Despite the severe social, health, political and economic impacts of the outbreak of Covid-19 on Palestinians, we contend that one positive aspect of this pandemic is that it has revealed the perils and shortcomings of the teacher-centered, traditional education which colonizes students’ minds, compromises their analytical abilities and, paradoxically, places them in a system of oppression which audits their ideas, limits their freedoms, and curtails their creativity. While Israeli occupation has proven to be an obstacle in the face of the (...) Palestinian government’s attempt to combat and contain the Corona crisis, on-line education, the sole arena that escapes this colonial system, has forced many instructors to give up their domination over the process of education and to create a more collaborative atmosphere of education that is based on dialogue, research and flexibility of the curriculum content. This study is designed to gauge English literature students’ responses to this mode of digital learning. We interviewed a hundred students from six English literature programs between March and August, 2020. Thus, through critically examining students’ answers, and by drawing on Freire’s concepts of banking education, consciousness and dialogue, we propose that online education is an important step towards the decolonization of education and a call for a paradigm shift on the account that the existing paradigm of traditional education is stifling students’ creativity and critical thinking. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a relationship between a person's degree of religiousness and corporate social responsibility orientation. A total of 411 managers and 506 students from seven universities were surveyed. The statistical analysis showed that religiousness does influence students' orientation toward the economic, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of business. It does not, however, have a significant impact upon the managers' attitudes. When the "low religiousness" students and managers were compared, differences were found with (...) respect to the economic, ethical, and philanthropic components of corporate social responsibility. Similar results were obtained when the "high religiousness" students and managers were compared. The implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

Focusing on Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) - one of the foremost scholars and authorities in the Muslim world who is central to the Islamic intellectual tradition - this book embarks on a study of doubt (shakk) and certainty (yaqin) in his epistemology. The book looks at Ghazali's attitude to philosophical demonstration and Sufism as a means to certainty. In early scholarship surrounding Ghazali, he has often been blamed as the one who single-handedly offered the death-blow to philosophy in the (...) Muslim world. In much of contemporary scholarship, Ghazali is understood to prefer philosophy as the ultimate means to certainty, granting Sufism a secondary status. Hence, much of previous scholarship has either focused on Ghazali as a Sufi or as a philosopher; this book takes a parallel approach, and acknowledges each discipline in its right place. It analyses Ghazali's approach to acquiring certainty, his methodological scepticism, his foundationalism, his attitude to authoritative instruction (ta'lim), and the place of philosophical demonstration and Sufism in his epistemology. Offering a systematic and comprehensive approach to Ghazali's epistemology, this book is a valuable resource for scholars of Islamic philosophy and Sufism in particular, and for educated readers of Islamic studies in general. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a relationship between a person's degree of religiousness and corporate social responsibility orientation. A total of 411 managers and 506 students from seven universities were surveyed. The statistical analysis showed that religiousness does influence students' orientation toward the economic, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of business. It does not, however, have a significant impact upon the managers' attitudes. When the "low religiousness" students and managers were compared, differences were found with (...) respect to the economic, ethical, and philanthropic components of corporate social responsibility. Similar results were obtained when the "high religiousness" students and managers were compared. The implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

This article extends previous research by investigating the basis for attitudes toward codes of ethics. Specifically, its purposes are threefold. First, to examine business managers' attitudes toward codes of ethics. Second, to ascertain whether gender differences do exist with respect to these attitudes. Third, to provide a benchmark for future studies of attitudes toward codes of ethics. A survey of 286 managers revealed significant differences between the female and male managers with respect to six of the eight variables studied.

This article extends previous research by investigating the basis for attitudes toward codes of ethics. Specifically, its purposes are threefold. First, to examine business managers' attitudes toward codes of ethics. Second, to ascertain whether gender differences do exist with respect to these attitudes. Third, to provide a benchmark for future studies of attitudes toward codes of ethics. A survey of 286 managers revealed significant differences between the female and male managers with respect to six of the eight variables studied.

Diffusion MRI is widely used to investigate neuronal and structural development of brain. dMRI data is often contaminated with various types of artifacts. Hence, artifact type identification in dMRI volumes is an essential pre-processing step prior to carrying out any further analysis. Manual artifact identification amongst a large pool of dMRI data is a highly labor-intensive task. Previous attempts at automating this process are often limited to a binary classification of the dMRI volumes or focus on detecting a single type (...) of artifact. In this work, we propose a deep learning-based automated multiclass artifact classifier for dMRI volumes. Our proposed framework operates in 2 steps. In the first step, the model predicts labels associated with 3D mutually exclusive collectively exhaustive sub-volumes or “slabs” extracted from whole dMRI volumes. In the second step, through a voting process, the model outputs the artifact class present in the whole volume under investigation. We used two different datasets for training and evaluating our model. Specifically, we utilized 2,494 poor-quality dMRI volumes from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development and 4,226 from the Healthy Brain Network dataset. Our results demonstrate accurate multiclass volume-level main artifact type prediction with 96.61 and 97.52% average accuracies on the ABCD and HBN test sets, respectively. Finally, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in dMRI pre-processing pipelines, we conducted a proof-of-concept dMRI analysis exploring the relationship between whole-brain fractional anisotropy and participant age, to test whether the use of our model improves the brain-age association. (shrink)

