This document summarizes a research study that examined the relationship between positivity, positive affect, negative affect, and perceived stress among cardiac patients. The study hypothesized that perceived stress would mediate the relationship between positivity and positive/negative affect. Researchers surveyed 519 cardiac patients, assessing positivity, perceived stress, and positive/negative affect. The results found that perceived stress mediated the relationship between positive affect and positivity, as well as between negative affect and positivity. Specifically, positivity was negatively correlated with negative affect and perceived stress, while perceived stress was positively correlated with negative affect. The findings suggest that reducing stress and increasing positive emotions can help reduce negative feelings in cardiac patients.
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11(7) 2020 ITJEMAST's published research articles
1. Volume 11 Issue 7 (2020)
ISSN 2228-9860
eISSN 1906-9642
http://TuEngr.com
BAMBOO APPLICATION IN BUILDING
DESIGN: CASE STUDY OF GREEN
SCHOOL, BALI, INDONESIA
NEXUS OF FINANCIAL REPORTING
QUALITY AND INVESTMENT EFFICIENCY
FACTORS INFLUENCING ISLAMIC
BANKING ADOPTION: EVIDENCE FROM
PAKISTAN
ANALYSIS OF THE REGIONAL CONSUMER
MARKET DEVELOPMENT: A CASE OF
LIPETSK REGION
EVALUATION ON ROAD TRANSPORT
PROJECTS INVESTMENT AND
PROPOSALS DEVELOPMENT FOR THEIR
IMPROVEMENT IN RUSSIA
MEASUREMENT OF ECONOMIC AND
DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES EFFECT ON
FOOD ITEMS CONSUMPTION PATTERN IN
PAKISTAN
THE ORIGINS OF RUSSIAN LIBERAL
JURISPRUDENCE: B.A. KISTYAKOVSKY’S
PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIOLOGY OF LAW
SIMULATION OF SEQUENTIAL
PROCESSING OF A MOVING EXTENDED
OBJECT
COMPUTER MODEL FOR TRICKLE
IRRIGATION SYSTEM DESIGN
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POSITIVITY, POSITIVE
AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS AMONG CARDIAC
PATIENTS: MEDIATING ROLE OF PERCEIVED STRESS
FINANCIAL MECHANISM FOR COMMERCIAL
ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT: VECTOR
APPROACH
APPLICATIONS OF ONLINE VIDEO CONFERENCING
IN HIGHER EDUCATION: CASE OF SAUDI ARABIA
FACTORS AFFECTING THE HOUSEHOLD DIETARY
DIVERSITY PATTERN IN RURAL AREAS OF
SOUTHERN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN
MEASURING EXTENDED ROLES OF E-COMMERCE
INCLUSION FOR THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF
WEBSITE SERVICE QUALITY FOR CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION USING WEBQUAL MODEL: AN
EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES
HOW DOES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND BANK EFFICIENCY?
EVIDENCE FROM ASEAN COUNTRIES
EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE ON HR
OUTCOMES IN THE SAUDI PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
PREPARATION OF OXO METHACRYLATE-
CONTAINING POLYMER/CLAY BASED
NANOCOMPOSITES
URBANISATION IN AJMAN PUSHING BY HOUSING
DEVELOPMENT
MAXIMUM EMPIRICAL LIKELIHOOD AS AN
ALTERNATIVE TO GENERALIZED METHOD OF
MOMENTS FOR A FINITE SAMPLE CASE
OPTIMAL CONTROL AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS
ANALYSIS OF TUBERCULOSIS MODEL WITH FAST
AND SLOW PROGRESSION
DUAL-BAND HELICAL ANTENNAS FOR NAVIGATION
RECEIVERS
4. ii
BAMBOO APPLICATION IN BUILDING DESIGN: CASE STUDY OF GREEN
SCHOOL, BALI, INDONESIA 11A07M
NEXUS OF FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY AND INVESTMENT
EFFICIENCY 11A07N
FACTORS INFLUENCING ISLAMIC BANKING ADOPTION: EVIDENCE
FROM PAKISTAN 11A07O
ANALYSIS OF THE REGIONAL CONSUMER MARKET DEVELOPMENT: A
CASE OF LIPETSK REGION 11A07P
EVALUATION ON ROAD TRANSPORT PROJECTS INVESTMENT AND
PROPOSALS DEVELOPMENT FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT IN RUSSIA 11A07Q
MEASUREMENT OF ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES
EFFECT ON FOOD ITEMS CONSUMPTION PATTERN IN PAKISTAN 11A07R
THE ORIGINS OF RUSSIAN LIBERAL JURISPRUDENCE: B.A.
