory, ways women view and experience neoliberal empowerment discourses within and through sporting elements of their leisure lifestyles.     

“Skankalicious”: Erotic Capital in Women's Flat Track Roller Derby

Erotic capital refers to the use of sexuality for personal gain and has been theorized as a particular source of power (some) women can leverage to advance their interests (Hakim, 2011 Hakim, C. (2011). Erotic capital: The power of attraction in the boardroom and the bedroom. New York, NY: Basic Books. [Google Scholar]). With its overt sexuality, women's roller derby provides an ideal opportunity to investigate erotic capital. Locating erotic capital within a specific time, space, and context, I draw upon third-wave feminism and use in-depth conversational interviews and participant observation to reveal ways “derby girls” perform their sexuality and use it to advance their collective and individual interests. This analysis introduces erotic capital to the leisure literature and demonstrates the intentionality of women's resistance to, and reproduction of, gendered stereotypes, particularly with respect to sexuality. In so doing, the findings highlight a need for rethinking traditional conceptualizations of empowerment whereby resistance equals empowering and reproduction equals disempowering, and initiates a new direction for feminist scholarship in this regard.     

Constructive deviance as a driver for performance in retail

A growing body of research is concerned with deviance in the workplace. While much research has explored negative forms of deviance, we examine constructive deviance: behaviour that deviates from salient norms and benefits the reference group. We empirically explore manifestations, determinants and performance outcomes of constructive deviance in standardised work processes. We do this through a mixed-methods study in bakery trading departments of an Australian retailer. We illustrate that constructive deviance occurs in these settings and show that some manifestations of constructive deviance improve organisational performance and pave the way for applying constructive deviance as a strategic tool in retail.     

为何中国员工偏好沉默——威权领导对员工建言的消极影响

采用问卷调查方式收集了66名领导与其286名下属的配对样本,运用层级回归的方法,探讨了威权领导对员工建言的影响及其作用机制。结果表明,威权领导和员工权力距离都对员工建言存在显著的负向预测效应。另外,员工权力距离还会调节威权领导对员工建言的效应,当员工权力距离较高时,威权领导与员工建言间的关系较弱。最后,员工心理授权部分中介威权领导、员工权力距离对员工建言的影响,完全中介威权领导和员工权力距离的交互项对员工建言的影响。这些研究结果有助于理解中国传统领导行为对员工建言的影响以及影响的中介机制和边界条件,具有重要的理论意义和实践意义。