There is a sizeable group of self-described Christian companies which have declared their belief in the successful merging of biblical principles with business activities. As these companies have become more visible, an increasing number of anecdotal newspaper and magazine articles about these companies have appeared. Surprisingly, no rigorous research has been conducted prior to our recent study. This article provides national estimates of the size and predominant characteristics of self-identified Christian companies. In addition, the study investigated the types of relationships (...) these companies maintained with their employees, customers, communities, and suppliers. (shrink)

Veissière and colleagues suggest that thinking is entirely based on social norms. I point out that despite the fact that social norms are commonly used to alleviate cognitive processing, some individuals are willing and able to go about the costly process of questioning them and exploring other valuable ways of thinking.

The results of a survey of 272 practicing accountants and 374 accounting students enrolled in six universities are analyzed. Differences and similarities between the two groups with regard to their attitudes toward corporate social responsibility are examined. The results indicate that the students exhibit greater concern about the ethical and discretionary components of corporate responsibility and a weaker orientation toward economic performance. No significant differences between the two groups were observed with respect to the legal dimension of corporate social responsibility. (...) Some explanations as well as limited generalizations and implications are developed. (shrink)

This paper examines public accountants' perceptions of the relative importance of business ethics as a selection criterion for entry-level public accounting positions. Also, it seeks to determine whether gender differences do exist with respect to these perceptions. The data were collected through a survey of 335 professional accountants in four southeastern states. The results show that, among the eight selection factors that were studied, technical competence in accounting, communication skills, and interpersonal skills were the most influential, while professionalism and leadership (...) abilities were the least important. Ethics was ranked fourth by the females and sixth by the males. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences between the genders with respect to five of the eight factors. The females' scores were higher for ethics and interpersonal skills and lower for conceptual aptitude, strategic thinking, and leadership abilities. Implications for accounting educators and practitioners are discussed. (shrink)

. Recent years have witnessed the proliferation of “Christian” companies in the U.S. These firms declare their belief in, and active pursuit of, the successful merging of biblical principles with business activities. Economic success, hard work, and biblical values are seen as capable of existing together in harmony. While the number of such businesses appears to be growing, there has been a dearth of any scientific study of these companies. No empirical research has been conducted to determine whether these religious (...) values and behaviors have any significant impact on a company’s performance. The present study is designed to partially fill this gap. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether there are differences in long-term performance between self-proclaimed “Christian-based” businesses and their secular counterparts. Data were collected from 312 companies. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), followed by univariate ANOVAs, found significant differences between these two groups of firms on three of the four performance variables that were analyzed. Some explanations as well as limited generalizations and implications are developed. (shrink)

Artificial intelligence (AI) national strategies provide countries with a framework for the development and implementation of AI technologies. Sixty countries worldwide published their AI national strategies. The majority of these countries with more than 70% are developed countries. The approach of AI national strategies differentiates between developed and developing countries in several aspects including scientific research, education, talent development, and ethics. This paper examined AI readiness assessment in a developing country (Palestine) to help develop and identify the main pillars of (...) the AI national strategy. AI readiness assessment was applied across education, entrepreneurship, government, and research and development sectors in Palestine (case of a developing country). In addition, it examined the legal framework and whether it is coping with trending technologies. The results revealed that Palestinians have low awareness of AI. Moreover, AI is barely used across several sectors and the legal framework is not coping with trending technologies. The results helped develop and identify the following five main pillars that Palestine’s AI national strategy should focus on: AI for Government, AI for Development, AI for Capacity Building in the private, public and technical and governmental sectors, AI and Legal Framework, and international Activities. (shrink)

Value Co-Creation plays a major role in engaging knowledgeable individuals in a community via innovation, problem solving, and new service/product development. This study investigates the personal factors that influence individuals’ engagement in value co-creation in Higher Education Institutions through the use of online platforms. Some higher education institutions have successfully established or used appropriate online platforms, such as online forums, web applications, and mobile applications to engage their community in ideation or crowdsourcing as a part of the value co-creation process. (...) On the other hand, some HEIs have failed to engage their community in value co-creation activities, and even if they managed to engage some individuals in value co-creation once, they failed to sustain these individuals’ engagement in value co-creation using online platforms. Using the Stimulus Organism Response framework, this study examines the relationship between relevant personal factors and other motivational factors that provide perceived benefits with value co-creation engagement. Data was collected from 308 respondents at five Malaysian research universities. The software analysis tool Smart PLS is used for data analysis and validation. The results demonstrate that personal factors and perceived benefits as a motivational factor has a significant effect on individual engagement in value co-creation. However, the significance of these findings varies from one individual to another. The implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