KISTYAKOVSKY’S PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIOLOGY OF LAW 11A07S
SIMULATION OF SEQUENTIAL PROCESSING OF A MOVING EXTENDED
OBJECT 11A07T
COMPUTER MODEL FOR TRICKLE IRRIGATION SYSTEM DESIGN 11A07U
Contacts:
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and Planning, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA, 11800 Minden, Penang, MALAYSIA. Tel:
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School of Engineering, THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY, Klong-Luang, Pathumtani, 12120,
THAILAND. Tel: +66-2-5643005 Ext 3101. Fax: +66-2-5643022
DrBoonsap@gmail.com, Editor@TuEngr.com
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Side image is Durian (Durio zibethinus), the King of Fruit.
6. 2 A.S. Ghaffari, R.S.Bajwa, M. Hussain, M. Tahir, S. Bibi, A. Khalid
1. INTRODUCTION
Life is embedded with the number of stress factors that play essential roles in developing a
physical illness such as cardiovascular diseases. Previous reports indicated that unmanageable stress
depicted problematic emotional regulations and ended up in germinating cardiac ailments (Begley,
1994). The compelling psychosocial risk factors of cardiovascular diseases are negative emotions
which include anger and anxiety. Contrarily, the psychosocial factors that turn out to be the
cardio-protective potential factors are positively affecting factors. Positive affect resulted in
enhancement of cheerfulness, life activity and joy in mood states (Roest, et al, 2010; Melamed et al,
2006). A high positive affect has been independently related to low cardiovascular disease ratio.
Whereas, a low positive affect predicts adverse cardiovascular consequences like death even with
percutaneous coronary intervention (Chida and Steptoe, 2008: Heo et al, 2009; Denollet, and
Brutsaert, 2001). Different studies have shown that cardiac patients preceding put less positive affect,
resulting in inbuilt- anger, hostility, and jealousy ultimately prone to other cardiac complications.
These people do not have smart and effective coping strategies to confront life stressors (Low et al.,
1998).
Positive psychologists have put great attention to create awareness for optimal well-being in
human functioning to fulfill the fundamental element of life including satisfaction, self-esteem, and
optimism, which are related to positivity and have a positive affect. Researchers defined positivity as
“a capacity of an individual to observe the life with positive way after plenty of experiences”
(Milioni, et al., 2016; Alessandri, et al., 2012; Caprara et al., 2017; 2009). Enriched positivity is
related to the productive and adequate state of mood and improves positive affect with significantly
decreased negative affect (Alessandri et al., 2012; Caprara et al., 2012; 2017). Positivity plays a role
to improve the positive affect and reduce the negative affect of risk factors on life, however; the
factors that contribute among these relationships still need to be investigated. An impending
mediating variable is found to be “perceived stress in cardiac patients”. Lazarus and Folkman's
postulate indicated that stress as “psychological and physiological response of people although for
such situation they don’t have enough resources to toggle” (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Perceived
stress is the degree at which life situations are evaluated as stressful (Cohen et al., 1983).
Conversely, in cardiac patients, the affect of perceived stress is more adverse with limited stress
coping strategies (Low et al., 1998, Ghaffari et al., 2020). Another report has shown that stress is the
transactional process between humans and their environment (Gloria & Steinhardt, 2014).
Various research studies are conducted in the perspective of identifying the positive and negative
affect among cardiac patient but the relationship of positivity among cardiac patients is in question.
However, Spindler et al. (2009) throughout studied the construct of positive and negative affect by
studying cardiac patients and made the scale that can be used thoroughly for studying relationship
with other indicators that helps in improving health issues.
