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PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate attractiveness of internship advertisements to the prospective applicants through the lens of employer branding. By giving attention to internship attractiveness, universities and companies expand current collaborations around internship provision to enhance student internship experiences, satisfaction and employment prospects and to foster long-term sustainability of internship programs.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a mixed-methods design employing a concurrent triangulation strategy. The authors conducted a content analysis of 94 internship listings published in the largest Russian job portal, HeadHunter, and collected surveys from 274 prospective interns.FindingsThe study shows a mismatch between employer branding strategies and prospective interns' perceptions of employer attractiveness. Companies emphasize economic value and visual identity as well as functional attributes, while prospective interns prioritize development value and symbolic attributes. The findings suggest internship advertisements do not appeal to potential applicants.Research limitations/implicationsThe results are limited to business students from specific universities in Russia, so further research is needed to include students with different majors and from other countries. The study is also limited to advertisements available via a large online job portal. A comparative analysis of effectiveness of various communication channels for internship promotion could yield useful results.Practical implicationsCareer center advisors, academic program directors and internship coordinators should work with company leaders, human resources and marketing decision-makers, and recruitment specialists to better understand interns' drivers of attraction and audit the internship advertisements. Employers could use the study results to strengthen recruiting messages and, hence, attractiveness of the employer brand to potential interns.Originality/valueThe study contributes by applying the employer branding theory to an understudied population of interns, hence providing new insights into internships as collaboration between universities and companies. By focusing on internship positions, which differ from full-time permanent positions across many aspects, including the positions' duration, pay, supervision and purpose, the study assists in understanding the distinct drivers of attraction of interns, which are missing from published research on the topic.

This study examined challenges of employing university culture as a mechanism to increase commitment to the internationalization strategy among university internal stakeholders. Data were collected...

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of humor work climate on innovative work behavior of back-office employees in the banking industry in Russia.Design/methodology/approachData was collected via an online survey that included scales to measure humor climate and innovative work behavior. The survey was distributed electronically among employees of one department of a bank. The sample included 104 back-office employees (response rate 60.4%). Correlation and regression analyses were used.FindingsThe results indicate that humor climate fosters employee innovative work behavior. Positive humor contributes to innovative work behavior more than remaining humor climate dimensions (i.e. negative humor, outgroup humor and supervisory support). Only position type (managers vs non-managers), and not gender, education and job tenure, was found to have a significant impact on employee perceptions of humor climate and innovative work behavior exhibition.Originality/valueThis study adds to the limited empirical evidence on the links between humor and innovative work behavior, especially at a group level. This study focused on humor climate as a multidimensional construct, whereas previous research mostly explored positive forms of humor in relation to different social aspects of the organization. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is first to use a validated scale to explore connections between innovative work behavior and humor climate.

The rapid and unplanned change to teaching and learning in the online format brought by COVID-19 has likely impacted many, if not all, aspects of university students' lives worldwide. To contribute to the investigation of this change, this study focuses on the impact of the pandemic on student well-being, which has been found to be as important to student lifelong success as their academic achievement. Student well-being has been linked to their engagement and performance in curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities, intrinsic motivation, satisfaction, meaning making, and mental health. The purpose of this study was to examine how student perceptions of their degree completion and future job prospects during the pandemic impact their well-being and what role university support plays in this relationship. We used the conservation of resources theory to frame our study and to develop five hypotheses that were later tested via structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 2,707 university students in France, Germany, Russia, and UK via an online survey. The results showed that university support provided by instructors and administration plays a mediating role in the relationship between the perceived impact of COVID-19 on degree completion and future job prospects and levels of student well-being. Student well-being is decreased by their concerns for their degree completion but not by their concerns for future job prospects. In turn, concerns for future job prospects affect student well-being over time. These results suggest that in a “new normal,” universities could increase student well-being by making support to student studies a priority, especially for undergraduates. Also, universities should be aware of the students' changing emotional responses to crisis and ensure visibility and accessibility of student support.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to share how the concept of organizational justice could help to explore employee satisfaction with the mystery shopping appraisal system. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted at a fast-food restaurant chain located in Russia. Data were collected through an online-questionnaire distributed among all 516 chef-cashiers of the 86 restaurants of the chain located in Saint Petersburg. The questionnaire consisted of 17 closed-ended and one open-ended questions. Findings Violations of norms of procedural, distributive, and informational justice were identified. The majority of the chief-cashiers thought that the norms of interpersonal justice were met. Practical implications The paper also discusses how training and development professionals could use the concept of organizational justice to improve employee satisfaction with a mystery shopping appraisal process. The results collected through the questionnaire can be used in at least two ways: to implement structural changes in the process and to determine and address training needs of three groups of employees. Originality/value Perceptions of organizational justice predict employee satisfaction with different aspects of a performance appraisal system. This paper is first to explore how the concept of organizational justice could be useful in evaluating employee satisfaction with such performance appraisal method as mystery shopping.

An informational interview, also known as the exploratory meeting or networking interview, “is a chance to pick someone's brain about a profession, business, or industry” (Decarie, 2010, p. 306). The purpose of the study was to explore whether, when modified, this assignment could benefit second-year management education students in understanding of the profession of a manager. This assignment provides students an opportunity to interact with a professional in a business setting on a variety of topics that help students understand what it is like to work in this industry, type of company, or a position. While informational interviews have been used in communication courses in management education programs, nothing is known about the use or usefulness of this assignment in other management courses. One hundred eleven students in a human resource management course were asked to complete a modified version of the informational interview assignment. Data were collected using a survey from 89 students. The results show that overall students learned more about the profession of a manager and got an insight into careers in the chosen industries and companies. Implications for teaching are provided along with the discussion of each main result.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss what could be done before the promotion to management to help first-time managers succeed in their new roles. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews literature from scholarly and professional journals and magazines and uses the author’s professional experience as a training and development consultant. Findings The paper argues that organizations should offer support to first-time managers before they get promoted. This period could be called a preparation period. The paper suggests to differentiate between the preparation and transition periods because each has different goals. On the basis of the goals of the preparation period, the paper suggest activities that could be used by organizations. Originality/value Conversations about support of first-time managers to ease their transition to management usually evolve around either the ways newly promoted managers could help themselves by developing certain skills, knowledge base, and attitudes or the ways in which organizations could implement certain training and development activities after employees are promoted to managerial positions. Very little has been said about “the before” or the preparation period.

To help graduate students with academic writing, a college of education at a large university implemented a new service, Writing Support Circles. Based on the results of the first series of this service, we changed its design. The purpose of this article is to share how changes in the design affected these adult learners’ writing self-efficacy and workshop satisfaction.

Most students come to their graduate programs with academic writing skills insufficient to excel in their studies. A lack of academic writing skills among graduate students has been a problem in a college of education at a large southeastern public research university where the project described in this article was implemented. To address this lack of academic writing skills, a new service, Writing Support Circles (WSCs), was designed and implemented for a small group of Latina students supported by a grant as a pilot program. WSCs are a series of workshops intended to create a community of learners who work together on improving their academic writing with guidance of a facilitator. The purpose of this article is to share the author’s experiences with designing and implementing WSCs with adult learners in a nonformal education setting at a university.