Affecting Factors of Public Employees’ Ganizational Commitment

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to shed some light on the antecedents of organizational commitment, the mediating role of job engagement and job satisfaction as determinants of organizational commitment within the public sector environment, and the effects that national cultural values may have on these relationships. Approach – This paper presents a review of the works that, from both theoretical and empirical points of view, explore the affecting factors of public employees’ organizational commitment in an international setting. Findings – A comprehensive model has been developed, detailing the expectations on the influence that these factors might have on public employees’ level of commitment, either as mediators or moderators. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is the paper’s theoretical nature; the subsequent implication is a future empirical research that may prove or disprove these theoretical findings. In addition, there are some other possible mediating factors and antecedents which may be of interest for future researchers. Originality/value – This comprehensive review of the extant literature may provide academics and public managers with a deeper comprehension of how organizational commitment might be achieved, and why some practices may or may not be transferrable from one country to another.

How can directories of open access repositories improve the reuse of learning objects in building engineering?

This paper studies the use of directories of open access repositories worldwide (DOARW) to search Spanish repositories containing learning objects in the field of building engineering (BE). Results show that DOARW are powerful tools, but deficiencies (indicated in this study) have to be solved in order to obtain more accurate searches, and to facilitate repository-finding for potential users who are seeking learning objects (LOs) for reuse. Aiming to contribute to the promotion of the reuse of Spanish LOs, this study exposes to the academic community all existing Spanish repositories with LOs, and in particular, the repositories that contain LOs in the field of BE. This paper also studies the critical mass of available content (LOs) in the field of BE in Spain. It has been found to be low.

Characterization of a zeolite-templated carbon by electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance and in situ Raman spectroscopy

Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance was used to monitor the mass changes during the electrochemical characterization of a zeolite-templated carbon (ZTC) in 1 M H2SO4 medium. Under electrochemical oxidation conditions, a high anodic current and a net mass increase were recorded, resulting in the increase of the specific capacitance owing to the contribution of the pseudocapacitance, mainly derived from the hydroquinone–quinone redox couple. Under more severe electrochemical conditions, a net mass loss was observed, revealing that electrochemical gasification took place. Surface chemistry, before and after the electrochemical treatments, was analyzed through temperature programmed desorption experiments. Furthermore, in situ Raman spectroscopy was used to further characterize the structural changes produced in ZTC under the electrochemical conditions applied, supporting that high potential values produce the electrochemical oxidation and degradation of the carbon material.