Moreover, Denollet and Vries (2006) also studies the positive and negative affects relationship
with perceived behavior and found that perceived stressful situation of cardiac patients affect
negatively on the life of cardiac patients and it is necessary to train the cardiac patients to avoid such
situation for the betterment of their health. Also, Denollet and Vries (2006) introduced some
guidelines to follow in dealing with cardiac patients and their cardio diseases and attacks.
8. 4 A.S. Ghaffari, R.S.Bajwa, M. Hussain, M. Tahir, S. Bibi, A. Khalid
agree. Cronbach’s alpha tested to confirm the reliability of this scale. The addition of all the points
obtains the scoring of this scale.
Perceived Stress Scale. Sumi et al. (2006) developed the perceived stress scale, which is the
single-factor scale measures purely the degree of stress perceived by the person in the life situation in
the past one month (Sumi et al., 2006). This scale contains 14 items. Each item is rated at 5 points
Likert scale which ranges from 0 to 4 indicating the rating scales ask from never to very often about
the perceived stress. This scale was found to be valid and reliable because it's alpha value is above
0.7. The total of the scale is obtained by getting the sum of all items. The scoring method of this scale
instructs that higher scores on this scale illustrate higher levels of perceived stress in the individual.
Positive and Negative Affect Scale. Watson et al (1988) developed this scale. This scale is
consisting of two subscales namely negative and positive affects. Each subscale has 8 items that are
measuring negative and positive affects individually. All the items have a rating scale that ranges
from 1 (never) to 6 (very often). The Cronbach’s alpha value of the scale is higher than 0.7, which
depicts a higher reliability ratio of the scale. The total of each subscale is done first then it is
interpreting from the score which subscale sore is higher than the other. It shows that if the score is
higher in subscale, then an individual has more effect on that factor (Watson et al., 1988).
2.3 PROCEDURE
A consent form was signed from all the cardiac patients before the study and questionnaire were
provided to them to fill. The questionnaire included Positivity Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and
Negative and Positive Affect Scale. It was made sure to the participants that their results would
remain confidential, and it is up to them whether they want to participate or not.
The participants were asked to complete the questionnaire at their own risk. Before taking the
participants, they were briefed about the nature of the study and its usefulness to society. Data was
collected and analyzed by using SPSS software to evaluate the results.
In the mediation analysis, we calculate paths a, b, c and c’
. The path a denotes the association
positivity with perceived stress, path b association of perceived stress with positive and negative
affect, path c associations of positivity with positive and negative affect and path c’
is the association
of positivity with positive and negative affect after adding perceived stress as a mediator.
2.4 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Various ethics were taken into consideration to carry out the study. An authority letter was
presented to the authority of the relevant university explaining the nature of the study and requested
permission for the data collection. The written consent form was taken from all the participants. The
participants were also ensured regarding the confidentiality and anonymity of all the data collected
from them. It was ensured that no physical or psychological distress was given to the participants.
3. RESULTS
Table 1 shows that positivity has a significant negative relationship with perceived stress (r=
-0.704, p<0.05) and has a significant positive relationship with positive affect (r= 0.112, p<.05).
Positivity has a significant negative relationship with negative affects (r=-.359, p< .05). Perceived
stress also has a significant negative relationship with positive affect (r= -.238, p< .05) whereas
negative affect has a positive significant relationship with perceived stress ( r =.637, p<.05).
10. 6 A.S. Ghaffari, R.S.Bajwa, M. Hussain, M. Tahir, S. Bibi, A. Khalid
perceived stress and negative affect from both male and female patients.
From a ‘c’ path negative association between positivity and negative affect was observed. Hence,
perceived stress fully mediates the relationship between positivity and negative affects among both
male and female patients because when perceived stress was involved in the model as a mediator, the
direct pathway between positivity and negative affects did not statistically significant (from path c´
).
To evaluate the affect size of the mediating pathway, we have calculated the proportion of the
total effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable (c) that was mediated by perceived
stress using the formula (a × b)/c by following (Li et al., 2015). For male patients, the proportions of
perceived stress mediation were 24.8% for negativity for males and 95.9% for female patients.