Prior research on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has almost exclusively focused on environmental aspects (GSCM—green supply chain management) and the study of its external drivers and consequences. Framing our study within the “strategy‐conduct‐performance” paradigm, we consider the focal firm's role in the implementation of sustainable supply chain initiatives, social as well as environmental. We use data on the S&P 500 Index retrieved from Bloomberg, including variables for two relevant focal firm strategies: (a) reducing the environmental footprint of the supply (...) chain and (b) reducing social risks in the supply chain (SRSS). Hierarchical logit modeling is carried out to examine the sequential impact of governance board characteristics and the focal firm's adoption of related internal policies and practices on the likelihood of implementing these initiatives along the supply chain. Controlling for industry, firm size, and resources, we find that board structure and diversity influence the implementation of sustainable supply chain initiatives by increasing organizational commitment to environmentally friendly and socially responsible policies and practices. Consequently, empirical evidence exists for the importance of strategic factors, namely a proactive corporate stance on sustainability associated with governance board characteristics, as antecedents of sustainable (environmental and social) supply chain initiatives. (shrink)

Augmentative and alternative communication systems have been successfully used to help pupils with intellectual and developmental disabilities for functional communication skills. Whereas the effects of the GoTalk NOW application available on the iPad have been investigated, no such study has been conducted in Saudi Arabia. This study investigated the effects of the “model, lead, and test” technique paired with the GoTalk NOW app, which is used to teach four children with intellectual and developmental delays to correctly request. The participants were (...) four children from 6 to 8 years of age with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A multiple baseline design was implemented across all participants. All four participants made clear progress using the GoTalk NOW app on the iPad, and implementation of the MLT technique was successful in helping the participants request correctly and independently. This study provided a practical, effective, and easy-to-use method for special education teachers to teach children with disabilities. It contributes to expand the range of teaching options for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. (shrink)

Differences and similarities between inside and outside board members with regard to their attitudes toward corporate social responsibility are examined. The results indicate that outside directors exhibit greater concern about the discretionary component of corporate responsibility and a weaker orientation toward economic performance. No significant differences between the two groups were observed with respect to the legal and ethical dimensions of corporate social responsibility. Some explanations as well as limited generalizations and implications are developed.

Navigating organizations through a changing environment is central to leadership. Thus, innovativeness has proven to be critical to the process of achieving strategic competitiveness (Yukl, Leadership in Organizations, 1998). This skill is particularly needed when the firm is confronted with the unique challenges of a religious organization. The existence of innovation and the dependencies that encourage or restrict its existence in this environment are largely unknown. Utilizing a sample of 250 religious organizations in five geographical areas this research explores the (...) impact of the leader tenure on the degree of organizational innovation. An analysis of variance for innovative strategy use across the three tenure groups was significant, F (2, 247) = 6.08, p < 0.01, which indicated innovation differences across the three levels of leader tenure. Post hoc analysis indicated that the low tenure leadership group was associated with lower levels of innovation than either of the other groups. Detailed findings are presented and the managerial implications and suggestions are provided. This research has strong implications for implementation of leadership development and strategic management of the increasing number of socially conscious organizations and organizations with large volunteer components. (shrink)

al-mujallad 1. al-Iḥsān -- al-shahāmah -- al-mujallad 2. al-ṣabr -- al-waqār -- al-mujallad 3. al-Isāʼah -- sūʼ al-ẓann -- al-mujallad 4. al-Shamātah -- al-Yaʼs wa-al-qunūṭ.

One area of business performance of particular interest to both scholars and practitioners is corporate social responsibility. The notion that organizations should be attentive to the needs of constituents other than shareholders has been investigated and vigorously debated for over two decades. This has provoked an especially rich and diverse literature investigating the relationship between business and society. As a result, researchers have urged the study of the profiles and backgrounds of corporate upper echelons in order to better understand this (...) relationship.There is ample evidence that corporations have in recent years increased the proportion of outside directors on their boards. This has been partly in reaction to increased interest in the corporate social responsiveness of business organizations and suggestions that the board of directors could play a unique role in this area. The expectation on the part of practitioners, researchers, and governmental regulators is that outside directors will advocate greater corporate responsiveness to society''s needs by playing a more active role in overseeing managerial decisions. (shrink)