Stakeholder Participation in Growing Spirit of Saving for Children in Beji Timur, Depok

In line with the Indonesian money-saving campaign, community service activities were carried out to foster interest in money-saving among kindergarten students in Beji Timur, Depok. These activities had been carried out since the end of March and ended in June 2021 as the culmination of the theme “Ayo Menabung”(let's save money), with the target audience of Raudhatul Athfal Toufiqurrahman students. The community service partner was BRI Agroniaga Depok Branch which provided facilities for opening student saving accounts and sponsoring other educational activities. A total of 32 saving accounts had been realized, and in June 2021, the peak of the “Ayo Menabung” event was held in the form of the practice of money deposit in a bank. Each student has an account opened with an initial deposit of IDR.20,000, then in the practice of saving, each student was given IDR.200,000 to be deposited in their accounts. During the evaluation period, another IDR.30,000 was added, so that each student had a total saving of IDR.250,000. As a continuation, the children would maintain their savings account independently, facilitated through a pick-up service from the bank, supported by motivation from parents and teachers to keep the children's consistency in saving money. Because it was still in a pandemic situation, bank tellers or customer service staffs would come to school to serve the children practicing money deposit. Through this community service, the children got new knowledge about banking and the benefits of savings. In addition, it also provided financial knowledge to the parents and teachers. There was almost no significant problem in the implementation of the service activities, except for the constraints more related to the Covid-19 pandemic so that there was a necessary extra effort for activities to coordinate related parties. The commitment and participation of stakeholders in information dissemination and actualization of student money-saving practices can foster a culture of money-savings while the collaboration creates a mechanism to ensure sustainable money-saving habit among children.

Innovative Banking Practices and Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya

Commercial banks serve as key financial intermediaries in facilitation of the flow of money in the banking industry. Commercial banks offer credit to investment banks in order to offer investment opportunities for risky investments especially for financial securities using depositors’ money. Globally, banks are affected by broad difficulties in the operating environment. The banking industry has embraced innovation to sustain competitiveness. Financial innovations used by commercial banks revolve around the latest product, service and its conveyance to consumers. Consequently, this information influenced the research with its aim as; investigating innovative banking applications and monetary capability of banks. Particular goals included examining how; real time gross settlements (RTGS), electronic fund transfers (EFT), pay bill innovation in mobile banking and the extent of agency banking influence monetary potential of banks. Research anchored on the Schumpeter theory of innovations, the agency and bank-led theories. It was explanatory in nature and applied a census approach to gather information. The targeted group included commercial banks registered under the Central Bank totalling to 42 tiers 1. Raw and derived data was equally utilized including, financial statements and face to face interviews with top level managers. Collected information was examined by SPSS. Given conclusions were dispensed descriptively, and by inferring to statistical presentations. The resulting conclusion was that; when RTGS, agency banking, EFT, and mobile banking are solely brought up/down by a single unit, financial performance increased/ decreased by 0.163, 0.27, 0.197, and 0.318 units. At a constant however, financial performance remained at 0.236 out of 5 units. In conclusion, commercial in banks have significantly relied on innovative banking practices to shift their financial performance to new heights. The study has particularly placed both mobile and agency banking at a more central position in driving financial performance to the desired level than other factors including the RTGS and EFT. As part of the recommendations, managements of commercial banks should consider scaling up their adoption of RTGS, agency banking, EFT, and mobile banking as ways of reducing the operating cost of their respective banks reducing banking hall congestions since most of the frequently sought banking services can be achieved without one on one meeting with the bank tellers. Management should also consider adopting more innovative banking practices besides those this research investigated.

Examining occupational stress, job satisfaction and gender difference among bank tellers: evidence from Ghana

PurposeBank tellers have been ignored in stress research. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between occupational stress, job satisfaction, and gender difference among bank tellers in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachUsing a cross-sectional survey approach, the authors used questionnaires to collect data from bank tellers in Ghana. Valid questionnaires were retrieved from 112 tellers across four banks. The hypotheses were tested using Pearson r-test, standard multiple regression and independent t-test.FindingsThe results revealed that tellers are more likely to exhibit counterproductive behaviours such as job dissatisfaction due to work-related stress. The results further showed that gender is not a strong determinant of job satisfaction and occupational stress among the bank tellers. Thus, both male and female tellers can have similar stress perceptions and experiences. Also, both male and female tellers can be satisfied with their jobs.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings must be interpreted with caution because cross-sectional surveys are often criticised for causality issues. The causality issue here is that the use of cross-sectional data did not allow the study to examine any changes in some of the constructs examined with time. Also, the results are occupation, industry and country-specific.Practical implicationsTo reduce counterproductive behaviours due to occupational stress, human resource managers and line managers of the banks urgently need to train bank tellers on stress management. Emotional intelligence training is also necessary for bank tellers to obtain the needed resources and competencies to deal with daily stress.Social implicationsA stressful work environment negatively affects employee and organisational productivity and performance. The socioeconomic consequences of occupational stress are expensive for organisations, economies and society. The indirect effect of stress on employees' families and friends are often ignored by organisations.Originality/valueThe transactional stress theory has been applied towards an understanding of occupational stress and job satisfaction among bank tellers. The examination and establishment of particular relationships between occupational stress, job satisfaction and gender difference are significant for human resource managers and other line managers.

Workplace Friendship, Trust in the Leader and Turnover Intention: The Mediating Effects of Work Engagement

The job demands-resources model hypothesizes work engagement’s positive mediating effects between job resources and positive outcomes; its mediating effects between job resources and negative outcomes have rarely been examined. We propose workplace friendship and trust in the leader as job resources and turnover intention as a negative outcome and hypothesize that workplace friendship and trust in the leader will positively predict work engagement, and that work engagement will negatively predict turnover intention. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a study among 166 bank tellers in Bangkok, Thailand using a questionnaire survey. Regression analysis with bootstrapping was used to test the hypotheses and the mediation model. The hypotheses and the model were supported. The results of our study provide support for the job demands-resources model and suggest for the bank management the advisement of encouraging friendship among bank tellers and cultivating their trust in the managers.

Factors Shaping Second Language Acquisition Among Adult Mexican Immigrants in Rural Immigrant Destinations

This article investigated the intrinsic, extrinsic, and integrative orientations shaping reading and speaking English skills among adult Mexican immigrants in two gateway communities in Illinois. Intrinsic orientations refer to reasons for second language (L2) learning derived from one’s inherent pleasure and interest in the activity. Extrinsic orientations refer to reasons that are instrumental to some consequence. In turn, integrative orientation refers to social identity issues that are addressed by neither the intrinsic nor the extrinsic orientations. Findings indicated that whereas extrinsic and integrative orientations influenced English language skills, intrinsic orientations did not. More specifically, immigrants had multiple extrinsic reasons to be motivated to learn the language, including succeeding in the United States, finding (better) jobs, and communicating with health providers, bank tellers, and grocery store employees. In turn, both quantitative and qualitative analyses showed that closeness and openness toward L2 group influenced the desire to learn the language.