4. DISCUSSION
Previous studies have demonstrated the effect of different physiological factors on cardiac
patients’ health status but the direct relationship of positivity, positive and negative affects with
cardiac patients are indicated in our study. The objective of the present study was to determine the
nature of the relationship that exists between perceived stress, positivity, positive affects and negative
affects in cardiac patients. Our results indicated the role of different physiological factors in patients
who suffered from cardiac disorders.
Correlation analysis showed positivity has a significant negative relationship with perceived
stress (r= -.704, p< .05) and has a significant positive relationship with positive affect (r= 0.112,
p<.05). The results also indicate that the positivity has a negative relationship with negative affect.
The perceived stress is also found to have a negative relationship with positive affect and the negative
affect as a positive relationship with perceived stress. Our findings show that in cardiac patients,
positivity has a negative influence on the perceived stress and a significant positive relationship. Our
data also reveals that perceived stress is the significant factor of negative affect in cardiac patients.
Begley (1994) shown that physiological factors and life situations directly related to the
cardiovascular system. Different studies have demonstrated that cardiac patients are more prone to
stress which ultimately increases the negative affect factor. As our results showing that the total affect
of positivity and perceived stress was .112, which is significant and predicted the level and affect the
perceived stress on health status. However, positivity directly connected with perceived stress which
increases the positive affect value up to -.315. These results suggested that perceived stress might be
the mediator between positivity and positive affect.
Many recent reports have shown that a good mood with stress reliving strategies could be
beneficial for cardiac patients. Lockwood and colleague’s results have shown that using strategies
like humor to tackle the stress factors resulted in less blood vessel blockage, fewer angioplasties,
fewer heart assaults, and a more prominent life span at the point (Lockwood, 2011). It has been shown
that the experience of "charming" or mirthful feelings balances the pernicious, long haul physical
impacts of troubling feelings (Sultanoff, 1998). Consequently, these inquire about further
recommend that an entertaining way of life expands a person's capacity to additional successfully
oversee enthusiastic misery, accordingly diminishing the harming physical effect of these
conceivably unsafe feelings.
12. 8 A.S. Ghaffari, R.S.Bajwa, M. Hussain, M. Tahir, S. Bibi, A. Khalid
also by emphasizing positive emotions and positive life encounters. Our data suggest that perceived
stress plays an essential role to facilitate the positivity with negative affect and positive affect could
improve the health status of people associated with management. The increased level of positivity is
beneficial to reduce the perceived stress, which ultimately decreasing negative affects and promoting
positive affect.
Therefore, patient awareness and positive psychological interventions that pay attention to
positivity might be beneficial to lowering the negative affect and increasing the level of positive
affect. Our data also provide different strategies’ to manage the stress level in cardiac patients which
might be beneficial.
6. AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIAL
Information can be made available by contacting the corresponding author.
7. REFERENCES
Alessandri G, Caprara GV, Tisak J. (2012). Further explorations on the unique contribution of
positive orientation to optimal functioning.Eur Psychol. 17(1):44–54.
Begley, T. (1994). Expressed and suppressed anger as predictors of health complaints. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 15(6), pp.503-516.
Bennett, P., Conway, M., Clatworthy, J., Brooke, S., & Owen, R. (2001). Predicting post-traumatic
symptoms in cardiac patients. Heart & lung, 30(6), 458-465.
Caprara GV, Alessandri G, Eisenberg N. (2012). The positivity scale. Psychol Assess. 24(3):701–712
Caprara GV, Eisenberg N, Alessandri G. (2017). Positivity: the dispositional basis of happiness. J
Happiness Stud. 18(2):353–371.
Caprara GV, Fagnani C, Alessandri G, et al. (2009). Human optimal functioning: the genetics of
positive orientation towards self, life, and the future. Behav Genet. 39(3):277–284.
Chida Y and Steptoe A. (2008). The association of anger and hostility with future coronary heart
disease: A metaanalytic review of prospective evidence. J Am CollCardiol. 17: 936–946
Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. J Health
SocBehav. 24(3):385–396.
Denollet, J., & Brutsaert, D. (2001). Reducing Emotional Distress Improves Prognosis in Coronary
Heart Disease. Circulation, 104(17), 2018-2023.
Denollet, J., & De Vries, J. (2006). Positive and negative affect within the realm of depression, stress
and fatigue: The two-factor distress model of the Global Mood Scale (GMS). Journal of
affective disorders, 91(2-3), 171-180.
