Employee attrition remains a persistent challenge for ICT organisations in Gauteng, South Africa, impacting performance, continuity, and workforce stability. High turnover disrupts project timelines, erodes institutional knowledge, and inflates recruitment and training costs. This study investigates attrition predictors by applying logistic regression to a synthetically generated structured dataset of 1,470 employee records in Gauteng. It examines whether workplace, demographic, and relational factors significantly influence turnover outcomes. Guided by three work-based practice frameworks: Social Exchange Theory, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, and Job Embeddedness Theory, the research aims to identify meaningful retention drivers beyond surface-level attributes. A stratified random sampling method was used to construct a representative subset of 50 records, balancing class proportions within practical constraints. Pre-processing, encoding, and scaling were performed using Python libraries to ensure data integrity, followed by hypothesis testing and regression analysis to evaluate predictor significance. Findings show that relationship satisfaction and organisational commitment negatively correlate with attrition, reinforcing the importance of intrinsic motivators in retention. In contrast, gender, age, tenure, and income-related variables were statistically insignificant, challenging conventional HR assumptions. These results contribute to organisational behaviour literature by highlighting relational and psychological factors over demographic predictors. They suggest that fostering a supportive work environment and cultivating employee engagement may be more effective than relying solely on compensation or tenure-based incentives. The study recommends future research that incorporates larger samples from sectors beyond ICT, employs hybrid methodologies and longitudinal designs, and integrates qualitative insights from interviews or surveys to deepen understanding and inform proactive retention policies.
Ocean islands possess abundant renewable energy resources, providing favorable conditions for developing offshore clean energy microgrids. However, geographical isolation poses significant challenges for direct energy transfer between islands. Recent electrolysis and hydrogen storage technology advancements have created new opportunities for distributed energy utilization in these remote areas. This paper presents a low-carbon economic dispatch strategy designed explicitly for distant oceanic islands, incorporating energy self-sufficiency rates and seasonal hydrogen storage (SHS). We propose a power supply model for offshore islands considering hydrogen production from offshore wind power. The proposed model minimizes operational and carbon emission costs while maximizing energy self-sufficiency. It considers the operational constraints of the island’s energy system, the offshore transportation network, the hydrogen storage infrastructure, and the electricity-hydrogen-transportation coupling of hydrogen storage (HS) and seasonal hydrogen storage (SHS) services. To optimize the dispatch process, this study employs an improved Grey Wolf Optimizer (IGWO) combined with the Differential Evolution method to enhance population diversity and refine the position updating mechanism. Simulation results demonstrate that integrating HS and SHS effectively enhances energy self-sufficiency and reduces carbon emissions. For instance, hydrogenation costs decreased by 21.4% after optimization, and the peak-valley difference was reduced by 16%. These findings validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deep structural and psychological challenges in higher education, demanding leadership approaches that balance empathy with institutional resilience. This study explores how trauma-informed leadership mitigates resistance to change in Vietnam’s post-pandemic universities. Using qualitative data from three institutions, it examines how principles of safety, trust, empowerment, and cultural sensitivity shaped adaptation processes. Findings show that trauma-informed leadership reduced resistance by fostering psychological safety, transparent communication, and shared ownership of change. Leaders localized trauma-informed practices to align with Vietnamese collectivist and hierarchical values, reframing empathy and care as collective responsibilities. Despite resource limitations, these approaches strengthened engagement and resilience across university communities. The study extends the global literature by demonstrating trauma-informed leadership’s adaptability beyond Western contexts, highlighting its reliance on contextual sensitivity, emotional intelligence, and consistent communication to transform crisis recovery into sustainable organizational learning.
This paper discusses the impact of COVID-19 on study abroad, providing historical pandemic-related global student mobility data, while highlighting one engineering consortium program as an example of an innovative, pandemic-resilient, and cost-effective international engineering partnership model. The paper presents findings from the Institute of International Education's COVID-19 Impact Survey which examined the effect of COVID-19 on international student mobility, and the measures that U.S. higher education institutions are taking during this unprecedented time. This paper will present data specific to engineering students and mobility at U.S. institutions where possible.
