Journal of Research Administration

Prof. Joseph Kwasi Agyemang, Prof. Cameron Modisane PDF

In the face of change driven by rapid technological developments the accounting profession, increasing regulatory complexity and, the unprecedented demands for ethical and sustainable practices–symptoms are underlying causes. These changes dictate that not only must graduates be provided training with sufficient technical capability, but they should also possess digital fluency along ethical reasoning and strategic thinking skills too. With the site visits to several comprehensive universities as a base, this paper surveys present state education of accounting and experiments different approaches to program development, specialization themes than research orientation poems form. Using a qualitative multi-case research design, gathering data from in-depth interviews with 50 accounting academics and 30 industry practitioners in various areas. The resulting thematic analyses of these interviews revealed a series of gaps that have become pervasive. Urgent reforms are needed to the curricula. Main deficiencies include outdated course content; insensitivity toward ESG reporting; no digital tool integration; little specialization. The study also found institutional barriers to reform such as resistance among faculty; admissions policies that restrict creativity in teaching methods; weak links between education and industry. Based on Human Capital Theory, Institutional Theory and Transformative Learning Theory, the findings argue for systemic and learner-centered curriculum reform. Recommendations for practice as policy include competency-based modular design, integration of emerging technologies, fostering scholarship-led teaching and greater industry participation in the process. The study is pioneering in the accounting education literature, providing a theoretically grounded framework and roadmap for future development of accounting programmes.

Ali Shetiwi Ali Alshammari , Abeer Mohamed Zakria , Hanan Elsabahy PDF

Background: Poor?quality healthcare has a wide range of negative consequences for the patient and the healthcare system. The competence of nurses has a significant impact on quality of care and is closely associated with job performance, satisfaction, and absenteeism. Aim: to evaluate the effect of implementing nurses' competencies training program on quality of patient care at Prince Sultan Cardiac Center in Al Qassim in Saudi Arabia. Method: A quasi-experimental design at all inpatient departments of Prince Sultan Cardiac Center in Al Qassim Region- Saudi Arabia on (132) staff nurses, using three tools were used for data collection in the present study namely; Competencies Knowledge Questionnaire, Nurse Competence Scale (NCS) and Quality Patient Care Scale (QUALPAC). Results: At the pre-intervention phase, knowledge of competencies showed a moderate correlation with nurses’ competencies (r = 0.380, p < 0.001) and a weaker yet significant correlation with patient care quality (r = 0.240, p = 0.006). Nurses’ competencies, in turn, were associated with patient care quality (r = 0.503, p < 0.001). Immediately post-intervention, these relationships strengthened, with knowledge showing a positive correlation with both competencies (r = 0.445, p < 0.001) and patient care (r = 0.264, p = 0.002), while competencies demonstrated a robust association with patient care (r = 0.618, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it’s concluded that there was statistically significant improvement in total level of staff nurses' knowledge regarding competencies through training program phases. Also, there was statistically significant improvement in staff nurses' level of competence through training program phases where the total mean score of nurses’ competence at pretest phase and improved at immediately posttest and after 3 months follow up test phase. Recommendations:  Replicate the current study in another setting with larger sample to ensure generalization of results and evaluate the long-term impact of competencies training program on nurses’ performance and patients care outcomes.  

Tengetile P. Dlamini, Prof. Joseph Kwasi Agyemang PDF

Public sector financial accountability is fundamental to good governance, transparency and efficient use of public money. Weak monitoring, poor money management, and poor governance in Eswatini have raised concerns about the need to strengthen accountability frameworks in public institutions. The study investigated the effects of internal control systems on financial accountability of the government ministries in Eswatini with particular reference to control activities, control environment, monitoring controls, risk assessment and information and communication systems. The study employed a quantitative technique by using a cross-sectional research design to measure the effect of internal control systems on financial accountability in government ministries. The results showed that the control environment was the significant predictor of financial accountability. The results of the study established the importance of ethical leadership, institutional culture, and governance frameworks in promoting transparency and effective financial accountability. Other components of the internal control system have also been found to positively affect public sector financial accountability, but the effects were insignificant, mainly because of implementation, monitoring capability, technological constraints and poor integration into operational procedures. The study indicates that to strengthen financial accountability in the public sector in Eswatini, there is a need for an integrated, well-established, and coordinated internal control system, which should be supported by strong leadership commitment. Based on the findings, it is recommended that government ministries should give priority to enhancing the control environment by supporting ethical leadership, establishing standards of responsibility, and developing a culture of transparency and compliance across public institutions.  

Prof. Jose M. Frantz, (PhD); Pearl Erasmus; Carin Hector; Dr Lumka Magidigidi-Mathiso, (PhD); Kago Moganane; Jamie Saulse PDF

At higher education institutions, research administration has become a strategic function. It has been found to contribute to research productivity and impact, institutional sustainability, compliance, postgraduate development and funding competitiveness. In the context of African universities, historical inequities, resource constraints and capacity gaps remain a challenge. Aligned to the increased demand for research excellence, strengthening the leadership capacity of research administrators becomes critical. Existing research administration scholarship tends to highlight the importance of institutional policies, research management infrastructure and capacity building initiatives. However, there has been less focus on interpersonal and behavioural dimensions of leadership within research administration teams. This article presents a personality-informed institutional case study conducted within the research administration environment of a South African higher education institution.The study used the Insights Discovery model, grounded in Jungian personality theory, to profile forty research administration staff members across four personality colour energies, namely Green, Blue, Red and Yellow. A mixed-methods case study design was adopted, combining the descriptive personality profile with qualitative analysis of participants’ reflections on the colour profile. The findings revealed Green and Blue traits as being dominant, which indicated a team culture strongly oriented toward collaboration, relational support, empathy, quality assurance, process rigour, and analytical decision-making. Six cross-cutting themes emerged: self-awareness in leadership roles, communication preferences, team contribution and value, leadership development needs, decision-making approaches, and adaptability and flexibility. The findings suggest that personality-informed leadership development may offer a useful approach to strengthening research administration capacity. The study contributes to research administration scholarship by extending existing work on research productivity, research units, and institutional research cultures toward the internal leadership capabilities of research administration teams. The findings have implications for staff development, succession planning, team composition, communication strategy, and the professionalisation of research administration in African higher education institutions.

Dr. Ahmed Khalaf Hussain PDF

The bank letter of guarantee is one of the most important pillars of banking work at the present time, as it is a legal innovation for a modern means within the framework of protecting trust and credit in the field of commercial work at the local and international levels. This study has dealt with the details of the nature of that letter, by stating what is meant by it and the goals for which it was legislated to achieve, as well as distinguishing between its different types and determining the legal nature that characterizes it, in addition to detailing the legal problems that the creation of such a guarantee was a reason for falling into, especially in terms of its independence as a legal system from the legal system of the basic contracts for which the letter itself exists in order to enhance guarantees for its implementation, which leads to the emergence of a network of legal relations that involve mutual obligations that may appear to the observer to be overlapping obligations in reality despite the independence of their sources. Therefore, the study has dealt with the details of those relations and the obligations resulting from each of them, in addition to addressing the cases of expiry of the bank letter of guarantee.