Ghaffari, A.S., Bajwa, R.S., Hussain, M., Tahir, M., Bibi, S., Khalid, A. (2020). Hospital Anxiety
and Depression of Patients with Heart Failure in South Punjab Pakistan: A Sectional Survey
Study. International Transaction Journal of Engineering, Management, & Applied Sciences
& Technologies. 11(6), 11A06C: 1-10.
Gloria, C., & Steinhardt, M. (2014). Relationships Among Positive Emotions, Coping, Resilience and
Mental Health. Stress And Health, 32(2), 145-156. doi: 10.1002/smi.2589.
14. 10 A.S. Ghaffari, R.S.Bajwa, M. Hussain, M. Tahir, S. Bibi, A. Khalid
Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070.
Abdul Sattar Ghaffari is a PhD Scholar, Zhongtai Securities, Institute for Financial Studies, School of
Mathematics, Shandong University, Jinan, China. He holds a Master of Philosophy in Statistics. His
research interest is Psychological and Medical Data Analysis.
Dr. Malik Mureed Hussain is Director, Multan Postgraduate College, Multan, Pakistan. He holds PhD
degree in Psychology. His research interest is Psychology.
Muhammad Tahir is a PhD Scholar, School Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China. He holds a Master
of Philosophy in Medicine. His Research interest is Clinical Medicine.
Shagufta Bibi is a PhD Scholar, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China. She holds
a Master’s Degree in Psychology. Her research interest is Applied Psychology.
Dr.Arslan Khalid does a Post-Doctorate in Health Psychology from Department of Health Psychology,
School of Nursing, Shandong University, Jinan, China. He holds a PhD Degree in Medical Psychology from
Department of Medical Psychology, School of Basic Medical Ethics, School of Medical Sciences, Shandong
University, Jinan, China. His research interest is Medical Psychology.
16. 2 Lyudmila Zaporozhtseva, Victoria Malitskaya, Maria Chirkova, Yuliya Tkacheva, Irina Kuznetsova
constantly increasing competition is possible only due to its continuous development. Because of this,
it is of great importance to determine the factors that can guarantee the enterprise development to one
degree or another, depending on the current situation. Also, when assessing the existing business
environment for a commercial organization, a clear understanding of the onset of the moment from
which development begins or continues is necessary (Adizes, 2007).
Operating with a certain idea of development and guided by its level at a particular moment in
time, in the financial management system it is possible to achieve the most preferable degree of
development of commercial structures through the application of certain tools that form a specific
mechanism.
The theoretical foundations of the development of a commercial organization are defined in
numerous publications of representatives and supporters of domestic and Western economic schools.
The interest of Russian and foreign researchers and practitioners in matters of the essence of financial
strategy, as the basis of the overall strategy of a commercial organization, is justified by its direct
impact on the development of the enterprise (Grandi, 1996).
The works of scientific research of domestic and foreign scientists determine the specifics of the
development of a commercial organization, its conditions, as well as assessment methods. However,
the question of the importance of forming a financial vector in the trajectory of the life cycle of an
enterprise to ensure at least a minimum level of development, under the influence of certain
management criteria, has not been raised.
The existing level of scientific knowledge, the need for their further qualitative improvement
served as a prerequisite for an in-depth study of nature, conditions, evaluation methods and allowed to
justify the formation of the financial vector of the development of a commercial organization (Miller,
1984).
A sufficient degree of validity of scientific and applied provisions, conclusions and
recommendations presented in this article is confirmed by the use of domestic and foreign scientists,
reference materials and electronic media, financial statements of a commercial organization of the
Voronezh region for several years in the process of research (Phoenix LLC). The reliability of the
results is ensured by the application of general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge.
The purpose of the study is to improve the development mechanism of commercial
organizations.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
In the framework of the study of the theoretical foundations of enterprise development, and
assessment of modern ideas of the economic essence of the development of a commercial
organization is carried out, by which we are invited to understand its irreversible change, under the
influence of which qualitative and quantitative indicators are updated.
It is established that in the development is very important the fact of the availability of constant
financial support, as a guarantor of security of industrial and commercial activities. Therefore, it is
proposed to consider the conditions for the development of the enterprise as the formation and
implementation of an effective financial strategy and ensuring the financial security of a commercial
18. 4 Lyudmila Zaporozhtseva, Victoria Malitskaya, Maria Chirkova, Yuliya Tkacheva, Irina Kuznetsova
Figure 1: The financial mechanism for the development of a commercial organization based on a
financial vector
Also, the financial mechanism for the development of a commercial organization should be
implemented on an ongoing basis.
We propose three strategies for the development of the enterprise, based on which development
support measures can be selected:
1. Sustainable development strategy - this is a development strategy that expresses the desire
of a commercial organization to increase, from year to year, profit, revenue, and property in a
qualitative ratio to each other, as well as to increase its value.
2. The strategy of moderate development represents the same desire for quality growth, as
with the strategy of sustainable development, but in the absence of growth of the non-negative added
value of a commercial organization.
3. The chaotic development strategy is a development strategy in which there is no focus on the
quality and constant ratio of the growth rates of profit, revenue, and property of the organization,
however, each of the selected indicators should have positive dynamics, combined with increasing or
unchanged positive added value of the commercial organization (Ivanov, 2010).
It should be noted that each of the strategies corresponds to a certain financial vector. The target
financial vector corresponds to the strategy of sustainable development, the base one is the strategy of
moderate development and the inertial one is the strategy of chaotic development, respectively.
Having determined the affiliation of the activities of a commercial organization with one or
20. 6 Lyudmila Zaporozhtseva, Victoria Malitskaya, Maria Chirkova, Yuliya Tkacheva, Irina Kuznetsova
Using our recommendations will enable Phoenix LLC in 2019 to achieve the target financial
development vector and strengthen its position in the agricultural market (see Table 3).
Table 3: Financial vector assessment of LLC “Phoenix” development after applying the methods of
financial management
Criteria Report 2018 year Plan 2019 year
EVA (thousand rubles) 5912 17624
Profit growth rate (TRP),% 99.81 258.1
The growth rate of revenue (TRV),% 93.93 131.56
Asset Growth Rate (Tra),% 113.6 124.24
The Golden Rule of Economics,
Trp> Trv> Tra> 100%
99.81>93.93<113.6%>100% 258.1>131.56>124.24>100%
Financial vector The company is not developing Financial target vector
The set course of the target financial vector, while maintaining it, will allow Phoenix LLC to
scale up its operations, increase capacity through the production and sale of new (for the enterprise)
types of agricultural products and ensure an increment in competitive advantages.
4. CONCLUSION
Thus, we have developed a financial mechanism for the development of a commercial
organization, which includes the following main blocks: information support for the process of
assessing the development of a commercial organization; assessment of the formation of the financial
vector of development of a commercial organization to identify development strategies; making
decisions to support the identified level of development or to achieve the characteristics of the target
vector; implementation of tools for adjusting the development strategy to achieve the target vector;
assessment of existing results should act permanently. As a result, its use will allow a commercial
organization to achieve the target financial development vector, strengthen its position in the market
and ensure the growth of competitive advantages.
5. AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIAL
Data can be made available by contacting the corresponding authors
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors appreciate the financial supports from Double Twin Foundation. Helps from
Mr.Sayyeses is fully acknowledged.
7. REFERENCES
Adizes, I. K. (2007). Life Cycle Management Corporation. St. Petersburg, 383.
Verkhoglazenko, V. N. (2014). Criterial management of company development: Monograph. M. 206.
Gaponenko, A. L. Pankrukhin, A. P. (2006). Strategic management: Tutorial for universities. M.464.
Grandi, T. Ward, K. (1996). Financial Business Strategy: Translation from English. M. 241.
Zaporozhtseva, L. A. (2014). Strategic economic security of the enterprise: methodology of providing:
Monograph. Voronezh. 261.
23. 2 Amer Nasser Alshahrani, Irfan Naufal Umar, Mariam Mohammed
to videoconferencing utilization, two issues with current studies have been recognized. One is the
relationships between instructors and students in online supervision have not been adequately
explored in Saudi higher education (Almalki, 2011; Baki, 2004). Most previous studies have tended
to focus on the effects of adopting technology on students by assessing differences in online and
traditional lectures rather than exploring the supervision relationship between instructors and
students. Second, the little evidence of videoconferencing effectiveness for supervision purposes in
certain Saudi universities may negatively influence its generalization to other universities in the
Kingdom (Al Ghamdi, 2017). On the other hand, there are several issues (including lack of
mechanisms to promote active interaction, and commitment to the learning task) reported by the
ministry of higher education in accordance with the current practices of traditional postgraduates’
supervision (Abdulkareem, 2001). Therefore, the current system of education at King Saud
University is passing through a period of significant transition through the consideration of
technological deployment for developing the quality of learners’ learning. Such transformation
requires that the process of supervision undertake a serious consideration for using online learning
tools alongside traditional learning and teaching practices (Alabdulkareem, 2014). This led some
universities such as King Saud University to consider the use of the videoconferencing tool as a
way for facilitating lecturers’ supervision of postgraduates. This study investigated the potential of
using videoconferencing in supervision practices.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 POSTGRADUATE SUPERVISION
Supervision is the process of managing and guiding postgraduates throughout their research by
engaging in active communication to understand a concept (Jones, 2011). A great part of the
previous works is mostly focusing on distinguishing the capacities that the supervisor needs to
complete, with periodic reference to an enculturation, coaching or child-rearing capacity. With the
literature on learning and educating has investigated an applied approach in some profundity, there
has been minimal comparable investigation for supervision (Lee, 2008) in the context of higher
education. According to Denicolo (2004), university students assume to interact with supervisors
for the aim of getting the necessary guidelines and suggestions on aspects related to their research
works. The one-part relationship that encapsulates this uncommon juggling errand is that of
doctoral students and supervisee when both are scholarly members in a similar organization.
Moreover, the process associated with the instructional development and supervision helps
extensively in enhancing scholarly execution of understudies (Bitzer & Albertyn, 2011). Because
supervision of direction goes for upgrading educating and learning through appropriate direction
and arranging, and concocting methods for enhancing instructors professionally and subsequently
helping them discharge their imaginative capacities so that through them the instructional procedure
is made strides (Drennan & Clarke, 2009).
Meanwhile, the process for supervising students is believed to promote them to be familiar with
the wellsprings of help with taking care of their instructional issues (Okendu, 2012). As such, it can
be concluded that supervision as a process help educators comprehended the instructional process
and helps them in the utilization of expert writing, diaries, free and reasonable showing materials,
25. 4 Amer Nasser Alshahrani, Irfan Naufal Umar, Mariam Mohammed
Therefore, promoting the communication of students-supervisor is essential to enhance
students’ academic performance (Bakker et al., 2015; Pluut et al., 2015). Such performance was
found to be associated with the active participation of students throughout the learning stages,
which the literature addressed it as a sort of students’ engagement in a learning task (Currey et al.,
2015; Horstmanshof & Zimitat, 2007; Krause & Coates, 2008; Kuh, 2009; Neumann & Hood,
2009; Sakurai et al, 2016). After all, we considered the role of videoconferencing in promoting
Saudi postgraduates’ online engagement in supervision activities.
2.3 VIDEO CONFERENCING
Early employments of video conferencing found in medical-related studies and business
applications (Knipe & Lee, 2002). The utilization of videoconferencing in this review identifies
with educational programs carried via videoconferencing and the utilization of videoconferencing
for preparing and boosting peer-to-peer communication. Educational programs taught via
videoconferencing, as indicated by Chen and Willits (2007), is to convey a learning background to
the students. It is expected to improve student learning; this contrasts from another kind of
videoconference: shared classes. Not at all like shared class offerings that interface areas
consistently, educational modules videoconferencing is not an ordinary event (Satar, 2016).
Alternatively, it can be said that it is an intermittent affair to upgrade learning. Raths (2015)
recognizes educational programs upgrade as a successful utilization of videoconferencing. This may
incorporate associations with zoos, galleries, creators, theme specialists, or associations with
different classrooms. Hence, videoconferencing can be a compelling apparatus for instructors'
proficient advancement (Loranc-Paszylk, 2016).
The videoconferencing in supervision related practices still considered an effective technique
for providing the necessary services for connecting the students with their supervisors (Gordon et
al., 2015; Rousmaniere & Frederickson, 2016). The difficulties incorporate the cost of the
innovation and associations, the nature of the hardware, and the classroom environment and
techniques that make the learning knowledge (Blau et al., 2016). There are various cases of fruitful
execution of videoconferencing identified with educational modules. These encounters incorporate
virtual field trips, connecting with specialists, class exchanges, and shared activities between
classes.
Some previous studies showed the effectiveness of using videoconferencing technology to
accommodate various learning and teaching practices in higher education, particularly for
supervision. For example, O’Neil et al. (2017) explore university supervisors’ perceptions and
experiences with live remote supervision. They found that remote supervision may offer a practical
and cost-efficient tool to supervisors and students by facilitating the supervision of field experiences
in physical education and can potentially help shift towards a new paradigm of supervision in
teacher education. Ingham and Fry (2016) introduced a model of supervision called 'blended
supervision' and its initial implementation and evaluation. Explain how blended supervision is
achieving supervision and teaching outcomes. The authors claimed that such a model using
videoconferencing means for communication could potentially promote the current supervision and
teaching practices, not just practices using blended supervision. Another study by Haynes, Mosley,
and Dewar (2016) evaluated the use of videoconferencing to deliver and supervise a weekly
27. 6 Amer Nasser Alshahrani, Irfan Naufal Umar, Mariam Mohammed
2. What are the opportunities from using videoconferencing in supervision?
3. What are the challenges of using videoconferencing for supervision?
The researcher studied the existing literature Before designing the interview questions and
protocol, intensively; that led to the use of open questions to understand the concept behind the
research variables under investigation. Relevant theories or related themes were collected, and to
each of them, several questions were developed. Based on these questions, an interview guide was
developed (see section 3.7.1). To prepare the interviews, the questions were divided into different
categories. However, during the interviews, the order of questions in the interview guide may not
strictly follow. Due to the open and semi-structured way of conducting the study, it seemed to make
more sense to let the interviewees answer the questions in an unconstrained way, mentioning
everything that came into their mind.
4. RESULTS
Interviewing 15 students (9 male and 6 female, 22-34 years old) in this study revealed some
new insights. Regarding students’ general perceptions of videoconferencing use, students, in
general, favored the use of videoconferencing as a supplement to the face-to-face approach. For
example, one participant stated that
“I feel more relaxed when I communicate with my supervisor via
the provided videoconferencing system at the university; it’s like
saying we are all in this together.”
Another student was mostly concerned about the supervisors’ role in investing the time for
their students after formal discussion. For example, he stated that
“My supervisor and I may set some goals in my research and try
to achieve them, but sometimes the supervisor still needs to remain
about the progress we had, and that’s why sometimes it is better to
meet the supervisor from time to time to discuss key points before we
use the video conferencing tool.”
Other students addressed the potential of this tool in facilitating their research schedule and
provide a way to continue their research, especially when they are staying away from the university
campus. One student, in particular, shared that
“…..using videoconferencing is a solution to my communication
problem as my supervisor speaks English, so I usually find it difficult
to understand some words. When we use videoconferencing, I usually
record the session and replay again to make sure that I am in the right
direction.”
As for the opportunities from using the video conferencing tool, the majority of students
expressed different interesting benefits from such use, for example, one participant stated that
“one important benefit from using this medium is actually in
making it easy for me to share my thoughts with my supervisors and
search at the same time for solutions online.”
29. 8 Amer Nasser Alshahrani, Irfan Naufal Umar, Mariam Mohammed
This study would help the Ministry of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia in general and King
Saud University in particular to understand the boundaries of teleconferencing services such as
videoconferencing to provide the communication-related elements necessary for postgraduate
engagement in an online context. It will also serve as a source for explaining how
videoconferencing can promote the current supervision practices in the Kingdom, which have
always been seen to follow the traditional face-to-face method. The video conferencing method is
considered greatly helpful in the wake of the New Coronavirus Covid19 pandemic to reduce the
risk of infection in the classroom.
6. AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIAL
Data can be made available by contacting the corresponding author.
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